Krabi,KayaK,oK!THENATIONASIANEWSMay10-16,2009TRAVEL,FOOD&DRINK,STYLE,ARTSANDTRENDSINASIAaroundAs

THE NATION ASIANEWS May 10-16, 2009

TRAVEL, FOOD & DRINK, STYLE, ARTS AND TRENDS IN ASIA

Style get real Hot!

Footie fashion

More than words

Krabi, kayak, OK!

TRAVEL, FOOD & DRINK, STYLE, ARTS AND TRENDS IN ASIA THE NATION ASIANEWS

May 10-16, 2009 P h o t o c o u rtes y o f E lle ( T h a i land )

P9-11

COVER real life Fashion’s

Around Asia

C o v er / P h o t o c o u rtes y o f E lle ( T h a i land )

BEST FRUIT FORWARD

P13

SAMUI DOES THE MALDIVES

P16 team

DINE OUT WITH YOUR DOG

P22-23

COLOUR YOUR HOME

P8

TOKYO TORRENT

P28-29

Editor: Phatarawadee Phataranawik | Deputy Editor: Khetsirin Pholdhampalit | Photo Editor: Kriangsak Tangjerdjarad | Photographers: Ekkarat Sukpetch, Korbphuk Promrekha and Nuttapone Tipvateeamorn| Writers: Manta Klangboonkrong and Pattarawadee Saengmanee | Contributor: Pawit Mahasarinand and JC Eversole| Designers: Nibhon Appakarn, Pradit Phulsarikij, Ekkapob Preechasilp | Copy-editors: Luci Standley and Rod Borrowman | Sub-editor: Paul Dorsey | Contact: www.nationmultimedia.com, e-mail: ace@ nationgroup.com. (02) 338 3461 | ACE is published by NMG News Co LTD at 1854 Bangna-Trat Road, Bangkok

What’s Hot

Dead mag walking Dear readers,

Outfitted by Smith

B A P P h oto / A lberto P ellasc h iar

efore donning their Red Devil gear for the pitch, Wayne Rooney, Ji-Sung Park and Christiano Ronaldo and their Man-U team-mates prove that footballers can look smart in these well-cut suits designed by Paul Smith.

In May 2008, Smith entered a three year contract to supply formal wear and accessories to the Manchester United playing staff and officials for all domestic matches, the European Cup campaign and pre-season tours. The first designs by the team were worn to their triumphant European Cup Final in Moscow last June.

To mark the first anniversary of this partnership Paul Smith and Manchester United, you could win signed merchandise including a football, team photo, blazer, tie and football shirt.

Find out how by checking out Paul Smith boutiques at the Emporium and Siam Paragon before May 20.

Call Club 21 at (02) 652 0740-1.

Size does matter.

This is Ace’s final issue, but not to worry – out next incarnation’s already in the bag.

Starting next Sunday we’re broadening our size from the magazine format to the slim “Berliner” style of broadsheet, with all the same great content in the new Sunday Leisure section of The Nation.

You’ll find us with a new stunning design, spreading out across 12 big pages.

Fans of the Laidback travel column can meanwhile catch up on the latest exciting destinations in Explore, the travel section published every Saturday.

Entertainment, lifestyle, trends and travel stories from the Asia News Network will still be featured in the Sunday section.

Moving in with us from the Sunday Nation’s front pages are the pets and nature features. There’ ll also be cartoons, movie listings and horoscopes.

So see you next Sunday!

A little Kindle in your life

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afp / emmanuel dunand

A

re newspapers about to die? May be! On Wednesday, online retail giant Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled in New York the Kindle DX, a large-screen version of its popular Kindle electronic reader designed for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. The Kindle DX, a new purpose-built reading device, features a larger 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. Amazon has also partnered with select major newspapers to offer readers discounts on the DX in return for long-term subscriptions. The Kindle DX is now available for pre-order for $489.00 (Bt17,200) and will ship this summer. Soon The Nation’s readers will reading news from their iPhones.

Who knows? They may be reading the paper via Kindle DX too!

May 10-16, 2009

Trends

“The Vagina Monologues”

Speaking in tongues

The languages of theatre play starring roles in two compelling productions, not always for the right reasons S ak o l S and h i ratne

Pawit Mahasarinand

S ak o l S and h i ratne

cosmopolitan.

Shogo Tanikawa, already a unique enough writer, brought impressive innovation to his latest piece, “Water Time”, to get across the story of a Japanese playwright (Tanikawa in a role close to home) living in New York City with an aspiring Thai actress (Sasithorn Panichnok).

They spoke English except while arguing, when they reverted to their mother tongues, ultimately relying on a neighbour (Apirak Chaipanha) to get their Babel of languages sorted out.

All the while, the surtitles above the stage leapt from Thai to Japanese to English, so the multinational audience could easily enjoy every line.

“Water Time” was entertaining and engaging if you ignored its implausibility, especially the premise that you have to have a basic vocabulary in someone else’s language to maintain a relationship.

Director Ning Bhanbhassa was successful at filling in the script’s holes to a certain extent.

Most remarkable was the touching last scene, for which she decided to unMay 10-16, 2009

ward staging at the Women in the Moon Festival two years ago, was different again.

When I watched Ensler perform the play in Seattle in 1997, she too sat on a stool and occasionally read from notes, yet the emotional impact was much stronger.

T atc h ad o n P an y ap h an i tk u l

T

he spoken languages and projected translations of “Water Time” and “The Vagina Monologues” certainly made Bangkok theatre look and sound

plug the surtitles. Thai viewers, despite not understanding the Japanese lines, were mesmerised by what was happening, body language being all that was necessary.

Meanwhile Patravadi Theatre hosted Bangkok’s first “official” production of “The Vagina Monologues”.

This celebrated play usually has actresses delivering the lines of real women from American playwright Eve Ensler’s interviews.

Here, director Alanna Gregory divided the lines among her 24 Thai and expatriate performers of various acting skills, and had them enact the “characters”. The result, often, was not so much realism as largerthan-life portrayal.

In this case the actors’ translations were translated in supertitles projected on screens on either side of the stage.

One scene was in Thai, the next in English, some were in both languages, and sometimes the performers spoke a language other than their mother tongue.

Even bilingual viewers ended up reading the supertitles because they weren’t sure which language they were hearing.

The production was in fact similar to the play’s original “unofficial” staging at the Bangkok Theatre Festival many years ago. The title used was “Kor Chim Pood” (“Let Vaginas Speak”).

The second unofficial presentation, Ning Bhanbhassa’s more straightfor-

“Water Time”

We should remember that, in theatre, less is frequently more, and sometimes much more.

Certainly, the message of the play, about violence against women, rang loud and raised awareness in our highly patriarchal society.

But it would have been a more memorable experience had the actors done less acting and focused more on just “being”.

Extras online

“Water Time” fans can find more on Life Theatre, see www.LifeTheatre.webs.com.

The official website of V-Day, which tracks the “Vagina Monologues” phenomenon, is www.V-Day.org. |5|

Trends

Blasts from Beijing New productions show how the Chinese capital is quickly becoming another cultural hub Pawit Mahasarinand

L

P h o t o c o u rtes y o f R i ck y W o ng

ast August, TV audiences around the world were wowed by the cultural performances staged for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, many of them products of collaboration between Chinese and foreign artists.

The recent Hong Kong Arts Festival, which served as a stage for dance and theatre productions from the Chinese capital, was also a reminder that contemporary performing arts have “Cool” by Beijing Paper Tiger Theatre been blossoming there for many decades — it’s just that we’ve known little about them.

