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Conference held in honor of HRH Princess Chulabhorn’s birthday focuses on cancer management
Chulabhorn Cancer Center in process of being established
Professor
Dhanaphol Maipeng presents the program to Her Royal Highness Princess
Chulabhorn.
Her
Royal Highness opens the conference.
Suchada Tupchai
Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn conducted the
official opening ceremony for a conference on cancer management organized
by the Association of Surgical Oncologists (Thailand) and staged at the
Dusit Resort.
 Professor
Vacheraphong Bhudhisawat, president of the Cancer Surgeons Association of
Thailand gives his opening speech.
President of the association, Professor Vacheraphong
Bhudhisawat in his opening speech told delegates that cancer is one of the
biggest problems facing the nation’s public health, and is one of the
three highest causes of death amongst Thais.
Cancer treatment requires huge resources and personnel,
and the continuous advances in knowledge and technology make it difficult
for an individual doctor to keep up with developments in treatment
techniques.
The
conference included a large exhibition of medical supplies.
Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn takes a great
interest in supporting cancer research and providing assistance to
sufferers, and is in the process of establishing the Chulabhorn Cancer
Hospital and Research Center.
Medical
supplies were on display at the conference.
This year sees Her Royal Highness’s 48th birthday and
to celebrate the occasion the Association of Surgical Oncologists
(Thailand) organized the conference entitled Current Cancer Management:
Consensus or Controversy.
Focus of the conference was on the treatment of cancer
of the breast, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, colon and rectum. An
exhibition on medical supplies for the treatment of cancer was included.
Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn, who holds a doctorate in
organic chemistry and who is a recipient of the Einstein Gold Medal,
presented a keynote speech entitled Molecular Biology and Immunology in
Cancer.
A witches’ brew of ghoulies and ghosties as city celebrates Halloween
Narisa Nitikarn
Pattaya, a city that has more than its fair share of
things that go bump in the night, put on some stylish Halloween celebrations
at a variety of venues.
 Supadit
Maneeratjaratsri, senior managing director of Minor International Co Ltd
presided over Ripley’s Ghost Fest ’05
Royal Garden Plaza had a special Ripley’s ghost fest
that celebrated the first anniversary of the Ripley’s Haunted Adventure
section of the eponymous museum. Supadit Maneeratjaratsri, senior managing
director of Minor International Co Ltd, Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager
of Royal Garden Entertainment Ltd, and Amorn Amornkul, general manager of
Royal Garden Plaza, were on hand to welcome the singers and actors that put
on a spirited show for Thai and foreign guests.
Everyone was in fancy dress, and Miss Preaw Siripan, a
student at the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang won a
prize for her Blood Bride costume.
 Beware
of Michael Jackson with a sword on Walking Street.
Amongst the performers were Aem Siraprapa Sukdamrng, Jane
Chumpunuch Piyapanee, and Saen Phanomkorn Tangtatsawat, singers from Academy
class 1. Presenters Pi Piyawan Chitantham and Pi Switch Phechwisaetsiri
entertained everybody, and Pong, Kapol Tongplap, told some lurid ghost
stories.
Walking Street also rose to the occasion, with many of
the bars being decorated as haunted houses and dungeons, and staff dressing
up as witches.
The Green Bottle Pub celebrated with the staff wearing
costume, and with Sopin Thappajug, managing director of the Diana Group
hosting the party. Pretty dancing girls from Blue Ice entertained customers.
The atmosphere in the pubs and bars along Pattaya Second
and Third Roads and along Beach Road was also suitably haunted, with Thai
and foreign tourists out in force even though it was a Monday.
Hard Rock Cafe was decked out in a Pirates of the Caribbean theme, with
customers in ghostly garb and the Power Jam Band on hand to entertain all.
(From
right) Vichai Lertlitchai, public relations manager of Royal Garden
Entertainment Ltd, has his photo taken with the ghosts at Ripley’s Haunted
Adventure.
Many
stars attended Ripley’s Ghost Fest 2005
Benihana
decorated in fine ghostly form with restaurant manager Naiyaporn Hongskul
extending a warm, ghoulish welcome.
Living
Dolls were lively in their deathly costumes.
At Green
Bottle Pub girls from Blue Ice in ghost garb.
Ghost
dance from the Blue Ice girls.
Thai
ghosts have fun.
Hard
Rockin from the grave.
Piyawan
Chitantham and Switch Phechwisaetsiri entertained everybody from the stage.
