13-01-2012

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Plawan and his family struggle to understand reasons for axe attack

LUCKY TO BE

ALIVESongkran Issara: ‘My son was a victim of the overall decline in society’

Vorasit “Plawan” Is-sara, critically hurt in a murderous and

frenzied attack in an after-hours bar in Phuket Town on January 4, is still trying to understand

why he was stabbed and hacked almost to death.

“What the hell were they thinking?” the general manager of the high-end Sri Panwa Resort asked in a post from Bangkok Hospital to his Face-book account. “I cannot believe

this kind of place exists … we are so lucky to be alive.”

His parents, too, are trying to comprehend the mentality of the staff at the Rachada Pub on Takua Pa Rd in the grubby Poonphol area of Phuket Town.

Mr Vorasit, his bodyguard

and chauffeur and several friends – including Jeremy Renner, star of the latest Mis-sion Impossible film and of the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker – went to the bar in the early hours of January 4 and were attacked by staff after

a “minor misunderstanding” over a broken glass.

Two of the party were treat-ed at the hospital and released soon after. The chauffeur, Noppadon Preechawai, spent a couple of nights in hospital being treated for a cut to the

head. He also had a tooth knocked out.

But the wrath of the Racha-da staff seemed to be reserved specially for Mr Vorasit.

At a press conference on Saturday called by Mr Vora-

Continued on Page 2

By Paritta Wangkiat

THE PHUKET NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012

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Saying ‘I do’in paradiseMore Indian couples to wed in Phuket > 5NEWS

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Crackdown on latenight venue hoursPhuket police are to rigorously enforce bar closing hours following the murderous at-tack on Sri Panwa General Manager Vorasit “Plawan” Issara by staff of the Rachada Pub in Poonphol on January 4, at around 3.30am.

On Monday afternoon (January 9), the new Com-mander of Phuket Police, Maj Gen Chonasit Watt-anavrangkul, arranged a meeting with more than 110 owners or representatives of entertainment venues in Phuket City to discuss the laws relating to bars and the responsibilities of bar staff.

The establishments in-vited to the meeting included bars, night clubs, pubs, karaoke places, massage parlours and restaurants that open until late.

“One of responsibilities of bar staff is to stop custom-ers from brawling, not to brawl with customers,” said Gen Chonasit.

He stressed the law that sets the minimum age of staff at 18, and told those at the meeting to check on the backgrounds of their staff. He also told them to observe staff behaviour to see whether employees are using drugs

or bringing weapons onto the premises.

Those at the meeting lis-tened, but few spoke.

One who did was a rep-resentative of the Pink Lady Night Club in Phuket Town. “It should be fine if opening hours of Phuket entertainment venues are expanded [beyond 2am],” he argued, before com-plaining, “When this incident occurred, every entertainment venue is dragged in to take responsibility.”

After the attack at the Rachada Pub the pub was ordered to close for 90 days

for staying open after clos-ing time. The closure may be extended if the pub is found have been operating without a licence.

Phuket Governor Tri Aug-karadacha told media on January 5 that about 200 of the estimated 700 entertain-ment venues on Phuket do not have licences.

Gov Tri said that he be-lieved that most of the un-licenced venues were try-ing to dodge taxes. It was also easier for them “to run away from any possible prob-lems,” he added.

Police chief Gen Chonasit: ‘One of responsibilities of bar staff is to stop customers from brawling, not to brawl with customers.’

From Page 1sit’s family, doctors detailed his injuries:

• Five wounds on his head from “something sharp”. (On his Facebook page Mr Vora-sit said the cuts on his head were caused by a bottle being smashed over it.)

• An axe wound to his right shoulder.

• A much more serious axe wound to the left shoul-der, with a deep cut result-ing in two pieces of bone being separated from his shoulder blade.

• A stab wound to the left side of his stomach, going almost right through to his back. The knife nicked his large intestine but did not damage any vital organs.

• A cut on his left an-kle, which damaged a nerve and two tendons.

Mr Vorasit underwent 12 hours of operations, said Dr Badin La’ied, Deputy Direc-tor of the Bangkok Hospital. He was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital and Dr Badin estimated he had lost between one and one and a half litres of blood.

The doctors said that the leg wound would mean Mr Vorasit would be in plaster for at least six weeks, but the leg would probably recover completely.

So lucky to be alive

But the damage to the left shoulder may leave him unable to raise his left arm.

“We can’t say when he will be ready to leave hospital,” Dr Badin said. “We want to observe his progress for seven days before we make any decisions.”

Mr Songkran, who is man-aging director of Charn Issara Development PLC, developers of Sri Panwa and owners of the resort, said, “We are very grateful that my son survived. He’s very lucky,” said.

He stressed that there was no truth in rumours that his son started the fight at the Rachada Bar in the Phoonpol area of Phuket Town.

“I want to assure the media that Plawan would never start a fight – he never has. This was over a matter of a broken glass. I can’t believe people could do something like this.

“I think he was in the wrong place at wrong time. He had been to this bar half a dozen times before.”

Trying to understand the explosive viciousness of

the attack, he said, “He is a victim of the overall decline in society.”

Mr Vorasit’s mother Sivala said, “I’m sure that rumours that he started the fight are not true. Especially with people lower on the social scale, he was always nice and polite.”

But, she added, “I am not surprised it happened. It’s the kind of people who go [to the Rachada Bar].

“It’s not the kind of place he should have taken his guests to. Even if they want-ed to experience a typical Thai bar, he should not have taken them there.

“It will be a lesson for him.”

Seven men have been ar-rested for their parts in the attack, including Nareubate Tednok, 18, who admitted hacking at Mr Vorasit with a battleaxe made from mo-torcycle parts, and Suchart Palar, 26, who confessed to stabbing him in the stomach.

Mr Songkran said, “We will let the judicial system take its course.”

Above, the weapons used in the attack on Mr Vorasit. Below, an X-ray shows the damage to his left shoulder caused by the axe.

Nareubate Tednok (left) admitted to swinging the axe while Suchart Palar confessed he stabbed Mr Vorasit.


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3ISLANDNEWS

Mark Pendlebury, owner of Phuket Sail Tours, was del ighted to hear f rom The Phuket News on Tues-d ay (Ja nu a r y 10) con-f i r mat ion t hat h is son Glen , one of the th ree e c o - w a r r i o r s h e l d aboard a Japanese whal-ing sh ip of f Aust ral ia , is to be freed.

Twenty-seven-year-old Glen, along with Geoffrey Owen Tuxwor th and Si-mon Peterffy, are activists helping the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has fought a decades-long battle to protect marine life, particularly whales being hunted by Japanese ships.

On Saturday (January 7) the trio left the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin and boarded the Shonan Maru 2, a whaling fleet security ship owned by the Japanese Institute of Ce-tacean Research, off Bunbury in Western Australia.

The aim of the boarding was to force the Shonan Maru to stop pursuing the Steve Irwin. The Japanese simply locked them up.

Intense diplomatic ma-noeuvrings ended with the

news on Tuesday that the Japa-nese would not pursue trespass charges against the activists and would release them to the Australians.

“That’s g reat news,” said father Mark. “I’m very pleased. I’d like to thank Larry Cunningham (Australian Honorary Consul in Phuket)

for all his help in putting me in touch with the embassy, and also the Australian Consulate in Japan for all their efforts.”

He said that Glen had been

involved with Sea Shepherd for some 18 months. “I think whaling’s wrong myself, and I fully support his stand,” he added. “In my career I

fought for social justice and I guess I gave him a strong sense of that.”

He also responded to re-marks by Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, who was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying through a spokesman, “Activ-ity of the nature undertaken by these three Australians is un-acceptable and will ultimately be costly to the Australian taxpayer.

“This sort of hazardous protest action is not the way to put an end to whaling. The best way to stop whaling once and for all is through our court action.”

Mark Pendlebury replied, “History proves her wrong. If it wasn’t for provocative ac-tion, nothing would happen.”

An Australian customs vessel, the Ocean Protector, has been ordered to take the trio off the Shonan Maru 2.

But it is not clear when or how this will be done, not least because the Shonan Maru is still pursuing the Steve Irwin and shows no sign of breaking off the chase to make things easier for the transfer.

–Alasdair Forbes

Glen Pendlebury (right) with fellow eco-warriors Geoffrey Owen Tuxworth and Simon Peterffy before they boarded the whaling fleet security vessel Shonan Maru 2 in the dead of night. – Photo AFP/Sea Shepherd

Sunil Shankar (check shirt) at the Customs press conference last Saturday.

Indian national Sunil Shankar, 22, was arrested on Saturday (January 7) after being searched by customs officials at Phuket International Airport.

In two hand bags he was carrying a total of 6.5 ki-lograms of ephedrine, the base drug used in the manu-facture of methamphetamine, known in Thailand as ya ba, or “crazy drug”.

At a press conference held at the airport on Saturday eve-ning, customs officials said that Shankar had flown to Phuket from Bangalore via Singapore.

He told officials that a

friend’s uncle had a friend based in Haad Yai who wanted some saris delivered to him. The man in Haad Yai sent an air ticket and a cellphone sim card to India and these were given to Shankar.

Shankar, who said that he did not know there were drugs in the bags, insisted that he was not expecting to be paid for carrying the bags, and that he did not know there were drugs in them.

Customs might not have caught him had he not gone to them to ask whether he needed to pay duty on the saris.

Officials ran one of the bags through a scanner, spot-ting something suspicious in the bottom of it. When they opened it they found most of the bag full of saris. Below them, however, was a false bot-tom, and below that a wooden frame to protect the ephedrine, which was packed flat.

The amount of the drug he was carrying, officials said, was enough to make at least 100,000 ya ba pills, with a street value of B30 million.

Shankar was taken to the cells at Tah Chat Chai Police station.

Indian held for smuggling

Dad backs his son’s anti-whaling actionPROUD!


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Three Thai men involved in a drug supply network were arrested on Monday evening (January 9) by an Anti-Drug Special Team (ADST) led by the Phuket Office of the Nar-cotics Control Board (NCB).

Seven hundred and eighteen grams of ya ice (crystal meth-amphetamine) and 20,200 pills of ya ba (methamphetamine) with a total street value of more than B12.6 million were seized, along with three ATM cards, four cellphones, two motorbikes and two bank books showing balances of B500,000.

The arrest of the three started with the arrest of Tha-watchai Boonruam, 24, whom ADST had suspected for two months of dealing in drugs. Two hundred ya ba pills were found in his possession.

He told police that he had bought the ya ba from Thana-sin Na Pattalung and Amrin Klinfung, both 25, who were described as major dealers in the drug network.

Luck was on the side of

the police: as the ADST were interrogating Thawatchai, Amrin called him to demand money owed for drugs.

Amrin made an appoint-ment with Thawatchai on Soi Ratthamanoon in Kathu. When he and Thanasin arrived, officers pounced on them. A

search of an apartment on Mae Luan Rd in Phuket Town and a house in Kathu resulted in the seizure of 20,000 ya ba pills and 718 grams of ya ice.

The two admitted they had had received the drugs from a man know as “Bang”, believed to live in Pa Khlok area. Bang,

they explained, usually left packages of drugs at a speci-fied location for Amarin and Thanasin to collect.

After the two had collected the money from selling the drugs, they would transfer it to a bank account specified by Bang.

From left, Thanasin Na Pattalung, Amrin Klinfung and Thawatchai Boonruam.

Phuket’s diving community is mourning the death of highly regarded dive guru Bjorn Tackmann.

Mr Tackmann, 57, died suddenly in hospital in Surat Thani on Friday (January 6) while on holiday in the area. He had been diagnosed with cancer last year, but was be-lieved to be in remission. He started feeling unwell last week and died two days later.

Mr Tackmann had lived in Phuket for 20 years, the last 10 of those spent work-ing as a dive course director for Dive Asia.

Dive Asia manager Benno Brandon said the news was a shock as he thought Mr Tack-mann was recovering well.

“He was a very well liked, outgoing person.”

Mr Tackmann is survived by a teenage son and wife who live in Phuket.

Danish diveguru dies inSurat Thani

The spokesman of the rul-ing Puea Thai Party (PTP), Prompong Nopparit, will visit Phuket today (January 13) to inspect a controversial 65-rai land plot next to Freedom Beach, just south of Patong.

Freedom Beach, which can only be reached by boat, has long had a reputation as “the secret beach you shouldn’t tell anyone else about”.

The visit follows a com-plaint to the Office of the Pub-lic Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) last year by a group of people calling themselves The Phuketians.

They alleged that the oc-cupier of the land, Pantong Na Ranong, had obtained title to it through “corrupt processes” involving 11 officials.

The most prominent name on the list of those allegedly in-volved is that of former Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa'ngob, whose signature of approval appears on the title deed. Mr Wichai is now the appointed senator for Phuket.

In response, PACC officials visited Phuket in December to inspect the land, which covers 65 rai of sloping land with wide views over the Andaman Sea, but which appears to be inside the boundaries of the Nakkerd

Forest Reserve.A source who has been fol-

lowing the case, but who did not want to be named, said he understood that the land was up for sale at B43 million per rai, or a total of B2.8 billion.

Channel 3 TV’s 3D News reported that Mr Pantong claimed to have bought the land in 1989 from Taweep Wutthithammaporn, whose father, in turn, had claimed ownership since 1937, 17 years before the forest reserve was established in 1954.

However, the PACC in-vestigation found out that Mr Taweep had made a statement to a land official in 1976 that he occupied the land in 1967 – seven after the forest reserve was declared.

The PACC found Mr Pantong had been asking the Provincial Land Office for a chanote title deed for more than 20 years, and had finally received it on April 12 last year.

However, the PACC could find no trace of a Sor Kor 1 paper for the land – an essential part of the paper trail involved in establishing ownership.

In addition, the land had not been surveyed before the chanote was issued, the PACC noted. The Land Office re-

sponded that the land had been surveyed in 1990, and there was therefore no need for it to be surveyed again.

Suspecting false statements and irregular processes in the issuing of the title deed, the PACC decided to submit the names of 10 officials from the Land Office and the Forestry Office, along with Senator Wichai, to the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Com-mission (NACC) for further investigation.

This resulted in Mr Prom-pong’s decision to visit Phuket this week, in line with Puea Thai’s stated intention to stamp out corruption. He is expected to report his findings to the party and the NACC.

In late December, Sena-tor Wichai told media that he signed the title deeds after checking papers submitted to him by officials, which showed that the land could be owned by individuals.

These papers also stated that Mr Taweep owned the land before the Forest Reserve was set up.

“A governor’s signature is not for issuing a title deed,” said Mr Wichai. “If there are proven documents [for issuing title deeds], I am obliged to sign.”

Freedom Beach landscandal escalating

Bust nets B12.6mworth of ya ba, ice

Bjorn Tackmann


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Building C1-C2 Premium Outlet-Gallery Zone, Bypass Rd., Phuket 83000, ThailandTel: (076) 350-465 Fax: (076) 350-465 Email: [email protected] Opening hours: Mon-Sat 10 am-5.30 pm Closed: Sunday

MAKING A SPLASH: Irish expatriate Liam Stewart (rear, left) cheers along with children and mothers from the Life Home Project (LHP) after he arranged a day out at Splash Jungle for them on Saturday (January 7). Mr Stewart raised money for the day out by organising a char-ity golf day at Blue Canyon Country Club on December 3. There was enough money, too, for swimming togs and gifts for all. Also pictured are Liam’s brother David (rear, blue shirt and white cap), Kathy Manthei Coulson (in front of him), and Peter Wood and Hélène Fallon Wood (rear, right), all of LHP.

The accomplishments of stu-dents from Muang Phuket Municipal School were rec-ognised at a ceremony held by the Minister of Interior on January 6 after they won the ‘Most Creative’ award at the World Robot Olympiad 2011, held in Abu Dhabi from November 17 to 23 last year.

The three grade-five stu-dents, Tipok Kijkobsin, Pa-kin Boonlom and Boonrit Plusen, met Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of In-terior Yongyuth Wichaidit at Government House.

The robot kings

They represented Thailand in competition with 33 teams from around the world, coming fifth out of 34 teams in the pri-mary school division, winning

the ‘Most Creative Award’ for their garbage sorting robot. The machine had previously won a locally organised robot contest in August 2011.

The students explain their robot to a competition judge.

Elaborate jewellery and make-up are part of the glamour of Indian weddings. – Photo Prakhar Amba

The representative of Philip-pines Embassy in Bangkok on Tuesday (January 10) met Phuket Immigration Super-intendent Pol Col Panuwat Ruamrak to discuss ways to retrieve passports given by Filipinos to an alleged loan shark, as security for loans made to them.

Pol Maj Kaken Nikorn-hatsachai, Inspector of the Immigration Police, told

The Phuket News, “[The al-leged loan shark] Anthony Granata, was released on bail recently but we still don’t know where the passports are. We tried questioning him [about the passports], but he refused to answer.

“We also passed on a pro-posal by some of the debtors that they would repay part of their loans in exchange for their passports. At first he seemed to

agree, but later he rejected the proposal.” Phuket Immigration are currently compiling a list of all the Filipino debtors whose names appear in papers seized from Granata’s home and will send the completed list to the Philippines Embassy.

The embassy will submit the list to the Thalang Police, asking them to try to find the passports by searching the homes of Granata’s associates.

500 passports still missing

More Indians say‘I do’ in PhuketThis year could shape up to be the year of the Indian wed-ding in Phuket, with 10 Indian couples already planning nup-tials on the island.

Director of Tourism Au-thority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office Bangornrat Shi-naprayoon expects the market for Indian weddings, known for being lavish affairs, to grow considerably here this year, after numbers were reported to have dropped in 2011.

Though it is still only Janu-ary, at least 10 Indian couples have already showed interest in arranging their wedding in Phuket this year.

One Indian couple will bring around 200 guests to celebrate their wedding at Angsana Laguna Phuket this February, while another Indian couple will have a three-day, three-night wedding in a luxury hotel this August.

The budget for this particu-lar wedding is set between B5 million and B10 million.

The couple’s parents, Suresh Bathija and Somesh Batra, told Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha on January 4 that the wedding would include about 200 guests, including many who operate businesses in the shipping, manufacturing, tourism, IT and finance sectors.

Ms Bangornrat said this was a great opportunity to

promote Phuket tourism, as well as bring in more potential investors to the island.

She hopes 2012 wil l bring more Indian couples to Phuket to marry, after numbers dropped last year.

Debbie Dionysius, assistant vice-president of destination marketing at Laguna Phuket, told the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) in October last year, “We [saw] a slowdown in lavish Indian weddings on the island.”

Laguna Phuket is a popu-lar location for Indian wed-dings, along with JW Marriott and Banyan Tree.

“India is a booming market,

but currently the occupancy of Indian tourists is under five per cent. We are looking at [encouraging] family groups with children and wedding entourages,” Ms Dionysius told the news service.

The TAT branches in Delhi and Mumbai have promoted Phuket as a wedding desti-nation in the Indian market, a campaign that has so far received positive feedback and interest.

Thai Tourism Board statis-tics say 30,000 Indian tourists visited Phuket last year, while the whole of Thailand logged nearly one million Indian visi-tors in 2010.


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FRI JANUARY 13 SAT JANUARY 14 MON JANUARY 16 TUE JANUARY 17 THU JANUARY 19WED JANUARY 18

Wind 8 kmh

High: +29°Low: +24°

Wind 5 kmh

High: +29°Low: +25°

Wind 5 kmh

High: +30°Low: +26°

Wind 3 kmh

High: +29°Low: +25°

Wind 3 kmh

High: +26°Low: +25°

Wind 4 kmh

High: +27°Low: +26°

Wind 4 kmh

High: +27°Low: +26°

SUN JANUARY 15

15-29 °C

22-32 °C

21-32 °C

23-31 °C

23-31 °C

22-25 °C

21-26 °C

16-31 °C

8-27 °C 19-27 °C

25-31 °C23-29 °C

22-31 °C

23-29 °C

25-29 °C

24-30 °C

CHIANG MAI

BANGKOK

NAKHON RATCHASIMA

PHUKET

PHNOM PENH

SANYA

DA NANG

YANGON

NAYPYIDAW VIENTIANE

LANGKAWIBANDA ACEH

HO CHI MINH CITY

HAT YAI

KO SAMUI

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN

NORTHEASTERN:During 13-19 Jan, slightly rise in temperature and isolated rain. Cold in parts, minimum temperature 12-15 °C and cool elsewhere. Maximum 27-31 °C. During 13-16 Jan, expect isolated to scattered rain and 1-3 °C drops.

CENTRAL:During 13-19 Jan, morning cool with light fog. Slightly rises in temperature. Minimum temperature 18-23 °C, maximum 30-33 °C. Northeasterly winds 10-30 km/hr. During 13-16 Jan there will be isolated rain and 1-3 °C drops.

NORTHERN:During 13-19 Jan, morning fog and thick patch in some areas. Isolated rain and then 1-3 °C drops. Cool to cold, minimum temperature 15-20 °C, maximum 30-34 °C. During period 13-16 Jan, widely scattered rain and 2-4 oC drops.

SOUTHERN (EAST COAST):Scattered thundershowers and isolated heavy to very heavy rain from Chumphon southward especially during 13-16 Jan. Minimum tempera-ture 20-24 °C, maximum 29-32 °C. Northeasterly winds 20-40 km/hr. Wave height 2-3 metres.

SOUTHERN (WEST COAST):Widely scattered to scattered thundershow-ers and isolated heavy rain during 13-16 Jan. Minimum temperature 21-24 °C, maximum temperature 31-33 °C. Easterly winds 20-35 km/hr. Wave height 1 metre, 2 metres offshore.

EASTERN:During 13-19 Jan, morning cool with light fog. Minimum temperature 19-23 °C, maximum 30-34 °C. Cool to cold on mountaintops. During 13-16 Jan, scattered thundershowers. Northeasterly winds 15-30 km/hr. Wave height about 1 metre.

ISLANDNEWS6

Various organisations are gearing up to celebrate National Children’s Day tomorrow (January 14).

Phuket Fantasea will offer free entry to Fantasea Village from 3pm to 5pm, with a show on stage, games, and a floating market. In the Tiger Jungle Adventure Zone children will be able to meet with Fantasea’s three white tigers.

Central Festival Phuket will hand out gifts, food and drink to underprivi-leged children on Naka Yai Island on January 13. The next day, at Central Festival Phuket’s Exhibition Hall from 11am there will be a bouncy castle, a pet talent show, games, a children’s singing competition, and a mini con-cert from Thailand performers Keng Sitthikorn and Nuknik Nichapich.

Phuket International Airport will have aircraft on display from 8.30am to 3pm as well as an airshow by the Royal Thai Air Force.

Jungceylon will have a remote control “fish” show, a dress-up com-petition, an art competition, art and craft workshops, games and more on both January 14 and 15 from 11am.

Phuket Provincial Administra-

tion Organization will hold an event from 8am to 4pm on January 14 at the Phuket Provincial Hall.

Patong City Municipality will organise activities at Loma Park between 8.30am to 3pm.

Bangkok Hospital Phuket will hold activities from 8am until midday. There will be a free magic show and games, plus prizes.

Phuket kids gear up for their special day

Narongpol Suwanmosri lodges his complaint with the Damrongdharm Centre, the Phuket ombudsman.

The director of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (OrBorJor) Hos-pital, Dr Chak Somana, has gone public in an effort to protect the reputation of the new hospital, denying that doctors and management were neglectful and unethical in their care of 74-year-old patient Pha Kongjeen, who died on New Year’s Day.

Dr Chak delivered his denial at a press conference on Tuesday (January 10) after Ms Pha’s son Narongpol Suwan-mosri lodged a complaint with the Damrongdharm Centre (the Phuket ombudsman) the previous day, alleging neglect and an “unethical” regard for money over life.

Mr Narongpol told The

Phuket News that his mother was admitted to the OrBorJor hospital on October 22 suffer-ing from diabetes. The fee for treatment was B300,000, he said, and he had no problem with this.

On December 29 Ms Pha’s condition deteriorated and doctors decided she should be transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital.

Mr Narongpol was told he would have to pay a further B100,000, but with banks closed for the New Year holiday, he asked if he could pay B50,000 initially.

He said he paid B50,000 and asked the OrBorJor hospital to transfer his mother on that day. But, he alleged, they refused to do so. He believed this was

because he had not paid them the full amount asked.

“I have no problems with the payment, and I can pay them as much as they want. They should be more ethical in their care of patients,” he said.

His mother was finally moved, but, he said, “Instead of putting her in the ICU at Vachira Hospital, they just left her in the emergency ward, where she had no medical oxygen for almost seven hours.”

Despite the efforts of the doctors at Vachira, Ms Pha died three days later.

At the press conference, Dr Chak put the OrBorJor hospital’s case.

“She was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and nephrosis [a

kidney condition], which had been treated at Vachira Phuket Hospital before she was trans-ferred here on October 22.”

He explained that on De-cember 29, Ms Pha had trouble urinating, so the OrBorJor doctor decided she should be transferred to the main kidney centre at Vachira Hospital, which is better equipped to deal with kidney conditions.

Dr Chak said that Ms Pha could breath by herself and

could speak, and her pulse and blood pressure were normal, so there was no reason for her to be put on oxygen.

Dr Chak said that there was no problem with the pay-ments by Mr Narongpol but added, “We are always open to negotiations with a patient if they don’t have enough money. Doctors can treat them before payment is received.”

Mr Narongpol is now con-sidering taking legal action.

Hospital denies‘unethical’ care


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Thailand on Tuesday agreed a B2 billion (US$63 mil-lion) pot to compensate all victims of years of political unrest and aid reconciliation in the often deeply divided nat ion, a government spokeswoman said.

The fund will pay out for all deaths and inju-ries sustained in a string of violent protests since 2005, involving the arch nationalist Yellow Shirts, the mainly rural working-class Red Shirts and several smaller factions.

“The cabinet approved a B2 billion budget for all victims of political vio-lence so they can receive appropriate and fair as-sistance in line with legal principle and equality,” spokeswoman Titima Chai-sang told reporters.

She said the government of Yingluck Shinawatra wanted to show that it had “taken responsibility by giving to all sides”.

Families of those who lost their lives will be paid B4.5 million (US$142,000) plus B250,000 (US$8,000) for funeral expenses.

