March 31 - April 6, 2007Volume 14 Issue 13 News Desk - Tel: 076-236555 Daily news at www.phuketgazette.net 25 Baht

NEWS 6; AROUND THE ISLAND 10;CHEAP EATS 13; HAPPENINGS 16;MOTORING 19; TAKE A BREAK 25& 26; BOOKS, PHUKET DIARY 27;EDITORIAL, LETTERS 28; HORO-SCOPES, MOMMA DUCK 30; YOUTH

’N ASIA 31; COMPUTERS 32;BUSINESS AND MONEY 34 & 35;CLASSIFIEDS 44-55.

The Gazette is publishedin association with

NEWS: Police box set ablaze;Heroin pushers and cocainemules arrested. Pages 2 & 3

INSIDE STORY: Land probescandals - a Phuket tradition. Pages 4 & 5

AROUND THE REGION: Investi-gation begins on child murdercase. Page 7

AROUND THE SOUTH: Policeraid well-known brothel.

Page 8

AROUND THE NATION: Cop in-volved in assault, attemptedmurder. Page 9

PEOPLE: Phuket’s piano manat the Dusit. Pages 14 & 15

LIFESTYLE: Students’ expres-sive art; One fantastic Day.

Pages 20 & 21

SPA MAGIC: Finding rejuvena-tion at The Chedi. Page 22

THAILAND TRAVELER: A simpleisland life. Page 23

FIRST PERSON: Phuket roadsare costing society. Page 29

SPORTS: ACYC; ESPN starsin golf fundraiser; Darts party;Mis-matched boxing.

Pages 36 & 37

PROPERTY: Gardening: Re-cycle and reuse; Decor:Blending cultures; Construc-tion; Home of the week.

Pages 38-43

IN THIS ISSUE

Aussie arrested forabducting daughter

TRACED: Australian John Leary, who allegedly abducted his daughterand fled to Phuket, faces extradition. Photo: Yongyot Preuksarak

PLUS

PATONG: An Australian fatherwho abducted his own daughterand demanded 30 million bahtfrom his estranged wife was ar-rested at his rented apartment onRat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd at 8 pmMarch 23.

Pol Lt Col YodakeRaksasuwan, Inspector atPhuket Immigration Office, toldthe Gazette that John JustinGoyen Leary, 39, was arrestedafter police discovered hiswhereabouts by tracing his mo-bile phone calls to a local pizzarestaurant.

Col Yodake explained thatLeary had collected his three-year-old daughter Savannahfrom school on October 26 lastyear, then fled with her toSingapore before entering Ma-laysia.

“From there he sneakedinto Thailand without passingthrough Immigration. The mostrecent entry in his passport is anentry stamp for Malaysia, so webelieve that his intention was tohave police presume that he was

still in Malaysia,” he said.Col Yodake said that Leary

had allegedly demanded 30 mil-lion baht from his American-bornestranged wife, who was grantedcustody of Savannah during theirdivorce, to have Savannah re-turned to Australia.

“Leary had been staying at

ADD Mansion in Patong sinceJanuary 14. In late February, hecalled his wife in Australia on hismobile phone and said that hisdaughter was now staying withhim. If she wanted her daughterback, she would have to transfer30 million baht to him,” ColYodake said.

“After that, his wife con-tacted the Australian police,” headded.

An investigation by Austra-lian police led to the discoverythat the call was made fromPhuket.

Phuket Immigration offic-ers searched mobile phone com-pany records and found thatLeary’s phone was used to or-der pizzas from a restaurant inPatong.

“So we checked with therestaurant and they showed uswhere he was staying,” ColYodake explained.

He added that Leary hadalso made several calls to a phar-macy to place orders for Valium.

Leary has been chargedwith illegally entering the King-dom.

At the time of going topress, Leary was being held byImmigration in Bangkok pendingan extradition request by Austra-lia.

Savannah was taken to thePha Ya Thai Children’s Resi-dence, also in Bangkok, and hasbeen picked up by her mother.

PHUKET CITY: About 300 an-gry villagers from more than 20slum communities protested nois-ily outside Phuket Provincial Hallon March 22, demanding thatPhuket Governor Niran Kalaya-namit help alleviate their poverty.

Protest leader Supat Nun-khao, from Pla Katak Pattanacommunity on Koh Sireh, told theGazette that the villagers wantthe provincial authorities to de-

Phuket’s poor protest govt inactionvelop their homes and basic ser-vices.

“Everyone in our villageshas been waiting for help from thegovernment for a long time, butwe still have nothing,” he said.

K. Supat said that, apartfrom wanting a decent home andaccess to utilities, the protestersalso want to be free from the riskof being charged or evicted dueto encroachment, as many do notlegally own the land they live on.

“There are some villagers

now living on public land, but wedon’t get development assistancefrom anyone. All the governmentagencies just pass the buck.

“The Tambon Administra-tion Organizations (OrBorTor)don’t take responsibility andpush us off to the Provincial Ad-ministration Organization(OrBorJor).

“The OrBorJor sends usoff to the provincial authorities,and the provincial authorities tellsus it is the Land Office’s respon-

sibility. Now no one helps us,” hesaid.

Initially the villagers insistedthat they would not leave untilthey had spoken to the Governordespite being told that he wasaway in Bangkok.

About 3 pm, Vice-Gover-nor Tri Augkaradacha returnedto the hall and representativeshanded him a letter demandingthe province come to the com-munities’ aid. The protesters thendisbanded.

By Janyaporn Morel

By Supanun Supawong

N E W S2 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

RASSADA: A “temporary” police box in-stalled at the entrance to Pahin Namsai Vil-lage, located off Ruam Pattana Rd, has turnedout to be very temporary indeed. It was burnedto the ground by persons unknown at about4:30 am on March 19 – just one week after itwas installed.

Lt Col Adul Niraphai, Duty Inspector atPhuket City Police Station, told the Gazettethat construction of the box was financed by

Police box torched

Domestic flights returnto Don Muang AirportBy Semacote Suganya

By Supanun Supawong

SHELLED OUT: The remains of the week-oldpolice box at Pahin Namsai Village in Rassada.

a local man identified only as “K. Opas”.Fearing for his safety, K. Opas had

asked for better police protection following adispute with other residents of the housingestate.

After questioning K. Opas and otherlocal residents, police believe the arson attackwas carried out by K. Opas’s adversaries asan act of intimidation, Col Adul said.

However, no arrests have been made inthe case as there were no eyewitnesses, headded.

PHUKET: Thai Airways Inter-national (THAI), Nok Air andOne-Two-GO domestic flightsbetween Phuket and Bangkokhave resumed services at DonMuang Airport, Bangkok’s for-mer international airport.

Kalayapha Panich, THAI’sDistrict Sales Manager for Up-per-Southern Thailand, explainedthat THAI flights to and fromBangkok run from both airportsin the capital.

“Passengers are welcometo choose which destination theywant: Don Muang or Suvarna-bhumi. We are happy to make thechanges and do our best forthem,” she said.

Each day until October 27,the first THAI flight from Don

PHUKET: Several thousand bik-ers from all over the world areexpected to participate in the 13thAnnual Phuket Bike Week 2007to be held April 14 and 15 byPhuket Riders Club and RideThailand Magazine.

Throughout the weekendbikes such as Harley-Davidsons,BMWs, Ducatis and Hondas willbe touring the island, including aprocession through Patong, Kata,Karon, Promthep Cape, Rawaiand Thalang.

Past Phuket Bike Weekshave enticed at least 5,000 people

Muang to Phuket is at 7:20 amand the final flight at 7:30 pm.The first flight from Phuket toDon Muang is at 9:25 am andthe last flight departs the islandat 9:35 pm.

Also until October 27, thefirst THAI flight from Suvarna-bhumi to Phuket is at 8 am andthe last at 6:20 pm. In the oppo-site direction, the first flight fromPhuket to Suvarnabhumi is at10:10 am and the last at 8:40 pm.

THAI flights using DonMuang Airport will be coded withfour digits, starting with 1 – TG1203, for example – while thoseoperating out of SuvarnabhumiAirport will have just three digits,K. Kalayapha explained.

Nok Air has announced anew flight schedule, which cameinto effect March 25, corre-sponding with its move to DonMuang. Daily flights to Phuketdepart Don Muang from 7:30 amthrough to 5:55 pm Mondays toThursdays and Saturdays, and alate service departs 8:10 pm Fri-days and Sundays.

Nok Air daily flights to DonMuang depart Phuket from 9:15am to 7:45 pm Mondays to Thurs-days and Saturdays, and a lateservice departs 9:55 pm Fridaysand Sundays.

One-Two-GO also resumed

using Don Muang on March 25,but has kept some services fly-ing to and from Suvarnabhumi.

Flights to Phuket departSuvarnabhumi at 2:30 pm daily;and at 10:20 am on Mondays,Tuesdays, Thursdays and Satur-days; and at 6:20 pm on Mondays,Wednesdays, Fridays and Sun-days.

Flights from Phuket toSuvaranbhumi depart the islandat 12:10 pm daily; and at 8:10 amon Mondays, Tuesdays, Thurs-days and Saturdays; and at 4:20pm on Mondays, Wednesdays,Fridays, and Sundays.

Daily flights to Phuket de-part Don Muang at 7 am, 10:40am, 2:30 pm and 6:20 pm, whileOne-Two-GO flights departingPhuket for Don Muang leave at8:50 am, 12:30 pm, 4:30 pm and8:10 pm.

Phuket business ownerVatchara Pongsa, who regularlyflies between Phuket and Bang-kok, told the Gazette that she isvery happy that flights have re-turned to Don Muang.

“Suvarnabhumi is too bigand too far to walk inside, it takestoo long to get my luggage. Butat Don Muang, everything ismuch more convenient. It is justa short walk to the car park or toget a taxi, and the cost of a limoor taxi is much cheaper at DonMuang,” she said.

Phuket Tourist AssociationVice-President Panu Maswongsatold the Gazette, “There shouldbe no problems for passengersflying to and from Phuket. Noth-ing much has changed; passen-gers just need to check andspecify which airport they wantto go to,” he said.

Phuket Bike Week returnsto the island. Highlights of thisyear’s festivities include a BigBike and Motor Show on April14 at 4 pm and a Biker FashionShow by Harley-Davidson Bang-kok at 9:30 pm that night.

Both expos will be held atThainaan restaurant, oppositeCentral Festival Phuket, onWichit Songkram Rd.

On April 15 activities will becentered around Jungceylonshopping center in Patong and willfeature a Big Bike Party at 7 pmand the Miss Phuket Bike Weekjudging at 9 pm.

Search forbypassshooter

continuesPHUKET CITY: The searchcontinues for a Phuket youth sus-pected of shooting and beating aman on the bypass road on Feb-ruary 19.

Chatchai Chuenjitsoonthornand his wife, Maliwan, were at-tacked by a motorbike gang ofabout 20 youths while on theirway home from a late-nightmeal.

The couple identified theshooter from police photographs.The attack was motivated by theyouths allegedly not liking theway K. Chatchai looked at them.

Maj Sompong Boonrat,Deputy Inspector at Phuket CityPolice Station, told the Gazettethat an arrest warrant has beenissued for the alleged shooter.

“We are continuing to inves-tigate and have some more smallclues to work with in bringing thecriminals to justice,” he said.

PHUKET: Paying your utility billsis only one click away. The Soft-ware Industry Promotion Agency(SIPA) has launched its “OneClick Finish All: One Stop Ser-vices” initiative through thewww.thaionestop.org website.

The website, for now in Thaionly, accepts online payments forwater, electricity and telephonebills, but users must have an ac-count with Bank of Ayudhya.

SIPA launches utilitiespayments website

March 31 - April 6, 2007 N E W S P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 3

PATONG: Kathu Police arresteda Vietnamese couple on March25 for possession of heroin withintent to sell, seizing more than40 grams of the drug.

Acting on information pro-vided by an informant, a team ofofficers from Kathu Police Sta-tion led by Investigations Inspec-tor Lt Col Serm Kwannimit at 3pm approached a single-room,second-floor apartment on Rat-patanusorn Rd.

As they neared, a shoecame flying out the flat’s frontdoor. Police found 12 small sa-chets of heroin in the shoe.

Inside the room, policefound Vietnamese national TranVan Tien, 38, and his 26-year-oldroommate Don Tee Hieng, de-scribed by police as his wife.

Police searched the roomand found 33 small paper sachetsof powdered heroin with a totalweight of 11.54g, plus severalmore solid chunks of the drugwith a total weight of 30.1g. Theyalso collected three syringes asevidence, Col Serm said.

Knowing the police wereapproaching, the couple threw outthe drug-laden shoe in a desper-ate attempt to hide the evidence,he added.

“After we questioned thesuspects, we learned that theyregularly visit Thailand as guestworkers,” he said, adding thatboth held all the necessary docu-ments to work in Thailand.

Don Tee Hieng, who hadbeen previously arrested for sell-ing fake “brand-name” clothes,was selling wigs and clothing atthe time of her arrest.

Tran Van Tien told policethat when they last entered thecountry, on March 23, he smug-gled in three bars of heroin thathe bought in Vietnam at a totalcost of 7,000 baht. The weight ofeach bar was not disclosed.

Police failed to believe TranVan Tien’s claim that the heroinwas for personal use only be-cause of the amount of the drugseized and the fact that much ofit had already been packed intosmall paper sachets typically usedfor sale to users.

Although Don Tee Hiengtold police she had no knowledgeof the drugs in the couple’sshared room, both were arrestedand charged with possession ofa Category 1 narcotic with intentto sell.

They are now being held atPhuket Provincial Prison.

In another recent drug bust,two Peruvian men were arrestedat Phuket International Airport onMarch 21 with more than twokilograms of cocaine they were

carrying internally.A press release from Som-

yot Santarvorn, Chief CustomsInspector at Phuket InternationalAirport, reported that Godoy PazSadi Mercedes, 29, was found inpossession of 91 packets of co-caine, weighing 883g.

His accomplice, named asPanaifo Walky Elcodoro, 27, hadingested 124 packets weighing atotal of 1,203g.

Thai-language press reportssaid that the men were on an in-ternational flight to Phuket whenone of the men was no longer able

to keep his cargo in, excretingsome of the packages into theairplane toilet.

Upon landing, customs of-ficers found eight feces-smearedpackages of the drug hidden in ashoe.

The men were X-rayed atVachira Phuket Hospital, wherethe rest of the drugs were dis-covered – and recovered.

Both men were chargedwith importing a Class 2 drugwithout permission and are beingheld in Bangkok by the RoyalThai Police Narcotics Bureau.

By Natcha Yuttaworawit& Dominic Earnshaw

Vietnamese national Tran Van Tien can expect hard days ahead ashe faces a bout of heroin withdrawal in a cell at Phuket ProvincialPrison. Standing by him is his partner Don Tee Hieng, who said shehad no idea there were drugs in the couple's shared room in Patong.

Photo: Yongyot Preuksarak

Cocaine traffickersand heroin dealersnabbed in one week

PATONG: An Austrian man was found dead in his hotel room onMarch 22, an apparent victim of alcohol poisoning. According to KathuPolice, 38-year-old Dr Werner Jellen was found dead in room 302 ofPatong Resort Hotel at 2:30 pm.

Pol Lt Col Sophon Borirak reported that there was no evidenceof foul play in the room, in which two bottles of whiskey were found.

Police collected the man’s belongings, listed as 920 euros incash; 13 travelers’ checks with a total value of 8,290 baht; a wrist-watch, two cameras and two suitcases and their contents. Also col-lected was Dr Jellen’s Austrian passport, numbered G09937080.

The daily log, noting that the victim’s body was covered withvomit, listed the probable cause of death as toxic shock and heartfailure from alcohol ingestion.

Austrian found dead in hotel room

Phuket-Penangflights to beginPHUKET CITY: Malaysian Air-lines’ new low-cost carrier Fire-fly airlines will start daily directflights between Phuket andPenang from April 13.

At a March 22 press con-ference at the Royal Phuket CityHotel, Malaysian Tourism Minis-ter Datuk Seri Tengku AdnanTengku Mansor said that Fireflywill start another daily direct ser-vice between Samui and Penangon April 15.

Last year, about 1.9 millionof Malaysia’s 17.5 million tour-ists were from Thailand, andTourism Minister Mr TengkuMansor said that the countrywants to increase that number to2.2 million in the upcoming year.

“This year is a very specialyear for Malaysia because Ma-laysia is going to celebrate our 50years as an independent nation,”he said.

The target is 20.1 milliontourists this year, he added.

Mr Tengku Mansor saidthat this year there will be 240events held in Malaysia, which hehopes will attract Thai tourists.

The Malaysian TourismMinister played down the troublesin Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat,saying that it had little effect ontourism in other areas.

“That’s why I’m travelinghere. I’d like to build confidencein my people that there is nothingwrong with Phuket, Haad Yai,Songkhla or anywhere else insouthern Thailand,” he said.

By Janyaporn Morel

I N S I D E S T O R Y4 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

On October 25 last year,some 30 officials ledby the Muang DistrictChief and Forestry

Department officers raided a con-struction site located behind BaanKrating Resort at Ao Sane, justaround the point from Le Mer-idien Royal Phuket Yacht Club inNai Harn.

The construction wasdeemed illegal, as Forestry De-partment officials said the build-ings were on a national forestreserve. Two construction fore-men were arrested and later re-leased on bail.

The raid followed a ban onall construction at the site issuedAugust 15, 2006 by the RawaiTambon Administration Organiza-tion (OrBorTor).

On March 18 this year,however, the Gazette inspectedthe site to find that not only hadthe 12 buildings been completed,but that foreign guests were al-ready staying in some of theunits.

Knowledge of the comple-tion of the buildings came as sur-prise to some people, includingTechin Weerawong, who wasMuang District Chief Administra-tive Officer (Palad) when he ledthe October 25 raid on the site.

On March 21, he told theGazette, “Really? It’s finishedalready? I didn’t know because Ihave moved to a new position atPhuket Provincial Hall.”

K. Techin, now Chief of thePhuket Provincial Administrativeand Justice Enactment Group, isstill the head of the provincialcommittee investigating the al-leged encroachment at Ao Sane.

However, K. Techin ex-plained that although he was thesenior government officer at theraid, illegal construction in NaiHarn came under the responsi-

bility of Rawai OrBorTor. “Theycan use the law to order a ban onconstruction, but if building con-tinues that means that the build-ers have ignored the order.

“If the buildings are now fin-ished, the next step is for RawaiOrBorTor to inform the policethat the builders have ignored theorder. The OrBorTor has theauthority to do this.

“The latest report I re-ceived from Pol Lt Col Chock-chai Sutthimek at Chalong Po-lice Station was that police werestill investigating whether thebuildings were in a forest re-serve area and that the case hadnot yet gone to court.

“I want to ask the policeabout their progress in this inves-tigation and I want to ask RawaiOrBorTor why they have allowedconstruction to continue afterthey have ordered a ban on con-struction.

“Why haven’t they in-formed the police that the or-

der has been ignored and theyhave continued building the re-sort? I want the media toclosely follow up on this case,because now it’s not in my re-sponsibility now that I havemoved to a new position.”

Lt Col Chokchai, the officerresponsible for investigatingwhether the buildings are on gov-ernment land, was brief in hiscomments to the Gazette. OnMarch 22 he said, “This case isstill under investigation and it hasnot gone to court.

“So far, we have reviewedmany documents and much evi-dence from the old ‘owner’ ofthat land, and we have inter-viewed the Phu Yai Baan for thatarea and Rawai OrBorTor offic-ers.

“Officers from the PhuketOffice of the Forestry Depart-ment are adamant that the build-ings are in a forest reserve area,but we are waiting for the owner[of the buildings] to show us evi-dence that he owns that land,” headded.

A source at Baan KratingJungle Resort, who declined tohave his name printed, told theGazette, “I have several docu-

ments confirming that the build-ings are not on forest land. I havehad these documents for morethan 10 years, since the land wasbought from the previous owner.

“I think the Forest Depart-ment officers misunderstandwhich land is which. We canshow them the land plot markers,which show that the buildings areabout 50 to 60 meters from gov-ernment land.

“The documents have beenconfirmed by three governmentoffices, and I have sent thesedocuments to police officers al-ready. I have permission from theLand Office and the Forestry of-fice that allows us to renovate the42 existing buildings. The build-ings are not on forest land, butwe must wait for that be proven,”he said.

Yet, that still leaves the mat-ter of the resort continuing its

construction of the new villas andguest accommodation in directdefiance of Rawai OrBorTor’sban.

Lt Col Anek Mongkol, thepolice officer responsible for in-vestigating the continued con-struction, said he knew nothingabout the new buildings’ comple-tion.

“If construction has contin-ued, that means they have ig-nored Rawai OrBorTor’s orderto stop building, which is anothercharge in addition to the two ini-tial charges of building the resortwithout permission and disobey-ing an official order,” Col Aneksaid.

“If they have not stoppedconstruction, Rawai OrBorTorhas the authority to ask police toinspect the site. We will comparethe difference in the buildings’stage of completion, which will be

Bureaucratic bungle…The ghost of Phuket’s land probe scandals in 2003

and 2004 has raised its ugly head in Nai Harn withthe completion of 12 new villas and other guest accom-modations developed as part of the Baan Krating Re-sort at Ao Sane in Nai Harn.

The resort owner claims he has a full Chanote landtitle to the land on which the new structures were built,but Forestry Department officials say they can prove itbelongs to them.

To complicate matters, the land in question wasonce SorPorKor land, degraded forest land set for useby the poor for agricultural uses only.

The ownership dispute has now landed in thecourts, but in the meantime guests at the resort get toenjoy their stay literally surrounded by forest.

The Gazette investigates.

ABOVE: One of the new buildings that are complete, somealready have guests staying in them.

BELOW: Rustic is not the word… The guest bungalows areliterally surrounded by forest.

I N S I D E S T O R YMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 5

evidence with which we cancharge them with ignoring the or-der.

“If the court rules that theyhave ignored an official order, itwill be up to the court whetherthe buildings are to removed ornot,” he added.

Col Anek made it plain thattwo arrests have already beenmade, and that if police were totake further action they will needto receive another complaint fromRawai OrBorTor.

However, that complaintmay not be coming.

Rawai OrBorTor PresidentAroon Solos on March 22 told theGazette, “We informed police of-ficers about this a long time ago.The men were arrested, and wechecked again after the [Octo-ber 25] raid and we can confirmthat they had stopped construc-tion.”

K. Aroon was surprisedthat the investigation was stillunder way. “I thought that thiscase would have been taken tocourt by now,” he said, adding thathe had handed the responsibilityfor follow-up action on the caseto Rawai OrBorTor Public WorksChief Bumrung Pimonrattana-karn.

in the Nai Harn jungle

One of the accommodation buildings under construction at Baan Krating Resort on October 25 last year. Rawai OrBorTor orderded a banon construction on August 15, but construction went ahead as the court had yet to rule on whether the building is on government land.

K. Bumrung explained, “OnAugust 15, 2006 we issued anorder for construction of the newbuildings to stop.

“But three days later, onAugust 18, 2006, the owner sentus a letter explaining that the re-sort was not building new struc-tures, instead they wanted torenovate the existing woodenbuildings that were built there in1991,” he said.

“They also attached a courtorder permitting them to do so.”

K. Bumrung said that hewould not be asking police to take

action on the continued construc-tion that saw the new buildingsthrough to completion after theOctober 25 raid.

He says that he has alreadyasked police to do so, and that hisoriginal complaint is what sparkedthe October 25 raid.

“I must look at the law firstto see whether we can file com-plaints that will see extra chargeslaid for action after October 25,”he said.

A senior official at the pro-vincial Forestry Department of-fice, who asked to remain anony-

mous, told the Gazette, “BaanKrating has lodged a claim tohave a Chanote title issued for theland, and that claim is currentlybeing heard in court.

“The Muang District Chiefhas explained to me that whilethe claim is being heard in court,they have the right to build onthe land.

“We know that 37 rai in thatarea has been handed over to theForestry Department, but I’m notsure about the adjoining land –that might belong to the PhuketProvincial Land Reform Office.”

However, the Forestry De-partment officer remains ada-mant that the buildings in ques-tion are on government land.

He said that about 8 rai, 2ngan (about 11,200 squaremeters) is land covered by the1941 Forest Act and one rai(1,600sqm) is regular forestryland.

“We have evidence thatproves it’s forestry land, butnow the case is under investi-gation, which means that it’s upto the court to rule in this case,”he said.

To this, Vittawat Nak-sawad, a lawyer at the PhuketProvincial Agriculture Land Re-form Office (ALRO), concurs.

He told the Gazette, “Aspart of the investigation into BaanKrating, we have inspected thesite with Forestry Department of-ficials and agreed that the landwhere Baan Krating is used tobe SorPorKor land and it wasdefinitely handed over to ForestryDepartment.”

SorPorKor land is govern-ment land that local people wereissued rights to use, but for agri-cultural purposes only, and it isregulated by the AgriculturalLand Reform Office (ALRO).

“But whether a Chanotehas been issued for it I don’tknow, that would be the respon-sibility of the Land Office,” K.Vittawat said.

So was a Chanote land titledeed for the disputed land everissued by the Land Office, andif so – was it issued legally? Thatwill be up for the courts to de-cide – so expect it to takeawhile.

In the meantime, you prob-ably won’t be hearing too manycomplaints from the resortsguests about choice of accom-modations.

N E W S6 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Fundraiser a miraculous successNAI HARN: About 1,000 localBuddhists attending a three-dayfundraising event at Wat NaiHarn received a bit of a shockwhen the temple abbot Ajarn Pra-khun Soonthorn appeared to suf-fer seizures during an intensechanting session on the first nightof the ceremonies on March 15.

The monk later told con-cerned members of his flock thathis sudden change in constitutionwas not from a medical disorder,but rather because he had “feltthe presence” of the deity Jatu-kam Ramathep during the epi-sode.

News of the event came tothe Gazette from Gerard “Jay”Wiseman, 39, and his Thai part-ner Anong Khammeeto, 31, pro-prietors of the Come Inn Bar &Restaurant in Nai Harn. The cou-ple attended morning, afternoonand evening prayer sessions onall three days.

“There were 29 temple ab-bots from all over Thailand, in-cluding one who is 113 years old.Many local Buddhists as well assome from other parts of Thai-land had brought Buddhist amu-lets and statues to be blessed. Wehad brought our collection as wellas a beautiful Pi Ganesh statuewe have in front of our restau-rant to protect against evil andsuch,” Jay explained.

“All of us, maybe 1,000 peo-ple and as many amulets andBuddha image statues were con-nected by a single holy threadduring the chanting…

“There were two womensitting close to us who were me-

diums. They were greatly affect-ed by the ceremony; going intotrances and collapsing. This wasthe norm for the Thai locals, butas a farang it was difficult forme to suppress my interest and

pay attention to the prayers of thechanting monks.

“At the end of about twohours of chanting, the crowd start-ed to clear – that was when theabbot appeared to suffer a sei-

A GOD’S ODDITIES: People attending prayer ceremonies at Wat Nai Harn wereamazed by circular aberrations that appeared in photographs taken at the event.They believe the uncanny resemblance between the circular spots and theconsecrated amulets produced during the fundraiser are evidence of the deityJatukam’s presence.

zure. The crowd rush-ed him, some massag-ing his feet, others put-ting tiger balm underhis nose,” he said.

“I thought may-be he was sufferingfrom heat exhaustionfrom the many hoursof the intense ceremo-nies, but later the nextday we were told thathe had actually felt thepresence of Jatukamenter his body,” saidJay.

Pictures takenby Jay that and thefollowing evening hadstrange circular imag-es that seemed to re-semble the round am-ulets the monks hadprepared for sale atthe event. Jay devel-oped the photos andreturned the next dayto give prints to someof the monks.

“The reactionfrom all was over-whelming with offersof money to have acopy,” he said.

Refusing themoney, he gave thefew photos he had andpromised to return withCDs and a few moreprints the followingday.

Asked if he believed themonk had really felt the presenceof a deity, Jay said, “I am prettyopen-minded and I have had ex-periences in life that are prettyhard to explain… but the energy

By Stephen Fein that seemed to consume every-one there was very positive.

“As for the pictures I took,I have seen similar [aberrations]before but not with the details anddifferent colors – and they aremaking the amulets in these col-ors… But what convinced me thatJatukam really does affect peo-ple deeper than just on the sur-face is that the next day our res-taurant was choc-a-bloc full.

“The whole reason peoplebelieve in Jatukam is the beliefthat if you have faith and pray tohim, Jatukam will bring you goodluck in your business… and wehave been busy every nightsince,” he said.

Jay and Anong showed theGazette some Jatukam amuletsthey had bought during the fund-raiser. Standard-issue amuletsoriginally sold at just 500 baht arenow fetching up to 10 times asmuch among amulet collectors.Some 4,000 of these were made,along with 200 “special edition”amulets. Rumor has it that 21“first casting” amulets have beensold for more than 15,000 baht.

Some Jatukam amuletsmade 30 years ago in Nakon SriThammarat, originally sold for100 baht but now fetch over500,000 baht.

Whether what transpired atthe prayer session in Nai Harnwas a true miracle or not is aquestion of faith, but there is nodoubt that the temple will finishits latest building project: 1.5 mil-lion baht was raised on the firstnight alone and entire proceedsover the three days netted morethan four million baht, the coupletold the Gazette.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 7A R O U N D T H E R E G I O N

Five-year-oldboy murderedin Lipa Noi

F R O M T H EGULF OF

THAILANDBy Barry Singleton

Afive-year-old Thai-Austrian boy wasmurdered and hismother severely in-

jured in an attack in Lipa Noi Sub-district March 13.

The boy and his Thai moth-er, Araphan Yanacroft, 30, weresitting at the rear of their homewhen a man attacked them witha knife.

The boy’s throat was cutduring the attack, and he wasstabbed several times.

K. Araphan sufferedwounds to her throat and wasrushed to hospital where she re-mains in a serious condition.

Lt Col Boonma Kaewla-ead, Investigation Inspector atKoh Samui District Police Station,said forensic evi-dence recoveredfrom the scene ofthe murder hasbeen sent foranalysis. He alsosaid that policeare currently in-vestigating morethan 10 suspectsin relation to thecase.