Founded in 1959, the National Ballet of China benefited cally abbreviated and many dramatic details left out, from early collaborations with Russian masters. While the and the addition of interspersing short episodes of Kuncompany has turned heads with its classical repertoire of qu opera does not help comprehension.

“Swan Lake” and “Giselle”, in the past decade the troupe has Still, the spine of the story—the immense power of true travelled more frequently, performing such acclaimed new love — still shines, thanks in major part to the technically works as “Raise the Red Lantern”, adapted by Zhang Yimou outstanding company of dancers and the highly symbolic set from his acclaimed movie. design that allows them sufficient space. Traditional Chinese Their latest production, “The Peony Pavilion” is tak- costumes adds to the drama, though it also means more difen from another Chinese classic, a Kunqu opera from ficulty for movement. Highly influenced by and rather rethe Ming Dynasty. However, the story has been drasti- stricted to Western classical ballet vocabulary, the choreography probably needs more intercultural experimentation to make the whole perform“The Peony PavilionW by National Ballet of China ance more unique.

A dominant representative of China’s contemporary independent theatre movement is the Beijing Tiger Theatre Studio. “Cool”, their new physical theatre production, shows engaging images of various types of brutality in everyday life. Through frequently repeated physical and verbal routines, the six actors offer a timely reminder that violence is all around us and that we may have even unwittingly engaged in it ourselves.

The writer wishes to thank The Hong Kong Arts Festival Society’s Alexia Chow and Dennis Wu for their assistance. |6|

May 10-16, 2009

A model Once one of the catwalk ‘Trinity’, Christy Turlington Burns wants to help create a different world

AP Photo

advocate

Samantha Critchell

S

AP Photo

upermodel Christy Turlington Burns has gone superwoman. Fuelled by her interest in charity work, travel to exotic lands and her own two children, Turlington Burns is back at school getting a master’s degree and directing a documentary on the risks and successes of maternal health.

Still sought after by the fashion world – note her recent campaign for Escada, a contributing-editor gig at Marie Claire and her prominence in a New York museum’s “The Model As Muse” exhibit – Turlington Burns says her focus shifted after the death of her father 12 years ago.

He died of lung cancer. She had been a teenage smoker. He was diagnosed with cancer and died within six months. It took her five years to fully quit.

“I wanted to share my story, his story. I approached the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Lung Association. I volunteered my services in any capacity.”

At first they weren’t sure what to do with her, she recalls, but she filmed an emotional black-andwhite public service announcement, and then co-produced more of those with MTV. She targeted adolescent girls because that was the story she knew best.

“I thought, ‘This is what I’m meant to do’.”

At age 26, she decided to complete her undergraduate degree in comparative religion and Eastern philosophy at New York University. After that came two fashionMay 10-16, 2009

related businesses and then marriage to actor Ed Burns.

Yoga has been one of the constants in her life, even in her days as one-third of the “the Trinity” with Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista. And service to mankind, the 40-year-old explains, is one of the main tenets of yoga.

She asked herself, “Where can I make the biggest difference?” and her thoughts went to the connection she felt to women, and especially mothers, wherever she went.

There were some complications during her own natural childbirth of daughter Grace, now five, but when mother and daughter were so well cared for at top-notch facilities in New York, Turlington Burns started to think about what could have happened had they been elsewhere.

She started taking trips with humanitarian organisation Care to Central and South America, and to Africa on behalf of Red, an anti-HIV/Aids initiative founded by her friends Bono and Bobby Shriver.

The visits aimed to raise the profile of the mothers who truly live a world away from women like Turlington Burns: the women who walk kilometres for clean water or who unknowingly transmit to their babies the Aids virus.

“I don’t see this as being something I’ll be involved with for a short time. I’m a mother forever, and I have a daughter – and I want to do it for her and her generation.”

—Associated Press |7|

Go SHOPPING

Kat’s ceramic kingdom Welcome to the home of Liken’s china charmers, a perennial hit at the houseware shows Patta rawadee Saengmanee

p h oto / ekkarat sukpetc h

G

ullayanee “Kat” Jiamsinkul, one of the stars of the Bangkok gift and houseware fairs, sells her fetching ceramics out of her own home on a little lane off Soi Ladphrao 101.

This is the headquarters of Liken, the label that borrowed its name from the Spanish word for a tree that only grows in prospering forests.

Liken’s environmentally chummy ceramic ware for the home and garden have been selling furiously ever since Kat showed up at the BIG+BIH event seven years ago with a collection of animal-shaped tableware and garden tools.

Her home only became the showroom recently, though – a white, beautifully adorned house with a shady courtyard. Inside are plenty of cute and quality ceramics, on sale along with plain wooden furniture and other décor items made of cloth.

Influenced by Japanese culture, most of Kat’s designs are in animal shapes with floral, animal or seascape patterns in white, creamy, brown, yellow, green and blue.

“My concept is eco-friendly, with shades of white, everything very simple,” says Kat. Among the ceramics are plates, mugs, tea sets, flowerpots, watering cans and piggy banks. The soft products, made with good-quality denim from Japan, range from shopping and shoulder bags to cushions, beanbags, tablecloths, aprons and tissue holders.

You can also find hardwood and teak furniture, like stools, coffee tables, chairs and swings.

Liken’s products are also available at Loft and will be on sale at Zen soon, and you can ask about getting some help with interior design and garden decoration too. | |

Brighten your dinner table with eye-catching plates, mugs, bowls and a toothpick holder and soft potholders. The prices range from Bt74 to Bt300.

White and blue denim shoulder bags with stripes sell for Bt519 and Bt579.

Here’s a striped flowerpot made from PVC cloth for Bt159, and a doggy water feeder is Bt100.

This puppy and cat will hold your flowers for Bt260 apiece.

A wooden ladder shelf is yours for Bt1,000, the attractive white-blue curtain Bt1,330.

Bird-shaped flowerpots cost Bt650 for a set of four.

Pottery puppy kennel Liken is at 866/15 Soi 28, Lad Phrao 101.

It’s open daily except Sunday from 9 to 6.

Call (02) 729 25689.

The hardwood stool with a denim cover sells for Bt520, and the coffee table Bt1,260.

May 10-16, 2009

P h o t o c o u rtes y o f E lle ( T h a i land )

Cover

s w o h s n o i ash

F its heart Life hion for as F Elle dazzler will ’s h ont Next mand-clothinge that HIV can music t the messag get ou be prevented

May 10-16, 2009

|9|

COVER

Phatarawadee Phataranawik

P h o t o s / N u ttap o ne T i p v ateeam o rn

W

e’re talking about a new chapter in Thai fashion here: Elle Fashion for Life, on June 13, will have supermodels in motion to the electropunk of Diet Pills’ “Under Estimate”.

The premise is not to be underestimated: getting people with Aids back into society where they belong.

Edgy innovation is at the heart of the Elle Thailand charity event at the Centara Grande Hotel at CentralWorld.

“We want to mix fashion and music to raise public awareness about the risk of HIV that’s now being widely ignored,” says Elle editor Kullawit Laosuksri, the show’s director.

“By bringing both fashion and music to the same stage, we hope to send out a social message.”

The magazine’s campaign aims to raise money for Pa Tongko, the Positive Partnership Programme (PPP) begun by HIV/Aids activist Meechai Viravaidya, head of the Population and Community Development Association, which helps people living with HIV set up businesses.

“In the past four or five years Thailand has reduced the HIV rate by 90 per cent,” says Meechai.

“But in the meantime we’ve focused so much on finding a cure for the virus that we’re ignoring the issue of protection.”

The three-hour Elle Fashion for Life extravaganza will feature eight clothing brands and eight music bands. Elle’s taking care of the former, BEC Tero Entertainment the latter, including sound and lighting.