Payments to the injured range from B4.5 million for those who lost limbs and were left permanent-ly disabled, to B675,000 (US$21,000) per person for minor injuries.

The government does not have exact figures on the number of people ex-pected to qualify. –AFP

Tiger parts in the post Thai customs officials said last Friday (January 6) they had seized four boxes of smuggled tiger skins and bones worth millions of Baht in the post, believed to be destined for interior decoration.

The tigers, whose parts were found earlier this week, were thought to have come from Indonesia and eventually be destined for China, said Somchai Poolsawasdi, director general of Royal Thai Customs.

“There were four boxes, and each box contained one tiger skin, bones and a skull. Each one weighed around five kilogrammes,” he told AFP.

He said the parcels, thought to be sent be a trafficking gang, were en route to Mae Sai in northern Thailand and came through Bangkok’s main post office, where officials got a tip-off.

“The way they processed these tigers, I think they were meant for furniture or decora-tion,” he added.

Anti-trafficking group Free-land said the tiger parts were worth an estimated B1.8 million (US$60,000), warning that the poaching and trafficking of

tiger meat, bones and skin was a key cause of the declining wild Asian tiger populations.

“The confiscation of these tiger skins and bones is com-

mendable and has clearly hurt the criminals financially,” said Tim Redford of Freeland.

“However, with so few tigers left in the wild, stop-

ping any more ending up like this is vital.”

Thailand is one of just 13 countries hosting fragile tiger populations and is a hub of

international smuggling. World-wide, numbers are estimated to have fallen to only 3,200 tigers from approximately 100,000 a century ago. –AFP

Four boxes of smuggled tiger skins and bones were seized by Thai customs last Friday. – Photo by Freeland Foundation.

Construction on a 4,000-mega-watt coal-fired power plant at Dawai in Burma has been halted, but Thai companies remain confident in its future, despite an outcry over the plant’s environmental impact.

The Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday that Italian-Thai Development (ITD) and its partner Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc (Ratch) said they had yet to be notified and were satisfied the power plant would proceed, perhaps using natural gas instead.

“If they don’t want coal-fired power plants, we have to look for other fuel sources. It

could be natural gas, and we’d need to discuss how to supply that,” Somchet Thinaphong, the managing director of Dawei Development Co, told the Post.

Ratch president Nop-pol Milinthanggoon said his company had not received an official report from Bur-ma, and would be waiting for verification before making any comment.

Thun Reansuwan, a first executive vice-president of Siam Commercial Bank, the financial adviser for Dawei, says further elaboration of the project is needed.

“If the government is

concerned about the envi-ronment, then we need to discuss and understand why coal-fired power plants were proposed,” he said.

“If they decide to use other fuel, then we have to think about electricity prices.”

The decision to put the brakes on the plant follows the suspension last October on environmental grounds of the Chinese-led, US$3.6-billion Myitsone dam, a move that stunned China – Burma’s big-gest ally – but won President Thein Sein political credit among sceptics at home and abroad who have doubted

his government’s commitment to reform.

Like Myitsone, Dawei has been strongly opposed by local residents and environmental groups. The government’s willingness to heed such op-position is all the more remark-able in that many among the leadership were also part of the former junta.

The 250-square-kilometre, US$50-billion Dawei Special Economic Zone will be South-east Asia’s largest industrial area and a vital source of rev-enue for a government seeking to overhaul its economy and raise living standards.

Dawei will include an $8-billion deep-sea port, an oil refinery and a petrochemical factory in a project scheduled to be developed in three phases from 2010-19.

It is located in the Tanin-tharyi region of southern Bur-ma on the Indian Ocean, 350 km west of Bangkok.

Thais in the dark on Dawei plant

The Thai cabinet approved a massive B2.27 trillion spend-ing plan on Tuesday (January 10), with most of the money earmarked for infrastructure projects over the next five years.

Projects include new inter-city road links, high-speed train networks, urban mass transit systems, as well as marine, air transport and telecommunica-tion development, the Bangkok Post reported.

They would be starting from this year, through to 2016.

The cabinet also endorsed four executive decrees to en-able it to borrow B400 billion to pay for water management

projects and an insurance fund to restore investors confidence.

The approved decrees are:• An executive decree to

transfer the interest-pay-ment burden on a B1.14 trillion debt left over from the 1997 crisis from the Finance Ministry to the Financial Institutions De-velopment Fund (FIDF), an institution set up under the Bank of Thailand to manage the bank crises.

• An executive decree to seek B350 billion in loans for water management projects and flood restoration and rehabilitation work.

• An executive decree to set up a B50 billion fund to offer flood insurance to the business sector.

• An executive decree to amend central bank regula-tions to extend B300 billion in soft loans to financial institutions.The endorsements are

aimed at clearing the way for the government to borrow funds for water management proj-ects and restore confidence in the country, said Council of State secretary-general Atchaporn Jaruchinda.

Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said that

under the debt-transfer decree, the FIDF would be authorised to collect fees of up to 1 per cent of the deposit base from local banks to generate cash to make interest payments on the debt.

However, Mr Kittiratt said the fees would not be more than the 0.4 per cent fee cur-rently collected by Deposit Protection Agency (DPA).

Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala said the new fees would not affect local banks because they would ben-efit from a government policy that will cut the corporate tax rate to 23 per cent from 30.

Green light for B2.27 trillion in spending

Payouts planned for victims of unrest


thephuketnews.com

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Scotland’s government said on Tuesday it wants to hold a referendum on indepen-dence from Britain in late 2014, after the government in London said the vote could go ahead but under its terms.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government announced it would give the devolved Scottish parlia-ment temporary powers to hold the vote on whether to end the 300-year-old union with England.

The government in Lon-don said the vote should be as soon as possible because uncertainty about the is-sue was harming Scotland’s economy, and said it would be illegal for the Scottish parliament to go it alone.

But Scottish First Min-ister Alex Salmond – who commentators say is keen to stall the vote in order to build support for indepen-dence – said the decisions should be left to the people of Scotland.

“The date we should have this referendum should be the autumn of 2014,” Salmond said.

“The date will allow people to hear all the argu-ments and make sure that all the political processes will be complete.”

The proposed date of 2014 coincides with the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, a famous Scot-tish victory over the English, but Salmond dismissed claims the timing was deliberate as “stuff and nonsense”.

In elections last May, the Scottish National Party led by Salmond won the first overall majority in the Edinburgh parliament since it opened in 1999, and promised to hold a referendum on independence.

His comments on Tuesday set up a possible constitu-tional clash with Cameron’s government, though Salmond, while a canny politician, does not yet have the sup-port in polls for a break with England.

The Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore, said in a statement to parlia-ment that while the govern-ment believed the United Kingdom should remain intact, there should still be a “legal, fair and decisive referendum”.

“The UK government is willing to give the Scottish government the powers to hold a referendum which they otherwise cannot do legally,” Moore said. –AFP

Scottishgov’t seeks 2014 vote on independence

Haiti: two years laterIn the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville, some 2,500 people subsist in a crowded public park near open ditches flowing with human waste, a grim scene frozen in time two years after Haiti’s earth-quake disaster.

Valerie Loiseau, 28, re-called the fateful day – Janu-ary 12, 2010 – when she lost every thing and her l ife changed forever.

“I got here at 6pm, a few moments after the earthquake, with my children, my daughter, a few months old, in my arms, and nothing else.”

Two yea rs af te r t he 7.0-magnitude quake visited near-biblical destruction on Haiti, killing between 200,000 and 300,000 people, she is still in the camp with her daughter Kelida, now three.Some 15 per cent of Haiti’s entire population of almost 10 million were either killed or displaced by the quake. Almost 520,000 survivors still live under tarpaulin in 800 camps around the capital of three million.

Shocked in the immediate aftermath of one of the deadli-est disasters of modern times, the international community promised billions of dollars of

aid money. Decentralisation was the buzzword in a plan to be implemented under the watchful eye of former US president Bill Clinton.

This grandiose vision now appears to have been a pipe-dream.

Less than half the $4.59 billion pledged has been re-ceived and disbursed. While Haitian officials voice fears that the country is turning into a republic run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), they also admit

they have no choice.“We are not yet ready to

replace the NGOs,” Haiti’s minister of planning and ex-ternal coordination minister Jude Herve Day told AFP, admitting that the outside groups bring services the state is not able to provide.

More than 50 per cent of the quake rubble has now been cleared. Most of the hundreds of thousands of people who fled Port-au-Prince after the quake have since returned to the overcrowded capital,

desperate for work and food in a country still lacking another effective pole to attract labour.

Michel Martelly, a for-mer carnival entertainer, was sworn in as the new president in May, promising to bring the change that the country so badly needs.

But faced with a parliament dominated by his political opponents, it took him five months to even get a prime minister appointed.

Martelly has recently tried to nurture smaller, community-based projects such as a flag-ship housing program, aimed at taking residents out of six camps and relocating them to 16 neighbourhoods.

Alongside it, he has created the Carmen project, whereby approved home-owners receive funds to repair their houses under the supervision of certi-fied engineers.

Josef Leitmann, pro-gramme manager of the World

Bank-run Haiti Reconstruc-tion Fund, sees glimmers of progress at last.

“You have a vision of where the government wants to go, and that’s just critical,” he told AFP. “Second you’ve got leadership to take that vision and communicate it to people and inspire people and third you have political will to implement the vision.”

Hundreds of thousands who lost homes in the quake are still in a legal quagmire as there was no paperwork to prove their small holdings.

A cholera epidemic, blamed on UN peacekeep-ers from Nepal, shows no sign of abating. Nearly 7,000 have died, and 520,000 been infected.

“What we are looking at in Haiti today is not just recovery from the earthquake. It’s not just dealing with a cholera epidemic,” Nigel Fisher, the UN’s chief humanitarian of-ficer in Haiti, told AFP.

“Those came on top of a country which was structur-ally broken.”

Experts say the key to Haiti’s long-term sustain-ability lies in rebuilding its agricultural sector. But the one-time exporter now has to import rice for 80 per cent of its population and soil fertility is so poor that most crops can no longer be supported.

The World Bank in De-cember approved $50 million for new agricultural projects, investing in key Haitian prod-ucts such as coffee and cocoa. Loiseau, like most of the quake refugees, needs a miracle. “My hope is God, not the leaders of this country,” she said. – AFP

A Haitian woman waits for a taxi in a still devastated part of Port-au-Prince. –Photo AFP


thephuketnews.com

9INTERNATIONALNEWS

Taiwan’s warming ties with China could slow down or even freeze if President Ma Ying-jeou fails in tomorrow’s (January 14) vote to secure a new mandate for his Beijing-friendly platform, analysts say.

Ma, who won a landslide victory in 2008 on a promise of improving the economy through closer relat ions with China, is in a tight race with Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which stresses the island’s independence.

During Ma’s first term, Taipei and Beijing have ad-opted a series of moves to boost links and trade.

But China could be forced into a rethink if the Taiwan-ese electorate shows that it has been unimpressed by the rapid changes.

“If Tsai wins, it will mean a huge setback for China,” said Chang Ya-chung, a political scientist at National Taiwan University.

“Ties could freeze for one or two years while China observes what Tsai says and does.”

Chang added that, while adopting a wait-and-see ap-proach, Beijing might suspend some exchanges, cancelling government purchasing del-egations of the kind that have recently visited Taiwan to boost the island’s economy.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war but Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory and wants reunification, by force if necessary.

–AFP

Taiwan-China ties couldfalter after poll: experts

Romney wins at the polls

Malaysia’s Anwar sets sights on winMalaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was acquit-ted on Monday in a stunning climax to a two-year sodomy trial and quickly set his sights on ousting the long-ruling coalition in upcoming polls.

The unexpected decision set off pandemonium at the Kuala Lumpur High Court where Anwar – a former dep-uty premier who was sacked in 1998 and jailed on earlier sodomy charges – was mobbed by jubilant family and friends.

“Thank God, justice has been served,” Anwar told reporters in the courtroom after being cleared of sexual misconduct with a young male aide, charges he said were

a conspiracy to cripple his resurgent opposition alliance.

An elated Anwar later told AFP he was now clear to focus on the prize he has sought since his shock ouster from the rul-ing party in 1998: consigning the governing Barisan Nasional coalition to history.

“Now that I am vindicated and freed, naturally I will work with my friends and... the co-alition of opposition parties to ensure we can wrest control of Putrajaya (Malaysia’s ad-ministrative capital),” he said.

“Our only concern now is to ensure that the elections are held free and fair,” Anwar said.

“Given free and fair elec-tions, I am confident, God

willing, we will win.”Thousands of supporters

who had massed at the court under heavy security erupted into cheers and celebrated in the streets.

In a brief statement, Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah said controversial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution in the case was unreliable.

“The court is always re-luctant to convict on sexual offences without corrobo-rative evidence. Therefore, the accused is acquitted and discharged,” he said.

The ruling came as a surprise to many, including Anwar, who had said Prime Minister Najib Razak had

fixed the verdict to remove him as a political threat and shore up the coalition’s five-decade grip on power.

Najib faces a deadline of early next year to hold new polls in the ethnically diverse and resource-rich nation, in which he hopes to reverse unprecedented gains made by the opposition in 2008 elections.

But Anwar is now free to campaign at the helm of his op-position alliance – an unlikely marriage spanning Malaysia’s dominant Malay community, conservative Muslim forces, and the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

The charismatic Anwar

had been groomed to succeed then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad until a bitter row between them forced An-war out in 1998, and he was jailed on sodomy and graft charges widely seen as politi-cally motivated.

He was freed in 2004 after the sodomy charge was over-turned and assumed the leader-ship of the opposition, which seized control of five states and a third of parliamentary seats in the 2008 polls.

The new sodomy charges emerged shortly after, spark-ing accusations they were concocted by the government to stall the opposition revival.

–AFP

–Photo by Gage Skidmore

Mitt Romney has won the second Republican presi-dential voting contest in New Hampsh i re, with Ron Paul finishing second and Jon Huntsman third, US med ia projec t ions showed Tuesday.

CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all called the result early in favour of the former Massachusetts governor, who is now the clear fa-vourite to take on President Barack Obama in November after back-to-back victories here and in Iowa.

Huntsman, a former Utah governor who was Obama’s envoy to China before entering the race, would finish a disappointing third behind Paul, a veteran Texas congressman with

libertarian leanings, the US networks said. Romney, the f irst non-incumbent in recent memory to win both the opening contests of a presidential nomina-tion battle, told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters in Manchester: “Tonight, we made history!”

“We do remember when Barack Obama came to New Hampshire four years ago, he promised to bring people together, promised to change the broken system in Washington, promised to improve our nation,” Romney said.

“Those were the days of lofty promises made by a hopeful candidate. Today, we’re faced with a disap-pointing records of a failed

president.” With 27 per cent of polling stations reporting, Romney held 36 per cent of the vote, well ahead of Paul on 25 per cent, with Huntsman trailing in third on 17 per cent.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Chris-tian conservative favourite Rick Santorum, a former US senator, were duelling it out for fourth place with 10 per cent each of the early vote.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who fared poorly in Iowa, gave up on New Hampshire, and is pinning his hopes on South Caro-lina, which votes next on January 21, was projected to win just one per cent of the vote. –AFP

US destroyer rescues IraniansThe guided missile destroy-er USS Kidd, which was in Phuket for four days in Sep-tember last year, has been involved in a rescue of 13 Iranians held hostage by So-mali pirates for weeks in the Arabian Sea.

The US military an-nounced that last Friday (January 6) the Kidd came to the aid of Iranians on the fishing dhow Al Molai, whose captain issued a call for help saying “he was being held captive by pirates.”

The destroyer, skippered by Commander Jennifer Ellinger, responded to the distress call from the Irani-an-flagged fishing vessel by sending in a Navy team to free the Iranian crew, the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said.

“A visit, board, search and seizure team from Kidd boarded the Al Molai and

detained 15 suspected pi-rates who had been holding a 13-member Iranian crew hostage for several weeks,” the statement said.

“The Al Molai had been pirated and used as a ‘mother ship’ for pirate operations

throughout the Persian Gulf, according to members of the Iranian vessel’s crew,” it added.

The detained pirates – be-lieved to be Somalis – were being held on the aircraft carrier USS Stennis, said a

Pentagon spokesman, Captain John Kirby.

“The Iranians and the dhow have been released and are on their way back home,” Capt Kirby said.

The US and other navies frequently respond to dis-tress calls sparked by pirate attacks in the region, but this incident took on special significance after a string of bellicose statements from Tehran over the Gulf.

With the West piling pres-sure on Tehran over its nuclear program and the EU threaten-ing a total ban on Iranian oil imports, Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, particularly after the Stennis group passed through the strait recently.

The US Navy has said it will not tolerate any such move. –AFP, The Phuket News

The USS Kidd on patrol in the Arabian Gulf.


thephuketnews.com

Fight clubMMA makes headlines for all the wrong reasons > 11OPINION

LETTERS/VIEWPOINT10

NORACHAI’S WORLD

Letters to the Editor

Editor’s Viewpoint

■ January 13, 1942: Ger-man pilot Melmut Schenk became the first person to escape from a stricken air-craft with an ejection seat.

■ January 14, 1943: Frank-lin D. Roosevelt becomes the first US President to travel via aeroplane while in office, when he travels from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill.

■ January 15, 1970: Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

■ January 16, 1909: Ernest Shackleton’s expedition reaches magnetic South Pole.

■ January 17, 1941: French forces defeat the Royal Thai Navy in Franco-Thai War.

■ January 18, 1591: King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat.

■ January 19, 1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden. Beetle pro-duction in Latin America would continue until 2003.

This weekin history

Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Email [email protected] or fax 076 612 553. Please include your full name, address, phone number, and email address. This week, congratulations go to reader Gerry Cummings, who wins ‘Letter of the Week’, and receives a B500 gift voucher from Asia Books.

Caged fighters.

WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING?That was the question Vorasit “Plawan” Issara asked friends on Facebook while lying in his painful hospital bed after being hacked and stabbed almost to death by staff of the Rachada Pub in Phuket Town’s seedy Poonphol area.

The Rachada has a reputa-tion as an after-hours venue – a place where workers in other night venues go af-ter their own venues close.

The owner admitted there were occasional rumbles there. It’s that kind of place.

But there has never been anything on this sort of scale.

There are, naturally, questions about how wise it is for anyone to go to such a bar. Mr Vorasit’s mother herself raised this point.

But while one might expect staff to give one a thump or a good kicking for misbe-having, the reaction of the Rachada staff was – it’s hard to pick a word. Animal? Pri-meval? Psychotic? Just pure old-fashioned black evil?

The choice of weapons used by the staff was for the most

part run-of-the-mill. Table legs and iron bars are possibly permissible for subduing an unruly client. The knife used on Mr Vorasit, too, might be ex-cused as a weapon of defence.

But the axe? This was no weapon of defence. Its only purpose is to maim or kill.

It was not something off-the-cuff. It was careful-ly crafted in a metal shop, honed to a sharp edge, and then brought into the bar by one of the staff. An 18-year-old. What was he thinking?

How could the owner of the bar allow such a weapon on the premises? Or a mem-ber of staff so clearly un-stable? What was he thinking?

No wonder Mr Vora-sit’s father Songkran de-scribed his son as a vic-tim of a decline in society.

The solution is not easy to see, but as with so many of the other ills of society, it lies surely in promoting loving families and in serious efforts to educate children from the earliest days to grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong.

Cut to the truth[Re. Six arrested for attempted murder of Plawan]So which is it? A) Six arrested for attempted murder of Plawan; or b) Phuket Police Commander Maj Gen Chonasit Wattanavrangkul told media that the assault arose from “a minor misunderstanding”.

The accused believed that Mr Vorasit had thrown a glass on the floor, when in fact the glass had been knocked off the table accidentally.

In any case, although I bristle at the constant (racist) postings about the incompetence of the average Thai worker, in this case I guess it was a good thing that six men with knife, battle axe, wooden club, table leg and metal pipe couldn’t kill one guy.

Kind of like that joke about how many does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Elliot Klein

Fix ‘em all[Re. Six arrested for attempted murder of Plawan]Can we ask Khun Vorasit to ride a tuk-tuk or rent a jet ski – get ripped off, complain about it, and get beat up – maybe something will happen quickly to the tuk-tuk and jet ski hooligans?

Barry S

Cowards way out[Re. Plawan’s father sets record straight after attack]Same as Mr. Songkran, I also can’t believe people (bar staff) could do something like this (trying to kill their own custom-ers for a broken glass) without being provoked.

This is impossible! But whatever happened and who started the fight, those cowards need to stay in jail for a very long time.

Lagrange_t

More work needed[Re. Britain’s Hague calls for more work in Myanmar]“Hague’s visit echoes that of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met Thein Sein and Suu Kyi during a trip to Myanmar at the end of last year.”

But Miss Yingluck did not take time last year to meet with her neighbour’s most important woman.

A Hoeld

All at sea[Re. Woman pulled from sea – boyfriend sought]

All are “innocent until prov-en guilty” well, at least in some countries, believe it or not, in other countries, is is assumed the opposite... however, my point is, he will be invited to come to the police station. In my opinion, he should at least be arrested and taken for questioning.

Laurie Howells

Dear Sir,Firstly, happy New Year to you and the staff at The Phuket News.

I don’t know whether you are aware, but the Botanical Gardens in Chalong is now open.

I happened perchance to be driving along a secondary road near Chalong and came upon this obviously new building that turned out to be the Botanical Gardens.

Yesterday I went back and paid the hefty B500 entrance fee and wandered around the grounds, which I had to myself.

I have to say the layout of the grounds have been well thought out, but unfortunately I believe the wrong plants and flowers have been planted for this region of the country, and many of them are wilting under the heat and look quite sad.

You may wish to have one of your reporters go to the Gardens, if they have not already, as a lot of work and investment has seemingly been put into preparing them, and it could become a stopping point for bus tours to the Chalong area.

Yours truly,Gerry Cummings

Ed. Read about the Botanic Gardens on p19.


thephuketnews.com

11HOTTOPIC

MMA:A good thing for Phuket?Three kick-boxing or

mixed martial ar ts (MMA) proponents

have been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent months.

British kick-boxer Lee Aldhouse is fighting extradi-tion from the UK to Thailand where he is wanted for trial for the stabbing murder of US Marine Dashawn Longfellow; American Jake Bordes is out on bail, awaiting trial for snatching handbags from women tourists; and professional MMA fighter Junie ‘Lunatik’ Browning was involved in a brutal brawl in Karon, the outcome of which has yet to be settled.

All three were training, or had trained, in specialist martial arts camps in Phuket at the time of their problems with the law.

Is martial arts training attracting the wrong people to Phuket? Shaven-headed, muscle-obsessed, tattooed men with a propensity to ex-plode into violence at the slight-est provocation?

Or are these three the ex-ceptions in what is otherwise a serious sport where the only damage is done in the ring or the cage?

MMA, which seems to at-tract the most criticism, perhaps because of the blood that often flows during matches, is a full-combat sport featuring two men (or much less commonly, two women), wearing shorts and fingerless gloves, fighting in a cage or a ring, the aim being to knock out the opponent or make him submit.

A wide variety of fighting

techniques are allowed in a fight, both striking and grap-pling techniques, both standing and on the ground.

Techniques are adapted from conventional boxing, Muay Thai, various kinds of wrestling, judo, karate, Brazil-ian jiu-jitsu and other styles, and combined to devise the most effective offence and defence.

Professional MMA was introduced in the United States in 1993 by the Ultimate Fight-ing Championship, still the largest MMA promotion com-pany in the world. The no-holds-barred violence of early matches shocked many Americans to the point where many states banned matches. The sport was slammed as “human cockfighting”.

But by 2001, MMA had introduced rules that allowed the sport to be sanctioned by most state athletic commis-sions, which resulted in it being legalised in 45 states in the US plus countries such as Canada and Sweden. Weight classes, the wearing of small open-fingered

gloves, and time limits were introduced. Head-butting, eye gouging, hair pulling, biting and a variety of other actions were banned.

Despite ongoing criticism that MMA is brutal and degrad-ing, it has gone from strength to strength ever since.

But debate continues as to whether MMA promotes violence and aggression, not only among fighters but also in the live and TV audiences.

Behavioural studies have been carried out on various martial arts but the results are inconclusive.

Some studies purported to find links between adolescent viewing of violent TV and risk-taking behavior. But a recent study of the relationship between watching MMA and violence concluded that watch-ing cage fighting may actually promote social bonding and may encourage people to take up active sports.

The 2007 study, by Dr Nancy Cheever, assistant pro-fessor of the Communica-

tions Department of California State University Dominguez Hills, was based on an online survey of 3,500 MMA fans throughout the world.

Ninety per cent of them, the study concluded, found fighting skills and techniques the most interesting part of the spectacle, and the one that sparked the most discussion.Less than 20 per cent of the viewers admitted to enjoying watching blood fly and men damaging each other.

More than half of the re-spondents reported that they never felt like fighting after watching a match, and less than 15 per cent admitted to engaging in aggressive behavior directly after watching a fight.

Dr Cheever concluded that MMA fans in general appear not to posses the hypermas-culine traits associated with combat sports enthusiasts, nor do they seek out danger or take unnecessary risks.

One man a great deal closer to MMA is ‘Magical’ Ray Elbe, 29, head MMA instructor at the Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp in Rawai.

Surrounded by the thud of boxing gloves on sandbags, jiujitsu black belt holder Elbe admits with a grin, “Some people think MMA looks like a dog fight.” He winks before adding, “Different cul-tures. Different ideas. You have to see the techniques.

You can’t judge from men

fighting in a cage. “MMA is sport, just like

other sports. You come [to it] with your own reasons. Then you have to work out every day to push yourself as hard as you can.”

He has observed that peo-ple are drawn to MMA for a variety of reasons: to boost self-confidence, to help them lose weight, for the pleasure of making new friends, or as an outlet for self-expression.

One of the professionals training at the Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp is Korean Seung Ho ‘Tommy’ Yang, 21, who says he’s been practicing MMA for six years because it makes him “a better person”.

When he was young, he says, and before he started training in MMA in South Korea, he was a “cocky guy”.