One line ofinquiry involves abuilding companyhired by K. Ara-phan to build ahouse on the is-land. The ownersof the companyallegedly boughtmaterials worthseveral hundredthousand baht on credit from alocal supplier but neglected to paythe bill. Police interviews have re-vealed this resulted in severalheated arguments between theowners of the company, whohave since disappeared, and K.Araphan.

Another possible reason forthe attack was theft, say police,but they are waiting for forensicresults before reaching any firmconclusions.

The boy’s Austrian father

was in Europe at the time of thekilling and boarded a planestraight to Thailand on hearing ofhis son’s murder. He is also be-ing questioned to determine pos-sible motives.

Stolen cars head to Samui:

Police in Samui have been or-dered to be on the lookout for sto-len cars being imported illegallyfrom Malaysia.

A group of three car thievesapprehended near the Thai-Ma-laysian border in Kota Bahru arebelieved to be part of a larger ringthat buys cars in Malaysia underthe country’s leasing system us-ing borrowed ID cards.

Two of the group wereMalaysian, and one was Thai.

O f f i c e r sconfiscated aToyota Wish thatthe three suspectsadmitted to buy-ing in Malaysiaand were drivingto sell in Thai-land.

“From theinformation re-ceived,” explain-ed Col ChaiyuthNinlawong, Su-perintendent ofSamui DistrictPolice Station,“the thieves gen-erally target Toy-ota Wish or Altismodels, which re-quire a down pay-ment of around

200,000 baht. They then drive thecars to Thailand, crossing the bor-der at Perlis, Kelantan or Kedah.”

Once the cars have beensold, the gang then contact insur-ance companies back in Malay-sia and claim they have been sto-len, claiming compensation of99%, which amounts to as muchas one million baht for some mod-els.

The models in question arenow popular on Koh Samui, sopolice are working with the Im-

migration Department to checkcars with papers from neighbor-ing countries, some of which mayhave been sold cheaply to rentalagencies for tourism.

Developing dispute: A legal dis-pute between a Thai constructionfirm and a foreign property de-veloper may add further heat tothe much-publicized reclamationof land and property on Samui.

Thai firm Tropical Arch CoLtd filed a compensation claimwith the Samui District Courtwhen the foreign developer it wasworking for failed to pay the fullamount agreed for its work.

The project in question, on

Samui’s northern coast, includesboth villas and apartments, withsome properties on sale for morethan 7 million baht.

Tropical Arch filed for 3.4million baht in outstanding pay-ments. After hearing the evi-dence, the court asked the LegalExecution Office to issue a war-rant to seize funds from a bankaccount held by one of the de-veloper’s representatives in Thai-land.

The reclaimed moneyamounted to some 65,000 baht,but the Thai firm says this fails tocover the amount lost and it istherefore seeking further com-pensation, which may include re-

claiming land or buildings.Despite many reported dis-

putes in the island’s property sec-tor, this is the first time that a lo-cal company has successfullysued a foreign developer. Thismay prove significant, both interms of future Thai-foreign busi-ness contracts and also the out-come of other commercial con-flicts on the island.

Samui has water! Chawalit Sa-rak, Chief of Surat Thani Provin-cial Water Authority, says Samuihas enough reserve water to lastuntil the next rains despite theearly onset of the dry season,which meteorologists have blam-ed on El Niño.

On an inspection of Sam-ui’s small desalination plant,which was installed last year, K.Chawalit said that he believedexisting reserves would guaran-tee a continuous supply. He lat-er added, however, that the plantcould be used if further resourcesare needed.

Samui has suffered bothdroughts and floods in recentyears. Many people blame ram-pant development, which has ledto the destruction of forests andcreated channels that allow rain-water to run off into the sea. WithSongkran festival in the middle ofa long dry season, local commen-tators say the expensive desali-nation process may be required.

A Toyota Wish waits for a buyer in a showroom. Samui policehave been warned to be on the lookout for stolen Toyota Wish andAltis models being imported from Malaysia by fraudsters.

8 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007A R O U N D T H E S O U T H

Popular brothel busted

Around the South news round-upis sourced from Kom Chad Luekand The Nation newspapers.

Immigration police raided ahotel operating as a brothelin Nakhon Sri ThammaratCity March 24, arresting 26

women. The brothel had report-edly been operating for more than20 years without any police in-terference, according to local re-ports.

At 12:25 am Pol Capt Ekka-chai Sidam, Deputy Investigationand Suppression Inspector at theSouth Region Immigration Cen-ter, led a team of five plain-clothedofficers to Wiang Fah hotel, SoiThai Hotel, Jamroenwithi Rd.

The officers preceded tothe second floor and found thatmost of the floor’s approximately30 rooms had their doors openwith attractive women sitting out-side beckoning to the manywould-be customers who werewalking up and down the corri-dor. The officers then identifiedthemselves and began to arrestthe women.

A middle-aged women ac-companied by two or threebouncers then approached theofficers in a threatening manner.Capt Ekkachai identified himselfand told the group that anyonewho obstructed the officers intheir duty would be arrested.

At this, the women and thebouncers turned pale andpromptly retreated, leaving theofficers to go about their workunhindered.

At that point officers fromNakhon Sri Thammarat MuangDistrict Police Station, led by Su-perintendent Col Yanphat Nara-sing, arrived on the scene to helpprocess the detainees.

All of the suspects wereaged between 19 and 26 yearsold and were reportedly HawChinese and hilltribe women.None had a valid Thai ID card.

All 26 were charged withprostitution. As they could notproduce an ID card, they werealso charged with illegal entry in-to the Kingdom.

Police said that they werepreparing evidence to request anarrest warrant for the owner ofthe brothel on charges of bring-

ing people into prostitution andhousing illegal immigrants.

Locals were reported to bevery critical of the raid as theWiang Fah hotel was the last suchbrothel operating in the city.

Orders for the raid werereportedly given by national po-lice chief Gen Seripisut Temeya-vej to Pol Col Sayan Krasaesaen,Head of the South Region Immi-gration Center, without the know-ledge of Nakhon Sri ThammaratProvincial Police, who only found

about it when it was already inprogress.

Pugnacious pachyderms: Twoelephants working in a rubberplantation in Nakhon Sri Tham-marat were seriously injuredMarch 19 after being attacked bywild elephants, members of theSouth’s last remaining wild herd.

The elephants had been tiedup for the night by their ownerswhen the attack occurred. Thirty-year-old female Khlong was leftwith severe cuts to the left eye,flank and left leg, and 50-year-old female Bunhai had more than10 tusk wounds.

Phonphirom Fungtrakul, avet with the Southern Friends ofElephants Foundation, said thatthe elephants that carried out theattack usually live in Khao NanNational Park straddling SuratThani and Nakhon Sri Tham-marat provinces. “The herd isnow about eight strong. The domi-

nant male is a 60-year-old whohas a rather fierce nature. In thedry season, from March to May,the herd comes down to feed inthe foothills. I think that the el-ephants were probably foragingwhen they came across Khlong.They then attacked her beforerunning back into the forest be-fore dawn. I’ve warned all vil-lagers with domestic elephants tobe very careful as the wild herdhas probably not gone far,” hesaid.

Palmed off: A well-known en-vironmental activist was seriouslyinjured in an assassination at-tempt in Surat Thani’s PhanomDistrict March 22.

As Sot Sutnak, 57, wasriding his motorcycle home, a goldIsuzu pickup truck pulled up be-hind him and someone in the carshot him twice in the back. K. Sotfell to the ground, playing deaduntil his attackers left the scene.He then called for help and rela-tives took him to Surat ThaniHospital, where he is in a seriouscondition. Police also found a.357 caliber cartridge case.

Police believe the motive forthe attempted killing was K. Sot’senvironmental work; they are pay-ing particular attention to his op-position to palm plantations inSurat Thani and Krabi provinces.

Col Samran Majaroen, Su-perintendent of Phanom DistrictPolice Station, said that policecannot yet give the exact motivefor the crime and are still investi-gating a number of leads. Theyare waiting to question the vic-tim. The attackers left little evi-dence and no witnesses as thecrime scene was in a dark andquiet soi, Col Samran added.

Watchfulresidents: DrPornthipRojanasunan anda forensic teaminspect anIslamic boardingschool wherethree studentswere killed in aMarch 17 bombattack. Theteam wereallowed to enterthe school afternegotiationswith localresidents, whopreviouslyaccused localofficials oflaunching theattack andbarred themfrom inspectingthe scene.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 9A R O U N D T H E N A T I O N

Around the Nation news round-up is sourced from the pages ofThe Nation and Kom Chad Lueknewspapers.

Apoliceman in Saraburiprovince has been sus-pended from activeduty pending an inves-

tigation into his alleged role in aFebruary 25 attack on a youngkaraoke bar hostess whose armwas chopped off.

The policeman, Pol LanceCorporal Nirut Thammasap, wascharged with attempted murderand causing serious injuries, alongwith carrying a government-owned firearm while off duty.

Lt Gen Pratchaya Suttha-preeda, chief of Provincial PoliceBureau 1, said civilian NiratKongtham carried the knife andchopped off the victim’s right armabove her elbow while he wasriding pillion on a motorcycledriven by Prasarn Bundok, an-other civilian.

L/C Nirut was riding an-other motorcycle alongside them,he said.

All three were released onbail after they turned themselvesover to Baan Mor Police Station,where Nirut is assigned.

Gen Pratchaya said Nirut’ssuperior officers would also facedisciplinary action for allegedlyhelping Nirut by distorting thefacts of the investigation reportto read that the victim, SuphansaWichananant, lost her arm in aroad accident.

K. Suphansa lodged a com-plaint with acting police chief GenSeripisut Temiyavej becausethere had been no progress in thelocal police investigation nearlyone month after the attack.

In a press interview, K.Suphansa said that the men hadfollowed her on two motorcyclesafter she had left the karaoke barto escape their sexual harass-ment. When his motorcyclecaught up to hers, Nirat choppedoff her right arm with a singleswipe of a long knife.

Despite losing her arm, thesinger tried to continue her es-cape but crashed her motorcycleand broke her right shin in threeplaces.

K. Suphansa said that anumber of Baan Mor police of-ficers interviewed her in the hos-pital the morning after the attack.They dismissed her account be-cause they claimed she was stillin shock, she said.

Class action: Two years afterthe practice was revoked in a re-vised Education Ministry regula-tion, suspension from class willsoon be in effect again as a pun-ishment for disruptive students.

Education Permanent Sec-retary Jaruayphorn Thorranin saidsuspensions could be usedagainst only high school and vo-cational school students and inextreme cases of aggression,immoral conduct or violent actsharmful to others. The durationof suspensions to be adminis-tered has not been determined butwill soon be decided, K.Jaruayphorn said.

The revival of suspensions

Cop implicated in assault case

A woman weeps while looking at a Siriraj Hospital noticeboarddisplaying pictures of the dead from a March 20 bus crash.Twenty-nine people were killed and dozens injured when thedouble-decker bus traveling from Yasothorn to Bangkok caughtfire and careered down a hill on a four-lane highway in Saraburi,about 105 kilometers north of the capital.

It was later revealed that the bus had been in service for36 years.

State-owned, intercity bus operator Transport Co said itwill “get tougher” on private companies and provide initialassistance of 10,000 baht to families of the victims, many ofwhom were burned beyond recognition.

was prompted by petitions fromparents whose children had beenvictims of violent classmates orwho had suffered physical assaultby students from rival schools.

A 2005 regulation had re-voked suspension from class andcaning, which had long beenpracticed in Thailand, following aseries of campaigns by educatorsand child psychiatrists.

Mass communications: Mostof the programming on Thailand’ssix free television channels isgeared more to consumerism thantoward social development, astudy by Chulalongkorn Uni-versity’s Media Monitoringproject has concluded.

Asst Prof Uajit Virojtrairattsaid his survey “Do Thai TV Sta-tions Take Audiences to Be Con-sumers or Citizens?” showed that69.4% of all six channels’ pro-grams focused more on sellingproducts than on social develop-ment. The survey covered all pro-grams round the clock from Feb-ruary 1 to 7.

Channel 11 had the highestpercentage of “social develop-ment” programs (86.8%), fol-lowed by Channel 9 (51.3%).

Channels 7 and 3 had thehighest ratio of commercial pro-grams. They also enjoyed thehighest ratings.

The survey also showedthat state-owned Channel 5

placed heavy emphasis on com-mercial programming.

The survey was instigatedby calls from academics that itwas time for Thailand to have apublic television station with high-quality content as an alternativeto commercial programming airedto meet advertisers’ needs.

Summer break danger: Statis-tics released by the RamathibodiHospital Child Safety Promotionand Injury Prevention ResearchCenter say that more children arelikely to be killed in accidents dur-ing the school holidays currentlyunderway than any other time ofthe year.

The school holidays start inMarch and end in mid-May.

Drowning, the leading causeof accidental deaths among chil-dren, is most common in March,April and May.

“Parents need to pay closeattention as young children oftendrown in enamel basins, waterbuckets, wells and other watersources near home,” said thecenter’s Director, Adisak Plitpon-karnpim.

If drowning children werenot rescued within five minutes,they had minimal chance of sur-vival, he added.

Traffic accidents were an-other leading cause of childdeaths. “On average, 65 childrenare killed in traffic accidents ev-ery month,” he said, adding thataverage figures climb to 75 inMarch and 85 in April.

Other causes of accidentalchild deaths given were poison-ing, falling, burns, explosions andaccidental death by firearms.

“On average, these causesaccount for about 98 child deathsa month, but the figure reaches116 in March, 132 in April and 118in May,” he said.

Copter crash kills nine: Ninenaval personnel were killed whentheir Bell 214 helicopter crashedin a rice field in the northeasternprovince of Surin on March 23,the Royal Thai Navy said.

Rear-Admiral RuangthipThienthon said the helicopter wasone of two on a routine trainingflight from Ubon Ratchathani toU-Tapao naval base in Chonburiwhen it crashed in Surin’s Rat-tanaburi Dis t r ic t a t about11:45 am.

Witnesses in the other heli-copter saw smoke coming fromthe rear engine before the heli-copter crashed and exploded, R/Adm Ruangthip said.

The bodies of the crash vic-tims were taken to U-Tapao na-val base.

The two pilots were iden-tified as Cdr Tossapol Thum-wong and Lt Cdr PassakornRakwong.

The seven passengers wereLt Jitruti Jit-aree, Chief PettyOfficer Suwit Panichwattana andpetty officers Somkiet Seuyoi,Manit Khumpai, Niwat Mung-saeng, Thawal Khonnoen andThanakorn Nuansutha.

As all died in the line of dutytheir families are entitled to na-val benefits, he said.

A R O U N D T H E I S L A N D10 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Give a smile, get one backBy Janyaporn Morel

As we all know, thestreets of Patong canbe real obstaclecourses: potholes, vats

of boiling oil, soi dogs and tangleof electric wires are just a fewof the obstructions regularly en-countered.

If you think its bad for you,just imagine what it must be likefor disabled people.

Australians Terry Brown,Alan Cladingboel and Bob Don-nelly have been coming to Patongfor 12 years, during which timethey have seen just how difficultit is for Phuket’s disabled.

Wanting to help, the threekind tourists decided to donatemobility scooters to give 20 dis-abled people in Phuket a littlemore independence.

The scooters were present-ed to the lucky recipients at aMarch 20 ceremony at the Tha-ra Patong Resort and Spa attend-ed by by representatives of thePatong Beach Rotary Club, Pa-tong Nurses’ Association, PhuketSpecial Education Center and thePhuket Handicap Club.

In his speech at the cere-mony, Mr Brown said that afterdeciding to buy scooters for thedisabled people, he wasn’t surewhether the type of scooter he

had in mind would be suitable forPhuket. So last September hegave one scooter to a man namedSatien, who lost both his legs in acar accident 10 years ago. After

a few test drives, K. Satien wasusing his scooter all the time –and it has made a big differencein his life.

“In Australia we live a good,happy life. No problems, goodhealth. But we see too many peo-ple here with disabilities who can-not help themselves at all. Thegovernment does not have themoney to help everybody, so wedecided to do this. We don’t wantanything at all in return except asmile,” Mr Brown said.

Appropriately enough, the80,000-baht scooters are built bySmile Family (Siam) company inBangkok. Powered by recharge-able electric batteries, they aresimple to control and can be driv-en with just two hands becausethe accelerator, light, horn andbrake controls are all on the steer-ing wheel.

“There’s only one compa-ny in Bangkok that makes thisscooter. I tried to find them inPhuket when I came here inMarch last year, but I couldn’t.When I went home I looked onthe Internet and found an elec-tric car company in Bangkok thatmakes the golf carts, tuk-tuks andmany models of scooters. Theyalso have electric wheelchairs.This company exports manyscooters to Japan, but becausethey are so expensive people herecannot afford them,” he said.

“The reason we chose tobuy scooters is because electricwheelchairs don’t really give peo-ple the kind of mobility they need.But with scooters, they can trav-el at 12 kilometers an hour. If theywant to go to the shop, they cango and come back in five min-utes,” he added.

With the help of Smile Fam-ily Co, which sold the scooters toMr Brown and his friends at half-price, the Australians were ableto donate more scooters than theythought.

“We would like to buy evenmore. Maybe we will do this

again. I have spoken with aSwedish man here who said thathe will go back to tell his people.Maybe they will also do the samenext year. This is good, becausethe tourists want to give some-thing back to people here,” hesaid.

Mr Brown said the reasonhe and his friends did this was tohelp these people – and to seethe smile on their faces.

“Any time you see peoplehere who are disadvantaged andpoor, they are all very sad. Giv-ing them money doesn’t neces-sarily help, because they mightnot know how to use the moneywisely. But with something likethis they will be able to use for avery long time,” he added.

One scooter recipient was14-year-old Anisa Ratso, who hassuffered from muscular dystro-phy in her legs since she was 10.She can’t walk very well and hasfallen down many times, some-times breaking bones. Her moth-er Suthida said that she would likefor Anisa to spend her life as nor-mal children do and the family istrying their best to help her.

“We are happy that she willhave chance to go out and visitmany more places because ofthis scooter and she can see theworld outside our home,” saidK.Suthida.

The scooter has been espe-cially helpful in allowing her tocontinue her studies throughPhuket’s Non-Formal EducationCenter.

“If she doesn’t learn, shewill be a child without a future,which is not fair to her becauseshe is clever girl,” K. Suthida said.

Apaporn Chaiyasat, a 22-year-old who has suffered mus-cular dystrophy since birth, grad-uated from high school at theNon-Formal Education CenterPhuket. Now living with hergrandmother in Phuket Villa 3,she is planning to take a ciom-puter course in Pattaya in April.

“I’m happy to get this scoot-er. It will make my life so mucheasier. For example, now I willbe able to drive to buy somethingfor my grandmother in the vil-lage,” she said.

Wimonrat Khocharoen,Head Nurse at the EmergencyRoom of Patong Hospital, wasresponsible for choosing thescooter recipients, all of whomcome from Patong and PhuketCity.

“We have projects to helpthe disabled in many communi-ties. In deciding who should getthese scooters, we screened peo-ple to see who would benefit mostfrom having them. Single legamputees are common candi-dates, as are people with congen-ital or acquired disorders thathave left them unable to walk,”she said.

There are still about 10handicapped people in Kamalaarea who need scooters to bringsmiles to their faces, she said.

MOBILE AT LAST: Apaporn Cha-yasat, right, says, ‘I’m happy toget this scooter. It will make mylife easier.’

Above, Terry Brown andAlan Cladingboel say they wantnothing in return ‘except asmile’.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 11

12 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 13G O O D L I V I N G

Indian cuisine is tremendouslypopular in Britain and manyother countries, but mentionthe words ahaan khaek (In-

dian food) in Phuket and mostnon-Muslim Thais will screwtheir faces up, making gesturesas if they are pinching their noseshut or wafting away a bad smell.

The reason? Most Thaiswill tell you that there is an oddlyunpleasant aroma to Indian food.

But there is one big excep-tion to this: roti, a fried wheatpaste topped with sugar andsweetened condensed milk, orsometimes with banana, fruit jamsor other toppings.

Popular all across South andSoutheast Asia, roti is popular inBangkok as well as Bombay, andjust about everywhere in be-tween.

The original plain roti fromIndia is eaten as a staple withcurries, much as Thais eat ricewith meals. In Phuket, the twomost basic options are with eggor without, but there is also a va-riety of fillings and toppings tochoose from that vary from ven-dor to vendor.

Roti are cooked on a large,flat iron griddle, most often at aroadside stall. Many roti vendorsalso sell mataba, which is a sortof stuffed roti.

To experience the full rangeof the roti, mataba and other pop-ular Indian and Muslim foods, atrip to Rotee Lovers on Chao FaWest Rd is a must.

Rotee Lovers was openedlast December by owners Shal-isa “Yui” Prinyanusorn and hersister-in-law Wanida “Ae” Patan,whose mother Mabuba providesthe recipes and oversees thekitchen.

“Our restaurant has about100 seats, half of which are out-door for evening dining. We haveboth Thai and foreign customers.Some are Muslim, some not. Ourgoal is to offer delicious and af-fordable Muslim foods in a relax-ing, spacious atmosphere. We findmany Muslim restaurants are toocramped and dark,” K. Yui said.

“When we first opened, wetargeted customers in nearby ar-eas. But now people are comingfrom everywhere in Phuket. Wehave customers who come fromSurin Beach to try our food. They

hear of us by word of mouth,”she said.

“Our menu starts with rotiand mataba, we have plain rotithat can be eaten with many dif-ferent curries. We also have rotiwith sweet toppings, such as sug-ar, banana, raisins or sweetened

eatsCHEAP

Janyaporn MorelBY

milk. We have mataba stuffedwith chicken, beef or tuna,” saidK. Yui, adding that as a Muslimrestaurant there is no pork on themenu.

Rotee Lovers also has sal-ads: salat khaek (green saladwith peanut dressing), tuna salad

and chicken salad with ThousandIsland dressing.

“We also have many differ-ent curries. One popular item isbeef or chicken stew on rice. Ourkhao mok gai [yellow ricesteamed with marinated chicken]is another big seller,” she said.

Two hard-to-find Muslimdishes at Rotee Lovers are kuaytiew gaeng (noodles in currysoup) and gurama curry (Indianbeef curry). They also offer anItalian-Indian hybrid that youwon’t see too many menus: spa-ghetti in curry soup.

“All of our curries use spe-cial seasonings that we buy inBangkok,” K Yui said.

The most popular selectionon the 50-item menu is the masa-man curry. Made using K. Mabu-ba’s special recipe, a huge batchis prepared each day to meet de-mand. Other popular choices in-clude oxtail soup and omelets.

One of the newest additionsto the menu is the “roti puff”. In-vented about two months ago, ituses a special frying method andextra-think roti dough to producea crispy fried outside and sweet,chewy inside that is perfect withice cream or blueberry jam.

Rotee Lovers carries a se-lection of ice-creams, sorbets andbeverages from Iberry ice-creamin Bangkok as well as fresh fruitpunch.

The price for plain roti is 15baht each, and mataba is a rea-sonable 35 baht per portion. Aserving of khao mok kai will setyou back 40 baht, while rice andcurry dishes are 50 baht.

Rotee Lovers is on Chao Fa WestRd, about 200 meters south ofKajonkietsuksa School inWichit. Open daily from noon to3 pm and 4:30 pm to 9 pm.Closed Fridays. For more infor-mation call 089-8970131, 085-9050707 or 081-5514200.

BOMBAY CONNECTION

FAVORITES:Above, mataba.

Right, classic rotinam gaeng, with

chicken currysauce.

P H U K E T P E O P L E14 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

By Marque A Rome

Jimmy Cicero was playingthe baby grand piano atDusit Laguna’s classy Ho-rizon cocktail lounge late

one recent Thursday. Every seatwas taken – a rare thing for sucha venue, where patrons usuallypause only because they are wait-ing for someone or something.

But Jimmy is far from usu-al; a musician of rare musicality,he packs ’em in nightly.

A group of hip-looking Ger-mans pulled up closer to the pi-ano while he intoned the refrainto Breaking Up is Hard to Do,one of his best tunes. Jimmy hasa voice that belies his 69-kilo-gram, 168-centimeter frame: asilky tenor like Tony Bennett’sthat never strains. His delivery,moreover, has arguably more co-jones than that of Mel Torme,called the greatest voice in jazz.

The German group wereregulars: “Hoo! Jimmy,” theycalled out, applauding, then la-menting audibly as he announcedthat the next number would be hislast for the evening. “I hope tosee you all again tomorrownight,” he said, pretending to ig-nore their dismay, then tried toclose with the suggestively titledI Want to Go Home.

“Hey, Jimmy! One more,”one of them called. The Horizonwas still full, but it was closingtime. “I’m sorry, that was my lastsong,” replied Jimmy.

“No. One more. What doyou like to play? Play us your fa-vorite!”

He relented, closing withJesse Belvin’s lush, charminglyromantic Goodnight My Love.

Jimmy is 60. He’s livedsome pleasant dreams over theyears – admits to rough times aswell – but is always hoping for asunnier, brighter tomorrow.

Like many famous singers,Jimmy is an American of Italianheritage. “But we’re not an EastCoast Italian family,” he said,explaining that the famous onesare associated with New York.

Hayward, California, on theother hand, Jimmy’s home, has

been associated not with singersbut with canned fruit, ironworkand electrical equipment.

That might have been dif-ferent had Jimmy struck a differ-ent chord, so to speak. He mighthave done for Hayward what TheBeatles did for Liverpool. Hisbeginnings were promisingenough.

Hayward is just southeastof San Francisco. The famousbay forms a kind of inland seabetween the stately city and its

less scenic suburbs. IndustrialHayward is an ocean away interms of status from San Fran-cisco and its Renaissance Revivalopera house.

Yet there are bridges acrossthe bay and the cultural dividemight not be too great for an en-terprising youth with a good voice,a knack for keyboards and thegift of gab.

“I started playing piano andsinging professionally when Iwas about 12,” he recalled. His

mother encouraged him to takepiano lessons as a child.

“My first gig was singing ata church dance.” That was in1957, two years after Elvis Pres-ley’s emergence and three yearsinto the rock ’n’ roll era.

On Jimmy’s side of the bay,rock ruled but Elvis wasn’t king.There, R&B artist Chuck Berry,a defiantly twangy black guitar-ist from nearby Oakland, had shotto fame. Berry thumbed his nose,musically, at Beethoven and Tin

Pan Alley, singing his own unvar-nished lyrics.

His music, like that of FatsDomino, Ray Charles and SamCooke, spawned a movementthat transformed how white art-ists played. Jimmy Cicero wasamong the seminal group of whiteBay Area R&B performers.

Rolling Stone magazinecritic Michael Rozek in a Novem-ber 1974 review of Tower ofPower’s album Ain’t Nothin’Stoppin’ Us Now noted that theband’s leader, Emilio Castillo, andits white members were part ofa mass Bay Area “white-love-for-soul-music” trend about 1967.Rozek, however, thought “a white‘horn band’ called the Spidersplaying Curtis Mayfield and GeneChandler tunes” had greater in-fluence.

“But who showed the Spi-ders their schtick? Maybe anoth-er local white named Jimmy Ci-cero…” Cicero, Rozek averred,was perhaps the first white kidto “cop black licks ’round Hay-ward”.

As a teenager, Jimmy de-veloped playing local clubs anddances. Although he describes hisstyle now as a “a mixture of jazzand soft pop”, he started as a rock’n’ roll singer: “I was lucky ’causeI could always sing,” he drawleddisarmingly, “even though I hadkinda neglected my piano.”

“I started to put on dances,and eventually owned my ownteenage nightclub when I was 18.It was in Hayward and wascalled Cicero’s.”

That was not the first timehe would trade on his surname,which might come straight froma Sinatra film. If you Google hisname, however, you will find thata more Internet-savvy profes-sional wrestler dominates the firstpage of hits.

During the late ’60s, Jimmyhad a six-piece R&B band “andplayed the Hammond organ”.Back then organs weren’tdrowned out by electric guitarsand required no tricky mic tech-nique to avoid feedback noise onstage. Listeners loved ’em.

Hammonds are regarded as

THE PIANO

BACK TO THE KEYBOARD: Jimmy Cicero found property sales could never replace the music.

P H U K E T P E O P L EMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 15

Happily Ever After

Atchara Raksasap and Daniel Pope were married in thePhra Pitak Grand Ballroom of The Metropole hotel onMarch 10.

having a classic sound. Billy Pre-ston played one on The Beatles’timeless Let It Be.

“My first Hammond was anM-1 spinet,” Jimmy noted, “butafter a couple of years I movedup to a B-3,” the Rolls-Royce ofelectric organs.

Having turned 21, he hook-ed up with popular Bay Area art-ists Stan Cristo and The Casuals:“I worked with them for a cou-ple years and was fortunate tohave great press coverage.”

Oakland Tribune enter-tainment columnist Perry Phillipstook a shine to him: “He alwaysmentioned my name… We be-came goodfriends.”

H a v i n gachieved localhero status, Jim-my expanded hisgroup to six piec-es. The Summerof Love cameand went but theBay Area re-mained a hotbedof musical inven-tion. “Thosedays,” he re-called, “were a lotof fun.”

“For a longtime” he “playedright next door” toTower of Power.He also sat-inwith Santana forsix or seven con-certs during theirpeak.

That was agreat experience,” he said. Lat-er he played with Chuck Berry.

Then, in 1971, aged 24, hemoved to Reno, a resort town nearLake Tahoe, straddling the Cali-fornia-Nevada border. Fueled bygambling revenue, it was and stillis a magnet for entertainers.

Jimmy stayed there for 17years, playing clubs and casinosand opening his second Cicero’sas a restaurant and nightclub. Itwas steady money.

Tower of Power, mean-while, got album contracts andregular reviews in Rolling Stone,reaching icon status.

Then Jimmy became inter-ested in jazz: “I actually played alot of jazz in Reno. For manyyears I had a B-3 trio – organ,sax and drums.” He played basswith the organ pedals. “I touredwith Rick Nelson and the StoneCanyon band for about a year anda half.”

Pretty-boy TV star Nelson,of Ozzie and Harriet fame, hadbeen fielded as a substitute heart-throb for teenage girls while Elvisserved in the army during the late’50s.

