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IN THIS ISSUE

November 20 - 26, 2004Volume 11 Issue 47 News Desk - Tel: 076-236555 Daily news at www.phuketgazette.net 20 Baht

AROUND THE NATION 7; HAPPEN-

INGS 9; OFF THE WALL 10;

TSWOWNDINGS 12; KIDS 15;

HEARD & SCENE, HOROSCOPES

16; BOOKS, COMPUTERS 17;

EDITORIAL & LETTERS 18; IS-

SUES & ANSWERS 19; MOTOR-

ING 24; WINE 25; GARDENING

28; CLASSIFIEDS 29-35.

PLUS

NEWS: Democrat candidate‘chained’ by rules; B300mboost for Rassada Port;Queer News.

Pages 2, 3 & 4

INSIDE STORY: Maximizingexposure for the South.

Pages 4 & 5

AROUND THE ISLAND: Newways to get around Phuket’swaters. Page 6

AROUND THE REGION: What’sin the pipeline for Khao Lak.

Page 8

PHUKET PEOPLE: A modernwoman with a bazaar pro-posal. Pages 10 & 11

LIFESTYLE: Digging for fash-ionable treasure. Page 13

AFTER DARK: Beating demjungle drums in Zanzibar.

Page 14

FIRST PERSON: Tailors’ toutsdon’t suit Patong. Page 19

BUSINESS & MONEY: Vansmake inroads in Phuket;Money Talks. Page 20

SPORT & LEISURE: FIFA tour-ney latest; King's Cup Re-gatta; Diving; Golf; Fishing.

Pages 21, 22 & 23

GOOD LIVING: A certain je nesais quoi in town. Page 25

PROPERTY: An eco-friendlyand user-friendly home; Ne-ramit Hills. Pages 26 & 27

Heroic fatherburnt in rescue

By Anongnat Sartpisut

Steep risein revenuefrom landtransfersBy Gategaeo Phetsawang

PHUKET CITY: The PhuketProvincial Land Office (PPLO)has collected 935 million baht intaxes and fees in the fiscal yearto September 30, more than threetimes the amount collected in thelast fiscal year.

The money was generatedby taxes and fees paid by land-owners who bought or sold land,subdivided plots or sought ap-proval for development projectsbetween October 1, 2003, andSeptember 30, 2004.

PPLO Chief Suphot Su-wannachote told the Gazette thatone reason for the increase be-tween the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 fiscal years was that feeshad been increased substantially,as part of the central govern-ment’s debt-restructuring policy.

Another factor had beenthe leap in the number of pro-jects, said K. Suphot. In 2003-2004, 51 ©projects were submit-ted for approval, compared withjust 10 the previous year.

“Each project submitted in2003-2004 involved up to 10plots of land,” K. Suphot added.

He said 300 million baht ofthe 935 million baht collectedwould go to the local administra-tion organizations where the de-velopments were taking place.

Of the remainder, 50 mil-lion baht was excise duty andthree million baht will be sent tothe national Land Department inBangkok. The bulk of the money– around 550 million baht – wentto Phuket Revenue Office, to besent to the Finance Ministry inBangkok.

K. Suphot did not explainhow, when the fees had risensteeply and the number of trans-actions went up five-fold, therevenue accrued only tripled.

PATONG: A 46-year-old Patongman is in hospital recoveringfrom serious burns after he raninto the searing heat of his blaz-ing home to save his six-year-olddaughter.

As the Gazette went topress, Chalermporn Jikpipaksinwas recovering in Phuket Inter-national Hospital after the fire,which destroyed two houses inPhisit Gorani Soi 1 late on thenight of November 11.

K. Chalermporn told theGazette that he was asleep withhis wife and their baby daugh-ter in their wooden home whenneighbors banged on the doorto tell him that the roof was onfire.

He hurriedly kicked a smallpicnic gas bottle out the backdoor to prevent it exploding, thenwent back in to usher his wifeand child through the kitchen,hesitating only to kick a secondgas bottle out the door.

As he did so, flames ex-ploded into the room and hethrew himself over his wife andchild to protect them.

Having got them to safety,K. Chalermporn went backthrough the flames to a new con-crete room the couple had re-cently constructed, in which an-other daughter, aged six, was stillasleep, and pushed her througha window into the arms of neigh-bors.

“I didn’t know that I wason fire at that time,” he told theGazette. “I just wanted to savemy daughter.

“I don’t think I’m a hero,”he added. “I just wanted to saveall my family. I didn’t know I wasburned until a neighbor touched

my shoulder and the skin cameoff in his hand.”

Suwanna Tamchoo, aneighbor and a relative of K.Chalermporn, said she had losteverything in the blaze.

“The fire broke outin K. Chalermporn’shouse at around 11 pm. Iheard people shouting‘Fire!’ and we called thefire department. But bythe time they got here,our cars were on fire andmy home was burning.”

K. Suwanna saidher family had lost twocars – a new Toyota D-Max and a Nissan NV –and two motorbikes, allof which burned in theblaze.

Pol Maj BoonlertOnklang, from Kathu Po-lice Station, said, “Thetotal value of the propertylost is 1,527,400 baht, in-cluding two houses, two

cars and the personal possessionsin the houses. Another twohouses and a car suffered slightfire damage. It looks as thoughthe fire was caused by a shortcircuit,” he added.

Inhabitants sift through the charred wreckage (Photo by SeftonHanley). Below, Chalermporn Jikpipaksin in hospital.

N E W S2 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

PHUKET: The rules imposed bythe Office of the Election Com-mission of Thailand (OECT)governing what MPs may do dur-ing the run-up to the electioncampaign periods have, accord-ing to Chalermlak Kebsup, Dem-ocrat MP for Phuket District 2,obstructed her.

“I feel chained by therules,” said K. Chalermlak. “TheOECT says that MPs must notcampaign or take part in activi-ties that may be construed ascampaigning between November5 and January 5, 2005.”

January 5 marks the end ofthe term in office of the currentgovernment. After that day, MPsare free to campaign for election– within the laws laid down bythe OECT.

Said K. Chalermlak, “We[the Democrat Party] wanted tobring our promotional ‘caravan’to the south of Thailand, follow-ing similar tours of the north andnortheast of the country, but nowwe cannot. We will have to waituntil January.”

The rules were introducedin the run-up to the general elec-tion in 2001.

Constituents, she said, hadthe impression that she was nolonger interested in them, “but inreality it is these rules that haveprevented me from appearing inpublic,” she said.

K. Chalermlak confirmedher intention to run for parlia-ment again as the Democrat can-didate in the forthcoming elec-tion. She said that Suwit Sa-Ngiamkul, the current DemocratMP for Phuket District 1, willalso run for re-election.

Chalermlak“chained” byelection rulesBy Kamol Pirat

CAPE PANWA: The PhuketMarine Biological Center(PMBC) and the Phuket Provin-cial Office will mark His Majestythe King’s birthday by releasing99 Indonesian bamboo sharksinto the sea.

The release will take placeat the PMBC, Cape Panwa, at10:30 am on December 2.

Sharks to be released

HONG KONG: Exhibitors at thePhuket & Samui Property Exhi-bition said they were pleasedwith the quality of visitors to theshow and the general organiza-tion of it.

The event, which ran fromNovember 12 to 14 at the HongKong Convention & ExhibitionCenter, featured mostly propertydevelopers from Phuket and KohSamui, but also attracted one de-veloper from Bangkok and an-other, South Thailand Homes,looking to sell a development onKoh Lanta, in Krabi.

Although none of the 57exhibitors came to the show ex-pecting to make sales, five didsay they had signed contracts.Royal Development Internationalreported selling a US$600,000(27-million-baht) home in theRoyal Samui Beach develop-ment, while apartments worth 8.2million and 6.8 million baht re-spectively were sold at Allaman-da and Ocean Breeze.

Gary Pearmain at CoconutLand & House signed a client fora 7-million-baht house at theSanti Thani development on KohSamui, while Suchana Chaloem-toem, Director of The Plantationin Kamala, reported the sale of a17-million-baht apartment.

“The exhibition is good forprospective buyers, because theycan see a large variety of homesat the one show,” said K. Su-chana. “This year there weremany more visitors than last year.We have been very happy withthe show. We have another 10 po-tential customers who have madeappointments to come and see usin Phuket.”

Rawat Chindapol of the900-million-baht Nirvana Phutri

development in Chalong, calledon the Tourism Authority ofThailand (TAT), the PhuketChamber of Commerce and gov-ernment departments in generalto give more backing to showssuch as the Hong Kong propertyexhibition. He said, “I’d like tosee the show held in Hong Kongtwice a year.”

Describing home buyers as“third-wave tourists”, he pointedout that such people, havingbought homes in Thailand, wouldnaturally be repeat visitors andwould bring other people withthem. The TAT should encouragesuch people, he said.

The show was not withoutits controversial moments, par-ticularly when Gulu Lalvani, de-veloper of the Royal Phuket Ma-rina, dropped a bombshell in oneof the two seminars held in con-junction with the exhibition.

During discussion of lease-hold versus freehold ownership,Mr Lalvani revealed – amid hor-rified looks from developers andagents – that owners of villas atAmanpuri, including himself,had found that the typical 30-years-with-two-rollovers lease-hold contract was not enforceableif the land changed hands.

It had cost millions of dol-lars to ensure that the long leasesoriginally agreed by the villaowners would continue, he said.

Mr Lalvani then added thatRoyal Phuket Marina leaseholdshad now been structured in sucha way as to ensure that buyersthere would not face a that prob-lem.

The Hong Kong show,which was organized by theArtAsia magazine group andGraham Doven, and co-spon-sored by the Phuket Gazette, iscertain to be repeated next year.Other shows may be launched inDubai, Britain and Australia, thefastest-growing markets for high-end properties in Phuket and KohSamui.

B66m in deals inked atHK property show

More than 400 people came to look at the properties on offer atthe Hong Kong show.

Ad-Dulwich

2x5

November 20 - 26, 2004 N E W S P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 3

PHUKET CITY: The Cabinethas approved a plan to spendmore than 300 million baht toimprove Phuket Fishing Port inTambon Rassada.

The plan includes the con-struction of a state-of-the-art sea-food processing plant

The proposal, drawn up bythe Ministry of Agriculture andCooperatives, was approved bythe Cabinet on November 9.

The Ministry of Agricultureand Cooperatives told the Cabi-net that improvements wouldmake it easier for Thai fish prod-ucts to compete on world mar-kets, and that, because the plan-ned processing plant would meetEuropean Union standards, fish

Cabinet okaysB300m forRassada Port

The 300 million baht in improvements will see a 500-meter-longquay built alongside the existing one to relieve congestion.

and seafood processed therecould be sold in Europe.

Port manager Pramual Rak-jai said the project would createa 500-meter quay alongside theexisting 180m-long docks, aswell as increase the paved park-ing area.

He said the proposal hadalready passed an environmentalimpact assessment, so workcould start immediately.

“If the Ministry of Agricul-ture and Cooperatives put this outto tender soon and can choosethe company to do the work bythe start of next year, the wholeproject could be completed in2006,” he said.

K. Pramual added that theport would stay open while therenovation was taking place.

By Kamol Pirat

PATONG: Police believe that a19-year-old pharmacology stu-dent on holiday in Phuket com-mitted suicide by overdosing onbarbiturates in a Patong hotel.

Alongkorn Pitaktrirat, ofNakhon Ratchasima, had beendead for around two days whenhis body was found on Novem-ber 10 at the Baan Bua Hotel,where he had been staying.

Pol Lt Padungpong Duk-sukaew, of Kathu Police Station,said that officers, summoned byhotel staff, found K. Alongkorn’sbody lying on the bed with driedblood around the nose and mouth.

The television was on andthe air-conditioning unit was run-ning, and officers found three

Student pharmacistdies from overdose

boxes of Nembutal nearby, twoof which had been opened.

Lt Padungpong said, “Nem-butal can make people uncon-scious by suppressing theirbreathing. Taking too many[pills] may cause death.”

He said that K. Alongkornhad been a student in the facultyof pharmacology at SilpakornUniversity, in Bangkok. He said,“His parents said his studies weregoing well, but he always keptproblems to himself.”

The cause of the suicidewas a private matter, said LtPadungpong, but he added, “Wefound a letter in his room sayinghe had had enough of living.”

– Anongnat Sartpisut

RANONG: One man had a legamputated and two others requir-ed hospitalization after a minivantaking passengers from Phuket ona “visa run” collided with a wa-ter truck on November 12.

Pol Sub Lt Chatchai Pong-singto, of Ranong Town PoliceStation, told the Gazette that theaccident happened on Paknam-Ranong Rd at about 12:20 pm.

The van, which is owned byAndaman Club Co Ltd, was car-rying seven foreigners and a Thaifrom Phuket to the AndamanClub pier at Ranong.

Raoul Alexander DieterWildt, from Germany, suffered asmashed leg, necessitating ampu-tation below the knee. He also

suffered a broken rib, spinal in-juries and damage to his left armand hand. Two other passengers,both Korean, received lesser in-juries.

Lt Chatchai explained thatthe driver of the water truckrounded a bend in the road to findhimself head-on with the mini-van. Both the water truck driverand the minivan driver swervedto avoid a head-on smash, but therear of the water truck and therear of the minivan collided.

“The water truck sufferedlittle damage, but the minivanwas damaged at the rear left-handside and its rear window wassmashed,” he said.

– Gategaeo Phetsawang

Three injured in‘visa run’ smash

PHUKET: Governor UdomsakUsawarangkura will ask theCabinet to allow residents in SoiKingkaew, near Koh Sireh, tokeep their homes, even thoughgovernment officers have longclaimed that the houses are onstate land.

The Governor visited thesoi on November 9 with PhuketProvincial Office of Natural Re-sources and Environment chiefThongchai Saowapong. The in-spection came after residentsthere gave letters to Prime Min-ister Thaksin Shinawatra duringhis visit to Phuket in August, ask-ing him to let them stay.

More than 3,000 peoplelive in some 800 homes on morethan 300 rai of land there that thegovernment claims is part of a3,937-rai mangrove forest. Resi-dents in the soi have disputed thegovernment’s claim since 1997.

The Governor said an ex-emption would be in line with thegovernment’s aim of improvingpoor people’s lives. He said hisfirst action would be to presentan appeal to Cabinet asking forthe residents to be allowed to stayon the land.

As the residents had alsocomplained about poor electric-ity and water supplies, he alsoordered the public utilities to pro-vide services to them.

“You will be allowed tostay as you are [already] on thisland,” Gov Udomsak told theresidents, “but I warn you that ifyou try to take over any morestate land, you will be punished.”

– Kamol Pirat

Governor toappeal for

homes to stayon state land

I N S I D E S T O R Y4 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

This year a record four million passengers havealready arrived at Phuket International Airport.

However, some people in the tourism industry arebecoming concerned that the island is about to becomea victim of its own success – and be overwhelmed by

the sheer number of tourists coming here.One solution put forward by Deputy Prime Minister

Suwat Liptapanlop is to develop other parts of southernThailand for tourism, which may draw large numbers of

tourists away from Phuket.The Gazette’s Dhirarat Boonkongsaen gauges local

reaction to the Deputy Prime Minister’s proposal.

Concern about the over-development of Phukethas been expressedright at the very top of

the political ladder, by none otherthan Suwat Liptapanlop, theDeputy Prime Minister who hasbeen charged with improvingtourism in southern Thailand.

Phuket has become so over-crowded, its status as a tourismdestination could soon be underthreat, the Deputy Prime Minis-ter said, and he called for fournew tourist destinations to be de-veloped: Prachuap Khiri Khan,Phetchaburi, Ranong and Chum-phon provinces.

Promoting some of the newdestinations would fall to WiriyaKaenkaew, Assistant Director ofthe Tourism Authority of Thai-land (TAT) Region 5 office,which includes Chumphon, Ra-nong and Surat Thani.

K. Wiriya explained thatthe TAT is planning to promoteChumphon, Ranong and SuratThani as “Green Between theSeas” tourist destinations.

She said, “The seas [in Re-gion 5] cannot be compared withthe seas around Phuket or Krabi,and that’s why we plan to be aplace for nature lovers and forhealth tourism, with indoor andoutdoor mineral water bathing,spas and marine facilities, suchas marinas.

“There are plenty of natu-ral resources in these provinces,located between the AndamanSea and Gulf of Thailand, but we

will need to improve facilities fortourists.”

Sirachai Surai, Director ofCentral TAT Region 2, servingPhetchaburi/Cha-Am, Ratcha-buri and Phrachuap Khiri Khan,told the Gazette he did not knowenough about the proposal tocomment in detail, but he pointedout that Prachuap Khiri Khan andPhetchaburi are already popularwith residents of Bangkok.

“We attract Thais fromBangkok, rather than foreigners,as Phuket does,” he said.

Suwalai Pinpradab, the Di-rector of the Phuket office of theTAT, does not believe they posemuch of a threat for Phuket, be-cause the newcomers will be tar-geting a different segment of themarket.

She added, “Plus, it’s un-likely that the government willspend its entire tourist promotion

budget on the new destinations,because Phuket makes a lot ofmoney for Thailand. I doubt verymuch the government wouldabandon Phuket completelywhile developing four untried,new destinations, which may notgenerate as much money asPhuket.”

K. Suwalai concedes thatchanges do need to be made inPhuket. Earlier this month, WorldTourism Organization specialistHans Carl Jacobsen – commis-sioned to research and develop anational tourism plan for Thai-land – outlined to a meeting atPhuket Provincial Hall what hebelieved needs to be done to sus-tain and enhance Phuket tourism.

“Mr Jacobson told us that,physically, Phuket doesn’t lookgood, especially around the city,”said K. Suwalai.

“He told us that tourists

Queer News

BANGKOK: Unscrupulous police officers extorting money fromthe public hardly constitutes news in Thailand – but it is noteworthywhen the police themselves become victims of malfeasance.

Between March and October this year, Pol Sgt Tarntip Preak-kratok managed to skim off nearly 3 million baht in fines collectedby the Nongkam Police Station, where she was employed as a deskclerk.

The probe followed months of requests to inspect the station’saccounting records, but Sgt Tarnthip kept stalling the investigatorsby telling them that the records were not up to date yet.

Finally, on November 1, investigators arranged a meeting withSgt Tarnthip. When they arrived they found that she had absconded.Checking the records she had left behind, the investigators discov-ered that she had been helping herself to 90,000 baht a week.

The errant sergeant was found just four days later in her homeprovince of Kanchanaburi – perhaps indicating why she had neverclimbed up the police ranks to the position of investigator – and wastaken into custody.

Like many women who steal and then head straight home withthe money, Sgt Tarnthip, 31, had a tale of woe for the arresting offic-ers. She admitted to embezzling the police money, but told investi-gators she had done it only to help her husband of eight years,Somboon.

“We had a lot of expenses. He told me that he had lost hisboss’s car in Chon Buri and needed 1 million baht to cover it. Hehad also killed people, so we needed money to keep him out of prison.He told me, too, that he had invested in a crocodile farm and lost themoney. But it was all a pack of lies.”

Despite all the help she had given him in his time of difficulty,hubby Somboon (whose name means “Perfect”) did not respond inkind. When his wife became the target of the police hunt, he simplydisappeared.

Source: Kom Chad Luek

Another fine mess

I N S I D E S T O R YNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 5

expect the roads around the air-port to be nice and impressive,especially the road from the air-port to the city, and that thereshould be more trees to create anattractive aspect for visitors.

“Mr Jacobson is from Den-mark, and he suggested that thebuildings be painted, as they arein Europe, to make the city cen-ter appealing.

“Significantly, he also sug-gested that we should look be-yond visitor numbers. Maybe weshould be looking towards at-tracting fewer high-quality tour-ists, rather than more low-qual-ity ones.”

She continued, “Phuket hasalready been doing great on itsown but we still need governmentsupport with things like infra-structure.

“I see no reason why Phu-ket cannot be developed as aworld-class destination, but weneed action as well as words tobring that about.

“As for the development ofthe four ‘new’ destinations, well,the plans have yet to be finalized,so I don’t know exactly what theywill be like, which makes it dif-ficult to comment on them. Butit will be interesting to create newdestinations besides existingones like Phuket.”

But there is no need to drawtourists away from Phuket, be-cause the island isn’t over-crowded. That, at least, is howPattanapong Aikwanich, thePresident of Phuket Tourist As-sociation (PTA), sees things.

“I don’t think Phuket isover-crowded at all,” he said.

“We can handle more than fourmillion tourists a year, and Ithought the government had saidit wants more visitors to come toPhuket every year, anyway.

“In fact, the governmenthad [Phuket Provincial] Gover-nor Udomsak Usawarangkura,representing Phuket, sign anagreement to bring 10-12 % moretourists here every year. It’s a to-tal paradox.

“But if the government nowfeels differently, rather than ex-pecting us to increase touristnumbers every year, why not setan exact number for visitors andcontrol the quality.

“It would be better if thegovernment controlled the qual-ity of tourists and created moreinteresting activities for them,and at the same time make more

of an effort to protect natu-ral resources and the envi-ronment.