But now, he says, “When I fight, I feel like I can do something good. I’ve learned to respect people, and I’ve learned to be humble.”

To defeat his opponent, Tommy believes he must respect the opponent as much as he respects himself.

Respect for others in prac-titioners seems to be a theme of martial arts training. Before MMA was born, a 1989 study by T A Nosanchuk and M L MacNeil examined the aggres-sive tendencies of participants in combative sports such as karate, tae kwon do and jiujitsu

offered in seven schools.They concluded that these

kinds of combat improved participants’ mental health. The study also charted a cor-relation between the length of time practicing and participants’ respect for others.

Nosanchuk and McNeil’s research also concluded that, in general, the more advanced a participant was, the higher his levels of respect for others.

However, intermittent re-ports of fighters’ arrested in connection to crime still leave the lingering question: Does MMA result in violent or ag-gressive behaviour?

The statistics seem to an-swer, no. A check through various online media sources during 2010 and last year shows that in the US and Can-ada approximately 40 profes-sional cage fighters were ar-rested on charges varying from brawling, drug abuse, theft, driving under the influence and reckless driving to sexual assault and murder.

But the number is not ex-treme by any means. For ex-ample, in the same period some 73 National Football League (NFL) players were arrested for various offences.

Tiger Camp instructor Elbe, who has been practicing MMA for 10 years, uses the pro-gun lobby argument (that guns don’t kill people; people kill people): “Crime is about crazy people. It’s not about MMA.”

Two fighters Seung Ho ‘Tommy’ Yang (in yellow shirt) from South Korea and Macro Huusansaari from Sweden training at the Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp.

Ray Elbe (in black T-shirt) shows combative techniques to his attentive students. –Photo by Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp.

Ray Elbe and his student. -Photo by Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp


thephuketnews.com

BUSINESS Reprieve for land sellersTreasury delays updating of official landvalues > 14

BUSINESS/TOURISM12

Top 10 Ethical Destinations namedNon-profit organisation Ethical Traveler has announced its ‘Top 10 Ethical Destinations in the De-veloping World’.

They are, in alphabetical order, Argentina, The Bahamas, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Latvia, Mauritius, Palau, Serbia and Uruguay.

Ethical Traveler says that in com-piling its list it first identifies the most popular destination in the developing

world and then looks at environmental protection, social welfare and human rights in those places.

Report co-author and Ethical Traveler executive director Jeff Gre-enwald said, “It’s always an honour to compile this list.

“It gives us great pleasure to express our admiration for these countries, and we hope they’ll reap real economic and social benefits as

a result of our endorsement.”Researcher Natalie Lefevre noted,

“None of these countries are perfect, but the countries that are on this list deserve their spots – thanks to their effort to ensure that tourism has a positive impact on their country and their people.

“I hope that the countries that didn’t make it onto the 2012 list will feel motivated to work harder

on their environmental, social and human rights records, so they might be reconsidered in 2013.”

The first Ethical Destinations report was issued in 2006.

Thailand has yet to make the top 10.

The full report can be downloaded from: ethicaltraveler.org/wp-content/files_mf/ethical_destinations_2006.pdf

Anantaraappoints newME chiefMichel Koopman has been ap-pointed Director of Operations in the Middle East for Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas, as well as General Manager for Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara.

The Anantara hotel chain, which includes properties in Mai Khao and Krabi, is owned by Bangkok’s Minor Group.

Mr Koopman’s responsi-bilities include overseeing the running of all of Anantara’s UAE based hotels and resorts – Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort and Desert Islands Resort & Spa, plus Al Yamm Lodge and Al Sahel Lodge (both set to open on Sir Bani Yas Island in 2012) alongside the GMs of these properties.

Mr Koopman will also spearhead the launch of Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa which will be Anantara’s first city hotel in the Middle East and is set to open in 2012.

Mr Koopman joins Anan-tara Hotels & Resorts from InterContinental Hotels Group where he held the position of

A Dutch/Australian na-tional, his hospitality industry experience spans 27 years across Europe, Australia and Asia. He speaks multiple lan-guages, including English, German, French and Dutch.

Michael Koopman

B452m budgetset to improvetourism sitesThe Ministry of Tourism and Sports’ Tourism Department will use a B452 million budget to improve tourist attractions and related infrastructure across Thailand.

Tour ism Depar tment Director General Supol Sripan, said it will require a B452,221,050 budget for more than 20 projects across the country.

“We will strengthen tour-ism efficiency as part of the government’s Miracle Thai-land Year programme that seeks to highlight celebrations linked to HM the King’s 84th’s bir thday and other royal activities up until HM the Queen’s 80th birthday in August 2012.”

Mr Supol added: “Over B200 million will be used to improve roads to tourist attractions.” If the budget

is approved this week, the department will support im-provements at Thung Thale Luang in Sukhothai; Huai Kha Kaeng Wildlife Sanctu-ary in Uthai Thani; Ban Ta Klang Elephant Village in Surin; King Rama II memo-rial park in Samut Songkram; and Kao Tao in Surat Thani.

In Mahasarakam prov-ince, the tourism department will develop attractions in Bueng Kui, Nong Kha Public Park, Wat Phra Yuen, and Nakhon Jumpasri.

Other attractions are Ag-ricultural Occupation Pro-motion and Development Centre in Suphanburi; Chao Phraya River at Ayutthaya’ Jaofasang school and Somdet Phra Ratcha Pitucha Palace; beachfront of Wat Sawang Arom in Sing Buri; Royal Fruit Development Centre

in Chanthaburi.There are plans to support

the Greater Mekong Sub-region specifically in Chiang Rai. Other improvements will focus on the following:

• Phu Tai in Kalasin;• 150 million year-old

shell fossil and dinosaur fossil museum in Nong Bua Lam-phu; • The old town hall in Phetchabun;

Historical sites in That Phanom district in Nakhon Phanom;

• Nam Pud Na Lao in Chaiyaphum;

• Hua Ro market in Ayut-thaya;

San Kamphaeng hot springs in Chiang Mai;

Attractions in Nong Khok On sub district in Buri Ram;

• Destinations in Prasat district, Si Sa Ket.

–TTR Weekly

The area around Wat Phra Tat Phanom, next to the Mekong River, is one target of the ministry’s intended largesse.

–Photo Guido Johannes Joerg.

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13BUSINESS/TOURISM

Air travel ‘is still growing’ in Asia

Destination to sellCourtyard PatongThe Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Patong was put up for sale this week, just days after Marriott announced that it was pulling out of its contract to manage the hotel.

The sale, by Bangkok-based owner Destination Properties, also includes the premises of the Hard Rock Café on the ground floor, though this will continued to be managed under contract by Hard Rock.

Real estate agent CBRE, which has been given the job of finding a buyer, said in a press release on Monday (Janu-ary 9), “It is very unusual for such a prime freehold prop-erty to come to the market in Patong, particularly with the benefit that the property will be sold without the restriction of a long-term hotel manage-ment contract.

This, said CBRE, gives the buyer “complete flexibility in positioning the property to capture Phuket’s growing tourism market.”

The hotel, formerly the Phuket Grand Tropicana, has 390 rooms and was extensively renovated in 2008 before re-opening as the Courtyard by

Marriott Phuket at Patong Beach in May 2008. The Hard Rock Café opened the follow-ing January.

“We are extremely excited to take on these instructions. A hotel in this prime location is rarely made available to the market. Importantly, the hotel is not tied to a long-term management contract, giving … investors the opportunity to introduce their preferred brand to the lucrative Patong market,” said David Simister, Chairman of CBRE Thailand.

“In addition, the Hard Rock Café and Shop can also be acquired; this part of the property is operated under an agreement with the Hard Rock Group. It is one of the best performing Hard Rocks globally,” he added.

Destination Properties, also owns the Courtyard by Marriott Hua Hin, on which the management contract was also cancelled, and which is also for sale through CBRE.

Destination lists another seven properties in its portfo-

lio, including the Ramada in Karon and the former Kamala Bay Terrace Hotel, a victim of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. It had been announced that the latter would be managed by Marriott, but work on the hotel is currently suspended.

The company also launched the now defunct Destination Air, which operated a seaplane ferry service for a short time out of Phuket International Air-port, mostly to points around Phang Nga Bay, before running into licensing problems.

Any takers? The Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Patong was put up for sale this week.

DSI ‘plans to crack down’ on foreign- owned companiesThe Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is to crack down on foreign-owned busi-nesses, especially those using Thai nominee shareholders, the Bangkok Post reported on Saturday (January 7).

“DSI chief Tharit Peng-dit unveiled his plans after the cabinet had given the agency the authority to inves-tigate nine more categories of special cases, including human trafficking, computer crime and foreign business,” reported the Post.

The Post cites the For-eign Business Act of 1999, which puts businesses such as newspaper publishing, radio broadcasting, television, log-ging, rice farming and land trading off-limits to foreigners.

Amendments to the act in 2007, however, stipulate that these businesses may not be run by companies with major-ity foreign ownership.

Mr Tharit pointed to a number of ways in which foreigners have been trying to circumvent the law.

Initially, foreigners had used Thai proxies to control land for their own use. More recently, however, they had

been using proxies in order to go into real estate, land development and condos.

Other businesses foreigners have entered included rock-blasting and crushing, sugar mills, tourism, engineering and architecture, he added.

In Phuket recently, the Tour Guides Association com-plained that tour firms, par-ticularly those run by Koreans, had been listing secretaries and other staff members as shareholders in a bid to get around the 51 per cent Thai rule for shareholdings in Thai companies.

Under Thai law, Thai shareholders in a jointly-owned company must be able to show that they have sufficient wealth to be genuine shareholders, though they do not have to show that they actually invested.

The Post reported that the DSI had also heard reports of a group of foreign gang-sters extorting protection fees from other foreigners.

Mr Tharit said some of these foreigners had used Thai nominees to set up shell companies which they used as a front to launder money.

Figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) for November 2011show continued growth in interna-tional air passenger travel.

In aggregate, airlines based in the Asia Pacific region car-ried 15.7 million international passengers in November, a 4 per cent increase compared to the same month last year, maintaining the trend for 2011.

International passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) terms grew by 3.5 per cent.

However, the average inter-national passenger load factor for the month was 1.7 per-centage points lower, at 74.4 per cent, as a 5.9 per cent expansion in available seat capacity marginally outpaced the growth in demand.

International air cargo traf-fic demand suffered a further decline in November as a result of continued moderation in ex-port and import markets. Asia Pacific carriers registered a 6.5 per cent fall in cargo traffic, in freight tonne kilometre (FTK)

terms, in November compared to the same month last year. Offered freight capacity fell by just 0.6 per cent, resulting in a 4.1 percentage point decline in the average international freight load factor, to 64.9 per cent.

“Despite growing concerns about a further slowdown in the global economy, so far passenger travel markets have held up reasonably well, with Asian airlines seeing a 3.6 per cent increase in international air passenger numbers for the first eleven months of the year.

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BUSINESS/PROPERTY14

New official land values postponedThe Phuket regional office of the Treasury Department has announced that changes to official land values, which were due to have been in-troduced on January 1, have been postponed.

Official land values – on which land sales taxes around Thailand are based – are reap-praised every four years. The last time this took place, the revisions were introduced on January 1, 2008.

However, the Treasury has decided not to introduce the new values because of the flooding last year in 62 provinces of the country, and the effect it has had on land

values in those provinces.Tamrong Tongtan, director

of the Phuket office, said, “We will continue to use the 2008-2011 valuations for another six months. During this time the Treasury Department will observe the condition of land around Thailand before looking at assessment values again.”

If introduced, the new 2012-2015 land values will see a whopping 51-per-cent rise in official land values from the 2008-2011 rates, with the most expensive land in Phuket be-ing plots along Thaweewong Rd in Patong, which the new valuations put at B60 million a rai, up from B34 million.

The beach road in Patong is looking at a possible rise in official value to B60m a rai. –Photo by Rene Ehrhardt

By George, that’s beautiful

Regular readers of Design Matters may recall a discussion in this column a few weeks back regarding the viability of Balinese building techniques in Thailand. “Beautiful but... not practical here. The mate-rials are not the same. The Balinese are better craftsmen. Thailand lacks a local building tradition.” So went, and still goes, the refrain.

Generally tinged with regret (and, truth be told, no small amount of edifice envy), these are the familiar lamentations of Thailand-based-but-Bali-obsessed design aficionados.

Oh to have that open plan house, that garden feeling, those natural materials, that tropical feel – the stuff of dreams for the erstwhile island dweller. Be happy with what you have, the Buddhists would teach us. Abandon desire. Forgo attachment. Live simply.

Great advice. But why does it seem so much easier to live simply in a house that is simply well designed, and equally well crafted? Per-haps more meditation will provide the answer.

Personally, I prefer to medi-tate in an open-air structure made from natural materials. There is something about that wide plank floor, those timber rafters, the grass roof, and the stone bath, all of which put me in a natural state of mind.

In that earlier column, I feebly attempted to make a case for this style of construc-

tion here in Phuket. I would like to be more convincing, to somehow prove that it is indeed possible.

And now I have discovered that I do not have to prove anything. George has done it for me.

Meet George Cortez, social anthropologist and architect. George has been knocking around Southeast Asia for 20 years, having started out in Luang Prabang well before it became the gentrified destina-tion that it is today. What did George do in Laos so many years ago? Sip French coffee and munch baguettes alongside the Mekong? No. He studied vernacular roofing techniques and the use of local building materials. In detail.

Later, as George moved about Asia, he committed to memory the specifics of indig-enous construction methods.

He also applied an architect’s eye and a craftsman’s obses-sion with quality to local materials and techniques, improving and adapting them to the present. Over the course of 20 years, he has perfected these methods and adapted them to the available materials in any environ.

To inspect the case that George has made for this style of construction, drive up to Bang Rong Pier and take the local boat over to Koh Yao Noi – it’s about a 20 minute trip and you’ve been wanting a mini vacation anyway. Ask the local tuk-tuk to take you to George’s paradisiacal island resort of Koyao Bay Pavilions and be prepared to be amazed.

The beachfront houses are a sublime blend of exquisite architecture and remarkable craftsmanship, using – here’s the best part – all local ma-terials. George is modest, or at least understated. This is

Scott GorsuchDesign Matters

some of the best alang-alang (grass roof) I’ve ever seen.

“Did you import it from Bali?” I ask him. “No, it’s Thai,” says George. “You found workers here who know how to produce thatch of this quality?” Again, “No, I taught them how to do it myself. Stitch by stitch.”

“These columns of pol-ished coconut wood are per-fectly round, straight, and tall. Where did you find them?” I continue. “On the land we are standing on,” says George.

The giant timber bamboo must be from the North though – that species doesn’t grow in Southern Thailand. “Yes it does. You have to know where to look.”

But where did you find this much teak, and the carpenters to finish it so beautifully?

“It’s Takien Tong. I showed them how to do it myself. Piece by piece.”

And so it goes, from the selection of materials to special treatments to preserve them through the finishing tech-niques. Thank you George, you’ve proved my point. Forget Bali – this is how it’s done.

Scott Gorsuch is Principal, Leisure Design Group, a Phuket based design devel-opment and project man-agement company. Email: [email protected]

The best designs come naturally: The bedroom and living sala (below) designed and lovingly constructed on Koh Yao Noi by George Cortes and the local craftsmen he taught.


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N. Korea holds mass rally in support of new leader

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Interior design services and

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[email protected] | designedbywoulfe.com | Studio +66 (0) 7662 0071 | Baan Wana Park, 177/22 Moo.4, Srisoonthorn Road, Thalang, Phuket, 83110, Thailand

SKIMMERS HITPATONG BANKSPolice have warned users of ATMs to be careful with the machines they use, because a gang of skimmers have been at work sucking bank accounts dry over the Christmas-New Year period.

Kathu resident John Gillinder called The Phuket News on Tuesday (January 3) to add his warning, after having B160,000 stolen from his account.

“On Boxing Day (De-cember 26) I drew B5,000 from my Siam Commercial account, using an ATM on Nanai Rd, Patong. I went to the ATM again on Saturday (December 31) and my account was empty.”

Mr Gillinder went to the nearest open branch of Siam Commercial, where records showed that the money had been stolen on December 27. “They took over B160,000.”

Pol Capt Patapee Srichai of Kathu Police Station told The Phuket News that on De-cember 31 he had received two complaints of skimming.

He said that in both cases the victim had been approached by two foreigners with white skin, aged about 30. One was tall and one was of average build.

The two men insisted on helping the victims to use the ATM. One victim said he thought the two men were French, but the other thought they were Arabs.

Mr Gillinder said that three men had stood behind him when he withdrew money on the 26th, and had spoken

French. But they had not at-tempted to “help” him.

Capt Patapee said they were

on the lookout for the two men, but said they did not really have enough detail to identify

them, and there were no CCTV cameras covering the ATMs where the thefts took place.

He added that he had heard of other cases in Patong, but could not give details.

Skimmers obtain details of cards and PIN numbers by sticking devices over the card slot of ATMs and over the keyboard.

The devices are carefully made to appear as part of the ATM, with the colours match-ing exactly.

The thieves can either col-lect the details later by plugging in a laptop computer or, in the case of more sophisticated gangs, by WiFi.

Less sophisticated gangs may con or bully ATM users into letting them see their PIN numbers.

Using the information from the card skimmer the thieves clone the cards and withdraw the money.

A spokesperson for the Siam Commercial Bank said there are several precautions ATM users should use to re-duce the risk of being skimmed:

Never allow anyone to “help” you use an ATM. If necessary, walk away and use a different ATM;

Use only ATMs in high--

without being detected; Check the keypad. If it is not

it, don’t use that ATM; Use ATMs that have a

“tongue”, usually of green plastic, sticking out below the card slot;

Change your PIN number frequently.

Ignore anyone who offers to ‘help’ you use an ATM - he or she could be a skim artist.


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Interior design services andluxury home furnishing

[email protected] | designedbywoulfe.com | Studio +66 (0) 7662 0071 | Baan Wana Park, 177/22 Moo.4, Srisoonthorn Road, Thalang, Phuket, 83110, Thailand

SKIMMERS HITPATONG BANKSPolice have warned users of ATMs to be careful with the machines they use, because a gang of skimmers have been at work sucking bank accounts dry over the Christmas-New Year period.Kathu resident John Gillinder called The Phuket News on Tuesday (January 3) to add his warning, after having B160,000 stolen from his account.

“On Boxing Day (De-cember 26) I drew B5,000 from my Siam Commercial account, using an ATM on Nanai Rd, Patong. I went to the ATM again on Saturday (December 31) and my account was empty.”Mr Gillinder went to the nearest open branch of Siam Commercial, where records showed that the money had been stolen on December 27. “They took over B160,000.”Pol Capt Patapee Srichai of Kathu Police Station told The Phuket News that on De-cember 31 he had received two complaints of skimming.He said that in both cases the victim had been approached by two foreigners with white skin, aged about 30. One was tall and one was of average build.

The two men insisted on helping the victims to use the ATM. One victim said he thought the two men were French, but the other thought they were Arabs.Mr Gillinder said that three men had stood behind him when he withdrew money on the 26th, and had spoken

French. But they had not at-tempted to “help” him.Capt Patapee said they were

on the lookout for the two men, but said they did not really have enough detail to identify

them, and there were no CCTV cameras covering the ATMs where the thefts took place.

He added that he had heard of other cases in Patong, but could not give details.Skimmers obtain details of cards and PIN numbers by sticking devices over the card slot of ATMs and over the keyboard. The devices are carefully made to appear as part of the ATM, with the colours match-ing exactly.The thieves can either col-lect the details later by plugging in a laptop computer or, in the case of more sophisticated gangs, by WiFi. Less sophisticated gangs may con or bully ATM users into letting them see their PIN numbers.

Using the information from the card skimmer the thieves clone the cards and withdraw the money.A spokesperson for the Siam Commercial Bank said there are several precautions ATM users should use to re-duce the risk of being skimmed: Never allow anyone to “help” you use an ATM. If necessary, walk away and use a different ATM; Use only ATMs in high-

-

without being detected; Check the keypad. If it is not it, don’t use that ATM; Use ATMs that have a “tongue”, usually of green plastic, sticking out below the card slot; Change your PIN number frequently.

Ignore anyone who offers to ‘help’ you use an ATM - he or she could be a skim artist.


thephuketnews.com

BIG LIST: Freaks of nature> 22CULTURE

ART16

Ceramics of Phuket:71/3 Vichitsongkram Rd, Kathu; 185/6-7 Srisoonthorn Rd, Cherng Talay, 076 326 870, [email protected]; ceramicsofphuket.com.

Designed by Woulfe StudioBaan Wana Park, 177/22 Moo.4, Srisoonthorn Road, Thalang, 076 620 071, designedbywoulfe.com.

Dream GalleryBoat Lagoon, 23/122 Thepkasattri Rd, Koh Kaew, 076 273 487, [email protected], thedreamgallery.asia.

I Mon Art Gallery:29/2 Phang Nga Rd, Phuket Town, 086 961 8968, [email protected]. Open daily 8am-7.30pm.

King Art Studio:21 & 50 Soi Bangla, Patong, 086 682 9130, [email protected]; kingartstudio.com. Open daily 10am-midnight.

Lat Design and Art Garden:95/33 Sai Yuan Rd, Naiharn, 086 294 3971, [email protected].

Little Monk Gallery:95/33 Saiyuan Rd, Naiharn, 086 294 3971.

99 Art Studio:23 Lagoon Rd, 076 270 845, [email protected].

Phuket Modern Art:5/28 Haad Patong Rd, Patong, 089 646 8838, phuketmodernart.com.

Red Gallery:Phuket Art Village, Soi Naya 2, Rawai, 087 323 321,[email protected]; phuketredgallery.com.

Sarasil Art Galllery:121 Phang Nga Rd, Phuket Town, 076 224 532,[email protected]; oilpaintingsphuket.com.Open daily 8pm-9pm.

The Love Art Studio:28/13 Soi Naya 2, Naiharn, 089 471 5653,[email protected]; theloveartstudio.com.

The One Gallery:53 Srisoonthorn Rd, Cherng Talay, 083 634 6840,[email protected]. Open daily 11am-9pm.

Veerachan Usahanun:110/34 Cherng Talay, Bang Tao Beach Rd, 081 490 4359,[email protected]; veerachanusahanun.com.

Vichen Gallery BzenterBehind Da Vinci Restaurant, Saiyuan Rd, Rawai, 087 8903722.Open daily 3-9 pm. (Telephone to view before 3 pm.)

Watcharin Art Studio:27 Yaowaraj Rd, Phuket Town, 088 386 1449,[email protected], rindamagicalart.com.

Wua Gallery and Studio:1 Phang Nga Rd, Phuket Town, 076 258 208,[email protected]; wua-artgallery.blogspot.com.

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Nowhere manThis week’s thoughtful Ran-dom View comes from local photographer �ara�o� �et��ara�o� �et�kaew. “I took this s�apshot of a� ol� ma� sitti�g by himself

i� Sua�lua�g �ark. It evoke� i� me feeli�gs of lo�eli�ess a�� solitu�e – though of course he may have just bee� taki�g a rest o� a hot �ay.”

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A promising startI��ia� �a�cer a�� pai�ter Sejal Sure��ra Soo� wore a striki�g mask as she �a�ce� i� fro�t of her large pai�ti�gs, that are themselves colourful moveme�ts of �a�ce a�� music.

Earlier i� the �ay, alter�a�tive practitio�er Christopher of the Wolves, of tra�cevisio�.com, sat o� the stage a�� blew i�to the Australia� Aborigi�al �i�geri�oo to a��ou�ce the ope�i�g of the rece�t �huket Art Festival at the �huket Royal Mari�a Exhibitio� Ce�tre.

Amo�g some 100 artists exhibiti�g i� this i�augural art fest were wome� pai�ters Julia Oscarso� a�� Robi� Gillow, who were sta��i�g i� fro�t of their works chatti�g to brows�i�g art�lovers. Burly Australia� Chris De Meo, a bikie tur�e� pai�ter, was prou�ly showi�g his large �rip�pai�ti�gs that ha� bee� very much i�spire� by those of Jackso� �ollock. This was the first time he ha� a cha�ce to show his �ew passio� – o�e which may eve� lea� to a career cha�ge.

From repairi�g motorcycles covere� i� oil a�� grease, Chris these �ays is more likely to be fou�� o� his back law� �rip�pi�g pai�t o�to large ca�vases lying flat on the ground.

Just arou�� the cor�er lea��i�g agai�st a�other partitio� was pai�ter �rasert �o�gwut�thiwet, who stoo� i� fro�t of

his sere�e pai�terly abstracts, fielding questions from univer�sity stu�e�ts, looki�g please� to be the ce�tre of atte�tio� at that particular mome�t.

He ha� brought work there from his ow� Siam Gallery at the e�tra�ce to Lagu�a �huket i� Cher�g Talay.

�rasert was practically sur�rounded by the always quirky a�� pleasi�g little metal sculp�

tures of Joh� U��erwoo�, the Australia� pai�ter a�� esig�er well�k�ow� for his i�terior �ecoratio� work i� resorts i� �huket a�� elsewhere i� Asia.

U�fortu�ately, as a large ve�ue i� �huket Tow� to hol� a� art show this size �oes �ot exist, the impressio� was that this �oh �aew site was a little out of the way to attract more visitors �uri�g

the three �ays of the otherwise successful festival.

However, busy orga�isers of the festival, Michael Earle a�� Trisha Miller of Think Design magazi�e, were please� with the �umber of exhibitors that took part. Their i�ea of establishli�g a creative �etwork to promote the arts i� �huket was off to a goo� start.

–Norachai Thavisin

Clockwise from top left: Indian dancer and painter Sejal Surendra Sood; alternative practitioner Christopher of the Wolves; Thai abstract painter Prasert Kongwutthiwet.


thephuketnews.com

17PEOPLE

Exposed ■ What were you doing

before you moved here? Much of the same, as I have been a housewife and mother of four children most of my life, but with heavy involve-ment in the world of dogs: breeding different breeds, showing them, and then travel-ling throughout the world judg-ing shows. I write dog columns for different papers (includ-ing this one) and like to help those with a doggie problem.