“It will be a show full of the unexpected,” Kullawit promises. “The designers don’t yet know which band will be backing up their shows, and

| 10 |

May 10-16, 2009

P h o t o c o u rtes y o f E lle ( T h a i land )

the musicians don’t know which brands they’ll play for.”

It’s a recipe for confusion that sounds like fun, especially with the designers lined up, who’ve already proved their merit at Elle Fashion Weeks of the past.

Led by the veterans of Theatre, Zenitorial and Greyhound, the roster includes Seneda Theory, Issue, Headquarter, Boudoir and Sretsis.

The musicians all have personalities to match the models – Groove Riders, Slur, Tattoo Colour, Tata Young, Scrubb, Diet Pills, Ben Chalatit, Saksit “Tor” Vejsupaporn and, get this, Carabao.

Imagine Ad Carabao clad in super-cool Headquarter’s clothes, or playing for the elegant Theatre boutique.

“For me,” Slur guitarist Arak Amornsupasiri tells Elle, “fashion and music are complimentary. Our music is inspired by fashion. It’ll be interesting to see the expertise of designers and musicians on the same stage.”

“I’m happy to join a project combining fashMay 10-16, 2009

ion, music and lifestyle,” chips in Pim Sukhahuta of Sretsis.

“The show will freshen up the local fashion scene, which can be intimidating or superficial to different people. It will make things more fun, and it will prove that fashion isn’t just for the sake for fashion, but also for life.”

Each designer will present around 15 outfits, some from their spring-summer lines, others creating new collections especially for the show.

They’ll all produce premium limited editions for sale and auction, with all proceeds going to the PPP. Pim’s come up with a red silk dress to be auctioned, with a thousand rhinestones sewn into the shape of a ribbon, the symbol of the fight against Aids.

She’s also created a limited-edition scarf based on the ribbon, which will be shown along with her spring-summer line, dubbed “School of Rebellious Sweethearts”.

Roj Singhakul will again present the First Issue collection that was so remarkably launched at AUA while the animated film “Sita Sings the Blues” was being screened. It will be “remixed and matched” for the fund-raiser.

“A lot of people think fashion’s all about clothing crazes, so this event will introduce another angle,” says Roj, whose outfits are inspired by the Dalai Lama’s philosophy.

“It’s not just catwalk trends, it’s also about the lives of people living with HIV.” Roj is donating for the auction the spectacular winged evening gown that

Cindy Bishop debuted at AUA. The designers are making sure the HIV word gets out. Red ribbons and hearts and written messages are appearing on Theatre’s white shirts, Zenitorial’s umbrellas and on scarves by Roj and Sretsis.

Others are pulling out the stops on creativity. Senada will present canvas bags with prints of a feminine figure, Boudoir has done a dazzling necklace, Chai and Sunshine of Headquarter a tote collection, and Greyhound some colourful men’s underwear.

Expect prices to leap from Bt300 for that underwear to Bt2,290 for a Theatre shirt.

Pucker up with MAC’s Viva Glam lipstick and that money will go to the Pa Tongko project, too.

Also planned is a road show. The models will appear in their campaign T-shirts at Central department stores in Bangkok and Pattaya and hand out educational kits to youngsters.

Sit down for a good cause Tickets for Elle Fashion for Life cost Bt600 to Bt3,500 at Thaiticketmajor. Call (02) 240 3700, extension 1703.

| 11 |

Hip Hangout

Pairings made in paradise JC Evers ole

Swank but crazy

and the young elite in Beijing Stars dine at LAN Club and still Jeremy Webb

P h otos / B loomb e r g

D

don’t distract from the d’cor

anny Wang’s LAN Club is 6,000 square metres of curious opulence in Beijing’s LG Twin Towers. Unlike other Asian establishments that approached the French design guru Philippe Starck, LAN gave him totally free rein, and it shows.

Most strikingly, almost nothing matches. The restaurant’s ample seating is an imported mishmash of leather armchairs, cow-print sofas and renaissance lounges.

Likewise, light fi tt i n g s c r a f t e d from gilded semiautomatic rifles and eerie bird wings are placed alongside crystal chandeliers.

Combine this fascinating extravagance with the echo of heels clicking across the bare concrete floor and the distracting whirr of the air-con amid unfinished ceilings and it feels like an art gallery jostling for space with a second-hand shop.

This is not a bad thing. It’s eyecatching but not distracting.

The food is a mix of Sichuan and Guangdong cuisine – in a Western way and nobly attempting to avoid the oil that impairs much Chinese food.

On the whole, the dishes are thoughtfully designed and well cooked.

We start with a playful assortment of appetisers, each taking inspiration from one of the four seasons.

Spring brings our palates to life with | 12 |

crisp slices of wine-soaked pear, and lying next to some “hand-torn” chilli chicken is the most innovative season of the lot: a fruity sweet potato mash.

The only drawback is a slightly disappointing summer: wasabi spinach – a promising concept that sees nicely blanched greens tortured by an unwelcome tear-inducing Japanese invader.

Our second dish, cod, lies atop a blend of rice, peanut and red bean that goes some way toward drawing the oil out of the fish – a clever touch.

The most expensive at our table is the stirfried Australian steak with black pepper sauce, gorgeous chunks perfectly cooked and expertly flavoured.

While it’s easy to see why Beijing’s young elite is drawn to LAN Club, it has something for all. While the so-called “fashion set” might go for cocktails in the ultra-chic bar, older diners may prefer to retire to LAN’s plush cigar room.

Anyway, with such an intriguing interior you are unlikely to pay much attention to other diners. You might not even notice Tony Blair, the NBA Dream Team and Zhang Ziyi.

- China Daily, Asia News Network LAN Club 4/F Twin Tower, B12 Jianguomen Waidajie, 010 51096012-13

M

atching wine with food is one of the life’s great pleasures, particularly when it’s done properly. This, of course, is the formidable Gordian Knot for epicureans the world over. Tastes that appeal to one can be anathema to another, but fortunately a better understanding of wine and food chemistry has reduced potential conflicts between what’s served on most plates and poured into most glasses.

Coming up on Friday is a golden opportunity to experience the attention one of Bangkok’s best Italian chefs pays to what he serves on his plates in relation to what one of Piedmont’s premier wineries pours into its glasses. This evening of northern Italian cuisine and luxurious Piedmont wines was previewed last week by area writers allowing the Four Seasons’ Biscotti chef Danilo Aiassa to fine tune the nuances of each course to the refined flavours of the wines of Michele Chiarlo.

Here’s a hint of what you can expect at this Friday’s gourmet indulgence. Your evening will open with a pair of Piedmont’s lesser known but always food friendly whites, starting with an aperitif of Le Monache blend of cortese, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, followed by a crisp citrusy Rovereto Gavi di Gavi from 100 per cent cortese grapes. Chef Danilo deftly pairs this mouth-filling Gavi with a smooth mousse and sorbet of bell peppers followed by an eye and palate pleasing terrine of trout and lobster.

Reds start with ’06 Barbera Cipressi della Court, solidly balanced with subtle cherry flavours, paired nicely with a risotto enhanced with white asparagus and frogs legs. At the heart of the evening, Chiarlo’s ’04 Tortoniano Barolo with its deep earthy nebbiolo character is perfect with ricotta and porcini filled raviolis topped with black truffle shavings. Unctuously rich beef cheeks with pecorino polenta are ideal mates with the complex, still developing ’04 Cerequio vineyard Barolo. Dessert, if you can handle it, features fresh fruit and almond cake with Nivole Moscato d’Asti. Alberto Chiarlo will be on hand to discuss his family’s wines.

For reservations at Four Seasons, call (02) 250 1000. Chiarlo wines from IWS, call (02) 634 7037.