“Phuket should bedeveloped as a place forhigh-end tourism, a placeoffering a higher standardof services for higherprices. [If this can be ac-complished] I believe thatthe benefits of Phuket’ssuccess as a tourist desti-nation will trickle down tosurrounding provinces.”

A far, far greaterthreat to tourism than over-development, believes K.Pattanapong, is the “Land-bridge” oil pipeline projectproposed for Phang Ngaprovince.

The PTA has alreadyvoiced its opposition toPrime Minister ThaksinShinawatra, and will con-tinue to oppose the plan.“Oil from the pipelinecould wreck the placewhere we live and fromwhich we earn our living;the damage would occurquickly, but it would lastforever,” said K. Pattana-

pong.Another critic of the pipe-

line project is Pamuke Achariya-chai, the Chairman of PhuketChamber of Commerce. “Wehave already said we don’t wantit here, he said.

“We want to convince PMThaksin that whatever money thepipeline brings in would be noth-ing compared to what would belost if it wrecked the tourism thatalready brings an awful lot ofmoney into Thailand every year.”

But K. Pamuke doesn’thave a problem with developingtourism to Prachuap Khiri Khan,Phetchaburi, Ranong and Chum-phon.

He said, “It would be goodfor those provinces, but they haveto think about the quality of fa-cilities on offer, and the resources

needed to support the develop-ment of tourism.

“If they don’t have the in-frastructure in place, they won’tsucceed.”

Indeed, Mantana Jareon-vipasjet, the President of RanongTourist Association, agrees thatinfrastructure is important, as shesays the area does not yet havethe roads and electricity supplyto support much development.

However, she said, “Ra-nong has world-class mineralwater and other natural re-sources, like beaches, forests andunspoiled islands, such as KohPayam and Koh Chang. We alsohave a very attractive golf course,although it has only nine holes.

“Ranong is attractive totourists looking for something offthe beaten track and a calm envi-ronment.”

She added, “I can’t seeRanong welcoming tourists in thenumbers Phuket does, but then Idon’t think we want our area togrow too fast. We want time todevelop good city plans andzones, things like that. Slower butsteady growth is what we’relooking for.”

Fast growth would also beunwelcome in Chumphon, ac-cording to Suwannee Thamma-wuti, the President of ChumphonTourist Business Association.

At the moment, the arealacks infrastructure, as well as theknow-how to develop tourism tothe region’s best advantage, saidK. Suwannee.

“Here could be a good placefor diving and agricultural trav-eling because our natural re-sources are unspoiled, and we’dlike to preserve as many of ournatural resources as we can. Wehave to be careful about how wedevelop them,” she said.

“We must have zoning, todetermine which areas are fortourism and which aren’t. If wecan do that, tourism should notcost us our natural resources.”

Southern exposure

KARST OF THOUSANDS: Phang Nga Bay? Think again. If Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop’spush to promote the northern parts of Southern Thailand, the Andaman provinces will be competingagainst the beauty of Prachuap Khiri Khan, pictured above.

A R O U N D T H E I S L A N D6 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Making WAVESBy Dhirarat Boonkongsaen

Jet-skis are being graduallyphased out in Phuket wa-ters – or so we are told –but now there is a whole

new generation of small, sportywatercraft coming in to take theirplace. Swimmers, stay in yourpens!

Thiti Mokkapan, ManagingDirector of Thai Marine Center,told the Gazette that his companyis now the sole authorized dealerin Thailand of Nautic Star boats,which are constructed in Qing-dao, China, by Sino-Korean jointventure Nautic Star Marine.

A wide variety of the boats– if they can really all be calledboats – is now on display at thecompany’s showroom off Thep-krasattri Rd, ranging from a 2.6-meter-long inflatable dinghycosting just 87,000 baht to theeight-seater J-Maran 480, pricedat 550,000 baht, including in-board engine.

In between – for those whocovet a jet-ski, but know they canno longer get one registered, isthe 150,000-baht TJ2, with lookslike a jet-ski mounted inside aninflatable rubber hull, therebyqualifying it for dinghy status. Itwill do about 30 knots.

“It is not classified as a jet-ski because it’s bigger and canseat more than two people. It isdesigned for safety and is verybuoyant.

“There are two power op-tions on the TJ2, gasoline andturbo diesel. Weight ranges from110 kilograms to 176kg, depend-ing on the engine,” he explained.

There’s also the JM320, alittle catamaran that looks a bitlike a pedalo but has an outboardjet motor. It costs 150,000 baht.

Both the rubber dinghy andthe JM320 can operate in wateras shallow as 30 centimeters,

making them ideal for fishing orexploring shallow bays, riversand inlets.

Residents of Patong mighteven consider buying one for per-sonal transport until the munici-pality sorts out its rainy seasonflooding problem

K. Thiti told the Gazette hecame across the unique vessels ata boat show in Shanghai and de-

cided to import them, taking ad-vantage of the recent abolition ofduty on imported pleasure boats.

Thai Marine Center alsocontinues its primary business ofbuilding fiberglass speedboats,and is creating its own fiberglass-hulled versions of the JM480 andthe JM320.

Because they are made offiberglass, the locally-built boats

are more robust and can travel fur-ther out to sea than the inflatableNautic Star boats, K. Thiti says.

Thai Marine Center has or-dered 10 of each of the Chinesemodels, and expects them to ar-rive soon. All the vessels comewith a 10-year warranty, and ThaiMarine Center staff have beentrained by Nautic Star to performrepair and maintenance work.

Thai Marine Center can bereached by turning left after theIsuzu Showroom, northbound onThepkrasattri Rd. For more infor-mation visit their website atwww.thaimarinecenter.com, theNautic Star website (www.nauticstar-marine. com) or con-tact K. Thiti (Tel: 01-8926284;076- 352135; Email: thaimarine@phuketinternet.co.th).

PREPARE FOR LANDING: The J-Maran 480 (above) can seat up to eight people, and can navigate Phuket’s shallow coastal waters.

A R O U N D T H E N A T I O NNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 7

Tourist-killing cop out on bailSomchai Wisetsingh, 38,

the police sergeant whoadmitted to killing Brit-ons Adam Lloyd and

Vanessa Arscott in September,has been released from custodyon bail of 1 million baht.

Judge Narong Suthamko-son granted bail after the pros-ecution team unsuccessfully ar-gued that, if released, Sgt Som-chai might try to tamper with evi-dence or intimidate witnesses.

The prosecution said itwould ask the court again to or-der Sgt Somchai to be kept incustody – after he is officiallycharged. The case is now beingbeing considered by the StateAttorney’s Region 7 office.

A source in the Kanchana-buri public prosecutor’s officesaid Sgt Somchai pointed out inhis request for bail that he hadnever previously committed acrime and said that he had prom-ised not to run away. The sourcesaid the judge instructed him torefrain from intimidating wit-nesses.

Although there are some 16witnesses to the killings, almostall were reluctant to sign state-ments with the Kanchanaburipolice against Sgt Somchai, thesource said.

Biological warfare: In less thana year, coconut leaf hispa, alsoknown as blue coconut leafbeetles, have damaged as muchas 60,000 rai of coconut trees onKoh Samui and nearby KohPhangan.

The Agriculture Depart-ment rates the problem as urgentand has vowed to eradicate thebeetles within two years, by im-porting tanbian, a eulophus waspthat preys on the insects, fromVietnam.

“We have to take quick ac-tion, particularly on Samui, be-

MATURE MALADY: Wichai Chomboon, 11, of Ubon Ratchathani, suffers from a rare geneticcondition that accelerates aging, giving him the appearance of an old man and poor eyesight.Though generally welcomed by classmates at his school, Wichai has often been subject totaunts outside the classroom.

Asked what kind of future he would like for his son, Wichai’s father, Daeng, said he hopedsurgeons would operate on his son and make him look like a child.

“Without wrinkles, he would be able to avoid taunts. Or at the least, my family hopes forsome financial assistance that will pay for Wichai’s medical bills. We are a poor family and arestruggling to cope with our son’s medical expenses,” he said.

cause coconut trees are an iconthere. We can’t let the island loseone of its most striking features,”said Agriculture Director-Gen-eral Chakan Saengraksawong.

He said the beetles havedamaged up to 40% of the coco-nut trees on Koh Samui and KohPhangan. The Agriculture De-partment released the first batchof tanbian to coconut-tree farm-ers on Koh Samui on October 30.

Keeping the faith: The NationalBuddhism Bureau has called forthe pulling of a television com-mercial that offers a free bookpromoting Christianity, pendinga review of how much aggressivereligious advertizing is permis-sible.

The bureau has alreadyasked the Public Relations De-partment and the Office of Con-sumer Protection Board to check

if it has a mandate to order thecommercial off-air.

“We agree that the advertis-ers have the right to propagatetheir religious belief, but wethink the commercial should besuspended until a clear frame-work is laid down about how tocampaign for each faith,” saidbureau director ChakrathamThammasak.

The advertiser, a Protestant

foundation, has reportedly re-ceived a large number of requestsfor the free book.

K. Chakratham said he wascalling for guidelines because hewas concerned that followers ofother faiths might considerlaunching equally aggressivecampaigns, thereby causing “pol-lution of faiths” and even “divi-sion of faiths”.

Police force: Twenty-three po-lice officers in Ayudhya havebeen suspended pending a probeinto alleged brutality.

Assistant National PoliceChief Pol Lt Gen Pichit Kuan-techakupt said the officers willbe investigated for alleged in-volvement in the torture of vol-unteer rescue worker EkkawatSrimanta, who sustained seri-ous injuries resulting from beat-ing and electric shocks to hisgenitals when he was detainedat Uthai district police stationearlier this month.

Friends rushed him to hos-pital after he emerged from theinterrogation. Uthai police neverfiled charges against K. Ekkawat,but said they suspected him oftheft.

K. Ekkawat’s friends saidthe brutality might be paybackfrom a police officer who hadrecently been reassigned toAyudhya after being transferredout of the province two years agobecause of a complaint from K.Ekkawat.

Around the Nation news roundupis sourced from the pages of TheNation and Kom Chad Lueknewspapers.

A R O U N D T H E R E G I O N8 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Pipeline protest heats up

ANDAMANCOASTING

B y F r a n k y G u n

The Phang Nga tourismauthority and the localhotel association haveunited to try to throw a

few stones into the slow-but-steady path of the Strategic En-ergy Land Bridge project, betterknown as the oil pipeline project.

A pamphlet, in Thai only,outlining the potential environ-mental impact is being distrib-uted throughout Phang Nga. Thepamphlet says, among otherthings, that the land the pipelinewill run through could be takenaway from its original owners byforce – if they are not willing tosell for the price offered.

In addition, there is a rumorcirculating that the landbridgewould be 97% owned by Chineseinvestors, with just 3% held byThais. Although that seemslikely, the implication of foreignownership is making an impres-sion on the minds of local people.

While the locals are beingtold that the project will make ev-eryone in the area rich, it is farmore likely that only a few pow-erful and already rich people willbenefit from the landbridge.

Tourism and Phang Nga’snatural attractions supports hun-dreds of thousands of Thaipeople in Phang Nga, and manyof these are coming to the con-clusion that much of the area’sappeal will be destroyed – justso a select group can get rich.

The best way of stopping aproject that could potentially de-stroy Phang Nga’s booming tour-

ism industry is to educate localpeople. The release of the bro-chure is a positive step in thefight to save Phang Nga and itsnatural treasures.

High times: With most KhaoLak hotels and resorts fullybooked since the middle of No-vember, scuba-diving tour boatsfull, restaurants crowded andmasses of tourists out shopping,Khao Lak is expecting its bestseason ever.

The first signs came in Oc-tober, with tourists arriving ear-lier than in previous years. Itseems that this high season willexceed the expectations of KhaoLak’s once-worried business-people.

Happy are the ones whoprepared early, while those whothought they had plenty of time

to get ready are the ones work-ing throughout the night to com-plete their shops.

Bang Niang Bung: As the rainyseason comes to an end, roadconditions in the Bang NiangBeach area are still deteriorating.The local administration organi-zations promise, “We are work-ing on it,” but the Bang NiangBeach main road is frequently

flooded, as the drainage systemstops dead halfway along theroad. The sytem is also too nar-row to handle the deluges thatwash down from the Khao Lakhillsides.

Shops and restaurants arelosing custom, as tourists decideit’s better to take a taxi to KhaoLak than wade through muddywater. To complete the situation,all Bang Niang Rd intersections

are now pocked with potholes upto seven-inches deep, which havealready caused several seriousmotorbike accidents.

The owners of some of thebigger resorts in Bang Niang aregetting rather cranky about thesituation, and are visiting govern-ment officials on a regular basisto “express their emotions”.

Medicare where? There arefive so-called “medical clinics”in Khao Lak, but they are cur-rently without qualified medicalstaff until about 5:30 pm, whenthe owners – doctors workingduring the day at hospitals inTakuapa, Phang Nga or Phuket –put in an appearance.

As the medical center inKhuk Kak looks like a govern-ment building and lacks any signin English indicating that medi-cal services are offered there,tourists in need will most likelycontinue going all the way toTakuapa Hospital for treatment.

Medical services in KhukKak and Takuapa are not whatmost tourists would call Western-standard, especially comparedwith the services available inPhuket. It is obvious that KhaoLak needs to develop medicalservices capable of serving itsever-growing number of visitors.

OPEN ALLHOURS:receivingmedical

attention inKhao Lak

during the daymay prove

difficult, asmost ‘medicalcenters’ there

do not havequalified

medical staffuntil about5:30 pm.

H A P P E N I N G SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 9

T his week

IN THE PINK: (above) Mr and Mrs Daniel Anisimoff (center),the first guests at the newly-opened Trisara resort at Nai ThonBeach, are presented with T-shirts by the hotel’s managementteam.

STAND BY ME: (right) Daren and Sasaporn Chan (left and 2nd

from left), the owners of Oasis Restaurant & Café in Nai Harn,host a birthday party for Endoo Suwannaphan (holding gift)and friends on November 7.

WEDDING BELLES AND BEAUS: Gulu Lalvani (left) plays host at his villa to therecent wedding of David Ruff (2nd from left) and niece Gitu Ramani (center).

LA CRÉME DE LA COMMERCE: At the grand opening of Central Festival Phuketare, from left: Wallaya Chirathivat, Executive Vice-President (EVP) of BusinessDevelopment of Central Retail; Grish Attagrish, EVP Division Head of SiamCommercial Bank; Sutthichai Chirathivat, President of Central Group; and YuwadeePicharnjit, President of Central Department Store.

ISLAND FANTASY: (above) South Korean beauty queen Kim JiYoun (left) and actor and fellow countryman Lee Sae Chang enjoya delightful night out at Phuket FantaSea.

THUMBS UP FOR INDEX: (from left) Somchai Tantasani, Vice-President (VP) of Index Furniture; Chanchai Mahaboon,Assistant VP Marketing; Kijja Pattamasattayasonthi, MD ofBangkok Interfurn Group; and Jarintorn Pattamasattayasonthi,VP of Index Furniture at the store’s recent opening.

P H U K E T P E O P L E10 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

So hip it hurts

Perhaps it was the fact thatChintana Daengdejmoved from her homeprovince of Petchaboon

to Chiang Mai as a kindergarten-age child that helped her to landon her feet with her first job.

Straight out of Chiang MaiUniversity 17 years ago, aftergraduating in communicationarts with a major in journalism,she walked into a job as a rovingreporter with Channel 7 TV.

Not a person to rest on herlaurels, she also completed amaster’s degree in communica-tion arts at Chulalongkorn Uni-versity in Bangkok.

The lifestyle of a journalistcertainly seemed attractive for K.Chintana, although it was notwithout its difficult moments.

One of those was coveringthe devastation wrought by Ty-phoon Gay in November 1989.One of the worst natural disas-ters in Thailand’s history, itclaimed the lives of more than500 people in Chumphon andPrachuap Khiri Khan provinces.

Winds in excess of 130 kmhand a storm surge of one meterleft another 160,000 peoplehomeless and 4.5 million rai ofland awash.

Recalling this event stillstirs up strong emotions in K.Chintana. “My boss assigned meto the story althoughI had no experienceof reporting such asituation,” she re-calls. (Very few Thaijournalists had hadsuch experience.The worst naturaldisaster to hit Thai-land before that wasin 1962 when tropi-cal storm Harriet hitLaem Taloom Pookpeninsula in south-ern Thailand, killingmore than 900 people.)

She continues, “We – myTV crew and I – decided to driveto Chumphon but found the waylittered with debris. We also hadstrong winds and, on occasion,high waves along the coastalroads to contend with.

“The wind almost blew meaway – literally. But I didn’t feelscared, I was too young to feelscared, I think.”

She remembers roofs beingtorn from buildings and treesblown down in her path, but forher the worst part was the effectthe typhoon had on people.

Indeed, one thing in par-

Career changes are commonplace these days andthe notion of just one job for life seems as archaic

as a quill pen.Chintana Daengdej, Managing Director of the Phuket

International Night Bazaar, the first part of the new ChaoFa City, has made the transition from one career to an-other appear almost effortless, although it has taken aresolute attitude to achieve her goals.

She spoke with the Gazette’s Sangkhae Leelana-paporn about life as a businesswoman.

ticular seemed to make them an-gry, according to K. Chintana.“The prime minister at the time– Chatichai Choonhavan – vis-ited the province. He made an in-spection but was not shown theareas that were worst affected.He talked to the media and saidthat the damage was minimal,which, as far as he knew, it was.”

His comments infuriatedthose affected by the storm, andthey looked to vent their anger onthe only people they could: themedia. “These people were in-jured, homeless and hungry. Itwas natural that they wanted toblame someone, although their

anger was misdi-rected: they blamedus. They thoughtthat the media weredeliberately cover-ing up the extent ofthe disaster.

“Channel 7 is avery influential TVstation. People[elsewhere in Thai-land] believed whatthey saw on that sta-tion. The Chum-phon residents af-

fected seemed to blame us morethan anyone.

“A group of people sur-rounded my cameraman and me.They started shouting at us, curs-ing us. They couldn’t see that wewere there simply to report asbest we could. The crowd weremad. I was trying to explain whatwe were trying to do, and tryingto calm them down.”

K. Chintana sent a tape ofthe devastation to her studio but,despite repeated requests, it wasnever aired. Later, she let thecrowd speak directly to the cam-era and this time the footage wasbroadcast. Simply letting people

speak and give vent to their griev-ances on air seemed to ease theugly mood of the crowd.

K. Chintana and her crewremained in the area for a monthor so. “I really pitied these peopleand became very upset on theirbehalf. In the end I asked to betransferred away from Chumphon.

Seeing people day after daywith little food or shelter, and stillsearching for lost relatives bur-ied under buildings or with inju-ries that had been unattended toreally affected me.”

Although she stayed withChannel 7 for another few years,she realized that it might be timeto move on. “I didn’t leave be-cause I was upset but because Ihad simply had enough.

“I was tired of stories thatwere not news being given pre-cedence over real news. I felt thatwe [journalists] should be report-ing useful things,” she explains.

In that year, K. Chintanalaid the foundations for her busi-ness consultation and promotioncompany – August 1991 Com-munication Co Ltd. This, shesays, allowed her to direct herdedication more effectively.

“August 1991 Ltd – it’s stillin operation – allows [us] to getto the heart of a problem or busi-ness and effect some positivechange. We advise the client andidentify all their strengths andweaknesses,” she explains.

August 1991 Ltd’s clientshave included Chivas Regal,Colgate Palmolive, Central De-velopment and many propertydevelopment public companies.

Business was brisk up untilthe 1997 economic crash in Asia.K. Chintana then had the oppor-tunity – albeit somewhat en-forced – to return to her studies.

She studied for a doctorate

Modern

‘A group of peoplesurrounded mycameraman andme. They startedshouting at us,

cursing us. Theycouldn’t see thatwe were there

simply to report asbest we could.’

WALLWith Bruce Stanley

Off the

It was a night of good foodand great laughs when thePunchline Comedy Clubgave their last performance

of the year.Not a seat

was empty at theWatermark andgales of laughterwafted throughBoat Lagoon in anight thatbrought about140 of Phuket’sfun-loving resi-dents out to cel-ebrate Britishhumor.

“ W e ’ v ehad a great re-sponse so far tothe launch ofPunchline Com-edy Club and we plan a full sea-son of laughter for 2005,” saidWatermark manager StuartBird.

Phuket City’s new “epicen-ter of fun”, the Zanzibar Pub, atthe Royal Phuket City Hotel, ispresenting an afternoon of musi-cal and dance entertainment onSunday, November 28, starting at3 pm.

Karen Alexander Mac-Iver, director of dance at SEAAcademy, will present her cho-

Ready to struttheir stuff atZanzibar Pubon November28 are (atback, fromleft) LindaCumming,Angie Batt andJessica Lukas.ChoreographerKarenAlexanderMacIver frontsthe troupe.

reography with students tapdancing and otherwise moving tothe hippest rap and songs fromthe shows. Among the troupe willbe Angie Batt, Linda Cumming

and Jessica Lu-kas.