In 1989, Jimmy movedagain. This time to Scottsdale,Arizona, where he opened enter-tainment agency Jimmy Cicero

MANMusic Productions, and stayedfive years.

“I have always written a lotof music, and although I have nothad a lot of luck getting it placed,I was fortunate to get three songsin a major motion picture, Fran-cis Ford Coppola’s The Floren-tine.”

The songs, two bossa novanumbers and a ballad, were HereYou Are, I Love Your Smile andPeople Like You, People LikeMe.

The past decade has seenJimmy in transition. He becamea licensed real estate agent inCalifornia, then decided to try his

luck in fartherflung: “I spent ashort time inIstanbul and thathad a profoundeffect. I’ve writ-ten many piecesof music basedon my visit and onstudy of Turkishhistory.”

Jimmy mar-ried a Turkishwoman – butthey divorced be-cause “we did notknow enoughabout each oth-er”. He was 54.

Just a fewmonths later twoa i r p l a n e srammed into theWorld TradeCenter and Jim-my, a man who infour decades on

stage had seen nearly everything,wept. “I knew I had to make abig change. I had to go some-where I had never been.”

Seizing on Thailand, Jimmycame to Phuket and startedPhuket Paradise Properties. Butproperty sales could never re-place music, so Jimmy cast roundfor gigs and discovered… dearth.“There’re not too many places toplay this kind of music,” he said.

So he’s more than happyabout the gig at the Dusit, wherehe plays Tuesday to Saturday.They’ve signed him for the restof the year: “It’s my kinda place.”

He keeps the customerssatisfied, playing music by, amongothers, Michael Franks, Billy Joel,Elton John and Johnny Mercer –but nothing remotely Turkish.

Perhaps, like many, he’sfound the groove he really likes.“I don’t miss the US… in Phuket,and in my heart, I feel like I’vefound my true home.”

To find a musician of Jim-my’s caliber playing in a Phuketlobby lounge is so remarkable thatit brings to mind the final twolines of Piano Man:

And they sit at the bar andput bread in my jar

And say, man, what are youdoin’ here?

‘My first gig wassinging at a

church dance.’– Jimmy Cicero

Recent weddings in Phuket

Warachat Chatchawet and WitthawatChompoonuch were married in thePhuket Ballroom at The Royal PhuketCity Hotel on March 1.

H A P P E N I N G S16 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

This week

GAZ GRADS: Phuket Gazette reporters Natcha ‘Nan’ Yuttaworawit (center) andSupanun ‘Na’ Supawong (right), and their friend Nuttapol ‘James’ Nuimuang, recentlygraduated formally from the Phuket Rajabhat University’s Faculty of Human and SocialSciences English program.

BRUNCH BREAK: (seated, from left) Kymberley Sproule from Le Meridien Bangkok,Ann Hanson and Le Royal Meridien Phuket Yacht Club (LRMPYC) Public Relationsmanager Athipa Bunnak are joined by Bruce Stanley (standing, right) and LRMPYCFood and Beverage Manager Omar Alaoui for Sunday brunch at the resort.

LUCKY DRAW: Phuket Real Estate Club President Phummisak Hongsyok (2nd from right) hands to Sirirat Chanhomthe 100,000-baht lucky draw prize for reserving a property during the Property Investment Exhibition 2007.Khun Sirirat reserved a home at Sun Palm Village.

HEY DJ: DJ Jokie (left) from the Q Bar in Bangkok gets theparty going at Seduction in Patong with resident DJ Mickey.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Phuket Vice-Governor Worapoj Ratthasima(standing, center, not wearing jacket) sends off 92 of Phuket’s fastest,strongest and toughest young athletes to the National Youth SportsCompetition in Surat Thani.

ROCKE ON: Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit (2nd from left), Chatu Mongkol Sonakul (center)and Sri Panwa resort owner Songkran Issara (4th from left) and family welcome Americanphilanthropist David Rockefeller (4th from right) during his recent visit to Phuket.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 17

18 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 19M O T O R I N G

BEHINDWHEELBy Jeff Heselwood

T H ET H E

Although Toyota has thelion’s share of the lu-crative pickup market,Mitsubishi has in re-

cent years launched an effectiveattack on the market leader, ini-tially with its Strada and then,more recently, with its attractiveTriton model.

The Triton is available witha range of cabs – as are its com-petitors – but has a wider choiceof engine options, starting with a2.5-liter turbo diesel producing amodest 88bhp (65kW) and 196Nm of torque up to a top-of-the-line model with a 3.2-liter com-mon-rail diesel delivering ahealthy 162bhp and a massive350Nm peak torque.

Mitsubishi has been in thenews recently, taking its eighthconsecutive Dakar Rally win.Stephane Peterhansel took hisninth victory – six on two wheelsand now three in cars – ahead offellow Frenchman and 2006 win-ner Luc Alphand.

Although there had been anumber of different stage win-ners, including entries from Volk-swagen, Hummer, BMW andeven Ford of France’s uniqueBuggy driven by former Dakarwinner and one-time Grand Prixdriver Jean-Louis Schlesser, itwas the strong Mitsubishi teamthat came through in the end.

The 29th Dakar Rally tookplace at the beginning of Janu-ary, starting from Lisbon andheading through Spain, Morocco,Mauritania and Mali before ar-riving in Senegal and the beauti-ful desert city of Dakar.

This year’s event was mar-red by the death of two motorcy-clists. Since the first Dakar rallyin 1978, 50 people involved in therace have died, half of them com-petitors.

The adventure began in1977. Frenchman Thierry Sabinegot lost on his motorcycle in theLibyan desert during the Abidjan-to-Nice rally. After being rescuedfrom the sands, he returned toFrance defeated by the extremelandscapes. He then promisedhimself that he would share this

discovery with as many as possi-ble and lived for a single goal:take a maximum number of peo-ple into the immensity of the sand.

The first rally took place thefollowing year starting in Europe.The route then continued to Alg-iers before crossing Agadez andultimately to Dakar.

The Paris-Dakar rally, as itwas then known, opened up anunknown world, one in which pro-fessionals and amateurs alikecould take part.

This year more than 500crew members took part in thisnear-8,000-kilometer adventure,of which more than half consists

of timed special stages, some-times in sandstorms, sometimesin the dark. That so many com-petitors return every year forwhat must be one of the last bigmotorsport challenges in theworld says a great deal about Sab-ine’s vision all those years ago.Sadly the Frenchman died in ahelicopter crash during the 1986event.

Apart from the rigors of theDakar, the more humble Mitsub-ishi vehicles also have a reputa-tion for ruggedness and reliabili-ty and the Thai-built Triton is noexception. The model made itsdebut in 2005 in Thailand and is

now exported to a number ofcountries, including, amazinglyenough, Japan. To tie in neatlywith the Dakar successes, theTriton has large fender flares andclear visual links with the DakarPajero model.

On the 4WD versions, anEasy Select transfer box enablesthe driver to switch from 2WDto 4WD “on the fly”, while therear differential incorporates alimited-slip system to provide ex-tra traction on slippery surfaces.

Mitsubishi, one of the small-est of the Japanese automakers,has recently reported a slump insales in its Asian markets, nota-

bly Indonesia, Malaysia and Tai-wan, and even in Australia, whichis generally resistant to financialwoes. Here in Thailand, though,the company is enjoying strongsales of all models, but in partic-ular, the Triton pickup.

Prices start at 440,000 bahtfor the entry-level, single-cab2WD model; 628,000 baht for theleast expensive 4WD model; ris-ing to 898,000 baht for the top-of-the-range 3.2-liter automatic,4WD double-cab Triton GLS.

Jeff Heselwood may be contact-ed by email to jhc@netvigator.com

If the PR pictures are to be believed, Mitsubishi’s Triton is also for sale on Mars. On Earth, it is doing well against market leader Toyota.

Mitsubishi tries it on

L I F E S T Y L E20 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

ow does some-one design cos-tumes for abeautiful, fantas-tic ladyboy showin Phuket? Well,

for a start, it helps to be a ladyboy,of course.

Dechawut Chuntakaro hasbeen in the stage’s spotlight formore than 20 years, so you mightknow her better as “Khun DayFreeman”.

She is often seen on TV, andyou may even recognize her fromthe posters that are popping upall over Phuket, advertising herstage production The Most Fan-tastic Beautiful Man Show.

K. Day personally designsand oversees the making of all thecostumes for her shows. “Ourcostume style is more based onfashion than glamor,” she ex-plains, “but what designs andmaterials are used in making stagecostumes depends on the venueand the budget available, andother elements, too.

“At this show we are notstressing the use of makeup andwe are not using ‘stage makeup’.We are using a more natural stylethat is not too dark or too thick.

“Everything we are doingwith this show is more based onfashion trends; our costumes lookmore like styles than costumes,”says K. Day.

With several shows weeklyand lots of movement by perform-ers not just on stage but outamong the audience as well, theglitzy costumes can start to showwear and tear. K. Day says thatthey often completely replacecostumes when they are wornout.

“It costs nearly the full priceof the outfit to have it repaired,so it is not worth it. We also dothis for the accessories,” shesays, adding that keeping a high-end wardrobe is not cheap.

“For example, the dress Iam wearing now I designed my-self, and I embroidered it by hand.It cost about 20,000 baht to makebecause I used a lot of shiny glassbeads,” she explains.

K. Day believes that cos-tumes must appeal to her audi-ence. “I need my audiences to betouched by this strange, fantasticshow. We transform a normalman into a beautiful man. Beforeseeing our show some peoplenever knew that a man can be a‘beautiful man’,” K. Day says.

However, K. Day has noaspirations to climb into commer-cial design. In fact, she has littleinterest in it.

“My costumes are designedonly for show. I’m not creatingdesigns for commercial use; thestyles used in making costumesfor shows should be different.However, it is easy for one fieldof design to start using designsfrom another field, so every styl-ist must be careful.”

Most of the materials sheuses are imported in order to geta better selection of color andstyle, but K. Day is strict in mak-ing sure that materials are goodquality, especially bird feathers.“Fabric can be either synthetic or

HBy Natcha Yuttaworawit

The works of seven tal-ented students from theBritish InternationalSchool’s International

Baccalaureate (IB) Art Programon display at the Royal PhuketMarina are raising a few eye-brows and giving insight abouthow young artists on the island

Expressing themselvesview themselves and the worldaround them.

The multimedia exhibit,which began March 23, includespainting, photography, sculptureand other media.

As an academic exercise,creating the works gave the bud-ding artists a chance to learn

about art history, techniques andthe various media available towork in – as well as firm ground-ing in time-management skills.

As a creative enterpriseunder the supervision of BIS artprogram director SamanthaFruin, the young artists got achance to explore themselves andshare their visions, dreams andsecrets with others.

“In the two-year IB Artcourse I have mainly exploredmyself; my thoughts, feelings andsecrets and used a range of me-dias to express this. Art hashelped me to know more aboutmyself,” read an explanatory plac-ard by art student Han Byul Kim,pictured laying on her side in ashort skirt.

Speaking of her experience

in the art program, studentKymberly Muego Maitland-Smithsaid, “I have aimed to learn moreabout my thoughts, beliefs andviews on life through this process.Art has helped me gain moreknowledge about the world andthe people in it through the re-search I have done.”

The exhibition, comprising90 works created over an 18-month period, was opened with aribbon-cutting ceremony presidedover by Phuket Provincial Ad-ministration Organization Presi-dent Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr.A reception with music by BIS’sJazz Band followed. The IB Vi-sual Art Exhibition will be opendaily from 9 am to 5 pm until April30. Admission is free.

– Laura Schafer

L I F E S T Y L EMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 21

natural, depending on the stylesand functions of the design, butbird feathers must be high qual-ity because they are easily bro-ken,” she says.

K. Day gets most of herideas from watching fashionshows and paying attention to dif-ferent cultures and traditionaldress.

“I don’t have favorite col-ors or styles because I design forother people. I base my costumes’styles on music, such as Brazil-ian music, and use many birdfeathers or big accessories tomake the costumes colorful. Ifthe costume is in an Asian style,I emphasize the golden tones tocreate a holy and ‘solid’ look.

“I have had a love of cos-tumes for a long time, but I neverlearned how to design them pro-fessionally.

“I have learned over theyears from my long experienceand from magazines, foreign fash-ion shows and by asking my el-der colleagues.

“I think of what the costumeshould look like, and then of thepossibilities.”

The Fantastic Beautiful MenShow is at Phuja Nirvana Res-taurant & Bar in Central Fes-tival Phuket 1st floor. For moreinformation call 076-291010or visit the website at www.phujanirvana.com

DayDayDayDayDayin thelife

OSTRICHES, EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT: K. Day onstage in all herfeathered glory. Right, simple but sexy: another act in the show.

S P A M A G I C22 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Ihave finally taken up myNew Year’s resolution to behealthier and to work out,but it’s not easy to stick to

– and my evening yoga classeshave brought a few sore morn-ings.

So what better way to re-ward myself for three weeks oftoning than a massage and somerelaxing “me” time at the intimateChedi Spa on the beach?

As I sit at the spa reserva-tion desk looking through the spamenu, Spa Manager Ekasit “Say”Jeawkok greets me with a grace-ful wai.

The Chedi Spa menu is fullof signature treatments, all withlittle additions or twists on thenorm to make them all the morespecial.

For example, the Chedi’ssignature treatments use the re-sort’s own natural products, andthe aromatherapy oils are basedon the four elements Earth, Wind,Water and Fire.

K. Say tells me that theChedi Massage is the premier sig-nature treatment. Combining aSwedish massage with a sportmassage, it focuses on pressurepoints to soothe tired muscles andincrease circulation.

“We want to take care ofour guests like a mother takescare of her child,” she explains.

On that note the Chedi alsooffers a Junior Massage for chil-dren eight to 12 years old. K. Sayexplains that it is a gentle mas-sage, allowing parents to share arelaxing spa experience with theirchildren.

I select the two-hour ChediRejuvenation package at 3,950baht and off we go to the treat-ment rooms. I follow K. Say upthe walkway that Thai moviestars and beauty queens have trodbefore me. The path weavesthrough the jungle before comingto several small bungalows over-looking the pristine beach.

There are four treatmentrooms, two double and two sin-gle. I’m led to a double treatmentrooms with private outdoor bath.

Through a glass door lie two mas-sage beds.

My treatment begins with afootbath and a Swedish massage,which increases blood flow andcirculation as the strokes andmovements of the masseuse areaway from the heart.

My therapist brings a trayholding the four aromatherapyoils. She explains to me the scentof each one and what it is sup-posed to awaken in my senses.Earth is a blend of patchouli andThai prai to relieve tension; Windis made of bergamot and orangepeel to refresh the senses; Wa-ter is a mix of lavender and gera-nium for moisturizing; and Fire iseucalyptus and rosemary, to im-prove circulation.

I choose Earth, disrobe,wrap myself with a large fluffybath towel and settle onto the endof the treatment bench. I plungemy tootsies into a warm bath andmy therapist pulls out a scrubbrush. I grimace, why did Ichoose a foot bath? I have prob-ably the most sensitive feet ever…

But unlike other pedicure-like treatments I’ve had, thisdoesn’t tickle or make me pullaway; the movements are lightand gentle. I lay back on the ta-ble with relief as I roll over forthe massage.

As I’m lulled into a relaxedeuphoria, I realize that there havebeen no breaks in sensation dur-ing my massage. My therapistskillfully moves around me with-out breaking the rhythm of themassage. Impressive.

After my back, legs, arms,feet, neck, chest, stomach, headare all kneaded into relaxation, Ihop into a warm shower outside

Please Say it’s so

while a warm bath is preparedfor me. Soothing oils have beenpoured into the black granite tub

and flowers are floating on top. Iclimb in and lie back to watch thepalm trees above me. Heaven.

My therapist comes outwith a pot of hot ginger tea and atray of shortbread cookies. I feelmy heart sink a little when shesays she will be back in 15 min-utes; I think I could stay right herethe rest of the afternoon.

But I have to get out andmove on to my facial. I know, it’sa rough life. My skin is soft andoil-free as I pat myself dry be-fore climbing back onto the mas-sage table.

The facial is the grand fina-le of this package. I select anAroma Cleansing Facial to rehy-drate my parched skin. I lay backand close my eyes while a cool-ing mist is sprayed over my faceand neck and then several differ-ent cleansers are used.

Next a gentle scrub isrubbed on in little circular motions.My therapist uses a warm towelto wipe off the scrub before an-other round of cleansing begins.

All throughout the facial sheuses gentle pressure to massagemy face and neck. A facial maskis applied with a soft brush. Af-ter my face is cleansed and mois-turized, my scalp is treated to anice massage.

I sit up as my therapist linksher arms in mine, twisting myback around working out the lastof the kinks that last night’s yogadidn’t. Then, using her forearms,she works out the few remainingknots in my shoulders that wereleft over after the massage.

I feel so full of energy afterthis package that I bound off tothe beach for a late afternoonswim. When I arrive at thebeach, my companions ask whatI’ve done today because my skinis glowing. I didn’t hesitate to letthem in on my little secret – anafternoon at The Chedi.

The Chedi Spa, open daily from9 am to 9 pm. Tel: 076 324 017-20 ext 718. Booking two daysin advance is recommended.

MAGICSpa

By Laura Schafer

Chedi Spa

GET STONED: A warm outdoor aromatherapy floral bath, heaven in black granite at The Chedi.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 23F E A T U R E S

ThailandTRAVELER

By Bill Owen

When you mentionKoh Jum, mostpeople’s first ques-tion is, “Where?”

It’s not yet on many tourist mapsand few travelers make it there.

Koh Jum is about 25 kilo-meters to the south of Krabi andis easily reached by the twice-daily ferry boats en route to KohLanta. About an hour out of theport of Krabi, the ferry stops andlongtail boats arrive in the middleof the bay – and a few knowl-edgeable travelers jump ship.

The northern areas of theisland, known locally as “KohPu”, are rocky, rugged and cov-ered in jungle and small rubberplantations. The southern areasof the island are flatter and thebeaches are surrounded by natu-ral vegetation, such as casuarinatrees. As on Phuket and KohLanta, accommodation is foundmainly on the west coast.

This is a very quiet islandand certainly not for those look-ing to party and enjoy the bar life.

There are no paved roadsor cars and getting around is noteasy, the main options being walk-ing or taking a motorbike taxi.Every bungalow or resort has itsown version of these – so it’s noproblem if you do wish to ex-plore.

There are a few motorcy-cles to rent for self drive also. Aword of warning, however: checkthe brakes first.

There is no mains electrici-ty on the island and resorts areeither sophisti-cated enough tohave their owngenerators or arestill very smalland romanticallyinclined and relyon kerosenelamps… but, of course, have nofans.

Local islanders still survivelargely on fishing and rubber tap-ping, as tourism is still very mucha secondary industry. The islandremains untouched by the ravag-es of modern tourism and KohJum is still a very friendly placeindeed.

When researching for thistrip I was fortunate enough tostumble across a great websitefor Koh Jum Lodge, which is run

by French expat Jean MichelLimandas and his Thai wife,Jane. Both come from the hoteland travel industry in Thailandand brought their long and con-

siderable exper-tise into develop-ing such a natu-ral and beautifulresort.

The lodge isa real eco-resort,committed to pro-

tecting and preserving its greatasset – the natural unspoiledbeauty surrounding it.

The individual bungalow vil-las are located on an otherwisedeserted 12 kilometer beach – allwooden structures with the mostcomfortable hammocks around.Still a wonderful pastime… ahammock strung between twococonut trees.

The rooms are all large andelegantly designed with greatamenities – very comfortable and

How to get there: Drive past the turn off to Krabi on High-way 4 and head south toward Trang. Turn right onto the 4036and then head to Laem Kruat, where you will find the publicjetty.

The longtail ferry service leaves at 3 pm and takes 30 min-utes to get to the island (30 baht for one-way transfer). Thelodge can send someone to collect you from there at a cost of100 baht. Private longtails can also be hired from 1,000 baht pertrip.

Alternatively, guests can arrive by ferry from Krabi. Boardthe Koh Lanta ferry, and then transfer to the local Koh Jumlongtail boats, which wait off the west coast.

The ferries currently leave Krabi at 10:30 am and 1:30 pmdaily. Check locally in Krabi as these times are liable to change.

Where to stay: Koh Jum Lodge – Seaview Cottages from4,000 baht a night, including breakfast.

Website: www.kohjumlodge.com; Email: info@kohjumlodge.com; Tel: 089-9211621

For lower-budget accommodation and good information onthis lovely island take a look at the excellent website:www.kohjumonline.com

KOH JUM:

ESSENTIAL FACTS

very peaceful. The resort has agreat up-market Robinson Cru-soe-type of appeal, especiallywith its wooden deck and pool.

My the favorite time ofthe day by far was dusk after along beach walk, sipping awell-deserved vodka and tonicat the beachside bar whilewatching the sun set behind thestunning cliffs of the Phi PhiIslands in the distance.

I’ll be heading off to UK fora few months soon for a medicalsabbatical and what a sight thatwas to take with me.

I’m planning to be back inPhuket in July and will certainlybe heading to Koh Jum to relaxfor a few days on my return. Andwill certainly be seeking a travel-ing companion – as such sightsand experiences are always somuch better shared. Anyone careto join me?

Until then to all my specialfriends, au revoir and enjoy.

Robinson Crusoe appealKICK BACK: There are few things in this world that can beat the simplepleasure of a hammock (left) strung between two trees by the beach.Above: Hey, you! Get off my deserted beach!

24 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

T A K E A B R E A KMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 25

The Cryptic Crossword

Compiled by Tortuus. © 2007

PPPPPUZZLESUZZLESUZZLESUZZLESUZZLES

Sudoku is very simple: each row, each column and each “box” ofnine squares within the puzzle must contain all the numbers from1 to 9 with, naturally, no repetitions. Beware: there is only onesolution to this puzzle, which is on the next page. Answers on next page

The words describedbelow all rhyme with

‘boat’.What are they?

1. On the water.2. IOU.3. Nimble animal.4. Far away.5. End of reported

speech.6. Cereal.7. Swell up.8. Castle defense.9. Set aside for a

purpose.10. Bird house.

EZ TRIVIA QUIZ

Can you find the seven

differences between the two

cartoons below? And can you

find them faster than the rest

of the family?

Solution on next page.

Spot the DifferenceSpot the Difference

Answers on next page

RhymeTime

ACROSS

1. Imposter a mesh change.(13)

9. Damage? Incorrect. (5)10. The Italian in abstract

with dispatch. (9)11. Coffee remnants in the

garden? (7)12. A little science with ship

or snip. (7)15. Exist in reverse – that’s

bad. (4)16. I got in, threw off and

reared in fright. (5)17. North I go to the French

river. (4)20. It is in points – takes

exam. (4)23. Practice to make holes.

(5)24. Pace turns 26 down. (4)26. Pennies for an act of

contrition. (7)27. Gave protection to limb –

or Commie! (7)28. Accoutrements to catch

asdic noises. (9)29. Minister to special delight.

(5)30. Predict poorly – gotta

conspire. (13)

DOWN

2. A little ecology with nofog – he knows money!(9)

Scribble SpaceScribble SpaceScribble SpaceScribble SpaceScribble Space

Solution, tips andcomputer program

at www.sudoku.com

1. What is the oil reservoirbeneath an auto enginecalled?

2. What is the capital ofAustralia?

3. Which band recordedan album called How toDismantle an AtomicBomb?

4. What date is BoxingDay?

5. Which mountain rangeis between France andSpain?

6. What are the officiallanguages of Switz-erland?

7. The Disney characterGoofy has a son. Whatis the son’s name?

8. Where would you find acolander?

9. At which stage in anopera would you findthe overture?

10. Which New York streetis famed for theaters?

3. Anna took in soldier?Heartache! (6)

4. Kicks out, with saintsmixed in. (5)

5. Claim, “Oh, I’d becomemurderous.” (9)

6. Sara’s in bridge. (7)7. Loot German cardinal –

and brags. (8)8. The German’s about? Yes,

old craftsman. (4)

13. Ouch! Left late person.(3)

14. I take a bit back beforebone. (5)

16. Entice Ed to get intovacuum cleaner action.(9)

18. Burying intent, take inright – and me. (9)

19. Former spouse quietly editthe point – get it done! (8)

21. Anger is most of fire. (3)22. Cleaner is fake – what a

smell! (7)25. Cardinal and me have

twitch – it makes yousick. (6)

26. Strokes favorites. (4)27. Possession, as matching

group. (5)

Solution on next page

T A K E A B R E A K26 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Solution below, right

Get your brainGet your brainGet your brainGet your brainGet your brainin gear within gear within gear within gear within gear with

The Monster QuizThe Monster QuizThe Monster QuizThe Monster QuizThe Monster Quiz

Quick Crossword

Cryptic Crossword

PuzzleSolutions

Sudoku

Quick Crossword

Rhyme Time Answers

Solution to this week’sCartoon Puzzle

1. Afloat; 2. Promissory note; 3. Mountain goat; 4. Remote;5. Unquote; 6. Oat; 7. Bloat; 8. Moat; 9. Devote; 10.Dovecote.

1. The Sump; 2. Canber-ra; 3. U2; 4. December26; 5. The Pryrenees; 6.Italian, French, Germanand Romansh; 7. Max; 8.In a kitchen; 9. At the be-ginning; 10. Broadway.

ACROSS

1. Not practical.7. Hello and goodbye in

Italy.8. Tough part of old

Greece.10. Lunatic.12. Small dog noise.15. Candle material.16. Wild West criminal.19. Of horses.20. Drink with gusto.

23. See-through.

1. Northern Italy; 2.Finnish; 3. None; 4. 65million; 5. Cyrillic; 6.Japanese; 7. 1964; 8.Singapore and Malay-sia; 9. Xhosa; 10. 1,800;11. Click languages; 12.Five; 13. Drums; 14.Lobjan; 15. Broca’sarea; 16. They are allextinct; 17. No. The twoare mutially unintel-ligible; 18. Whistles;19. Welsh; 20. Spanish.

1. Where would you findFriulian and Ladinspoken?

2. What language doEstonia’s Ingriansspeak?

3. In a true Abjadlanguage, how manywritten vowels arethere?

4. Roughly how manypeople have Dravidianas their native language?

5. Glagolitic is a precursorof which modern writingsystem?

6. Which language may bewritten according toHepburn Romanization?

7. In which year was theSimplified Chinesesystem of writingfinalized?

EZ TriviaAnswers

MonsterQuiz

Answers

DOWN

1. Wages.2. Green legume.3. Chopper.4. Typing mistake.5. Cut short.6. He tells fibs.9. Flittermouse.11. Most famous vampire.13. Computer problem.14. General Eisenhower.17. They’re on the end of your legs.18. Picnic pests.21. Small.22. Between Mi and Sol.

8. Apart from China, inwhich countries isSimplified Chinese used?

9. What is NelsonMandela’s first language?

10. Roughly how manylanguages are spoken inAfrica?

11. Khoe, San, Hadza andNdebele are all examplesof what kind of language?

12. How many tones arethere in the Bulu languageof Africa?

13. Bulu can be broadcast byusing what method?

14. What language did theLogical Language Groupdevelop in the 1980s?

15. In which part of the braindo language processing,

speech production andcomprehension takeplace?

16. What do the followinglanguages have incommon: Catabwa,Cornish and Wappo?

17. Can users of BritishSign Language andAmerican SignLanguage understandeach other?

18. What form of languagewas used by the ñañigosterrorists in Cuba duringthe Spanish occupation?

19. Which British languageis spoken by about700,000 people?

20. Which is the world’ssecond most widelyspoken native language?

Answers below

F E A T U R E SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 27

Off theSHELFBy James Eckardt

A poor tale of Edgar Allan Poe

PHUKET DIARY www.phuketgazette.net/calendar

Every schoolboy knows that EdgarAllan Poe came to a bad end,dead of drink or delirium in Balti-more in 1849 at the age of 40.

What’s unknown is the exact cause of hisdeath amid mysterious circumstances.

The conceit in Matthew Pearl’s ThePoe Shadow (Random House, New York,2006, 433pp) is that a rich young Balti-more lawyer named Quentin Clark, a greatadmirer and correspondent of Poe, takesup his case and devotes the next coupleyears into unraveling the secrets surround-ing his death.

This is a great narrative hook butMatthew Pearl, alas, doesn’t have the lit-erary chops to pull it off. When it comesto characterization, dialog, description andplot, he is woefully inept.

Quentin Clark is a cipher. He writesin an archaic early 19th century prose thatcomes off as simply stilted. He is engagedto another cipher, the virginal and vacuousHattie Blum. But then, in his obsessionwith Poe’s death, he tears off to Paris insearch of Auguste Duponte, supposedlythe real-life version of C Auguste Dupin,hero of Poe’s detective stories (and fore-runner, as Alfred Conan Doyle would lateradmit, of Sherlock Holmes). The idea is tobring him back to Baltimore and put himon the case of Edgar Allan Poe.

The mysterious bits are Poe’s where-abouts in the last four days of his life. Sup-posedly he was to travel from Richmond

– where he had recently taken a temper-ance pledge and became engaged to bemarried – to Philadelphia to edit a richlady’s poems and then to New York to pickup the mother of his late wife and bringher back to Richmond where he proposedsetting up a new literary magazine, TheStylus.

Instead, he’s found in a seedy tav-ern in Baltimore, stark raving out of hismind, wearing someone else’s ill-fittingclothes. A doctor friend transports him toa hospital where he raves on and on aboutsomeone called “Reynolds” until he dies.

This is the case Clark presents toAuguste Duponte in Paris. If anythingDuponte is more a cipher than Clark. Witha vacant stare and preoccupied mind,Duponte spends his time studying news-papers in his room and wandering thestreets of Paris. He resists Clark’s entreat-ies to take on the case of Poe.

Now enters the Devil in the form of“Baron” Claude Dupin, noted lawyer andcharlatan, who claims to be the real Dupin.He has snuck into Paris from London,where he’d gone to ground to dodge credi-tors, with his beautiful henchwoman andbodyguard Bonjoir. These two liven up thenovel for a bit, but then it’s back to thedreary treadmill of a plot.