May 10-16, 2009

Parden granted!

This ‘parfait garden’ lets fresh fruit bask in its own sweet glory K he t sirin Pholdhampalit

May 10-16, 2009

The star of the menu is Parden Parfait, an excellent way to cool down from the day’s heat and only Bt150.

The bottom layer is the flesh and seeds of a passion fruit. That’s topped with natural-yoghurt ice cream, then at least eight slices of fruit like melon, pomelo, watermelon, apple, mango and kiwi.

If melon’s your main love, the Melon Parfait for Bt195 has the fresh fruit served with melon ice-cream sherbet.

A slice of sweet mango cheesecake for Bt125 goes perfectly with a pot of hot Darjeeling tea, priced at Bt95.

The mango called nam dok mai – known for its sweetness – is generally used in the menu, but for parfaits, another variety called mahachanok adds a pleasant aroma.

For a cold dessert, Thais may be familiar with chao kuay – black jelly in syrup – with thin slices of jackfruit. At Parden it’s served with slices of mango, whose sweet taste goes well with the sticky gelatin.

Piyoros and Hisako’s eyes for art – he’s a Silpakorn grad and she worked in Tokyo’s Kenjitaki gallery – are evident in the café’s decor and retail items.

Piyoros decorated in minimal fashion with wooden floors and tables, and

shelves adorned with fruit. Most of the tables, bought from second-hand shops, are Chinese mah jong tables, with drawers to keep the playing tiles.

In one of the bistro is a corner called Zakka – the word means “many things” i n Ja p a n e s e . It ’s s t o c ke d w i t h handicrafts, household and decorative items and kitschy products to which Hisako has taken a liking.

Among them are tote bags made from checked pha khao maa cloth, ceramic trays in the form of human faces, scratch pads and tiny bottles of fish sauce.

Melon or mango?

The Parden Fruit Café and Zakka are on the second floor of the Manor mall on Sukhumvit Soi 39.

It’s open daily except Tuesday – 8.30 to 6.30 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 9.30 on Friday and Saturday and noon to 6.30pm on Sunday.

| 13 |

P h otos / E k k a r at S u k p e tc h

A

nother of the bounties of Thailand in foreign visitors’ eyes is the seemingly mirac ulous availability of fresh fruit all year round. Piyoros Saringkhan didn’t need much prodding from his Japanese wife, Hisako Kubo, to open a fruit cafe called Parden.

The café is a refreshing oasis on Sukhumvit Soi 39 downtown. The name mingles “parfait” and “garden”, and parfait is the highlight – through absolutely without sugar, syrup or whipped cream.

The couple try their best to always use local seasonal and organic fruit, and they make coffee and tea from organic, “fair-trade” beans and leaves.

“In Japan, Thai fruit is very popular – and expensive,” says Hisako, who first visited Bangkok in 1996 to study printmaking at Silpakorn University.

“I’m happy to be living here now, where it’s easy to find fresh, delicious seasonal fruit. But often when I order a fruit juice in a café, they add a sweet syrup that I think overwhelms the great natural taste.”

So there’s a rule about the fruit juices at Parden too: no ice, no sugar and no syrup.

Laid-back

Mind the mangroves

| 14 |

At Krabi’s Tha Lane, the ‘sea’ kayaks take you where the sea reaches deep into the land

May 10-16, 2009

Korbphuk Phromrekha

May 10-16, 2009

| 15 |

P h otos / Ko r bp h u k

It’s a swamp thing Most tour agencies at Ao Nang in Krabi offer kayaking outings at Ao Tha Lane, usually for Bt600 per half day and Bt1,000 for a full day with lunch.

They pick up customers at their hotels at 7am and noon for the 30-minute drive to Ao Tha Lane.

One place to try is Mr Big at J Mansion Company at (075) 695 128.

P h r om r e k h a

O

ne of the world’s best-known destinations for sea kayaking, Ao Tha Lane is a 35-kilometre drive from downtown Krabi. We arrive early in the morning to find a cluster of avid tourists already on the stillmuddy beach, being shown how to paddle safely.

They haven’t yet been tossed into the sea, and there’s a sparkle of excitement in their eyes.

Kayaking at sea isn’t easy, and beginners struggle mightily to get control of their fibreglass craft, regularly flipping upside down.

Perseverance is essential; absolute refusal to be cowed is a big bonus.

After 10 minutes of testing our muscles and trying out the techniques, we reach the open bay and feel the cool breeze.

Our guide tells us to just float for awhile with the wind. Within moments we’ve drifted into a delightfully mysterious, narrow waterway shaded by tall kongkang – the red mangroves.

It feels impressive kayaking beneath the green archway of the swamp forest.

In the distance we can see high mountains, and closer, everywhere we look, birds’ nests above, colourful fish below and, once in a while, fleeting past, lots of monkeys.

We come to a lagoon within a huge cave that looks like a cup. Tha Lane has many lagoons, and we’re able to visit three in the course of a half-day outing.

In a mangrove forest nearby, the roots of the trees have woven together to allow only one kayak to pass through at a time.

Reassuringly, the forest looks healthy, thanks to the wide variety of plants and animals.

Amphibians hop here and there, reptiles flick their tongues, crabs and fish flit about.

If kayaking through narrow waterways strikes some people as less than exciting, I find it all the more adventurous negotiating around in so little water. Avoiding collisions with the banks and the tree roots, constantly making sharp turns, is great exercise.

Add to that the thrill of having crab-eating macaques jump onto our boats in search of food, and you’ve got an unforgettable experience.

A macaque grabs my bottle water, a scarce enough treat around here. Normally they depend on the rain or scoops of water from inside plant shoots.

The wind carries us on to the foot of a huge cliff adorned with ancient murals.

We end the morning with another peaceful drift on the sea, willing passengers of the breeze. It’s been an amazing three hours.

Laid-back

The lapping of luxury The KC Hotel and Over Water Villas is a stunning mix of the best of East and West

Patta rawadee Saengmanee

P h oto courtesy of kc h otel

K

oh Samui tends to be party-prone, but if you want some tranquillity, head to Chaweng Beach and the new KC Hotel and Over Water Villas, where your family can really soak up some privacy and luxury in a charming Maldives-like setting.

The seven-rai resort is on a mountain slope, with a classy, modern central building and a cluster of roomy wooden villas.

Influenced by the famous A la Bora Bora Alongside is a massive park lined with 16 elegant villas in resort in Maldives, the KC seems a perfect combination of West two styles. The Over Water Villas and Pool Villas will make you and East.

That’s because this first-class hotel mingles the ideas of think you’re in one of those endless-horizon Maldives resorts.

A clear choice for honeymooners, the villas perch over a Edith Baron, the noted Israel-based interior designer, and clean saltwater swimming pool, so you can do laps around the architect Seksom Nareerak of Samui Buri Consultants.

There are 79 luxurious rooms and 16 spacious villas, all whole neighbourhood.

“The focus is on luxury, privacy and convenience, with full beautifully decorated with curvy wooden furniture. facilities,” says Azuan Noordin, the KC group’s general manager More special and a bit sexy, every room has an outdoor Jacuzzi on the balcony, just begging you to get naked in sight and vice president for hotel development in Asia-Pacific.

“Soon we’ll open a new property, called KC Beach Resort & of the beach and Koh Phangan.

Pool Villas Koh Samui, which will be right on Chaweng Inside with the sofa and coffee table you’ve got an LCD TV, Beach.” fridge, coffee maker, safe, alarm clock, telephone, The hotel’s other facilities include the umbrellas and flashlights. The bathroom has a Mayang Sari Wellness & Spa centre, a wineshower, wooden drawers and a hair dyer, plus all Afloat in paradise cellar bistro and the restaurant Med @ KC KC Hotel and KC over the toiletries you need.