Karen is adance teacherwho has trainedmany of Aus-tralia’s most suc-cessful dancersworking in NewYork and Paris.

This is agreat chance tocheck out one ofPhuket’s latestnightspots, avenue that hassecured localguitarist Boon-

kurt and his Picasso Band tokeep the crowd dancing.

Royal Phuket City HotelGM Ian Taylor Woodward hasrevamped all the F&B outlets inPhuket City’s upscale hotel. Heclosed the main restaurant andtransformed it into Zanzibar, aquasi-African-themed pub com-plete with lifelike wild animals.

Tickets for the dance showcan be bought at the door and arepriced at 300 baht for adults and150 baht for children under 12.

P H U K E T P E O P L ENovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 11

in interpersonal communication,a course run between Ohio Uni-versity and Bangkok University.The first academic year wasspent in Thailand but the secondsaw her traveling to the US.

“I have always consideredthat learning is an award for theindividual,” she says.

When she returned from theUS, a rector at Eastern Asia Uni-versity (EAU) in Bangkok in-vited her to be a dean at the insti-tute. “I spent about three yearsthere, up until 2002. I felt that itwas time to give something backto society,” she says.

“I continued to work forAugust 1991 Ltd while alsoworking as a dean at EAU andin 2002 I lectured in business atChulalongkorn University.”

She now lectures in busi-ness presentation at CE Enter-

woman

prise in Bangkok, as well as –with her husband – running Au-gust 1991 Ltd and a slew of otherbusiness interests including Fash-ion Mall, Education Mall and theE-Square department store, all ofwhich are in Bangkok.

She is now turning her at-tention to Phuket and to the In-ternational Night Bazaar to bebuilt on 170 rai of the proposedChao Fa City. The project willfeature around 6,000 businessunits, including a wedding plaza,electronics stores and entertain-ment zones.

Where will it all end? K.Chintana says, “I want to sketch,to listen to music and be removedfrom society. I want to commitmyself to further study and to ourthree children.”

But that doesn’t look likehappening just yet…

WORKING WONDER: I have always considered that learning isan award for the individual – Chintana Daengdej.

12 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004F E A T U R E S

I watch a lot of CNN, and I’ve oftenwondered what would happen if thepeople who appear on it said whatthey really think, instead of striving

for journalistic objectivity. I suspect we’dget broadcasts like this:

Rosemary Church: I’m RosemaryChurch at the CNN Center in Atlanta, andI’d just like to say that I’m much morebeautiful than Zain Verjee, Kristie LuStout, Andrea Sanke, or any of our otherlovely young anchorchicks any of youdirty old goats may be lusting over outthere.

First we turn to the business news,because all the major media agree thatmoney is where it’s at, newswise, and allthe starving children in Sudan and dyingAIDS victims in Africa can just go poundsand and take a back seat to the stock mar-ket reports. For that we go to Todd Ben-jamin in London. Todd?

Todd Benjamin: Thanks, Rose-mary, and hello to all you slimy, Mammon-worshipping greedheads who get yourrocks off slobbering over the stock mar-ket while Sudanese children starve.

Well, the Dow is up, the Nasdaq isdown, the Hang Seng is floating, and theFootsie doesn’t know where the hell it’sat. Back to you, Rosemary.

Rosemary: Thanks, Todd. And nowover to “Smiling Shihab” Rattansi, the re-porter who is always smiling, for a livelyand uplifting report on the latest develop-ments in Iraq.

Shihab: Thanks, Rosemary. WhenI’ve got something to smile about, I’ll send

A peek behind the mask at CNN

TSOWNDINGSBy S. TSOW

you a fax. Incidentally, Zain, Kristie Lu,and Andrea are cuter than you. But it’sMonita Rajpal who really sends my rocketup.

There was another bombing today inBaghdad, in which hundreds were brutallymassacred. I have here an ordinary Iraqicitizen, Ahmed al-Ahmed, who has of-fered to give us his assessment of the situ-ation. Ahmed?

Ahmed: (his face contorted withrage; waving and screaming) It is all thefault of the Americans! They have givenus nothing! We have no security! No elec-tricity! No running water! No collectionof the garbage! We were better off underSaddam! At least then we could get a de-cent pizza! Death to the Americans! Anddeath to the Jews who bombed the WorldTrade Center!

Shihab: There you have it, Rose-mary, an average Iraqi’s gratitude to theAmericans for liberating him from Sad-dam’s tyranny; his stoic refusal to whineor complain when confronted by hard-

ships, and his utter contempt for absurdconspiracy theories.

Rosemary: Shihab, what is youranalysis of the situation there? I hope it’sbetter than your taste in women.

Shihab: Well, the Shi-ites, theSunnis and the Kurds all want to kill eachother. Chaos seems inevitable.

Rosemary: Is it really that bleak,Shihab? Is there no hope?

Shihab: Look at my face, Rosemary.Am I smiling?

Rosemary: No. But then, you neverdo.

Shihab: (solemnly)There is one possible so-lution currently being de-bated at the UN.

Rosemary: What’sthat, Shihab?

Shihab: Everybodyshould leave.

Rosemary: Thankyou for that upbeat assess-ment, Shihab. Now wewish to announce thatCNN has purloined TimSebastian from the BBC.Here’s a brief preview of his hard-hittingnew talk show, RoughTalk. Tim?

Tim Sebastian: (hunched over thetable; glowering) Thank you, Rosemary.General Melchizedek Makawele, militarydictator of the central African nation ofFoof, a very warm welcome to our show.

Makawele: Thank you. A pleasureto be here.

Tim: (still glowering) You have

been accused of being a despicable tyrant,a robber, rapist, murderer, embezzler, pe-dophile, cannibal and genocidal psycho-path who lives in sybaritic luxury whileyour downtrodden people starve. What isyour response?

Makawele: My response?Tim: (leaning forward and gnashing

his teeth) Yes. Your response, you viciouswanker!

Makawele: My response is: ****them all. (Note: Here we substitute aster-isks for a vulgarism not normally printed

in respectable newspa-pers.)

Tim: (rearing back;aghast) **** them all?**** them all? That’s allyou’ve got to say in re-sponse to these outra-geous charges of un-speakably heinouscrimes?

Makawele: Yes.**** them. All of them.You, too, fatso.

Rosemary: (cut-ting in) Well, I think that

gives you an adequate foretaste of our newinterview show, RoughTalk. Don’t miss thepart where Makawele rips off his penissheath and beats Tim over the head withit, rendering him – for the first time in hiscareer – speechless.

S Tsow can be flamed at stsow@yahoo.com, but not while he’s still trying to figureout what a penis sheath is.

‘I’m much morebeautiful than ZainVerjee, Kristie Lu

Stout, Andrea Sanke,or any of our other

lovely younganchorchicks any ofyou dirty old goatsmay be lusting over

out there.’

November 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 13L I F E S T Y L E

TREASURE CHESTSOne of the highlights of the grand openingof Central Festival Phuket – which wasgraced by the presence of HRH PrincessSoamsawali – was a fashion show inspiredby the concept of Phuket as “The TreasureIsland”.

Yothin Thamjamrus, the organizer ofthe fashion show, explained that theclothes and accessories modeled wereaimed at Phuket’s tourist market.

The items on display, he claimed, lendthemselves to any occasion on our owntreasure island: beach, casual function oran evening party.

All clothes and accessories shown areavailable from Central Festival Phuket.

UP ON THE CATWALK: (clockwise) Ashimmering “coin” jacket over a bikini adds atwist to the phrase “loose change”; this year’slittle black dress available just in time forChristmas; a belted shorty trenchcoat for thecooler days; MTV VJ, actress and supermodelSonia Cooling shows that spots are, er, easyto spot; who needs Japanese Yakuza-styletattoos when you can simply buy the T-shirt?

Words and pictures by Sangkhae Leelanapaporn.

14 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004F E A T U R E S

DARKby Sam Vimes

After

For a long time I havewondered why Phukethotels have never triedharder to exploit what is

potentially their most lucrativemarket for F&B products: thelocals.

This is especially true of theRoyal Phuket City Hotel. Overthe years I have watched severalhalf-hearted attempts to get usexcited, most recently at the ex-pense of a product that was ex-cellent.

I’m referring to the DynastyChinese restaurant that was onthe second floor. This was one ofmy favorite placesto eat in town, andthe crispy duck wasutterly gorgeous. Italways seemed rea-sonably busy andwas one of the bestbargains in town.

But now this once-greatdining experience has been con-verted into, yawn, a “fusion” res-taurant. This has its appeal, I’msure, but I for one am thoroughlybored by the concept. When Iwant Chinese, I want Chinese…

Initially, the entire Chinesemenu was moved to the Picklesrestaurant downstairs. While thefood maintained its quality, thesurroundings were forgettable.Then this, too, was closed.

But Pickles was closed tomake way for what is now thehottest new venue in Phuket City,Zanzibar.

Managed by the totally

charming Nikki, whose enthusi-asm alone makes it worth a trip,Zanzibar is aimed at the well-to-do of the island’s bright youngthings.

Once inside the nightspot,we were surrounded by helpfulstaff who were all very smartlyturned out, and the level of spo-

ken English I expe-rienced was alsofirst class.

Drinks werecold, reasonablypriced and servedpromptly, althoughI did find the beer

menu a little limited.The décor is “modern

jungle”, with lots of faux tigerskin upholstery – as Austin Pow-ers might say, “I’m the man whoput the grrr in ‘tiger’, baby!”There are several statues whichlook like they cost a bomb andthe bar is very easy on the eye,except for the stage area, whichlacks any meaningful lighting. Infact, the lighting seems to havebeen an afterthought, and therewere no lighting effects at allduring the live music set.

K. Nikki reassured me thatthis will be sorted out in the nearfuture. This should be a priority,

as the venue place is being poorlypresented because of the inad-equate, inappropriate lighting.

The sound system is topquality, and although, when firstinstalled it was a bit, well, crap,it has now been sorted out to suitthe legend who is Boonkurt, Phu-ket’s own diminutive Rock God.

I’ve known Kurt as long asI have been in Phuket, and someof my most memorable eveningshave been spent in his company.He’s a bundle of talent and en-ergy unlike any other in Thailand.

If you are new to the island

and have not experienced Kurt,then check him out; he knocks allthe posing, trouser-swinging, leg-ends-in-their-own-lunchtimersinto a cocked hat.

He is a major asset to thevenue and the management hasshown smarts in getting him toplay there. I just hope they lookafter him well.

The management seems tohave set its sights on attracting ayounger crowd, judging by thehouse playlist: hard dance music,crap R&B and hip-hop and noth-ing to sing along to.

Although there is some ex-cellent R&B and hip hop outthere, it seems that unless it con-tains the words pimp, ho’ orniggah, Thai DJs won’t play it.

I am sick and tired of look-ing at DJs who concentrate moreon beat matching – which theymistake for mixing – than look-ing at the floor to check out who’sthere and whether they’re danc-ing.

To appeal to an older, moreaffluent crowd, they would needto change their music policy. I amjust dying for someone to take theplunge in the city and play mu-sic for me and my peers.

There are loads of us andwe want somewhere that meetsour needs. This place is poten-tially a regular haunt, if they sortthe tunes out. And we have morecash to spend than the kids …

Things were quiet duringmy first visit, and I was thrilledto see Nikki getting the staff go-ing, offering them 50-baht tips todance and generally rallying thetroops; a smart lady indeed, asthose of us in the business knowthat quiet nights can destroy thesouls of normally bubbly staff.

A weekend visit was an al-together different experience, asthe place was jumping, and I be-lieve it can only grow from there.

I love the animal prints, bythe way. All it would have takenwould have been a good bit oflounge music and I would haveturned into Austin Powers. Yeah,baby.

YEAH, baby

Kurt’s back: Phuket’s own dimunitive Rock God delivers thegoods at Zanzibar.

S M A L L W O R L DNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 15

Get your brainin gear with

The Monster Quiz

Nevera CrossWord!

the Fthe Fthe Fthe Fthe Fun Pageun Pageun Pageun Pageun Page

for allfor allfor allfor allfor all

the Fthe Fthe Fthe Fthe Familyamilyamilyamilyamily

KKKKKIDSIDSIDSIDSIDS

Brain Buster!!Q: A man rode into town on Friday.

He stayed for three nights and then left onFriday. How come?

A. The man’s horse was called Friday.

Can you find the seven

differences between the

two cartoons below? And

can you find them faster

than the rest of the family?

Spot the DifferenceSpot the Difference

ANSWERS TO LAST

WEEK’S MONSTER QUIZ

Across

1. Guard at the Tower ofLondon.

6. Room in the roof.7. Half a crown?10, 11 Former US president.13. Soldier with a commis-

sion.16. It’s often used with “ver-

ily”.17. Fashion.19. Drily amusing.20. The people next door.

Down

1. Grown-up caterpillar.2. Do extremely well at

something.3. Consumed.4. Auditory organ.5. Bullfighters.8. Having no name.9. Every year.12. Anger.14. Someone from Prague,

perhaps.15. Cowboy competition.18. A rest for Tiger Woods?

1. Which famed adventurerwas known in France as“Le Boy”?

2. From which languagedoes the word chocolateoriginate?

3. When first introduced, itwas called the Radarange.What is it called thesedays?

4. In Who Framed RogerRabbit? who provided thevoice for Jessica Rabbit?

5. Which golf course, at par77 and 8,325 yards, is thelongest in the world?

6. Which famous skyscrap-er was hit by an aircraftin 1945, leaving the 78th

floor devastated?

7. Which US president died

of pneumonia contractedduring his inauguration amonth earlier?

8. What was the artistRembrandt’s family name?

9. Name the beverage de-scribed by its inventor as an“esteemed brain tonic andintellectual beverage”.

10. What officially begins at 50miles from the Earth’s sur-face?

11. In 1952, Albert Einsteinwas nominated for thepresidency of which coun-try?

12. Who said, “What scientistshave in their briefcases isterrifying”?

13. What sport was initiallycalled sphairistike?

14. In which year were colorimages first shown on aTV screen?

15. What is the correct wordfor the study of fish?

16. What was the professionof Sir Arthur ConanDoyle, author of theSherlock Holmes books?

17. Which is the only fruit thathas seeds on the outside?

18. How many vertebrae arethere in the human spine?

19. In which year was theMTV channel launched?

20. Where is El Pueblo deNuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles dePorciuncula?

Answers next week.

1. William Shakespeare; 2. Slovenia; 3.Vistula; 4. Sir John Harington; 5. Tur-key; 6. Persians; 7. The lower house ofthe parliament in the Netherlands; 8.Antarctica; 9. Nicole Kidman and EwanMcGregor; 10. Nevado del Ruiz; 11.The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Rus-sia; 12. 12.26 kilometers; 13. Thrust,lift, drag and weight; 14. Sir Isaac New-ton; 15. Illustrating children’s books; 16.A thin slice of meat or fish, stuffed, thenrolled and cooked; 17. ExecutiveOne;18. Will Smith; 19. May 28, 1968 inMelbourne; 20. Jonny Buckland.

Solution to last

week’s crossword

F E A T U R E S16 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

The Gazette’s Siripansa Somboon visited the FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Cupand asked some of the players, “After soccer, what’s your goal in life, and why?”

&HEARD&scene

SCORPIO (October 24-Novem-ber 22): The outlook for thisweek looks good. A slight showerof negativity on Tuesday shouldpass without lasting effect, butkeep your distance from gather-ing storm clouds on Thursday.The color sapphire blue will helpyou tune into the truth.

Meagan HolmesAge: 17From: The USAOccupation: Student

After soccer, my goal is tosettle down and have a nicefamily. I want to get marriedand possibly become a doctorof some sort. That would makeme over the moon!

Katie RadchuckAge: 18From: CanadaOccupation: No thanks!

Work little, party hard and behappy! I’d like to live in a hotcountry and maybe open up myown scooter shop. I’d spend mydays lazing around on the beachor go surfing.

Olga PeshinaAge: 17From: RussiaOccupation: Student

After this tournament, I want tocarry on with my studies and Iwant to continue playingfootball. My “goal” is to domost of the scoring for which-ever team I play for.

Kelsey DavisAge: 17From: The USAOccupation: High school senior

After soccer, my goal in life isto graduate and start a family. Iwant to help people and touchlives by giving love and faithback to people. I also want tocome back here!

Park Hee YoungAge: 15From: South KoreaOccupation: Student

I suppose that I really want tocarry on playing footballbecause, you know, I really likeit. It’s great fun, it keeps mehealthy and it stops me being“as sick as a parrot”!

SAGITTARIUS (November 23-December 21): If you are not atyour liveliest, you must acceptthat pushing yourself to the limitwill lead to no great accomplish-ments. Spend time contemplatingyour navel this weekend and youwill be ready for anything whenMonday dawns. A spur-of-the-

moment trip before the end of themonth is very likely, so keep youragenda open.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 20): Capricorns will bein night-owl mode this weekend,but boring friends will probablylet you down. If others are intent

on damping your spirits, seek outa new social scene. Take goodcare of personal possessions onThursday, as you will be subjectto a bout of forgetfulness.

AQUARIUS (January 21-Febru-ary 19): With problems dealtwith, Aquarians will be ready tohave fun in the sun. Head for thebeach for fresh sea air. Your cool,level-headed approach to lifeworks wonders on Wednesdaywhen a business agreement needsfinalizing. Watching others getsteamed up over a minor hitchwill be good entertainment value.

PISCES (February 20-March20): The signs are encouragingfor Pisceans wanting to rekindlea romantic relationship. If you areprepared to be honest about yourfeelings this time, Cupid willshoot a second arrow. On Mon-day ask for advice before com-mitting to any contract; importantclarification is certain to be lostin translation.

ARIES (March 21-April 20): Youwill start the week keen to roundoff unfinished tasks and set sailon a new journey. Romance ben-efits from an extra sprinkling ofsensual stardust. Arians in a re-lationship will notice that theirpartners are more relaxed lately;single Arians will meet someoneinteresting this weekend. Thenumber 8 is lucky on Tuesday.

TAURUS (April 21-May 21):Taureans would appreciate hav-ing as many legs as a millipedethis week to keep up with what’sgoing on. But as long as you pri-oritize, there’s no reason whyhaving only two legs shouldn’tenable you to leap ahead. Whileothers are inclined to lie on thebeach this week, most Taureanswill be sniffing out possibilitiesof financial gain.

GEMINI (May 22-June 21): Yourinstincts are good on Monday,but beware of false alarms onTuesday and Wednesday. Hot-headed Geminis should wait un-til the end of this month whenastral conditions will make it justabout impossible for you to failin business.

CANCER (June 22-July 23): Goit alone at work this week. It willbe hard to persuade others to seeyour point of view, but if you takeresponsibility for your own de-cisions, the outcome cannot failto impress those who matter.Watch out for a snake in the un-dergrowth this weekend; a per-sonal relationship could beshaken by untoward interference.

LEO (July 24-August 22): Youshould be the first to hear a ru-mor that could point you in theright business direction thisweek. You might have to quicklycover a lot of untouched ground,but the outcome will make allyour effort worthwhile. Wearpale seashell pink to be in har-mony with your surroundings.

VIRGO (August 23-September23): Your sharp sense of humorcomes in useful this weekend.Not everyone will be able to seethe funny side but you have thepower to lighten a potentiallyserious situation. A dream isabout to come true, but your goodfortune could prompt some soul-searching.

LIBRA (September 24-October23): Feeling rebellious, you willbe ready to take a stand this week,but don’t protest in the wrongplaces – sometimes it’s better toaccept limitations and act withinthe bounds. A tidal wave of ro-mantic passion is about to knockyou sideways. Wear chili-pepperred to activate your sensual side.

In The Stars by Isla Star

F E A T U R E SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 17

Off theSHELFBy James Eckardt

Horror in a manmade hellhole

Dump the parallel port dinosaur

COMPUTERKHUN WOODY’S

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccanwho emigrated to France in1961, when he was 17, and became a fixture in the French lit-

erary establishment. His latest novel, ThisBlinding Absence of Light (The NewPress, New York, 2002, 190pp) won thebig kahuna of cash prizes, the Interna-tional Impac Dublin Literary Award2004.

It is a simple story, told in a simplestyle, but of unimaginable horror andbased on real events, drawnfrom the testimony of aformer inmate of Tazma-mart Prison, a special hellbuilt in the Moroccan desertfor political prisoners.

On July 10, 1971, un-der orders from coup plot-ters, military academy ca-dets invaded the SkhiratPalace of King Hassan II ofMorocco and gunned down100 guests at the king’s 42nd

birthday party. The king es-caped. The senior coup plot-ters were executed and thejunior officers were sentenced to a liv-ing death.

The narrator is a 27-year-old lieu-tenant who finds himself buried under-ground with 22 comrades. There is no

light. Prisoners are confined to cells 10feet long, five feet wide, five feet high.The cells are freezing in the winter, sti-fling in the summer.

There is a hole in the ground for sani-tary needs. Each prisoner gets a daily fiveliters of water for drinking and washing.Meals never vary: dry bread and noodles.There is no contact with the outside world,and no medical attention.

