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Symphony ‘SWAP’ Club meets again
Hugh Millar again hosted yet another SWAP Club (Symphony
Wine Appreciation Patrons) dinner at his Symphony Restaurant in Second Road.
 Hugh
Millar (left) hosts another SWAP Club dinner at his Symphony Restaurant.
The meal comprised a wonderful smoked duck breast salad with honey and
orange dressing, a light curry cream soup with chicken and mango, Chilean
snow fish with champagne and tarragon sauce, and to complete the meal a
coffee honeycomb with rum crunch ice cream.
The various courses - unlike other wine dinners - are accompanied by wines
that the diners have found interesting, with one proviso - they must cost
under 500 baht a bottle. This restriction has so far not proved inhibitive
and some very interesting wines have shown their potential. The setting is
informal, unpretentious and very friendly. Anyone wishing to know more about
the next meeting contact Hugh direct at Symphony.
PCEC meeting filled
with information
The doors were bulging at the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC)
meeting on Sunday November 4th at Henry J. Bean’s, as the large amount of
information flow continued.
The morning got underway with MC Richard Silverberg introducing Ted Coley, the
visa chief of the US Embassy Non Immigrant Visa Section. Ted provided some
useful information regarding the process of applying for a visa to visit the US
as a temporary visitor. Whilst Ted’s talk was from a US viewpoint the approach
would be similar for applications for other nationalities. The approach was a
‘secure the borders, open doors’ policy.
 Ted
Coley addresses the PCEC.
The main points of investigation at the visa interview stage would be to confirm
the purpose of travel; to ensure that there was the ability to support the
travel; should an application for a business visa be made then evidence must be
produced endorsing the travel; ties outside of the US must be stronger than ties
to the US. Previous travel patterns and the occupation of an applicant would be
examined. Ted remarked that an honest approach was to best way of obtaining a
visa.
Next to speak was Sakda Chuainn, director of Surin public relations. The PCEC is
planning a club trip to the Surin Elephant Round Up and Sakda provided a
valuable insight into the event and the other attractions of Surin.
 Sakda
Chuainn, director of Surin public relations addresses the PCEC.
Next to take the stage was Barry Kenyon, honorary British consul for Pattaya.
The purpose of Barry’s visit was to clarify the recently announced changes in
retirement visa applications. He confirmed that there had been considerable
tightening with some types of visa, primarily short term visas which were being
used for long term stays.
He also confirmed that a requirement to provide a copy of an ATM, debit or
credit card was now being made when an application for a retirement visa was
made. The purpose of this was, in the face of the increasingly large number of
false documents, further positive identification was being sought. In order to
meet this requirement it was recommended that, in order to ensure security, an
ATM card embossed with ‘electronic use only’ was offered.
Drew Noyes announced that a limited number of tickets were available for the
diplomatic spouses party in Bangkok. This will be held at the Portuguese
ambassador’s residence in Bangkok on December 14th. Drew also announced that on
the 24th to the 25th November an event would be taking place at Central World
Bangkok when products from around the world, often not normally available in
Thailand, would be available.
Chairman Richard Smith announced that the highly beneficial first aid courses
were to restart in the coming months.
The regular Open Forum was conducted by Sig Sigworth who this week escaped being
the target of all jokes as Bob L’Etoile was away! As always it provided an
opportunity for questions about living in Thailand with an emphasis on Pattaya
to be asked. The Open Forum again proved to be the usual lively and entertaining
session. For more information regarding, not only PCEC Sunday meetings but also
the varied mid week activities, please see the Community Happenings section of
Pattaya Mail or, for more details, visit the Club’s website at
pattayacityexpatsclub.com.
Divine inspiration
through song
A packed venue was treated to
an inspirational evening of music at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya.
Paul Strachan
The Mercy Center held a musical evening on Sunday the 4th of
November as part of its capital fund raising campaign. The event was held at
a somewhat unusual venue, but in what turned out to be perfect for the
occasion - the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya.
The meeting room was filled with about 200 guests who came to hear songs
sung by local musicians; songs that all had a common thread: they made you
stop and think about the plight of others. Hence the theme: Divine
Inspiration.
Well-known local singers such as Gina, Monika Rottman, the Power Jam band
and the Sea Breeze choir led by Ben Hanson took to the stage, with old
favourites such as ‘You’ll never walk alone’, ‘Lili Marlene’, ‘Climb every
mountain’, ‘My funny valentine’ and ‘My heart will go on’. The audience was
treated to some fine singing from some of the very best that Pattaya has to
offer.
Tickets were only 500 baht a time and included a free glass of wine or a
beer sponsored by San Miguel. Delicious interval snacks were provided by
Cafe New Orleans.
A great evening was enjoyed by all and this was evident in the final song as
the crowd joined in with the Sea Breeze Choir to the all time classic ‘We’ll
meet again’.
Transvestite ‘sisters’ win Miss Pattaya Gay Festival contest
From left: Atitaya Taraprasert
(Miss Popular), Kemaksorn Lertrattanakul (1st runner up), Manasnan
Lertrattanakul (Winner, Miss Pattaya Gay Festival 2007), Raticha Ravinat
(2nd runner up), and Sararat Pattanarangsan (Miss Popular Vote).
Vimolrat Singnikorn
Two “sisters” from the Lertrattanakul family have won the Miss Pattaya Gay
Festival 2007 pageant, receiving between them 18,000 baht in prize money.
