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Big turnout, thrills at 2009 longboat & buffalo races
An ox drawn cart ushers in the
high ranking officials.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
The crowds were bigger, the teams more international and the buffalo
more plentiful during a lively weekend as Mabprachan Reservoir played host
to the 2009 Pattaya Longboat Championships and Buffalo Races.
Record numbers of locals and tourists took in the Nov. 21-22 contests, which
featured traditional longboats, international racers, drummers and cattle
racing. With more countries competing this year, area officials are pushing
for the boat races to become a certified international race.
In the marquee event, the traditional longboat races, teams from Pathum
Thani swept the field, with the Theptammarat team winning the HRH Princess
Sirindhorn trophy and the Janjao team taking home the HRH Princess
Soamsawalee trophy. Meanwhile a Thai team won the international race,
beating out Taiwanese rowers.
More than 5,000 people attended the first day of the competition, which was
opened by Chonburi Gov. Senee Jittakasem and former Sports and Tourism
Minister Sontaya Khunplome. Before rowers took to the water, fans were
delighted with a recreation of the Royal Barge procession.
The action wasn’t all on the lake, however. Down the road the largest-ever
field of buffalo cowboys were competing for 50,000 baht and the Queen
Sirikit trophy whilst tom-tom drummers banged it out for cash and trophies.
Prizes were presented in each of five weight classes for the buffalos, which
ranged from big to humungous. But the competition was not without
controversy, as one cattleman was disqualified for using an illegal, and
painful, electric prod to spur on his beast of burden.
The boat races, meanwhile, were broken into two categories for boats with 55
and 30 rowers, respectively. Theptammarat won the large-boat race and
100,000 baht and the Akkaranawa team won 40,000 baht for second place. In
the small-boat contest, Janjao won 50,000 baht.
Nongprue Mayor Mai Chaiyanit was heartened by this year’s larger turnout and
said he believed the race would become bigger and more international in the
future. The event is sponsored each year by the Chonburi, Nongprue and
Pattaya governments, the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Long drum and cymbal
performers lead the opening day parade.
It’s close right to the finish
line.
Buffalo jockeys compete for
trophies and cash.
Teams from across the country
compete
in the annual long boat race at Mabprachan reservoir.
Naklua fishermen clash with city officials trying to evict them
The situation escalates to a
shoving match as fishermen
who the city wants to kick out of their homes are refusing to leave.
Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya officials attempting to demolish the homes of fishermen
illegally occupying public land in Naklua were turned back violently by
residents swearing to defy their court-ordered eviction.
Scuffles broke out Nov. 18 as Chutipon Kamolnat, secretary to Mayor
Itthiphol Kunplome, and other officials tried to gain entry to Fisherman’s
Village off Naklua Soi 12. More than 50 residents, some claiming to have
occupied their beachfront properties for more than 50 years, have refused to
move despite not having legal title to their property.
Chutipon said the villagers were notified 45 days ago their property would
be demolished. The residents, claiming property developers were behind the
court case, have refused unless they were given new homes in return.
The case is similar to a 55-year-old dispute with long-time residents of Koh
Larn who continue to fight in court for legal title to property they said
they’ve occupied since before Thailand’s Land Code was enacted in 1954. As
in Naklua, the city now claims ownership of the prime beachfront land on Koh
Larn.
City officials called in police to make a report and when it tries again,
bureaucrats will likely be backed up by armed police.
Eastern Seaboard police given
training in ATM, credit card fraud
Officers receive training in
how to prevent and/or detect high tech crimes.
Boonlua Chatree
With incidents involving fraudulent credit and ATM cards on the
rise, Pattaya-area police received a primer in battling high-tech crimes
from regional law enforcement.
Chonburi Provincial Police commander Maj. Gen. Tanet Pinmuang-Ngam led the
Police Region 2 workshop at the Long Beach Garden Hotel & Spa in Pattaya
Nov. 20. He noted that Thailand, with 33 million ATM and credit cards issued
and more than 35,000 ATMs, is increasingly vulnerable to crimes involving
fake and stolen cards.