After 18 years, all but four of the 23are dead. This is the tale of a survivor,

whose rigid mental disciplineand firm Islamic faith sawhim through.

He attributes his reli-gious faith and stiff moralspine to his mother, whothrew her husband – “a bonvivant, a monster of egotism,a dandy” – out of their housein Marrakesh and raised herchildren herself.

The husband becamecourt jester to King HassanII, famed for his phenomenalmemory for Arab poetry. Oneof the few comic passages in

the novel is the father’s abasement at thefeet of the king after his son has beenwounded in the coup attempt and thrownin jail.

“I disown this unworthy son, I con-

sign him to public condem-nation, to eternal oblitera-tion, I strip my name fromhim, I throw him into the gut-ter so that rats and mad dogscan rip out his heart, his eyes,his liver and tear him intopieces to be thrown into thesea of utter oblivion.” And soon for an entire page.

The son has inheritedhis father’s prodigious mem-ory, however, and his re-tellings of novels and movieplots are a source of consolation for hisfellow prisoners.

Another inmate has a preternaturalsense of time and keeps track of minutes,hours, months and years. Yet another is aspiritual leader, leading the others inKoranic prayer. Their solidarity is basedon a bedrock of religion:

“Believing in God, praising Hismercy, saying His name, glorifying Hisspirituality – all that was a natural neces-sity for me and I expected nothing in re-turn, absolutely nothing. I had reached astate of renunciation and inner ascesis thatgreatly comforted me. I, who had previ-ously maintained that a person neverchanges, had become someone else. I wasconfronted with a different self, freed ofall the fetters of the superficial life, need-

ing nothing, demanding noindulgence. I was naked,and that was my victory.”

Finally, a guard, sym-pathetic to a fellow Berber,smuggles out a letter to oneinmate’s sister. Eventuallythis leads to a human rightscrusade and liberation forthe four survivors.

Prematurely aged,nearly toothless, five inchesshorter from his ordeal inhis low-ceilinged cell, the

narrator is finally reunited with his dy-ing mother.

Was this slender 190-page novel re-ally the best in a year that saw two un-disputed giants published: WilliamBoyd’s Any Human Heart and JohnUpdike’s Seek My Face?

Like the Man Booker Prize, the In-ternational Impac Dublin Literary Awardcan be politically motivated. Undoubt-edly referring to the Abu Ghraib prisonscandal, the judges’ citation reads: “It isa story read against a continuing back-ground of deprivation and inhumanity intoday’s headlines.”

That said, This Blinding Absence ofLight is a minor masterpiece and a har-rowing testimony to the indomitabilityof the human spirit.

Alarge percentage of theemail I receive isabout Internet connec-tions: what’s the fast-

est connection, how do I get it,what do I do when it starts goingin fits and starts … that kind ofthing.

That’s why I thought it un-usual when two different friendsasked me about USB ports in thesame week. I figured it was anomen, or something. At any rate,the TTT/CAT Hi Net ADSL con-nection that I’ve been using formany months has turned sour –the line drops several times a day,and I rarely get more than 300kilobits per second (Kbps) speedout of a 2-Mbps (that’s 2,000Kbps) line.

So, instead of kicking theCAT again, nowwould seem tobe an opportunemoment to bringyou up to speedon USB. Atleast, that way I can avoid snarl-ing at people who say Phuket willbecome an “IT Paradise” with apiddling 155-Mbps line to Bang-kok. Harumph.

Back to ports. When youconnect a “peripheral” – say, aprinter or scanner – to your com-puter, there has to be some sortof connection between the PCand the peripheral. While variouswireless options, including Blue-tooth, infrared and radio-fre-quency connections, have theiradvantages, most hardware getsplugged into a PC with a plainold wire. The PC socket that a

wire plugs into is called a port.In the good old days, when

computers were powered by littlesquirrels running in circles andmice got gummed up with ptero-dactyl droppings, printers wereinvariably connected to PCs us-ing a cable with a long, thin D-shaped connector on the end ofit, that contained 25 strands ofwire. That D-shaped connectorplugged into a port on the com-puter called the parallel port. Itwas called “parallel” as datacould, in theory, be transmittedon each wire individually.

Although the parallel portwent through several incarna-tions, in the end it joined thepterodactyl, primarily becausedata going through the parallelport, by and large, only went in

one direction:from the PC tothe printer (orother piece ofhardware). Thatmakes is very

difficult to get Windows to rec-ognize what hardware is where.

There were many otherproblems, too. By today’s stan-dards the flow of information wasdownright leisurely. Mating 25little pieces of wire sticking outof a connector with matching re-ceptacles on the parallel port in-evitably drove many a poor com-puter geek to drink. In short, theparallel port took its rightfulplace next to the electric type-writer – an old workhorse largelyput out to pasture.

You may be surprised toknow that the Universal Serial

Bus – USB – has been around fora long time. Chances are goodthat any PC you own has a USBport. The original version of USBwas slow and prone to powerproblems; more than a few thou-sand mother boards fried whentoo many USB-connected de-vices ran at the same time.

The current version, codi-fied in 2001 and known as USBversion 2.0 or Hi-Speed USB, hasrapidly become the 800-poundgorilla of the PC-interface busi-ness. USB hardware automati-cally identifies itself to the PC,so Windows can handle the setup.

USB is fast, reliable, and itdoesn’t catch on fire – all nobleattributes.

USB beats the parallel portto pieces, in every situation I’veencountered. While it’s true thatUSB ports suffer from occasionalidentity crises, the confoundingantics of parallel ports defy de-scription.

In short, if you have theoption, use the USB port.

By the way, if you’re won-dering whether you have USB2.0 or are stuck with an olderversion, in WinXP go to yourdesktop, right-click My Com-

puter, then Choose Properties,and then click the Hardware tab.

Click the button markedDevice Manager. Somewherenear the bottom of the list, you’llsee an entry that says UniversalSerial Bus Connectors – double-click on it. If you have USB 2.0,you should see some descriptionthat includes the words “USB 2”and/or “Hi-Speed USB”.

If you don’t have USB 2,it’s very easy to install. Ask yourfavorite computer shop for a“PCI USB 2 card”. A PCI USB 2card goes in your computer justlike any other card, and whenyou’re done, you’ll have fourfull-fledged USB 2 slots on theback of your PC.

A month ago I picked up ahandful of generic PCI – USB 2cards at Panthip Plaza in Bang-kok for a couple of hundred bahteach. They installed in no time,and they run like the wind.

Which is more than I cansay for TTT/CAT Hi Net at themoment. Don’t get me started.

– Woody Leonhardwoody@khunwoody.com

WindowsDeviceManager tellsyou if youhave thenewer, muchfaster USB 2portsinstalled, or ifyou’re stillstrugglingwith USB 1.1,or even (ugh!)USB 1.0.

E D I T O R I A L & L E T T E R S18 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

- Since 1994 -

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with your views for publication in our next issue.We reserve the right to edit all letters. Pseud-onyms are acceptable only if your full name andaddress are supplied.

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Editor: Rungtip HongjakpetManaging Editor: Alasdair Forbes

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Investigation Team: Dhirarat Boonkongsaen, Gategaeo Phetsawang,Kamol Pirat, Anongnat Sartpisut, Siripansa Somboon

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– The Editor

Sustainability is the key

Casting the firststone in PatongSo the government, according toSompetch Moosophon, Presidentof the Patong EntertainmentBusiness Association in the Ga-zette of October 23 is to blamefor Phuket’s flesh trade.

“[Women coming fromother provinces to work in bars]... have escaped from bad condi-tions at home, from poverty andproblems that the governmenthas never fixed.”

I do not agree with K.Sompetch. Most of the womenworking in bars in Phuket areescaping the reality of their irre-sponsible lives, not from poverty.They had children at too early anage and are now unable to do anyform of professional job.

Further, individuals are re-sponsible for their own actions,not governments.

The Thai government hasgiven everyone the opportunityto receive an education and thereare many jobs available in Thai-land, especially in Phuket.

Does K. Sompetch reallyconsider that every poor womanshould try to improve her lot bybecoming a prostitute? A moraland proud woman would neverbecome a bar girl.

The sad truth is that it is

I have been traveling aroundThailand for some months nowand I made my second trip toRanong recently. I was hoping tovisit the southern Myanmar townof Kaw Thaung for the secondtime.

My first trip to the porttown of Kaw Thaung was great.I spent two nights with somefriends, meeting many of thefriendly, local people.

This time I went with a visarun company based in Phuket.We arrived in Ranong and weretaken directly to Immigration,where we were “stamped out ofThailand”.

After that, instead of beingtaken to the jetty for the shortcrossing to Myanmar, we weretaken to a restaurant in Ranong.There, we were told that due tothe recent changes in the Myan-mar government, it was not safefor us to make the crossing.

The solution to this prob-lem was that we should give ourpassports to one of the employ-ees of the visa-run company, whowould make the crossing toMyanmar on our behalf and haveus “stamped in and out of Myan-mar”. About one and half hourslater, he returned with our pass-ports and we left for Immigration– where we were individuallystamped back into Thailand.

As far as Thai Immigrationwas concerned, we had made thecrossing. The visa-run companysaved a lot of time by us not hav-ing to get in and out of the boatand probably saved money on theboat transfer, as the companyemployee took only one place inthe longtail boat.

It seems these companies

Visa run companiesexploit Burmese

are fiercely competitive and willeven break the law to provide thevisa runs at the cheapest pricepossible.

And so once again Myan-mar people have been disadvan-taged by unscrupulous compa-nies.

In the future, I will make myown way to Ranong and KawThaung.

J Waldon

easier to earn a good salary byworking as a bar girl than it is tofind a respectable job!

The economy of Patong bynight has been built upon theshoulders of such “poor women”.

Brigitte BalfourPatong

I’d like to add my views to thoseof all the people complainingabout such things as seaweed onPatong beach, long queues at theairport and noisy sporting events.

I say to these people: wakeup, please. Phuket is a very popu-lar tourist destination, and tour-ists create a lot of pollution.

Tourists create long queuesat check-in counters everywhere,especially at an airport built tohandle far fewer people than itpresently does. Tourists need en-tertaining, whether it’s boat rac-ing, Thai boxing or soccer. Moretourists mean longer queues,more pollution and louder noise.

As the song goes: Theypaved paradise, put up a parkinglot. Well folks, the lot is gettingfull and, sadly, the parking atten-dant isn’t up to the job.

If tourists stopped coming,what would that mean? No pol-lution, no long queues, no loudnoise, no inflated land prices, nodrug abuse or excessive drinking,less road carnage The bar girlscould go home and Phuket wouldagain be a great place to live.

Of course this isn’t going tohappen. Tourists are Phuket’smain source of revenue, so if youcan’t cope with the current situ-ation, the solution is simple:move!

Graeme EatonThalang

Stop whining, andpack your bags

Tourists landing at Phuket International Airport are now greeted byan attractive sign that reads, “Welcome to Phuket: Ready to be Re-gional Tourism Hub”.

The banner might be a paradox to first-time visitors who, know-ing little more about the island than what they have read in promo-tional travel brochures, expect Phuket to be a tropical paradise.

For Phuket residents, however, the banner is simply anothermanifestation of a sad reality: as the pace of development here con-tinues unabated, Phuket is rapidly approaching its sustainable limit.

The number of Phuket residents who now make their way toKhao Lak in an attempt to find some of the peace and natural beautythat originally attracted them to Phuket is a clear indication of this.

Some local tourism industry officials may view Deputy PrimeMinister Suwat Liptapanlop’s idea [see Inside story, pages 4-5] todirect more government funding to promote tourism in PrachuapKhiri Kan, Petchaburi, Ranong and Chumphon provinces as a formof abandonment, but the plan is not without merit.

If successful, the scheme would spread the benefits of tourismacross the region. It is also in line with the TAT’s current promo-tional slogan: Unseen Paradise.

The promotion is described on the TAT website as follows:“Unseen Paradise is a sub-theme of the Unseen Thailand tourismpromotion campaign to entice residents of Thailand to travel aroundthe country and caters to the lifestyle needs and interests of resi-dents of Bangkok and other urban centers throughout Thailand.”

Sadly, Phuket has become one such urban center.The shifting of some state resources to less developed areas

should not be viewed as abandonment. Phuket will continue to bestrongly promoted internationally – as will be necessary for it toreach its heady goal of 10-12% annual tourism growth under theGovernor’s current provincial development plan.

Despite its worsening environment and burgeoning population,Phuket continues to attract private sector investment, both domesticand foreign, that is the envy of all other southern provinces.

Meanwhile, the “build-it-and-they-will-come” mentality thathas long characterized the development of Phuket should be recon-sidered. The focus should now be on real sustainability, improvinginfrastructure, effective enforcement of building codes and zoninglaws, and environmental protection.

Meanwhile, development of other areas in the region mightgive Phuket residents better holiday options in the future – now thatKhao Lak is starting to resemble the Phuket of 10 years ago.

P E R S P E C T I V E SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 19

Sun, sea, sand and .... there’s often a fourth “s” to a holidayin Phuket – a suit, as many tourists take advantage of theopportunity to have clothes made for them at a fraction ofthe price they would pay at home. And it seems that in someparts of the island, especially those popular with tourists,every business premises that isn’t a bar or a souvenir shopis a tailor’s.

But an annual survey commissioned by a number ofhotels in Patong found that, while tourists like their new suits,they are less enamored of the people who tout for trade onbehalf of the tailors. Certain streets in the municipality, par-ticularly those around the beach front and Soi Bangla are

thronged with men, usually Nepali or Burmese, who often try to hustle customers intothe shops they work for.

Here, one tailor, a Thai, who has been in business in Phuket for more than 17years, gives his thoughts on the touts, and the tailors who employ them.

Understandably worried about reprisals, he spoke to the Gazette on the conditionof anonymity.

Time to tidy up the tailor trade

Where can I study aserious spa course?

FIRST PERSONAround one-third oftourists who visitPhuket will visit a tai-lor, especially tourists

from Europe, as they find it dif-ficult in Thailand to find off-the-peg clothes big enough to fit.

While most of the tailors inPatong are decent, about 30% ofthem don’t seem to care abouthow well they serve their custom-ers.

Some people see this busi-ness as their chance to make aquick buck. They will open ashop, make a killing from tour-ists, then pass the shop on tosomebody else. They are usuallyforeigners – Nepali, Bangladeshior Burmese – and they come toThailand because the country isnot strict about registering com-panies, and there are no limits onthe number of businesses that canoperate in one area.

If someone wants to open ashop in an area that already con-tains a large number of the samekind of shop, they can.

These people don’t seethings as we – the people whohave been in business for so long– do; we see it as a long-termthing. But all they are interestedin is getting their salary and com-mission and they don’t carewhether the customer is happywith their clothes or not.

Also, it doesn’t really costthat much to go into business asa tailor, because, although youhave to pay rent, you can get thefabric on credit.

My customers often tell methat they don’t like to walkthrough certain parts of Patongbecause of the touts who touchthem, grab them and try to dragthem into shops.

Some tourists who wouldlike to have a suit made changetheir minds when they see howthe touts act; they are worriedthat the tout might threaten themor put undue pressure on them tobuy.

These touts also try to get asale by telling the customers sobstories about their familes. Theywill say, for example, that their

child is seriously ill, but theydon’t have enough money to payfor its treatment. They try tomake the customers feel sorry forthem so they will buy a suit.

Some tourists don’t mindbecause they have money tospend, but I believe everyoneshould be free to choose wherethey have their clothes made, andthe style and color and quality ofthe fabric, and they shouldn’t bepressured into getting somethingthey don’t want.

If the customer wants help,though, of course, we’re happyto give it.

It’s probably only around20% of the tailor shops in Pa-tong that have touts who behavein a bad way, but I’m not happyabout them, because their behav-ior has a bad effect on [the repu-tation of] all the tailoring busi-nesses here.

I have always had a policyof not pushing customers orshouting at them to try to getthem into the shop. Sometimesnew staff try to do it becausethey’ve done it in the past, but Ialways tell them not to do it whilethey are working for me.

I think there are more than

enough tailor shops in Phuketright now. The governmentmight make money from the reg-istration fees, but I’m not surethe money makes up for thedamage done to the reputationof Thailand by the actions of thetouts.

The number of tailor’sshops around means there is a lotof competition for trade, andthat’s why some shops employaggressive touts.

Three years ago, I remem-ber we had officers cominground, trying to catch touts whoannoyed tourists, and checkingon their work permits. Unfortu-nately, though, they didn’t do itfor very long.

I would like to see anothercrackdown, and for officers to bemore serious about taking actionagainst touts. I’d also like thegovernment to limit the numberof the same type of businessesthat set up in an area, as happensin other countries.

Also, I would like other tai-lors to try to give better serviceto their customers. They shouldthink about how they would liketo be treated if they were custom-ers, and treat their customers inthe same way.

That’s the way to do busi-ness – give your customers goodservice so they recommend youto their friends; then their friendswill walk through your door oftheir own accord rather than be-cause they’ve been draggedthrough it by some tout.

Want to know how to get something done? Can’tunderstand some of the dafter things that seem

to go on in Phuket? Want to pitch an idea toPhuket’s authorities or institutions? Then this is

the forum for you.Submit your queries or suggestions to us andwe’ll ask the appropriate people to respond to

them.

Write to: The Phuket Gazette, 367/2 Yaowarat Rd, Muang,

Phuket 83000. Fax 076-213971, or submit your issue at

www.phuketgazette.net

ANSWERS&Issues&

I recently terminated my employ-ment with a tourism-related com-pany in Patong. My former em-ployer is refusing to pay my out-standing commission.

Who should I contact aboutthe possibilities for claiming myoutstanding payments?

PMPhuket

Can a 30-year land lease be reg-istered with the Land Departmentone, two or even three years af-ter the lease was signed? If so,who is required to be present andsign the registration?

JohnPhuket

Jarong Nilrat, Land Officer ofPhuket Provincial Land Office,replies:

If the lease is for three yearsor more, it must, by law, be reg-istered with the Land Office.Even if the lease has already been

How to register a land lease

I’d like to do a spa and massagecourse leading to a recognizedqualification. Is it possible to dothis in Phuket? I’m looking forsomething serious.

Peter PanPhuket

Pakin Raktae-Ngam, Chair-man of the Phuket Spa Busi-ness Club (PSBC), replies:

The school must be certi-fied to run spa courses by theMinistry of Education and theMinistry of Public Health.

Alternatively, in November,the PSBC, in conjunction withPrince of Songkla University,Phuket Campus, is launching the“Center of Phuket Spa Manage-ment”, which will concentrate ontraining, consultancy and recruit-ment for spas.

For more information, callTel: 076-202556.

Rachawutt Phacharoen, Man-ager of the Phuket Spa Acad-emy, replies:

We have been operating ourspa training course, in coopera-

tion with Chiang Mai Univer-sity’s Faculty of Medicine, for 10months. It is certified by the Min-istry of Public Health and theMinistry of Education.

We offer courses as fol-lows: Spa treatment, 320 hours,for 50,000 baht; spa manage-ment, 60 hours. 30,000 baht; Thaimassage, 80 hours, 15,000 baht;aromotherapy, 60 hours, 15,000baht.

We also offer other coursesin reflexology, hydrotherapy,body massage and other treat-ments

For more information, callthe academy at Tel: 076-273394.

Pinit Soysuwan, teacher atPhuket Traditional Thai Mas-sage School, replies:

Our school has been certi-fied by both ministries. Our maincourse is a massage entrepre-neurs’ course, which provides atotal of 375 hours of tuition andcosts 19,000 baht. This course isin three parts: beginners, 90hours, 5,000 baht; intermediate,144 hours, 7,000 baht; advanced,141 hours, 7,000 baht.

We also do a supplementarycourse, for people already expe-rienced in Thai massage.

For more information callus at Tel: 076-211456.

Rungsan Imsomphot, of thePhuket Provincial Labour Pro-tection and Welfare Office, re-plies:

To claim commissionagreed with your employer butstill outstanding, you should con-tact our office at Tel: 076-211995or 076-220760 during govern-ment office hours.

signed for three years and stillhasn’t been registered with theLand Office, it should be regis-tered with the Land Office andregistration will apply retroac-tively from the date of the startof the lease.

Both the landlord and thetenant must be present at theLand Office with the necessarydocumentation: the land title, IDcard – or passport for a foreigner– and a house registration, or ifthe tenant is a company, the com-pany registration and the mostrecent annual report.

Rights to unpaid commission

20 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004B U S I N E S S & M O N E Y

TALKSMONEY

By Richard Watson

By Dhirarat Boonkongsaen

Vans set to take on pickup trade

US dollar falls as trade deficit continuesAt the time of writing,

the US currency ispoised to push throughUS$1.30 to the euro

and the Japanese yen is at 105 tothe dollar. Compared with ratesaround three years ago – whenthe euro was valued at 83 UScents – this is a major change.

To the casual observer thismay even suggest that the USdollar is in some sort of crisis. Infact, the weakness of the dollarhas only one real cause: the UScurrent account deficit.