Fusion, which serves a Mediterranean-Thai Water Villas Koh Samui is The four-storey central building offers six room at 166/98 ChawengChoeng mix. types, ranging from Grand Deluxe Jacuzzi to Mon Road on Koh Samui in Low-season room rates range from Bt8,365 Luxury Jacuzzi Suite and topped by the 148-squareSurat Thani. Call (077) 428 to Bt20,265, covering the round-trip rides to metre Royal Family Jacuzzi Suite, which boasts two 088 or visit www. and from the airport, a Thai massage or a Thai KCHotelResorts.com. bedrooms and two bathrooms and a pair of 32set dinner for two. inch LCD TV sets. | 16 |

May 10-16, 2009

Wellness

Green makes Zense

Pills,

ginger or a nap

grap h ic / ekap h ob preec h asilp

The Zense of Joy Spa tackles global warming with its third “green spa” outlet in the Liberty Building on Soi Convent. The spa uses new technology to recycle water and make sure all the electronic equipment is switched off after use.

There are healthy treatments for men, including collagen, a deepenergising facial, pre-and-post exercise, sport massage and de-stressing rubs for the head, neck and shoulders. Call (02) 652 0489.

Some useful remedies against sea sickness

T

ypical indicators for sea sickness are a dry mouth, cold sweat, dizziness and nausea, sometimes followed by vomiting.

Medically speaking sea sickness is a variation of motion sickness or kinetosis. Though it does not always end up with the affected person “feeding the fishes”, it can however ruin a boat trip.

But, with the right medicine and a few useful tips, it can be kept under control.

Kinetosis is caused when the body experiences difficulty with different and contradictory stimuli, such as the rocking motion experienced at sea, which causes a discrepancy between what the eye can see and what our body’s sensory organs are telling our brains.

In the process, the body produces more histamines. According to a new theory by Reinhard Jarisch, an allergist from Vienna, histamines cause the symptoms of sea sickness.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the chance of feeling sea sick, among them avoiding alcohol and smoking at least a day before commencing your journey.

On the day you set sail you should have slept enough and eaten small porMay 10-16, 2009

tions of food.

It is also better to stay in midship than at the bow or stern because that is where the sea swell is less pronounced.

If you do feel unwell, go to the upper deck, get some fresh air and fix your gaze at a point on the horizon, or lie down in your bunk as sleeping lowers your levels of histamines.

If you already know you are susceptible to sea sickness or the sea will be rough, take some medication before beginning the voyage.

Antihistamines like diphenhydramine or dimenhydrinate are good for dealing with mild to severe symptoms.

For more severe symptoms, take scopolamine or promethazine. If you haven’t taken anything, and are hanging over the railing, then the best thing is to take a suppository with diphenhydramine or metoclopramid.

All of these drugs can cause drowsiness. In mild cases of sea sickness, sufferers should try some alternative forms of medication.

Ginger is one of the oldest traditional remedies. It appears to help in mild cases although there is no scientific proof. Vitamin C can also be useful.

- Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Time to spa?

Thailand is being groomed for the post of Asia’s head of health and beauty by the Department of Export Promotion, which is hosting the annual “Thailand Health & Beauty Show” at Siam Paragon’s Royal Paragon Hall from June 5 to 7.

As part of this year’s theme – “Thailand: Destination of Spas and Beauty” – signature services and traditional treatments will be offered by members of the Thai Spa Association on “Thai Spa Day 2009”.

Elsewhere, a “Thai Spa Showcase” will present the heritage as well as potential of the spa business, while the “Design in Thailand 2009” exhibition will guide visitors through the design and production process for health and beauty products. For those with more time to spa, a “Spa Symposium” will be given by international experts.

Call (02) 511 5502 or (02) 741 52125, ext 107 and 110. | 17 |

PHOTO ESSAY

Japan’s Spring PHOTOS BY THE DAILY YOMIURI TEXT BY ASIA NEWS NETWORK

S

pringtime in Japan is like no other.

Other countries may have cherry blossoms but it may only be in the Land of the Rising Sun when a tradition has been built around the enjoyment of flower-watching. They call this hanami, where people would gather in parks for outdoor parties under the pink blossoms.

They even do it at night, when it is then called yozakura, where paper lanterns are hung in the parks.

| 18 |

May 10-16, 2009

May 10-16, 2009

| 19 |

LIFESTYLE

’s n a p a J o T i a Kamp

Best Beers

The Japanese love their beer and there’s more to the beverage than more familiar brands TOKYO

Cristoph Mark The Daily Yomiuri

Q

uick—name Japan’s beermakers. If you said Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo, you’re off to a good start.

Only 200 or so more to go.

Yes, despite the dominance of industrial beers that all end up tasting the same as they match each other marketing move for marketing move, a growing world of microbrews throughout the archipelago is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Japan’s version of the craft.

“Good craft beer is about richness and depth of flavour—call it character, if you will,” American Bryan Baird, owner and brewmaster of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture-based Baird Beers says. “It is brewed with a craftsman’s mentality, the focus is not on what the ‘market’ wants, but what the craftsman, in his heart and with his professional acumen, wants to provide. “(Japan’s) industrial beer, as industrial beers go, is outstanding in my opinion...however, it lacks complexity and depth, and it also lacks a certain human spirit.”

According to the Japan Craft Beer Association, there are about 250 microbreweries in Japan that have been directly or indirectly influenced by the European brewing tradition. Nippon no Ji-Biiru (Japan’s local beers; ASCII Corp, 2,400 yen or US$25), meanwhile, lists 229 of the smaller beer companies, ranging from the true craft brews, such as Baird Beers, Isekadoya (Mie Prefecture) and Swan Lake (Niigata Prefecture), to beer designed to be taken home as | 20 |

an omiyage souvenir, such as the light Nikko Beer.

Baird is quick to play down omiyage beer, as is Tatsu Aoki, the proprietor of Popeye, a bar in Ryogoku, Tokyo, that boasts 70 microbrews (mostly Japanese) on tap, served by a passionate staff.

“They say it’s made by people who ‘sort of drink,’” Aoki tells The Daily

“Most craft breweries in Japan lack a true heart and soul and the beers show it. The industry needs to clear the deadwood and welcome a new batch of seedlings.”

Aoki echoed Baird’s sentiment.

Japan for years has ranked in the top 10 in terms of volume of beer consumed. (Number One is China.)

Though the year-to-year increase for

Yomiuri at his bar, which has a fanatically devoted clientele. “There are people who drink and people who don’t. I don’t get how you can ‘sort of drink.’ They make it as gifts for people who don’t normally drink.

“Out of the 250 or so breweries, most were started for reasons that simply had nothing to do with a passion for and commitment to characterful beer. Rather, entry into craft brewing was about attracting tourism, or revitalization of stagnant economic zones...or whatnot,” says Baird, whose beers are also available at his Taprooms in Naka-Meguro, Tokyo, and Numazu.

the industrial beers has been on the wane, the microbrew market has increased dramatically—first in the Tokyo metropolitan area, then in the Osaka area—by between 15 per cent and 20 per cent each year since 2005, with 28,819 kilolitres being produced by 224 recognised microbreweries in 2008, according to a tax office survey.

The rise in consumption mirrors that seen in the United States, where the Washington Post reported a 5.8 per cent increase in volume for craft beers last year.

So, other than the breweries themselves, where else can you sample these varied, humanistic beverages? A May 10-16, 2009

few, such as Iwate Prefecture’s Ginga Kogen—a fruity and surprisingly full weizen—or the auburn Yona Yona Ale

by Yahho Brewing in Nagano Prefecture, can be found at a wide selection of liquor shops and supermarkets throughout the country. But the majority are specialty items that require a specialty store.

