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Celebrate Buddha’s birthday in Hong Kong
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Experience the World Durian Festival on a stay in Pattaya
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New look for AirAsia X
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Cathay back to full strength in Bangkok
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Celebrate Buddha’s
birthday in Hong Kong
People who have booked hotels in Hong Kong towards
the end of May will find that the city’s Buddhist monks are out in force
to celebrate the birthday of Buddha.
On May 21, all of the Buddhist temples and shrines
around Hong Kong will become bustling hives of activity as statues of
the deity are bathed and vegetarian feasts are prepared.
People visit the monasteries to offer the monks food,
while a Dharma speech is often performed. In the evening, Buddha’s
teachings and mediations are chanted at the many temples around the
city.
According to What’s On When, visitors to Hong
Kong who want to see some of the festivities should head to the Po Lin
Monastery on Lantau Island, the Ten Thousand Buddha’s Monastery in Sha
Tin or the Miu Fat Monastery in Tuen Mun.
The Po Lin Monastery is particularly popular among
worshippers because it is home to the largest seated, outdoor bronze
Buddha in the world.
One of the most important rituals to take place on
the day is the bathing ceremony, when statues of Buddha are washed by
the monks. The Hong Kong Tourism Board points out visitors are often
invited to participate in this ceremony and are also offered some of the
vegetarian food prepared in honour of the event. (PR Log Press
Release)
Experience the World Durian Festival on a stay in Pattaya
Anyone staying in hotels in Pattaya who is in
need of some suggestions of places to visit outside of the
seaside resort should consider taking a trip to Chanthaburi
during May. This is because the town hosts its annual World
Durian Festival to pay homage to the fruit which is grown in the
area.
Chanthaburi boasts the largest concentration of durian
orchards in the world and as such is the perfect place for a festival to
celebrate the fruit crops.
Visitors will be able to sample the strong-smelling
delicacy as well as a whole host of other local produce.
Among the activities taking place during the ten-day
festival are fruit competitions between local farmers, art and craft
displays and even sporting competitions. There is also plenty of
entertainment for tourists to enjoy, including a colourful parade of
carnival floats, with many decorated with a wide range of different fruits
and vegetables.
If you are staying in hotels in Thailand and want to see
the parade, make sure that you are there on the opening day, which is
usually May 1, as this is when all of the floats make their way through the
town.
Anyone looking for a memento of their visit to
Chanthaburi may find something among some of the jewellery stalls at the
market or could be content to snap photos of the bright decorations on the
floats. (PR Log Press Release)
New look for AirAsia X
AirAsia X is fitting its entire fleet with ‘flatbed
premium seats’ and putting in new ergonomic, reclinable seats with a
31-inch pitch and adjustable headrests in its economy class.
The new flatbed seats on AirAsia X.
To be done in stages until June this year, the
refurbishment will cover all long-haul flights to Melbourne, Gold Coast,
Perth, Taipei, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Chengdu, London, Mumbai and New Delhi.
The flatbed seats follow standard business class
specifications of 20-inch width, 60-inch pitch and stretches out to 77
inches in full recline position.
Until all aircraft are fully furnished with the new
seats, the term ‘flatbed’ will appear next to the flight entry during
the booking process to inform guests that premium seats are available on
that particular flight.
It is understood that one aircraft, on the Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne
route, has already been fitted with the new seats. (TTG)
Cathay back to full strength in Bangkok
Cathay Pacific has returned to its original schedule
of 35 weekly Bangkok-Hong Kong flights. The carrier dropped four weekly
flights on the route last year due to economic conditions.
Cathay country manager Thailand, Maggie Yeung, said
the route had performed remarkably well from the fourth quarter of last
year through to Chinese New Year.
While the ongoing Thai political protests led to some
cancellations, the sector achieved an estimated 80 to 85 per cent load
factor in March and was expected to close April at 75 to 80 per cent.
“It is too early to say whether the current Thai
protest will affect this year’s forecast for the route, though we
believe the impact will be short-term.”
Yeung, however, noted that the greater challenge was
yield management. Last year, Cathay enjoyed 80 per cent load factor
across its network but saw yield fall by 22 per cent. (TTG)
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