This deficit is the broadestmeasurement available of wherethe US stands in relation to othercountries, in terms of livingwithin its means or otherwise.

The largest component ofthe current account is the balanceof trade, but it also includes divi-dends and royalties. Not surpris-ingly, the largest contributor tothe US current account deficit isthe trade deficit – an excess ofimports over exports.

Global economics, despiteappearances at times, do havetheir own logic. The values ofcurrencies are based on the de-mand for a currency.

To use the US dollar as anexample; where a country im-ports more than it exports it is said

to be running a trade deficit.When foreigners are prepared tofund this deficit by investing – inthis case – in US assets such asbonds, shares, currency depositsand the purchase of US busi-nesses and real estate, the defi-cit can carry on indefinitely.

In the current situation, theAmerican government is fairlyrelaxed about letting the value ofthe dollar fall against other ma-jor currencies. This “falling” isthe natural way to remove a tradedeficit.

A fall in the dollar makesUS exports more competitivelypriced and imports more expen-sive. Both positions eventuallywill aid the US dollar as exportsrise and imports fall.

There is evidence of a slow-down in capital flows to the USmainly because investors are con-cerned that the value of their in-vestments may fall in comparisonwith the currency of their owninvestments.

This is increasing the pres-sure on the US dollar, but theAmerican administration is notunduly concerned – the worryingis being done by other countries.

The value of the dollaragainst the euro prompted thepresident of the European Cen-tral Bank, Jean Claude Trichet,to issue a statement in early No-vember, voicing his concern. Hehas good reason to be worried;an expensive euro will have anegative effect on exports fromthe Euro Zone.

In good economic times thismay have little effect on overallEuro Zone growth, but “thezone” is not enjoying rude health.Pressure on exports is not beingoffset by domestic demand,which remains feeble to weak.

The largest economy in thezone is Germany, which accountsfor about one-third of the zone’seconomy. The latest figures fromGermany reflect a contraction inmanufacturing output, and domes-tic retail sales figures are grim.

In Japan, where earlier in2004 a recovery seemed under-way, doubts are beginning toemerge, with some recent statis-tics looking discouraging.

Japan is being assailed onthree fronts: a weak US dollar;the beginning of a slowdown inChinese economic activity (and

when it is noted that the Chinesecurrency has a direct link to thedollar, this has more serious im-plications); and indications of aslowdown in the global economy.The Japanese economic recoveryis overly reliant on the country’sexport sector.

During the third quarter of2004, it was common to hear con-cerns about the US economy.Even US Federal Reserve Chair-man Alan Greenspan started talk-ing about a “soft patch”.

In late October this year, thefirst official figures were releasedon US gross domestic product(GDP) for the third quarter, andthey came out at a healthy annu-alized rate of 3.7%. The “softpatch” was not very soft. EuroZone leaders would be dancingin the streets if they could man-age to duplicate US growth.

There has also been much

Wannapa Rakkeo, 35, well known in the hotel in-dustry in Phuket through her work as Group Directorof Marketing Communications for Central Hotels andResorts Group, has moved to Bangkok to take up anew position as Public Relations and CommunicationsDirector at the Conrad Hotel there. K. Wannapa, whospent her childhood at the Thai Embassy in India, is agraduate of Chiang Mai University. After graduation,she joined Cathay Pacific as a flight attendant. She

subsequently worked at the Hard Rock Hotel in Pattaya and theMarriott Resort and Spa in Bangkok.

Phumipat Kooarun has been appointed Sales andMarketing Manager for the Andaman Group, whichoperates the Phuket franchises of the Oishi and PizzaCompany restaurant chains. A Phuket native, K.Phumipat holds a degree in business administrationfrom the Thai Chamber of Commerce University inBangkok. He previously worked as a sales represen-tative with the Thara Patong and Kamala Bay TerraceResort hotels.

Le Meridien Thailand Resorts has announced thatTreechada Katacha has been appointed as its newGroup Sales Manager. A native of Songkhla Province,28-year-old K. Treechada graduated from the Princeof Songkhla University’s Phuket Campus with a de-gree in hotel and tourism management. Before join-ing Meridien, she worked as Sales Manager at theNovotel Coralia Phuket.

talk in America about job cre-ation, with many predictinggloom and doom. Against con-sensus estimates of 190,000 newjobs created during October,340,000 were delivered.

Returning to the US tradedeficit, much of the problem iscaused by slow economic growthin Japan and Europe, which is re-sulting in reduced domestic de-mand for imports, including fromthe US.

American consumers stillcarry on their shoulders too muchof the responsibility for globaleconomic growth.

Been promoted? Made a career change? Know someone who has?Let us know by email to onthemove@phuketgazette.net.

ON THE MOVE

Richard Watson runs Global Port-folios Co Ltd, a Phuket-based per-sonal financial planning service.He can be reached at Tel and Fax:076-381997, Mobile: 01-0814611. Email: imm@loxinfo.co.th.

PHUKET CITY: The ubiquitous pickup,often referred to as the workhorse of Asia,has a new competitor on the streets in theform of commercial vans.

Thaneth Tantipiriyakij, Director ofMuang Mai Yontrakan Phuket Co Ltddealership, believes that Citroen Berlingosand Peugeot Partners will become thepopular choice for people looking to trans-port goods that need protection from theelements.

“We have not sold a massive amountof vans, but we do sell to people whosebusinesses call for them to deliver things,but who feel a pickup doesn’t meet theirneeds,” he said.

“Because they are covered, commer-

cial vans protect their contents from therain, sun and other elements. They’re usu-ally easier to load and unload than apickup.

“And they don’t take up much park-ing space.”

K. Thaneth added that the vans haveanother advantage over their open-backedcounterparts: the high sides can be usedto advertise. He said, “You can use themalmost as mobile billboards, depending onhow they are decorated.”

Although K. Thaneth has sold onlyabout 10 vans since April, he has no plansto stop selling them. “They’re not volumesellers, they’re more for the niche mar-ket, for people who are looking for a ve-hicle which fits their purpose and has Eu-ropean standards,” he said.

He continued, “Of course, most Thaipeople still prefer a pickup, but theBerlingo and the Partner are more suit-able for people who have a medium-sizedamount of goods to deliver, such as flow-ers, baked goods or laundry, that wouldn’ttake up the large space available in a pick-up.”

K. Thaneth said his company’s ap-proach to marketing commercial vans isto go direct to members of target groups.

So far, the company has approachedhotels and restaurants, and businesses suchas seafood suppliers, who might be espe-cially interested in the vans because theycan be refrigerated.

Another target market is tailors’shops.

However, he said, there is something

of the shock of the new when it comes topersuading Thai people of the merits of acommercial van. “There is nothing elselike these vans currently available inPhuket. Thai people are used to usingpickup trucks for delivery jobs, and theidea of using a van is new to them,” hesaid.

One big disadvantage of the vans’appeal to customers compared with pick-ups is the price. New Berlingos and Part-ners currently cost from 650,000 to695,000 baht, while the cost of most Japa-nese or Thai-made pickups range fromhalf to two-thirds of those amounts.

However, K. Thaneth said his com-pany hopes to tempt new buyers with hirepurchase and credit deals, and with offerssuch as free service and maintenance.

November 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 21S P O R T & L E I S U R E

Afriend of mine sent mea text message askingif I’d been followingthe latest World Golf

Championships from Ireland.Based on past experience withhis messages, I knew he reallymeant to ask about the fortunesof his hero, Tiger Woods. My re-ply was, “Did not follow. HeardEls won. Tiger in lower top 10 asusual.”

The shocking revelation ofthe message was that, as this yeardraws to a close (only silly-sea-son events remain), Tiger stillhasn’t snapped out of his slump.He’s become just a solid money-earner on tour; another Tom Kite.

For those of you who tookup the game more recently, TomKite was the great pretender ofhis era.

He won a few tournamentsevery year, was constantly in thetop 10, but went cold at majortournament time. Though un-doubtedly a top-class player, Kitecompiled a phenomenal earningsrecord without ever setting theworld alight.

Is Tiger destined to be thenew Tom Kite? No one wouldhave dared say such a thing a fewyears ago. At that time, Tigerappeared likely to win every ma-jor for the next 10 years than be-come another Tom Kite.

Of course this is all specu-lation. Tiger is still close to hisbest. The swing keys he’s beenworking on are coming together;he’s playing well and is appar-ently excited about his game.

But I’ve heard that for ayear now. And why someonewho was the universe’s bestgolfer by a light century has tofind a new swing beats me. Can

we even think it yet? Is Tigertoast, history, washed-up, done,cooked, over the hill?

Apart from Jack Nicklausand perhaps Gary Player, one ofthe modern game’s most reliablestatistics is that, no matter howgreat or dominant a player be-comes, he has a period spanningaround seven or eight years towin his majors. In fact, most prosonly had the odd major win out-side of their hot four- to five-yearwinning span.

Few modern players canclaim this status – Palmer, Wat-son, Ballisteros, Faldo, Normanand Price. When all’s said anddone, Els and Singh will probablybe hard to ignore.

Tiger certainly had a placereserved alongside Nicklaus as aspecial case. But, when Augustacomes around again, it will be2005 and eight years (yes eight)since Tiger’s triumphal entry intothe élite circle of major winners.So, as things stand right now, andif Tiger is in fact a mere mortal,he may (or may not) have just onemore major left in him.

Now, I know Tiger is not ina slump, and even if he had been,he is now close to his best again.

He says so himself. But, assum-ing he is, what happened?

There are various theories.We’ve all heard of the “Butchbreakup”. Okay, the timing lookspretty likely, and I think he wascrazy to break up such a team.

I mean, who on earth wouldhave split up Muhammed Ali andAngelo Dundee, The Beatles,Superman and Lois Lane, BrianClough and Peter Taylor, Beck-ham and United and so on?

But is Tiger just going toforget everything his mentortaught him overnight?

There are several othertheories being thrown around.Maybe his desire is not there any-more? Rubbish! Tiger will notrest until he’s beaten Jack’s ma-jor record.

He’s changed equipmenttoo many times? Garbage! In2000 Tiger could have beaten therest using a hockey stick.

The others have caught up?Balderdash! Maybe they don’t liedown like they used to, but withthe exception of gutsy Bob May,they were behind by 10-15 shotsin the majors of 2000.

Possibly the most plausibleanswer is the “Parnevik con-spiracy”. Gossip reports thatJesper was recruited by theFlorida gang: Norman, Singh,Apple, Allenby, O’Meara, andmany more of the Tour’s “nearlymen” who happen to be Tiger’sneighbors.

The rumor goes that a se-cret plan to derail Tiger washatched in the kitchens and dens

TEE TOGREEN

Jon Morrow

Has the Tiger been tamed?of golfers’ alley. Something re-ally dramatic was needed for himto take his eye off the ball.

Parnevik’s beautiful aupair, Ms Elin Nordgren, was tobe Tiger’s Delilah.

The fact that they might livehappily ever after was not impor-tant. In fact, all the better if theydid; Tiger’s eye might stay off theball. He certainly went off theboil around this time. Coinci-dence or not?

In my view, though, he’s notin a slump. No, no, not at all, he’svery close to his best in fact, get-ting there, very excited, blah,blah, blah. Tiger’s problems arereversible.

First, he needs to giveDelilah a baby and send her backto Sweden for a few years. He canhook up with her every silly sea-son without too much damage.

Second, he needs to getoff the “meat and iron” diet. Nopro-golfer in history has im-proved his golf over the longterm by changing his fundamen-tal physical shape by bulking upto the extent Tiger has.

He needs to get back tolooking more like the superbly-toned and flexible 400m trackstar he looked like in 2000 thanthe Frank Bruno he more closelyresembles today.

When a player rotates historso through impact as fast asTiger does, timing is critical. Hishands and arms have probablygot as slow as Bruno’s – and hisfrequent forays into right fieldshow it.

Also, he needs to start hit-ting golf shots, not making golfswings. Although technology hasallowed many of the pretendersto catch up off the tee, Tiger isstill the world’s finest shotmaker,bar none. He may have forgottenmore shots than most of the tour’srobots have in their bag.

Tiger should get back to acoach like Butch Harmon, whoconstantly reminded him to hit allkinds of shots to make sure hedidn’t get too wound up with hisswing.

Finally, he needs to face re-ality. All is not going accordingto plan. Success is not just aroundthe corner if he just “stays thecourse”.

My fear is that Tiger willfollow the norm and win (maybe)just one more major before heretires from the tour and turns topolitics. Heaven forbid.

Tiger Woods is the bestthing that has happened to thegame of golf in a long, long time.Let’s hope he’s not just the nextTom Kite.

KOH KAEW: Nearly 600 play-ers from more than 10 interna-tional and Thai governmentschools in Phuket took part in atwo-day football tournamenthosted by Dulwich InternationalCollege on November 12 and 13.

Young competitors camefrom as far away as Nepal, In-

Local schools do well ininternational soccer tourney

donesia, South Korea and theUK, and as near as Darasamutand Morning Star schools inPhuket, with the Phuket schoolswinning three of the seven cat-egories.

Winners in the seven cat-egories were as follows: Over-15 boys, Dulwich International

College A; Under-15 boys, Sura-kul School Phuket; Under-15 girls,Dulwich International College A;Under-13 boys, PlookpanyaSchool Phuket; Under-12 girls,Harrow International School;Under-11 boys, DarasamutSchool Phuket; Under-9 boys,Bangkok Pattana School.

Dulwich International College Over-15 boys A squad (in dark shirts) proved too tough to beat in thetourney, winning their age division against rivals from as far away as the UK.

BANG TAO: Advanced tennis coach Stefano Breschi has launcheda series of “Introduction to Tennis” training programs and workshopsat the Laguna Beach Resort.

Mr Breschi, who has spent the past two years training withTennis Coaches Australia, offers a range of programs, including three-day clinics and weekly lessons for individuals to group classes.

Anyone interested in joining the courses or wanting more infor-mation can contact Mr Breschi at Tel: 01-8932672 or by email:stefb@ksc.th.com

Beginner tennis courseslaunched at Laguna

CHALONG: Twenty five teamsfrom 19 countries took part in the13th Phuket International Sport-fishing Classic, which was heldin Chalong Bay from November11 to 14.

The Wahoo team playedtheir lines well and finished asoverall winners, reeling in prizemoney of 200,000 baht in the pro-cess.

In second place was theLuxxel team from Japan, whonetted 100,000 baht, while OilyReelers hooked 50,000 baht fortheir third-place win.

The Top Individual Angler

prize went to Spain’s MichaelBretag while the award for theTop Lady Angler went to Can-adian Lisa Streu. The USA’sSara Grinenr took the honors inthe Top Junior (Under-16s) cat-egory.

In the Top Individual Spe-cies Contest, Ron Tattersall wonthe tuna prize with a 2.9-kilogramspecimen and Lisa Streu took firstprize with a 7kg barracuda. Theheaviest king mackerel nettedwas Tony Connelly’s 5.5kg beast.Donnie Bogan landed an 8.9kgwahoo and Jim Fourier broughtin a 5.7kg Dorado.

Wahoo angles to successin sportfishing classic

22 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004D I V I N G

It is quite common for thosein the Thai dive industry tovoice their opinions aboutwhat can and should be done

to improve environmental condi-tions around Phuket. Frequently,the criticism is directed at vari-ous Thai government agencies.

A few dive operators havetaken the initiative and used theirown time and funds to give backto the environment. However,what is not so often heard ispraise for any gov-ernment bodies inThailand. This is apity, because creditshould be givenwhere it is due.

There aresome agencies thatare working veryhard for conserva-tion and are genuinely concernedwith the environment and marineanimals, especially aroundPhuket.

One such agency is the

Phuket Marine Biological Cen-ter (PMBC), which is a divisionof the Department of Marine andCoastal Resources. The PMBC’sMarine Endangered Species Unitspecializes in protecting the de-clining populations of sea turtles,dolphins, dugongs and whales, toname a few species.

The center’s Dr KongkiatKittiwattanawong spoke recentlyabout the declining sea turtlepopulation and the PMBC’s ef-

forts to save them.He pointed

out that in Thai-land, there are fourkinds of seaturtles: leather-back, olive ridley,hawksbill andgreen turtle. Themost common are

the hawksbill and the greenturtle, which are often seen bydivers. They can be found aroundthe coast locally, and in theSimilans.

Between 30 and 50 injuredturtles are brought to the centereach year; 30 have been broughtto the PMBC already this year.The majority of them are caughtin nets and, at best, end up los-ing a flipper; others are killed orinjured by the increasing boattraffic.

Even after rehabilitation atthe PMBC, crippled turtles can-not always be returned to theocean, and end up staying in cap-tivity for their entire lives, whichcan be as long as 70 years. ThePMBC has been trying to findways of attaching artificial ap-pendages, but so far without suc-cess.

According to statistics, thedecline in the sea-turtle popula-tions started in the 1950s, withthe harvesting of turtle eggs.Then, in 1965, trawlers were in-troduced, and, for 12 years from1973, sea turtles were exportedas food.

Fortunately, possession ofany turtle product is now illegal.But whereas in 1950, there weremore than 2,500 sea-turtle nestsalong the coasts of Thailand, the

number is now estimated to beonly 300.

Obviously, more needs tobe done to protect every turtle.Although the predominant threatnow comes from fishing nets, thedevelopment of coastal areas andthe subsequent degradation offeeding habitats threatens the fu-ture of not only turtles but alsoof dugongs.

Sea turtles feed on the seagrasses which grow in manyplaces around the coast of Phu-ket. The areas where the seagrasses grow are facing destruc-tion, not only through develop-ment in the immediate area, butalso from the run-off from con-struction sites elsewhere.

Garbage can be deadly aswell; a piece of a plastic bag andsome other plastic scraps thatlooked like sea grass were re-cently found in the stomach of adead turtle and were determinedto be the cause of death.

There are two major nest-ing sites which the PMBC, withhelp from the Royal Thai Navy,has been studying and protecting:Koh Huyong in the Similan Is-lands and Koh Kram, a militarybase to the east of Phuket, nearPhang Nga.

It was determined by theuse of transmitters that the turtleswill travel far from their nestinggrounds to feed. Sea turtles bornon Koh Huyong traveled all theway to India’s Andaman andNicobar Islands. Of nine turtlesstudied, only one stayed in Thaiwaters. The average migrationtime was 22 days, although oneturtle took 43 days.

On the east side, sea turtleshatched on Koh Kram traveledall the way to Malaysia, Indone-sia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

During the nesting periodthe sea turtle will stay within fiveor six kilometers of Koh Kram.It is quite risky for them to be soclose to the shore, because oftrawling, nets, boat traffic and de-velopment.

It is not only the dive com-

munity that watchesover marine life. DrKongkiat said, “The lo-cal communities andvillagers are also con-cerned about nature, es-pecially in Phuket.

“Every time theyfind a stranded turtlethey phone us. How-ever, the more distantthe communities arefrom Phuket, the lessthey care about theseanimals”.

The PMBC is try-ing to promote aware-ness in the villages andother communities, re-cruiting conservationvolunteers near sea-turtle nesting sites andteaching children to be-come more involved byhelping the PMBCgather data.

No discussionabout environmental

issues in Phuket can be com-plete without including theSimilan Islands, and it could besaid that the most concernedpeople seem to propose thesame solutions.

Said Dr Kongkiat, “The[Similans] national park hasmany good regulations already,but it can be difficult to get tour-ists to follow the rules.

“The number of touristsshould be regulated; every placeshould have a regulated capacity,and a quota for each year, andthere should be a maximum num-ber of tourists who can be in thenational park at any one time.

“In general, I think the diveoperators don’t want to see theirbusiness ruined, so they try topreserve the environment, butsometimes people just don’t careenough about nature. They needto care more.”

Dr Kongkiat believes therise in the number of tourists willhave a direct negative impact onthe national park, with garbage,detergent and sewage from boatsincreasing the amounts of sea-weed and algae, and creating anecological imbalance.

Also, no matter how care-ful divers are, a small mistake candamage coral, especially in astrong current.

Dr Kongkiat said, “I myselfdon’t want to see the develop-ment of buildings or anything forthe comfort of humans in a na-tional park. People want to gothere to see nature, not a luxurybuilding or hotel.”

Every little bit helps andanyone can become involved.The following can be reported tothe PMBC: stranded sea animals,dead or alive; turtle sightings(species and location); illegalfishing, and anyone selling ortrading sea-turtle products.

The PMBC phone number is Tel:076-391128 or 076-391042, andDr Kongkiat can be reached byemail at: kongiat@phuketinternet.co.th

Raising the bar on turtle awareness

The PMBC hasso far this yearreceived more

than 30 turtlesto care for,

most of whichneed medical

care.

SURFACEBeneath the

By Sylvie Yaffe

November 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 23S P O R T & L E I S U R E

PHUKET CITY: Reigning FIFAUnder-19 Women’s WorldChampions USA trounced SouthKorea 3-0 and beat the Russiansquad by the same margin in theirfirst two matches of the Phuketleg of the championships.