Part of it comes down to hunting: I

Tokyo, is known for its wide selection of hard-to-find brews. Online, Good Beer (goodbeer.jp) offers the full breadth of the country’s craft beers, as well as tasting sets containing a selection from a variety of breweries.

The unfortunate reality, of course, is that these beers tend to be more expensive than their counterparts from

found the full selections from Coedo Brewery (Saitama Prefecture) and Kujukuri Ocean Beer (Chiba Prefecture) at a liquor store at Lalaport Tokyo Bay in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. Coedo’s Shikkoku was like no beer I have ever tasted—it lies somewhere between a stout and a porter, yet is somehow lighter. Both the weizen and stout from Kujukuri were flavourful and tasty to the bottom of the bottle.

I also found a selection of Yahho Brewing beers, Nest Beer (Ibaraki Prefecture—try the weizen) and a few others at the Queen’s Isetan grocery store chain. Tanakaya in Mejiro,

the major breweries. So, why pay more?

“Flavour. That’s all there is to it,” Steve Lacey, who spent many years homebrewing in Australia. “Of course, the fact that I liked to brew means I developed a strong preference for beer that is full-flavoured. So, if I am to spend 1,000 yen ($10.42) on a pint, I’d rather (drink) something that gets my attention all the way to the bottom of the glass, unlike a lot of mainstream lagers that you more or less stop tasting after a few sips.”

So why are there so few good craft beers in a country that has such a high rate of beer consumption? Japanese laws, it seems, have erected barriers—

May 10-16, 2009

in terms of homebrewing, alcohol production levels and tariffs on ingredients, that make it difficult for a potential craft brewer to start up his or her own business.

Explains Aoki: “Veteran brewers with 10 years or so of experience can’t break out on their own, because the required output is too high. (Reportedly, about 60,000 litres a year.) So, they end up always having to work for somebody else and not being able to make the beer they really want to. This has happened. The head brewer at Yahho Brewing wanted to start his own brewery, so he quit. But he couldn’t do it in Japan, so he had to move to the States.”

The law also places alcohol limits on beer produced at home to 1 per cent, something Baird, who trained at the Redhook Brewery in Washington State, likens to “prohibition.”

Lacey, too, laments the current situation: “The amateur brewing world is the breeding ground of craft brewers. The US craft beer industry and home brew scene are the biggest and most dynamic in the world, partly because they have grown up hand-inhand since the late 1970s. Brewers and recipes regularly cross from amateur to professional, and homebrewers have led the rise in a consumer base that appreciates beer with real flavor.

“So how can Japan build up a strong base of skilled brewers without a home brew scene of any size to act as a nursery where folks can learn the basics and discover if they have a passion for brewing or not?”

Despite this, he still sees a bright future: “In a decade or so, Japan will rival the United States as the most dynamic and interesting market for craft beer in the world.”

I’ll toast to that. | 21 |

LIFESTYLE

Coffee, Dog, Cat Or Pet cafés are becoming more popular in Seoul, where one can enjoy a latte while a dog sits across the table or a cat naps in the corner

SEOUL

Park Min-young The Korea Herald

T

he warm spring sunshine beckons us to come out.

Looking for something different to enjoy in Seoul? If you are into dogs or cats, here are some cafés you may immediately fall in love with.

Dog café

Dozens of dogs run toward you, playfully wagging their tails at the sound of the door at Bau House, a dog café in Seogyo-dong, near Hongik University.

Inside, it is a cute little disaster.

About 30 different breeds from a Chihuahua —about the size of your

hand—to a Siberian Husky—almost as big as a human grown-up—run about in the café.

The table tops are captured by tiny beagles and schnauzers and stools tip over during friendly dog fights. Five to six sturdy male employees have to bang empty plastic bottles once in a while to maintain order.

While lost in this chaos, you will soon find yourself having fruit juice with a dashing Borzoi observing you at the other side of the table.

“Everyone is welcome at this dog | 22 |

May 10-16, 2009

Tea? café, with or without their own dogs,” said Bau House president Huh Junhyuk while stroking the dogs crowding around him.

He explained that families, friends and couples visit the café looking for something new to enjoy.

First opened in 2000, the café became so popular that it moved to a bigger space in 2004. Still, there is a waiting list for late afternoons or weekends.

“Because every moment is unpredictable here, and because some of the visitors even come from very distant areas, they tend to stay for long once they come. Besides, who doesn’t like dogs?”

Huh said.

The couches are torn down, but nobody seems to care. With all eyes on the furry animals, customers move around freely from seat to seat. If you settle down in a sofa, a bunch of dogs will spring upon you, until one wins and snuggles on your lap.

At the sight of Huh or some regular customers, the friendly pups are extra friendly. If you are new, try wearing an extraordinary outfit. The stranger you look, the more attention you get from the dogs, explains Huh. “When foreigners come in or a man with a motorcycle helmet or a wig comes in, they go running at them like crazy,” he said.

Another way to get their attention is to allure them with the dog gums or hand-made biscuits the café sells. The snacks are strictly low-calorie to prevent them from getting too fat.

If you can endure some major facelicking, the adorable dogs and the familial atmosphere will make you lose track of time. But remember, there are still some simple rules to follow.

“Please don’t feed them food that people eat, and don’t surprise them so suddenly,” Huh said.

Bau House is situated in Seogyodong, central Seoul. There is no admission fee, but the drinks are a bit more pricey than regular cafés. For more inMay 10-16, 2009

formation visit bau.cyworld.com.

Cat café

While Bauhaus is boisterous because the customers and dogs all mingle together, Gio Cat, a cat café in Bongcheondong, is a totally different world.

Quiet but cozy, it is just the place for cats and cat lovers. Russian Blue, Turkish Angora, Siamese, etc; more than 30 different types of kitties are happily nestling on every warm corner.

No need to bang any plastic bottles or have five sturdy men manage the cats.

Just one manager doing his own work at the counter is enough, as the cats each enjoy their own little private lives.

“Cats love places that are dim and quiet. That’s why I picked this area even though it is not a commercial centre. Also, I wanted only the people who sincerely love cats to find this place,” said Gio Cat president Yu Sang-wook.

Yu did not actually intend to make a cat café at first. As he was running a cat adoption business, he opened the café in 2003 hoping to give people a chance to experience cats before choosing them.

“Some of the people who say they want to adopt cats and even some cat owners don’t know enough about cats.

Some owners who did not know that cat hair could arouse allergies just abandon their cats so easily after adoption.

I figured that if I provided a space like this, people could come and see for themselves what cats are like, and how much cat hair falls out. I hoped it would help decrease the number of abandoned cats,” Yu said.

Before entering the café, visitors need to change into slippers, sterilize hands and

leave bags under the tables or at the counter.

Rules are written everywhere in bold letters: “Do not carry the cats,” “Do not bother them with straws,” “Never feed them.”

“Cats hate it when they have to do something they don’t want. So I’m pretty strict with the customers. If they can’t follow the rules, they need to leave. To me, cats come first,” Yu said.

As strict as it seems, real cat lovers love the way Yu runs the place. Most of the visitors are regular customers.

It was even one of the visitors who first suggested opening a branch near Hongik University so that more people and cats could enjoy the cat paradise.

Hongdae branch opened last summer, and is usually crowded with people that it would be safe to make reservations for weekends.

“Ninety-five per cent of the customers are women,” said Yu. “Usually people who are very trendy or who live alone like cats because cats are quiet, smaller, potty trained and don’t cause much trouble.