■ Where has your dog competition judging taken you around the world? My dog judging has taken me to all the continents and most of the countries in the world over the past 35 years. It is a fascinating hobby which enables me to meet many new friends and catch up with old ones, as often there are around 10 to 20 judges doing one big show.

I get to go to some fas-cinating places such as San Francisco and Wichita in the US, Canada, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia and New Zealand.

My favourite trip was per-haps to judge at the world’s Premier Show, Crufts in England. To be invited to judge at this the most pres-tigious show on ear th is every dog judge’s dream.

■ How long have you lived

on the island and why did you move here? Have been here now almost nine years, having lived in Asia most of my life: born in India, brought up in Singa-pore, got married there and subsequently moved around Malaysia, back to Singapore, then to Fiji and Cambodia with my husband. We decided when retirement time came to move to Phuket, which was a lovely quiet island. Time has changed that quite a lot but we still enjoy the weather and the easy living.

■ Tell us about your in-volvement i n the dog community in Phuket. I really have done little here in Phuket although I did organise a dog show way back in 2003 which was quite a success; I have been asked many times to do another one. The Kennel Club of Thailand is interested to get the dog scene moving here and when I manage to be at home I will find the time to organise another one. I do judge shows fairly regularly in Bangkok and shall be doing my next one there in January.

■ What’s the best advice you can give to dog owners? To give them a good place to sleep, to feed them the best you can, and to be vigilant every day to any changes in their health. We can all become

complacent and not notice when they lose weight or are not eating too well. This is usually a sign they need a trip to the vet to check them out. Give them some excercise daily, play with them and the rest is just to love them to the best of your ability as they surely will love you with all their might.

■ How many pets do you

currrently own? I now have only two toy dogs: a 10-year-old Pekingese and a four-year-old Japanese Chin. I lost my three dobermanns which I brought to Phuket with me, the male from a co-bra bite and the two females from old age. I did have one litter of puppies here and three of them were sent overseas

wih the remaining six be-ing homed locally. I have bred dobermanns, shih tzu, dalmatians, basset hounds and pekingese and have made champions in all those breeds throughout the world.

■ What is your favourite childhood memory? Mov i ng t o Si ngap ore , where my life really began.

■ What k ind of music are you most into? Both classical and the shows. I love Andrew Lloyd Web-ber’s music in particular.

■ What is the best tip you have for people thinking of moving to Phuket? Come and stay here for at least three months before you make your final decision, to be quite sure you are going to fit in with the pace of life. When on holiday everything looks great, but it all can change when you actually have your everyday living to contend with and may prove not what you expected.

■ What is the funniest thing that has happened to you whi le l iv ing on the island? I think it would have to be at the dog show which I organ-ised when one lady arrived into the showring with her poodle dressed in a pink ballet tutu and with a tiara on its head! She thought obviously that it was like a human beauty show where lovely clothes were judged along with the dog!

■ W h e r e o n P h u k e t would you most likely take someone on a first date? My goodness – I think at my age I can barely remember a first date! However, I would think perhaps to somewhere romantic and beautiful such as Mom Tri’s restaurant.

■ What would be your favourite place on the island, and why? Nikita’s bar and restaurant on Rawai Beach as it is our home away from home where we can sit with a lovely breeze blowing all year round and enjoy a couple of beers and a meal with good friends.

Jackie Perry Honorary dog judge

A happy mechanicChaiyun Maneefun sits re-laxed in the cool shade be-hind the Esso service station garage on the bypass road, Phuket Town, where he works as a mechanic. It’s Tuesday – his one day off for the week.

Because of this, he has time to sit and chat, af-ter spending part of the morning fixing a car’s air-conditioning as a private job.

Born in Trang, he moved to Phuket and worked for some time as an attendant on the regular Phuket to Bangkok coach runs for one of the local tour companies.

Then he learned how to

repair engines by tinkering and helping other mechanics – enough to become respon-sible for the engine of a Thai fishing boat that sailed to fish in the seas around In-donesia, each trip lasting a month and a half.

Work at the service sta-tion, where he has been for six years now, is easier. On average, six or seven cars come in each day to have their oil changed and their lubrication done. And a cool wind blows through the open service area most of the time.

There is also always pri-vate work at lunch time and

after hours, that brings in more needed income.

“Life in Phuket is good … and bad,” he says, his face graced with a strawberry-coloured birth mark. “Bad because of the higher costs.”

He looks at his little sec-ond-hand car, parked next to his basic accommoda-tion room provided by the service station.

“We’l l al l go to eat seafood by the sea soon at Rawai or Chalong, just for fun and to pass time,” he says with a smile.

The oil changes start again early tomorrow. Mechanic Chaiyun Maneefun works at the Esso service station in Phuket Town.

EVERYDAY PEOPLE

Jackie Perry pictured with her four-year-old Japanese Chin dog, named Geisha.

It’s all the doggone truth


thephuketnews.com

HEALTH18

Healthy eating may help ADHDSimply eating healthier may improve the behaviour of chil-dren with attention deficit hy-peractivity disorder (ADHD) if therapy and medication fail, a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics said.

Researchers, however, said that their review of recent con-trolled scientific studies had shown conflicting evidence on the impact of supplements and restricted diets – in some cases they were no better than the placebo effect.

Nutritional interventions should therefore be considered an alternative or secondary approach to treating ADHD, not a first-line of attack, said the review by doctors at North-western University Medical School in Chicago.

“Supplemental diet therapy is simple, relatively inexpensive, and more acceptable to patient and parent,” than strict additive-free diets that have been popular in the past, said the study.

“Public education regard-ing a healthy diet pattern and lifestyle to prevent or control ADHD may have greater long-term success.”

The study reviewed research published on the sugar-restrict-ed, additive-free Feingold Diet, megavitamin therapies, omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and

the suspected link between ADHD and a “Western-style” high-fat, low-fibre diet.

Three to five per cent of US schoolchildren, or nearly five million youths, are diagnosed with ADHD, which involves hyperactive behaviour, inability to pay attention, and impul-sivity. It is often treated with stimulant medications such as the controversial Ritalin drug.

The precise causes of ADHD are unknown, although studies have pointed to he-reditary factors as well as social and environmental influences. Eating high-sugar and high-fat foods may exacerbate symp-toms, some research has shown.

But while proposed inter-ventions such as giving iron supplements or cutting out additives and food dyes have soared in popularity in recent years, the Pediatrics article said there is little solid science to back up those claims.

For instance, the much-hyped Feingold Diet which advocates no red or orange colour dyes in food as well as no apples, grapes, deli foods, sausages or hot dogs, was highly touted in the 1970s and 80s for improving symptoms in more than half of ADHD children.

“Controlled studies failed to confirm the effectiveness of

the diet to the extent claimed,” said the Pediatrics review, also noting that the regimen was very difficult for many parents to follow.

Similarly, studies focused on getting rid of potential allergens in the diet such as wheat, eggs, chocolate, cheese and nuts, have shown limited success with some ADHD kids “but a placebo effect could not be excluded,” said the study.

Even when it comes to sugar and diet soda, two elements which many parents believe can

trigger hyperactivity in children, scientific studies have been un-able to prove a definitive link.

“The majority of controlled studies fail to demonstrate a significant adverse effect of sucrose or aspartame,” said the study.

The authors noted that avoiding high sugar foods in young children “may prevent diet-related exacerbations of ADHD”.

But when parents restrict a child’s sugar intake in order to ward off bad behaviour,

their inherent belief that it will work is likely to blur any objective assessment of whether it works or not.

“In practice, the link be-tween sugar and hyperactive behaviour is so universal in the opinion of parents of children with ADHD that no controlled study or physician counsel is likely to change this perception.”

The suspected role of zinc and iron-deficiency de-serves further study, while megavitamin therapy has not been proven to work and

may even be dangerous in the long term, it said.

For many parents, simply paying more attention to feed-ing their kids a healthy diet, rich in fish, vegetables, fruit, legumes, and whole-grains, is likely to help.

“A greater attention to the education of parents and children in a healthy dietary pattern, omit-ting items shown to predispose to ADHD, is perhaps the most promising and practical comple-mentary or alternative treatment of ADHD,” said the study.

Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioural paediatrics at Steven and Alex-andra Cohen Children’s Medical Centre of New York, who was not part of the study, said more research is needed into dietary treatments for ADHD.

“We have more questions than answers,” he said. “It is unfortunate that more research is not being done to examine the role of dietary interventions for the treatment of ADHD.

“Since some of these nutri-tional interventions cannot be patented, drug companies are not willing to underwrite the costs of the needed research.”

–AFP

Scan of brains with (left) and without ADHD -Photo by National Institutes of Health


thephuketnews.com

19ENVIRONMENT

Want to see your pet here? Email your photos to: [email protected]

Pet of the Week

This cute poodle named Mini is three years old and belongs to Sherin Peace.

If you are interested in adopting a dog please do not buy from the markets. Soi Dog Foundation has over 200 dogs and puppies available for adoption at any time. For more information on how to adopt visit soidog.org. All animals are fully vaccinated and desexed. Young puppies will be desexed free of charge as soon as old enough.

Adopt a dog

MAYO NEEDS A LOVING HOME!This sweet little girl is seven months old and eagerly awaiting a new home. She was dumped in Phuket when only two months old and rescued by Soi Dog. She’d make a wonderful addition to a family as she’s sweet & friendly. She’s also a small, light framed dog and would not need a lot of space. Mayo is sterilised and fully vaccinated. If you can give her a good home please call Soi Dog today on 0817884222. For more information regarding adoptions please email [email protected]. You can also visit our website www.soidog.org or follow us on Facebook!

Seeking the greenTo protect Phuket’s natural environment, a green aware-ness among the island’s youth must first be cultivated. One of the best ways to do this is to give our children practical exposure to the environment.

Unfortunately, Phuket has a dearth of ‘green’ educational destinations, meaning people have few opportunities to understand the serious envi-ronmental problems we are facing in the province.

Most of Phuket’s admit-tedly few museums (see Ex-plore, p26) focus on history and culture, with notable ex-ception the Phuket Aquarium attempting to spark interest with its various activities.

Now, we have one more ‘environmental educational’ destination, the Phuket Botanic Garden, which was officially opened on December 5.

The garden is located on a 15-rai piece of land close to Wat Chalong, and comprises of gar-dens, 12 bungalows, a planned four-storey hotel, souvenir shop, cafe and restaurant.

The gardens, meanwhile, are divided up into various categories: there is a small

paddy field, fern park, and orchid, lotus, Balinese, Japa-nese, herb, palm, ivy, cactus, and rainforest gardens.

In term of environmen-tal benefit, a botanic garden plays a main role in both plant conservation and educating people on environmental is-sues, while still entertaining visitors with plant diversity.

Unfortunately, Phuket’s latest attraction, perhaps un-derstandably with an eye on the tourist dollar, focuses

more on entertaining rather than educating visitors.

The gardens are seemingly designed to make a pretty picture, filled with terracotta sculptures and a huge waterfall made from artificial rock. A planned butterfly garden will be completed soon.

While at a glance visitors will learn the names of plants and their general characteristics, they are unlikely to understand any real aspects about nature while strolling through the gardens.

Maligned monitorThis week’s native usually makes surprising and dra-matic appearances out of ponds and canals.

As the size of the moni-tor lizard (Varanus salvator) ranges from approximately a metre long to two or three metres, these often alarming encounters are usually like visits from the prehistoric past.

“Ai hia,” (loosely trans-latable as “bloody lizard”) is a very common Thai swear word, hia being the much-maligned water monitor’s name in Thai – it’s lower in the animal hierarchy king-dom than dogs.

Lowly or not, people from the northeast region of Isaan, love to catch and grill this lizard for food.

As well as Thailand, water monitors are com-monly found throughout most of Asia, ranging from

GREENthumb

MEETthe natives

Sri Lanka to India, Indo-china to Malaysia, and the islands of Indonesia, living in areas close to water.

An excellent swimmer (it uses the raised fin on its tail to steer), the monitor is a carnivore that eats fish, frogs, rodents, birds, crabs, and snakes, and even turtles, young crocodiles and crocodile eggs.

Like its cousins the Komodo Dragon and the Australian Goana, which is also sought-after as food by aboriginal Australians, it will often scavenge for carrion. But despite its unjustified bad press in Thailand, it’s a rather fasci-nating and harmless reptile.

–Norachai Thavisin

Still, perhaps something is better than nothing, with the Botanic Garden possibly benefiting the environment in terms of bringing visitors close to nature, even though it’s an artificial creation.

Ultimately, education and entertainment can and should work together hand-in-hand, with tourism and the environ-ment an equal priority. Oth-erwise Phuket’s environment will be completely ruined.

–Paritta Wangkiat


thephuketnews.com

EDUCATION20

South African dancer visits Sunshine VillageRicardo Koopman, a dance director from Cape Town in South Africa, held free dance classes for orphan children at Sunshine Village Foundation in Koh Sirae, east of Phuket Town.

Mr Koopman spends his vacations in Phuket, and on this visit wanted to give back to the island.

“I have been teaching dance for 25 years to children aged 5 to 18, and I run two dance studios in South Africa under the name Ricardo’s Modern Dance Studio.

“I am delighted to give my time and skills to these wonderful children. I love working with children.”

Every Saturday for the last month he has spent two hours teaching around 40 children how to dance, even though many of the children can’t understand English.

“The children were very well behaved and very eager to learn. I taught them to develop listening skills and to understand how the art of dance can make a huge impact on their lives.

“I believe that dance can

save your life,” he said.“I am very grateful that

I could share my knowledge with children at the founda-tion. I saw the most beautiful smiles followed by the most beautiful graceful arm move-ments and crazy leaps.

“I have also learned so much more about Thai culture and the language.

“I love working with these eager and beautiful children from Sunshine Village Foun-dation, and if I have a chance I will come again.

A big thank you to the staff at the Holiday Inn Resort Phuket, who supported me with this project,” he added.

More info: www.ricardos dancestudio.co.za

Ricardo Koopman teaches dance to Foundation children.

School term changes scrappedThailand will not change its school year terms to synchro-nise with Asean Economic Community 2015 guidelines, the Ministry of Education confirmed last week.

Tourism industry execu-tives had asked the Ministry of Education to provide ample warning of school term were changed as it would alter out-bound travel peak seasons that are linked to school holidays.

However, Education Min-ister Woravat Auapinyakul confirmed there would be no changes for mainstream school.

“The major holiday break in Thailand falls in April during the hot season and the second break is in August through to September during the rainy season. Weather fac-tors need to be considered as they impact on students and that is the main consideration.”

He noted a change would only benefit 10 per cent of all university students, who are considering study overseas.

The Council of University Presidents of Thailand an-nounced they were keen to make the change to accom-modate AEC 2015 objectives, but it will not trickle down to primary or secondary school-ing.

CUPT sitting head, Prasart

There are major term differences between Asean nations.

Suebkha, said universities and schools providing an interna-tional curriculum will change to a new school year in August or September 2013, while other universities under the CUPT will adopt the same terms during the following year.

“It will make it easier at university level to coordinate exchange programmes in ASEAN member countries after the 2015 agreement takes effect,” he said.

Meanwhile, the next CUPT head Somkhid Lertphaithoon, said in the long-run a change throughout the entire educa-tional system would benefit students. He did not elaborate, other than to say it would bring the system closer to European

school terms.“CUPT will not back down

on its decision, but will first work with universities to grad-ually readjust all schedules.”

Earlier, travel industry leaders said they would need time to adjust their travel sales if the ministry ordered a change in school terms and holidays.

The outbound and domes-tic travel peaks are linked to university holiday months and all the leading travel as-sociations organise travel fairs a month or so before school breaks to tap the vast family travel market.

Under the proposal, the first university term would start in September and close in

late-December instead of the current term June to October.

The final term would con-vene in early January and end in May. Today, the final term runs from November to March.

Association of Domestic Travel president, Maiyarat Pheerayakoses, said the aca-demic calendar change could boost domestic tourism and outbound travel bookings

June through to August, the summer peak season in Europe, parts of China and North America.

Destinations in North Thailand that are popular in the cool season November through to February might lose some bookings.

It might also have a det-rimental impact on bookings to Australia and New Zealand

as the main holiday would fall in the cold winter months rather than autumn an ideal time to visit the two Pacific Ocean destinations.

“If the change comes in then the government should give us at least a year’s warn-ing to prepare packages and adjust to the changes,” Ms Maiyarat said.

–TTR Weekly


thephuketnews.com

21TIMEOUT

As some movies and movie times change every Thursday morning, after The Phuket News has gone to press, the accuracy of the following information cannot be guaranteed. For up-to-date information, visit sfcinemacity.com, or phone the cinemas directly: SFX Coliseum Phuket 076 209 000 and SFC Jungceylon Phuket 076 600 555.

The Orphan Master’s SonAdam Johnson Random House, 464 pages

The WeekndEchoes of Silenceself-released

SFX COLISEUM PHUKET (CENTRAL FESTIVAL)The Adventures of Tintin (E) [G]: 11:15, 13:30, 15:45, 18:00, 20:15The Darkest Hour (E) [G]: 12:30, 14:30, 16:30, 18:30, 20:30, 22:30M:I: Ghost Protocol (E) [13+]: 11:45, 17:05, 22:30Real Steel (E) [G]: 12:00, 14:40, 17:20, 20:00, 22:35Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (E) [13+]: 14:25, 19:50, 22:25Sor Kor Sor Sweety (T) [15+]: 11:30, 14:05, 16:40, 19:15, 21:50

The Adventures of Tintin (E/3D) [G]: 11:15, 13:30, 15:45, 18:00, 20:20The Darkest Hour (E) [G]: 12:15, 14:15, 16:15, 18:15, 20:15, 22:15The Darkest Hour (E/F) [G]: 13:15, 15:15, 17:15, 19:15, 21:15Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (T) [15+]: 12:30, 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30M:I: Ghost Protocol (E) [13+]: 17:05, 22:25Real Steel (E) [G]: 12:00, 14:40, 17:20, 20:05, 22:40Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (E) [13+]: 11:45, 14:25, 19:50, 22:35Sor Kor Sor Sweety (T) [15+]: 11:30, 14:05, 16:40, 19:20, 22:00

SFC JUNGCEYLON PHUKET (PATONG)

BOOK MUSIC

Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother – a South Korean singer kidnapped by Pyongyang – and an influential father who runs Long Tomor-rows, a work camp for North Korean orphans.

It is in this camp that Jun Do is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labour.

Recognised for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of su-periors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.

Part thriller, part story of innocence lost, part love story, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty, but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love.

House of Balloons introduced the world to Abel Tesfaye’s (aka The Weeknd) beautiful R&B falsetto early last year.

Now Tesfaye closes out a completely massive 2011 with Echoes of Silence, and with it doing the nearly unheard of: releasing three genre classics within the span of a single calendar year, all without being signed to a label.

The mood is still dark, druggy and claustrophobic, but this time Tesfaye is chan-neling a pain that’s less cold emptiness than traditional heartbreak and longing.

And while many may find the oppressive darkness hard to relate to, increasing numbers of fans are finding themselves deeply seduced by it.

You can almost see the terror in the eyes of the major labels as they watch an art-ist like this bypassing all of their established infrastructure and building his career on his own terms.

FILM

The Darkest Hour89 minutes Rating: GDirector: Chris GorakStarring: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor

When it comes to the cre-ative design of its aliens, The Darkest Hour opts for a less-is-more approach.

While this is often a recipe for success, unfor-tunately in this case, less is just plain less, as the space invaders of this surpris-ingly thrill-less Moscow-set thriller are invisible for much of the film. Even when you can see them, they re-semble little more than float-ing Windows screensavers.

Working from a story that is about as derivative and unimaginative as they come, director Chris Gorak sends two internet entrepre-neurs (Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella) to Moscow to finish a business deal. When they learn that a Swedish opportunist (Joel Kinna-

man) has stolen their idea, they head to a nightclub to lick their wounds and distract themselves with a couple of female tourists (Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor).

There the four – and the scheming Swede – will re-main for the next few days as fireballs from outer space transform most of human-ity into untidy piles of ash.

But while we wait for the core cast to be reduced, we have time to ponder the pointlessness of the Moscow

setting, seemingly chosen pri-marily to allow the filmmakers access to stock Russian stereo-types – like the crazy inventor and the band of armed-to-the-teeth resistance fighters.

It’s almost like this apoca-lyptic fantasy expects dra-matic shots of a depopulated Red Square to make up for a flatlining screenplay and the absence of even a single com-pelling character. It doesn’t.

After his intriguing twist on biohazard drama in 2006’s Right at Your Door, director

Gorak is slavishly obedient to genre expectations here, finding no way to enliven a by-the-numbers survival tale.

And, really, it doesn’t g e t a n y m o r e l a z y t ha n i nv is ible a l iens .

If you’re going to tease the audience with nothing but flickers of light for three-quarters of the film, you need to have a supremely original and compelling reveal up your sleeve.

But if all you have is the equivalent of exploding gar-den gnomes – which is what these aliens amount to – then your problems are greater than a disposable cast and a filming style as flat as the de-pressingly grey colour palette.

As the film switches dra-matically from survival hor-ror to resistance fighting, you really should be rooting for the humans, but you might as well be rooting for the blobs.

Most likely, though, you’ll just be rooting for the credits.

Solutions to last week’s puzzles

Across

1. The end of the decision. (10)6. Pit belongs to me. (4)9. When Ian becomes Easterner. (5)10. This month in the street. (4)12. Colors note. Affirmative! (4)13. Little Christopher’s gear. (3)15. The ones here for the quarter. (5)16. Staleness of deer and French city. (9)18. Half of old Djibouti

is a long way away. (4)20. Duck-billed cliché? (9)23. Thingamajig may perform no love bite. (9)25. Trash 500 difficulty. (4)28. Correct, then improvize political view. (5-4)30. Al’s got a brief moment in a place to remember. (5)32. Sheep memory. (3)33. Sir, I back into part of 37. (4)35. Try confusing no beginner. (4)36. She’s part-Canadian-Italian. (5)37. Looks and sounds like affirmatives. (4)38. Take command? Broadly speaking, perhaps. (10)

Down

1. Applaud transport? Rubbish! (8)2. I break appendage to make a row. (5)3. Student wrote “Connected”. (6)4. Is appropriate for city types. (5)

5. Catch ten in return. (3)7. Poison league? (3)8. Three cardinals about, say, writings. (6)11. Begin the French shock. (7)14. Booger? In short, it is not. (4)17. Lowest part of twisted drain. (5)19. Oddly, no gal as a companion. (5)21. Fortuitously, Lily takes you and Calvin Klein. (7)

BRAIN TEASERS

22. Do away with bad boat gear. (8)24. Hospital consumed bad blood. (4)26. Cook support? I have quarter. (6)27. 1,000 – am in front of Alabama town. (6)29. Fumble for gravity cord. (5)31. Ali, bravo! I make excuse. (5)34. Drug? I see the point, so to speak. (3)35. Jerk back intestine. (3)

–Dane Halpin


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WEIRDWORLD22

THE BIG LISTFreaks of Nature

We all know that scientists are really just the world’s biggest pranksters. I mean, they created a giant-headed supersoldier ant just because they could (see left). So, instead of imagining what other kinds of crazy mutants they’ve knocked up on their lunch break, we’ve made a list.

Got milk? Have you ever looked at a cow and thought, ‘Man, I wish that gorgeous beast had a nice ol’ set of human breasts I could drink from’? Scientists in China apparently have, creating genetically modified cattle that produce “human” milk in a bid to make cows’ milk more nutritious. Professor Ning Li, the scientist who led the research and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at the China Agricultural University, insisted that the GM milk would be as safe to drink as milk from ordinary dairy cows, but why should we trust someone who thinks it cool to drink milk from a cow?

Rodent’s revenge: If human breastmilk’s not your thing, how about a nice refreshing glass of rodent nectar? It’s all about lactoferrin, ap-parently, a substance in breast milk that boosts infant immune systems.

Human milk contains only four to five grammes of the stuff per litre, but mice milk that includes up to 160 grammes. Scientists must anesthetise the mice and then attach tiny pumps to their itty-bitty mouse teats to harvest negligible quantities of milk (yes, just like in The Simpsons). This process is admittedly hilarious but extremely inefficient and difficult to produce on an industrial scale.

Venomous veggies: Re-member when your mum always told you to finish your greens? Well she may as well have told you to finish eating your scorpion poison glands, because that’s what future children may have to look forward to. Scientists have recently taken the gene that programmes poison in scorpion tails and looked for ways to combine it with cab-bage. Why would they want to create venomous cabbage? To limit pesticide use while still preventing caterpillars from damaging cabbage crops. These genetically modified cabbages would produce scorpion poison that kills cater-pillars when they bite leaves — but the toxin is modified so it isn’t harmful to humans. So who wants to try it first?

Buzz off: Hands up if you hate mosquitoes. Now ev-eryone put your hands down. It should please you then to know that the same British biotech company involved with the GE bollworm has created mosquitoes that are specifi-cally programmed for sudden, early death, kind of like the computers of the insect world. The idea is to release quick-dying males to mate with wild females, passing on lethal genes that kill the young before they can reproduce. The short-lived bugs could help control the spread of dengue fever and other diseases. Despite having some critics, the only real down side of this terminator gene is losing out on the satisfaction of a mosquito killing revenge rampage.

Fluro felines: In 2007, South Korean scientists took the GloFish and stepped it up notch, altering a cat’s DNA to make it glow in the dark, and then took that DNA and cloned other cats from it — creating a set of fluffy, fluorescent felines. Here’s how they did it: The

researchers took skin cells from Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert genetic instructions for mak-ing red fluorescent protein. Then they put the gene-altered nuclei into the eggs for cloning, and the cloned embryos were implanted back into the donor cats – making the cats the surrogate mothers for their own clones.

Scientists create new ‘supersoldier’ antsNightmarish “supersoldier” ants with huge heads and jaws have been created by scientists, though it’s unlikely they’ll be taking over the world anytime soon.

Rather, the monsterous ants may be a genetic throw-back to an ancestor that lived millions of years ago.

Scientists created the ants by activating ancient genes that trigger their development. They showed that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic tools needed to turn them into supersoldiers.

By dabbing their larvae with a special hormone, they were able to induce the development of “super-soldiers” instead of normal worker and soldier ants.