The USA squad made fulladvantage of their greater sizeagainst their Korean opponentsin their match on November 11,and although the canny Koreans– currently the Asian Under-19Women’s Champions – appearedto be able to turn on a dime, itwas outright power and skill thatwon the day.

The USA launched them-selves into the lead in the 15th

minute, following a tackle in thepenalty box by Korea’s Park MiJung on Sheree Gray that Greekreferee Antonia Kokotou dubbedfoul.

Angie Woznuk powered theball into the back of the net totake the USA 1-0 up.

Taking first blood gave theUSA the taste for more goals, de-spite some impressive attacks byKorea, particularly Park EunSun. Her run at the net waschecked by the American defensewho then sent the ball in the op-posite direction straight to theboots of Amy Rodriguez, whoput the USA 2-0 ahead beforehalf-time.

Never-say-die Korea en-tered the second half with a stringof attacks at the other goal butlost possession when they tried

Reigning champs USAon top in FIFA qualifiers

to pass the ball, but the Ameri-cans were just too quick for them.

A handball in the 66th

minute by Korea saw anotherpenalty shot at their goal but JunKim Kyung executed a dramaticand successful dive to regainsome national pride.

Some well-coordinatedteam play from the USA gaveJennifer Richmond the opportu-nity to dribble the ball pastKorea’s defense and right into thepenalty box before passing it toRodriguez who released the ballto teammate Gray in the 72nd

minute for her second – and thefinal – goal of the match.

The final score was 3-0 tothe USA, who took three pointsfrom their victory.

The Russian team stole amarch on current European Un-der-19 Women’s ChampionsSpain on November 11 with a 4-1 victory. However, the Russians

Team Played Won Goals won Goals conceded Points

USA 2 2 7 1 6Russia 2 1 4 5 3Spain 2 1 3 5 3South Korea 2 0 1 5 0

were to see the same scorelineinflicted against them in theirtussle with the USA on Novem-ber 14.

A penalty from the USA’sAngie Woznuk after a mere 120seconds was followed by a Jes-sica Rostedt goal in the 25th

minute. Russia’s Ekaterina Soch-neva pulled one back in the 46th

minute, but Rostedt found thegoal again in the 60th followedjust three minutes later by an-other goal for the USA by MeganRapinoe. The match ended 4-1 tothe USA.

The Americans have nowdeparted Phuket to play thequarter finals in Bangkok. Inter-est is focused on Russia andSpain to see which of them willjoin the USA in the capital whileKorea – who were beaten 2-1 bySpain – look hopelessly out-gunned.

NAI HARN: Japanese ridersdominated the third and finalround of the Asian WakeboardPro-Tour, taking the Men’s Mas-ters title, first and second placein Men’s Open competition andall three places in the Women’sOpen, at the Nai Harn lagoon onNovember 13 and 14.

Naosuke Hatakeyama wonthe Men’s Masters with 62.5points, 21 more than Singapore’sKevin Tan, who was came sec-ond. Third place went to Tan KayTuck, also of Singapore, whoscored 39.5 points.

Japanese riders leaveothers in their wake

Manabu Nagatsuka won theMen’s Open with 75.5 points,while Kosuke Mori, who scored74 was second. Third place wentto Thailand’s Bunyaro Juma-rueng, on 71 points.

The Women’s Open waswon by Yoshiko Ishimaru, whoscored 68 points; second wasKiyomi Shioda on 58 points andthird Ayako Miyazaki with 48points.

Pairat Vareesri, the DeputyChairman of the Asian Wake-board Association, told the Ga-zette, “This event has been a great

success here inPhuket. We had morespectators and en-trants here than at theearlier rounds in Ja-pan and Singapore.

“If possible,we’ll bring the tour-nament to Thailandagain.”

Up, up and away! One of the contestants in the Men’s Opencategory gets airborne at the Nai Harn lagoon.

COLD WAR: Despite Russiapulling one back in the 46th

minute, the USA’s 4-1victory was never really inquestion on November 14.The USA are currentlyleading their division.

– Anongnat Sartpisut

– AnongnatSartpisut

November 9 results: Amigos* 4Shakers 5; Champs 6 Fat BoySaloon* 3; Didi’s 4 Happy Days*5; Valhalla 4 Piccadilly* 5;(*Winners of beer leg). Post-poned=Nag’s Head vs In-Be-tween; OffShore vs Two BlackSheep (Home teams first).

Standings as of November14: 1. OffShore (31points); 2.Happy Days (30); 3= Champs,Piccadilly (27); 5. DiDi’s (25); 6.

Nag’s Head (24); 7. In-Between(23); 8= Amigos, Two BlackSheep (18); 10. Shakers (10); 11.Fat Boy Saloon (9); 12. Valhalla(1).

November 23 match-ups:Amigos v In-Between; Champsv Shakers; Didi’s v Piccadilly;Nag’s Head v Two Black Sheep;OffShore v Fat Boy Saloon;Valhalla v Happy Days (Hometeams first).

KARON: A total of 24 teamsfrom 12 countries have so farconfirmed they will be takingpart in the Phuket International

Soccer 7s tournament which isdue to take place at Karon Sta-dium over the weekend of No-vember 27 and 28. The event will

bring to Phuket between 300 and400 amateur players from aroundthe region.

More information about thetournament can be found at theInternational Soccer 7s website,www.socce r7s . r epe rages -thailand.com. Details can also beobtained from email: soccer7s@reperages-thailand.com

Phuket International Soccer 7s tournament set for kick offPatong Darts League results

KATA: One of Phuket’s premiersporting and social events, TheKing’s Cup Regatta, will be heldthis year from December 4 to 11,with its headquarters, as usual, atthe Kata Beach Resort.

Media Relations DirectorDuncan Worthington said he ex-pects more than 100 yachts toenter the regatta, with entriescoming from Asia and as faraway as Europe.

This year’s competitionwill be separated into 10 catego-ries: Racing A; Racing B; Pre-mier Keelboats; Sunsail; IRCRacing; Ocean Rover Keelboats;

Multihulls, Trimarans and Cata-marans; Classic Vessels; SportsBoat; Beach Catamarans.

Customs and Immigrationcheck-in, registration, skippers’party and an opening party at theresort will take place December4 and 5.

Racing will take place fromDecember 6 to 11, starting at 8:30am. December 9 has been desig-nated as a rest day.

For more information visitwww.kingscup.com or contact atthe Phuket King’s Cup RegattaOffice at Tel: 076-383325, 076-273380.

King’s Cup Regatta in 18th year

M O T O R I N G24 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

The best-selling car inFord’s recent history,the Focus, has receiveda major facelift for

2005, along with some upgrad-ing of its highly successfulDuratec Ti-VCT (Twin indepen-dent Variable Cam Timing) en-gine.

Unveiled at the recent ParisMotor Show, the new Focus –slightly larger than the model itreplaces – looks more muscularand features cleaner styling thanmany of its family hatchback/sa-loon rivals.

The Focus family consistsof 3-, 4- and 5-door models aswell as a spacious station wagon.

Ford has been in the newsfor less-than-positive reasons inrecent months, with the closureof Jaguar’s Browns Lane factoryin Coventry, England, and itsFormula 1 team and racing-en-gine facility – Cosworth – up forsale.

There is even talk of mov-ing production of Jaguars – of-ten called “Coventry’s Finest” –to the US, the main overseas mar-ket for the luxury brand, due tothe weakness of the US dollaragainst the British pound.

On a more favorable note,29-year-old Ford driver MarkkoMärtin from Estonia won lastmonth’s Rally de France in theFocus WRC, having dominatedthe event throughout.

Märtin and co-driver Mi-chael Park won seven out of 12of the stages on the asphalt roadsof the Mediterranean island ofCorsica, with their teammates,François Duval and StéphanePrévoit, winning another three insimilar Focus models. This rallywin may be crucialin determiningwhether Ford re-mains in the WorldRally Champion-ship in 2005.

This yearFord dropped intothird place behindToyota for the firsttime. General Mo-tors remains at the top of the glo-bal automakers but must be look-ing nervously over its corporateshoulder as the Japanese prosper.

These events have greatlyheightened the importance of the

Ford to get back in Focus

road-going Focus adding toFord’s future profitability,though, in terms of numbers soldwhen compared with Jaguarsales, it is already significantlymore valuable than the luxurymarque.

The latest Focus features anumber of new technologies, in-cluding a key-less entry and ig-

nition system, a re-flecting wind-shield that blocksout almost fivetimes the level ofsolar radiation as astandard tintedscreen, signifi-cantly improvingthe air condition-ing’s efficiency,

and Bluetooth for your mobilephone.

There is also – for the firsttime at this level – adaptive head-lights that turn the beam in linewith the front wheels. Ford’s ap-

proach to this new technology isto use halogen rather than xenonlamps, making it less expensiveand therefore a more affordableoption for its customers.

There are four gasoline en-gines: a 1.4-liter delivering79bhp (58 kW); a 1.6 producing98bhp; another 1.6 with VVT(Variable Valve Timing) produc-ing 113bhp; and a top-levelmodel of two liters with 143bhp(105kW). The Ti-VCT system onthe 1.6 VVT engine offers moretorque and 14bhp more than thestandard 1.8-liter unit it replaces,while reducing fuel consumptionby around 5%.

There are also two com-mon-rail diesel engines, of 1.6-and two-liter capacity, producing108bhp and 134bhp, respectively.

All the gasoline engines areavailable with four- or five-speedautomatic transmission, while thetwo-liter diesel can be mated toa six-speed manual gearbox. In

addition, one can opt for continu-ously variable transmission(CVT) – a system developedjointly by Ford and Germany’sZF – on the 1.6 diesel. The CVTcan switch between fully auto-matic and seven-speed manual,and is claimed to cut fuel con-sumption by up to 8%.

The Focus has been withus for more than six years, withover four million sold world-

BEHINDWHEELBy Jeff Heselwood

T H E

Jeff Heselwood may be contactedby email at jhc@ netvigator.com

wide. Ford’s top brass hope thatthe latest incarnation will domuch to improve the company’sfortunes.

Although it’s a shame thatthe Formula 1 outfit had to go,there is still hope for the UK-based rally team, thanks to Mark-ko Märtin’s French success.

BACK ON TRACK: Ford is hoping that its new Focus models will improve the giant automaker’s competitiveness in global markets.

G O O D L I V I N GNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 25

menuOn the

Andy Johnstonewith

Dibuk

Restaurant

W I N E

By Steven Roberto

QMy wine glasses get cloudyafter three months of dish-

washing. Nothing I try keepsthem shiny. What can I do?

A I would need to know moreabout the water you use,

how you wash the glasses, andthe glasses themselves.

Many fine wine glasses,especially those that are handblown, have high calcium oxide(lime) content. Depending on themineral content and pH of yourwater, washing at too high a tem-perature could cause the lime toreduce the brilliance of the glass.

First check the temperatureof the water in your dishwasher.After that, check the mineral con-tent of the water. If it is too high,it is possible to reduce the impu-rities by filtration, or removethem entirely by ion exchange. Ifthat doesn’t work, perhaps youcould try washing them by handwith a non-detergent liquid.

A strong solution of vinegarcan sometimes remove film fromglasses and improve their bril-liance. In difficult situations Irecommend rinsing glasses withbottled water before drying.

QWhat is ethyl carbamateand should I be worried

about it in wine?

AEthyl carbamate – urethane– is sometimes found in

wines made from grapes grownin high-nitrogen soils. It is alsocommonly found in other fer-mented beverages and foods,such as soy sauce, toasted breadand olives.

In the presence of alcoholand heat, the amino acid argin-ine can form urea, which thengoes on to become urethane.There is no epidemiological dataon the effects of ethyl carbamateon humans, but an increased in-cidence of lung tumors is ob-served in mice exposed to it byinhalation. For this reason, thosewho work with sprayed-on ure-thane insulation may be at risk.

The quantities found infoods and beverages, however,are considered too low to war-rant concern.

Winemakers can limit theamount of arginine in wine byminimizing fertilizer use, select-ing strains of yeast that can me-tabolize arginine and therebyproduce low amounts of urea;and by avoiding exposure of thewine to warm temperatures dur-ing transport, and so forth.

QWhy don’t people drinkwhite wine with red meat?

AYou can if you like, butmost people don’t because

white wine is served chilledwhile meat dishes are usuallyserved warm. White wine alsoclashes with red meat as it hasless tannin than red wine, andtannin combines with fat in meatto produce a perception of har-monious flavor for most people..

The types of white that dowork well with red meat, espe-cially with grilled pork sausage,are the German or AustrianRieslings. Try the combinationnext time you grill sausages andveggies. You will be amazed athow wonderfully well the wineand meat work together.

Steven Roberto is a winemakerand restaurant consultant fromCalifornia. He is the Wine andBeverage Director for theaward-winning Baan Rim Parestaurant in Patong. Email:stevenroberto@lycos.com

How to keepwine glasses

Savoir fareThere had been a dis-

tinctly “gamey” taste tomy toast of the last fewmornings, a sensation

strong enough to mask the flavorof Marmite and even PatumPeperium – The Gentleman’sRelish, as some like to call it.

Legions of ants finally dis-covered the cause. A poor unsus-pecting jing jok had found ahome, indeed, a final restingplace in my toaster.

A settling Ricard et l’eausome hours later as we arrive atDibuk Restaurant revives my ap-petite sufficiently to view theFrench menu with gusto.

The understated near-colo-nial-era atmosphere and utterlycharming staff play no small rolein this.

Some praise is due to thestaff, not least because they haveall stayed with Soontaree “Nok”Thiprat – the owner and headchef – since at least the time thatthe restaurant moved from itsoriginal site in Pa-tong to Dibuk Rdsome three yearsago.

They havethe uncanny and –dare I say it, rarein Phuket – knackof anticipating adiner’s request orquestion.

“Is,” I begin, “the sala-mi…?” Quick as a flash came theresponse, “No sir, it’s pork, notbeef, salami.”

“Might I have some…?” Iventure and hey presto! somewarm French bread appears.

“May I…?” and my wineglass is filled in a trice.

Tops marks all round.K. Nok herself is too busy

to pop her head around the doorand greet us until much later. Sheworks like a Trojan seven days aweek, running her restaurant andtaking care of two children. She

learned her fine repertoire ofFrench dishes about seven yearsago, but it’s as if she has beencooking French food since child-hood.

There is a slight delay in thefirst couple of dishes – l’assietede charcuterie, an assortment of

hams, salamis andpaté – arriving.Never mind; itgives us the op-portunity to drinkmore – oops – Imean relax.

Rememberbeing able to sit ina restaurant andsimply relax? I do,

and fancy Catherine Deneuvehere in a blue haze of Gauloisesmoke, perhaps escorted by AlainDelon – probably discussingducks going to Moscow or some-thing similarly earnest.

I catch the waiter’s eye.“The duck paté…?”

“Yes sir, it’s homemade. K.Nok made it yesterday. She im-ports the ducks. Better taste thanThai ones.”

Indeed the paté is tasty, sotoo is la mousse de foie de veau.Yes, veal; all very cruel but alsovery yummy on lashings of warm

bread. Barely have I brushed thecrumbs from my fingers than suc-culent small white fish,breadcrumbed and deep-fried, ar-rive.

More seafood, in the formof heady les moules farcie – mus-sels stuffed with garlic butter –make up the quartet of starters.

My lightweight diningcompanion is herself farcie and Ialone have a main course. Butwhich main? K. Nok tells melater that lamb shank l’osso bucoand leg of lamb in thyme sauceare two of the most popular onthe menu, but no, I go for Pro-vençe-style roasted quail.

A splendid choice. The duoof birds are stuffed with garlicand bay leaves, and have rashersof good bacon across their backsto keep the meat moist. A heav-enly taste and good enough forme to pick the delicate littlethings up in my hands and affectthe manners of the 11th-centuryFrench landed gentry. Quite ap-propriate, actually, as my ances-try is Norman, you know, 1066and all that…

Convivial surroundings, adelightful ambience and gor-geous food presented by dedi-cated staff, all in one of the best-kept secrets in Phuket City.

Look for the neon sign out-side; you can’t miss it, nor shouldyou.

Dibuk Restaurant, 69 Dibuk Rd,Muang, Phuket City. Tel: 076-258148. Open from around 6 pmuntil the last patrons leave.

ABOVE: L’assiete de charcuterie with jambon and scrummy home-made paté.

P H U K E T P R O P E R T Y26 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

E n v i r o n m e n t a l l y -friendly may not bethe first words thatspring to the minds

of visitors as they approachGary and Wanida Ebsen’s com-fortable home in Rawai, but be-hind the stylish exterior, that’swhat it is.

When the Ebsens set aboutbuilding a home for their fam-ily, they decided to use an en-ergy-efficient design developedby the Thai government – andavailable free from NationalEnergy Policy Office – to reducethe demand the current housingboom is putting on Thailand’selectricity grid.

Gary said that while theidea of saving money on install-ing and running a cooling sys-tem was appealing, the main at-traction was being able to livein a modern Thai-style homespecifically designed for life inthe tropics.

He said, “The energy-sav-ing concepts behind this type ofhouse are quite simple and re-quire more a change in thinkingand common sense than money.

“For example, homes inEurope and North America areprimarily designed and use ma-terials to best retain heat, whilein Phuket the efforts you put intopreventing heat buildup are thekey to substantial energy sav-ings.

KATHU: Work is due to startnext month on the second phaseof the 55-rai Neramit Hill hous-ing development, located on thehillside off Soi Bangthong, on theeastern side of the hills dividingPatong from the rest of Kathu.

Almost all of the 37 one-and two-story units in Phase I,construction of which started inmid-2003, have already been re-served. Both stages combined,with the Phase II comprising 40dwellings, will cover 35 rai andrepresent an investment of 300million baht.

Phase III, to be built on theremaining 20 rai, is still in theplanning stage. The entire estateshould be completed by mid-2007.

Phanom Kajanathienthao,Managing Director of KnightFrank Chartered (Thailand) CoLtd, the sole agent for Phases IIand III, said, “The idea is to of-fer comfortable homes with func-tional living space that meetsmodern needs, but within a natu-ral environment.”

Phase II will feature twotypes of “standard home” de-signs: Chomduan and Chomdao.Both are 190-square-meter, two-story designs with three bed-rooms, three bathrooms, a living

Neramit Hill project enters Phase II

room, dining room, kitchen, ter-race and parking space for twocars. Prices for these homes startfrom four million baht.

There will also be four su-perior, “non-standard” designsavailable: Chomtawan, Chom-chan, Chomprai and Chompana.All four will offer from 338sqmto 420sqm of living space, atprices starting from 8 millionbaht.

Said K. Phanom, “The de-velopers have selected quality

materials for the interiors, suchas teak parquet flooring in thebedrooms and American Stan-dard sanitary ware in the bath-rooms.

“The electricity cables forthe estate will be underground,and each home will have con-cealed interior wiring. Each willbe protected by an anti-termitesystem, too.

“The estate will have 24-hour security, a clubhouse, fit-ness facility and swimming pool,

although we can arrange the in-stallation of private pools forresidents who want them.”

K. Phanom added that thedeveloper, Daan Suan NeramitGroup, has also included mea-sures intended to counter the ef-fects of flooding and landslidesof the type experienced nearPatong last month.

For more information call KnightFrank at Tel: 076-322107 or 02-6438223.

December will seework start on

Phase II of theNeramit Hill project,

which will featuremodern designs

such as the multi-level Chomtawan

style (left).

Construction Update by Anongnat Sartpisut Home of the Week

P H U K E T P R O P E R T YNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 27

“If you arewilling to acceptsome design limita-tions and bethoughtful in se-lecting buildingmaterials, you caneasily build a housein Phuket that doesnot require air con-ditioning.”

The singlemost effective en-ergy-saving tech-nique the Ebsensemployed was toposition their homeexactly where itwould make themost of Phuket’sprevailing year-round breezes.

The front ofthe house facesslightly northeast,and there are twinoversize doublewindows on thenorth and southsides of each room.

“This allowsthe prevailing winds from thenortheast to blow straightthrough our home for sixmonths; the winds then reverseand blow through from thesouthwest the rest of the year,”explained Gary.

“To enhance this effect weuse double doors, but only onthe north and south sides of thehouse and all windows facingeast and west are shaded byeaves.

“Most of the windowshave old-fashioned louveredwooden shutters rather thanglass, allowing good airfloweven when they are closed.”

The traditional Thai-style

steep-angled roofwith its light blue tileshelps reflect heat andglare away from thehouse and the deep overhanghelps shield the sides of the housefrom the sun. The overhang alsoallows windows to be kept openduring all but the most severerainstorms.

Thai houses were tradi-tionally built on stilts which al-lowed air to flow under thehouse, while also preventingmoisture seeping from theground into the rooms.

Said Gary, “Dry, cool, well-ventilated rooms are healthierand don’t experience the mold

and mildew problems com-monly found in enclosed spacesin the tropics.”

The house has two largecovered patio areas surroundedby tropical gardens, all set in aone-rai walled compound.