The training for officers from all over the Eastern Seaboard was intended to
improve officers’ investigative techniques and knowledge of how fake cards
are made and distributed. Computer crime was also discussed.
City cleans up for Lions convention
City employees hose down Beach
Road.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
With more than 100,000 Lions Clubs members set to descend on Pattaya
- not to mention the start of high season - officials took to the streets
for a bit of cleaning before last week’s Orient and South East Asia Lions
Forum.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh, Pattaya Business &
Tourism Association President Jamroon Vitsavachaipan and Union of Pattaya
Entrepreneurs President Sanga Kijsamret led the Nov. 17 scrub-down along
Beach Road.
Itthiphol said the Lions Forum was a great opportunity to show off the city
and that Pattaya needed to look - and smell - its best. He said once the
surface was hosed down city workers went through and pumped out drains to
get rid of the beachfront’s sometimes pungent odor.
Customs taking steps to keep international trade growing
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Increases in both imports and exports show that Thailand’s
economy may finally be pulling out of a long downturn and top Customs
Department officials are trying to keep it that way.
 Deputy
Minister of Finance Pradit Phataraprasit presides over the customs
seminar.
At a Nov. 19-21 Aisawan Resort & Spa seminar for customs administrators
from around the country, Somchai Sajjapong, director-general of Thai
Customs, said department revenue is up 20 percent more than expected and
trade figures show increases in both imports and exports.
“Exports and imports during the third and fourth quarters look better
than in the first and second quarters,” he said. “This confirms the
Ministry of Finance’s forecast that Thailand’s economy is improving.”
Somchai said cross-border trade remains strong despite a diplomatic flap
with Cambodia and he expressed hope it would remain so.
He said the Customs Department is taking steps to overhaul its internal
policies and personnel to recast the department’s image as a service
provider instead of an agency bent on levying tariffs and taxes.
Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phataraprasit said customs will
facilitate trade with better services in information technology, legal,
and personnel to support future economic growth.
“The Thai Customs Department is trying every way it can to support the
business sector, including adjusting customs law and making its website
more accessible and convenient,” Pradit said. “We have to have plans to
support the expansion of the business sector.”
Hundreds clean up Dong Tan Beach in Navy’s ‘Beautiful Sea’ project
Celebrities, government
officials, military personnel, students and private sector individuals
participate in the beach cleanup.
Patcharapol Panrak
Hundreds of military and private-sector individuals took to Dong Tan
Bay for a beach cleanup to kick off the Royal Thai Navy’s “United in the
heart to return beauty to the seas” project.
Navy Region 1 commander Vice Adm. Khanat Thongpool presided over the Nov. 19
ceremony at the Royal Thai Fleet Club. The project, which aims to clean up
from the sea all the way to 1500 miles inland, has garnered the support of
the military, government, educational institutions, scuba diving groups and
celebrities.
Khanat said 2009 is the navy’s year of marine-resources preservation and it
helps to spread awareness about the importance of natural resources among
Thailand’s youth.
Red Shirts thwarted at bureaucrat seminar by 2,000 security forces
Interior Minister Chavarat
Charnvirakul arrives to deliver new policies to 4,000 local bureaucrats at
the Ambassador City Hotel in Jomtien.
Patcharapol Panrak
For the second time in three weeks, anti-government protestors
attempted to disrupt a training seminar for newly appointed government
administrators in Jomtien Beach but, this time, the “red shirts” ran into a
wall of 2,000 police and military security forces.
The protestors aligned with the United Front for Democracy Against
Dictatorship had converged on the Ambassador City Hotel Nov. 16 on news that
top Ministry of Defense officials would be making policy directives to about
4,000 city, district and sub-district officials.
They were intercepted at security checkpoints manned by volunteers and
officers from Bangkok, Chachoengsao, Rayong, Chantaburi, Trat, Khon Kaen,
Buriram and Prachinburi; as well as Royal Thai Navy personnel from the
Sattahip Naval Base.