“If you have a dog, all your neighbours will know you have one because of their noisy bow wows, but how loud is a meow? I’ve been living with two cats in my apartment for years but none of my neighbours know,” he added with a laugh.

Gio Cat’s Seoul National University branch is located in Bongcheon-dong, southern Seoul and its Hongdae branch is located in Seogyo-dong, central Seoul. Admission ranges from 5,0008,000 won (US$3.70-5.90). For more information, call (080) 432-2525 or visit www.giocat.com | 23 |

Food LONDON

Choi Tuck Wo The Star

J

There is no mistaking the characteristic aroma of curry laksa.

Dish Branding

Malaysian delicacies will now have a heritage tag to ensure their authenticity abroad | 24 |

ust like watching a grainy pirated movie, eating laksa (spicy noodle soup) that does not look or taste like what one is used to can be an equally agonising experience.

Whether it’s curry/assam laksa or the Penang, Johor or Sarawak variety, there’s no mistaking the characteristic aroma of each of these noodle dishes that has made them so popular in Malaysia.

But while Malaysians can immediately distinguish the authentic from the fake, most foreigners can easily be duped. Sadly, that would not just leave an unsavoury taste in their mouths, it would also give them a poor—in fact, wrong—impression of one of Malaysia’s yummiest hawker fare.

Besides laksa, other typical Malaysian delicacies such as nasi lemak, rendang and even teh tarik are said to have been ‘hijacked’ by others to attract customers.

So, enough is enough—that’s the message Malaysia seems to be putting across as it attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff.

While it’s not illegal for nonMalaysians to sell what they claim to be Malaysian food, the National Heritage Department’s move to tag its heritage dishes is seen to be a step in the right direction.

Its commissioner Zuraina Majid drove home the point during a brainstorming session with nearly 20 representatives of Malaysian restaurants and hotels at the Malaysian High Commission in London recently.

She, however, made it clear that the list was not meant to warn others to lay off Malaysia’s heritage food, as might be perceived.

“We’re not coming up with the register just because we’re afraid our food might be taken by others.

“We want to promote our heritage list instead of keeping it under lock and key,” says Zuraina of the listing of May 10-16, 2009

100 multi-ethnic dishes under the National Heritage Register.

The list (available on www. warisan.gov.my) is meant to popularise Malaysia’s culinary delights worldwide and create greater awareness about the country’s heritage. It will also provide each dish with a heritage branding and help to boost business and tourism, giving a special “oomph” to Malaysian restaurants overseas.

Among the dishes in the heritage register are yee sang, mooncakes, Penang char kway teow, air batu campur, rendang, laksa, nasi lemak, teh tarik, putu mayam and roti canai.

In fact, about 40 dishes will be promoted at the National Traditional favourite Rendang Tok. Heritage Food launch during Malaysia Week at Potter’s Field Park in London from July 22 to 26. to issue heritage certificates, mini flags Zuraina says the department plans and leaflets to authentic Malaysian restaurants to distinguish them from those selling inferior stuff.

“When customers see the flag and certificate, they will be assured of eating authentic Malaysian heritage food,” she says in response to some London restaurants selling dodgy Malaysian cuisine.

Bitter experience

Air batu campur can give you a wonderful melt-inyour-mouth experience.

May 10-16, 2009

Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) London trade commissioner Abu Bakar Koyakutty has raised the issue of non-Malaysian eateries claiming to sell Malaysian food like laksa which was nothing but plain noodles with curry.

“They’re spoiling the market because foreigners will get a bad impression about Malaysian laksa and will not order it the next time,” he points out.

Champor-Champor Malaysian Restaurant’s Charles Tyler voices similar concerns, saying he had been to an expensive restaurant to eat rendang but it wasn’t the real thing.

“It was just some curry or stew, with no serai (lemongrass) or lengkuas (galangal) or anything,” he says of his experience with dubious Malaysian food.

Zuraina explains that a particular dish must have the major ingredients to be classified as heritage even if it is prepared differently.

For instance, nasi lemak has to contain the critical ingredients of santan (coconut milk), sambal tumis (sauteed chilli paste) and ikan bilis (anchovies), she says.

“Just as rendang must have santan, serai and lengkuas, although you may get 10 different types from 10 different restaurants,” she adds.

She notes that heritage dishes were chosen based mainly on two criteria— either it is synonymous with Malaysia or almost extinct.

Zuraina cites pulut kukus periuk kera (glutinous rice cooked in monkey pot plants) and ikan panggang tanah liat (grilled fish wrapped in clay) as examples of rare dishes.

“I myself did not know about pulut kukus periuk kera,” she says, adding the department was trying to revive such food.

Promoting Malaysia’s heritage cuisine can, indeed, help attract tourists, just as they are drawn to visiting the world’s heritage sites.

Above all, the people can submit their nominations to the department’s website for certain dishes to be included in the list, as it is continuously updated.

A committee will deliberate on the proposals and decide whether to include them in the National Heritage List of 100 top dishes or the Heritage List of 400 dishes. | 25 |

ENTERTAINMENT WAITING FOR THE DRAMA: Reality show hosts Panda (left) and Mandala on the set of TransTV top rated program Termehek-mehek.

How Real Is Reality TV? ‘Termehek-mehek’ proves how successful reality shows can be although sometimes they are suspected too good to be real JAKARTA

Matheos Viktor Messakh The Jakarta Post

W

hen life becomes boring, people turn to the drama of movies and soap operas. When these dramas become soaked in pathos, we stoop to the last resort: The reality show.

A huge number of reality TV programs have been flooding our screens recently, claiming to provide us with real footage of stories and events.

Covering a wide range of genres, from elimination game shows, dating competitions, makeover projects and talk shows, these programs have attracted millions of viewers.

With the lure of an hour of fame, re| 26 |

ality TV shows coax an inexhaustible string of participants willing to do anything from revealing personal stories, to eating bizarre animals to walking on fire in the jungle.

Reality TV contestants are sometimes criticised as “B grade” celebrities who occupy an absurd form of fame.

Despite the name, perhaps “reality” TV still uses the age old recipe of entertainment: conflict and dramas.

Even with these old-school elements, reality shows surpass the ratings of prime time soap operas.

Take Termehek-mehek, a program on TransTV where hosts — Panda and Mandala — help participants find their missing loved-ones.

The latest AGB Nielsen rating for March 2009 put Termehek-mehek on the top of the list of 100 programs from all stations nationwide.

May 10-16, 2009

May 10-16, 2009

imitated in real life.”

Andi Christianto, the executive producer of Shandiego Creative Media — a production house that produces reality shows for SCTV — said people misunderstood the term “reality show”.

For him, nothing is real in any program titled “show”, even when coupled with the term “reality”.

“Reality shows exploit real stories that we get from the audience. They can’t be as real. There are always some modifications. Even a documentary needs editing,” said the man who produced Cinta Lama Bersemi Kembali (Old Love blooms), Pacar Pertama (First Love), Backstreet, Cinta Lokasi, Mak Comblang (Matchmaker), Cinta Monyet (Puppy Love), and Hesitate.

Filming could even be repeated several times due to the poor acting skills of the cast.

“To be honest there is no filming that isn’t directed or that is not noticed by the people who are filmed,” he said.

Although the production cost of a reality program could be as low as half of the production cost of a scripted program, filming people without their permission, said Christianto, was risky and unethical.

“It’s trapping people. Who would dare losing million of dollar being sued?”

A set-up reality is not only related to risk of losing money, but also to time.

Therefore, events on screen are manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques.

“If we follow the event in real time, we would never meet the deadline. The filming takes about two hours and the editing take at least three days.”