The land title is Chanoteand the asking price is 6.9 mil-lion baht.

For more information contactGary Ebsen at Tel: 07-8987062or by email at: ebseng@yahoo.com

Keeping eco-coolRawai

The high-set design and thebottom-opening shutters allow

Phuket’s year-round breezes tokeep the house cool.

See ISSUES & ANSWERS

at

www.phuketgazette.net

P H U K E T P R O P E R T Y28 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Coup de grass Gardening with Bloomin’ Bert

The rainy season is fineby me, as it makes oneaspect of managing thegarden much easier:

there’s no need to wield thehosepipe anywhere near as of-ten as is necessary at other timesof the year.

Over a couple of weeks, Ihad to resort to applying water tothe garden just once or twice.

Nature is much better atwatering the garden than I am,anyway. And it shows. Thespurts of growth that some inhab-itants make during the rainy sea-son are astonishing. I’m suresome of them look bigger by lateafternoon than they did in themorning.

The downside to this burstof enthusiasm from the Bert gar-den is that I have to counter-at-tack, and that’s exactly what Idid. I set to with the pruningshears andactually worked up asweat. I was at it for so long inthe blazing Phuket sun that mybeer warmed up. I’ll try not to letthat happen again.

I don’t know what it is, butthere’s something about pruningthat seems to bring out aggres-sion in people, especially“blokes”.

How many other pastimesor leisure activities allow you tohack mercilessly at everything inyour path, with the excuse thatit’s for the greater good?

Pruning doesn’t have to belike a Saphan Hin teenage mo-torcycle race though. You don’tneed to take out all your driving-home-through-Phuket-trafficfrustrations on your plants, butequally, you shouldn’t be worriedabout occasionally being ruthlessin the garden.

There are those who willargue that pruning is an incred-ibly complex matter, but forsimpleton gardeners like me,that’s just not true.

Prune whenever and wher-ever you want to make the placelook neater and tidier, to trim ahedge or even to remove a plantthat’s not performing.

Don’t worry about cuttingoff flowers or fruit when you haveto.

Obviously, if you were run-ning an orchard or a durian farmyou’d need a different approachwith a little more science behindit; you’d prune at certain timesof the year and in a certain wayin order to maximize your crop.

There are some plants forwhich pruning is essential to pro-mote new growth. Many plants,

such as heliconia and some mem-bers of the lily family, have asingle flower or group of flowerson the end of a stalk rising fromthe ground.

Just about all of these plantswill benefit greatly from havingthe whole stems cut back com-pletely once the flower has fin-ished. That stem will flower onlyonce, so its job is done.

Pruning shears, or secateursas most Brits call them, are justabout the only tool you’ll need.You can pick up a pair for around100 baht, or make do with a pairof kitchen scissors.

If an area that needs deal-ing with is out of reach, exten-sible pruners are the answer. Oneof the larger stores, such asHomepro, should be able to sup-ply you with what you need for afew hundred baht.

If want to take pruning tothe extreme, then you can evensculpt your plant into the shapeyou want – topiary as it’s knownto those who are into this kind ofthing.

With the speed of growthhere, it doesn’t take long to trainyour plants to grow to almost justabout any shape.

We need to prune here –regularly. Jungles can literallystart overnight.

There’s a lot of nonsense putforth by so-called experts

about pruning, but here are a fewBert tips, for what they’re worth:

1. You can prune at justabout any time of the year.

2. You should cut in sucha way that you think the wholething either works better or looksbetter; make it the shape youwant and encourage it to growin the direction you tell it to.

3. Take your time and cutcarefully and gently, the ma-chete-slash approach isn’t ideal.

4. Aim for a clean, neat

cut, as growth behind it will bequicker.

5. When you’re pruninglarge branches, first make asmall cut underneath to stop thebark from tearing all the waydown the limb.

6. If you’re not sure whatyour intentions are, prune instages, a bit at a time; you canalways take a bit more off if youneed too, but received wisdomsuggests that it’s not that easyto stick bits back on again.

7. Be utterly ruthless ifthat’s what’s needed.

SHORT CUT TO SUCCESS: (left) Absolute surgical precision isnot necessary to remove a limb or two...

...but a clean cut will promote new growth more quickly.

Want to know moreabout a plant

in your garden?Email Bloomin’ Bert at:

bloominbert@hotmail.com

C L A S S I F I E D SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 29

Property Gazette

PropertiesFor Sale

WOODEN HOUSEPATONG

Wooden cottage on NanaiRd, with a nice garden, pri-vacy and views. 3.2 millionbaht. Pls email for info. Email:nicosmic@hotmail.com

LAND KALIM BEACH34.5 rai near Swiss HomeResort. 2km from Patong. 7million baht/rai. Pls call formore info. Tel: 01-8407885.

LUXURY HOMESIN PATONG

New 2-story homes - cover-ing 150sqm - with carport,large living/dining room withaircon, 3 bedrooms and 3bathrooms. Freehold land, 4million baht. Contact for de-tails. Tel: 01-8957597.Email: info@phuket-besthomes.com Website:www.phuket-besthomes.com

HOUSE INNAI HARN

Features very high-qualityconstruction, with 3 bed-rooms, 2 bathrooms, loungeroom, dining room, kitchen,terrace and separate laun-dry/storeroom. Westernkitchen with European appli-ances and granite bench-tops. Built-in wardrobes andaircons in all bedrooms andlounge room. Solid traver-tine flooring throughout, 12-volt halogen lighting through-out and many more featurestoo numerous to mention.All this just 2 minutes frombeautiful Nai Harn Beach.Must be sold due to reloca-tion overseas. Excellentvalue at 5.8 million baht ne-gotiable. Tel: 076-289013,01-8935952. Fax: 076-289013. Email: seasail@samart.co.th

TOP OF KAMALA

Direct access to the mainroad. Underground power &water supply, and excellentlocation with views over-looking the bay. ContactPhuket LandSearch for de-tails. Tel: 076-290509.Email: sales@phuketland.com

HIGH-END, OPENSEAVIEW HOME

Every room with a view.Teak, Thai-Balinese-stylehome with a deep swim-ming pool, large decks andmaster bedrooms. Exclu-sive neighborhood just 3 min-utes from Patong Beach.Price: 48 million baht. Mustsee! Pls contact for details.Tel: 07-2662424. Email:pococonnor@hotmail.com

LAND IN KAMALA

1,200 meters along theroad, ready to build with a2.60 meter high wall aroundthe property already. Pricedat 2.95 million baht. Pls callfor info. Tel: 01-5691143.

NEW HOUSESFOR SALE

Single house, 204sqm, forsale at 2.2 million baht. Twinhouse, 204sqm, for sale at2 million baht. Located atChao Fa East Rd. Pls contactKhun Ya for more info. Only6 units! Tel: 01-5973398.

4+2-BEDROOMHOUSE IN KAMALA

Top-quality 4+2 bedroomhouse in Kamala, nearPhuket FantaSea and only10 min walk to the beach. 4master bedrooms on 1stfloor with en-suite bath-room. 2 bedrooms on g/f –one can also be used as anoffice (2 phone lines) – theother as a maid’s room withattached bathroom. Largeliving/dining room with openEuropean kitchen, as well asa Thai kitchen. Fully fur-nished – all rooms withaircon and ceiling fan. Pricedat 18 million baht. For moredetails please contact FranzBrun in Kamala. Tel: 076-279075, 01-4761415.Email: fbrun@loxinfo.co.th

RAWAI CONDOfor sale. 250,000 baht totalprice, payable in instalments.150,000 baht initial payment,the remaining 100,000 bahttransferred at the Land Officeafter 1 year. Freehold title. Plscontact for more details. Tel:09-4740227. Email: chotip_5@hotmail.com

GREATINVESTMENT

8 new bungalows and a largehouse all in a beautiful gardensetting. Located on 1 acre ina quiet area. 25 million baht.Pls call for more details. Tel:01-8924311.

KATA BEACH HOUSEGood price and near the sea.Pls contact for details. Tel: 06-5958512, 01-9704638.Email: nalumana@phuket.ksc.co.th

ON THEGOLF COURSE

6 rai available, from just15 meters from hole 18 atthe Mission Hills GolfCourse. 4 million per rai or20 million for all 6. Call fordetails. Tel: 06-6834996.

PATONG BEACHcondo for sale with freeholdtitle. Property has a fantasticview, measures 92sqm and ispriced at 2.2 million baht, pay-able in installments. 1.2 millionbaht initial payment, the re-maining 1 million baht trans-ferred at the Land Office. Fi-nancing available. Pls contactfor info. Tel: 09-4740227.Email: chotip_5@hotmail.com

4,000 SQMBEACHFRONT LAND

100% total beachfrontland, Nor Sor 3 Gor title. 2.5rai on a white sand beach inKrabi. Only 27 million baht.Pls contact for more info.Tel: 01-6665988. Email:simon@juubaan.com

Do Not DrinkTap Water!

C L A S S I F I E D S30 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Property Gazette

ABSOLUTELYBEACH FRONT

2.2 rai of absolutely beach-front land at Khok Kloy,Phang Nga - with Chanotetitle - for sale. 18 millionbaht. Pls call for details. Noagents please. Tel: 01-4778988, 07-8891717.

PATONG APARTMENTSfor rent. Clean, comfortablecondos with all-new interiordécor, big fridge, aircon,cable TV, double or twinsingle beds, swimming pooland parking. Please call Tel:01-0825707. Email: phuket-accommodation.info

BIG ROOM FOR RENT400m from the Patong BeachHotel. Service, aircon, hotwater and cable TV. Pls con-tact for details. Cheap price!Tel: 09-6455134. Email:js_0704@hotmail.com

HOUSE FOR RENT

in Chalong area. Fully fin-ished, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath-room and small garden. Priceis 18,000-20,000 baht permonth. Pls contact for moreinfo. Tel: 01-3965636, 04-0519353.

NAI HARN, RAWAI2-bedroom beach-residencevilla townhouses with livingroom, kitchen and parking.500m from beach. Price9,000 baht and up per month.Phone or email for more de-tails. Tel: 09-4743418. Email:chotip_5@hotmail.com

PATONGapartment for rent. Long- orshort-term, 5 minutes’ walk tothe beach. Pls call for details.Tel: 07-2760529.

LAYAN SEAVIEW6 rai with spectacular seaviews, sale by owner, Nor Sor3 Gor title, located very nearLaguna. Tel: 01-7371688.Fax: 076-273083. Email:riding@loxinfo.co.th

3 RAI+ W/SEAVIEW3 rai for sale at 12 million baht,and 5 rai free. Good area, NorSor 3 title. Pls contact for de-tails. Tel: 66-06682296.Email: smith@taurus-travel.com

1 RAI: CAPE PANWA1 rai beside the sea at CapePanwa for sale at 9 millionbaht/rai. New road, electricityand beautiful sea and sunsetviews. Pls call Andrew formore info. Tel: 06-5950188.Email: nsupin@yahoo.com

CONDO 4 SALEPatong Beach. 1-room apart-ment for sale. Cash 550,000baht. Freehold title. Pls contactfor details. Tel: 09-4740227.Email: chotip_5@hotmail.com

BEAUTIFUL LUXURYapartment for sale at SurinBeach. The apartment (only 2apartments per villa) is locatedin Suriyana, a small but very ex-clusive development in SurinBeach. 215 sqm with a hugeliving room, 3 bedrooms, 3bathrooms, fully-equippedkitchen with Teka appliances,and an office. Beautiful lakeviews and use of a 32-meterswimming pool in a tropicalgarden. Priced at 12.5 millionbaht. Pls contact for more de-tails. Tel: 09-8753289. Email:regents@phuket.ksc.co.th

2-BEDROOM APTon the 10th floor of the Water-front Condo (Karon) is for sale at12 million baht. Please contactJay for more info. Tel: 09-8745286.

BEAUTIFULbeachfront property for sale inthe Khao Lak area. 2-storyfamily house on a quiet & idyllicbeach within walking distanceof resorts. The house is 120sqmand includes 2 master-bed-rooms with en-suite baths, alarge terrace & balcony withfantastic seaview, and aircon.Land size is 680sqm. Priced at7 million baht. Pls contact formore info. Tel: 04-7457024.Email: kingrw80@hotmail.com

LAND & HOUSELarge house on 189 sq wahfor sale. 2 stories + 1 office,3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,swimming pool, Jacuzzi andwaterfall, and 8 aircons. Formore information, please callK. Anny or K. Wasana at Tel:07-8923133 or 01-536-5186.

LAND FOR SALE

71 sq wah near CherngTalay, just 4km to beach.Price is 500,000 baht,Chanote title. Pls call forinfo. Tel: 01-6078567.

SURIN BEACH LANDfor sale. On the same mountainas the Amanpuri resort andThe Chedi hotel. 7 rai (11,000sqm) for sale with beautiful seaviews over Bang Tao Beach. 5minutes’ walk to Surin Beachand to Bang Tao Beach. High-est point is 74m. Ideal for a qual-ity estate or boutique hotel.Last piece of land with a sea-view in Surin Beach. Contactduring the day for more info.Tel: 09-8753289. Email:regents@phuket.ksc.co.th

2.75 RAI IN RAWAIChanote title, road and electric.2.75 rai for sale at 1.9 millionbaht/rai. Pls call Andrew formore info. Tel: 06-5950188.Email: nsupin@yahoo.com

1-RAI PLOT1-rai plot (40m x 40m) inluxury development with un-derground electricity and 24-hr security. 600m from Mis-sion Hills Golf Course, 8 minsto airport and Nai YangBeach, 20 mins to Dulwichand Tesco. For sale at only 2.2million baht. Pls call for moredetails. Tel: 01-3430777.

LAND FOR SALEin Anuphas Golf Country Club.Pls contact for details. Tel: 09-8718333, 01-6913351

APARTMENTfor rent. 50 sqm. Good posi-tion & location on Nava Rd.Only available for a year-longrental. Pls call for info. Tel:07-8904518.

HOME FOR RENTLand & Houses Park. 4 bed-rooms, 3 bathrooms, aircon,garden and parking. Price is35,000 baht/month. Pls con-tact K.Jongrak for more info.Tel: 076-225444.

RAWAI RESIDENCEApartment/Studio with airconand fan, fully furnished and300m from the beach for rentat 7,000 baht/month or 350baht/day. Pls contact for moreinfo. Tel: 09-4743418, 07-2738944. Email: chotip_5@hotmail.com

AWESOMEOCEAN VIEW

Furnished 2-bed, 2-bath-room house with aircon,pool, UBC, DVD, 46” TV,weight machine and tread-mill available Dec 1, ’04. Un-real views. Must see! Price:45,000 baht/month. Tel:07-8821963. Email:benlee53@hotmail.com

PropertiesFor Rent

RAWAI VARIOUSPlots in a housing project avail-able with very good infrastruc-ture. Plot sizes are 400sqm to1,750sqm and start at 1.45million baht. Tel: 01-606-7410. Email: info@siam-business.com

LIGHTHOUSEFOR SALE

The famous Lighthouse Res-taurant – with five waterfrontluxury rooms and three of-fices – in Ao Chalong is seri-ously for sale. Potential todevelop residential units on un-used property. Please emailfor more information. Email:maipenrai@hushmail.com

SUPERBPRIME-VIEW HOUSE

Thai-Balinese teak-roofedhouse for rent. 1 masterbedroom w/large balconyand open sea view + 2 ad-ditional bedrooms. Alsohas a small guest housewith master bedroom anda dynamic view. High-sea-son and long-term rentalnow available. 200,000baht per month. Longerterms negotiable. Pleasecontact for more info. Tel:076-344044. Email:pococonnor@hotmail.com

LONG-TERM LEASENew, fully furnished house inPalai Green with 2 airconbedrooms, hot shower,kitchen, living room, garageand beautiful garden. Locatedin a quiet area near ChalongBay. Please call for more info.Tel: 01-8924311.

HOUSE FOR RENT2 fully-furnished houses in Ka-mala – 1-bed & 2-bed – withaircon, hot water and phone.Very private area. Pls call formore info. Tel: 01-4761640.

PATONG RESTDENCE1 or 2 bedroom apartmentwith kitchen, pool and only350m from the beach forrent at 9,000 baht/month.Pls contact for more details.Tel: 09-4740227. Email:chotip_5@hotmail.com

PropertyWanted

RAWAI LUXURYhouse with pool, for rent fromDecember 2004 to June2005, or for short term.Please call for more info. Tel:01-6067410.

CONDO, APARTMENTor small house wanted to buyin nice area of Patong, Karon,Kata, etc. Foreign freehold orleasehold pref. Email details orcall. Tel: 09-2908939. Emailstevebell247@hotmail.com

RAWAI/NAI HARNLooking for small furnishedhouse or apartment close toNai Harn Beach to rent untillate February. Price guide:15,000 baht per month. Tel:01-5374130.

APPARTMENTOne bedroom or studio apart-ment for two with aircon, pool,TV and phone, wanted to rentfor one month from 17/12/2004. Should have seaviewand be near beach and towncenter of Patong. Email:phampton@number28.co.uk

FOR A FOREIGNERLooking for property under650,000 baht – a condo,townhouse or house that aforeigner can buy. Please for-ward detials and photos if youhave them. Email: rogerthai@hotmail.com

HOUSE IN THALANGFOR SALE

10 minutes from the airportand 10 minutes fromDulwich International Col-lege. 8x4 swimming pool, 5aircons, 2 bedrooms, 1child’s room, 2 bathrooms &1 separate building useful asa store house or maid’sroom. 504sqm, Chanotetitle. 5.5 million baht, includ-ing furniture. Pls call formore info. Tel: 01-6078000.

WANTED:SEAVIEWland. 1-2 rai in Phuket withseaview. Email: happiers@myway.com

Do Not DrinkTap Water!

C L A S S I F I E D SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 31

Property Gazette

AccommodationAvailable

BuildingServices

Get your Phuket Gazette fromthese outlets in Bangkok:

Bangkok

Don Muang AirportTel. 02-5731120

Se-Ed, Mahboonkrong Building, zone B, Phayathai Rd,PathumwanTel. 02-6117165

Se-Ed, Silom Complex, 4thfloor, Silom Rd, BangrakTel. 02-2313244

Se-Ed, Silom Center, Rama 1 Rd, PathumwanTel. 02-6581153

Se-Ed, Panthip Plaza, M-floor, Petchaburi Rd, RajatheweeTel. 02-6566070

Se-Ed, Fortune Town Building, Ratchadapisek Rd, HuaykwangTel. 02-2485668

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Classified ads are charged per line. Each line is 60 baht,

with a minimum of 4 lines (heading included) per ad.

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Deadline for Property Mart page: Friday 3 pm.

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Classified Advertisements

Please use this form to write your classified advertisement.

Then hand it to any of our agents.

SPAS R USSteam room/sauna and ac-cessories, and portable hottubs from USA. Quality equip-ment, designed and installedfor your needs. Business andresidential. California Spa De-sign. Please call for details. Tel:076-263269, 09-1950610.

ONE-STOP SERVICEHandymen and home im-provement contractor avail-able for repairs and more –floor/wall tiling, painting, ceil-ing, lighting system, kitchen,bathroom, wood and furni-ture. Tel: 09-5913996, 01-8953185. Email: hservice@phuket.ksc.co.th

HouseholdServices

P-CON

Phuket Constructionand Home Services Co Ltd

Roofing, floor, walls, tiles,cleaning, painting,plumbing, aircon,

electrical systems, repairsand other work done by our

professional team.

Call: 06-5933464Fax: 076-263204

Email:p_con@thaimail.com

POOLSIDE ROOMSLocated in Chalong, from 500baht/day, all inclusive. Pls con-tact for more info. Tel: 09-5943209. Email: olebay_th@yahoo.co.uk

SUPERB BUNGALOWLocated in Chalong, 1 bed-room, living room, kitchen, 2aircons, terrace, patio, sharedpool/sauna. Weekly at 7,500baht or monthly at 25,000baht. Pls contact for details.Tel: 09-5943209. Email:olebay_th@yahoo.co.uk

ANDAMAN SEAVIEWHotel at Bang Tao Beach hasrooms for rent on a daily,weekly or monthly basis atvery reasonable rates. Roomsare fully furnished, with aircon,hot & cold water, cable TV,and fridge. Coffee shop onpremises. Tel: 01-6285361.Email: andamanseaviewresort@yahoo.com

ATSUMI VILLASTotal tranquility in a tropicalgarden setting in Rawai. King-size bedroom, lounge/kitchen,aircon, hot water, UBC, DVD,stereo, POS ADSL & phone,yoga & massage. 2,500 baht/night to 16,000 baht/monthfor long stay. Pls call for moredetails. Tel: 01-2720571.

LOCKUP STORAGE500sqm steel shed with 24-hour security. Individual unitsfrom 6 cubic meters. Buy yourown lock and you keep thekey! Call Tel: 01-0825707.