Sattahip bailiff Surachet Kaewkham said he received orders from district
chief Chaichan Iamcharoen to reinforce two units of volunteers from Rayong
and Chantaburi.
In the end, far fewer Red Shirts than expected showed up, perhaps because
the last time the supporters of deposed ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
tried to confront a top minister at a similar meeting Oct. 28, they arrived
so late the Interior Minister had already left.
Some of the nearly 2,000
volunteer, police and military officers
from around the country stand out in the heat,
manning checkpoints and providing security at the seminar.
Leonid meteor shower
streaks over Pattaya
At least the constellation
Orion, with its famous Orion’s belt
(the three bright stars forming a line), is visible through Pattaya’s light
pollution.
(Photo by Ariyawat Nuamsawat)
Boonlua Chatree
Enthusiastic Pattaya-area stargazers climbed hills and camped along the
Mabprachan Reservoir in the wee hours of Nov. 18 to get a glimpse of the
annual Leonid meteor shower.
For the most part, they weren’t disappointed. While clouds dimmed the astral
fireworks a bit, Chonburi was spared the bad weather that obscured the
shower elsewhere in Thailand during its 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. peak. Pattaya-area
sky watchers saw about 10 meteors an hour, less than in previous years, but
still worth getting up early (or staying up late) for.
The Leonid shower belongs to the debris shed by comet 55/P Tempel-Tuttle as
it passes the sun in its 33.2 year orbit. The debris is contained in a cloud
that lags behind the comet and is dispersed irregularly. With each
successive pass of Tempel-Tuttle, new filaments of debris are left in space,
creating different “streams” the orbiting Earth passes through each
November.
In addition to weather and clouds, Pattaya shower fans must also contend
with light pollution, so locals and tourists alike started trekking after
midnight to places like So Thor Ror 5 hill in Banglamung and the reservoir.
The atmosphere was lively with people fishing and drinking as they waited
for the sky to fall.
The first bits of comet debris streaked across the heavens at 1:25 a.m.
Lights were turned off and the skies were cleared by a strong wind. By 4:30
a.m., however, some high clouds had come in which blocked out some of the
peak showers, leaving some hungry for the next big astrological event:
January’s lunar and solar eclipses.
Police break up Irish, Thai international drug ring
Police bring out the drugs
suspects to show to the media.
Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya police have broken up an international drug ring with both
Thai and British nationals as members.
Phillip Smackels, 26, of Northern Ireland, and Thais Kriangkrai Boonkerd,
25, Wisusa Hankam, 36, Apinya Sriwikan, 34, and Jatuporn Maneejak, 35, were
arrested at the gang’s base in the Ban Mongkon housing project in Banglamung
Nov. 19.
Seized in the raid were 100 ecstasy tablets, 107 bags of crystal
methamphetamines totaling 115 grams, and five bottles of “date rape” drug
ketamine.
At a press conference, police said the bust is part of the government’s
stepped up “war on drugs.”
In addition to charging the men with possession with intent to distribute
Class 1 narcotics, Kriangkrai was also discovered to have an outstanding
warrant for murder.
Human error blamed for crane collapse that killed 4
Boonlua Chatree
Human error is being blamed for the collapse of a crane collapse at
a North Pattaya condominium building site that killed four workers.
 Looking
up at the broken crane that killed 4 workers.
Police investigators said S. P. Crane Operator Services workers
disassembling the crane pulled out an anchor for cables connecting it to
scaffolding on the 18th floor of a high rise on Wong Amat Beach, sending it
crashing to the ground, along with one Cambodian and three Thai workers.
Nattapol Nimnualchit, 12, of Lopburi; Mongkol Saenrat, 40, of Prachinburi,
Weerayuth Suworadee, 39, of Lopburi, and Khmer Duangdao Loynok, 37, were
killed in the Nov. 17 accident. Three others were injured.