Supersoldier ants can oc-cur naturally in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, their job is to protect the colony from

raids by invading army ants.The supersoldiers use their

enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants that get too close.

Scient ists in Canada created the monster ants in the laboratory by activating the ancient ancestral genes

Authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and col-leagues wrote: “We uncov-ered an ancestral develop-ment potential to produce a novel supersoldier sub-caste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago.”

The results suggest that holding on to ancestral de-velopment toolkits may play an important role in evolving new physical traits, say the researchers. The results also suggest that science can be awesome.

Not a creature you'd want to ever meet in a dark tunnel.

Shark attack at 7,000 feet

Cat: meat hot potIt was supposed to be a ci-vilised chat over a casual meal of, ahem, cat meat hot pot.

But police in southern China have detained a man suspected of murdering a bil-lionaire tycoon over a financial dispute by poisoning the cat meat they shared.

Long Liyuan, who made his fortune running a forestry company in wealthy Guang-dong province, died last month after sharing a dinner of cat meat hot pot – a local delicacy – with two associates.

Last Monday authorities in Yangjiang city, where the incident occurred, said police had detained one of the two associates, Huang Guang, a local forestry official, on suspicion of poisoning the meal after a business deal went sour.

“Huang, who was helping Long take a lease on a for-est, had himself used funds provided by Long. This led to an economic dispute and gave Huang the idea to kill Long with poison,” a state-ment on the city’s official microblog said.

Long’s brother claimed at the time that the billion-aire, a Guangdong provincial people’s congress delegate, had been poisoned, and his family posted a 100,000 yuan (B5 million) reward for informa-tion about his death.

All three men fell ill after eating the meat on December 23, but Huang and the third diner recovered, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The paper said that Huang had snuck into the restaurant kitchen to poison their food.

“He tasted the cat meat,

saying it needed to boil longer, then asked the owner of the restaurant to go fetch him three bottled beverages,” said the Guangdong-based daily.

“Her [the owner’s] husband then went out to buy cigarettes, which is when Huang is now suspected to have slipped in some gelsemium elegans,” it added, referring to a poisonous plant native to China.

Before the dinner, the three men had gone to inspect wood-lands that Huang wished to sell to Long, the report said, adding that the official had previously helped the tycoon buy woodlands and got other officials to grant permits and public development funds.

Long or his firm appeared to have paid Huang a total of 3.5 million yuan (B17.5 million) for various services and Huang had recently been trying to raise more money to settle debts, it said.

Huang, who earlier told the newspaper of his “great sadness” at Long’s death, had sent a text message to the bil-lionaire giving him his bank details, the paper said.

It’s every swimmers worst fear – a shark circling ominously. But few airline pilots have experienced such trepidation, until last week.

A shark was spotted by the pilot at an altitude of 7,000 ft over Christchurch Interna-tional Airport in New Zealand.

Glen Kenny, president of the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association, explained the inflatable shark actually had very little bite.

“Helium is an inert gas, so there’s no issue in that regard. The biggest hazard would be startling the pilot.”

The bizarre sighting was just one of a string of unusual flying shark sightings across New Zealand, many report-ed to police, thanks to the popular Christmas gift known as Air Swimmers – remote-controlled helium fish.

The Air Swimmer toy, which measures 1.44 metres in length, is remote-controlled with a radio receiver attached underneath the toy, helping with steering the body.

The toy fish can be oper-ated from 15m away, though obviously has a tendency to drift far beyond that range.

Cute, but deadly.

Draft Beer Great Food Cool RoomsGood Music Live Sport

Irish Pubs • Restaurant • Guest Houses


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Live in the momentMother-daughter team create cafe of cool > 25LIFE&STYLE

23SHOPPING

Wachiraporn PutrakulStudent

fashion fileACCESSORIES

Her black and white dress (B650) and belt (B320) are from Spike at Surin Circle.

The fashion bracelet (B250) is from Bevery shop in Sam Kong.

She bought her Shada shoes (B690) from Ocean Department store in Phuket Town.

Her waistcoat (B199) is from Naka Week-end Market.

Her mini skirt (B199) was another find at Naka Market.

The Armani Exchange bag (B8,000) was pur-chased at a store in Central Festival.

She also picked up her DKNY shoes (B2,900) from a shop in Central Festival.

ChonlaneePahhihangStudent

Handmade accessories from ‘I Am Hobbies’at Cake Box Cafe on Thalang Road in Phuket Town.

Open daily 9am-9pm. Khun M: 086 950 2060.

I AmHobbies

1. Fan-shaped wallet B9002. Beach hat B5503. Handbag B8504. Garden handbag B950

1

2

43

Laguna Phuket’s street marketsshowcase best of local traditionLaguna Phuket’s Canal Shopping Village is being transformed into a tradition-al-style Thai walking street flea market each Thursday afternoon and evening.

Visitors can browse more than 50 stalls selling a variety of local arts and crafts, clothes, souvenirs, snacks and refreshments.

Vendors are registered under OTOP, the provincial government scheme that encourages local villagers to earn livelihoods through traditional arts and crafts.

“By supporting the mar-kets, visitors can enjoy a traditional Thai experience while providing much-needed income for our local communities to help preserve their skills and livelihoods,” said Khun Chureeporn Manabutr, Canal Shopping Village assistant manager.

The markets – staged each Thursday from 3pm-8pm for the foreseeable fu-ture – also feature traditional and contemporary Thai mu-sic, as well as entertainment.

More information see: lagunaphuket.com

Handmade excellenceWhen Ban Boran Textiles f irst set up shop over 14 years ago, unique handicraft shops in Phuket Town were few and far between.

However, a stroll around the a rea now uncovers many shops selling original Thai silk, clothing, bags, and jewellery. This list in-cludes Ban Boran Textiles, one of the most prominent names in the area.

Phuket local Wandee Kaewthawee is the face of the shop and owns it along with her Japanese friend Ichii.

Despite Phuket’s om-nipresent heat, the most popular item on sale are the Thai silk scarves, which come in a variety of colours and are priced at B450 (cot-ton) and B600 (silk).

“Tourists really like the handmade products, espe-cially ones with embroidery,” says Ms Wandee.

Clothing is also popular at Ban Boran Textiles, includ-ing hippy favourite fisher-man’s pants for just B250.

Priced a bit higher, cotton skirts cost between B800 and B1000, while ladies silk dresses are B2,000.

The attractive large silk hangings that adorn the shop walls are B7,500 up.

The colourful decorative handbags are sourced from

hill tribes in northern Thai-land, while the shop’s rather extensive silver jewellery collection is made by people specifically from the Karen hilltribe in Chiang Mai.

Necklaces start at B2,500, r ings B500, and beaded necklaces from B800.

According to Ms Wandee, handmade silver ornaments made by Ka Riang tribes in the north are the most unique items sold in the shop, as no other retailer in Phuket stocks them, she says.

W hen the shop f i r st opened, Japanese tourists

were the main customers, though today Ban Boran Textiles sells products to a large spectrum of tourists, many of whom are western.

Ban Boran Text i les , 51 Yaowarat Rd, Phuket Town, 076 211 563.

Phuket local Wandee Kaewthawee is the face of the shop.


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DINING24

Dusit Thani celebratesworld Italian food dayDusit Thani Laguna Phuket’s award-winning Italian res-taurant, La Trattoria, will participate in the Interna-tional Day of Italian Cuisines (IDIC) on January 17.

The official dish of IDIC 2012 is ‘Ossobuco in Gremo-lata Alla Milanese’, a trade-mark veal dish that originates from the Lombardia region in Waitress Kantawee Chankaew pictured with ossobuco.

The interior of La Trattoria at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket.

Sandro Aguilera has been promoted to Executive Chef.Above: Executive Chef Khun Ooy with freshly made spring rolls. Below, Thai salads at Silk restaurant. –Photos by Thitipong Kingkaeo.

Promotion for Centara’s Chef AguileraSandro Aguilera has been promoted from Executive Sous Chef to Executive Chef at Centara Grand Beach Re-sort Phuket, following the departure of Executive Chef Andreas Hameder.

Mr Aguilera first began at Centara Grand Phuket in August 2010, after a stint working as Chef de Cuisine at 55 and Red Sky restaurants at Centara in Bangkok.

Following his new appoint-ment, Mr Aguilera will take charge of the kitchens at The Cove Restaurant (international and Asian cuisine) and Mare Restaurant (Italian cuisine)

at Centara Grand Phuket in Karon. Most of Mr Agu-ilera’s signature dishes are made from foi gras, duck and the turbot flatfish.

Mr Aguilera is a native of Barcelona, Spain, and served an internship at three Michelin star restaurant El Bulli, which closed last July to the dismay of foodies everywhere.

He has previously worked at some of Barcelona’s most revered – Comerc 24, El Cingle and Estany Clar – where he learned many of the skills and tech-niques he uses today.

Cooking with lovePeople working at the

Andara Resort on Mil-lionaires’ Mile in Ka-

mala say the smiling face and warm personality of executive chef Supreeda ‘Ooy’ Khem-khang is largely responsible for the success of the resort’s Silk restaurant.

Ce r t a i n ly, f rom t he minute I first meet Chef Ooy she is beaming, and totally friendly and relaxed.

“She’s very positive,” Andara’s e-marketing man-ager Thitipong Kingkaeo says. “She’s always smiles and never gets angry. She cooks with love.”

Chef Ooy is also mod-est. It’s her team who makes her happy, she says, and a happy chef translates into good food. And good food it is indeed, with Silk restaurant having a fine name among the island’s expats.

Her personality and cook-ing talent led to Chef Ooy ef-fectively being headhunted by one of Asia’s most high-profile businessmen, Allan Zeman.

Chef Ooy has come a long way from her days training to be a waitress at a technical college in Songkhla province. As part of the two-year hos-pitality certificate, she found herself completing her training at the Holiday Inn in Patong.

While she was here she was spotted by the head chef, who said “You can cook, I’m sure. I’ve got a position for you.” Her first job was working in the cold kitchen at the hotel but she learned fast and other jobs followed, at the Layan Beach Resort and then later at Amanpu-

ri. She was working in the kitchen at Amanpuri when Dr Zeman was a guest at an event there. Impressed with the cuisine, he contacted Chef Ooy at least four times to ask her to consider becom-ing his private chef in his Phuket residence.

She turned him down, but he then made an offer she found she could not refuse: head chef at Silk. She accepted and has been running the restaurant ever since.

Dishes on the menu are a mix of Western and Thai. Chef Ooy says the Thai dishes are a mix of recipes created by her mother and ones she devised herself. The restaurant’s sig-nature dishes include Goong Sarong (prawns wrapped with Phuket noodles served with a homemade mango sauce) Miang Pla Grob (Deep fried white snapper with ginger, lemongrass and cashew nuts).

Another dish which Chef

Ooy rates as one of her best is the Massaman curry with sweet potatoes and peanuts.

The restaurant’s newly introduced barbecue eve-nings (B1,400++) are held every Thursday evening and include fresh seafood (Phuket lobster, tiger prawns, blue f in tuna steaks and blue crab) plus roasted pork belly,

sushi, Thai salads, Thai des-serts, and more.

–Claire Connell

S i l k i s l o c a t e d a t Andara Resort & Villas 15 Moo 6, Kamala Beach, Kathu, Phuket . Tel . 66 76 338777 ext 680 e-mail [email protected], or visit silkphuket.com

northern Italy. The dish will be celebrated by hundreds of Italian chefs in more than 40 countries, who will serve it on their restaurant menus.

La Trattoria executive chef Silvano Almolini will include it on the restaurant’s menu from January 17.

For more information on the promotion, see dusit.com


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25DINING

The Pavilions hosts French chef Guillaume SalvanFrench chef Guillaume Salvan is in Phuket and will host gourmet wine dinners tonight (January 13) and tomorrow eve-ning at The Pavilions, Phuket, in Cherng Talay.

Chef Guillaume is from Michelin one star restaurant La Falaise in Toulouse, France. The dinners are priced at B2,800++ per person, and B3,800++ including wine pairing.

At La Falaise (the Cliff), Chef Guillaume has forged a reputation as an innovator, yet has not forgotten his south-western French roots.

Here, his culinary creativ-ity extends to cannelloni black pudding with crab meat broth with lemongrass and saffron tapioca, and duck pâté hot

steamed vegetable in broth, foie gras and confit. His menu for The Pavilions includes: scallops combawa and green apple tartar; deep fried tiger prawns, green asparagus, citrus and galanga reduction; grilled red mullet and green mango served with asian turnip, sesame and praline raviole; warm homemade pâté, foie gras and confit duck in a Rau Ram stock; and pineapple shaves and vanilla crème brulee, coconut tapioca, tamarind sorbet and passion juice.

For restaurant reservations, please call 076 317 600.

Vietnamese spring rolls are a fresh, healthy dining option.

Noppamas ‘Ae’ Mungwiriya and mother Jutharat Sakubol run Live Present Moment cafe.

A bowl of Khun Ae’s delicious homemade green curry.

A moment in timePhuket resident Noppamas “Ae” Mungwiriya and her mother Jutharat Sakubol form the perfect mother and daughter team at Live Present Moment cafe on Millionaire’s Mile in Kamala.

Originally from Chiang Mai, the interior of Khun Ae’s cafe is decked out with high-quality designer furniture from her own custom made architecture and furniture company, Aka Casa.

Featuring a blend of red-wood and teak furniture, including a large funky mirror, and Jim Thompson fabrics, the venue combines chic style with a substantial menu.

“I just wanted to do some-thing different and I think we are in a great location. I saw the potential here in Kamala for a cafe that incorprated art and design features,” says Ae. “I can’t change the fact that there are heaps of bars here, but perhaps I can give people something a bit different.”

Options on the menu in-clude an all day breakfast (B180), buttermilk pancakes (B150), and various Thai dishes (B200 and up), plus desserts and cakes including tiramisu, panna cotta and chocolate cake (from B90).

Khun Ae says her raw

green smoothie, made from organic vegetables and fruit, is particularly popular because of its great taste and health benefits (B70-B90 each).

So where did she pick up her culinary skills? “I like to cook. I have a lot of foreign friends who are chefs and I

learn from them.” She’s also picked up cooking tips from her mother, who used to run a Thai restaurant in Germany, and from her father, who is a chef in Japan.

“It’s great working with Mum. We get along really well and only get frustrated

with each other sometimes,” she says with a laugh.

Live Present Moment, 16/15 Moo 6 Rim-hard, Kamala (on Millionaire’s Mile just before the 7-Eleven), 089 191 8488, [email protected]


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EXPLORE26

Chinpracha HouseThis elegant colonial-style man-sion was completed in 1907 by wealthy Chinese immigrant Tan Ma Siang. Chinpracha House is one of the most integral ancient remains on the island.

Old photograph, Italian floor tiles, imported furniture from China and old utensils are well-maintained in the house’s interior.

98 Krabi Rd, Phuket Town, 076 211 281. Open daily 8am-4pm. B100.

Kathu Mining Museum

Built according to colonial ar-chitecture, imitating a mansion of a tin miner, the museum shows the origins of Phuket’s culture and history especially from the mining era.

Several indoor exhibition rooms display different themes such as Phuket architecture, mining , Thai - Chinese way of life, Chinese immigrants’ life, the Baba’s marriage and the solar system.

The outdoor exhibition dis-plays equipment including a dredge and hydraulic mining.

Muang Thoa Sung Rd (behind Loch Palm Golf Club), Kathu, 088 766 0962. Open daily 9am-4pm. B50 for Thais, B100 for foreigners, children half-price.

Philatelic MuseumThe museum is in an old pre-served building, housing old equipment such as telegraph tickers, telephones, parcel-weigh-ing machines and collections of Thai stamps issued since 1951.There are also a small library and a souvenir room.

Phuket Post Office, Montri Rd, Phuket Town, 076 224 883. Open Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm. Sat 9am-12pm. Free entrance.

Seashell MuseumOver 2,000 species of sea shells that were collected by the Pa-tamakanthin family are now displayed in the museum.

The collection includes fos-sils dating back 380 million years, rare golden pearls, giant clams and left-handed Noble Volute shells.

2/2 Moo 2, Viset Rd, Rawai, 076 613 666; www.phuketsea shell.com. Open daily 8.30am-5.30pm. B100 for Thais, B200 for foreigners, children half-price.

Thai Hua SchoolMuseum

The museum is in the main Chinese-language school built in 1934. Classrooms inside were renovated as exhibition rooms, displaying Phuket Thai-Chinese culture and tradition of the past and present.

28 Krabi Rd, Phuket Town, 076 211 224; www.thaihuamu seum.com. Open daily 9am-5pm. B50 for Thai, B200 for foreigners, add extra fee for photograph.

Thalang NationalMuseum

The museum focuses on history and archaeology of Phuket and nearby provinces. Archaeological finds such as ancient statues, pre-historic beads and tools are on view here.

On 4027 Road (east of the Heroines monument), Thalang, 076 379 895. Open daily except public holiday 9am-4pm. B20 for Thai, B100 for foreigners.

Thavorn Hotel Lobby Museum

Located in the walkway from lob-by to the dining room of Thavorn Hotel, this small museum corner shows old photographs, posters, ornaments, utensils, mining tools from the Phuket’s mining era and World War II, collected by the owner of the hotel.

74 Rassada Road, Phuket Town, 076 211 333. Open daily 8am-5pm. B30.

PHUKETMUSEUMS

Phuket Mining MuseumJAMIE’SPHUKET

If anyone is at all interested in the history of Phuket, and at the same time interested in getting a little off the beaten track, the often-overlooked Phuket Mining Museum is very much worth a look.

The location is a bit odd – on a road that many people don’t know about that winds through the hills between Loch Palm Golf Club and the British International School. However, it’s great for children.

Located around the large central courtyard are rooms that have been lovingly deco-rated and made to look like old streets or filled with old pictures and dioramas of mining techniques.

Phuket made its fortune through tin mining (as well as rubber plantations and fishing) well before any tourists first arrived. There’s no mining any more, but it was tin that made Phuket, built Phuket Town and changed the face of Phuket, with many immigrants head-ing here from China.

In the first room is a tra-ditional island bus, while the next room is filled with old furniture, and displays of old household items.

Then you have the real meat of the museum: a very well presented educational section all about geology, with information presented in both English and Thai.

This leads through to the history of mining, with models of stone age people bang-ing rocks together, and more specific information and life

size dioramas about local tin mining techniques.

From mining, you then move onto tin processing, a room full of technical infor-mation and photos, as well as a big bench full of rocks for kids to look at. I was very pleased when my boy agreed that sand, viewed with a magnifying glass, looks like little rocks – I love watching my kids learn.

However, my wife’s favou-rite part of the museum is a mock up of old Phuket, a whole

street with shops, a little café, a shrine and much more. It’s very well done, and you can see that the people involved in the museum must take a lot of pride in their work.

The artwork is very good, with many walls painted with street scenes that have reced-ing perspectives, so you feel like you could almost just step into the painting and take a walk through old Phuket. My daughter even tried...

One of the best things about the museum is the low

entry fee, although, if you’re a tourist reading this, it’s not the kind of place a tuk-tuk driver will want to take you (no commissions!). In sum, the museum suits those who want to learn something and see more than just beaches.

Read more of Jamie’s posts at jamie-monk.blogspot.com.Jamie works at liveaboard dive specialists Sunrise Divers in Karon. More info: 084 626 4646, [email protected]; sunrise-divers.com.

Phuket initially made its fortune through tin mining (as well as rubber plantations and fishing) with many immigrants heading here from China.

Basic dredging equipment played a large part in mining.So real that you could almost step right into the painting.

All aboard! A traditional island bus is part of the display.


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27TRAVEL

Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket in T+L ‘500’Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket has been voted one of the 500 best hotels in the world by the readers of Travel+Leisure for the second consecutive year, while the island’s JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa was also named on the prestigious list.

Each year, the magazine’s readers vote on thousands of hotels worldwide based on factors including the standard of rooms, as well as location, services, dining options and overall value for money. The 2012 T+L 500 World’s Best Hotels winners will feature in T+L’s January edition.

“On behalf of the entire Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket team, we are delighted to be once again awarded by Travel+Leisure readers world-wide,” said Peter Komposch, General Manager of Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket. “This award represents an impor-tant imitative for providing world-class hospitality and outstanding services. It is the best possible New Year’s gift to all employees.”

In celebration, Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket has launched a special promotion called ‘Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket Kob Khun’. Guests will enjoy

complimentary bonus gifts, from a cash voucher valued worth B1,000, B1,500 and B2,000 per booking. The pack-age also includes two nights accommodation with a room upgrade (subject to availability) and a daily buffet breakfast for two. The package starts from

B11,000+++, and is valid from January 16 until April 2012.

Book ings shou ld be made directly via e-mail to d t l p r s v n @ d u s i t . c o m , mentioning promotion code ‘KOBKHUN’. Terms and conditions apply. dusitthanila-gunaphuket.dusit.com

TG starts 2012 with fare bargainsThai Airways International intends to boosts travel dur-ing the first quarter through a discount offer on economy and business fares.

The latest campaign, dubbed Fly to the World 2012, is good for bookings until March 31 and depar-tures through to March 31. Ticket validity is 14 days for economy class and one month for business class.

Compared to its lowest standard fares, discounts vary from 8 per cent to 30 per cent in economy class and from 4 per cent to 20 per cent in business class.

Economy class fares on most of Asian routes save more than 20 per cent; Tokyo (36 per cent), and Seoul (29 per cent).

Sample economy fares are: B36,865 to Zurich; B41,155, London; B31,605, Moscow; B27,740, Sydney; B17,405, Seoul; B16,025, Shanghai; B18,695, To-kyo; B12,125, Taipei; B9,620, Singapore; B8,040, Vientiane and Yangon and B14,110, Delhi.

EVA’s launches fare promotionEVA Air is promoting its services to the United States and Canada with discounted fares until January 31 for travel through June 30.

T h e d e a l s i n c l u d e: B35,600 to New York; B33,500 to Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco; B34,500 to Seattle; B34,000 to Vancouver and B42,400 to Toronto.

Connecting times in Taipei are pretty seamless to all North American destinations rang-ing from one to three hours.

EVA operates 10 flights to San Francisco, twice daily to Los Angeles, four weekly to Seattle and New York, three weekly to Vancouver and Toronto.

For more information on this promotion, call 02 269 6300 ext 1 or contact a travel agency.

For flights to Europe and

North America, the airline is co-operating with KTC World, Majestic Travel Inter-national and Six Stars Travel on selected routes under a X-Treme Fares scheme, with quotes to London, B29,200; Amsterdam, B24,100; New York, B35,600 and B32,300 to LA and Seattle.

The booking period ends January 20 and travel is lim-ited from January 11 to March 31 for European routes and January 11 to February 26, to the US. Customers can pay for their fares in three-monthly installments with 0 per cent interest using their KTC credit card.

Contact 02 631 3444 ext 2 for KTC World; 02 652 2000, Majestic Travel and 02 835 3844, Six Stars.

–TTR Weekly

-Photo by Bryan


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ISLANDSCENE28

MAMAS AND THE PAPAS: At the opening of new Kamala restaurant Papa’s, are, from top left, Olaf Duensing, Paul Edden, Tony Paterson and Kevin Gerhold; Pia Yttermyr and Katarina Boner; owners Rade and Maria Perija; and Leif Boner and Roger Yttermyr.

JUNGLE PARTY: Bang-kok Hospital Phuket held a new year’s party named Party in the Jungle at Baan Maksong Hotel on January 8, attracting lots of colourful dress up costumes in the jungle theme, as seen right.

A BLOKE’S NIGHT OUT: Around 70 people attended An Evening with Cricket Legend Phil Tufnell, pictured third from front left, at The Village, Coconut Island, on January 6. A charity auction, including two cricket bats signed by Phil, raised B53,000 for the Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation. See our interview with Phil in Island Sport.


thephuketnews.com

29ISLANDSCENE

CELEBRATION: At the Siam Nirimit official opening for Phuket VIPs on January 7 are the Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong, left, and Siam Niramit’s Managing Director Pannin Kitiparaporn. Above, a tal-ented performer shows an eager guest how it’s done.

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT: James Firth, president of the International Business Associa-tion (IBAP) and volunteers honour the association’s annual tradition of giving presents to sick children at Vachira Hospital. The presents were given out on January 8 this year.

ALL WHITE NIGHT: Pictured at the SALA Phuket New Year’s Eve White Party Dinner are, from top left, Chanchit Sae-Lee, Purchasing Manager, and Mr. Muncho, Span-ish artist and actor; Ake Laochan; Executive Assistant Manager Meiji Anorma, Kevin Cook and Vimonthree Chaisit, Front Office Manager; and SALA Phuket GM Jon Ashenden, Front Office Manager Vimonthree Chaisit, and Food and Beverage Manager Jose Luis Duran.

FRENCH TASTE: French Chef Regis Marcon, from three-Michelin-star restaurant Regis & Jacques Marcon, hosted a variety of wine dinners, cooking classes and wine tasting events at Six Senses Yao Noi Beyond Phuket last week. Mr Marcon, right, is pictured here with Manish Puri, General Manager of Six Senses Yao Noi.


thephuketnews.com

ENTERTAINMENT30

Jay-Z song celebrates birth of daughter Blue

Rapper Jay-Z has released a new song celebrating their birth of his baby daughter with Beyonce, and revealing that the couple had struggled for years to get pregnant.

Called Glory, the song released on Jay-Z’s social website on Monday, followed the birth in New York on Saturday of daughter Blue Ivy Carter – the first child of the music power couple.

Russell Brand gets new comedy show

Irreverent comedian Russell Brand has signed up for a new late night TV comedy show on the US network FX, start-ing later this year, a spokes-person said on Monday.

The brash Get Him to the Greek star, who last month split with singer Katy Perry after 14 months of marr iage, will give US audiences his take on politics, news and pop culture in a six episode show filmed before a live audience.

Sheen is done with being crazy

Charlie Sheen insists he’s ‘not crazy any more’.

The actor hit headlines last year for his bizarre be-haviour, and was sacked f rom hit TV show Two and a Half Men after he made a number of rude statements about creator Chuck Lorre in public.