Walking
Street bars rise to the occasion.
Ripley’s
was a scary place to be on Halloween night.
Royal London Circus opens in Pattaya to full house
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
The circus came to town on October 26, setting up its
tent on the large open area of land next to the Haad Tian Restaurant on
Pattaya 3rd Road and pulling in the crowds right from the first show.
 Pattaya
Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranont presided over the show.
The Royal London Circus, which appears here via Novel
Showcase (Thailand) Co Ltd, is on a 21st anniversary special edition tour of
Thailand. Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranont performed the official
opening.
Malaysian Paul L B Lee is owner and director of the
circus, which features acts from around the world including Russia, the
Ukraine, China and South America. A Russian clown named Mr Anatoly is
ringmaster.
Records in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia
have been set by the Royal London Circus, proving that in our multi-media
world, this age-old form of entertainment is still guaranteed to appeal to
everyone.
 The
owner and director of the Royal London Circus, Paul L.B. Lee.
The Royal London Circus will stay in Pattaya until November 27. Shows are
daily from Monday to Thursday at 7 p.m., there are two shows on Friday at
5.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m., and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays see three
shows, at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are priced at 550, 350, 250 and
150 baht. Further details are available on the hotline at 01 597 3737, 09
724 6393, 038 488 255 and 038 488 256 or www.royallondoncircus.com
The
Liberty Pony Act is a sight to see.
Romance
in the Air
The
clown family opens show.
Karima
& Murat’s Unicycle Act had the crowd alternating between laughter and
oohs and aahs.
Hand
Balancing Acrobatics by The Shandong-Liaocheng Acrobatic Troupe.
The
Colombian Brothers’ Sphere of Terror - an amazing giant ball with
motorcycle stunts inside - is both loud and exhilarating.
Sheraton Pattaya’s ‘Carmen’: A Cultural Journey Through Time
Peter Cummins
It was not Seville, but after a splendid poolside al
fresco buffet at the Elements Restaurant, the recently opened - and splendid
- Sheraton Pattaya Resort did ample justice to its very first opera,
“Carmen”. And it could well have been in Spain. Ole!
Carmen
is amused as the two senoritas flirt with the toreador.
Carmen
is curious as to what the merchant will conjure out of his bag of trinkets.
In fact, when the audience emerged out into the balmy
night air of Pattaya, one could be forgiven for being a little disoriented:
were we in Pattaya or Seville?
“Carmen”, an opera in four acts, was produced by
George Bizet and first performed in Paris in 1875. Based on a story by
Merimee, with libretto by H. Meilhac and L. Halevy, “Carmen” was
originally set in an 1820 Seville and environs and has proved, through the
years, to be one of the most popular operas ever written, with a superbly
artistic quality.
The
Toreador Aria reaches centre stage.
Pianist
Lee Wai Yin transports the opera to its crescendo.
Even the somewhat reduced - but, nevertheless talented -
cast of seven and the relatively small Sheraton “opera house” did not
diminish the magic, glamour and passion of “Carmen” in the Sheraton’s
Phra Tamnak Ballroom.
No one that night will ever forget the rousing
“Toreador” aria, emanating from the back of the theatre and rising in
crescendo up to Carmen’s very strong persona on the stage.
Performed by the award-winning European Chamber Opera,
comprising Emma Trine, Katherine Randle, Alexander Poulton, Sandra Porter,
Darren Royston, Rhett Bateup-Brown and Stefan Sanchez, with the Korean
virtuoso pianist Lee Wai Yin, it was musical perfection.
The original score was, of course, in French, but, over
more than 125 years, “Carmen” has been translated into many languages,
scenarios and cultures.
For example, I just learned recently that at the London
Film Festival, “Carmen” was translated into Xhosa, as “U-Carmen
eKhayelitsha”, transplanted to a cigarette factory in a Cape Town ghetto
and the director had produced, as one of the critics said: “Extraordinary
singing and the continued social relevance of this timeless theme.”
Going back into my own memory, I was a raw youth in New
York when something similar was produced in the United States: an English
version “Carmen Jones” choreographed and staged (as I recall) by Rogers
and Hammerstein.
Thank you Sheraton for a beautiful cultural event. Please
continue. The Pattaya citizenry guarantees you a full house every time. With
a superb buffet and show for just 1,350 baht, it sure beats an airline
ticket to Seville!
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