The plot depends on those two hoary

19th century devices of wild coincidenceand eavesdropped conversations. Clark isconstantly stumbling across just the peoplehe is looking for and then sneaking up tolisten in their conversations. He does thisa half dozen times with Baron Dupin andBonjoir alone, once resorting – oh give mea break – to a rat-infested dumbwaiter.

Still you keep grimly turning pageswaiting for the grand revelations thatDuponte is supposed to bring forth. Whilethe Baron races around Baltimore inter-viewing witnesses and concocting a sinis-ter, violent plot against Poe, Duponte sitsin his room poring over newspaper clip-pings. Then before the Baron is to give hispublic lecture to reveal all, he is shot onstage. And Clark is accused and thrownin jail, though he’s nowhere near a gun.And Bonjoir kisses him with an opiate thatsends him to the prison infirmary, the wallof which fall apart in a rainstorm, allowingClark to escape. And then…

The big courtroom scene! Dupontehires a vagrant to fire a pistol that emptiesthe court, leaving Clark conveniently aloneso Duponte can reveal the results of hisresearch. He could have just tapped himon the shoulder but no… And the stagger-ing revelations? Mush.

Matthew Pearl has written another19th century literary thriller called TheDante Club, starring Longfellow, JamesRussell Lowell and Oliver Wendel Holmes.I’ll definitely miss the hat-trick.

March 31: MediterraneanNight at Wine Connection.

Enjoy the flavors of Spainat Wine Connection Chalongfrom 7 pm to 10:30 pm. Tapas andpaella at 399 baht per person.Free flow Sangria at 250 baht.Live Music. Reservations recom-mended. Call 076-282411/2.

Until April 1: Chess on theBeach

The 7th Bangkok ChessClub Open will be held at PhuketGraceland Resort & Spa fromMarch 27 to April 1.

The international tourna-ment, which is expected to attractabout 100 chess players fromThailand and abroad, will be heldwith the theme “Chess on theBeach”.

Group A of the tournamentis open to all players, rated andunrated. Group B is open only toplayers rated under 2000 and un-rated players.

The ratings are based onInternational Chess Federation(FIDE) or Thai ELO ratings – oth-er national ratings will be validat-ed by the organizer.

Up to six players from thesame country may enter as ateam. The total score of best fiveplayers will be used for determin-ing the best team.

For more information pleasevisit www.bangkokchess.com

April 8 and 9: JungceylonGrand Opening.

Jungceylon is planning aweek of entertainment and fun

during their Grand Opening April8 to 15. On tap for the celebra-tion are fireworks with a light andsound show, a concert by Thaisuper star Tata Young, the MissInternational Songkran Contest, amultitude of fashion shows in-cluding bikini and lingerie cat-walks and an opportunity to cheerfor your favorite “Hottie” at theMiss Phuket Bike Week Pageant(see below).

All activities are free. Formore information, please see thewebsite at www.jungceylon.com

Until April 8: Island FurnitureCricket League.

The Island Furniture Crick-et League returns for its secondseason at Cherng Talay Schoolstarting in late January and fin-ishing up in early April.

Four local teams will play 12round robin matches with the toptwo teams playing in the final.Games are 11 a side, 35 overs &played every Sunday from 11 amto 4 pm during the season.

For more information email:scarfy@ loxinfo.co.th or visit theleague website at: www.phuketcricket.com

April 13 to 15: Songkran (ThaiNew Year).

Also known as the WaterFestival, Songkran is held duringthe driest months in Thailand, andis celebrated by Thais through-out the country by pouring wa-ter – a little or a LOT – on otherpeople to wish them good luck forthe New Year.

Until April 15: Perfect PhuketContest.

Property developer C9Hotelworks has launched awebsite and worldwide competi-

April 14 and 15: Phuket BikeWeek.

The 13th Annual PhuketBike Week 2007 will held on April14-15 by Phuket Rider Club andRide Thailand Magazine.

Several thousand bikersfrom all over the world are ex-pected to participate in the week-end’s activities.

Throughout the holiday bigbikes such as Harley-Davidsons,BMWs, Ducatis and Hondas willbe touring the island, includingone tour past several high tour-ism areas such as Patong beach,Kata beach, Karon beach, Prom-thep cape, Rawai beach and Her-oines monument.

Past Phuket Bike Weekshave enticed at least 5,000 peo-ple to the island.

Some highlights of thisyear’s festivities include a BigBike and Motor Show at ThaiNaan Restaurant on April 14 at 4pm, a Biker Fashion Show byHarley Davidson Bangkok at 9:30pm that night, a Big Bike Partyat Jungceylon on April 15 at 7 pm,and a Miss Phuket Bike Weekcontest later that day at 9 pm.

tion, sponsored by the Gazette,urging the global community tocreate videos of the perfectlifestyle on Phuket, with thechance to win prizes.

The www.phuketperfect.com website guides viewers to adedicated page on the YouTubewebsite where entrants can up-load their videos from March 1until April 15.

Winners will be announcedon phuketperfect.com April 30.Top prize is a week’s stay at theMovenpick Residence.

All details of the programand uploading instructions can befound at www.phuketperfect.com/contest/

E D I T O R I A L & L E T T E R S28 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

- Since 1994 -

367/2 Yaowarat Rd, AmphurMuang, Phuket 83000Tel: 076-236555Fax: 076-213971Email: info@phuketgazette.net

The Gazette is pleased to receive mail from read-ers. Please write to us at 367/2 Yaowarat Rd,Amphur Muang, Phuket 83000, fax to 076-213971or send an email to editor@phuketgazette.net with

your views for publication in our next issue.We reserve the right to edit all letters. Pseudonymsare acceptable only if your full name and addressare supplied.

Letters

Letters conveying views and suggestions are published here. Those seeking comment from governmentofficials and/or business owners are published in Issues & Answers at www.phuketgazette.net.

Editor: Parichat UtintuManaging Editor: Chris Husted

Editorial Consultant: Alasdair ForbesNews Editor: Stephen Fein

Chief Reporter: Sangkhae LeelanapapornEditorial Team: Natcha Yuttaworawit, Janyaporn Morel,

Dominic Earnshaw, Sompratch Saowakhon, Supanun Supawong,Suganya Semacote, Zach Fridell, Laura Schafer, Teddy Tucker.

General Manager: Oranee PienprasertkulMarketing Manager: Natthira Susangrat

Classifieds Manager: Phatsara RaktammakitPublisher: The Phuket Gazette Co Ltd

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Copyright © 1994-2007 The Phuket Gazette Co Ltd

The views expressed in the Phuket Gazette are those of the writers and contributorsand do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher, the editor, the shareholders, or thedirectors of The Phuket Gazette Co Ltd.

– The Editor

Pipe dreams

Does the Gazettemake a difference?

Unexpected heavy rainfall during what is statistically one of Phuket’sdriest months, March, has once again averted water shortages andgiven officials from the various water-supply agencies cause to sighwith relief.

Fortunately, the recent downpours did not result in any majorflooding, as often happens after months of low rainfall when debrisaccumulates in drains and causes blockages.

Instead, the rain in many areas seemed to come in just the rightamounts and intensity to clean out drainpipes and wash away theiraccumulated detritus – in most areas straight into the sea.

This has made the heavy rain a mixed blessing on some partsof the island, most notably Patong, which has virtually no capacity tostore or make use of the naturally-purified water that falls from thesky – other than as a drain cleaning agent.

The island’s undisputed mass-tourism and nightlife hub, Patonghas been a victim of its own success in recent months as indicated bythe overwhelming stench emanating from its sewers.

The second-phase sewage treatment plant and an innovative“constructed wetland” that was opened next to it last October areobviously incapable of treating all the wastewater. During heavy rain-falls, the treatment system’s storage capacity can be overwhelmed,causing the flow of untreated sewage to flow straight into the baywith the rainwater in what is know as “combined runoff”.

So while the latest rainfall may have lessened the stench fromthe sewers, it simply transferred much of the offending muck intoPatong Bay, home of Phuket’s most popular beach and also somespecies of seaweed and diatoms reported as found only in Patong. Isit any wonder that fewer and fewer people dare to swim in PatongBay in the high season?

The Democrat Party recently called on the interim governmentto increase the budget for the 14 southern provinces to compensatefor years of underfunding under former PM Thaksin, who at onepoint explicitly warned that constituencies that failed to support hisThai Rak Thai party could expect smaller budgets.

Nowhere are greater budget increases needed than in Patong,which desperately requires a sewage system separate from its stormdrains, not to mention underground power lines and a range of otherinfrastructure improvements.

Given the municipality’s tiny registered population, such upgradeswould be well beyond the municipality’s capacity to fund on its own– even if it weren’t wasting much of its existing budget on non-essential activities aimed more at pleasing voters than truly servingthe people by preserving the environment.

I have read every issue of yourpaper for the past two years, andmost Letters to the Editor arefrom foreigners and most lettersare negative but often offer verygood, cost-free solutions toPhuket and Patong’s problems.

Although many of these sug-gestions come from highly-edu-cated businesspeople, I have yetto see even one of the sugges-tions implemented.

After reading literally hun-dreds of such letters it occurredto me that perhaps the letters arebeing misdirected.

If government officials can-not speak English well, then per-haps they cannot read it. Maybe,though not likely, immigration of-ficers, police and politicians areunder the mistaken impressionthat Patong is doing just fine – itis not doing “fine”.

It has been decided that thenew one-way street system willbe permanent. Every person Ihave spoken to about it, Thais andforeigners, hate the new system.

So, if Thais hate it, foreign-ers hate it and (their strike to em-phasize it) the tuk-tuk drivers hateit: then just who did the govern-ment do it for?

They say it has been donein the name of safety, but it isnow less safe than before.

Could the Gazette send acopy of Letters to the Editortranslated into Thai to the appro-priate government officers?Then someone of authority mightbe able to rescue Patong.

Don AlemanPatong

The Phuket Governor, the threePhuket Vice-Governors, the

Regarding the provincial orderthat introduced the 8 pm curfewand prohibition of using mobilephones for foreign laborers inPhuket, practically all Burmeseworkers working and living inPhuket are virtually under housearrest after 8 pm because of theirnationality – an no other reason.

I understand the problemsand the common feelings thatmust derive from this large massof poor people who are forced tolive in squalid conditions.

I do not think employingthem and forcing them to live thisis the way to solve the problemsconnected to the real need forlow-wage labor in Phuket.

Most important, the housearrest is applied to every personof certain nationalities, withoutdistinction between criminals andpeople who came here – pushedby poverty – for honest work.

It is not difficult to definethis move as racist. Such behav-ior is sadly similar to that seen inmany countries in the last cen-tury, but hardly acceptable in the“Land of Smiles” in the year 2007.

What would Thai peoplesay if a country with Thai guestworkers was applying such ageneral curfew on them?

I would like to invite Thaipeople to think of foreign work-ers as human beings first, pun-ishing only the criminals amongthem.

Federico ParodiItaly

Let humanity prevail

President of Phuket ProvincialAdministration Organization(OrBorJor); the three highest-ranking officers of Phuket Pro-vincial Police, the Chief Judgeof Phuket Provincial Court andthe Phuket State Attorney (theequivalent to the Public Pros-ecutor’s Office), each receivea free copy of every issue ofthe Phuket Gazette.

We liaise regularly withthese positions to clarify thepoints being made in articles.

– Editor.

rules that ruin things for every-day folk. So best we jet-ski fanslook elsewhere to spend ourSpondoolaks!

“We love speed”By email

Jet-skis are great fun and it’s al-ways nice to see children smilingas they’re being taken for a rideon one by their “responsible” par-ents.

So why are jet-skis beingbanned? What damage do theycause? Just because a few bird-brained, clearly drunk peoplehave been allowed to rent themfrom irresponsible operators therest of us have to suffer – butwhy?

I recall the news about twoAustralians playing “chicken” offPatong Beach, but they wereboth so drunk they pushed it toofar and and refused to give way.

The inevitable head-on col-lision caused serious damage toboth vehicles and major injuriesto one of the Aussies.

So we now have yet an-other reason not to bother com-ing back to Phuket. It seems it isokay to drive like a lunatic andshoot, stab, rob and rape people– or just generally act like a com-plete moron – but drive a jet ski?NO!

Banana brains rule theworld and make stupid, idiotic

Jet-skis ban affectsall, not just morons

P E R S P E C T I V E SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 29

Where can I get a multiple-entry non-imm B visa?&Issues&

ANSWERS

THE GRIM REAPERIS STILL WINNING

The number of injuriesand deaths on Phuket’s– and all of Thailand’s– roads continues to

climb in spite of government cam-paigns to reduce the number ofaccidents, and Phuket is usuallyin the top five provinces for thenumber of accidents.

There are 12,000 to 13,000people killed every year fromaccidents in Thailand and most ofthem are employed. These work-ers earn an income of 200,000 to300,000 baht per year so if theycan live for another 30 years theywill create an income of around70 to 80 billion baht for our coun-try, so why shouldn’t the govern-ment solve this problem? The costto society not just in lives, buteven in productivity and moneyis too great to not act.

The government has shownus through projects like the newtraffic control measures taken atthe Heroines Monument that theycan decrease accidents if theytake action. If people can not dis-cipline themselves then the gov-ernment must step in and createorder out of the chaos.

At Vachira Hospital themonthly death toll from accidentsis usually 10 to 12 people, asmany as 300 injured. Sometimes15 are killed in one month. Thenumbers are going up, not down.

The 30 people who diedfrom the bus fire in Saraburi formanother example of poor disci-pline. Many of our governmentofficials have visited foreigncountries where they have seenhow the rules and regulationswork to provide social order andsafety and help create a good life.Why can’t the government takethose ideas and modify them todo something in Thailand?

I lived in Belgium for a yearand I saw that they don’t usebuses to transport people long dis-tances – they use trains. Busesare used there only for tourists.Why can’t we do that here? It issafer and faster. But no onewants to ride the train here. It istoo slow and doesn’t go wherethey want to go.

Another thing we see in for-eign countries are modern motor-ways that connect city to city.These motorways go direct fromcity to city and don’t connect toall city roads. This is fast and ef-ficient and safe. Here the majorhighways connect to all the localroads, create traffic jams and in-crease accidents.

I think now is a suitable timeto talk about making better roadsand building them to be the bestaround. Pairing the motorwayswith new and improved railways

would be helpful too. I remem-ber the government talking aboutbuilding a paired railway andmotorway around Thailand for abudget of 80,000 million bahtabout ten years ago – but it hasn’thappened.

Another important issue isthe number of vehicles on theroads. The reason that most peo-ple buy private cars is becauseusing public transportation isn’tconvenient. The OrBorJor’sgreen buses here don’t providegood service. They don’t comeon time and only pass by once anhour at best. You can’t blamepeople for not using a service thatis so inconvenient.

When I was in Belgium thebuses there came on time and thebuses passed by every five min-utes. But not here. In Belgiumthere were many electric tramsthat ran together with other vehi-

cles. I wish we had that tram onKing Rama 5 Road in Bangkok.Most foreign cities have similarsystems that run in conjunctionwith the regular traffic, and helpreduce traffic and keep thingssafe.

People always think aboutthe results first and then use thecauses to explain the result. Thetraffic problem is up to the gov-ernment to fix. When the traintakes 13 hours to get to Bangkokand doesn’t even come to Phuket,how can we blame people forbuying their own vehicles? Thegovernment needs to build biggertrains that can run at 120 to 150kilometers per hour and get peo-ple to and from where they wantto go.

Another thing I want thegovernment to do is to limit thespeed of motorbikes. Peopledon’t follow the speed limits, so

we should ask motorcycle man-ufacturers to limit their top speedto 80km/hr. This is a better meth-od than passing a law that no onewill follow.

In Singapore, vehicles havean alarm that goes off when theyexceed a certain speed and thishelps limit speeding. We shoulddo that with motorbikes too, as80% of people killed in accidentshere are riding motorbikes – andmost of them are of working age.The cost to our society is too greatto lose these people.

Human behavior is too hardto control so we have to find waysto improve safety by limiting thespeed of vehicles and providingother convenient options for peo-ple to use.

Every holiday the govern-ment has campaigns to preventaccidents. The “don’t drink anddrive” program is a good exam-ple. These campaigns can helpbut they can’t do it all. Not allaccidents are from drinking anddriving. We have to take stron-ger action.

My son studies at Prince ofSongkhla University at the Song-khla campus. He wanted to drivea motorbike so I made him get amotorcycle license first. But af-ter only one week he had an ac-cident. He wasn’t seriously in-jured, but it made me realize thatour children and family memberscould be killed at any time.

One thing that would helpwith motorbikes and bicycleswould be to have a special lanethat is separated from traffic byat least one meter, similar to whatthey do in the Netherlands.

These are my suggestionsto the government and I hope theywill do what needs to be done – tohelp reduce this serious problem.

PERSONFIRST

The injuries and fatalitieson the roads of Phuket and

Thailand are a nationaltragedy says Vachira

Phuket Hospital DirectorDr Jessada

Chungpaibulpatana. Hisservice on the front line ofdeath, injury and pain has

given him some strongopinions about what

should be done to solvethe problem.

I’ve heard that the Thai diplomat-ic missions in Malaysia havestopped issuing one-year multi-ple-entry non-immigrant B visas.Is this the case?

MickSamkong

Pisit Pichitmarn, First Secre-tary of the Thai Embassy inKuala Lumpur replies:

The Thai embassy and con-sulates in Malaysia have not can-celed the issuing of multiple-en-try non-immigrant visas. Wheth-er the applicant will be granted amultiple-entry visa or not dependson the documents they present,such as a valid work permit, andthe reliability of the company thatis sponsoring them.

If the documents are com-

ready have a non-immigrant visaask for an extension to their per-mit to stay at their local Immigra-tion Office. They don’t need tocome to the Penang consulate.

Generally, we issue single-entry visas. Immigration Officesin Thailand can then extend aperson’s permit to stay depend-ing on the documents presented.

Penchan Boonhok, from thePhuket Provincial Labor Of-fice replies:

If a foreigner has workedfor more than six months then wecan update the work period onpage five of their work permit toshow one year.

We can put a stamp in theback of the book showing it hasbeen extended to one year.

plete and the company the appli-cant is working for appears to betrustworthy then we will issue thevisa, if not we may grant a 90-day single-entry visa and tell theapplicant to come back withmore documentation.

For a one-year visa to begiven, page five of the work per-mit issued by the Ministry of La-bor should indicate a work peri-od of at least one year. If it cur-rently says only six months thenyou should go and get it extend-ed at the local labor office. Thisis another method of screening

applicants. If page five of thework permit shows a work peri-od of only one year but the appli-cant has been working for longerthan this, this is also grounds forrejection. They should go and getit updated at the Labor Office.

The job is also an importantfactor. The officer examining theapplication will consider how re-spectable the job is. We are par-ticularly suspicious of Englishteachers and dive instructors asmany are not well-qualified andare working for small unaccred-ited businesses. Maybe they areunable to get work in their owncountry so they come to Thailand.

There has been no officialcancellation of this visa and ev-ery embassy and consul is in-structed to follow the same poli-

cy for issuing visas of this kind.Whether they are granted or not,however, depends on the officerexamining the application.

Pairoh Jeawae, an Officer atthe Thai Consulate in KotaBharu replies:

At Kota Bharu we do notissue multiple-entry visas. Themost we can offer is a double-entry non-immigrant visa, whichallows two stays in the Kingdomof up to 90 days per stay.

Pramote Pramoonsab, Consulat the Thai Consulate in Pe-nang replies:

We haven’t actually stop-ped issuing one-year multiple-en-try non-immigrant visas but wesuggest that foreigners who al-

F E A T U R E S30 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Let go of the stereotypes

In The Stars by Isla Star

ARIES (March 21-April 20): You couldeasily be out of your depth in a social set-ting this weekend. Standing back is the onlyway to handle this situation. Watching so-phisticated Scorpio working the crowdcould give you tips for next time. As thedays of April begin to pass, you will bedesperate to get out of the heat. A perfectgetaway opportunity should present itselfbefore the middle of the month.

TAURUS (April 21-May 21): Even if youfeel like doing nothing more challengingthan drifting around in a cool pool therewill be little chance of escaping from thepressures of necessary tasks. Luckily, ahelpful Cancerian comes to your rescueand you should be able to delegate duringthe coming days. There’s a bargain withyour name written on it this weekend; ashopping trip turns out to be much moreenjoyable than you expect.

GEMINI (May 22-June 21): Focusing toomuch on the big picture appears to be pre-venting you from taking care of small de-tails. This week, you will be susceptible toa bout of forgetfulness that could compli-cate life. Make time on Sunday to writedown all the things you need to achieveduring the week ahead. An adventurousSagittarius is becoming attracted to yoursimilar spirit. Wear a piece of tiger’s eyeto protect against negative influences.

CANCER (June 22-July 23): Efforts toimprove your situation begin to seem likea steep mountain climb. Lay low thisweekend and indulge in self-nurturing. Youwill be amazed at how much better youfeel after quality relaxation. A trip downmemory lane is indicated midweek whenyou encounter an old flame. Where workis concerned, Aquarius is about to ask aloaded question. The number 5 can bringgood fortune on Monday.

LEO (July 24-August 22): Chasing yourtail could irritate you this week. As themonth of April begins, you will be frus-trated by slow progress and lack of coop-eration from others. It’s probably time toset firmer deadlines and stick to them.Languish in your lair this weekend in or-der to conserve energy for Monday, whenyou have the best chance of achieving themost. Wear sunflower yellow to mellowyour mood.

VIRGO (August 23-September 23): Yourreluctance to admit mistakes is still stand-ing in the way of progress in a romanticrelationship. Unless you want this liaisonto end the same way as others have in thepast you must face up to the truth. At work,the atmosphere calms down next week andApril should prove to be your most profit-able month so far. The number 9 can bringgood luck this weekend.

LIBRA (September 24-October 23): Don’tunderestimate the power of positive think-ing this week. You who are low on confi-dence should take an honest look at yourachievements so far this year and feelproud. Expect to win and that is likely tohappen in April. A romantic encountertakes you by surprise this weekend, but ifyou’re not sure whether to proceed or nottake some time to think it over. The colorlapis encourages clear thinking.

SCORPIO (October 24-November 22):Misunderstandings with friends or neigh-bors are indicated to happen this week-end. This will not be the right moment tounleash the sting in your tail. Diplomacyand tact are the only tools you should useto solve this problem and you may need toflatter someone when it’s the last thing youfeel inclined to do. You are hot to trot at asocial get-together this weekend.

SAGITTARIUS (November 23-December21): The coast is clear for Sagittarius whowant to try a new career. You are likely toreceive an offer that appears too good tobe true, but seeing is believing. The astralatmosphere during April will support yourendeavors, in both business and your pri-vate life. Leo will certainly appreciate yourskills in getting the job done. Wednesdayis the best day to hold important discus-sions.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 20):Paperwork and other tedious chores shouldbe a priority for you. You could easily bethe target of a practical joke on Sunday,but will get an opportunity to reciprocatesoon after. A lucky financial streak is fore-cast to begin that should last until the middleof the month. Investments you make dur-ing this time are sure to pay off. The scentof vanilla enhances your charisma.

AQUARIUS (January 21-February 19): Youhave the golden touch this week. A projectthat you were beginning to think wasdoomed suddenly attracts interest fromsomeone who can afford to be of greatsupport. Unfinished romantic business re-quires attention this weekend; you cannotexpect to move on until this affair has beenproperly laid to rest. When a Libran friendneeds to pour their heart out it’s wiser torefrain from too much comment.

PISCES (February 20-March 20): A luckybreak at work lifts your spirits early nextweek. If you were brave enough to makeyour feelings clear recently, you can ex-pect to make positive progress in business.Ignore hot gossip this weekend; Aries, inparticular, would like to stir the pot andyour feelings could be unnecessarily hurt.Don’t push yourself to do too much in theheat as a short period of physical weak-ness is indicated this month.

Dear Momma Duck,Why do Thai people refer

to me as “farang”? I walk intothe store and somebody remarks,“farang”.

I understand this to be arude word and I feel it’s used likethe word “black” is used to de-note a person of dark skin.

I am female, so I don’t havebar women sucking up to me likeall the male foreigners. Perhapsthat’s why I feel the distinct chillof bigotry here.

Please, can you tell me howto ask Thai people to not labelme or call me names?

ChristyBang Tao

Dear Christy,I agree that it can be dis-

turbing being labeled as being amember of a group solely basedon our physical characteristics,but it happens to all of us!

You have chosen to live inThailand, so, unfortunately, youhear it rather often. When I wasliving abroad, I was frequently re-ferred to as “Asian” by those whodid not know me.

I have several Africanfriends who say that they don’tconsider it rude to be called“black”; it is merely descriptive.Indeed, they are proud of being“black”.

Perhaps I can ease your

concern by saying that “farang”is not a rude word in Thai. It ismerely our language’s descriptionof a Caucasian, a white-skinnedperson.

Linguists believe that fa-rang came into our language ei-ther from the Persian wordFarangi, which means “for-eigner”, or the French wordFrançais.

These are reasonable theo-ries, as both of these nationalitieswere among the first Caucasianswho came to trade and live inThailand.

We refer to darker-skinnedAsians, such as those from Paki-stan, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka

and Indonesia as khaek which lit-erally means “guest”.

In my experience, any“rudeness” comes solely from theintention and intonation of thespeaker. “Asian” or farang or“black” or khaek can be eitherpolitely descriptive or rude, de-pending upon the context andsituation.

It is, in my opinion, very dif-ficult to ask people to abandontheir linguistic habits. It doesn’tmatter whether they are Thais orCaucasians trying to be “politi-cally correct”.

Rather, I think you shouldfocus on the fact that most Thaisare merely being descriptive andmean you no insult or harm.

Also, try hard to speak withThais. We love it when foreign-ers start a fun conversation withus.

We, of course, have our cul-

tural stereotypes of farangs justas you have yours of “Thais”.The only way to break down suchstereotypes is to become recog-nized as individuals, with a nameand a personality. We would loveto call you by your given name.

Since you are now in a pre-dominantly Buddhist country, youmight try to think and act like us.

When you feel angry, an-noyed or frustrated with people’sactions or words, just stop andthink a few moments before youreact. Try to establish the causeof your frustration, because thetrue “cause” ultimately resides inyour own mind, not in that of an-other person.

Going through this processwill calm you down, allowing youreact in a positive rather than anegative manner.

Also, when somethingraises your negative emotions,just accept it and let it go – as acool breeze blows and then goesaway. Do not let anger or frus-tration destroy your beautiful day.It may be difficult at the begin-ning, but it will help reduce yourblood pressure and increase yourhappiness.

By Wanida Hongyok

MommaDUCK

momma@phuketgazette.net

F E A T U R E SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 31

Welcome to theteenage jungle

Youth ’n

By AmyVan de Casteele

ASIA

The world of teenagers isa complex one. Like anentirely new tribe or sub-species of people, we

have formed our own society,with its own unique language,rules, hierarchy and values.

This period of transition isgenerally referred to by parentsas our “weaning stage”, when westart testing our wings in prepa-ration to leave the nest behind.

As a result of this, the per-son we have developed into dur-ing the previous 12 years drasti-cally changes, usually to the cha-grin and at times even horror ofthe long-suffering parents, whosoon find themselves with an alienin place of their beloved son ordaughter.

This alien, once a sweet, in-nocent child with naively shiningeyes and angelic glow emanat-ing from his or her little body,morphs almost overnight into agrunting, whining, oily and gen-erally abrasive creature with themanners and articulation skills ofFrankenstein’s Monster.

We also generally inducethe same reactions in our parentsas said monster did to the peopleof Mary Shelley’s novel: fear, dis-gust and revulsion.

The first couple of years ofthis Monster stage is the initia-tion, during which we have tolearn an entirely new code ofconduct, language, set of moralsand values, and etiquette.

For a lucky few these les-sons are learned with fluid ease,but for many teenagers this de-velopment into an entirely newperson with an entirely newlifestyle can be incredibly chal-lenging.

For starters, there is the lan-guage we have to acquire in or-der to blend in with the herd.

Parents are no longer re-ferred to as “mommy” or “dad-dy” or even mom and dad.

In teenage speak the peoplewho created and raised us areeither called “the parentals”,“them” – uttered with a requiredamount of derision – or variousother disparaging terms, thatneed not be mentioned in this ar-ticle.

All the adjectives our teach-ers painstakingly taught usthroughout primary school arereplaced by the all-purpose words“nice”, “cool” and “awesome”.

Swear words – outside ofschool, of course – become so in-terwoven with general languagethat their original derogatorymeaning completely loses any realsignificance.

Then there are dozens ofconfusing words used in popularmusic that we have to learn andthen incorporate into everydaylanguage.

An example of a phrasethat only we teens understand is“fo shizzle ma nizzle” which is asimplified version of “fo’ sheezyma neezy” which, when youeventually translate it back intoadult English, actually means, “Iconcur with you wholeheartedlymy African-American brother”.

Language is not the onlything that changes during theteenage years.

We adolescents have devel-

oped our own hierarchy, not dis-similar from that of a herd.

There are the ones at thetop of the food chain, the popularkids. These god-like individualstend to be good-looking, gener-ally intelligent, funny, smug andbossy.

Get on the good side of thesekids and your life will be smoothsailing. Get into their bad booksand you have already committedsocial suicide and no one will talkto you again until you have wonback their favor.

Reading a book or mention-ing an un-trendy television show,band or comic in front of themcan easily be compared with wad-

ing into a river full of piranhas witha bleeding cut. They will rip youto shreds.

Just below these often cruelbut blindly worshipped kids arethe sporty ones, whom the Ameri-cans refer to as jocks. These kids

are well-liked because they arestrong, athletic and impressive.

Below the jocks are thenerds. This is another Americanterm. If you are called a nerd itmeans you are probably highlyintelligent – but not in a goodway.

Nerds tend to be overly shyand studious and it is generallybelieved that their academic ex-cellence is a result of having nosocial skills or anything interest-ing to say for themselves.

Below the nerds are a mot-ley bunch of eclectics. The eclec-tics can be divided into severaldifferent sub-groups. There arethe crazies, who like blowingthings up and spend each daysearching for wacky new waysto get adrenalin highs.