Jim Lumsden, who presented the official opening speech for the November 4
event, said this was the first step towards international contests for the
18 transvestites who were taking part.
The first round narrowed down the contestants from 18 to 10, and then to
five for the question and answers section.
Manasnan Lertrattanakul, age 25 and better known as Nong Bee, said that
“being a transvestite requires not only physical looks, but the
transvestites must perform for society’s benefit. Therefore, we kindly ask
to allow transvestites an opportunity.” His answer was appreciated by the
committee members, and clinched the winning position. Bee received 10,000
baht, a crown and a sash.
The first runner up was Bee’s younger brother Kemaksorn Lertrattanakul, or
Nong Fias, who is 20. Fias received 8,000 baht. Second runner up was Raticha
Ravinat, age 25. Miss Popular Vote, 23-year-old Sararat Pattanarangsan
received 8,000 baht along with 586 roses from the audience who bought them
for 100 baht a rose to offer to the 18 contestants.
Miss Popular was Atitaya Taraprasert, or Nong Om, age 20 years, who received
5,000 baht. All of the winners received a crown and a sash.
Jim Lumsden said that the 42,700 baht in net income from the distribution of
roses for Miss Popular Vote would be presented to HIV patients.
YWCA charity ballet raises 200,000 baht
Dujduan Ruangwettiwong, (front
2nd left) chairwoman of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center and her members
congratulate Nittaya Patimasongkroh (4th left) for her outstanding
achievement.
Chatchanan Boonnak
The YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center raised more than 200,000 baht from its
charity ballet performance held at Alcazar Theater on October 6.
Association chairwoman Dujduan Ruangwettiwong chaired a meeting at the Diana
Garden on October 30, at which the results were announced.
Dujduan told committee and association members that after expenses had been
deducted, the total income raised by the ballet performance was 214,893.68
baht.
From this amount, 50,000 baht will be presented to Her Royal Highness
Princess Soamsawalee. The remainder will be presented to other foundations
and charity projects, including 50,000 baht for the Princess Pa Foundation
and Thai Red Cross Society.
A donation of 15,000 baht will be made for the Content Family 80th Birthday
Foundation project, 20,000 baht will go to the Pattaya Environmental
Protection Project, 20,000 baht to the Saiyairak Project, 20,000 baht to the
Disaster Relief Project, and 68,404.32 baht to the Lunch Project.
During the meeting, Nittaya Patimasongkroh, chairwoman of the YWCA
Friendship at Different Ages Project received a congratulatory flower basket
for being selected by the Chonburi committee members as being an
“Outstanding Citizen of Chonburi” for 2007.
Rotary at home and overseas
join forces to supply clean
drinking water to rural community
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Two Thai Rotary Clubs in cooperation with four overseas Rotary Clubs
have finished a major project to install water purification equipment at
Klongnamsai Temple and the neighbouring Suttiwaree School in Chantaburi
province, as part of the Rotary International initiative on supplying clean
drinking water in areas of need.
 Rotary
Clubs from Thailand and abroad combined forces and resources to bring clean
drinking water to areas in need.
The equipment was presented on October 30 at a ceremony led by Tanapon
Kitchakan, chairman of the Chantaburi Provincial Administrative Organization
and Wibun Wiriyapirom, president of the Rotary Club of Chantanimit.
Rotarians from many clubs in District 3340 R.I also attended the ceremonies.
President Wibun said that the project to provide facilities to Klongnamsai
Temple and Suttiwaree School was initiated by Peter Thorand, charter
president of the Rotary Club of Taksin Pattaya and Jetsada Banthunrangsi,
past president of the Rotary Club of Chantanimit, both of whom went in
search of schools and communities that were in urgent need of clean drinking
water.
One of the locations chosen, the Klongnamsai Temple, which accommodates more
than 200 Buddhist monks studying dharma, as well as people from the
surrounding areas coming to make merit at the temple, frequently found
itself without enough clean water to support all of them.
The second location, the Suttiwaree School, which has more than 200 students
and teachers, was also chosen because it too lacked sufficient drinking
water.
Peter Thorand contacted Rotary clubs in foreign countries, informing them of
the need and impending project and at the same time requested their support.
Four overseas clubs responded. Two clubs are in the United States, namely
the Rotary Clubs of Golden Colorado and the Rotary Club of Boulder,
Colorado, both in District 5450 R.I. The other two are in Australia, the
Rotary Clubs of Capalaba, Brisbane, District 9630 R.I. and the Rotary Club
of Central Blue Mountains District 9690 R.I.
The clubs jointly applied and received approval for a Matching Grant from
the Rotary Foundation. The grant No 61715, a cooperative project between
Thai and foreign clubs raised a total of 542,000 baht for the implementation
of the project.
Wibun said that two pumps were installed at Klongnamsai Temple. In addition
a water tank with a capacity of 5,000 litres was also built to hold the
water before it is pumped into the filtration system.
A 200 meter pipeline was laid from the temple water tank to the school water
tank tower, which will supply the school with enough clean water for it’s
needs.
Peter Thorand proudly said, “The water filtration unit is large enough to
filter and distribute sufficient clean water for the temple, the school and
people in the surrounding area. This is an outstanding example of Rotarians
in Thailand and overseas cooperating in a humanitarian project that is going
to make a significant difference for the good of the community.”
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