PATONG LUXURYapartments. 1- and 2-bed-room apartments located incentral Patong. Pls email fordetails and photos. Email:suites247@yahoo.com

KALIM-PATONGLuxury 2-bedroom apart-ments with seaview. Approx100sqm with balcony, swim-ming pool, etc. High-seasonrental at 30,000 baht aweek. Special prices avail-able for long-term rent. Tel:01-2729507. Email: info@residencephuket.com Forfurther details, please seeour website at: www.residencephuket.com

HOLIDAY RENTALat Rawai Beach. Large housewith swimming pool, sea view,4 bedrooms, UBC and ADSL.Available until December31’04. For more details seewebsite: deliver-it.nl/housesTel: 01-9680309. Email:waeowta@myrealbox.com

GREEN APPLEInterior design, renovation,home extension, mainte-nance, (home, pool & land-scape) and painting of kitchen,bathroom & wood furniture.Pls call Pong for more info.Tel: 05-0691633.PATONG

apartments for rent. Clean,comfortable condos with all-new interior decor, big fridge,aircon, cable TV, double or twinsingle beds, swimming pooland parking. Please call or emailfor more information. Tel: 01-0825707. Email: ask@phuket-accommodation.info

MAID/NANNYFamily with 2 kids seeks a live-in helper for child and householdcare and Thai cooking. An op-portunity for long-term employ-ment for a trustworthy personwho is gentle with kids. Tel:04-8398141. Email: benoit.beaufils@censydiam.com

AccommodationWanted

CONDOapartment, room. Looking forgood place to stay end of De-cember to end of January inPatong. Must have aircon. Allrelpies considered. Email:thomas.kednert@bredband.net

HOUSE WANTEDHouse or apartment wanted bycouple from England, preferablywith pool, in Chalong, Rawai, orNai Harn. Needed from begin-ning of January for 5 weeks.Tel: 076-282848, 07-895891.Email: regnsanspain@hotmail.com

1 BEDROOM/STUDIOClean, quiet, non-smoking,mature American gentlemanseeks a one-bedroom or studioapartment, with kitchenette,bathroom, aircon, pool, satTV, phone and Internet, torent for Feb and March 2005.Would like balcony w/seaview, near beach andcenter of Patong. Budget:15,000 baht/month. Email:phcorp@aemail4u. com

NICE AND CLEANroom. I would like to rent a niceand clean room or apartmentin Patong from December untilMarch/April. Not more than8,000 baht/month. Email:Richi.s@bluemail.ch

Looking for a home?www.phuketgazette.net

HouseholdServicesNeeded

APARTMENT/LOFT

New apartment/loft, neverrented, with 21" LG Flat TV,cable TV, aircon, washingmachine and PC with 17"monitor. 15,000 baht permonth. Pls contact for moreinfo. Tel: 07-1269910.Email: info@bjjthailand.comYou can see photos at:www.rent66.com

Find more classified ads atwww.phuketgazette.net!

Gazette Classads –4,000 readers a day!

C L A S S I F I E D S32 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Island Job Mart

TWO OFFICE

POSITIONS

Permanent senior and jun-ior positions for Thai nation-als:

Senior: Must have verygood spoken and writtenEnglish skills, computerskills, a bright personalityand an ability to work unsu-pervised.

Junior: Must have goodspoken and written Englishskills, basic computer skillsand a bright personality.

Salary in line with experi-ence & training is provided.Pls contact for more de-tails. Tel: 076-232962.Fax: 076-232961. Email:info@sailing-thailand.com

2 ONLINE SALES

operators. If you can write inEnglish and make bookings,answer inquiries, and want towork from a smart Phukettown office, mail us your CVnow. Tel: 076-236616, 01-8952206. Fax: 076-236-617. Email: siamuk@loxinfo.co.th

SECRETARY NEEDED

for dive center in Karon. Musthave good English skills anda car driving licence. Pleasecontact for more details. Tel:076-398040. Email: info@sunrise-divers.com

HAIRDRESSER

wanted. Angel Hair, a new,high-class beauty salon in thecenter of Phuket City is lookingfor a professional, English-speaking hairdresser. Shouldbe good-looking, 22-32 yearsold with more than 2 years’ ex-perience. Call Toi for info. An-gel Hair, 32 Rassada Rd,Phuket. Tel: 01-3267431.

SALES STAFF

wanted. Male/female, goodcommand of English, able todrive a car (valid driving li-cense) & computer literate.With or without experience.Pls contact for more details.Tel: 076-239111. Fax: 076-238974. Email: charter@thaimarine.com Find more Recruitment Classifieds

at

www.phuketgazette.net!

EXPERIENCED

INSTRUCTOR

Dive Asia is looking for aSales Manager for ourPatong office. Successfulapplicant should be a div-ing instructor, be fluent inGerman and English andhave previous experiencein sales. Dive Asia offers acompetitive salary and willsupply a work permit. Tel:076-330598. Fax: 076-284033. Email: juergens@diveasia.com For moreinfo, see our website at:www.diveasia.com

ENGLISH TEACHERS

Native speakers required witha TOEFL cert. and/or degree.Pls contact for more details.Email: eccpkt@ecc.ac.th

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Female, good English skills,email and computer literate,able to process all officedocuments. Please contactfor info. Tel: 076-280397,01-5848502. Email: admin@philkade.com

MARKETING

manager. Real estate com-pany requires a Thai personwith good English and market-ing experience with websiteknowledge. Good prospects,salary and incentives. Cardriver’s licence is an advan-tage. Contact for more details.Tel: 076-280805. Email:richard@siamrealestate.com

Gazette Online Classifieds 4,000 readers every day!

C L A S S I F I E D SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 33

Island Job Mart

EmploymentWanted

EMPLOYMENT

Canadian female seeks em-ployment in Rawai area. Skillsinclude sales and marketing,real estate and advertising.Please send offers by emailto: armstrongmarketing2002@yahoo.co.uk

PROPERTY SALES

professional. 38-year-oldEnglishman, with extensiveknowledge of selling real es-tate to overseas clients,seeks employment or part-nership in property agency orbusiness partners to start upnew company. Please con-tact P Collier. Tel: 076-292-749, 09-0094349. Email:pcoll2003@yahoo.com

PROCUREMENT

manager. French national, 29years old, currently living inBangkok and looking forwardto settling permanently inPhuket. I am a French/Englishbilingual, and I also speak Ital-ian, Spanish and some Thai.I have 6 years’ experience inprocurement at managementlevel. I am looking for any po-sition as long as it is in Phu-ket, preferably Kata-Karonarea, and am available imme-diately. Tel: 07-9731613.Email: izanga@wanadoo.fr

Looking for a job? Find more Recruitment Classified ads at www.phuketgazette.net!

TOUR GUIDE

If you are looking for newstaff, English speaking,hard working, honest,please feel free to con-tact me anytime. Email:chanakoon@yahoo.com

C L A S S I F I E D S34 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

Tout, traderTout, Trader & Trumpet

Articlesfor Sale

ROYAL-CLASS RATTAN

furniture, opposite PhuketShooting Range in Chalong.Please call for details. Tel:076-280415, 09-7255194.

ArticlesWanted

EURO PALLETS

for storage or shipping. Buythem, use them and then sellthem for the same price. Savehandling costs in Europe. 500baht each. Please call for moreinfo. Tel: 01-2712684.

Boats &Marine Business

Opportunities

Bulletins

CHEST AND FRIDGE

w/ freezer, metal and woodenchairs and tables for sale. Tel:07-0397600.

SATELLITE RECEIVER

6-foot digital antenna withEuropean channels + 29-inchTV + video recorder + TVstand + 3 remotes. All are ingood condition. For sale at only18,000 baht. Pls call for moreinfo. Tel: 04-0603477.

CHESTERFIELD SOFA

Wanted: 2- or 3-seat leatherChesterfield sofa. Seller deliv-ers. Please email with details.Email: agj_68@yahoo.co.uk

DIVE EQUIP 4 SALE

BCD Sea Quest, size M/L, wetsuits. Long, short & ABC stuff– only used 2 seasons. Pls callfor info. Tel: 01-0844032.

SPEEDBOAT

for sale. 256 Mercury engine,holds 8-10 people. Price only300,000 baht. Please call forinfo. Tel: 06-9511366.

YACHT WANTED

Sailing or motor yacht wantedin Thailand, Malaysia orSingapore. US$150,000. Nobrokers. Please email picturesand all relevant info. Email:scan_tours@yahoo.com

BUSINESS WANTED

Looking to rent an inexpensivebar, restaurant, shop or guest-house in Patong with excellentpotential in a good location. Plscall for more information. Tel:01-8162066.

BAR FOR SALE

Excellent location & fit-out,full entertainment license 3-4 + registered B2m Thaicompany. Work permit pos-sible and low overhead. Plscontact for an inspection.Best offer wiwo. Email:cocodior@hotmail.com

PHUKET TOWN

Well-known, successful foodoutlet with solid expat cus-tomer base. Unique, easy to runand good turnover. Quick saledue to other commitments. Plscall for more info. Tel: 07-2736315, 01-8935135.

MASSAGE SHOP

for sale. Good location onPatong Beach. 60% localcustomers, easy to run. Rentis 15,000 baht/month. CallTel: 01-7356684 for details.

TAILOR SHOP

for sale. Good location onPatong Beach. 10,000 baht/month. Please call Tel: 073-342488, 01-7356684.

PUB FOR SALE

Cherng Talay Thai pub withlive music every night. Fullyequipped, good profits & lowrent. 395,000 baht for quicksale. Tel: 07-8977249. Email:tipriya@hotmail.com

BEAUTY SALON

for sale. Completely remod-eled and fully equipped. Greatlocation, low monthly rent &good profits. 240,000 bahtfor quick sale. Pls contact formore info. Tel: 07-8977249.Email: tipriya@hotmail.com

GOOD RETURN

ON NEW HOTEL

Office Xpress has negoti-ated a conservative agree-ment with the owners of anew 30-room,15-shop ho-tel complex. Now I need 2-3 investors to assist withthe start-up investment of3 million baht. Please callfor info and a proposedbusiness plan. ROI approx3.0 in three years. Tel: 076-282403, 09-8736904.Email: mike@officexpress.org

BIOTECH

OPPORTUNITY NOW

Office Xpress is assistingATR Aquaculture in busi-ness development. ATR isseeking 5 million baht in-vestment to develop aba-lone production technol-ogy. Further info and busi-ness plan available on re-quest. Tel: 076-282403,09-8736904. Email: mike@officexpress.org

GUESTHOUSE 4 SALE

Guesthouse , with all books inorder, for sale. Located inPatong, only 80 meters fromthe beach, the property in-cludes 17 rooms, 1 ownerapartment, restaurant andtravel shop. Guesthouse isnow fully booked! Contact fordetails. Tel: 06-6848758.Email: proline.publishing@1nj.de

BUSINESS OPPTY

Garage and car-care busi-ness for sale. Good locationon a corner of a main road inKata. Year-round business.180,000 baht. Pls call forinfo. Tel: 01-3101433.

VENTURE CAPTIAL

bamboo factory. We needventure capital to setup asmall factory to produce rat-tan and bamboo furniture. Theinvestment is not high but thereturns are good. Contact us!Tel: 06-6848758. Email:thailand_bamboo@hotmail.com

INTERNET CAFÉ

for sale. Good location in theRawai area, and close to manybungalows. Just 320,000baht. Pls call K. Poramat formore info. Tel: 076-288636,04-0647048, 06-6821008

BAR IN RAWAI

For pictures or more info visitwww.ounphuket.com or callTel: 06-6831147.

BUNGALOW RESORT

in Chalong with 9-year leasefor sale at 1.5 million baht.Please call for more informa-tion. Tel: 09-0385184.

FACTORY 4 SALE

Drinking-water factory - 450sqm - on Koh Lanta, Krabi, forsale at 1.2 million baht. Pls callTel: 01-8931739 for details.

BRAND NEW BAR

Never-opened, fully-fitted barand restaurant with living ac-commodations. Includes shop/office, car park, brick BBQ,pool table, new sound systemand flat-screen TV with UBC.Too much to list, must beviewed. Ill health forces reluc-tant sale. 3-year lease,900,000 baht. If genuinely in-terested, act quickly! Pleasecontact for more info. Tel: 09-2892297. Email: bountyasia@yahoo.com

RESTAURANT

for sale. Thai restaurant –Isarn style – fully equipped,good business & cheap rent.195,000 baht for quick sale.Pls contact for more info.Tel: 07-8977249. Email:tipriya@hotmail.com

Find more classified ads at www.phuketgazette.net!

DIVING/FISHING

BOAT 4 SALE

60ft, 40-passenger boatin good condition with rub-ber dinghy, air compressorand dive tank. Insuranceand Thai registration.Please call David for moredetails. Tel: 074-731198,09-2964422.

BusinessProducts &Services

KITCHEN FOR FOOD

production available in Patong.Quite sizable and cheap rent.Pls contact for more details.Tel: 06-2688061. Email:schendl@loxinfo.co.th

RANONG DAY TRIP

1,300 baht. Tour bus (notminibus). Big seats, price in-cludes lunch, dinner andsnacks. No extra charges.Please contact us for details.Tel: 04-7457024. Email:kingrw80@hotmail.com

SECURITY SYSTEMS

AND GATES

Guardian Alarms, Phuket’sleading security provider,has a full range of im-ported equipment withour 2-year warrantry. Oursystems are the most reli-able and backed by our 24-hour call-out service. Showus your quotation and wewill offer you more for yourmoney. Contact us todayfor more details. We alsooffer complete range of at-tractive automated gatesand shutters. Tel: 076-383277, 01-8954480.Fax: 076-381225. Email:guardian@ loxinfo.co.thFor further details, pleasesee our website at: www.guardianalarms.info

C L A S S I F I E D SNovember 20 - 26, 2004 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E 35

Wheels & MotorsTout,Trader &Trumpet

Computers

COMPUTERSEnglish Computerman – newand used PCs, repairs, parts,accessories and software.ADSL Internet - no phone, noproblem. Tel: 09-4735080.

BusinessServices

PersonalServices

Personals

MATCHMAKERLadies, meet your perfectgentleman through Match-maker. Write your details andrequirements on plain paper,enclose a photo, and we’ll pub-lish it free. Pls send your info to:Matchmaker, (K10), Chorley,PR7-4BS, England. Email:karen@adultfun.co.uk

BACKGAMMONpartners. Retired businessmanis looking for playing partnerson Phuket. Please call Tel: 076-386113, 01-5778443.

Saloon Cars

Phuket’s Most Trusted &

Reputable Supplier of the Finest

Quality Used SALOONS,

SEDANS, JEEPS & PICKUPS

New cars or trade-ins –we have what you’re

looking forFor more info pls call us at

Tel: 076-224632, 216243

www.suremotor.com

Rentals

A1 CAR RENTALS

4-door Isuzu Highlanderauto: 28,000 baht/month.New Toyota Altis auto:28,000 baht/month. NewToyota Vios auto: 22,000baht/month. ToyotaSoluna: 15,000 baht/month.All insured and special long-term prices offered. Pleasecall Tel: 09-8314703.

Pickups

ISUZU D-MAXCAB 4

Highlander-3000, turbo, 4-door, automatic with14,000 km. 11 months old.Sells for 790,500 baht new,will sell for 590,000 baht.Tel: 07-2845344.

4 x 4s

GRAND CHEROKEE

1998 model, good condi-tion, 176,000km, full op-tions, dark green, first-classinsurance. 540,000 baht.Pls call for more details. Tel:07-2836716.

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Please use this form to write your classified advertisement.

Then hand it to any of our agents.

Classified ads are charged per line. Each line is 60 baht,with a minimum of 4 lines (heading included) per ad.

All advertising must be paid for in advance.

Deadline for Wheels & Motors page: Saturday 12 noon.

Wheelsheelsheelsheelsheels & MotorsotorsotorsotorsotorsAdvertisements

INT'L DRIVERSLICENSE

5,000 baht, valid up to 10years; or 6,000 baht forvalidity up to 20 years.Sole agent in Thailand.Please call for more de-tails. Tel: 04-0068736.

AREE (“TIP”)PORNSAWAS

I need to contact AreePornsawas, nickname Tip,of Songkhla Province. Herlast known address was/isAmphur Thalang, Phuket.Any family or friendsknowing where Khun Tip is,please contact Arthur withher new phone number.Please, Tip, it is urgent thatI contact you. Email:fourseasons@dodo.com.au

Motorbikes

CHEAP CARS‘93 Suzuki Jeep, 120,000baht. '94 Honda Civic,190,000 baht. Both aretaxed & insured. Pls call forinfo. Tel: 01-0825707.

YAMAHA FZR 1000Very nice bike in good condi-tion, must see. 1,000cc.95,000 baht. Tel: 09-590-2421. Email: tonys351@hotmail.com

PAJERO FOR RENTImported 1995 model, blue,2300cc with turbo engine.Drives good, 3 doors & 4x4.900 baht/day, 15,000 baht/month. Also, have onePeugeot 504 for rent at 600baht/day. Tel: 09-4740269,06-6821117. Fax: 076-356009.

CARS FOR RENT1-New Honda City,17,900 baht/month. 2-Jeep Caribian, 10,900baht/month. 3- DaihatsuMira, 9,900 baht/month.All in very good conditionand with insurance. Pleasecall Tel: 01-5371050.

CARS FOR RENTNew cars including ToyotaAltis, Vios & Honda CRV.Auto, very good condition,insurance included. Specialprice. Tel: 01-8915296Email: jikkycar@yahoo.com

TOYOTA TIGERHILUX 4WD

Very beautiful pick-up for sale.Year 2000, 83,000km, die-sel, manual gear, special edi-tion. Foreign owner, papers &maintenance records avail-able. Price: 465,000 baht. Plscontact for details. Tel: 076-292725, 07-8822597.Email: euro-art-gallery@planet.nl

WAVE ANDPHANTOM

2 Wave 110s, with discbrakes & electric starters:29,000 baht each. Phan-tom, 1 year old: 75,000baht. Call Tel: 01-5390599.

SONY DIGITALcamera. Sony Mavica CD300.3.3 Megapixels, 6x zoom. Asnew, perfect condition. Cost42,000 baht; selling for lessthan a third of that: 11,000baht. Please call; no emails.Tel: 01-8922824. Email:junaworn@hotmail.com

THAI TRADITIONALmusic. Qualified Thai tradi-tional music teacher, female,20, with 5 years’ experience.Age of students: 7 years up,private or group. I also performin a band playing for parties andhotels. Tel: 07-8887440.Email: kookkai@jpwdesigns.com

LOOKING FOR FRIENDEnglish guy seeks nice girlfriendin Patong. Please send emailwith photo. Email: easybullet@hotmail.com

JRD SNOW 125Rscooter. As new, rarely used,only 1,500 km. Safety yellow,in perfect condition. Cost40,000 baht, selling for 28,000baht. Please phone, no e-mails.Tel: 01-8922824.

Others

VOLKSWAGENBeetle. Deluxe 1966 1600ccmodel, blue. Good condition,CD and radio. Price: 175,000baht. Contact for more details.Tel: 07-2682852. Fax: 076-289016. Email: numonsanson@yahoo.com

LAND-ROVER ES1999 Discovery V8 ES.90,000km. Silver color. Gray-leather interior. Full Land-Roverservice history from new. Of-fers please. Tel: 01-8916174.Email: jeremy@phuketland.com

TOYOTA COROLLAToyota Corolla, twin cam, 16-valve, for sale. Price is only156,000 baht. Good condition& well-maintained. Tel: 01-2718486. Email: suporn@thaimarine.com

CRV 2003 FOR SALEHonda CRV 2003, black, tanleather, custom grille, chromewheels, tinted windows, alloptions, 22,000km. 910,000baht. Contact Khun Oi. Tel:076-341421, 01-8957908.Fax: 076-341422. Email:rungtiwap@asianwind. biz

WHEELS AND TIRESBeautiful set of aluminium 6-holed wheels with 255 Mich-elin tires (95%) – for Isuzu,Mazda, Ford, etc. All together:8,500 baht. Email: sianglert@hotmail.com

MOTORBIKEwith sidecar. Earlier this yearI saw an ad in the Gazette foran oldtimer motorbike with asidecar. It was just restoredand the color was red and itwas from the 1950s. Cananyone tell me if this bike is stillfor sale? And if so, where andfrom whom? I’m interested.Thanks, Edwin. Please contactwith details. Tel: 06-786-6350. Email: buurmanb@hotmail.com

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Trader online for60 days.

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and place your adtoday!

TOYOTA TIGER 4WD1999 Toyota Tiger, 4WD, 2door, 63,000 kms, 2x farangowner, tidy condition. 400,000baht. Tel: 077-532046, 09-7272592. Email: mobile_mal@hotmail.com

HONDA CB 750

Immaculate condition, farangowner, Phuket plates & book.95,000 baht. Tel: 05-2679701.

Do Not DrinkTap Water!

MATH TUTORMath tutor required to teachmy two children at home. Theyare aged 11 and 13. Must besuitably qualified. Tel: 076-266885, 04-0111341.Email:cjamestemplebar@yahoo.co.uk

PersonalServicesWanted

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36 P H U K E T G A Z E T T E November 20 - 26, 2004

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