Then there are the Goths –alarming folk with pale skin, waxyhair dyed black or purple, whodress in black cloaks, fishnet

stockings and freakishly massiveboots and listen to death metalmusic.

And there is the “emo” set,the highly emotional and melan-cholic who are to be avoided ontheir moodiest days because onenever knows what they might do.

Some of these teens be-come famous by the time theyreach their 20s by starting bands.

Apart from adhering to thecomplex etiquettes permeatingeach social set, we teenagerstend to have still more rituals andrites of passage that would makemost grownups furrow theirbrows, wrinkle their noses andshake their heads in disgust, as ifthey had never done those thingsthemselves.

We adolescents do every-thing the unconventional, im-proper way – we listen to musicat volumes that make our earsbleed, we worship strange newgods called PlayStation and Xbox,we throw violent red-faced tan-trums at the slightest provocation.We grunt, whine, scream andrant. We don’t tidy our rooms, wedon’t stick to curfews and we doventure into bars, parties and tat-too parlors.

But beneath these paganpractices, the pimples, the shout-ing matches and the oily skin, it ishelpful to remember that we arestill basically human beings withsome degree of similarity topreened and proper adults.

So don’t despair at the alien-Frankenstein-oily savage glaringat you from the bedroom door-way. In a few years we’ll growinto decent human beingswithscarcely a reminder of our ado-lescent ways… except perhapsa tattoo or two.

C O M P U T E R S32 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Fast Internet inPhuket? It is possible

COMPUTERKHUN WOODY’S

The Prince of Songkla University(PSU), Phuket campus, and thePhuket branch of the SoftwareIndustry Promotion Agency(SIPA) will hold the “SouthernMicrosoft Certified ProfessionalDeveloper (MCPD): Web De-veloper Boot Camp” from April23 to May 16.

The goal of the boot campis to increase the number of localsoftware developers and to im-prove their skills by training themin Microsoft .NET Frameworkto an international standard.

The .NET Framework, asdescribed by Microsoft, “is a de-velopment and execution environ-ment that allows different pro-gramming languages & librariesto work together seamlessly tocreate Windows-based applica-

SIPA lecturer AkesakOmromthurapoj, a Microsoft Certi-fied Trainer, Microsoft Certified Ap-plication Developer and MicrosoftCertified Database Administrator,will conduct the lectures.

Classes will be at the PSUPhuket campus between 9 amand 10 pm. Nantikorn Thaijaroenof the PSU Faculty of Technol-ogy and Environment explained,“Participants must attend classesat PSU each day of the course;there are no days off.”

Each registrant who passesthe course will be issued a cer-tificate. The deadline for regis-tration is April 5.

– Supanun Supawong

For more information or to reg-ister contact K. Nantikorn at thePSU Faculty of Technology andEnvironment, at 80 Moo 1Wichit Songkram Rd, Kathu,Phuket 83120. Email: nantikorn@phuket.psu.ac.th Website:www.te.psu.ac.th

In my last column I went overdetails about the One StopVisa and Work Permit Cen-ter in Bangkok, which I dis-

cussed briefly at an InternationalBusiness Association of Phuket(IBAP) meeting a few weeksago.

In this column I’d like to gointo more detail about Internetaccess – which I believe isPhuket’s premiere “ICT Infra-structure” challenge. Next weekI’ll tackle several topics that wereraised by the audience.

Everywhere I go, the ques-tion I hear the most, over and overagain (for more than six yearsnow) is “how do I get a decentInternet connection?” I gave apresentation on that very topiclast month at a Rotary Club ofPatong Beach meeting. Some ofthe details have changed since Igave that presentation, but thegeneral conclusions stand.

In short, the most consis-tently fast Internet connectionthat I’ve used is the CAT ADSLline – a line that’s installed byCAT specifically for ADSL. Youcan’t use it for a phone line. CATADSL costs 2,600 baht a month,which is a princely price by in-ternational standards, but theCAT line at my Sandwich Shoppein Patong consistently runs 1,200to 1,600 kilobits per second(Kbps) download speed, by farthe fastest connection I’ve en-countered. To get a CAT ADSLline, go to the CAT office onPhang Nga Road in Phuket City,or Aroonsom Plaza nearAndaman Beach Suites inPatong. CAT doesn’t “oversub-scribe” their lines, and you mayhave to wait several weeks (ormonths) to get connected.

The second fastest connec-tion I’ve encountered in Phuketcomes from the CAT EV-DO“AirCard.” It uses CDMA tele-phone technology. I’ve talkedabout the limitations of the cardbefore – it’s been discontinued bythe manufacturer; at 13,000 baht,it ain’t cheap; and you need aPCMCIA slot (if you own a desk-

top PC without a PCMCIA slot,I have a couple adapters left atthe Sandwich Shoppe).

The AirCard works mostplaces in Phuketand many placesin Thailand, out-side of Bangkok.At 400 to 600Kbps downloadsand 599 baht per month, it’s fastand cheap to operate. Reader AVadvises that he’s found a wire-less router in Phuket that uses theAirCard for its Internet connec-tion – so you can set up your ownwireless network with fastInternet, bypassing the telephonelines. The shops in Phuket withthe routers were sold out last Iheard; I’ll let you know if I findany “in the wild”.

The third fastest connection(no, I’m not a shill for CAT) Iknow about uses the CAT desk-top telephone. This CDMA-based telephone looks and actsjust like a regular desktop tele-phone – except you don’t needto plug it into a phone line. At-tach your computer to the phonevia a USB cable, and you canexpect 150 Kbps or so, whichisn’t great, but it runs rings aroundmost other services.

(Update: On March 8, TheNation ran an article saying,“CAT Telecom’s board yesterdayresolved to engage an indepen-dent appraiser to evaluate theassets of Hutchison CAT Wire-less Multimedia and CATCDMA.

Piriya Siribon, CAT boardspokesman, said the appraisalwould answer whetherHutchison should take over CAT

CDMA, or the other way round.”Both CAT and Hutchison havebeen running CDMA networks inThailand. Presumably, consolidat-

ing the two net-works – whichis expected bythe end of theyear – will ex-tend CDMA

and “DO” coverage throughoutthe country.)

The general speed of land-line ADSL has improved over theyears, but it has a long way togo. For example, at this momentmy nominal 1 Mbps ( = 1,000Kbps) TT&T ADSL line is deliv-ering 71 Kbps, as measured bywww.dslreports.com/stest on abackbone connection to SanFrancisco.

Yesterday, it ran as high as280 Kbps, but fell as low as 66Kbps. Keep in mind that an old-fashioned dial-up phone modem

connection is rated at 56 Kbps.I’m finding that the 1,000 baht-per-month ADSL lines on offerare doing better than they did ayear ago, but they’re still ex-tremely slow by internationalstandards. Speeds fall off drasti-cally in the afternoons, especiallyon weekends.

Why? They’re oversub-scribed. TOT and TT&T havesold too many 1 Mbps lines with-out installing the data pipes nec-essary to keep up with growingdemand.

I wish I could say that thepremium subscription lines – theones offered by companies otherthan TOT and TT&T – workbetter, but I haven’t seen anyevidence to that effect; what Ihear anecdotally leaves medoubtful. I’ve repeatedly chal-lenged those other companies toprove me wrong, but I haven’t yethad one taker.

Here’s why I’m so en-thralled with CAT’s ADSL line.Two days ago CAT installed anew ADSL line in my home of-fice, in northern Patong. I cannow compare TT&T ADSL andCAT ADSL side-by-side. Rightnow, with my TT&T ADSL linedelivering 71 Kbps, my CATADSL line running the sametest program on the same com-puter is humming along at 1,442Kbps – 20 times faster thanTT&T.

For a change, I’m a happycamper.

When he isn’t writing computerbooks and magazine and news-letter articles, or knockingMicrosoft around on hiswebsite, Woody Leonhard(woody@khunwoody.com,www.askwoody.com) runsKhun Woody’s Bakery and theSandwich Shoppe in Patong.

SIPA, PSU to hold .Net ‘boot camp’tions that are easier to build, man-age, deploy, and integrate withother networked systems.”

To be accepted for thecourse, applicants must be soft-ware developers and graduates inrelated studies in one of the 14southern provinces. A basicknowledge of program writingand .Net is required, and regis-trants must take the MicrosoftBasic Web Developer exam asentry exam, from which organiz-ers will choose the 55 boot campparticipants.

The entrance exam will beon April 7 with the results an-nounced April 14.

Registrants must each placea deposit, 2,000 baht for newgraduates or 10,000 baht for pro-fessional software developers,which will be refunded after thecourse. The number of lectureshas yet to be set, but the organiz-ers have ruled that a participantmust attend at least 80% of thelectures to get a refund.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 33

B U S I N E S S & M O N E Y34 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Why the Thai currencyis so buoyant these days

One question everyoneseems to be asking is:What is happening tothe Thai baht? In US

dollar terms, it has been fluctuat-ing at rates from 32 to 35 on analmost daily basis.

The reason for this is inter-vention by the Bank of Thailand(BoT), the country’s central bank.The scenario originated on De-cember 19 last year, when theBoT imposed controversial capi-tal controls in an effort to stemthe rise of the currency. Authori-ties were concerned that a stron-ger baht would make Thai exportsless competitive on world mar-kets. They were also convincedthat foreign money was floodinginto Thailand at an unsustainablerate.

When the capital controlswere issued, PridiyathornDevakula, Finance Minister at thetime, issued a statement to theeffect that the new policy was thebest ever devised by the BoT.Markets thought otherwise, theimmediate nosedive in the StockExchange of Thailand (SET) in-dex reflecting just how badlymatters had been “thought out”.

Following a subsequent se-ries of piecemeal policy changes,the latest development is that the30% withholding requirement onforeign funds has now been ef-fectively withdrawn – if foreignmoney entering Thai financialmarkets is already “fully hedged”into foreign currencybond.

The Economist magazinereferred to Thailand’s capital con-trols as “bungled” and changesto foreign business ownershiplaws as “muddle-headed”. Theseare accurate assessments.

The cost to Thailand hasbeen significant. The Nation onFebruary 14, 2007, cited the Fi-nance Ministry as saying that theBank of Thailand, through its con-stant intervention in currencymarkets, had caused 1.4 trillionbaht (about US$40 billion) to beadded to Thailand’s bond market– its public debt.

When central banks inter-

vene to stop their currency fromrising in value, they are using lo-cal funds to buy foreign cur-rency. To finance this activitythe central bank has two choices:“sanitized” or “unsanitized” in-tervention. In the former case,bonds – which are simply debtinstruments – reflect the amountof intervention; in the latter case,the central bank simply printsmore money to cover the ex-pense.

The BoT’s interventions inthe currency markets have re-sulted in the baht trading at slightlyover 35 baht to the US dollar. Intrading after hours, the baht thenrapidly moves back up to around32 or 33 to the dollar.

It is easy to imagine BoTstaff jumping into their cars at theend of the working day, and bythe time they reach home thecurrency has already appreci-ated.

Bloomberg analysts ob-served that this ap-preciation is notcaused by specula-tors, but by normalforeign exchangepurchases of thebaht “after hours”.Very little offshoreliquidity exists and,naturally, in a situa-tion of this sort ittakes only smallamounts of buyingto force the cur-rency upward.

Thailand is running a smallcurrent account surplus which,basically, means that Thailand isliving within its means and the sur-plus is causing the currency to ap-preciate. There was evidence thatsome foreign funds were inter-ested in the latter part of 2006 ininvesting mainly in the Thai bondmarket.

Some of this money un-doubtedly came from the “yencarry trade”. This is wheremoney is borrowed in yen, whichhas very low interest rates, andinvested in higher-yielding bondmarkets around the world.

Only a verysmall part of thisever arrived inThailand because,quite frankly, Thai-land was not thatattractive as an in-vestment destina-tion.

In December2006, 10-year Thaigovernment bondsyielded about 5.2%,well below yields inother markets, such

as Australia and New Zealand.Much of the pressure to

stem the rise of the Thai bahtcame from the export sector,which wanted to to keep its prod-uct prices competitive.

In a hard-hitting statement,BoT Audit Committee ChairmanNontaphon Nimsomboon wasquoted in the March 14 Nation

TALKSMONEY

By Richard Watson

as saying, “The central bank can-not help exporters endlessly, likewe donate blankets [to the poor]every year. [Exporters] shouldlearn to stand on their own twofeet.”

The central bank’s withhold-ing measure on capital inflowswas intended to put a brake onthe rapid rise and give exportersa breather. It was not designedto completely stop the baht from“going north” – appreciating invalue.

What could the BoT havedone to ease the pressure on thebaht? The answer is actually verysimple: reduce interest rates. InDecember 2006, its lending rateswere 5%. The bank has sincehad two interest rate reductions,of 0.25 percentage points in eachcase, making the current rate4.5%.

There is much speculationthat there will be a further reduc-tion of 0.5 of a point at the nextmeeting, scheduled for April 11.It is a great pity that the BoT didnot just simply reduce interestrates by a full 1% back in De-cember. It would have sent astrong message to any “yen carrytrade” investors.

The BoT now states thatupward pressure on the baht issimply being caused by export-ers buying the local currency withproceeds earned in US dollars.

There comes a time in ev-ery successful nation’s historywhen the local currency starts toappreciate in value or domesticcosts rise, making export productsmore expensive in the global mar-ket.

This signals a challenge toexporters, who need to “moveupstream” by boosting produc-tivity and quality. It is never apleasant adjustment, but it is achallenge that many other coun-tries have been able to meet.

Readers are probably won-dering how to take advantage ofthe situation through buying thebaht low and selling high.

Unfortunately, the banks arethe ones reaping these profits.Unless you start your own bank,there’s really no way to get intothis.

In reality, many institutionalforeign investors view Thailandas having a rather unattractiveoutlook.

The “savior”of the Thai cur-rency may come from an unwel-come source; oil prices appearlikely to rise in coming monthsand this will result in much higherimport costs.

Richard G. Watson runs GlobalPortfolios Co Ltd, a Phuket-based personal financial-plan-ning service. He can be reachedat Tel: 076-381997, Fax: 076-383185, Mobile: 081-0814611.Email: imm@loxinfo.co.th

DEEPER IN THE RED: The Bank of Thailand’s slowness in lowering interest rates saw 1.4 trillion bahtflood into bonds; in other words, debt. – Photo by EPA/Rungroj Yongrit

B U S I N E S S & M O N E YMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 35

ON THE MOVE

PHUKET: Through its AnantaraResorts brand, Minor Interna-tional Corporation is investing ina major new resort on Phuket tobe located next to the JWMarriott on Mai Khao Beach.

The resort is scheduled toopen late next year with 82 one-bedroom Pool Villas and onetwo-bedroom Pool Villa to bedesignated as a PresidentialSuite.

The Phuket property will beone of 10 new Anantara Resortsto be built in Asia in the next twoyears. The Anantara Royal CocoPalm Resort Khao Lak that wasdestroyed in the tsunami is on thelist as well, and is slated for acomplete rebuild and is expectedto reopen at the same time as thePhuket resort. Four of the 10 newproperties are under negotiationand their locations have not beenreleased.

The 10 new projects are aprecursor to global expansion thatwill see at least 40 new Anantararesorts in Asia, Africa, the MiddleEast and Europe over the next 10years. Contrary to existing devel-opment trends on the island, thePhuket project will not be amixed-use development–none ofthe villas will be sold for residen-tial purposes.

Marion Walsh, Brand Di-rector – Public Relations ofAnantara Resorts, told the Ga-zette, “The Phuket property willbe aimed toward the discerningfive-star guest, who knows andappreciates the finer things in life.

“The source markets for theresort will be a combination ofEuropean, regional and Thailand-based guests. P49 Design & As-sociates of Bangkok will overseedesign of the project, though spe-

cific design issues have not yetbeen settled.”

The Anantara Brand intendsto use a “hub and spoke” strat-egy that connects each new re-sort to key regional hubs of op-eration to provide an economy ofscale and operational efficiency.

“This is a very exciting timefor Anantara Resorts, as thebrand is very focused on devel-oping in key markets which en-able our guests to feed their pas-sion for exploration and experi-ence.

“The locations of the 10new resorts, which are predomi-nantly in Southeast Asia, theMiddle East and Indian Ocean,will extend the synergies andcross-marketing opportunitieswith our existing Anantara desti-nations,” William E Heinecke,Chairman and Chief Executive ofAnantara’s parent company, Mi-nor International said in a pressrelease.

Minor International is one ofThailand’s leading hotel operatorswith a portfolio of 16 hotels andmore than 2,352 rooms under theMarriott, Four Seasons, Anantaraand Minor International brands.

Through a joint venture withMarriott International, it has de-veloped the 144-room MarriottVacation Club Time Share onPhuket.

It is one of the largest spaoperators in the Asia-Pacific re-gion with spas in Thailand, China,the Middle East, Africa and theMaldives under the Mandara andAnantara brands.

Minor International is alsoThailand’s largest food serviceoperator with more than 558 out-lets system wide under The PizzaCompany, Swensen’s, Sizzler,Dairy Queen and Burger Kingbrands.

‘The locations of the 10 new resorts, which are predominantly inSoutheast Asia, the Middle East and Indian Ocean, will extend thesynergies and cross-marketing opportunities with our existingAnantara destinations’ – Bill Heinecke, Chairman and CEO of MinorInternational.

Anantara Resortto open in PhuketBy Janyaporn Morel

Waraporn “Amy” Suwahiran,from Phuket, has been appointedAssistant Sales Manager ofKnight Frank Phuket. A gradu-ate in Humanities and Art fromPrince of Songkhla Universtiy,Pattani, she worked as the Cus-tomer Service Supervisor atTesco-Lotus in Pattaya, as Mar-keting Manager at ImpressiveTour and Travel and as Assistantto the General Manager at AsianWind Co Ltd before joiningKnight Frank Phuket.

Jan von Hildebrand, 31, fromGermany, has been promoted toEvents Manager at the SheratonGrande Laguna Phuket. A nativeof Freiburg, he has a degree inEconomics and a certificate inHotel Management from the Lau-sanne Hotel School in Switzer-land. He worked as the AssistantRestaurant Manager at Le Javain Lausanne for three years andas an Events Executive for oneyear at the SGLP before beingpromoted to Events Manager.

Laura Schafer, from Martins-burg, Missouri, USA has been ap-pointed as a Desk Editor at thePhuket Gazette. Laura holds anAgricultural Journalism degreefrom the University of Missouri(MU). Before moving to Phuket,she worked as a Teller Supervi-sor at First National Bank andTrust in the USA. Laura alsospent one year as a student in-tern in the Communications De-partment of MU’s Sinclair Schoolof Nursing.

S P O R T S36 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

PATONG DARTS LEAGUE

BULLSEYE! Members of The Piccadilly Bar dart team celebratedtheir first championship in the Patong Darts League (PDL) by hostingthe PDL Awards Ceremony at their bar on Soi Kebsup on the nightof March 20. Holding the trophy is team captain Lindsay, alongwith (from left to right) Chris, Stephen, Dave, Jeff and Jack.

Some 30,000 baht in prizes were up for grabs during theawards ceremony, which was sponsored in part by Patong Whisky.A scrumptious buffet was served up by Marcus of KamalaBeergarden, also a Piccadilly player.

Some other key Piccadilly players who couldn’t make it onthe night include: Ulf, who is celebrating his 50th birthday inSweden; Mike from England; Tony from Wales; and EnglishmanSteve, proprietor of Hemingway’s at Baanzaan and the Mar-tinirestaurant on Soi Kebsup.

CHERNG TALAY: Lagu-na Phuket and the ESPNSTAR Sports footballbroadcasting team raised500,000 baht for Phuket’sLife Home Project March24 and 25. The Life HomeProject is a shelter forHIV-positive mothers andtheir children.

The proceeds wereraised from a charity golftournament, dinner and quiznight, with an auction ofautographed team shirtsfrom Manchester Unitedand Fulham Football Clubs,as well as tickets to an En-glish Premier League gameinclusive of roundtripPhuket-London flights,among other items.

Phuket locals showedgreat support for this char-ity event and the opportu-nity to get up close and per-sonal with TV personalities

These were AndyPenders and Sharkee Tanof Football Crazy; JohnDykes of Football Focusand Andrew Leci of HereWe Go; ex-BirminghamCity’s Paul Masefield;pundit Jamie Reeves; Ma-laysian ex-footballer andsports commentator Sheb-by Singh; former HongKong Rangers footballerDerek Currie; and Club EPL’sCharlie Webster.

Forty-eight golfers partici-pated in the charity golf tourna-

ESPN-Laguna games raiseB500,000 for Life Home

ment at the Laguna Phuket GolfClub on Saturday. Eight of thecelebrities played in teams withthree other golfers.

Later in the eveningmore than a hundredguests attended the char-ity dinner, during whichthe football quiz, hostedby John Dykes, and theauction were held.

Former Scottishprofessional footballerMurdo MacLeod was asurprise guest speaker atthe dinner and regaleddinner guests with anec-dotes from his profes-sional football career,which includes playing intwo World Cups, drawinglaughter and applausethroughout his 20 minuteson stage. The winners ofthe golf tournament werealso announced at thedinner, each receivingtwo-nights accommoda-tion at the Laguna Holi-day Club Resort inclusiveof the Sunday BBQ fortwo at the hotel’s @Sev-enteenth restaurant.

The following morn-ing the ESPN STARSports team visited theLife Home Projectwhere they had the op-portunity to meet withthe women and childrenliving at the shelter as wellas the volunteers work-ing at the Project. The

ESPN STAR Sports team waswarmly received by the childrenwho were thrilled to show themaround the Project’s new andimpressive facilities.

The 500,000 baht donationpresented to Life Home Projectwill go toward the purchase of amini-van to be used as a schoolbus for the children at Life HomeProject.

For the record, the golf tour-nament was won by the team ofAndy Combe, Sukhathai Chum-bala, Tuk Chumbala and Rolf Jan-sson.

BACKSWING: Club EPL presenter CharlieWebster was in Phuket for a charity fundraiserfor the Life Home Project. Sadly, her team didnot place in the top five.

Give a doga loving home.Call Soi Dog

at 01-7884222

CHALONG: Jim Ellis on Remington madea welcome return to the Ao Chalong YachtClub (ACYC) Keelboat and MultihullRace Series by winning the Cruising Classin Race 2 of the 2007 series on March 25.

Ellis also won the Image Asia En-couragement Award for his return to AoChalong after a long stint in the Thai Gulf,and was guest MC at the prize ceremony.

Harry “Lord Pie” Usher finishedsecond on Eos, followed by Tony Dudmanon Onyx in third place.

Scott Duncanson on Somtam Ex-press also returned to ACYC racing in

Remington returns to ACYC with a winwinning form, taking victory in the RacingClass ahead of Niels Dgenkopf on Phoe-nix and Minx.

Firefly 850 catamarans yet againdominated the Multihulls Class, with MarkPescott on the helm of Bill Phelps’s catTwin Sharks leading the field. Pescott,who designed the locally-built 850s, istipped to win the class series.

Roger Kingdon on Moto Inzi finishedsecond in the class, and Chris Jongeriuson The Frog finished third.

Mark Horwood on Charro again fin-ished fourth in the class, though Tony

Knight of the ACYC explained thatCharro’s handicap will be revised again,which is expected to see closer correctedfinishing times.

After a delayed start following a dis-mal and gusty morning, the fleet enjoyedlight conditions with breezes from six toeight knots on Chalong Bay, Knight ex-plained, “All boats finished their courses,”he was happy to report.

The return of Remington andSomtam Express to the ACYC race se-ries is expected to be followed by the re-turn of regular racers. “X Cat Riot will be

back to race in the Multihull Class and JohnFenn’s Four Winds should be back in timefor the next ACYC race,” Knight said.

“Fidgi, which was unavailable torace in the Cruising Class this time, is alsolikely to return,” he added.

Race 2 of the series was sponsoredby Roger Diggleman’s Composite YachtConstructions.

The next ACYC race day will be onApril 8, with skippers’ briefing at 9:30 am.For more information call Tony Knight at081-7470074. All are welcome to join, re-gardless of sailing experience.

Piccadilly celebrate

S P O R T SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 37

PHUKET: The Motocross Sports Federa-tion of the South (MSFS) held their firstmotocross competition in Phuket March 24and 25 just off the bypass road, drawing morethan 100 competitors and 500 spectators.

Local boy Suthichai Tuakkeaw took tophonors in the KLX 110 Open competition,besting Krabi boys Kittirat Thepkeaw, IsaraAriyamak, Thawatchai Chaikrodchaban; andNathawat Pordpai from Surat Thani, whocame in second through fifth, respectively.

The race was opened and presided overby Piya Bharatasilpin, Chief AdministrativeOfficer (Palad) of Phuket (2nd from right).

Winners in each class received cashawards from 1,000 to 6,000 baht and tro-phies, with a total of 189,000 baht given out.

The next tournament will be held onApril 13 and 14 at Somboon Motocross Park,Chumphon.

Local lad Suthichaishows visitorshow it’s done

Anyone who knows any-thing about boxing inAsia – more specifi-cally boxing in Thai-

land – knows one of the biggestproblems in the sport is the bla-tant mismatches. Call it one of mypet peeves, but I don’t particu-larly like to know the result of afight before it takes place.

Excitement in boxing stemsfrom the not knowing. When afight is legally fixed, so to speak,forget about the edge-of-the-seatmoments a good seesaw battlecan provide and forget about avisiting fighter getting the win.

In Thailand, far too manyThai fighters are matched withfighters who don’t belong in aboxing ring, much less in a ringwith a fighter who has 50 or 60professional fights PLUS 100 ormore professional Muay Thaifights. So my response wassimple and to the point, “Makegood fights…yada, yada, yada.”

Yada, yada, yada = Don’tthrow hapless Filipino or Mexi-can taxi drivers in with former orcurrent champions to make theThai fighter look good in the eyesof the viewers.

The average boxing fan re-ally wants only one thing – to be

entertained. It generally makesno difference if a boxer is a worldchampion or making his pro de-but, if a fight is compelling, thefans are happy. How compellingcan a fight be if the result is al-ready a forgone conclusion?

So when promoting fights,those using solid fighters will inall likelihood get solid results.Don’t bring a taxi driver to fightagainst a champion boxer anddon’t send a fighter to performbrain surgery.

The problem, I was told, is“the good fighters don’t want tocome to Thailand for the moneywe are able to offer.”

So? Offer more money! Ifthe money isn’t there, then matchThai fighters against one another.How often does this happen? Notoften enough; in fact fights be-tween Thais in boxing are rare,especially fights between thecountry’s top-ranked fighters.

The pool of boxers in Thai-land is indeed deep so why notuse the resources right in frontof you? Why import third-ratefighters to put on lousy showswhen there’s a plethora of goodfighters right on your doorstep?

About a year ago, formerWBA Super BantamweightChampion Somsak Sitchatchawalsquared off in a tune-up bout

against a fighter by the name ofAlmaz Assanov. At the time ofthe fight, Somsak was 42-1-1 andAssanov had one fight – a loss.

To make matters worse,Assanov was fighting for theWBO Asia Pacific Bantam-weight title.

Not that the WBO AsiaPacific Title is what I’d call a truetitle but whatever happened toearning a title shot?

I openly challenged the le-gitimacy of the fight, and the pro-moter, shocked to hear of mydesire to see two evenly-matchedfighters in the ring, told me I didn’tknow what I was talking aboutand then stormed off.

The boxing cards in Thai-land are 99% free to the specta-tors. Muay Thai fans, however,pay between 200 and 1,600 bahtfor tickets. These fans come to

Bangkok stadiums six days aweek, every week of the year, towatch muay Thai and, most im-portantly, to gamble. The major-ity of fights are Thai vs Thai andthe stadiums are standing roomonly, every day. If Thai fans arewilling to pay to watch muay Thai,you’d think they’d be willing topay to see world-class boxers.

Muay Thai has a huge fol-lowing in the country, second onlyto soccer. On any given day youcan walk by a shophouse or res-taurant and inevitably you’ll finda TV showing muay Thai. A fewyears ago the Thai governmentinstituted a broadcast regulationthat prohibits stations from tele-vising more than two hours ofmuay Thai per broadcast. Thusthe stations are hesitant to showboxing on a muay Thai card, fear-ful they’ll lose viewers who don’t

care for boxing. For now at least,muay Thai is the cash cow.

Boxing managers are in thebusiness of getting fighters thebest purse for the least amountof risk, but there’s a fine line be-tween finding an opponent whogives your fighter work and anopponent who is merely there totake a beating.

So there are some difficul-ties that need to be overcome…yada, yada, yada…what’s new?

Good fights and good fight-ers = happy fans and a healthierboxing scene. It’s not rocket sci-ence – its boxing!

Scott Mallon is a member of theBoxing Writer’s Association ofAmerica, Ring Magazine’s Rat-ings Advisory Panel and the In-ternational Boxing ResearchOrganization.

Yada, Yada...The Art of NothingnessBy Scott Mallon

P H U K E T P R O P E R T Y38 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Gardening with Bloomin’ Bert

A LOAD OFOLD RUBBISH

Want advice on your garden?

Email Bloomin’ Bert at:bloominbert@hotmail.com

RECYCLED: Old coconut shells make perfect pots for orchids.

Rubbish is something weall produce everyday.Before anyone says it,yes, I know that I pro-

duce rubbish too. Once a week,somewhere near the back of thePhuket Gazette. But what canwe do to redress the balance abit? Recycle? I’m not sure, to behonest.

Recycling is taught to chil-dren today as if it were a religiousdoctrine; unbelievers who don’trecycle will go straight to hell.

I wonder whether recyclingis just a bit of a Western scam tomake consumers feel less guiltyabout consumption. “I know con-sumption is bad for the planet,”they may well think, “but I canstill buy heaps of stuff, because Irecycle.”

Many local and national gov-ernments in the West encouragetheir eager citizens to separatediligently. Consequently, manyhomes have boxes of carefullyseparated rubbish – a bin for pa-per, one for glass and another forplastic. Huge trucks then comealong regularly to collect the con-tents of these boxes.

Where does that truck’s oiland diesel come from? Wheredoes the energy come from tobreak down that paper? Wheredoes the water appear from thatmulches that paper? What aboutthe bleach used on the old paperto make new paper, or the fuelthat heats the glass up enough tomelt it?