Sheen insists his life has taken a turn for the bet-ter as he spoke at Sunday night’s Fox Network Tele-vision Critics Association party in California.

“I’m not c raz y any more. That was an episode.”

Snoop Dogg arrested over pot

Rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested over the weekend after border control agents found what they said was a small amount of marijuana on his tour bus. The singer and producer, 40, was stopped at the Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint on Saturday.

Black Sabbath’s Iommi has cancer

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lym-phoma, according to a state-ment. The British heavy metal group’s original lineup is writing and recording its first album in 33 years.

IN BRIEF Winners of Live 89.5’s Massive Monthly PrizeTo register to win the Live 89.5 Massive Monthly Prize, all you need to do is find the Live 89.5 car. That’s what Mr David Lourey did, and he ended up winning a three day, two night stay at the The Imperial Adamas Beach Resort valued at B37,000.

The runner-up prize of two days, one night at The Imperial Andamas Beach Resort Phuket (valued at B11,000) was won by Miss Onkamon Ruangnim.

This month the Massive Monthly Prize is a stay at SALA Beach Resort, valued at more than B33,000. To register, listen to Live 89.5 to find out where the car is parked. Once you find the car, you can register for the draw. See phuketliveradio.com/blog/massive-monthly-prize for details.

New ticket booking service launchedOn Tuesday (January 10), an innovative new ticket booking service was launched on the island.

Phuket Ticketmaster is an online booking engine that allows event organis-ers to easily sell tickets for their events through www.phuketticketmaster.com or www.thephuketnews.com/

ticketmaster.php Customers will also be able to buy tickets instantly for events through the same websites.

For event organisers, the many benefits include pro-viding them with an addi-tional avenue to sell tickets for their events far in advance; and providing increased pay-ment options for customers

that the organiser may not have access to (including credit card, PayPal, Counter Service and others).

According to Phuket Tick-etmaster Managing Director Simon Samaan, the service will be a perfect comple-ment to his existing media businesses The Phuket News and Live 89.5. “The existing

audience on thephuketnews.com means additional expo-sure for organisers, leading to increased sales. It is also a cheap method of selling tickets, with comparatively low commission and ‘real time’ tracking of sales.”

For more information on the service, visit the website or call: 076-612-550 ext 600.

Mr David Lourey (centre) collects his massive prize at the offices of Live 89.5.


thephuketnews.com

EVENTS32

JANUARY 14

Thailand National Children’s DayIs celebrated on the second Saturday in January. Children are considered as the most valuable resource of the country. Many organisations from both government and commercial sectors have celebration activities for children. The Prime Minister usually gives each Children’s Day a theme that can be summarised by its motto.

Many Government offices are open to children and their family. In Bangkok: this includes the Government House, the Parliament House Complex and various Military installations. A notable example is the guided tour at the Government House, where children have an opportunity to view the Prime Minister’s office and sit at the bureau.The Royal Thai Air Force usually invites children to go and explore the aircraft. And also there are activities around Phuket on that day.

JANUARY 20-21

Stakeholders Sunstainbility Envision & Indicator

Development WorkshopSystainability Asia, The atkisson Group, IUCN Southeast Asia and SEEK Phuket will be bringing together the key stakehold-ers to start writing the Sustainability plan for Phuket. Hosted by the Phuket provin-cial Government. Workshop Fee : 10,000 baht For more Information Please ContactMr. Sean Panton. E-mail: [email protected], call 083 391 5869

JANUARY 23

Chinese New YearColourful dragon processions take place all over Phuket City, culminating in a popular and large fireworks display.

28-30 JANUARY Old Phuket Festival

This year’s event will be the 13th anniver-sary of the popular Old Phuket Town Fes-tival, held in collaboration with Chinese New Year. Contact: TAT on 076 212 213

29 JANUARY

Thanyapura FairJoin us at the Thanyapura Fair! This festive family event showcases fun kids’ games and activities, live music and a delicious brunch for parents. Venue: Thanyapura Sports & Leisure Club. Event includes:• An organic cookie decorating workshop

List your events here for as low as B99 per line, or online at www.thephuketnews.com/events.phpWHAT’S ON IN PHUKET

FEBUARY 2-4 Wahoo Thailand 2012 Sport

Fishing TournamentThis is Thailand’s largest-ever international sport fishing tournament. Prize money totalling over B3,000,000 (US$100,000).

Boats and teams are filling fast. For further information, please contact War-ren Crowe on 081 270 4291 or email: [email protected].

• Kids’ Fashion show• Kids’ Zumba dance demonstration• Water games and activities• Jewelry making, face painting, and much more!

For parents: While the kids join in the fun, settle in for a delicious brunch at Di-Vine Restaurant. Adult: B750* per person. Children 12 years and under: B375* per person. *Prices are subject to 10% service charge and 7% applicable government tax.

For reservations, please contact Divine Restaurant, call +66 (0)76 336 000 Email: [email protected] www.thanyapura.com.

JANUARY 30

Classical Music ConcertH.E. Adm. ML Usni Pramoj will perform at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale. ML Usni Pramoj, a Privy Councillor is also an accomplished conductor, composer and violinist.

-Accompanying ML Usni will be Tasana Nagavajara- violin. Siripong Tiptan - violin and Kittikhun Sodprasert - violoncello.

-Antonin Dvorak: String Quartet Op.96 in F major “American” M.L.Usni Pramoj: String Quartet No.2Time 6pm reception, from 7 pm concert. Tickets B500 per person. Contact 076 333 569, [email protected], www.vil-laroyalephuket.com.

FEBRUARY 14

Record Breaking Mass Wedding at Promthep Cape

The island is aiming to break the national record for the biggest mass wedding on Valentine’s Day next year. The Thai tradi-The Thai tradi-tional style mass wedding for 108 couples at Laem Promthep, the best sunset in Thailand. Other activities include offering alms to 99 Buddhist monks and planting trees as part of a schedule running from February 12-15, 2012.

Contact Suanluang Inter Wedding 076 221 976, email: info@interwedding phuket.com. See interweddingphuket.com.

MARCH 13

Thao Thepkrassattri - Thao Sri Suntorn Festival

The festival celebrates the island’s victory in 1785 over an invading Burmese force. Anyone travelling from Phuket Airport to-wards the south part of the island will have seen the famous Heroines Monument, commemorating the two sisters who led the people of Phuket to victory.

This is an attraction that will give you with a deeper understanding of local culture and history.

APRIL 6Chakri Day

A public holiday to honor the founder of the Chakri Dynasty, King Rama I.

APRIL 13-15

Songkran FestivalSongkran is the old Thai New Year , and is an occasion for family reuinions. Many Thai people return to their homes and families for the three day festival. It is celebrated each year between the 13th and 15th of April.

It was originally a religious holiday. Songkran begins with early morning merit-making, by offering food to the monks. Pay-ing respect to elders and ancestors is also an important custom of Songkran.

Young people pour scented water over Buddha images and on the hands of elders to show respect, and to seek their blessing. Another custom of Songkran is to clean houses and anything old and useless must be thrown away. It is believed that anything bad belonging to the old year will be un-lucky to the owner if left and carried on to the coming new year.

The most prominent custom of the fes-tival is throwing water. Everybody throws water on each other, during the three day festival. The most popular place for water throwing is in Chiang Mai.

JANUARY 26 Australia Day

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on January 26, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet of British settlers at Sydney Cove in 1788.

JANUARY 22 CC Bloom’s

New Year’s Party 2012New year’s Thai buffet B100 per

person. Fundraiser for the Phuket Pride Celebration raffle prizes for all. start from 5 pm to 9 pm. Contact CC Bloom’s Hoel 84/21 Patak road Soi 10, call 076 333 222. Email: [email protected], www.ccbloomshotel.com.

JANUARY 14 Central Festival Phuket Kids &

Family Day Fun Fest 2012At Grand Hall first floor, Central Festival Phuket : Building B (homeWorks). Start 11am onwards. Activities :-Mini concert from Coke Music Awards.-Singing contest and dancer in Thai folk song (Look-Tung). -Special show from pet: monket and dog.-lots of fun and prize.

Let’s work together to transform Phuket to be a model of Sustainability in

Thailand and the Asia-Pacific Region!

Join Us!Join Us!Join Us!Join Us!21-22 January 2012~ Investing in~ Investing in~ Investing in~ Investing in PhuketPhuketPhuketPhuket

SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability

SEEK PhuketSEEK PhuketSEEK PhuketSEEK Phuket stands for “Society, Environment, Economy, Knowledge”, which seeks to build a sustainable Phuket while enriching lives and communities.

SEEK was formed in 2011 by a diverse group of passionate and committed civic, NGO and business leaders in Phuket.

In early 2012, SEEK has chosen to use the AtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability Compasshelping them to frame, thinking about and implement an integrative and holistic approach to transforming Phuket to be a model of Sustainability in Thailand and in the Asia-Pacific Region.

At Thanyapura Mind Center

22 January 2012 PhuketPhuketPhuketPhuket’s ’s ’s ’s SustainableSustainableSustainableSustainable FutureFutureFutureFuture

SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket SEEK Sustainable Phuket Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of Using the AtKisson Compass of

Workshop OverviewThis 2-day workshop aimed at bringing together stakeholders to work together, to buildSustainable Phuket,Sustainable Phuket,Sustainable Phuket,Sustainable Phuket, with clear, specific and measurable and outcomesand outcomesand outcomesand outcomes, along with a draft set of integrated sustainability indicators sustainability indicators sustainability indicators sustainability indicators aligned with the vision goals and outcomes and important issues.

We will also create space for discussing the possible avenues of action that should be taken following from this workshop which we will frame as the Sustainable Phuket Compactcommitment to actions that will guide the groups’ decisionmaking and actions going forward.

stands for “Society, Environment, Economy, Knowledge”, which seeks to build a sustainable Phuket while enriching lives and

SEEK was formed in 2011 by a diverse group of passionate and committed civic,

In early 2012, SEEK has chosen to use AtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability CompassAtKisson Sustainability Compass for

helping them to frame, thinking about ive and

holistic approach to transforming Phuket to be a model of Sustainability in

Pacific Region.

Workshop Fee : 10,000 bahtWorkshop Fee : 10,000 bahtWorkshop Fee : 10,000 bahtWorkshop Fee : 10,000 baht For more For more For more For more Information Please ContactInformation Please ContactInformation Please ContactInformation Please ContactMr. Sean Panton E-mail: [email protected]: 083 391 5869

Thanyapura Mind Center, Phuket

FutureFutureFutureFuture ~ ~ ~ ~

Workshop Overview day workshop aimed at bringing together Phuket

to build a shared vision of a a shared vision of a a shared vision of a a shared vision of a with clear, specific and measurable goals goals goals goals

, along with a draft set of integrated aligned with the vision goals and

We will also create space for discussing the possible avenues en following from this workshop

Sustainable Phuket Compact: that will guide the groups’ decision-

Information Please ContactInformation Please ContactInformation Please ContactInformation Please Contact

[email protected]

The Compass


thephuketnews.com


thephuketnews.com

33EVENTS

FRIDAY

IBAP Networking MeetingFriday, January 13th @ IndoChine Stereo Lab in Surin Beach. This meeting will be a great night to enjoy old friends and make a few new ones, and what a location. http://ibap-phuket.org or call 081 970 7910.................................................................................

Pool CompetitionPool Competition at 9pm. Expat Sports Bar, Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong. www.expatsportsbar.com.................................................................................

Exclusive Dining at ParesaRecipe by Ryan is an innovative culinary dining venture, indulge in intricate dishes created by Paresa’s Executive Chef Ryan Arboleda, featuring a six-course set menu prepared in a live cooking environment. Time: 6pm to 10pm. Call 076 302 000.................................................................................

Special Friday @ Indian FeastThis Authentic Home-Made Indian Buffet will be prepared and served by our very own in-house Indian Chef Padum Kahtri. Reservations are recommended, so please call “Les Anges” on 076 360 803.................................................................................

BBQ Ribs All You Can EatOnly B295 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. For reservations call on 081 891 4381.................................................................................Curry Fridays at Navrang MahalStart November 2011-January 2012. Ev-ery Fridays, all-you-can-eat authentic Indian curry buffet, B449 net per person. Draught beer B50. 7pm-11.30pm. Call 076 286 464.

SATURDAYBBQ at Expat Hotel

Time 7.30pm, Expat Sports Bar, Expat Ho-tel, Soi Taipan, Patong. www.expatsports bar.com.................................................................................

Exclusive Dining at ParesaRecipe by Ryan is an innovative culinary dining venture. Indulge in intricate dishes created by Paresa’s Executive Chef Ryan Arboleda, featuring a six-course set menu prepared in a live cooking environment. Time: 6pm to 10pm. Call 076 302 000, email: [email protected].................................................................................

Saturday BrunchThe B-Lay Tong Saturday brunch will be held every Saturday. From 11.30am to 3pm. B1,200 net per person. Two people receive one bottle of house wine between them. For reservations please contact +66(0) 76 344 999 and +66(0) 76 680 666 or e-mail [email protected].................................................................................

Colin HillColin Hill performs (duo) now every sec-ond Saturday at Legends Bar in Kamala, with local guitarist Florian. 081 079 1069.................................................................................

Half-Chicken Spit RoastOnly B225 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations call 081 891 4381.................................................................................

AA Phuket Meetings @ TGMAll meetings are one hour long and held in English at The Green Man Pub, one km from Chalong circle. Contact 081 895 4763.

All Major Sports LiveOn the big screen. F1, MotoGP, Tennis, Golf, AFL, NRL. Irish Times Irish Pub, Jungcey-lon, Patong.................................................................................

20% Off All PizzasAt Shakers. Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road, Pa-tong. Free pick up Patong and Kalim areas. Reservations call 081 891 4381.

SUNDAYSunday Roast Pork or Beef DinnerEvery Sunday 2pm onwards Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong B290 per person. Stilton with Port or Wine Every Sunday 2pm onwards B290. See www.expathotel.com.................................................................................Best Sunday Carvery in Phuket

Roast beef, BBQ ham, chicken, pork and Yorkshire pudding. All you can eat B399. Irish Times, Jungceylon, Patong.................................................................................

Half-Chicken Spit RoastOnly B225 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations please call 081 891 4381.

MONDAYRoaring Bhoys

Live Music every Monday night. The largest selection of draught beer in Phuket. Irish Times, Jungceylon, Patong.................................................................................

BBQ Buffet All You Can EatOnly B325 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations 081 891 4381.

TUESDAYPool Competition

At 9pm Expat Guesthouse Sports Bar, Pa-tong. See map at www.expatguesthouse.com.................................................................................

Lose Weight NowAsk Thai Weight Loss how! Take advan-tage of our free weight loss seminar from 7.15pm. Contact Michael 087 897 8997, 076 304 108, www.thailandweightloss.com.................................................................................

Half-Chicken Spit RoastOnly B225 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations call 081 891 4381.................................................................................

Rotary Club of Patong BeachWeekly meeting in English. Dinner out on first Tuesday of the month. rotarypatong.org.................................................................................

AA Phuket Meetings @ TGMAll meetings are one hour long and held in English at The Green Man Pub, one km from Chalong circle. Contact 081 895 4763.

. WEDNESDAYChef’s Dinner

Chef Dinner Wednesday at Surin Gate Kitchen, four-course chef’s menu, B750 per person. Great food with unique flavours by awarded Chef Daniel Isberg and Chef Coki. Reservations by email [email protected] or call 076 324 4577.................................................................................

Interactive Pub Quiz NightStar t s f rom 8pm ever y Wednes -day night. The largest selection of draught beer in Phuket. Irish Times, Jungc-eylon, Patong.

BBQ Ribs All You Can EatOnly B295 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations call on 081 891 4381.................................................................................

Quiz Night @ PeppersQuiz Night every Wednesday at Peppers Sports Bar near Laguna. Great food, great music, great beer. Contact 081 728 1010. Facebook Peppers Sports Bar.

THURSDAY

Laguna Phuket “Flea Market”Laguna Phuket’s Canal Shopping Village is transformed into a traditional Thai flea mar-ket each Thursday from 3-8pm, creating a fascinating experience for hotel guests and local residents alike. Visitors can browse more than 50 stalls selling a variety of local arts and crafts, clothes, souvenirs, snacks and refreshments.

Vendors are registered under OTOP, the provincial government scheme that encourages local villagers to earn liveli-hoods through traditional arts and crafts – so visitors can enjoy a traditional Thai experience while providing income to help local communities preserve their skills and livelihoods. The market also features Thai music and entertainment by local children. For more info please call 076 362 300

................................................................................BBQ Buffet All You Can Eat

Only B325 per person at Shakers. Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong. Reservations 081 891 4381.................................................................................

AA Phuket Meetings @ TGMAll meetings are one hour long and held in English at The Green Man Pub, one km from Chalong circle.Contact 081 895 4763.

................................................................................Lose Weight Now

Ask Thai Weight Loss how! Take advan-tage of our free weight loss seminar from 7.15pm. Contact Michael 087 897 8997, 076 304 108, www.thailandweightloss.com.

DAILYBrew Great Beer

Phuket’s one and only small batch hand-craft beer. Open every day for lunch and dinner 11am until midnight. Live music from 7.30pm onwards. Behind the ship, the port zone at Jung ceylon. For reservations call 076 3667 753. Facebook.com/fullmoon brewwork.................................................................................Grizzly’s Sports Bar & RestaurantWatch all the sport that is on TV this week-end with us. Located between Loch Palm Golf Course and Kathu Waterfall. Call 087 471 8747.................................................................................Sunset Happy Hours & Ninjazz

Don’t miss the Sunset happy hours. Be-tween 5pm and 7pm. “Buy one get the same one free” promotion. The Luna Bar, Centara Grand Beach Resort. 076 201 234.

List your events here for as low as B99 per line, or online at www.thephuketnews.com/events.phpWHAT’S ON IN PHUKET

Wednesday Quiz Night @ Peppers

Quiz Night every Wednesday at Peppers Sports Bar near Laguna.

-Great food -Great music -Great beer.

Contact 081 728 1010. Facebook: Peppers Sports Bar.

Brew Great BeerPhuket’s one and only small batch handcraft beer. Open every day for lunch and dinner 11am until midnight.

Live music from 7.30pm onwards. Behind the ship, the port zone at Jung ceylon. For reservations call 076 3667 753.

Facebook.com/fullmoonbrewwork.

Chef’s DinnerChef Dinner Wednesday at Surin Gate Kitchen, four-course chef’s menu, B750 per person. Great food with unique flavours by awarded Chef Daniel Isberg and Chef Coki.Reservations by email suringatekitchen @gmail.com or call 076 324 4577.


thephuketnews.com

Beverly Hills Kata: 3 bed B14 million incl. furnishings > 37CLASSIFIEDS

JOBS34

To advertise here visit: thephuketnews.com/classifieds.phpJOBS IN PHUKET

Portfolio Analyst (full time)A unique opportunity to join this pioneering wealth management boutique in Phuket. We are looking for a highly-motivated employee, who has a passion for client service and for the investment profession. Candidates will grow with our company and must be able to multi-task numerous projects. The role involves regular contact with our high net-worth clients around the world.

Remuneration: thb 30k - 35k / month + annual bonus

Working Place : Office in Phuket Boat Lagoon

Applicants must: be female and of Thai nationality; speak and write excellent English; have a university degree in finance or business; have a minimum of three years' experience in finance or business; have strong PC skills, in particular MS Excel.

The role consists of: investment portfolio performance analysis and reporting; investment product analysis and new product research; regular client contact, including new client account opening and ongoing account administration; liaison with our trading platforms and banking partners.

Please send your curriculum vitae to:Jaruwan Naksalab, assistant to Managing Director:

[email protected]

" independent advice for the new f inancial era"

Cleaner Part Time: Location Patong behind football ground beach road. Call 089 972 3861.

Divemaster Intern-ship: Well established di-veshop at Nai Yang Beach offer Divemaster Intern-ship to the right candidate (male, thai national, basic english)from Open Water Diver all the way to become a PADI Divemaster with the possibility to work for us. Please send email to [email protected].

N a t i v e E n g l i s h Teacher : Cha long Kindergar ten is look-i ng f o r ex p e r i enc e d teacher for class of 10-12 chi ldren ages 3 -7 years old. Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm. Start January 4. Call 080 624 7060. Resume to phuketpre [email protected].

Maid: Live in Thai maid To take care of house in Chalong and give daily massage to Farang. Pay B14,000 per month with mo-torbike to use. Age 35 to 50 and speak English. Email

Talent/Performer for Event company: Event Company is looking for bands, singers, dancers & any kind of single or group performers. hr@phukete-ventcompany.

Sales Executive: Ex-perienced sales executive needed to join expanding publ icat ion. Candidate

information about your-self to [email protected].

Elite Fitness: Personal Trainer – Classes instructor (Aerobics, Body Combat, Body Pump, Yoga Etc.) Thai or foreigner, Male/Female. Contact Tiya 089 600 0041. Email: [email protected].

Class Act Media publishes The Phuket News – Phuket’s leading Englishlanguage newspaper – and broadcasts Phuket's most vibrant and coolest English language radio station – Live 89.5 FM.

Class Act Media Co., Ltd.99/7, Moo 1, T. Kathu, Phuket 83120Tel: 076 612 550-2 Fax: 076 612 553E-mail: [email protected]

w w w . t h e p h u k e t n e w s . c o m

We are currently seeking

SALES MANAGER (THAI OR FOREIGNER)RESPONSIBILITIES:- Reaching sales target- Developing and following up new sales leads- Self discipline in developing and managing sales volumes- Preparing regular sales activities reports to the General Manager- Excellent communication and negotiation skills - Self driven and motivated with a positive attitude- Work well under pressure and achievement orientedCompetitive salary, bonuses and travel expenses, Friendly work environment, social security (10%) paid by the company, excellent career progress opportunity

INTERESTED APPLICANTS ARE INVITED TO APPLY BY SENDINGA FULL RESUMÉ IN ENGLISH WITH A RECENT PHOTO & EXPECTED SALARY TO:

M a s s a g e S h o p Staff: New massage shop on Karon needs staff for massage, facial treatment and manicure. Salary plus commission. 12 a.m to 12 p.m. 6 days a week. 089 128 4783 Pui (Thai).

ence required, excellent salary on of fer. Please contact K. Rin at 076 203 012 or send CV to [email protected].

Driver Wanted: For pri-vate car, good English, part time. Call 089 054 4354.

Staff Needed: Bliss Boutique hotel is looking for reception and kitchen staff. Are you interested or want to know more info? Salary starting at B7,000 per month. Give us a call at 085 619 4963.

Sales Genius Want-ed: International operat-ing company is building a Google-like street tour. Apply at max@panomat ics.com.

N a t i v e E n g l i s h - Speaking Teacher: Need nat i ve Eng l i sh -speaking teacher with abil-ity to speak, read and write Thai. Call 081 803 7189.

English-Speaking Waitresses: Deepaval Restaurant/The Lounge bar in Bang Tao requires three English-speaking waitresses. Conatc 080 722 3377.

Companion/Social Secretary: Single fe-male 20-32. Good Eng-lish, slim and attractive only. Live in separate high-end condo accom-modation. Able to travel internationally. Position requires day-to-day ac-tivities of semi-retired English/Canadian busi-nessman. Can be part time. Salary 15 - 40K per month. Photo ap-plication to [email protected] and call 089 054 4354

Looking for a Team-Member

Employment - Scu-ba Diving: Urgently seeking two instructors to run a small dive shop in Phuket. SSI Instructor is a big plus, good English a must. Please send CV to [email protected] or call 076 381 765.

E x p a n d i n g O u r Team: Looking for Finn-ish or Swedish speaking Instructor to join our ex-isting team in secluded but busy location. Please send your CV to [email protected] or call 076 381 765.

must be focused, disci-plined and organised. Eng-lish fundamental. Please contact [email protected] or call 087 281 0994.

W a i t r e s s / W a i t e r and Receptionist: Urgently required for Sen-sive Hill in Kathu. Similar background and experi-

Apple Mac Sup-port: Apple Mac tech-nical support needed to help with computer issues in Surin area. Please email [email protected].


thephuketnews.com

35CLASSIFIEDS

To advertise here visit: thephuketnews.com/classifieds.phpBUY & SELL IN PHUKETBUSINESS SERVICES

Tile It: Thalang. Wana Park on Srisoonthorn Rd. Phuket’s quality tile boutique. Tiles for interior, exterior, residential, commercial. Contact 076 620 168 or 081 424 2828. Email [email protected].

Phuket Consult Ser-vices: Insurance, personal assistance, legal assistance, police and emergency assis-tance, property management sales and rentals, company registration, visa and work permit and accounting. Call 081 691 9679.

Protect your home with CCTV: CCT V & Alarm service. Protect your home with high-quality CCTV camera,and GSM alarm. Free survey and quote. Please call 086 105 8144 or click www.huketechnology.com.

Toursys: Tour operator soft-ware. Presented by Blue D Zine Co., Ltd. See bluedzine.com.

Farang Food Paradise: Your specialist of imported food and drinks in Phuket. Visit our shop at the Billion Plaza, opposite Tesco Lotus. Contact 076 612 733, 076 248 900. www.phuketfood.com.

Indo Construction: 40 years experience of more than 20 years at your service in Thailand. Main contractor: study project, architecture design and construction and management. Contact 076 381 895.

CARS FOR RENTCar for Rent: Car in good condition, short and longterm rental with first class insur-ance and delivery service. Contact 086 690 6007, email: [email protected].

A1 Car Rentals: Fully-insured. Starts at B12,000 to B18,000 per month. Please call 089 831 4703. Email for more info: [email protected].

CARS FOR SALE

1943 Model Jeep (Ford) for Sale: Well-maintained,

BOATS & YACHTS

Dinghy Size 2.45 metre: Inflatable tubes. Rigid hull and cover. Used only in fresh water. B65,000. (new B100,000) 081 728 0140 or email [email protected].

BUSINESSES FOR SALE

Bar Bangla Road for Sale: In popular Soi Croco-dile. Three years lease paid. Price B2.7 million only. Con-tact [email protected] for more info.

Kamala Bar for SALE!: Very profitable bar on main road. Owner returning to Aus-tralia in high season. Has one bedroom with ensuite, three FS TVs, pool table, stock, fur-niture. etc. Price negotiable. Call Chompoo 084 844 3504.