Employee Krerkphan Nimnual, 41, said construction work on the condo tower
was nearly complete and the crane was being taken down. Before the accident
workers were starting to remove the main control room from the far end of
the towering crane. During the process, wire slings linking with the crane
and scaffolding were cut and the scaffolding ring plunged to the ground. One
worker, Thanapol Saenrat, 37, narrowly escaped by jumping from the falling
ring.
Pattaya Police, rescuers and Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay all responded to
the scene. Representatives from S.P. and other crane contractors have been
called in for questioning, as some employees testified that parts of the
crane were broken before the accident.
Bangkok Airways chauffeur
proves flying safer than driving
Patcharapol Panrak
Bangkok Airways reaffirmed the adage that flying is safer than
driving when one of its passenger-pickup taxis, speeding from Pattaya to
U-Tapao Pattaya International Airport, overturned and rolled in the middle
of Sukhumvit Road on Friday, Nov. 13.
 Police
respond to an accident involving a Bangkok Airways limo headed for U-Tapao
airport.
Surachet Sakolvaree, 25, was unhurt in the crash that left his Toyota Osmo
upside down on the center divider around 4 p.m., but was fined 400 baht by
police for speeding and reckless driving.
Surachet told police he was on the way from Pattaya to pick up a customer at
U-Tapao but, at kilometer marker 150, he was cut off by another driver and
lost control of his vehicle while trying to avoid collision.
The driver of the other car, Sirirat Rattana-alangkarn, 32, insisted she was
not to blame for the accident because the airline chauffeur was speeding.
Police moved fast to clear the accident as it quickly caused chaos. Even as
police were questioning Surachet, the driver of a motorbike looking over his
shoulder at the overturned card slammed into the back of a stopped vehicle
on the other side of Sukhumvit.
3 Omani brothers drugged, robbed by pair from Morocco
Boonlua Chatree
Three Omani men learned the hard way not to accept hamburgers from
fellow Arab minibus passengers.
 Rescue
workers take the drugged victims to Banglamung Hospital for treatment.
Saud Slam brothers Badar, 40, Hamed, 32, and Zahran, 28, claimed they were
drugged and robbed of more than 60,000 baht in cash and property by two men
from Morocco who shared their unlicensed van service from Bangkok’s Nana
area to Pattaya Nov. 19. None recall how the robbery occurred, however, as
they passed out after eating hamburgers the pair bought for them during a
rest stop.
In fact, the trio were unaware they’d even been robbed until they were
awakened by staff at the Marine Yensabai Condo the next morning. Security
was alerted after they didn’t answer numerous calls to their room.
The Moroccans got out of the van first in Central Pattaya. Zahran said
they’d arrived at their South Pattaya hotel around 8 p.m. groggy and
nauseated, but assumed they were all car sick. It wasn’t until they
discovered that 63,000 baht and three mobile phones were gone that they’d
been drugged by the burgers and the two had robbed them in their sleep
before escaping.
The three brothers were taken to Banglamung Hospital and then to police
headquarters for further statements and investigation. Police hope to
distribute artist renderings of the suspects and warned tourists to be wary
of similar situations.
Police bust up
Dutchman’s adult drug party
Boonlua Chatree
A 57-year-old Dutchman who allegedly bartered methamphetamines for
dalliances with Beach Road prostitutes was arrested in the midst of another
drug party with a Burmese immigrant in his cut-rate hotel room.
 Hendrik
Marinus Schrijver (2nd left) and Damdee Phaikham (left) were taken into
custody Nov. 18.
Hendrik Marinus Schrijver and 31-year-old Damdee Phaikham were taken into
custody Nov. 18 after police were alerted to the Dutchman’s hobby by staff
at the PS Guesthouse just off Beach Road on Soi 13/1. He was caught with 43
ya ba tablets and various paraphernalia he insisted were for personal use
only.
Police said both Schrijver and his guest had already consumed some of the
pills, which he used to pay local women for their services.
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