Even if it did make sense,everything is so expensive overthere that there’s no way it couldbe economically viable. I wonderhow much of this stuff that dis-appears into the recycle truck’sbowels actually makes it to where

we think it’s going? Will we everknow?

At least there’s one placewhere recycling in its truest formexists very successfully – Thai-land. These old ladies with an-cient sidecar motorcycles thatdraw up outside your Phukethome every day and rummagethrough the rubbish.

They all have their own spe-cialties, it seems. The plastic bot-tle ladies pick out the plastic stuff,leaving the cardboard, paper andglass bottles to their respectivecollectors who will inevitably ap-pear later. Even Phuket bin menare in on the act – as they emptyyour bin, they do the separatingfor you, and make sure every-thing ends up in exactly the rightplace.

There’s no scam or govern-ment-backed feel-good factorhere – you know full well that thisstuff really will be used again orrecycled. And even better, thesebin men and sidecar ladies aremaking a few baht from it. Nowthat’s recycling at its finest.

Recycling in the West prob-ably wastes more than it saves.Instead of recycling, why not re-use and refuse – and not onlyplastic bags from the supermar-ket, but everything. Bread wrap-pers are sandwich bags. Tin cansare pencil holders. Refusing is not

using in the first place. Don’t buya newspaper with the idea of re-cycling. Read someone else’s.Then leave it where yet anotherperson can find and read it. Bringyour own plastic bags to the su-permarket. And so on. Bert theenvironmentalist? I’ll be huggingtrees next.

Conservation organizationsthemselves are equally guilty ofproducing rubbish. They try togive the impression that by send-ing out their junk mail, which younever asked for in the first place,on recycled paper they are help-ing the natural environment.

The best way for them tohelp the natural environmentwould be for them not to send outunsolicited junk mail in the firstplace. That really would be con-servation.

You can reuse and recycle

in your garden, too. Once you’vecollected all your bits of coconuthusk, stray leaves, grass clippingsand plant trimmings, rather thanstuffing them into plastic bags andleaving them outside to be takenaway, why not put them to use inyour garden?

Coconut husks are like sur-rogate plant pots – they’re bril-liant. Instead of going to Home-pro and buying half a dozen ofthose cheap, nasty little orangeplant pots, drill a hole in the bot-tom of a few coconut husks andyou have plant pots that haven’tcost you a penny and are envi-ronmentally sound.

Even the plants that growin them are likely to be happier,as the roots will meet somethingnatural as they grow out, ratherthan an impenetrable plastic wall.Bromeliads such as orchids are

very much at home on a chunkof coconut husk – all they needis something to grab hold of.

Most garden rubbish can berecycled on site as mulch or com-post. “Recycling” is probably abit of a misnomer, as it implies thatyou actually have to do some-thing. Far from it.

Leaves can be used on theirown as a mulch, but they’resomewhat unwilling to stay inplace in windy locations and theyeasily wash away from beds dur-ing heavy rain showers. Leavesperform best as a mulching ma-terial when they are shredded orcomposted.

Grass clippings are the leastideal mulching material. They areeasily blown away by the wind,decompose very rapidly, and canpack down to form a mat thatcould exclude air and water fromthe root zone. Therefore, spreadgrass thinly over the ground,mixed with other mulching mate-rials or even better, compostedwith other yard waste so it stickstogether more effectively.

In an ideal world, trimmingssuch as twigs and small branch-es should be shredded beforethey are used as a mulch. A me-chanical chipper/shredder is need-ed for this process. As most ofus don’t have one of these de-vices on standby, you’ll probablyhave to either dump or burn yourclipped branches and twigs.

So what to do with thismulch stuff? You can use itaround plants in beds or aroundindividual trees and shrubs in alawn. Eliminating grass fromaround plants greatly reduces thecompetition for water and nutri-ents from the turf and increasesthe growth rate and health oftrees and shrubs.

In addition to being usefularound plants, you can use mulchas ground cover for walks, trails,driveways, and play and naturalareas. It can also be compostedand used as a soil amendment forflower and vegetable gardens.

The amount of mulch toapply will depend on the textureand density of the mulch. Com-post and many wood and barkmulches are composed of fineparticles and shouldn’t be anydeeper than about 10 centimetersafter settling. Excessive amountsof these fine-textured mulchesaround shallow-rooted plants cansuffocate their roots causing dis-ease and poor growth. Mulchescomposed solely of leaves orgrass clippings should never bemore than about five centimetersin depth.

Recycle because it saves afew baht or because you want to.Or don’t recycle at all, and leaveit to the experts – those sidecarladies will be here before youknow it. I’m only too happy todonate a few small green bottlesto them; and that means it’s timefor another Heineken.

March 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 39

Find more Property Classified ads at www.phuketgazette.net!

40 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

P H U K E T P R O P E R T YMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 41

Decor by Natcha Yuttaworawit

Decorating a room withdifferent styles of fur-niture can be a chal-lenge, especially when

the designs hail from differentparts of the world – such as Asiaand Europe.

But the French owners ofCasa Pagoda furniture store onDibuk Rd prefer to say vive ladifférence, giving their shop a trulyEast-West hybrid name – and let-ting the furniture inside follow suit.

Owner Jean Pierre Chamol,a French businessman who hasspent more than 20 years in Thai-land, told the Gazette that all hisfurniture is crafted from high-quality materials.

The new Phuket shop isactually the fourth for the com-pany, as there are two shops inBangkok – one at Siam Paragon– and another in Shanghai.

“We choose excellent ma-terials from foreign countries,such as oak wood and leatherimported from the USA. All ofour designs are by Western de-signers, even some of the Asianfurniture,” said Mr Chamol.

When asked if having West-erners design Asian furniturewould compromise authenticity,he said that all of his designershave a sufficient grounding inAsian tradition and culture to helphim meet his ambitious goal: “toblend the best of both East andWest to create beautiful, classi-cal styles that will always bemodern”.

Mr Chamol explains that theWestern-style pieces, such aschairs and couches, feature leath-er upholstery; the Eastern-stylepieces – including lamps, desksand cabinets – are identified bytheir distinctly Asian shapes andcolors.

Mr Chamol suggests blend-ing the two styles of classic piec-es, such as a black leather chairin European style with an Asianstyle wooden desk with brasshandles.

Casa Pagoda comes outwith a new collection every twomonths. The current designs em-phasize gray and pastel tones.

Smooth leather is also used,but in bright colors such as red togive the furniture a modern look.Furniture in classic brown and

WHERE EASTMEETS WEST

Casa Pagoda, at 43 Dibuk Rd,provides free delivery serviceanywhere in Phuket City. Deliv-ery charges to other areas de-pend on the location and sizeof the order. Open Monday toSaturday, 10 am to 7 pm. Formore information call 076-215415 or email: phuket@casapagoda.com or visit: www.casapagoda.com

Above: Chinese-style ‘distressed’ chest of drawers (B69,000) withgray-and-red upholstered armchair (B39,000). Below: Red leatherseats (from B9,800) with leather-topped coffee table.

black is also popular as these aretimeless colors, he explains.

“The most popular piecethat has become a signature ofCasa Pagoda is the club chair

made from red leather in classicstyle. It is two styles in one chair.It is both luxurious and modern –and easy to put in any corner ofyour house,” added Mr Chamol.

P H U K E T P R O P E R T Y42 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2006

Home of the Week Kathu

This attractive Thai-stylevilla is brand new and ismade up of three spa-cious buildings. The villa

is fully fenced in with a plot thatmeasures more than 800 squaremeters. The villa itself has morethan 340sqm of living area spreadover two floors.

The entrance has electricgates and leads to a two-car cov-ered parking area with a water-fall and fishpond, a laundry room,and the swimming pool pumproom to one side.

To enter the main house onecan use either large double doorsto the swimming pool and terracearea, or the main house entranceon the left of the car park or anoutside stairway that takes youdirectly to the upper floor.

Once inside the propertythere is a fully-fitted, European-style kitchen. The lounge and din-ing areas are spacious and alonemeasure 62sqm.

The rest of the downstairsconsists of a bathroom and stor-age room plus an office, whichcould be used as a fourth bed-room. There is an outside cov-

ered terrace with barbecue areanext to the 10m by 6m swimmingpool.

The upper floor of the prop-erty has a large master bedroomwith an en-suite bathroom thatincludes a Jacuzzi. This bedroomhas plenty of wardrobe space andalso features a balcony overlook-ing the swimming pool with viewsof the surrounding hills.

There are two more doublebedrooms each with an en-suitebathroom and a balcony. The villaoffers a first-floor lounge over-looking the 14th hole.

The villa is air conditionedthroughout and offers quality liv-ing at a sensible price of 19.5million baht. The location is beau-tiful, serene and very relaxing.

The sale includes a full life-time family membership to thePhuket Country Club and all it hasto offer – two quality golf coursesand other leisure facilities.

For more details or a viewingcontact Rudi at House and VillaSales at: 076-345081 or 081-9241447 or email: mail@villa.co.th

Luxury living on thecourse, of course

Calm views of the Phuket Country Club course (above) complementthe roomy comfort of the villa (left).

P H U K E T P R O P E R T YMarch 31 - April 6, 2006 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 43

Construction Update by Janyaporn Morel

Kamala Falls under way

SEA VIEW, NATURALLY: View of the bay from the Kamala Hills site.

Site clearance for the Ka-mala Falls project by de-veloper Lotus Trinity hasbegun on 18 rai of Ka-

mala hillside, and construction isexpected to begin by the end ofApril.

Ben Daniel, Managing Di-rector of Lotus Trinity Co, ex-plained that the project will com-prise 12 condominium blocks andsix villas. Construction will be di-vided into two phases, and willstart with the residential buildingson the top level and proceed downthe hill to the clubhouse.

The project is expected tobe completed by the end of 2008.

Mr Daniel explained thatthe name Kamala Falls was in-spired by a small stream thatflows down the hill and passesthrough the development. Themain sales focus of Kamala Fallswill be its geography and loca-tion.

“Kamala has the communi-ty spirit of a village. There aremany restaurants and bars herebut if you want an even moreactive lifestyle, Patong is onlyfive kilometers from KamalaFalls,” he said.

The development will bebuilt on different levels facing thesea. There is forest land aroundthe development and the nearestbeach is 300 meters away.

There will be 102 units ofcontemporary-style apartmentsin 12 buildings with a four-bed-room penthouse atop each.Penthouses will each have anarea of 650 to 689 squaremeters, each with a private poolmeasuring 9m by 3m, or 15m by3m. Prices for the penthouseswill start at 26 million baht.

There will be 66 two-bed-room “superior” apartments,ranging from 177sqm to 195sqm,which can be converted intothree-bedroom units. Prices will start at 9 million baht.

An option for customers thatMr Daniel expects to be in strongdemand is the one-bedroom “de-luxe” apartments. Each of these24 apartments will have an areaof 82sqm to 97sqm. Prices forthese units will begin at 5.5 mil-

lion baht apiece.“Our condominium buildings

will be four-story buildings builtin steps against the hillside, andwe will have glass elevators pro-viding views over the trees. Eachblock will have a 30m-by-8.5mswimming pool, and the pools willbe connected by a series of cas-cading waterfall features. We willhave a lot of greenery and waterhere,” Mr Daniel said.

There will be six four-bed-room pool villas, each with anarea of 717sqm, on the top levelof the development. Two floorplans will be offered: bedroompool view or living room poolview. Villa prices will start at 50million baht each.

“We will build the villaswhen the client has agreed on thearchitectural specifications be-cause we have created somebasic plans and if they want tochange them, they are welcometo do that,” said Mr Daniel.

“Facilities in the develop-ment will include a mini-mart, spa,travel agent and a sales and rentaloffice. The main focus is on en-tertainment, so there will be alarge bar and restaurant. Thereare very few first-class seaviewrestaurants on the west cost be-tween Laguna and Patong, so wefelt that it was important to haveone here. Another large pool willfeatured at the clubhouse,” hesaid.

The primary marketing con-cepts for Lotus Trinity are the

geography of the area, the livingspace and the rental value, saidMr Daniel.

“Our main idea is blendingthe inside and outside living ar-eas. We really want to make theterrace usable, our smallest ter-race for a one-bedroom unit willbe 15sqm and all the doors willopen fully to give you more space.

“All the materials are

matched inside and outside so itwill look like one big floor.

“We believe that the rentalmarket will be very strong and theapartments will be the first to sell– and to facilitate those investorswe have a ‘Rental Ready’ furni-ture package,” he said.

Kamala Falls is aimed atinvestors from Hong Kong, Sin-gapore and Scandinavia, Mr

Daniel said. “We have a dedicat-ed Scandinavian sales team andwe are working closely withthem. We will be joining exhibi-tions in Dubai, Dublin and Lon-don at the end of summer.

“This will be a much moreaggressive marketing campaignthan we have done before. Pre-viously, we were involved withprojects in Bang Tao and the prob-lem there is the activities and fa-cilities are really only in Laguna.

“But here we have every-thing and Patong is very close, sofor people who want to be nearactivities but not right in the mid-dle of it with all the noisy musicand tourists running around, thisis the perfect balance,” he said.

The contractor for the Ka-mala Falls project is Sommit Con-struction Co Ltd.

For more information contactLotus Trinity Co Ltd. 73/141Moo 3, Kamala, Kathu, Phuket83150. Tel: 076-385275. Fax:076-385489. Website: www.kamalafalls.com

C L A S S I F I E D S44 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Property Gazette

RAWAI 2-STORYnew house. 160sqm. Price:1.3 million baht. Close tobeach. For more informationcall Tel: 086-9408914. Orcontact via email at:freeholdprop@yahoo.com

RAWAI BEACHcondo. Sea view, foreign free-hold. 450,000 baht. Tel: 086-9408914. For more info email:freeholdprop@yahoo.com

PropertiesFor Sale

CHALONGSHOPHOUSE

with ocean view. 3 stories,perfect for small business.Very close to Chalong pier.2.5 million baht. For moreinfo please call K. Supachai.Tel: 081-554-4140.

BANG TAO, 5.3MILLION BAHT

New house, 2 minutes tobeach or market. 3 bed-rooms, 3 bathrooms, withhot water. Contact K.Shanya. Tel: 087-3863388.For more information email:shanya.arman@gmail.com

IMMACULATE VILLA

Very private location. Lushtropical garden, pool, 4 qual-ity bedrooms, 4 bathrooms,large living room, top kitchen,huge patio. Fully furnished,450sqm of living area,1,500sqm land. Chanote.Thalang area near HeroinesMonument. Contact Tel:084-6907057.

HOUSE FOR SALE3 MILLION BAHT

Must sell, discounted price.2 bedrooms, includes all fur-niture and appliances.Quiet, gated community,pool, sauna, gym. 1 minutefrom Nai Yang Beach. Cus-tom floors, cabinets, tiles,lighting. Euro/US standards.Contact for more details.Tel: 089-8742607. Email:jintananong@yahoo.com,loverofasia72@yahoo.com

12 RAI IN PALAI12 rai of flat land for salebetween Chalong andPhuket City. Road access,water, electricity, Chanotetitle. Ready to build. Willingto subdivide. Price: 3 millionbaht per rai. More info atTel: 087-105-7320. Email:stefan@phuketit.co.th

RAWAI BEACH VILLAfor sale. 2 new houses. Ask-ing 3.5 million baht with240sqm. Price: 5 million bahtwith 400sqm of land. 100meters from the beach. Tel:086-9408914. Contact email:freeholdprop@yahoo.com

KATA BEACHapartment. New one-bedroomapartment with pool, gymand services. 3 million baht.Tel: 089-4735080.

KARON POOL VILLA2 bedrooms, furnished, quietlocation, sea view. Price: 7.5million baht. Call Tel: 089-4735080.

BUILDING WORTH20 MILLION BAHT

The TEXT-AND-TALKAcademy building inPatong is for sale! Thisbeautiful building is like noother in Phuket.

-- Bid First! Bid now!--

We will sell to the highestbidder over 15 million baht.For further information anddetails from the owner, con-tact K. Sureeporn at Tel:081-810-7476. Email:sureeporn01@gmail.com

4-BEDROOM VILLAwith pool. 1km from Laguna,5 aircons, ADSL, Sat TV, liv-ing room, garden. Contact atTel: 084-8516121.

RARE STUNNINGseaview land in Layan. 8rai, Chanote, road access.More information at email:danwea@loxinfo.co.th

COMFORTABLEHOUSE FOR SALE

in secure and desirable de-velopment. 3 bedroom (2ensuite), 3 bathroom. 2floors, living room, veran-dahs, kitchen, study, laun-dry room, garden, garage,ADSL, UBC. 8 million baht.084-8439579. Email:somlerdee@yahoo.com

PATONG HOMESFOR SALE

Buy properties direct fromowners (no middle man).Tel: 087-2650118. Email:ant_p_clark@yahoo.co.ukFor further details, pleasesee our website at http://housesforsalephuket.blogspot.com

TROPICAL VILLAFOR SALE

Living area: 600sqm + gar-den area 6,400sqm (4 rai).Large 250sqm terrace. 3bedrooms & 1 master bed-room with ensuite. Open-plan kitchen, living room,Jacuzzi, swimming pool,100sqm of artificial river &charming island, 3-car ga-rage & exterior parking.Completely furnished, foos-ball table and snooker. Price:49 million baht. Located atPa Khlok, 5 min from AoPor, Marine Golf, etc. Nosea view. Company formedsince 2002. Chanote title.Project by international ar-chitects. Contact Tel: 081-8935270. Email: mrdupouy@yahoo.fr Website:www.tropical-house.net

KRABI LANDLand for sale near Ao Nang,mountain view. 1.2 million bahtper rai. Tel: 081-7475293.

RESORT ON PHI PHI18 rooms for sale on 5 rai ofleased land. 14 years remain-ing on contract, can be ex-tended. Plenty of room forexpansion. Contact for details.Tel: 081-7193375. Email:resortonphiphi@hotmail.com

TWO SHOPHOUSES84 wah. Near Robinsons andSapan Hin. 24 million baht.Please contact me for furtherdetails. Call Tel: 081-3707795, 089-470 8519. Email:nawalak@yahoo.com

URGENT SALE!2 million baht. Furnished, 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom homewith kitchen and 2 aircons.Ready to move in. Please con-tact us for more details. Tel:086-7003376. Email:contactmalisa@yahoo.com LUXURY KATA BEACH

sea front. Aspasia, 5-star, 1-bedroom apartment with pool,spa, leasehold, furnished.Priced to sell at 8.4 millionbaht. Tel: 089-9726017,089-9171161. Email:asiasail@yahoo. com For de-tails, please see our website atwww.koumbele.com/kata1

MODERN STYLISHHOUSE FOR SALE

in Kathu. 3 bedrooms, en-suite bathrooms, large livingroom. Kitchen/dining, laun-dry room, set around spa-cious veranda with walledgarden, private parking,semi-rural yet close toshops, international school,golf courses. 9 minutes toPatong. Price: 4.6 millionbaht.Tel: 084-8439579.Email: somsrij@aol.com

FREEHOLDCONDOMINIUM

Cape Panwa, 106sqm livingspace, ground floor, open-plan dining and living areawith direct pool access,European kitchen, 2 bed-rooms, 2 bathrooms, fullyfurnished. 6.5 million baht.Tel: 076-279280, 086-2821172, 089-8746054.

Email:apawann@hotmail.com

FREEHOLD CONDOfor sale. Double bed, TV, fridge,balcony, parking. 1.3 millionbaht. Tel: 085-7977786.Email: tj_biggie@hotmail.com

WE BUILD YOURhouse for 990,000 baht.90sqm bungalow for 990,000baht. 145sqm two-story housefor 1.39 million baht. We buildyou any style of private homeor commercial building in anylocation on Phuket. Tel: 076-322015, 086-8528234.Email: info@1nj.de ContactJN-Tech Co., Ltd. GermanConstruction. See website at:www.1nj.de/e-index.html

BANGTAO SEA VIEWland plots. 3.9 million baht.Land plots with infrastructure.First class sea view. Tel: 086-2670157. Contact via email:bannuaton@yahoo.com

HIGH-TECH OFFICEHigh-tech office building incentral location close toChalong circle. 2 stories witha total of 408sqm with seaview in quiet residential area.Central aircon system, com-plete security system, contact-less door access system,CCTV with remote access.Server room with armoreddoor and CAT5 cable systemfor computer network andphone switchboard. Privatecarport. Perfect for compa-nies that need an attractiveoffice with high standards.Price: 15 million baht. Pleasecontact for more information.Tel: 076-282211, 081-958-0815. Fax: 076-283251.Email: moo@phuketgajden.se

HOUSE FOR SALE2 stories, 4 bedrooms inChalong. Western kitchen.Discounted price: 3.8 millionbaht. Tel: 081-9795755.

SEAVIEW LANDIN CHALONG

3 rai for sale, stunning seaview over Chalong bay andsurrounding islands. 8.5 mil-lion baht per rai. Can subdi-vide. Tel: 087-1057320.

Email:stefan@phuketit.co.th

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 45

Property Gazette

LAND FOR SALE

8 minutes to Laguna, BaanJo Thalang ,153sq wah(600sqm). Chanote title, wa-ter and electricity. Askingprice: 1.325 million baht.Tel: 081-041-5646. Email:Khunraf@hotmail.com

HOUSE &

SWIMMING POOL

New 0.5 rai, 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom house with maid'sroom, built-in furniture, andsafety system. 16 millionbaht net. Tel: 076-238307,089-7276901. Email:chantrap@lagunaphuket.com

RAWAI

SHOPHOUSES

FOR SALE/RENT

2 new, connected shop-houses in Rawai, on WisetRd. Living area: 200sqm.Freehold land price: 4.5million baht. Financing pos-sible. Tel: 081-8928526.For further details pleasesee our website at: www.phuket-besthomes.com

MODERN HOME

IN SAIYUAN

Rock-style home, 4 bed-rooms, 5 bathrooms, ahuge kitchen and a big gar-den. For long-term rent at35,000 baht a month. Forsale at 8.5 million baht. Tel:081-7872201. Email:phuket8@hotmail.com

MODERN

NEW HOUSE

For sale in Kathu. 3 bed-rooms, en-suite bathrooms,living room, kitchen, laundryroom, walled garden, pri-vate parking, modern de-sign. Located near interna-tional school, golf courses,supermarkets. 9 minutedrive to Patong beach.Price: 4.6 million baht. CallTel: 084-843-9579. Email:somsrij@aol.com

HOUSE 65SQ WAH

Tropical house. 400m tobeach. Foreign owner. Greatprice. Urgent sale. Tel: 089-1134668, 087-0493508.Email: jhone04@hotmail.com

ONLY TWO LEFT

Cool, clean, classic, contem-porary villas. Just 2km fromBritish International School.Chic loft style, open living, din-ing and kitchen areas. Threebedrooms, three bathrooms,office, separate two-car ga-rage with laundry, maid'sroom. All closet fittings and ap-pliances are included. Fabu-lous values at: 12.9 & 13.9million baht. Tel: 089-972-3406, 081-5378587. Email:oasisphuket@yahoo.com

LAND IN AO NANG

1 to 3 rai for sale, Chanotetitle, 5-minute drive to AoNang Beach. Ideal for residen-tial use. Water and electricityon site, public road access.1.7 million baht per rai. Tel:075-661108, 081-5374925.Fax: 075-661108. Email:dutchkev@loxinfo.co.th

4.5 RAI IN RAWAI

Square plot, access via 3roads, Chanote title, 200mfrom beach. For more infoTel: 081-8918085. Email:sawasdee51@hotmail.com

HOUSE IN KAMALA

2 bedrooms, bathroom, livingroom, kitchen and garden,quiet place. Price: 1.5 millionbaht. Tel: 087-2827357.Email: jimdroz@hotmail.com

KAMALA MAIN ROAD

3-story commercial building.Approximate total floor areaof 500sqm. Suitable for bank,insurance offices, etc. CallTel: 081-8111067.

BUILDING FOR SALE

500,000 baht. Or rent for35,000 baht per month. Build-ing is 225sqm, 15m x15m. Nokey money. Call for more de-tails. Tel: 085-7972231.

LAND FOR SALE

near JW Mariott, 14m x15m. Price 400,000 baht.Tel: 086-7432011.

NEW HOME

NEAR BEACH

Chalong, 3 bedrooms, 2bathrooms, 2 car spaces.New furniture. Quick sale at4.5 million baht. Please con-tact for more details. CallTel: 089-7830494, 081-083 7354. Or send email:jimcox007@msn.com

EXOTIC KATA

OCEANFRONT

5-star luxury, 1-bedroomapartment. Spa, pool, quietarea, ADSL, sea view.38,000 baht per month.Tel: 089-9726017, 089-9171161. Email: asiasail@yahoo.com For further de-tails, please see ourwebsite: www.koumbele.com/kata1

4-BEDROOM VILLA

with pool. Directly on thebeach in Sichon in the main-land opposite Koh Samui. 11houses and only 8 left! Pricedat 9 millon baht. Please con-tact for more details. Pleasecall Tel: 084-0572743. Email:admin@tha isunsh inedevelopments.com

PATONG HOUSE

for sale. 4 bedrooms, 4 bath-rooms. For more informationand details please contactTel: 089-6620804. Email:renoothailand@gmx.net

HALF OF A DUPLEX

house. 27.7sq wah, BaanRock Garden I , price: 1.4 mil-lion baht. Tel: 086-7432011.

PANORAMIC VIEWS

Land for sale. 11 plots inRawai and Kata from 3 mil-lion baht. Tel: 081-2703008.Please visit our website at:http://landandshopforsale.phuket.net

THAI-STYLE HOUSE

CHALONG

This large, well-finishedThai-style house has a goodsized carport with laundryroom and maid's room witha bathroom to the side. 3bedrooms. The propertystands on 800sqm of landand the house is 300sqm.The surrounding area is un-spoiled and there are twoother houses in the sameside road which is a cul-de-sac (dead end). Convenient,quiet location for all shop-ping and leisure amenities.Asking price: 13.5 millionbaht. Tel: 086-7432011.

TOWNHOUSE

IN TOWN

2-story townhouses close toMission Hospital andRajabhat University. For saleat 1.85 million baht per unit.Tel: 081-7872201. Email:phuket8@hotmail.com

SEAVIEW HOUSE

2-bedroom house with largeswimming pool and Europeankitchen in the best area inPatong "Baan Suan Kamnan".17.5 million baht. Tel: 086-2706454, +44778-9995522, 089-4727588. Sendemail: djudges@hotmail.com

PATONG TOWER

SEA VIEW

Furnished 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom condo with 2separate balconies, and for-eign freehold ownership.Quiet in the heart of townand shops. Unobstructedpanoramic view. 100meters from Patong beach.Pool, indoor parking, 24-hour security and reception.A rare chance to secure aone of a kind location! Of-fered at 7.5 million baht.Tel: 087-2761225, 081-6927397. Info via email:patong15@gmail.com

APARTMENT

building for sale in PhuketCity. 18 rooms, 4 floors withChanote. Call for more infor-mation. Tel: 084-0541447.

THALANG LAND

PLOTS: CHANOTE

With electric and water inresidential area near TonSai Waterfall. Starting from450,000 baht. Call Tel:089-2911112.

LAND FOR BUILDING

A 3-rai plot next to the beachon Khor Aen Suan Maprao Rdnear Yacht Haven, Phuket.Please call K. Naphavadee forfurther information at Tel: 02-3991065, 089-4883119.

BEACHFRONT LAND

for sale. 1,125sq wah, 30 x130 meters with NorSor 3Gor. Sukorn island, Trang. 1.6million baht. Please contactfor more details. Call Tel: 084-8516845. Email: odo_jp@hotmail.com

FOR SALE OR LEASE

Transferable lease, 30+30years. 3-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom, fully-furnishedBalinese-style villa located inKathu hills. Price: 5.5 millionbaht. Please call for more in-formation and details at Tel:087-3865200.

RAWAI CONDOS

1.1 and 1.25 million baht. 2 x57sqm, 1-bedroom condo-miniums, balconies, hill views,top (5th) floor, fully furnished,aircon, very smart, secure.Chanotes for foreign owner-ship. Tel: 087-8917408, 089-2925309. For more info email:gillies18367@hotmail.com

FANTASTIC VIEW

of the sea. In Makam Bay.800sqm, soft slope, Chanote,electric, concrete road. 5.3million baht. Be fast. Call Tel:087-8938747.

COLLEGE TOWN

apartments. 30 apartments, 4shophouses, city center, 95%occupied. 14 million baht obo.For further information, pleasecontact Martin at Tel: 087-2676300.

KATHU HOUSE

for sale. 2 bedrooms, 3 bath-rooms, lounge, dining room,big kitchen, furnished. 1.6 mil-lion baht. Tel: 087-2705514.

FAMILY HOME ON

CHAO FAH RD

4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms,a modern kitchen and alovely garden. For long-termrent at 35,000 baht amonth. For sale at 7.5 mil-lion baht. More info via email:phuket8@hotmail.com

OCEANFRONT

HOME IN CHALONG

Unique opportunity to pur-chase a spectacular villaright on the sand for only 34million baht. Call Chuck formore details. Tel: 076-271544, 087-209-5174.Contact via email:info@phuketmarbella.com

DREAM HOUSE

FOR SALE

Dream house in Chalong on715sqm of land with privatepool. 4 bedrooms, 5 bath-rooms, Western kitchen, 7A/Cs, dual carport andmuch more. Perfect forfamilies. A must see. 16million baht ono. Tel: 081-892 6251. Email:mrsouza@hotmail.com Forfurther details, please seeour website at: www.phuketdreamhome.com

C L A S S I F I E D S46 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Property Gazette

RAWAI SEAVIEW APTDeluxe studio, new, furnished,full kitchen, aircon, cable TV.Price: 7,000 baht permonth.Tel: 084-0571420.

NAI YANG HOUSEFOR RENT

3 bedrooms (2 with aircon),living room, kitchen, fridge,garden, fenced, ADSL andUBC. 18,000 baht permonth. Tel: 089-6506221.More information at email:ek_phuket@hotmail.com

3-BEDROOM2-STORY HOUSE,

Rent period 1-6 months untilNov 2007. Fully furnished.3km to Nai Harn beach.Peaceful and quiet area. CallTel: 087-8062407. Email:tse.goran@gmail.com

CHALONG,NEWHOME

for rent. 2 bedroom, fur-nished with telephone,UBC, aircon. More info atTel: 089-6521473.