Business for Sale: Phuket slingsshot, Thailand’s only, and bumper cars. Call 082 419 0742.

runs well B190,000 or nearest offer. Call 081 728 0140 or email: [email protected].

Car for Sale: Teana top model 2010. Travelled 22,000 km. Sell B1,240,000. Please call for more details on 087 276 0529.

CHILDCAREKiddies Home Nurs-ery: Award for top Nursery for Phuket Province 2011. Ages 3 months to 4 years. Open 7 days a week and from 6.30 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. Rock Gar-den Village. Call 076 528 862, mobile 082 539 8252, kiddie [email protected].

Buds Nursery: Phuket’s oldest bi-lingual international child care facility. High-quality, time-proven schedule and cur-riculum. Experienced native English teachers to teach ages 1½ -6. Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm. Bus service available. Contact 076 282 232.

A BC I n t e r na t iona l Nursery: Education for chil-dren 18 months to six years old with experienced native English teachers following the UK EYFS curriculum. Contact 089 971 1813.

CLUBSSKAL International Phuket: Skål is a profes-sional organisation of leaders from all branches of the travel and tourism industry. www.skalphuket.org.

Singapore Club Phuket: Calling all Singaporeans in

Phuket to join “Singapore Club Phuket”. Contact Robin on 081 803 7189, 076 303 500.

COMPUTERS

Eng l i sh Co m p u t e r man: Sales (new and used), service and repairs, WLAN a speciality. Free telephone ad-vice. Contact 0846 257 744 or email [email protected].

DIVINGPhuket Scuba Club: PADI 5 Star Centre. Half-day, day-trips, live-aboards and diver education. Contact 076 284 026. All 4 Diving: 5/4 Sawatdi-

rak Road, Patong Beach. Call 076 344 611.

EDUCATION

Guitar Lesson By Pro Player: Guitar/bass lessons beginner to advanced. Per-sonal one-on-one or by DVD. Diploma of Teaching (Aust) degree. Call 089 777 3063.

International Kindegar-ten: International Kindergar-ten. Native English teachers, UK and Singapore curriculum, small class sizes. The best choice. Call 082 323 1188.

35ft Bay Liner Motor Yacht: Year 2009, twin 260HP Mercruisers, Air-con. Navigation, TV/DVD/ surround, fridge/freezer, coffee machine, vacuum, flush, full bimini enclosure, many other options. Im-maculate condition, a steal at B3.99m. [email protected], call 089 971 0278.

Private Luxury Yacht Charters: Luxury day and overnight yacht char-ters with crew and chef on board. Rates from B49,000 per day. Contact 089 971 0278, Visit our website at www.yacht-charter-thai land.com.

Under Water Video Package For Sale: Sony CX150 HD Vid.Cam-era with Equinox HD6 housing. B35,000 or best offer Call 084 630 2165.

J e e p W r a n g l e r 2.0 Litre Manual for Sale: B300,000. C a l l f o r m o r e d e -tails on 086 268 8701.

Jeep Wrangler 2.0 Litre Auto: Stain-less, disc-brake, power-s tee r ing . B 4 4 0,0 0 0 . C a l l 0 8 6 2 6 8 8701.

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Please hand in this form at our office or fax to: 076 612 553

Deadline: Monday 12pm (noon) for that Friday’s issue

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WRITE YOUR CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT

Pegasus 8.2M - Late 2006: SUZUKI 140 HP - 4 strokd - 300 hours. Fully equipped. Location: Boat Lagoon. Price: B700,000. Contact 086 268 7901, [email protected].


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CLASSIFIEDS36

To advertise here visit: thephuketnews.com/classifieds.phpBUY & SELL/HOMES IN PHUKETbypass road. Contact 085 785 4440.

PERSONAL SERVICES

English-Thai Law Of-fice: Visa, work permit, com-pany formation, property trans-fer etc. Please telephone for advice. Contact 084 063 9223.

Live Music By Colin Hill: Popular expat pro musi-cian (guitar/vocals) with work permit. Can perform solo, duo or band. www.play-guitar.net, 089 777 3063.

Phuket Visa: Offers con-sulting and services on com-pany registration, work permit, visa, accounting, auditor, legal advice. Contact for details on 081 892 9960.

Kata Hot Yoga: The most popular Yoga for men and women in Phuket. Four class-es every day. Kata yoga, it works! www.katahotyoga.com, Contact 076 605 950.

Havana Cigar Shop: Opposite HomePro Village Chalong. Contact 081 956 2024. Email: [email protected].

Techworx: Custom design & installation. Professional service and support. Premium service: home cinema, home automation, marine AV and IT, lighting control and multi-room audio-video. Call 084 443 9863.

EDUCATIONLearn Thai at Home: Female Thai teacher with 8-9 years experience gives Thai and English lessons for company/hotel staff and Thai cooking at your home. Full course with conversa-tion practise and home study material. Both at beginner and more advanced levels. Call 081 797 1497 or Email teacher [email protected].

Native German Teacher: Native German TEFL teacher is teaching German and English to single students at home or small groups in Chalong. (Ger-man/English) 080 778 1220, (Thai) 081 810 9115.

Cooking School: Fire up your creative flare with Food Services Cooking School. Italian, Western and Thai cui-sine. Try our famous pizza school. Call 082 816 0126, email: [email protected].

Rawai Progressive School: International private school for ages 3-12 years, offering Montessori education. See our website montessori-thailand.com.

Dos & Don’ts of Thai Culture: Learn Thai and Thai culture that is necessary

for enjoying life in Thailand. Group classes three days per week, learning about the real dos and don’ts of Thailand. The Genius Language School, call 089 203 9270 (Aooddy). Visit www.thegeniuslanguag eschool.net.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS FOR SALE

51 Inch Plasma TV: Sam-sung PS51D450, 2 weeks old, can see working. Free deliv-ery in Patong. Beautiful pic-ture. Price B20,000 ono.Call 0824231247, [email protected].

Moving Sale: Sign frame and a l l um in ium C s la t s s ize, 10m x3m. A i r- con.(1)40,000BTU, (2)20,000BTU. Shop glass front. All going cheap, call 087 276 0529.

Health Food Store: Online health food store in Thailand. Good karma, all natural healthy, natural and organic products. Contact 0822761675.

MOTORBIKES FOR SALE

CBR 150 modified 30K: CBR 150 9 years old, modified w/ 250 fork, rear. Big 250 rub-ber, one of a kind motobike. B30,000. Call 080 530 9555.

MOTORBIKE SERVICES

Dynamic Tyre Balanc-ing: Dynamically balance your motorcycle tyres for a smoother r ide with DYNA BEADS! Available at West Coast Service Center Phuket. Your big bike specialist on the

Mali Massage :Mali Mas-sage,100 9-10 Soi Post Of-fice Patong Beach Phuket Kathu 83150. The most beautiful, serene and tranquil facilities in Patong Beach.This is an all inclusive origi-nal Thai massage shop. Original Thai massage, Deep Thai, Swedish, foot mas-sage and many more. Facial, aroma therapy full service manicure, pedicure including acrylics. Hair-braiding, wax-ing. Fish spa too.www.malimassage.com. Open Daily 10 am - midnight. Call 081 087 2460.

Atmanjai: World’s best natural health programmes to improve health, reduce stress, weight loss, detox, rejuvena-tion, vitality and overcome dis-ease. See more info at www.atmanjai.com.

American Health Clinic: Chiropractic spinal adjustment with an experienced chiroprac-tor can take away the pain almost as quickly as it began. Call 076 612 707.

Bon Café Phuket: A producer of premium coffee blends and powdered mixes as well as selling, maintain-ing, servicing and repairing all major brands. 076 355 600-1.

PET ADOPTION

Lost From Home in Kathu: Shizu dog, male, five years old, short hair, a bit skinny, has black spot on the tips of both ears. Lost from home in Tungthong village Kathu. Anyone see please contact 083 391 1700.

Why buy a pet?: Soi Dog Foundation have over 300 beautiful dogs and puppies available for adoption. Ful-ly-vaccinated and sterilised. Contact 087 050 8688, email: [email protected].

PET HOSPITALChaofah Pet Hospital: 8/28–29 Moo 9, Chaofah East Road. Contact 076 283 365.

POOL TABLES

Phuket Pool Tables: www.phuketpooltables.com. Your number one billiard and snooker supplier in Phuket. Sales, rent and profit-sharing. All accessories and services. Call 081 823 4627.

Rawai Beach Front House: Rawai beach front house for sale/long term rent. Three beds, three baths with three air-con. Cable TV, ADSL on area 1600 sq metre. Call 089 649 9939.

Yamaha Serow for Sale: 220cc, year 1996. Sale B45,000. Please contact Khun Nicolas (fa-rang) 083 176 4265. Khun Ball 081 084 9532 (Thai).

Honda Phantom 200cc 2007: Good condition with green book and insurance. B57,000. Call 080 700 5560.

PROPERTY CONCIERGE

PROPERTY FOR RENT

Kata Beach Centre Phuket: Apartments for rent and lease in luxury build-ing with pool. Per day, week, month, year and 30 years. Contact Scott Bolls, email: [email protected], call +66 81 828 0972.

Beach Frontage: One bedroom self-contained holiday villa Rawai. Rental Day/Week Call 081 677 1641.

Apartment for Rent in Patong: New condo with swimming pool, security 24/7. 46sq metre, furnished. Daily/monthly. 089 728 4005 or email: [email protected].

Selling or Renting Your Property?: We have buyers for foreign free-hold, sea view properties and land. Call 080 143 2929 or visit realestate.phuket.net.


thephuketnews.com

37CLASSIFIEDS

To advertise here visit: thephuketnews.com/classifieds.phpHOMES IN PHUKETPROPERTY FOR RENT

Rent Kata One-Three Bed Apartments: Superb apartments and pool pent-houses 115-375 sq metre, less than five minutes walk to two beaches (Kata and Kata Noi) Call 081 078 1246.

Apartment for Rent in Rawai: Business nine apartments, fully-furnished with swimming pool & office. Contract 081 893 2165.

PROPERTY FOR SALE

Patong Guesthouse: 8 rooms, internet cafe and apartment. B1.3 million. Call for details on 0857946530

Kata Phuket Luxury Studio/Apartment: 60 sq metre. Lease hold 30+60 year option. Free furnish-ing and tranfer. B3.0 million. Contact Scott Bolls, email: [email protected], call +66 81 828 0972.

Luxury Villa, Phuket Loch Palm: Plot: 650 m², own water, solar, living area 280 m², furnished, carport, 80 m² pool, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, 5 flat tv, ADSL,

Cable TV. 19.5 million Thai Baht. +66 (0) 88 381 0012, email: [email protected].

Nice Three Bed House for Sale: Three-bedroom house in Moobaan Tarn Thong Villa opposite Moobaan Chao fa California. B3.1 million. Con-tact Lee on 081 803 7189.

S e a v i e w L a n d A o Makham for Sale: 33 rai land upon hill with seaview. Very easy access from road. B5 mil l ion per rai. Email: w a p e e b o w @ g m a i l . c o m .

J I N DA R I N B E AC H CLUB & RESORT: Ocean-front Eco Resort on Coconut Island (three minutes off shore from Phuket). Private pier, pri-vate boat taxi, beach, beach pool, spa, sunset restaurant, elegant cottages. Coconut Island is only 20 minutes from Central Festival shopping. Hurry, 26 plots already sold. Call 083 520 0020, 076 238 732. Web: jindarin.com.

New Apartment for Sale Patong: Condo: swimming pool, security 24/7. Furnished,

Land for Sale: 11 rai, one kilometre from Naiyang beach. B6.5 millions per rai.Please call : Siriporn +66 (0) 896 499 939.

SEAVIEW LAND FOR SALE: Near Chalong pier, 150 metres from the sea. Three rai and one ngan plot. Chanote title. Price: B20 mil-lion per rai. No agent. Call 087 278 7206

Thai Style House for Sale: Teak wood floors, stairs, walls, 2 bedroom. Land 330 sq metre, peace-ful location, five minutes to Patong, Chanote title. B5.0 million. 086 268 8701, email: [email protected].

THE SUNRISE OCEAN VILLAS

After a great success of the first phase, the Sunrise Ocean Villas is now starting to build the 8 other villas of "Phase2". The price of 17.9 million baht makes the proj-ect one of the most compet-titive on the island for being only 60m from the beach.

Each vil la has an living area of over 300 sqm, has 3 spacious bedrooms, all sea views, 5 bathrooms, a 10x4m infinity pool, maid's quarter and a covered 2 car-parking. The houses are specially designed to guarantee a complete priva-cy, with an open panoramic view of the sea.

Come visit the villas and you will be wonderfully sur-prised by the quality of the project as well as the quality of life you can find here.

For appointment or more details, contact the project director Khun Monta at 081 343 0777 (Thai, English & German) Email: thesunrise [email protected].

www.thesunrisevillas.com

46sq metre, freehold: B2.9 mil-lion. Contact 089 728 4005 or email: [email protected].

Best Offer B4.85 million Townhouse: Two bedroom townhouse. The owner wants quick sale hence below market price asking B4.85 million. Contact 081 396 0880.

URGENT Land for Sale: By Mission Hills Golf Course. -1/2 rai of land (Chanote) B1.6 million. -6 rai, sea/mountain view. B4.2 million per rai. Con-tact Stan on 087 978 5804-3.

Perfect Land for Villa: Perfect land for villa. Approx three rai, with chanote title, 2 km south of Thai Muang town centre. Just 24 km north of Sarasin Bridge. Good road ac-cess and electricity. Very quiet, green area. Urgent sale for just B5 million total, non-negotia-ble. Contact 089 652 1951 or email [email protected].

Sea view villa: Luxury seaview Patong-Karon villa, four bedrooms, private pool. Sell for B22 million, and also

available rental daily and mon-thy basis. Please check more info at www.awphuket.com.

Private Pool Villas: Intira Villas is a development of 15 boutique villas in the heart of Rawai. Second phase open now! Only a few villas avail-able. Contact 083 594 9279.

Modern Pool Villa: Stunning three-bedroom pool villa, five minutes from Laguna 600 sq metre plot in peaceful location. Finished to a very high specif ica-tion “MUST SEE” Selling price B12.9 million. Please contact 084 994 9303 or email [email protected].

Two Rai Beachfront Land Khao Lak: Free-hold Chanote land at Khao Lak Beach, 3,312m2, price only B5,500,000 a rai. Call 081 651 9687.

Nice Garden Villa in Nai Harn: Private sale. Must see. 1,600 sq metre land, 240sq metre living area. Located in a quiet area. www.villa-sophia-phuket.com. Call 087 823 7371 (Deutsch and English).

Boat Lagoon Pool Villa: Modern four-bed-room, four-bathroom villa with 8x4 metre pool for sale freehold with chanote title or leasehold. Newly-built, 316 sq metre internal area. In beautiful marina complex, just 5 minutes drive to British International School.Photos and price online: See www.thevillaphuket.com.Con-tact owners to view: 081 270 1970 (Josh) and 081 270 2070 (Michi). Agents welcome.

Sale or Rent: Spacious four beds/ four baths home in secure estate, fully-fur-nished inc 50” plasma TV. Pool & sala, 10 minutes to BIS, HSI, Central and three golf courses.

Sale B15.9 million nego-tiable! Rent B65,000 per month, owner pays common area and garden. Minimum 12-month lease. Contact Jen 083 967 5777.


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CLASSIFIEDS38

STORAGE

HOME IMPROVEMENTHOME IMPROVEMENT

Personal & Business Storage

Motorcycle Storage

Left Luggage Service

We Sell Boxes

Sizes to Suit all Budgets

Storage Insurance Inclusive

Reserve Your Storage Space

Call 076 29 29 09or visit mystorageasia.com

Jungceylon Shopping Center, Patong, Phuket

Secure, Clean & Cost Effective Self Storage

Wana Park, Srisoonthron Road,Thalang, Phuket 83110

Tel 076 620168 [email protected]

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This is in addition to 600 locations including all 7-Eleven,Big One Supermarkets, Se-ed book stores and all major shopping outlets.

For full list of outlets please visit www.thephuketnews.com/distributionlists.php

Tel: 076 612 550-2

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39ISLANDSPORT

31/1/2012

MOTORSPORT

Young narrows sights on F1Phuket-based Australian rac-ing driver Dylan Young’s prospects of reaching the pin-nacle of motorsport – Formula One (F1) – have been given a boost, with the 22-year old receiving an offer to drive in the 2012 GP3 Series.

The GP3 series is two levels below F1, and races at all of the European Formula 1 Grand Prix events.

The offer comes from the Marussia Manor team, the junior squad of the Marus-sia Virgin F1 team. More importantly, the team gives its drivers the opportunity to have a test drive with the Marussia Virgin Formula 1 team in November.

The F1 test d r ive is awarded to the highest placed Marussia Manor GP3 driver at the conclusion of the 2012 championship, giving Young a one in three chance of getting the opportunity.

Young said: “It’s a big confidence boost to receive this offer and to know that despite the financial setbacks we have suffered for the last two years, people are still recognising my talent on the opportunities I have had to race.

“It’s a pretty exciting time to receive the GP3 offer from a prominent team and have the opportunity to drive the Marussia Virgin Formula 1 car this November. Even though I have to finish ahead of the other two Marussia team mates, I’m confident in my ability to do so.

“It’s something millions

around the world dream of [to drive an F1 car] so I’ll be doing everything possible this year to win the F1 test. An F1 test this November would make me hungrier to achieve my goal of breaking into the pinnacle of motorsport and it would also assist me to develop myself as a driver to the next step in GP2 before finally banging

down the door into F1.”Dylan’s handlers are se-

lecting a core group of long term European based spon-sorship interests to support the career plan to Formula 1. However, Dylan says he is keen to reserve a place in the core sponsorship group for members of the Phuket business community.

Fighters win Bangkok DARETwo MMA fighters from a small Phuket gym shone at the DARE Fighting Championship in Bangkok on January 7, with both achieving good wins.

Representing Phuket at the event were Major Overall from the US and Ammar “Rock” Tchalabi from Saudi Arabia.

For the last 12 weeks both Major and Rock have been training at Phuket Top Team, a Chalong gym owned and operated by Australian Boyd Clarke.

Major won with an impres-sive rear naked choke submis-sion only 1 minute, 38 seconds into Round 1. The fight was fierce and swift. Fighter friend Rock also won his fight by ver-bal submission only 1 minute 34 seconds into Round 1, after he hammered his opponent Andre “Capo” Signorini.

Clarke said Phuket Top Team was very proud of the fighters for doing so well in the tournament, and helping to put Phuket on the MMA map.

“We are just a small gym and we have been open less than six months. Having two great fighters that won their fights within seconds means that we must be doing the right thing.”

Though the results are likely to lead to an increase of inqui-

ries, Clarke intends to keep student numbers small. “For now we want [a] maximum 60 students per month so we can be able to focus on quality. I truly believe in quality over quantity and it’s proven to be the right virtue with Rock and Major.

“Of course we will grow, but I’ll take it slow and steady.”

Major, 30, is part Japanese, Native American, African American and European, and was once a US Government employee, then later an English teacher in Taiwan. He gave up

his day job at age 26 to train in MMA and is hoping to make a career out of it.

Being a small man, Ma-jor opts for simple moves and maneuvers to make his opponent submit, without having to use much physical strength. He takes his time analysing his opponent before making a move.

However, if Major is all about brain, his fighter friend Rock is all about brawn – opt-ing to stand his ground and wear down his opponent with

strength. His nickname comes from a reputation for being tough and immovable – often maintaining a straight, expres-sionless face during his fights.

Rock, aged 25, began learn-ing karate, taekwando and other martial arts at age 11. He arrived at Phuket Top Team last year, and like many other fighters who already have a Brazilian jiu jitsu or grappling background, started immedi-ately training in Muay Thai and MMA. –Kazira Hans

Young’s stunning performance at last year’s Singapore F1 Grand Prix support event caught the eye of the Marussia Manor GP3 team. –Photo by Sutton Images

Ammar “Rock” Tchalabi, a student at Phuket Top Team, lays into Andre “Capo” Signorini. –Photo by Luke Chaya and DARE FC

The first pre-season test of the year takes place from February 21-22 and Young advised that if there is any interest on the island, sponsor-ship partnerships need to be in place around the testing dates.

Further tests are also scheduled in March and April before the commencement of the GP3 Series season at the

Spanish Formula One Grand Prix in May.

The first stage of the career vision aims to begin with a GP3 series assault in 2012 before moving up to GP3’s big sister, the GP2 Series from 2013-2014 as a final prepara-tion for a Formula 1 seat.

“I’m hoping with this ca-reer plan we have set out, that I can carry the Phuket name right into F1 in the com-ing years. As we are getting closer to Formula 1 it means we have some really exciting offers for anyone wanting to come onboard and I’m invit-ing people to contact me to find out what’s in store for these limited partnerships this season and in the next three years.”

It was Young’s stunning performance at last year’s Singtel Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix in the JK Rac-ing Asia Series support event that particularly caught the eye of the Marussia Manor GP3 Series team, and they have since been in contact with Dylan about a drive for this season.

Dylan can be contacted directly at [email protected] or by visiting dylanyoungracing.com.

Soft tennis compPhuket Soft Tennis Club held the first round of the “Soft Tennis Thailand Open 2012” at Saphan Hin Tennis Court on January 7 and 8.

Around 30 players from across Thailand competed, which consisted of under-15,

under-18 and open age group divisions.

Soft tennis is played on an identical court to regular tennis, though uses a softer, rubberised ball, specialised racquets, and is more acces-sible to all athletic abilities.


thephuketnews.com

ISLANDSPORT40

The Cat recalls his many livesCricket legend Phil Tufnell was the image of an Englishman when he turned out at The Village Coconut Island last Friday night – he was sporting a sunburn the colour of a cricket ball, not that it appeared to dull his usual geezerish personality.

‘Tuffers’ was in Phuket on a two week vacation, and while he had obviously spent a little too much time “chilling and relaxing” in the sun, he took a night out to entertain a group of fans at The Vil-lage, recounting some of his memories from his career as an English spin bowler.

A n d ispropor t ionate amount of those memories seemed to involve him being hit out of the ground.

“The first time I bowled to Sachin Tendulkar he came up and thanked me afterward. He scored 195.”

And the ‘Little Master’ wasn’t the only batsman to get the better of Tufnell, it seems. “I had the privilege of bowling to Brian Lara – for two days,” he said.

It was this apparent ease of scoring he provided which earned Tufnell one of his many nicknames; The Waugh broth-ers of Australia called him

‘Vindaloo’, “because every time I bowled to them I gave them the runs.”

His more popularised moni-ker, ‘The Cat’, is derived from his well-publicised off-field antics. “Out all night, sleep all day. Taking a piss in the next door neighbour’s yard. I’ve never been rogered by a ginger bloke called Tom though.”

‘The Cat’ was always one to walk on the wild side, making headlines both on and off the field. Though as he puts it, he never had much of a chance; “[Former English Test captain] Ian Botham – he was my role model, which wasn’t the best start. He used to have a rule that

he would never come home on the same day he went out on.”

But despite his self-depre-ciative humour, Tufnell is still regarded as one of the best spin bowlers of his era, even if his Test bowling average of 37.68 is not reflective of the talent he possessed.

What ability he had with the ball must have come at the expense of his batting though, because Tufnell averaged just 5.1 in Test cricket, making him a strong claim for the worst international player ever to wield the willow. He was a born number 11, though if you ask him, “I batted at number 11 because I didn’t like walking

off alone.”Despite most bowlers giv-

ing him a fairly difficult time when he was at the crease, if there was one man he feared most, it was West Indian pace-man Curtly Ambrose.

“Curtly is a scary man on and off the field. I’ve seen him

in the shower. When he gets out, there’s just footprints and a line on the floor.”

But since his success – and a few failures – on the field, Tufnell has moved on to a successful career in television, a transition he has made with apparent ease.

For him, the change of pace from the rigors of Test cricket is a welcome one.

“You just turn up really, and have a good time. It’s great... the only way they could improve that for me is if they hold it in a pub.”

The Cat didn’t get the chance to check out Phuket’s new dedicated cricket oval, the Alan Cooke Ground, but expressed some surprise that such an established league exists on the island.

“It never ceases to amaze me where you can find cricket being played,” he said, though ruled out any chance of mak-ing a cameo appearance in the Island Furniture League.

As to whether the game has a bright future in Asia, “Who knows? Australia is not far away. India is not far away. It’s got a lot more to give than just the game.”

So what was next for this cat who has lived more than his fair share of lives? “I’m gonna finish this beer, then who knows?”

The evening at The Vil-lage also saw two framed autographed bats go under the hammer, raising B53,000 for the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.

–Dane Halpin

Above: Phil Tufnell demonstrates his questionable batting prowess. Right: Two framed autographed bats were put under the hammer. –Photos by Absolute World Group

Lizards left to lament missed opportunitiesThe seventh match of the Island Furniture League season on Sunday saw a battle between two former champions, Island Cricket Club (ICC) and Liquid Lounge Lizards (LLL) at the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG).

Both teams were languish-ing at the bottom of the table going into the clash, and were each looking to secure their first win of the season.

LLL won the toss and de-cided to bat. They got off to a steady start, surviving the first 10 overs without loss.

However, immediately after the drinks break, Ian Lenton (19) was bowled by D Vaigankar with the score on 38.

Steady progress contin-ued until fellow opener Neil Thatcher (16) was run out shortly before the second drinks break in the 19th over with the score on 65.

Ian Henry (44) then took on the anchor role of the innings, while partner Neill Culpan (40) improved the run rate for a 78 run partnership before Henry was dismissed in the 35th over with the score on 143.

Culpan and LLL captain Nifty Catts (11) then pushed the score along to 163 before Culpan was dismissed in the 38th over with the score on 164. At the completion of 40 overs, LLL had posted a de-fendable total of 188 runs for the loss of five wickets.

Pick of the bowlers for ICC were P Bokar (1-39) and A Chand (1-36).

In reply, ICC were watch-ful at the start of their innings, hoping to see off LLL’s pace attack of Culpan and Catts.

However, Catts struck in the seventh over, bowling V Kumar (11), and Culpan sought to outdo his captain by striking twice in the next over, clean bowling ICC opener I Khan (10) and then removing ICC captain Chand for a duck.

Culpan struck again imme-

diately before drinks, bowling D Vaigankar (1) to leave ICC reeling at 4-32.

However, after S Kumar (59) survived a dropped catch on zero, he and B Dessai (39) put on a match-winning 97 run partnership.

Dessai was eventually dis-missed in the 31st over with the score on 138. A Khan (25) then came to the crease and was dropped early in his innings before being adjudged lbw off the bowling of Catts with the score on 7-175 in the 36th over.

LLL were still in with a chance if they could remove Kumar, but they were unable to do so, and ICC eventually picked off the runs to achieve their target of 189 in the final over of the innings. Pick of the bowlers were Neill Culpan (4-41) and Nifty Catts (2-29).

The Island Furniture LeagueTEAM PLAYED WON LOST POINTSLaguna CC 2 2 0 12The Village 2 2 0 12Patong CC 2 1 1 8Thanyapura News Tigers 2 1 1 7Island CC 2 1 1 6Liquid Lounge Lizards 2 0 2 3Phuket Leopards 2 0 2 1

CRICKET

CRICKET


thephuketnews.com

41ISLANDSPORT

FOOTBALLPlans to rename FC Phuket and move the side to Bangkok have been sidelined following a backlash from supporters and a last minute sponsorship deal.

“Let me tell you here; we have been in deep red. Have been for a while now,” club consultant Paitoon ‘Ko Men’ Chutimakornkul told The Phuket News.

“Our lifeline was the OrBorJor, like many other local football teams around Thailand. So when the Office of the Auditor General Thailand froze OrBorJor funding, we were in serious trouble.

“Do you know [FC Phuket Chairman] Nauruebat ‘Ko Lek’ Aryupong had to borrow B3.5 million against his house and borrowed B2 million from his sister to keep FC Phuket above water?”

That money, apparently, has been used to pay footballers over the past month since the OrBorJor funding dried up. But Ko Lek had stretched his funds to the limit.

“He asked businesses in Phuket to step in and take charge from him. He said he was more than willing to let them run the team, but only on one condition: FC Phuket must stay in Phuket. But no one seemed to want to step in,” Ko Men said.

“Then there were a few groups interested in FC Phuket. There were Belgian investors, through Robert Procureur [of Muang Thong United], Khun Vinit Lertrattanachai, and some Dutch investors, but they seemed to lose interest quickly.

“We had no choice but to approach Khun Rawi Lohthong of Siam Sports Group. Khun Rawi had told us that he would act as the last resort for us; we could come to him only if we couldn’t find anybody else. So we went to see him.”

Siam Sports Group is owned by Thai Premier League club Muang Thong United.

Club consultant Ko Men proposed the idea that chair-man Ko Lek would hand over FC Phuket to Khun Rawi. Ko Lek could then build a second division team in Phuket using

some of Muang Thong United’s footballers.

Ko Lek planned to call his new team ‘Phuket Town’ and compete in Division 2 Southern Region. He submitted an ap-plication to the FAT (Football Association of Thailand) for Phuket Town on December 19 last year, and announced that he would hand over the rights of FC Phuket to Khun Rawi,

But when plans were an-nounced to relocate FC Phuket, fans started to express their anger and disappointment. The team’s Facebook fanpage was loaded with emotional messages bidding farewell to their beloved team, as well as directing anger towards politicians who they believed were responsible for their side’s decline.

The news spread quickly, and Chairat Prasert, a Phuket Wittayalai student and avid fan of FC Phuket, wrote a farewell piece on Facebook that was then published on Thailandsusu.com, recalling his time as an FC Phuket fan and lamenting how different his life would be without the club.

This article was picked up by the heir to Siam Sports Group – the son of Khun Rawi, who took it to his father.

Over the past two years, Khun Rawi Lohthong has been supporting FC Phuket financially.

Khun Rawi agreed to let his son take charge of FC Phuket, but he had his own condition; Ko Lek and Ko Men must remain with the club.

“Khun Rawi’s son will take care of players, marketing, ad-ministration, PR and coaches,”

said Ko Men, “but Ko Lek and myself must remain with the team, at the very least as advisors. If we agreed to this, FC Phuket would remain here.”

It was then that Ko Lek dropped his idea of building a Phuket Town football team, and agreed to the ‘One Province One Football Team’ idea; one FC Phuket for Phuket.

All this happened just days before their January 7 game against Bangkok FC.

At the game, Ko Men an-nounced the news to FC Phuket fans at Surakul Stadium, who at that time were thinking that the match would be the Southern Sea Kirin’s last ever home appearance.

When Ko Men took to the microphone and announced the news, the fans went ecstatic; most were not even concerned at the 1-4 loss that ensued.

The decision to keep the side in Phuket could have been prompted by the actions of a local businessman who had been supporting FC Phuket for a long time.

When he learned of FC Phuket’s dire situation, Khun Pramuk Achariyachai, owner of Kata Group, phoned Ko Men, asking to be put in contact with Khun Rawi Lohthong to discuss a sponsorship deal for the side.

“Khun Pramuk and Kata Group had been great sup-porters of FC Phuket over the past years, but lately they were out of touch with FC Phuket’s internal issues,” Ko Men said.

“He [Khun Pramak] was quite upset to learn that FC Phuket would end this way, without any help and sup-

port from local business, so he decided to do something about it. He called for an alli-ance between Kata Group and Muang Thong United.”

Ko Men said: “I can’t tell you in any detail until the deal is agreed to. But I can say that it will be FC Phuket with Muang Thong United helping on the sidelines, and Kata Group as the main sponsor.

“As to the footballers, we might see more coming from Muang Thong United as they have many footballers – over 80 of them – that can play in Division 1, but we will have to see how things go.

In words that most of the island’s football fans have been waiting to hear, he added: “FC Phuket will be here for a long, long time.” –Kazira Hans

Last minutedeal keepsFC Phuket on the island

Thai Division 1

Paitoon ‘Ko Men’ Chutimakornkul, right, pictured here on his Facebook page with former Bayern Munich manager and Germany captain, ‘Der Kaiser’ Franz Beckenbauer.

Team P W D L GF GA PointsBuriram FC 33 25 7 1 83 17 82 Chainat 33 20 3 10 65 42 63 BBCU 33 17 9 7 38 25 60 PTT Rayong 33 16 8 9 52 28 56 Songkhla 33 15 10 8 52 37 55 Bangkok United 33 15 6 12 53 47 51 Saraburi 33 11 14 8 39 30 47 Raj Pracha 33 13 7 13 40 52 46 Phuket 33 11 12 10 45 44 45 Suphanburi 33 9 14 10 38 37 41 Bangkok 33 13 2 18 54 61 41 Air Force United 32 10 10 12 36 51 40 Chanthaburi 33 10 8 15 33 47 38 Rangsit JW 32 9 9 14 29 41 36 Customs United 33 10 5 18 39 53 35 Chiangmai 33 7 8 18 34 53 29 RBAC Mittraphap 33 5 10 18 24 55 25 Thai Honda 33 6 6 21 33 67 24


thephuketnews.com

INTERNATIONALSPORT42

FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL

United beat 10-man CityCostel Pantilimon says Man-chester City have emerged from the FA Cup loss to Man-chester United with their con-fidence intact as they prepared to face Liverpool in a League Cup semi-final first-leg clash on Wednesday.

The Premier League lead-ers saw their four-pronged trophy bid ended with a 3-2 defeat to rivals Manchester United in Sunday’s thrilling FA Cup third-round showdown at the Etihad Stadium.

However, City at least

emerged from the contest with their heads held high having fought back from a 3-0 deficit with 10 men following skipper Vincent Kompany’s 12th-minute dismissal.

And goalkeeping under-study Pantilimon, who was handed a rare start ahead of Joe Hart, insists their self-belief has not been dented because of the way they fought back.

“It has not damaged our

confidence,” he said.“It was an interesting

game, but losing a player after 10 minutes is not normal. It was a foul but a normal foul and not a direct red card.

“We were surprised that the referee gave a red card after 10 minutes.

“At this level it is not nor-mal and when you play a team like United it is important you have 11 men.

“But this is football and anything can happen. In the second half we played better,

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THIS MONTH'S COMPETITION IS SUPPORTED BY:

DANE’S TIPS ROUND 20

Tottenham v Everton home winAston Villa v Everton home winBlackburn v Fulham draw Chelsea v Sunderland home winLiverpool v Stoke home winMan Utd v Bolton home winTottenham v Wolves home winWest Brom v Norwich drawNewcastle v QPR away winSwansea v Arsenal away winWigan v Man City away win

ROUND 19 RESULTS:

Man City 3 - 0 LiverpoolTottenham 1 - 0 West Brom Wigan 1 - 4 SunderlandFulham 2 - 1 Arsenal Aston Villa 0 - 2 Swansea Blackburn 1 - 2 StokeQPR 1 - 2 NorwichWolves 1 - 2 Chelsea Sunderland 1 - 0 Man CityWest Brom 0 - 1 Everton

THIS YEAR’S GRAND PRIZE IS SPONSORED BY:

Manchester United goalie Anders Lindegaard stretches to save Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero’s shot during the sides’ FA Cup third-round match -Photo AFP

scored two goals and had a chance to get the draw.”

City appealed against Kompany’s red card, but the appeal was dismissed on Tuesday.

The Belgium international will miss the next four matches having already been sent off once this season, meaning will miss both legs of the League Cup semi as well as matches against Wigan and Tottenham.

Meanwhile, Craig Bellamy says Liverpool will be out for revenge against his former

club following their recent 3-0 defeat to City in the league.

“For me, I didn’t believe the 3-0 scoreline was quite correct and this is not just me with my Liverpool head on, but if I was watching the game as a neutral we had 66 per cent of possession, which is a lot for an away side, espe-cially against a team of Man City’s calibre.

“It was all about taking opportunities. Pepe (Reina) made a mistake for the first goal but the other goals came

from a corner and a penalty.“We were knocking on

the door. Stewart [Downing] had a great chance and in the second half we had chances we could have made more of.

“It’s a two-legged match and we have to make sure we are still in the tie. We have the second leg at Anfield and this club knows all about two-legged games, so if we can get it back to Anfield still very much in the tie we will have a great chance of getting to Wembley.

THE PHUKET NEWS TIPPING COMPETITION: 20

There were no Barclay’s Premier League matches played over the weekend, meaning ranks and results in The Phuket News tip-ping competition remain the same. However, there was still plenty of action on the football field as the third round of the FA Cup got underway.

The pick of the round was the blockbuster match at Etihad Stadium, where a fighting 10-man Manchester City eventually went down to a fortunate Manchester United.

Premiership side Wigan fell to Swindon on Saturday, but top-f light Tottenham, Norwich and West Brom are all safely through.

Meanwhile, Stevenage, Sheffield United and Watford all have their names in the hat for the fourth round draw, while Newcastle left it late to dash the dreams of Premier League rival Blackburn.

Wigan took the lead against Swindon, but were

pegged back by Paolo Di Canio’s giant killers, and Paul Benson netted what proved to be the clincher in a stunning 2-1 win for the Robins.

A spectacular solo effort from Hatem Ben Arfa and a stoppage-time winner from Jonas Gutierrez ensured that Newcastle remain in the hunt for FA Cup glory, with a for-gettable season for Blackburn hitting a new low.

Tottenham swept aside in-form League Two side Cheltenham, with Jermain

Defoe, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Giovani dos Santos easing them to a 3-0 success.

The Barclay’s Premier League gets back underway this week, with what should be a few decent matches.

Arsenal will be keen to ride the jubilation of Thiery Henry’s fairytale return when they take on Swansea at the Liberty Stadium, Chelsea will be keen for a comprehensive win over Sunderland, and Man City will be keen to put their FA Cup loss behind them by racking up a big win over Wigan.

This month’s competition winner will take home a B3,000 voucher from Aus-tralia Bar and Grill in Kata, where you can watch all the international sport on 50’’ plasma screen TVs or on the big screen.

Albatross Lufthansa City Center have also jumped on board as major sponsors for the tipping competition, and will be donating the major prize for the year: A return flight from Phuket to the UK.

You can jump online and get your tips in by vis-iting: thephuketnews.com/match-user.php

WEEKEND OF HIGH DRAMA


thephuketnews.com

43INTERNATIONALSPORT

Coming up

Run 1349: Saturday January 14 at 3:30pmHares: Nothing & Chicken George

Directions: Chao Fa West. Turn up the hill at the PTT station (HHH), on the road where Ratatouille’s restaurant was, and carry on up past the end of the tarmac. Bus: Baan Rim Klong, Kamala: 14:00 and Expat Hotel, Patong: 14:30.

Hash House Harriers

Ligue 1 Team P W D L F A Pts

1 Paris SG 19 12 4 3 31 17 402 Montpellier 19 11 4 4 39 23 373 Lille 19 9 9 1 33 19 364 Lyon 19 11 2 6 31 21 355 Stade Rennes 19 9 5 5 29 23 326 Marseilles 19 8 7 4 27 18 317 Toulouse 19 8 7 4 20 17 318 Saint-Étienne 19 8 6 5 23 21 309 L'Orient 19 6 6 7 18 21 24

10 Bordeaux 19 5 8 6 20 22 2311 Evian TG 19 5 7 7 27 29 2212 Brest 19 3 12 4 19 19 2113 Valenciennes 19 5 5 9 18 21 2014 Caen 19 5 5 9 24 29 2015 Auxerre 19 4 7 8 26 30 1916 Dijon 19 5 4 10 20 35 1917 Nice 19 4 6 9 21 23 1818 Nancy 19 4 6 9 17 26 1819 Sochaux 19 4 6 9 21 34 1820 Ajaccio 19 3 6 10 20 36 15

TENNIS

West Brom v Norwich 22:00

Sunday January 15

Newcastle v QPR 20:30

Swansea v Arsenal 23:00

Tuesday January 17

Wigan v Man City 03:00

Saturday January 14

Aston Villa v Everton 22:00

Blackburn v Fulham 22:00

Chelsea v Sunderland 22:00

Liverpool v Stoke 22:00

Man Utd v Bolton 22:00

Tottenham v Wolves 22:00

Barclay’s Premier League(Times in Thailand)

Premier League Team P W D L F A Pts

1 Man City 20 15 3 2 56 16 48 2 Man United 20 14 3 3 49 20 453 Tottenham 19 13 3 3 36 20 424 Chelsea 20 11 4 5 39 25 37 5 Arsenal 20 11 3 6 36 28 36 6 Liverpool 20 9 7 4 24 18 347 Newcastle 20 9 6 5 29 25 338 Stoke 20 8 5 7 22 31 299 Norwich 20 6 7 7 30 35 25

10 Sunderland 20 6 6 8 27 23 2411 Everton 19 7 3 9 20 22 2412 Swansea 20 5 8 7 20 23 2313 Aston Villa 20 5 8 7 22 26 2314 Fulham 20 5 8 7 22 26 2315 West Brom 20 6 4 10 19 28 2216 Wolves 20 4 5 11 22 36 1717 QPR 20 4 5 11 19 35 1718 Bolton 20 5 1 14 25 43 16 19 Wigan 20 3 6 11 18 41 1520 Blackburn 20 3 5 12 29 43 14

The Championship Team P W D L F A Pts

1 Southampton 25 14 5 6 47 28 472 West Ham Utd 25 14 5 6 40 23 473 Cardiff City 25 12 9 4 41 27 454 Middlesbrough 25 12 9 4 30 23 455 Reading 25 11 6 8 32 25 396 Hull City 25 12 3 10 26 25 397 Blackpool 25 10 8 7 39 31 388 Leeds United 25 11 5 9 39 36 389 Derby County 25 11 4 10 30 33 37

10 Burnley 25 11 3 11 37 33 3611 Crystal Palace 25 10 6 9 24 24 3612 Leicester City 25 9 8 8 33 28 3513 Brighton 25 10 5 10 26 28 3514 Birmingham 23 9 7 7 31 25 3415 Peterborough 25 9 6 10 44 41 3316 Barnsley 25 9 6 10 35 38 3317 Portsmouth 24 8 7 9 27 25 3118 Watford 25 7 9 9 27 34 3019 Bristol City 25 7 6 12 23 34 2720 Ipswich Town 24 8 3 13 34 47 2721 Millwall 25 6 8 11 24 28 2622 Nott’ Forest 25 7 3 15 21 39 2423 Doncaster 25 6 4 15 22 43 2224 Coventry City 25 4 7 14 20 34 19

Bundesliga Team P W D L F A Pts

1 B Munich 17 12 1 4 43 10 372 Dortmund 17 10 4 3 35 12 343 Schalke 17 11 1 5 38 22 344 Borussia M 17 10 3 4 25 11 335 Bremen 17 9 2 6 30 31 296 B Leverkusen 17 7 5 5 22 22 267 Hannover 17 5 8 4 20 24 238 Stuttgart 17 6 4 7 23 20 229 Hoffenheim 17 6 4 7 19 19 22

10 Köln 17 6 3 8 27 35 2111 Hertha Berlin 17 4 8 5 24 26 2012 Wolfsburg 17 6 2 9 23 34 2013 Hamburger 17 4 7 6 21 27 1914 Mainz 17 4 6 7 22 29 1815 Nuremberg 17 5 3 9 17 28 1816 K'lautern 17 3 7 7 13 21 1617 Augsburg 17 3 6 8 15 28 1518 Freiburg 17 3 4 10 21 39 13

Serie A Team P W D L F A Pts

1. Milan 17 11 4 2 37 16 37 2. Juventus 17 10 7 0 28 11 373. Udinese 17 10 5 2 24 10 35 4. Lazio 17 8 6 3 24 17 305. Internaz’le 17 9 2 6 27 19 29 6. Napoli 17 7 6 4 32 19 277. Roma 17 8 3 6 23 19 278. Catania 17 5 7 5 20 25 229. Fiorentina 17 5 6 6 18 15 21

10. Cagliari 17 5 6 6 15 17 2111. Palermo 17 6 3 8 19 23 2112. Genoa 17 6 3 8 19 27 2113. Atalanta 17 6 8 3 23 21 2014. Chievo 17 5 5 7 13 20 2015. Parma 17 5 4 8 21 31 1916. Siena 17 4 6 7 19 17 1817. Bologna 17 5 3 9 16 24 1818. Novara 17 2 6 9 18 33 12 19. Cesena 17 3 3 11 9 24 1220. Lecce 17 2 3 12 17 34 9

‘Sports Talk’

Saturdays 9AM - 12PM.

Only a brave punter would bet against one of the ‘Big Four’ lifting the Australian Open men's title, but picking a win-ner from the women’s draw is a hazardous task.

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – the top three in the men’s rankings – have an enviable haul of 30 grand slams between them in a golden period for the men's game. Just behind them lurks the hungry Andy Murray.

In sharp contrast, the top three female players have a combined total of just one slam and last year there were four different champions in tennis’ blue riband events, as the women’s game waits for its next big thing.

And acknowledged super-stars Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams, both ranked outside the top 10 but sharing 17 major titles, are nursing recent injuries that could take the edge off their title challenges.

Belgium’s Clijsters, cur-rently ranked 12th, is defending champion at the year’s open-ing grand slam, after beating Li Na in the 2011 Melbourne final, before the Chinese player went one step further at the French Open.

Second seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic won on grass at Wimbledon and Australia’s Samantha Stosur took the US Open title, upset-ting home favourite Serena Williams in the September 11 final in New York.

The name missing from the 2011 list of winners is top seed Caroline Wozniacki, still yet to

win her first grand slam, whose world number one ranking is under imminent threat from rising star Kvitova.

Third seed Victoria Aza-renka of Belarus has never been beyond the quarter-finals in Melbourne but reached the Wimbledon semis last year.

By contrast, fourth seed Maria Sharapova has grand slam pedigree, with three major titles – the last in Melbourne in 2008 – but the Russian is again battling injury as she struggles to shake off a left ankle problem.

Stosur will have the crowd behind her as Australia’s first women’s grand slam champion in decades, but she has already admitted feeling the pressure after early exits in Brisbane and Sydney this month.

Li, last year’s runner-up, is back in form after a disappoint-ing second half of last season.

Venus Williams remains sidelined, and world number 10 Andrea Petkovic pulled out on Wednesday with a stress fracture in her back.

Also confident of being fit is five-times winner Serena Williams, still the biggest draw in the women's game, who was forced to withdraw from the Brisbane event after painfully spraining her ankle.

The 13-time grand slam winner has won on three of her past four visits to Melbourne, and has not lost a match since falling to Jelena Jankovic in the 2008 quarter-finals.

–AFP

Battle for No. 1: Kim, Serena lurk

Serena Williams serves at the 2011 Rogers Cup. –Photo by Zanka M


thephuketnews.com

Exclusive:Phil Tufnell on balls, bats and getting the runs> 40SPORT

INTERNATIONALSPORT44

FOOTBALLMOTORSPORT

KING HENRYThierry Henry tried to play down expectations after mark-ing his Arsenal comeback with the winning goal in the Gunners’ FA Cup victory over Leeds.

The 34-year-old France World Cup-winner, Arsenal’s record goalscorer, came off the bench to slot home the only goal of the game with a typically composed finish to seal a 1-0 third round success in front of his adoring fans at the Emirates Stadium here on Monday.

Henry, who left Arsenal for Barcelona in 2007, has returned to north London on a short-term loan deal from New York Red Bulls with Major League Soccer now in its close season.

And there remains the possibility he could feature in the derby against arch-rivals Tottenham, currently third in the Premier League table and six points in front of Arsenal, at the Emirates on February 26.

In the meantime Henry urged Arsenal fans not to get carried away by the manner of his return.

“I know I scored, but that is not going to happen every time I play. I don’t know if my runs were intel-ligent or not but that’s the way I play,” Henry said.

“I am going to try to bring what I can. Maybe another

time it won’t be enough, but I will always try my best.”

Henry, who recently saw a statue of himself unveiled outside the Emirates, added: “I love the club – I say it so many times. We are not going to redo the story – I just love the club and that’s how it is.

“If the boss [Arsene Wenger] needs me for 30 seconds, a minute, if he doesn’t

need me, I am going to try to be around the guys and help in the dressing room.

“I am here to be anoth-er player, to help the squad and that is it.”

Wenger was delighted to have his compatriot back on board.

“What is good for the young players at the club is that a guy like Thierry, who

has done it all, comes and pre-pares 100 per cent, warms up, is focused and motivated, and comes on with an immense desire to do well.”

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp was not surprised by Henry’s performance against Leeds.

“I watched the game and knew Henry would score, it was written, some are meant

to happen. It was just amaz-ing,” Redknapp said.

“I hope he doesn’t make too big an impact because we want to finish above Arsenal this season, which is not go-ing to be easy, but I am sure he will have some impact on the football club.

“Having people like that around the place is worth their weight in gold.” –AFP

OLYMPICS

Britain firm in defence of lifetime doping banThe British Olympic As-sociation (BOA) on Tuesday reaffirmed its hardline stance in wanting to impose life-time bans for drugs cheats, a policy which the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wants to overturn.

The issue, which has split the two organisations in a public row, is set to be decided when the Court of Abritration for Sport (CAS) meets on March 12 to rule on the valid-ity of the BOA's 20-year-old bylaw that imposes a lifetime ban on any known doper from

representing Britain at an Olympic Games.

If the BOA lose the case, it could mean that athletes such as cycling's David Millar and sprinter Dwain Chambers – both convicted drug cheats – could be free to represent Team GB at this year's London Olympics, which start in July.

WADA have argued the BOA bylaw goes beyond their own regulations and amounts to an extra sanction for a doping offence.

But BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said on Tuesday:

"The current WADA policy of a serious doping offence just leading to a two-year ban is sending out absolutely the wrong message to young people across the world

"Our message is different. Our message is: if you go out there and you take a cocktail of drugs and you knowingly cheat a fellow member of your team out of selection from the British Olympic team, you will never be selected.

"That message will have

stopped a lot of athletes who might have been tempted to take drugs to enhance perfor-mance in the past from ever going near them.

"That's why we have had very few positive tests be-cause everyone knows the consequences to those who use drugs to cheat.

"If they are taken away, we think that would be wrong and it would be sending out simply the wrong message.

"We want to make sure we select clean athletes for the Games and we want to make

sure that aspiring athletes know that we are going to take a very tough line."

Moynihan added: "We will not select those who have knowingly cheated to deny clean athletes selection from the British Olympic team.

"It's a bylaw that has been supported by 90 per cent of our athletes for 20 years and it's one that we will vigorously defend."

The BOA have engaged a high-powered legal team but, should they lose their case at the Swiss-based CAS, Moynihan will continue his

bid for WADA reform."If we don't win on March

12 then we will be campaign-ing hard to see far-reaching changes and reforms within WADA itself," he said.

In November, Moynihan delivered a stinging attack on the agency, saying it had "failed to catch the major drug cheats of our time", adding: "Marion Jones and countless others have flourished during the WADA era – isn't that enough to prompt an independent audit of the organisation tasked with policing sport?” –AFP

Raikkonen determined to prove F1 doubters wrong

Kimi Raikkonen on Thurs-day blasted critics who claim he’ll struggle to re-capture his world cham-pionship glory days when he returns to Formula One with Lotus this season.

The Finn won the 2007 world title before leav-ing for the World Rally Championship where he spent two years.

“There has been quite a bit of noise in the press about my comeback and there have been a lot of rumours,” Raikkonen told the Lotus official website. “It has no effect on me.

“Sometimes you hear nonsense and sometimes you hear nice things. The main thing is that coming back is what I wanted and I have a good opportunity with the team so I’m happy.

“I have never really looked at what people say or think. I do my own thing and as long as I’m happy with it then that’s the main thing for me.”

Raikkonen will undergo his first testing session later this month.

The 32-year-old – win-ner of 18 grand prix before he switched to the World Rally Championship in 2009 – will drive the car in Valencia on January 23 and 24 and will test out this year’s model with team-mate Romain Gros-jean in early February.

GOAL CAPS FAIRYTALE RETURN

-Photo AFP

Documents

13-01-2012