KAMALA BEACHNew apartment and housesfor rent or sale, fully fur-nished. 15,000 to 30,000baht. Tel: 084-3059606.

PATONG TOWERsea view. 1-bedroom apart-ment. 100 meters from beach.Long or short term. Call Tel:084-8473304.

1-BEDROOM CONDOin Patong Tower. Newly reno-vated in a beautiful modernstyle. Best location in Patong.Only long term. 18,000 baht permonth. Tel: 087-1238320.Email: deherder@hotmail.com

RAWAI HOUSEfor rent in Rawai resort. 3 bed-rooms, 4 bathrooms, kitchen,terrace, fully furnished, 2 safes,5 aircons, ADSL Internet, com-munal pool, tropical gardens,car park. Long lease. Price50,000 baht per month. Formore information Email:hans_lange@ hotmail.com

RENTAL HOUSE8 rooms, new air conditioning,with or without boat and car.Call Tel: 087-8844725 formore information.

CHALONG HOUSEBIG GARDEN

Fully furnished, 2 airconbedrooms, hot shower, liv-ing room, kitchen, garage.11,000 baht a month. Palaiarea. Tel: 081-8924311.

BIG HOUSE FOR RENT3 big aircons, bedroomsfully furnished, but nofence. Beautiful garden,near Chalong Bay. Price:30,000 baht per monthincludes elec + water.Tel: 081-8924311.

LUXURY VILLAFOR RENT

in Soi Sansabai, Patongbeach. For short- or long-term rent. 2 swimmingpools, Jacuzzi, jet stream,sauna, garden, fully fur-nished, walk to beach.Contact for great rates.Call Tel: 083-3925392.Email: franksrenthouse@yahoo.com

RAWAI RESIDENCEstudios. Rental per month:6,000 to 12,000 baht. Aircon,safe, ADSL, UBC, close tobeach. Tel: 086-9408914.

Properties For Rent

2 CONDOS FOR RENTor sale. Melville House orPhuket Palace, completelynew, fully furnished, lots ofextras, 20,000 baht permonth each. 3.9 million bahtor 3.2 million to buy freehold.Tel: 084-1861858. Email:coltat1962@yahoo.com

QUIET HOUSE WITHcar for rent. Fully furnished, 3bedrooms with aircon, cableUBC, ADSL, maid & gardener.Toyota Yaris, black, auto-matic. Rent approx. fromMay to July 07. 49,000 amonth, 20,000 baht a week.Tel: 081-9703136. Email:agogniat@loxinfo.co.th

EXCLUSIVE RESIDENCE3-bedroom villa offeringbreathtaking sea views. 3bathrooms, maid, snookerroom, study, lounge, dining,kitchen, spacious terrace.Tropical gardens, private pool.Secluded and secure location.Internet and sat TV. 70,000baht per month. Call Tel:086-2796283.

BEACHFRONT CONDOKalim area, Patong. High stan-dard. Fully furnished, 2 bed-rooms, kitchen, pool, many fa-cilities. Tel: 081-8920038.

KATHU NEAR GOLFcourse. 2-story house, 1 yearold. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms.House is 220sqm. Land is488sqm. Fully furnished.Price: 7.5 million baht. CallTel: 083-3953976. Email:kawthai@hotmail.com

PHUKET VILLAGEvilla for sale. European stan-dard, fully furnished. Pricefrom: 3.9 million baht. 50%loan for foreigners. Pleasecontact Tel: 086-4704-691. Email: narin@phuketvillage.se For further detailsplease visit our website atwww.phuketvillage.se

SURIN SPRINGSStunning, luxury lakesidehouse. 4 bedrooms, 4 bath-rooms, private pool. 5-minutewalk to beach. Aircon, Sat TV,ADSL, nicely furnished. 25million baht. Please contactfor further information. Tel:076-270655, 089-9084861.Email: kingsrqw@lds.co.uk

CHALONG HOUSEfor sale. 2-story house inChalong. 376sqm, 3 bed-rooms, 2 bathrooms, maid'sroom, kitchen, living room, 2aircons, good area. 4.2 millionbaht. Tel: 081-0790688.

PATONG TOPDUPLEX FOR SALE

2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms,living room, kitchen, topfurnishings, pool, secure es-tate. 3.3 million baht. For de-tails call Tel: 081-8940580.

MISSION HEIGHTSLAND SALE

Fully-serviced land plotsvarious sizes. Please ring forprice. Tel: 089-2262612.Email: jim@jimmarsh.net

SEAVIEW LANDin Nai Harn. 640sqm withChanote, views to Phi Phi. 2.9million baht. Tel: 076-288-047, 081-8941660. Email:cottrell@loxinfo.co.th

KATA BEACHbargain. 2 minutes to beach.Quick sale due to moving. 2.9million baht. Please call for fur-ther information at Tel: 084-8405834.

FOREIGN OWNERSHIPNai Harn beach condos, highquality and up-market, safe,secure, large 2-bedroom unitscompletely furnished & equip-ped. Great location and views,close to beach. Only 8 millionbaht, a must see! Call Tel:076-202201, 081-7974068.Fax: 076-202820. Email:tum@phuketlifestyle.com

STUNNING VIEWChalong land. 5 rai at 5 millionbaht per rai. Chanote title. Ac-cess from 2 roads, electricity.No agents. Please contact forfurther information. Call Tel:084-9256568. Email:gloriabcl@yahoo.com

1 RAI IN NAI HARNJust over 1 rai (2 x 1/2 rai).Chanote title, on Soi Naya,with access road and ready tobuild. Only 7 million baht. Tel:086-2728094. Email:jjlock100@hotmail.com

PATONG LUXURYcondo. Fully furnished, 2 bed-rooms, 2 bathrooms, splendidterrace, pool. 5.5 million baht.Tel: 085-7972231. Email:unthaidom@hotmail.com

RAWAI 400SQMland. Chanote title, 100meters from main road,square plot. Asking: 1.6 millionbaht. Tel: 081-5376866.

SMALL PLOT, RAWAI200sqm. Chanote title. Asking750,000 baht. Good locationfor house. Tel: 081-5376866.

161SQ WAH HOUSEfor sale. Maneekram on KlangRoad, large block, nice site,sea views from 3rd floor.Please call for details. Thai &English. Tel: 084-6267730.

1 RAI RAWAI LANDHigh quality. 1 rai Chanote landcovered in palm trees, verybeautiful, road, electric, toparea, private. 4.5 million bahtper rai. 2 one-rai lots available.Call Tel: 086-5950188. Email:nsupin@yahoo.com

NAI HARN BEACHtownhouse, 184sqm, fully fur-nished, 2 bedrooms, 2 bath-rooms, 280m to beach. Greatlocation and views. 12 millionbaht, a must see. Call Tel:076-202201, 081-7974068.Fax: 076-202820. Email:tum@phuketlifestyle.com

HOUSE FOR SALE

Includes furniture, 2 airconsand hot water. For sale at5.9 million baht (land andhouse). 80sq wah (320sqm), 2-story house with 4bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, bigstoreroom and large gardenin a nice tranquil area. 10minutes to Nai Harn andRawai beaches and 15 min-utes to Phuket City. Pleasecall owner for viewing.Tel: 084-9916654.

28 RAI ON KOH LONELocated on Koh Lone island.Has 120m of beachfront, op-posite Phuket Aquarium. CallK. Tum. Tel: 084-0002083.

TOWNHOUSEwith sea view. Just finished.Stunning views, elegantly fur-nished. Great neighborhood.Tel: 084-8419885. Email:phukethomes@hotmail.com

FURNISHED HOUSE5 minutes to Laguna Phuket.3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms,UBC, ADSL, solar water heat-ing, 3 aircons, living room,large hall area, pool 5m x10m. Usage area: 310sqm.Land: 1,200sqm. 13 millionbaht. Contact for more info.Tel: 089-8738295. Email:tomasflet@hotmail.com

PATONG CONDOPanoramic sea view, 36sqm,best location. Newly remod-eled. Furnished, pool, kitchen.Freehold. 2.2 million baht. Forinfo call 085-7823231. Email:guntmit@aol.com

CHALONG LUXURYhouse. 2 stories, 4 bedrooms,4 bathrooms, secure, quiet lo-cation, 2 kitchens, laundryroom, full aircon, double ga-rage, etc. Area: 292sqm.Curved teak staircase, spa, so-lar hot water, nice gardens,river views. 7.9 million baht.Chanote. Please call for moredetails. Tel: 076-383193,089-7245655. Or see ourwebsite at: www.phukethouse4sale.com

BEST HONEST DEALin Rawai. 2 plots of land withhill view. Flat, ready to be builton. Chanote titles. 3,576sqm(2 rai, 96sq wah). 35m deep x107m wide. 7 million baht.1,252sqm (3 ngan, 13sqwah). 27m deep x 50m wide.3.2 million baht. Call for info.Tel: 089-9728544. Email:av58phuket@yahoo.com

KATA CENTERshophouse for sale/rent. Tel:081-2730080. For furtherdetails, please see http://landandshopforsale.phuket.net

BOAT LAGOON LANDfor sale. 174sq wah oppositelagoon land with Chanote.Tel: 081-9521950. Email:Aristotravel2004@yahoo.com

QUALITY HOME ATKATHU

Single house, 4 bed-rooms, 3 bathrooms, apantry, kitchen andmaid's room. Close to Lo-tus. Long-term rent at35,000 baht a month. Forsale at 7.8 million baht.Tel: 081-7872201. Email:phuket8@hotmail.com

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 47

Property Gazette

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IF YOU...Place your ad in these pages;Present your Shopper Card; andPay for the ad at our offices,

you’ll enjoy a 25% discount* AND have your ad appear free ofcharge in the Phuket Gazette Online.

With more than 10,000 visitors a day, the Island Trader Online isThailand’s most active classified marketplace.

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The Phuket Gazette Co Ltd367/2 Yaowarat Road, Phuket CityTel: 076-236555 Fax: 076-213971

NAI YANG HOUSEFOR RENT

3 bedrooms (2 w/ aircon),living room, kitchen, fridge,garden, fenced, ADSL andUBC. 18,000 baht permonth. Tel: 089-6506221.More information at email:ek_phuket@hotmail.com

CHALONG HOUSEfor rent. Furnished 2-bed-room with aircon, living room,kitchen, TV, fridge, telephoneline, ADSL, garden and carpark. Long-term rental. Emailfor more info, details and pics.Tel: 081-5388169. Email:termatigul@hotmail.com

CHALONG HOUSEfor rent. 3 bedrooms, kitchen/living/dining room, laundry room,fully furnished, aircon in everyroom. Car park, swimming pool(shared), tropical garden. Hi-speed Internet and UBC satel-lite TV included. 35,000 baht permonth, minimum 6 months.Call Tel: 087-1057320. Email:stefan@phuketit.co.th

OCEANVIEWCONDO IN KAMALA

250sqm condo with breath-taking view. 2 bedrooms, 2.5bathrooms, 1 study. Out-door bath, huge terrace over-looking Andaman Sea. Fullyfurnished, tastefully deco-rated in contemporary Thaistyle. Walking distance tothe beach, 15 mins fromPatong, golf courses, divingand spas. Swimming pooland gym in complex. 90,000baht per month, 3-monthminimum. Short term:US$1,000-1,400 per week.Tel: 852-94519793. Email:jessandsteve@netvigator.com For further details,please see our website atwww.kamalaseaview.com

PATONG SEAVIEWCONDO

2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.Pool, UBC cable TV, phone,ADSL Internet. 35,000 bahtper month. Call Tel: 081-5696283, Contact email:mauirick1@yahoo.com

HOUSE FOR RENTNice 3-bedroom, 2-bath-room home with built-inBBQ in garden and ADSL.Fully furnished. 20,000baht per month. Tel: 081-8915602. Email: andrea.capucci@gmail.com

3-BEDROOM HOUSEWITH POOL

in Nai Harn. Aircon, fullyfurnished, car park, UBC TV(gold), stereo, DVD, secu-rity system, safety box, au-tomatic gate, phone line,washing machine, wirelessInternet. Only annual (one-year) rental. 55,000 bahtper month. Call Tel: 089-8730196, 081-7974197.Email: dannie@dvas.dk

RAWAI HOUSEFOR RENT

Set on a totally secluded900sqm plot, with a 40sqmswimming pool. Guest cot-tage with own bathroom.House has 2 bedrooms,large bathroom, huge livingroom with balcony andviews, indoor and outdoorkitchens. Furnished, ADSL,UBC, weekly maid service,gardener. Available fromMarch 24 for 6-month let.45,000 baht/month. CallTel: 081-0806560.

NEW HOUSEFOR RENT

Located at AnuphasManorom Village, nearSuan Luang public park andabout 1.5 kilometers fromCentral Festival Phuket.82sq wah, 3 bedrooms, 3bathrooms, fully furnished,nice gardens. Please con-tact Mr Mongkol for moreinfo. Tel: 084-0628040.

KATHU, 3-BEDROOMhouse for rent. Fully furnished.2 bedrooms with aircon, 1without. Cable TV, garden, se-cure estate, telephone.20,000 baht per month. Call087-8876101.

NICE PATONG CONDODouble bed, cable TV, fridge,parking, pool. 10,000 baht permonth. Tel: 085-7977786.Email: tj_biggie@hotmail.com

HOUSE FOR RENTFully-furnished, aircon bunga-low available from May 2007.4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.Situated in an exclusive andsecured estate opposite BoatLagoon Marina. 45,000 bahta month, minimum 1 year.Tel: 081-8921732.

NAI HARN HOUSE1 minute to the beach. 3 bed-rooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen,aircon. 20,000 baht/month,minimum 1 year. Call Tel:081-3971835.

VILLA FOR RENTBeautiful, new 2-bedroomvilla with private pool closeto Rawai and Nai Harnbeaches. Fully furnished,aircon. 35,000 baht permonth (min. 6 months).Pool + garden maintenanceinc. Tel: 081-9701716.

CHALONG HOUSEfor rent. 4 bedrooms, 3 bath-rooms, living room, kitchen,office, 4 aircons, indoor wa-terfall. Chalong. Tel: 084-8444228. More info via email:saisorn1971@hotmail.com

BEAUTIFUL NEW HOUSEPak Meang, 1 bedroom,kitchen, bathroom, one big liv-ing room and car park. 10minutes to Chao Mai NationalPark. Long term (minimum 1year): 8,000 baht per month.Tel: 087-3840864.

PATONG BAYVIEWhome. 2 bedrooms, 2 bath-rooms, pool, ADSL, UBC,kitchen, dining room, greatlocation, long term, mustsee. 60,000 baht a month.Available May 1, 2007. Tel:087-8821963. Email: benlee53@hotmail.com

LARGE STUDIO APTQuiet + view. 70sqm studio.Bedroom, living room, kitchen,storage room, walk-in closet,terrace. Furnished, TV, aircon,car park, swimming pool. Abso-lutely quiet and private hillside lo-cation. Long-term rental at24,000 baht per month. CallTel: 076-296621, 081-6916147. Fax: 076-344689.Email: info@baansuanvilla.de

FULLY-SERVICEDroom at Patra Mansion inPhuket City. Fridge, cable TV,patio, fan, luscious land-scaped grounds and pool. Fullyserviced. Rent: 4,800 baht +utilities. For more informationcall 076-258103.

PHUKETB.L. APARTMENTS

New in Kathu. Big room, 1bedroom, aircon, cable TV,ADSL, hot shower, garden,car park. 8,000 baht permonth. Tel: 081-6923163.

LIST YOUR RENTALPhuket-rentals.com does nottake commissions. We haverenters contact you directly.Tel: 086-0799584.

VILLA FOR RENTBeautiful, new 2-bedroom villawith private pool close toRawai and Nai Harn beaches.Fully furnished, aircon.35,000 baht per month. Pooland garden maintenace in-cluded. Minimum 6 months.Call Tel: 081-9701716.

MODERN HOUSE INKATHU

3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,large living room, kitchen,parking area, private road,walled garden, convenientgolf courses, internationalschool. 9 mins to Patong.20,000 per month, long termonly. Tel: 084-8439579.Email: kittisakdj@yahoo.com

HOUSE IN KAMALAFully furnished, 2 bedrooms,kitchen, living room, laundry.Hot water, phone , ADSL,cable TV. 15,000 baht a month.Tel: 076-263254, 081-5377137. Fax: 076-263254.Email: sunisadia@hotmail.com

CHALONG HOUSEfor rent. Fully-furnished housefor rent in Chalong. Availablefrom May 2007. 3 bedrooms,2 bathrooms and 2 aircons.The house is 2 years old, set inthe quiet and beautiful BaanMannikram Estate. The homecomes with its own privategarden, TV, DVD, fridge, mi-crowave, washing machine,telephone line, etc. Rent is20,000 baht per month, witha minimum 6-month contract.For more details, please con-tact Marc Husted by email atmarc_husted@yahoo.com ortelephone Mr. ChristopherHusted after 7pm on 087-8874659.

STUNNING SEA VIEWSLarge luxury villa set in tropicalgardens providing amazingviews out to many islands. 3bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,swimming pool, sauna,snooker room. Much more.Internet, Sat TV. Located in avery exclusive developmenton Cape Yamu. 70,000 bahta month. Tel: 086-2796283.

HOME/OFFICEfor rent. 160sqm. Unfur-nished, roof garden. 10,000baht per month. 120,000baht for 3 year lease. Pleasecall Tel: 089-593-0986.

FREEDOMAPARTMENTS

Near Patong temple, SoiKhuanyang 2/56. Smallkitchen, fridge, fully fur-nished in European style.Aircon, fan, cable TV, safe,hot water bathroom. 9,000baht per month. Tel: 084-8450541, 081-8914561.

RAWAI CONDOSfrom 5,000 baht per month.Superb, fully-furnished stu-dio and 1-bedroom condos.All with aircon and balconiesfrom 5,000 to 10,000 bahta month. Weekly/monthlyrates available. Tel: 087-8917408, 089-2925309.For more information email:gillies18367@hotmail.com

SEAVIEW APARTMENTSfor rent in Karon & Patongbeach. Tel: 089-4912496.Email: bluewaterphuket@gmail.com

LAGUNA AREAluxury home with pool. 3 bed-rooms, spa, big garden, exoticfurniture. Rent: 25,000 bahtper month. More info at Tel:089-5944067.

C L A S S I F I E D S48 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Property Gazette

Classified ads are charged per line. Each line is 95 baht,

with a minimum of 4 lines (heading included) per ad.

All advertising must be paid for in advance.

Deadline for Property Gazette page: Friday 3 pm.

Deadline for all other ads: Saturday 12 noon.

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Classified Advertisements

Please use this form to write your classified advertisement.

Then hand it to any of our agents.

BuildingProducts

& Services

AccommodationAvailable

AccommodationWanted

Property Wanted

HOUSE WANTED3-4 bedroom house with agood standard, somewherefrom Bang Tao to Kathu area.Needed for long-term rental.Tel: 085-7811758. Email:take_a_tab@hotmail.com

CASH PAIDfor condos/houses in need ofrefurbishment. Patong, Karon,Kata, Kamala. Call Tony formore information at Tel: 076-341489, 086-2672646.

SMALL LAND PLOTwanted on Phuket Island tobuild a house. About 100sqwah. Need electricity andwater. Prefer flat land. Email:villathani@hotmail.com

CONDO IN PATONGTOWER

I am looking for a 1-bed-room with a full sea view,but not a corner unit.Please let me know if youhave something available.Call Tel: +45-28719194.Email: ken_soerensen@hotmail.com

SMALL PLOTLooking for a small plot inPhuket for building a house. Nomore than 200,000 baht. Email:mejlatillanders@hotmail.com

WANT TO BUYCONDO OR APT

Want to buy for cash. Up to2.5 million baht for a free-hold studio or 1-bedroomcondo or apartment inPatong. Tel: 087-2699294.Email: phcorp@email.com

200 METERS TOKAMALA BEACH

2-bedroom, 2-bathroom,self-contained apartmentbuilt to international stan-dards on private land. SatTV, aircon throughout,ADSL, telephone. Avail-able short term only. Tel:081-8931360. Email: noi@phuketinvestments.com

ROOMS FOR RENTSpectacular ocean views,swimming pool and Jacuzzi,daily breakfast and house-keeping, satellite TV, aircon,free high-speed Internet. From1,000 to 2,000 baht pernight. Tel: 084-8395447.Email: gm@hilltophotel.com

STUDIO IN PATONGStudios with small kitchenettefor rent in Soi Nanai 2. Lowseason offer: 12,500 bahtper month all included. Email:petro@phuket.ksc.co.th Forfurther details, please see ourwebsite at www.benelux-inn-phuket .com/phuket_apartment.htm

BARGAIN ROOMor villa. Three bedrooms, pooluse. From 300 baht per day.Near Nai Harn. Many extras.Tel: 081-8081804. Email:ttpitstop1@hotpop.com

ROOMS IN PATONGYour own hot shower, groundfloor rooms, close to beach.Tel: 076-342280, 081-9781956. Contact via email:palm@phuket.ksc.co.th

APARTMENTSPOOL, QUIET

Nice apartments, fully fur-nished, aircon, TV, DVD,WLAN, swimming pool,quiet and cool hillside location.Long or short term. Pleasecontact us for more info. Tel:076-296621, 081-6916147. Fax: 076-344689.Email: info@baansuanvilla.deFor further information,please see our website atwww.phuket-patong.com

HOUSE IN NAIHARN FOR RENT

Fully furnished, 2 bedrooms,2 bathrooms, TV/music/DVD. Good price. Contact forfurther details. Tel: 076-388621, 084-8519072.Email: goodtasteforgoodlife@yahoo.de

LOW-SEASON HOUSELooking for big villa (even if notvery comfortable or new) withminimum of 2 rooms and biggarden (more rooms and/orswiming pool would be a big+). Needed for 7 to 10 daysin July. Please make an offerand send picture. I can cometo see it at any time. (No crazytourist prices, please.) Email:brunyth@yahoo.fr

LONG-TERM RENTALLooking for a 1- or 2-bedroomhouse or apartment in any ofthe following areas: Kalim,Patong, Karon or Kata. Musthave separate bedrooms, livingroom and a kitchen. Pleaseemail replies with photos to:jauntingjason@hotmail.com

Specialist in European stone-care products and services:

Prevent: rust, stains, mildew,algae, scratches

Remove: builders’ residue,incorrect sealants, rust, stains,

mildew, etc. Daily care & cleaningproducts also available.

Tel: 07-2824930, 076-271217Fax: 076-271218

Email:info@thestonedoctor-asia.com

• Restoration• Sealing/Protection• Maintenance

All your maintenance,protection & cleaning needsfor natural and manufacturedstone.

• Marble • Sandwash• Granite • Terracotta• Slate • Terrazzo• Sandstone • Ceramics, etc

The Stone Doctor

HOUSES FOR RENT2 or 3 bedroom fully fur-nished houses short or longterm. Tel: 081-3772280.Email: jim@jimmarsh.net

PATONG LUXURYapartments. Central Patong,1 & 2 bedrooms. For more in-formation & photos pleasecontact Tel: 076-341827.Email: suites247@yahoo.com

PATONG ROOMSCentral Patong, short dis-tance to beach and enter-tainment. Tel: 081-8948446.Please see our website atwww.southernfriedrice.com

WANTED: SEAVIEWLAND

I am looking for a piece ofland no less than 1 to 3 rai.Must have sea view, pref-erably looking west. Mustbe below the 70 meter limit!Prefer to buy from a Thaiowner only. Please sendany info (pics, lot drawings,size, location) to me. Thankyou. For more info email:stuntmeup@gmail.com

RENT/BUY 2 BDRMSingle mum needs 2nd-handtownhouse or condo to rent orbuy. Two bedrooms with livingroom, unfurnished, not too ex-pensive. Tel: 081-7970835.Email: kamontip@derani-yachts.com

TOWNHOUSEWANTED TO RENT

Townhouse wanted inPatong (will also considerKata or Karon - only) Aug-Oct inclusive (3 months).Prefer secure estate, mid-range property (such as BaanBenjamas). Aircon, UBC andcar parking essential. Email:karlh@labyrinth.net.au

KATA BEACHNew guesthouse with every-thing. WIFI throughout thebuilding, free aircon, fan, safe,minibar, laundry, bar/restau-rant (215 items) with Thai andEuropean. Tel: 081-8948446.Please see our website atwww.southernfriedrice.com

ROOM + APARTMENTin Patong for short- and long-term rent. From 800-2,000baht per day, 13,000-25,000baht per month, plus electricity.Tel: 076-512151-2, 089-2909567. See our website atwww.brommathaihouse.com

PATONG APARTMENT

Long-size bed, aircon, hotwater, cable TV, good view.Price 8,000-18,000 baht/month. Tel: 089-2909567.Please see our website formore information www.brommathaihouse.com

HouseholdServicesNeeded

CONSTRUCTIONAll kinds of construction.Houses, ceiling, paint, aircon,steel, renovation. Please con-tact for more information. Tel:089-5913996, 087-2636337.Email: malaisiam@gmail.com

HouseholdServices

PHUKET HOMEMAINTENANCE

Construction, renovation,electricians, plumbers, car-penters, painters, tilers, gar-deners, aircon servicing andelectrical goods repairs. CallK. Rin at Tel: 084-1935124.

CONTAINER RENTALS20' container: 2,800 baht permonth. 40' container: 4,800baht per month. Site offices:from 4,500 baht per month orsell for 80,000 baht. Self stor-age from 250 baht. Tel: 076-281283, 081-9171345. Formore info, see our website atwww.safewayphuket.com

BIG HOMEconstruction, building, renova-tion, shopfitting, electrics,metalwork, built-in furniture.Tel: 087-3835520.

LOCK-UP STORAGENew storage facility. Pricesfrom 500 baht per month. CallTel: 081-0825707.

LIVE-IN MAIDwanted. Farang family of 3 islooking for a live-in maid (clean-ing and cooking) in Chalong(Land and Houses). Good sal-ary, off every Sunday, ownroom, shower, TV. Must havea pleasant personality. Previousmaid experience is a must. Tel:081-7280140. Contact viaemail: jahellner@yahoo.com

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 49

Boats & Marine

RUBBER DINGHYFOR SALE

4.6 meter RH460 NovaMarine, fiberglass hull,steering control, 40HPYamaha, nice trailer, goodcondition. 200,000 bahtplus VAT. Please call formore information. Tel: 074-731198, 089-7370465.

TASAR FOR SALE

Join the upcoming WorldChampionships in Phuket(July). Two-person perfor-mance dinghy completewith beach dolly, road trailerand ready to win. 150,000baht, or might sell 50%share to the right person.Call Tel: 081-8941530. Fax:076-239729. Email:andrew@leemarine.com

FISHING BARGAIN!

New boat, warranty, alloy,6 meters, center console,Sportfish. Thai survey. Costto import 1.48 million baht.Sell low price to quick buyer.Trailer & tow vehicle in-cluded! Please contact. Tel:081-8922824. Email:makocraft@hotmail.com

18' FISHING BOAT

Fiberglass. Boston Whalertype, mint condition, 85hpYamaha + trailer. Price:360,000 baht. Please callfor more details. Tel: 076-200933, 085-2534429.

BOAT MOLDSFiberglass speedboat moldsfor sale. 23ft, 27ft, 35ft, 38ft.Please call for more informa-tion. Tel: 076-527129, 086-5950978.

FIBERGLASSspeedboat. Monohull, built2002, length 37ft, width 10ft,two Yamaha out-board200hp engines, toilet, GPS,VHF radio, depth sounder,boat trailer. Asking 1.7 millionbaht. For more informationplease call Tel: 076-398366,081-9587435. Fax: 076-398365. Email: operation@moby-dick-adventures.com

FERRY FOR SALELength: 30m. Gross: 322 tons.244 passengers. 12.2 millionbaht. Docked at Phuket. Formore information please callTel: 081-4084991.

NEW 26' F/Globster boat. Located inPattaya. Professionally built in2006. 2 berths, enclosedhead, 200hp Isuzu diesel in-board, windlass, stern plat-form and much more. 2.2 mil-lion baht. Call Tel: 038-251526, 081-8620319.Fax: 038-251192. Email:jacall@ptty.loxinfo.co.th

CABIN CRUISER31FT

Sunseeker motor yacht.Thai registration with char-ter license, 12 passengers.For sale. Please contact formore information at Tel:081-8950680. Email:trin.klinkeaw@yahoo.com

NORTH SEA BOATSX2K (2004)

Built in December 2004.Newly refurbished bymanufacturer. 2 x 200hpYamaha engines, completeelectronics and many fea-tures additional to standard.Price: US$60,000 (nego)ex-Bali, Indonesia. Call ortext:+62-813-38419911.Email: jwort@indo.net.idFor further details and infoplease see our website atwww.bwsbali.com

FIBERGLASSSPEEDBOATS

Demo boats: Noryacht 470with Tohatsu 50hp and 600with Yamaha 85hp. Bothwith bimini. Have also 1 new470 ready for mounting out-board. Boats can be tested inAo Yon, near Panwa. Euro-pean trailers are available.Call for an appointment. Tel:089-2878941. Email:a ro t tes@fr i su r f .no

FISHING BOAT

New, fiberglass, 4 X 1.5meters, 5hp engine.70,000 baht for boat only.With trailer: 20,000 baht.Call Tel: 081-4775637.

51FT SLOOP

Liveaboard or charter. Thairegistration, new sails andrigging. Price: US$90,000.Tel: 087-2295743.

C L A S S I F I E D S50 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Island Job Mart

HOUSE MAID

I require a live-in house maid.House is close to Boat Lagoon.Must be friendly with dogsand able to cook. Middle-agedThai female preferred. Pleasecontact for more information.Tel: 081-8913067.

STAFF FOR INTERNET

in Rawai. Thai female staffwanted full or part time withcomputer skills and basic En-glish knowledge. Good salary.Contact Mr Rudi. Please con-tact for more information. Tel:076-288808, 081-0909640.

THE GARDEN

General administration andmarketing position Thalangarea. Up to 20,000 baht permonth. Must have good En-glish (spoken and written).Tel: K. Bill 084-1032358, K.Anna 084-0575756.

OFFICE MANAGER

wanted by estate agent theposition requires basic ac-counting skills, good com-mand of English, computer lit-erate. Please send CV byemail or contact. Tel: 086-6865998. Email: info@tropical-homes.net

UK REC CONSULTANTS

Young, articulate and sales-minded British recruitmentconsultants wanted for busy of-fice in Phuket. Excellent salary.Email: Ian@evocation.net Forfurther details of our company,please see our website atwww.evocation.net

ASSISTANT MANAGER

Marine company, good Englishskills, strong personality,driver’s license, good organiza-tional skills. Tel: 086-6903196.Email: rotapi@hotmail.com

COOK WANTED

Small restaurant in Karonneeds a female cook urgently.Please contact. Tel: 081-891-4019. Email: tkoschig2000@hotmail.com

FINANCIALCONTROLLER

Thai, male/female, BA in ac-counting or related field withexperience in accounting &financial management. Fullknowledge of accounting &financial functions as well asThai taxation. Working knowl-edge of Peachtree account-ing software is a plus togetherwith strong proficiency in En-glish communication andcomputer literacy. Email:hrda@destinationair.com

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 51

Island Job Mart

OFFICE STAFFWe are an Internet travelagency and need a Thai femalewith good communication skillsin English. Good personality,self motivated. Experiencewith MS Word and Excel wouldbe an advantage.Tel: 076-342750, 084-8523380. Fax:076-340065. Email: shall@loxinfo.co.th Please see ourwebsite at www.tropicalgolf-spaholidays.com

SALES &MARKETING

position available for ma-ture male in busy marinechandlery in Boat Lagoon.Thai national, must speakfluent English, have salesexperience, be outgoingand energetic. A knowl-edge of boats useful. CallTel: 081-8913067.

SALES PERSONSurgently needed. Establishedsupplier company of hotelsand restaurants for diningequipment & accessoriesneeds a few sales people im-mediately. Some English andknowledge in F&B is a plus! ForThai nationals only. Timewasters need not apply! Tel:076-261157, 089-7703681.Fax: 076-261239. Email:phuketislander@yahoo.com

RECEPTIONIST WANTEDAudio visual company is seekingcandidates for the above posi-tion. Applicants must be fluentin written and spoken Englishand Thai and have good com-puter skills. Experience in admin-istration and accounts an advan-tage. Interested applicantsplease send full CV with currentsalary or contact. Tel: 076-527640. Fax: 076-527639.Email: cv@enhanceav.com

CREATIVE ENERGETICeducator. Horizons LearningCenter, an expanding interna-tional school in Phuket, seeksexperienced creative, ener-getic educators, to join ourteam. Special interest/talent inmusic, arts or sports a plus.International teaching degreerequired, ESL teachers neednot apply. Tel: 076-238756.Fax: 076-238756. Email:admin@horizons-phuket.com

CHEF, ASSIST CHEF,Waitresses. New grill &steakhouse opening April 1 inRawai, needs a chef and assis-tant chef who can cook West-ern food. Even farang chefsare welcome, work permit canbe arranged for the right per-son. Also need 2 waitresses.Please send CV or contact formore information. Tel: 089-809-3566. Contact Email:lennartviberg@hotmail.com

C L A S S I F I E D S52 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Island Job Mart

SWEDISH FEMALE

SALES PERSON

Well-established inboundScandinavian travel agencylooking for a Swedish fe-male Internet sales personto be a part of our team. Abackground in sales and/orthe travel industry, com-puter skills and pedanticorganizational skills will benecessary, as well as reallygood knowledge of Thailand.Immediate employment.Please send CV with phototo Anders Palm. Tel: 076-246427, 081-8932575.Fax: 076-246180. Email:andersp@loxinfo.co.th

ACCOUNTING

MANAGER

Rolly Tasker Sails ThailandCo Ltd requires the servicesof an Accounting Manager.Requirements: Bachelor'sdegree in accounting. Mini-mum 3 years’ experience inmanufacturing business ispreferable. Strong in com-munication and co-ordina-tion functions. Experience inQuickBooks is an advan-tage. Management capac-ity. Good spoken and writ-ten English. Self-motivatedand proactive. Ability towork under pressure. Fulltime 8 am to 5 pm Monday-Saturday. Applications tothe manager by mail/email/fax should include CV, re-cent photo and references.Contact for more informa-tion. Tel: 076-223- 893.Email: rolly@phuket.ksc.co.th For further details,please see our website at:

www.rollytasker.com

SIMPSON MARINE

requires the services of acharter boat sales and book-ing representative. The idealcandidate will be a Thai na-tional, have a strong back-ground in sales and market-ing, an excellent commandof English both written andspoken, be self-motivatedand confident. A backgroundin a marine-related fieldwould be a strong advan-tage. Own transport is es-sential. Initial applicationsshould be made by emailinga full resumé and refer-ences to email: phuket@simpsonmarine.com

OFFICE & HR

Manager. Fluent in English,team player. Able to work un-der pressure, administrativeskills, valid drivers license, visa& work permit eligible. Pleasecontact at Tel: 081-9583095.Email: hr@asia-marine.net

FLUENT ENGLISH

speaker required for full-timeposition in Phuket City. Goodwriting and interpersonal skillsrequired. Must be organized,focused, hardworking, reli-able. Please send your CV withphoto by email: chrislia@teflmail.net. Salary: 25-30,000 baht.

WEB PROGRAMMER

Krabi. Position requires goodEnglish and knowledge ofPHP and web design. Salary:18,000 baht per month. Con-tact for more information. Tel:075-637437, 081-0775698.Email: rbysouth@hotmail.com

SALES PERSONS

Need male/female, age 22to 35. Must speak/write En-glish fluently. Property sales,3 positions. Sun Palm Vil-lage. Tel: 076-282594-5.

QSI

INTERNATIONAL

SCHOOL

An American-style school,has the following antici-pated vacancy for the 2007/08 school year (search re-opened): Elementary class-room teacher. Successfulcandidate will be a native En-glish speaker, have at leasta bachelor’s degree and holdappropriate certification.Letters of interest may beemailed to: alansiporin@qsi.org. Please includeyour resume and referencesand be prepared to producedegree and certificationdocuments.

SECRETARY-ACCT

Knowledge of English and ac-counting needed. Office job inRawai. Good salary. ContactTel: 081-5376866. Email:info@platinumresidence.com

HEAD COOK NEEDED

Run and manage a restaurantbetween Chalong & Rawai.Please call Jeff for more infor-mation at Tel: 081-4760380.

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 53

Tout, Trader & Trumpet

RESERVATIONManager. Male or female over25 years old, Thai or for-eigner. Hotel experience ofmore than 3 years, and excel-lent command of both spokenand written English. Other for-eign languages preferable. Ex-cellent communication andcomputer skills (MS office), es-pecially Fidelio system. Wealso require excellent organi-zational skills and ability towork independently. Positive,confident, outgoing personalityplus good interpersonal andcommunication skills. Pleasecontact at Tel: 076-345345.Fax: 076-345099. Email:agm@clubbamboo.comPlease see our website at:www.clubbamboo.com

Articlesfor Sale

ANTIQUEFURNITURE

Hanuman Antique is closing.Last days with mega dis-counts on furniture. Indo-china, French colonial andart deco styles. 50 to 70%off. Open Monday to Friday.51 Patak Road, Kata.

Please contact

Tel: 087-0820100 (UK)087-0953010 (Thailand)

DIVE KITComplete except tank andweights. Also dive cameraand housing. Tel: 086-7843037.

GYM EQUIPMENTFOR SALE

Full range of commercial fit-ness equipment. Top quality.Low price for quick sale.Tel: 087-3833525.

JBL SPEAKERSTwo JBL EON speakers (withamplifiers inside). Cost 65,000baht each. Will sell for 20,000each. Tel: 087-8838721.Email: bezpaulberridge@hotmail.com

CLOSE OUT SALE!(Business restructuring &moving to BKK) Prices re-duced up to 50%. Salefrom March 15 to 31, 8 amto 5 pm, Monday to Friday.Terms are cash only.

Tel: 076-223025-6

BABY COTTeak-finish wooden baby cotin very good condition. 2,500baht. Tel: 076-396639, 085-0620688. For more info email:rtmeakin@samart.co.th

FISHING TACKLE- Shimano TLD 25 fishing reel,excellent condition, filled with30lb Maxima line: 6,000 baht.- Shakespeare Tuna stick, car-bon-fiber, 80lb class, like new.Cost 9,000 baht new in UK.Will sell for 4,000 baht. Will doa deal if sold together. Pleasecontact for more information.Tel: 081-1713455. Email:ronaudrose@hotmail.com

LINKSYS RVO82 10/10 8 VPN. Brand new, still inthe box. Top of the rangerouter. Would suit company oruser who has VPN or wouldlike to put in a redundant lineand have router load balance.Bought for 15,000 baht in theUK; will sell for 8,000 baht.Tel: 085-2121794. Email:Ian@evocation.net

BusinessOpportunities

Bulletins

GUESTHOUSEExcellent central Patong loca-tion. Call Kevin at TSBA. Tel:084-7300190.

GUESTHOUSELEASE, PATONG

22 spacious, clean rooms,cable TV, minibar, aircon.- Elevator, wireless Internet- Restaurant, bar area- No maintenance needed- Very qualified staff- 4-min walk to the beach- Unbelievable potential- Rent for Jan and Feb paid

Key money:2.4 million baht.

Email:poul_66@hotmail.com

RESTAURANTfor rent. New restaurant forrent at 25,000 baht permonth. 1 million baht to buyall the equipment. 4 floors:- restaurant on 1st and 2ndfloor- apartment on 3rd floor- staff room on 4th floorReady to open now! Call oremail for further details. Tel:081-8915602. Email: andrea.capucci@gmail.com

BEER BARSFor advice on buying a beerbar in Phuket. Call Kevin atTSBA. Tel: 084-7300190.

FITNESS CENTERFOR SALE

Gym established for 7 yearsin Phuket. Owner retiring.Tel: 081-8111067.

GUESTHOUSEfor sale with restaurant/bar.Located opposite main en-trance to Royal Paradise Hotel.6 guestrooms with shower,aircon, TV. Luxurious, beauti-ful restaurant with kitchen,high standard. 14 million baht.Call Tel: 081-8956587, 081-8949060, 086-2697093.

RESTAURANTfor lease in Patong. Popularrestaurant/bar in Soi Sansabai.Low rent! For details call Tel:084-8500375.

BOOK SHOP SALEPatong OTOP book shopfor sale. Price: 690,000baht. Tel: 084-1705552.

KAMALA REST/BARNew, for rent. Main road. Fa-mous pizza. Fully fitted andready to open. Lease 5 years,6,000 baht per month. Keymoney 400,000. Call Tel:086-2878966.

RENT RAWAI SHOPShop is 8mx8m, inside area is2x8, outside apartment 8x8.Air-conditioned, new, clean,on main road. Call Tel: 089-0813183, 084-4454614.

LOW INPUT, HIGHoutput, automatic carwashmachines for sale. Startingfrom 3.9 million baht. Pleasecontact via email: carwash_phuket@hotmail.com

TWO MOUNTAINbikes. Giant Yukon 19, 2tours, bike trek. Price 7,000baht each. Tel: 089-5944017.

CASH REGISTERCasio TV -T200- used oneweek: 11,000 baht. Dahonboat bicycle with waterproofcarry bag: 5,000 baht. Artisteasel folds into carry bag:3,000 baht. Call Tel: 085-7838336.

BAR/LOUNGEPatong. 2 levels of bar &lounge, 2 levels of accommo-dation. Long lease, low rent.Only 3.6 million baht. Quicksale. Tel: 087-8817600.

FITNESS CENTERfor sale. Quick sale wanted.Established, well-equipped andhas a good customer base.For more information. Email:fitnessphuket@yahoo.com

RESTAURANT KATAAustrian restaurant in Kata forsale. Good and quiet location,60 seats, ready for take over.Tel: 086-1203660. Email:chilligarden@hotmail.com

FINECONTEMPORARY

FURNITURE

Get used to quality. Tel:053-859125, 086-9238228. Fax 053-859125.Email: nanapart@indochine-decor.com For further de-tails and information, pleasesee our website at:www.indochine-decor.com

ANTIQUE SHOPFOR LEASE

Dibuk road in Phuket City.Has interior decoration, airconupstairs & downstairs, 5rooms. Price for lease: 1.8million baht. First year freemonthly rental, second yearpay: 38,000 baht per month(9-year contract). Call Tel:081-2727795.

UNUSED WASHINGmachine. New living room andbedroom furniture below costprice. Tel: 081-7979616,081-9521950.

GUESTHOUSEKamala, small guesthouse,bar, restaurant. 4 roomsand small apartment, beau-tiful terrace, very clean. 1minute to beach. Wifi. 5-year lease. 900,000 baht.K.Bob. Tel: 087-266-1851.

C L A S S I F I E D S54 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007

Tout, Trader & Trumpet

RESTAURANTfor sale on main road in NaiHarn. Equipment ready to go.40 seats and room for more.Rent: 18,000 baht per month.220sqm + garden 120sqm,good parking. Sell with com-pany, can have work permit.Rent for 2007 included inprice. 1.2 million baht. CallTel: 081-6070184.

REAL ESTATE COfor sale. Well-established. Fur-nished office in prime location,existing property bank, opti-mized website with villa rent-als section, huge customeremail database, work permitsavailable. 1.2 million baht. Tel:081-9705750. Email: paulglen@baansiamrealty.com

KATA BEACHNew guesthouse for sale orrent. Call for info and appoint-ment. Tel: 081-8948446.

LIFESTYLE FOR SALEwww.homebarphuket.comLive your dream in style, level1 & 2 bar/lounge, level 3 & 4accommodation. 2.6 millionbaht + rent. Please call Tel:087-8817600.

BusinessProducts &

Service

VISA & LEGALSERVICES

Company registration 2,229baht; one-year visa 5,999baht; retirement visa 5,999baht; work permit 5,999baht; UK & US visa 16,999baht. No more visa runs –get a one-year visa for only5,999 baht. Establish yourThai company today, buyland or start your business foronly 2,229 baht! Propertytitle search, sales contractand land registration. Thai-land’s largest legal servicenetwork. Always low pricesby our licensed Thai lawyers.Please contact for furtherinformation.

Tel: 076-345277.Email: info@siam-legal.com

www.siam-legal.com

JEAB’S JUMPINGCASTLES8 models.

For children’s parties.Tel: 081-8939742

www.phuketjumpingcastles.com

QUALITY WEBHOSTING

5,000 baht per year.• Low price, high speed• Take care of you with ourbest service• Server stability• 100% uptime• Lowest domain pricingfor .com/.org/.net/.biz• Free parking page• Spam & virus protection• Webmail

Tel: 076-528737.Please see our web site at

www.WideDiscovery.com

POINT OF SALEHARDWARE

Includes 3M touch screen,automatic till, receipt printer,price-display monitor, bar-code scanner, QuickBooksand point-of-sale software (asused in McDonald's). New:120,000 baht, will accept60,000 baht. Tel: 081-080-1170. Email: billylawrence1955@yahoo.com

SPECIALIZEDin supplying, installing, main-taining satellite TV, astro cableTV. 3,600 baht/year, sport,movie, music, entertainment,hotel, condo, apt. House re-pair or upgrade welcome. Tel:081-4541159. Email: mb@mpglobalnet.com For moreinfo see our website at:www.mpsattv.com

TITLE SEARCHProtect your investment.Check the land title before youbuy. We offer full legal ser-vices including purchaseagreement, lease and landregistration. Free consultation.Tel: 076-345277. Please seewww.siam-legal.com/land

CHIROPRACTORDr.Richard Cracknell. CallTel: 076-330889. Pleasesee our website at www.chiropractic-phuket.com

OSTEOPATH

UK-trained. Call Tel: 076-388524, 081-6072343.

NO 1 VISA &ACCOUNTING

Best prices & service! Visaservice for Thai and foreign-ers, company registrationand work permit. Tel: 076-280447, 087-2650595.For more information email:phuket@no1visa.com

WANIDA MASSAGEfor sale. Soi Patong Beach.Price: 1.5 million baht. Tel:081-7373004.

STUDIO IN PATONGStudios with small kitchenettefor rent in Soi Nanai 2. Lowseason offer of 12,500 baht amonth, all included. Call Tel:081-5362954. Email for info:petro@phuket.ksc.co.th

Computers

Miscellaneousfor Sale

BAR & RESTAURANTIN PHUKET CITY

Lounge/bar/pool near RoyalPhuket City Hotel. 80sqm, 2floors, fully equipped, aircon,sound system, plasma TV,nice decoration. 4-yearlease, 5 years more possible.1.9 million baht + rent. CallTel: 081-7288087.

300GB; 3,000GBbandwidth/m. Premium host-ing service (Linux). 300GBdisk space; 3,000GB a monthbandwidth. Only 800 baht amonth, free set up. Domainname for 500 baht a year.Email: phuket-computers@hotmail.com

JVC VIDEO CAMERADigital Model GR-D7OAA. DVcassettes, 700x digital zoom,color LCD viewer. USB link DVin/out. 8mb memory card. Onlyused for 4 tapes. Recent largebattery replacement. As new,with all manuals, leads, carrycase, etc. Only 12,500 baht.Tel: 081-9783089. Email:krsowton@loxinfo.co.th

Cameras &Equipment

PersonalServices

SPANISH LESSONSExperienced native Spanishspeaker offering Spanish andEnglish lessons in your home.Tel: 083-3911054.

Personals

BACKGAMMONRetired Businessman lookingfor Backgammon players onPhuket Island. Call Tel: 081-5778443.

CUTE FRIENDSmart and attractive guywould like to make friendswith a cute lady. Email:toby20g@yahoo.com

FREE KITTENSat Kamala. All colors, male andfemale. Mother gentle, clean,friendly. Tel: 083-3913480.

SEEKING MS RIGHTSincere Westerner with goodqualities and healthy lifestyleseeks a sensitive and prettylady. Contact via email:merlin_upm@yahoo.com

DECENT GENUINEguy. Hoping to meet an honestand respectable girl who has agreat smile, a cool brain and awarm heart. If you like nature,music, movies, concerts,travel, fishing, swimming, ro-mantic dinners and cookingsimply at home... it could bethat we would enjoy doing allthis together? Am I your "Per-fect Match"? I don't know.You can find out by replyingnow. No Bangla Road repliesplease. Please contact viaemail: warwick_isherwood@yahool.com.au

GERMAN, 65Would like to meet a Euro-pean lady for a lasting relation-ship. Tel: 089-7287045.

Pets

ENGLISH & ITALIANclasses. Based in Phuket City.native-speaker teachers,master’s degrees and TEFLcertificates. 15 years' teach-ing experience in Europeanand Thai schools. Please callfor more details. Tel: 076-211099, 081-2716990.

Gazette Online - Classifieds10,000 readers every day!

GUESTHOUSEPatong. 16 rooms, newly reno-vated. Internet, cable TV,aircon, bar. 3 minutes to beach,busy location, 6-year lease.4.6 million baht. Contact Keithcall Tel: 087-0211763. Email:keithhbrice@hotmail.com

BUSINESS COMPLEXTop location! Very low rent!13-year contract. Two shops inhigh foot-traffic area. 5 roomson the second floor. No bro-kers! Tel: 086-5888383 (Thai),081-0820039 (English). Email:sumalee1955@yahoo.com

C L A S S I F I E D SMarch 31 - April 6, 2007 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 55

Wheels & Motors

Motorbikes

Pickups

TOYOTA FORTUNERDIESEL

Beautiful, black, 3.0l,manual, 2005. Full servicehistory. Warranty. All ex-tras including cream leatherinterior. 25,000km. Bargainat 845,000 baht. Tel: 084-8438932. Contact email:paul_phuket@hotmail.com

ISUZU D-MAX CAB4

2003, 160,000km, perfectcondition, good runner, 3.0l,auto gears, only one owner.Price: 540,000 baht. Tel:087-2709093. Info at email:s.anut@hotmail.com

ISUZU PICKUPSpacecab. 180,000km. Thepickup looks good and is ingood condition. Year 1995.180,000 baht. Tel: 086-7418345. Email: info@1nj.de

ISUZU PICKUP 2007D-MAX VGS, auto, 4 doors, 3months old. Price: 700,000baht. Tel: 089-5944017.

ISUZU D MAX 2.5 DITURBO SX

2004, four-door, removablecanopy. 66,000 km, full ser-vice record, one owner.450,000 baht ono. Tel: 076-202577, 087-272 9564.Email: besters@gcthailand.org

4 x 4s

ISUZU CAB4, 4WD

2001, 56,000km, manualgears, 3.0, good condition.Price: 470,000 baht. Tel:087-2709093. Email:s.anut@hotmail.com

ISUZU D-MAX LS3.0 iTEQ, 4x4, Jan ’05, 4doors, ABS, airbags, wide alloywheels, MP3. Only: 595,000baht. Call Tel: 089-9662994.Email: nengrich@gmail.com

TRITON MEGA CAB2006, blue, 2WD, 17,000km,CD, rust proofed. 150,000baht, take over finance pay-ments of 7,883 baht monthly.Tel: 085-7959105.

TOYOTA VIGO4X4 G

First hand, 03/2006,13,000km, silver, auto.Full insurance for 1 year.690,000 baht (no bargain-ing). Tel: 087-0820100.

Saloon Cars

FORD PROBE 1997FOR SALE

Good condition, import car.Price: 350,000 baht. Redsports car. Call Tel: 089-8742960. Email for info:pwarunee@hotmail.com

MITSUBISHI EVO

VIII MR. White on white,Momo wheels, 2.5 years old,maintained by MitsubishiRalliart Thailand. 1.75 millionbaht. Please contact for moreinformation. Tel: 085-1191891 or email: c_commie@yahoo.com

HONDA CITY

1999, 1500cc. 110,000km,manual gears, looks new,must be seen. Price: 260,000baht. Tel: 087-2709093.Email: s.anut@hotmail.com

HONDA CIVICRed tags, 1.8l; 3,000km,auto. 450,000 baht plus 28months at 15,000 baht permonth. Tel: 086-2878966.

HONDA CIVICAuto, 1.8 Vtec, October 02.Blue. 1 lady owner. Sony CDplayer. 500,000 baht. Pleasecontact for more information.Tel: 081-7873392. Email:onecoolphuket@yahoo.com

JAZZ COOL 2005

VTEC, 22,000km, 530,000baht or 250,000 baht andbank payments of 9,300 baht.Contact for more informa-tion. Tel: 084-8516121.

AUDI A4 FOR SALE1.8l, auto, 1997. Dark greenmetallic with beige leatherinterior and 17" wheels withnew tires. Beautiful car, only6 on the island. 340,000 baht.Tel: 085-1191891. Email:c_commie@yahoo.com

SUBARU WRX

Turbo clip, body kit, ex-haust. Quick sale. Tel:085-7977786. Email:tj_biggie@hotmail.com

MAZDA 323 FOR SALEAutomatic gears, 128,000km,aircon, CD player, 4 doors.Price: 135,000 baht. Pleasecontact for more information.Tel: 084-8491037. Email:phuket1000@gmx.de

1994 MITSUBISHILANCER

Recent overhaul includingnew clutch, skimmed head& head gasket, fuel injectionsystem, wheel alignment.Full service history. CD ste-reo with USB port, powersteering, aircon. Absolutebargain. 200,000 baht ono.Call Tel: 081-9702028. Formore information Email:sprattmargaret@yahoo.com

SLK200 BENZ

Convertible, 1997, perfectcondition, 80,000km. Full in-surance. 1.95 million baht.Tel: 087-8904528. Email:fullmoonlaser@hotmail.com

TOYOTA FORTUNER2005, 2.7 VVTI, silver metal-lic, 40,000km, like new, 1 yearwarranty left. 890,000 baht.Please contact for more infor-mation and details. Call Tel:081-9701070.

BMW X5Black, V8, 4,400cc, 6-packCD player, sports gear. Verynice, you have to see it. 0 to100 in 6.9 secs. Only 3.6 millionbaht. Tel: 081-7877348. Email:w n a m m a t a p e t e r s e n@hotmail.com

FORD ESCAPEYear 2003, low kilometers, 1owner, immaculate condition,beige leather interior, originalcondition, dark green metallic.790,000 baht or best offer.Tel: 081-8913067.

TRIUMPH TROPHY900 1998

Stunning condition, in me-tallic blue, only 1,900kmfrom new. The bike hasbeen showing in a privatemuseum in Bangkok. Justserviced by Triumph, it isas new and must be seen.Only 425,000 baht. K.Santi on Tel: 081-9795680, Big TwinPhuket. Email: phil@codemproductions.com

HARLEYDAVIDSONSOFTAIL C 99

1999 Harley DavidsonSoftail Standard Custom,produced in November1999, last of the Evolutionengined machines. Originalfactory condition apartfrom Harley Davidson Cus-tom seat. In top class con-dition, 16,000km fromnew, has green registrationbook. The bike to be seenduring Phuket Bike Week.580,000 baht. K. Santi atTel: 081-9795680, BigTwin Phuket. Email: phil@codemproductions.com

H/D DYNA LOWRIDER S/G 5

2005, Harley Davidson DynaLow Rider Super Glide in me-tallic red. Under 5,000kmfrom new. No words to de-scribe it, you've got to see it.If you like posing this is thebike for you! Has green reg-istration book. Only 695,000baht. Call K. Santi Tel: 081-9795680, Big Twin Phuket.Or email: phil@codemproductions.com

HONDA VTX 1,8002002 BIKE

Beautiful condition, only17,000 km from new, inoriginal metallic red paintwork. Has green registrationbook. Only 495,000 baht.Call K. Santi at Tel: 076-217511, 081-9795680.Fax: 076-217014. Big TwinPhuket. Email: phil@codemproductions.com

MV AGUSTABRUTALE 4

2004, in light black metallic,only 8,000km from new, itsbeautifully sexy with a soul-ful engine roar. It's Italianneed I say more, and needs aspecial person to own it. Hasgreen book. Priced at825,000 baht. Call K. Santion Tel: 081-9795680, BigTwin Phuket. Email: phil@codem productions.com

DUCATI MONSTER900 IE DARK

2001, yellow, under 12,000km from new in top class con-dition. Awesome sound asonly a Ducati can do. Recentlyfully serviced by DucatisiBangkok. Has green registra-tion book, not to be missed at365,000 baht. Call K. Santiat Tel: 081-9795680, BigTwin Phuket. Email: phil@codemproductions.com

HONDA WAVE 125Electric starter, 2 years old,good condition. Price: 20,000baht. Tel: 089-5944017.

TOYOTA COROLLA1.5 GXI, 1998, manual, topcondition, silver, 4 doors.228,000 baht. Tel: 076-288808, 081-0909640.

HONDA PHANTOM50km on a new engine rebuildby Honda. New clutch, goodcondition. New tires. Mustsee. Only 55,000 baht obo.Contact for further details.Tel: 087-8821963. Email:benlee53@hotmail.com

HONDA VARADERO1000cc. Model 2001;34,000km, green book, 2-month guarantee, good con-dition. 380,000 baht. Tel:086-0207205. Email:blackyrider@yahoo.com

SCOOTERS: NOUVOAND CLICK

2006, low km, looks new,no accidents. Sell Nouvo:42,000 baht; Click: 39,000baht. Tel: 081-3670991.

Rentals

A1 CAR RENTAL

Cars, trucks, jeeps – fully in-sured for rental. Best prices forlong-term rental: 12,000 to20,000 baht a month. ToyotaAltis 1.8G, top model, long-term only. 089-8314703. Forfurther information and de-tails please email: a1carrent@myway.com

NEW BIKES FORRENT - CHEAP!

We have:- Honda Wave: 2,300 baht permonth- Mio automatic: 3,000 bahtper month- Honda Click: 4,000 baht permonth.Please contact us for furtherdetails. Tel: 081-537 7137.Email: sunisadia@hotmail.com

NEW VIOS FORRENT

Many types of cars for long-term rent. Prices start from10,000 to18,000 baht permonth. Tel: 081-6078567.Email: suksavat@hotmail.com

SUZUKI SV 650

V-twin sportbike, 38,000km,farang owner, green book,mint condition. 120,000baht.Tel: 084-4404620.Email: a.mild@hotmail.com

BP RENTALSSuzuki Caribians for 11,000baht per month. Discount forlong-term rental. Full insurance.For more info, please call Tel:089-4727304.

MOTOBIKE FOR RENTHonda Wave: 2,500 baht.Nouvo: 3,500 baht. JRDscooter: 3,000 baht. For moreinformation Tel: 084-8516121.

JAZZ FOR RENT2006 model. Cool model.Please contact for more infor-mation. Tel: 084-8516121.

JIKKY CAR RENTMany types of car for rent.Good price for long term. Withautomatic gear, CD player,insurance. Contact us formore info. Call Tel: 081-8915296. Email for details:jikkycar@yahoo.com

2007 TOYOTA YARISWhite Yaris for rent. Auto-matic, aircon, ABS, airbag,CD, MP3, tinted windows.18,000 baht per month for6-month minimum. Contactfor more details. Tel: 089-9733276. Email: may@patongbeachthailand.com

JAZZ AND CIVICFor rent at 18,000 baht permonth. Tel: 089-9708281.Email: kevpkt@hotmail.co.uk

Wanted

MIO, CLICK, STEPbikes wanted. AutomaticYamaha Mio, Honda Click orSuzuki Step motor bikes. Formore information and detailsplease contact Colin at Tel:08-41861858. Or email:coltat1962@yahoo.com

WANT 4X4 PICKUPLooking for a 4-door pickuptruck. 4x4, newer model,must have good price. Info atTel: 087-1012181. Email:dougie100@aol.com

Need wheels?Check out

www.phuketgazette.net

YAMAHA FAZER

As new, 2004, 1,000cc,only 10,700km.r 295,000baht. Tel: 081-5370331.For info email: phuket@cbre.co.th

56 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E March 31 - April 6, 2007