In light of this, would you still watch reality TV? Perhaps, as we are driven by our thirst for real drama, reality TV won’t cut it anymore.

Or perhaps we will always thrive on the humiliation and conflict of others.

Either way, we seem to have turned a blind eye to “reality”.

Courtesy of TransT V

After success with Termehek-mehek, times we have to abandon the shots the station now produces other reality altogether.” programs such as Orang Ketiga (The Some also give their consent condiThird Person), Happy Family: Me vs tionally, requesting the footage be Mom, Makin Gaya (Get Stylish), Rea- shown only once or with blurred faces, ligi, First Love, and Jika Aku Menjadi street signs or license plate numbers.

(If I were).

The TransTV production departThe 2009 Panasonic Awards con- ment head, Roan Y. Anprira, said all firmed that TransTV is dominating the stories were based on true events, ratings war with its long list of reality but the production crews employed programs. “certain measures to achieve their Termehek-mehek, which started in desired effect”.

May 2008, was awarded the most popAnprira denied claims that some ular reality show, while the presenter of episodes were too good to be true, Happy Family: Me vs Mom, Ruben where for example, very complicated Onsu, was awarded the most popular problems were solved in very short reality show presenter. periods of time.

But how real is TV reality show?

Termehek-mehek executive producer Herny Mulyani said the popularity of reality shows was a response to the fact that many TV programs had been accused of being overtly unrealistic.

“We are trying to create something the audience can relate to as well as be entertained by,” she explained.

Reality TV shows plots were also more authentic and engaging than scripted dramas, said Herny.

TOO GOOD TO BE REAL?: A poster of the most popular “An affair would be much reality TV show in Indonesia Termehek-mehek. more interesting if it was real rather than scripted.

“People will feel the emotion if, “People don’t know how many failfor example, they watch people fight- ures we have been through during our ing for real or if they see our crews production. We only air successful being beaten.” projects, but we also have lots of unreDespite the “real” aspect of on screen solved stories,” he said. conflict, film crews often try to provoke However, he admitted that if crew emotional responses from their partici- members failed to locate certain people pants before the cameras start rolling. needed, relatives and friends would “We talk to people about their prob- take their place. lems. Sometimes we ask people related Social psychologist from Yogyakarta’s to the participants to work with us Gajah Mada University, Helly Soetjipalso,” she explained. to, doubted programs dubbed “reality” Herny said crew members filmed real actually presented the facts. negotiations that usually involved con“If these programs are real, it might flict, but did not air the footage without help people improve their self esteem. the consent of the people involved.

But if these programs are fake, then “At the end of the filming, we will TV stations have provided false knowlpersuade them to allow us to use edge about how to deal with life’s the footage. problems,” Soetjipto said. “The thing “Sometimes we succeed, other is, this kind of knowledge will be

| 27 |

ENTERTAINMENT

Meet John Rain The Japanese movie ‘Rain Fall’ brings paranoia to the big screen

TOKYO

Tom Baker The Daily Yomiuri

J

ohn Rain is a killer. He arrives unseen. He departs in silence.

The bodies he leaves behind rarely show any trace of foul play, as his specialty is deaths that look accidental or natural. Murder is simply a job for Rain, who falls upon the just and the unjust with equal coolness.

But Rain, a character created by American author Barry Eisler in the

| 28 |

2002 novel Rain Fall, and brought to life on the big screen by Japanese actor Kippei Shiina in Australian screenwriter-director Max Mannix’s new movie Rain Fall: Ame no Kiba, is only 99 percent cold-blooded.

For instance, Rain has a personal rule against killing women and children. Moreover, he finds himself attracted to - and having to protect - Midori Kawamura (Kyoko Hasegawa), a jazz pianist who doesn’t know that Rain used a handheld electronic device to give her father a fatal “heart attack” aboard a crowded Tokyo subway.

May 10-16, 2009

The Japanese-language movie (with a few English scenes featuring Gary Oldman) recently opens in Japan, with future releases in other countries yet to be announced.

Eisler and Mannix recently discussed the character and his story - including his efforts to evade today’s ever-present surveillance cameras - in separate interviews with The Daily Yomiuri.

“We had a few people put forth with respect to the male lead,” Mannix said, sitting at a conference table in the Tokyo offices of Sony Pictures. “We mutually agreed that Kippei would be great. And he was fantastic.

“I think the best bad guys are the guys that don’t look bad,” Mannix said. “I just didn’t want to go with that tried and tested, ‘He looks like a dangerous kind of character,’ because to me that defies the fact that he needs to be covert.”

The director praised Shiina for his versatility as an actor - his numerous credits include prominently billed roles in Spy Sorge, Shinobi and Sakuran - and other characteristics: “He had a reasonable height about him, and he just looked like someone who was very fit...For somebody who [was] 43, he has that look about him that says he has life experience.”

“As I picture him, Rain’s a goodlooking guy in the books, but not distinctively good-looking,” Eisler said, sitting in a corner of Hatou, a Shibuya coffeehouse that he used for a scene in the novel Hard Rain. (There are six John Rain books so far, and one of Eisler’s trademarks is his use of very specific real-life settings.)

“Mainly he’s got a talent for retracting his energy,” the author continued.

“I know some people who have this ability. They’re like ghosts. They don’t literally disappear; nobody can do that.

But they just have a talent. I knew some people at the CIA like this, too.

They just have this weird talent for not really being there...Whatever kind of energy we tend to put out to a greater or lesser extent as human beings, they May 10-16, 2009

have a talent for retracting that, and they can move into a room and no one will notice, no one will really remember...Rain is like that for sure - the book Rain. But I guess you can’t have someone on the screen who nobody notices.”

Eisler’s passing reference to the US Central Intelligence Agency came from the fact that, according to his Web site, he “spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center.”

The Rain books frequently reflect the author’s interest in martial arts, and his Silicon Valley experience informs his newest book, Fault Line, a non-Rain novel published recently.

Mannix’s first Japan connections were more prosaic, but no less relevant to his current work. The director visited as a tourist in 1991, and liked the country so much that he came back a few months later, settling in Sendai and finding work as an English teacher.

“I was the guy that was going to be here for a year,” Mannix recalled. “And then it rolled on, and as life is in Japan, it’s one of those beautiful places where you can really work yourself into a cycle that keeps you here.”

Eventually moving to Tokyo, he stayed in Japan until 1999, and later returned for another two years for a total of 11 years in the country.

He said that the initial language barrier made him more observant:

“You come here and the first decent part of it, you tend to just listen. And watch. And see people interacting. I found it quite educational from that perspective.”

Tokyo backstreet locations Most of Rain Fall was shot in Tokyo, which Mannix called “a great place...I think that cinematically it’s so attractive. We didn’t have a Hollywood budget, so I think it was really important to be able to locate places, locations that could really become a character themselves, and add to that sort of feel and grittiness of the story.”

While some of the film’s locations are widely recognisable, such as Shibuya Crossing, most of it is set in out-of-the-way corners, such as a cement-banked waterway under an elevated road or the backstreets of quiet, dilapidated residential areas.

Mannix explained: “Just looking at the character, and looking at the book as well, I thought it would be more realistic to put somebody who’s supposed to be covert in areas that [a long-term resident] would know...If you were laying low, where might you go? It might not be a good idea to go to places where a lot of different people go, places of tourism or shopping centers, because you cannot predict who’s going to be there.

On any given day it’s going to be a different turnover of people...so you can’t really identify that somebody might be coming after you.”

Instead, the director wanted places where, if a stranger was walking down the street “to a local they would stand out.”

“When we went to locations, it was, ‘OK, if he was here and something unexpected came up, would he be able to see it? How would he get out of this environment? And what would his chances be of survival in this location compared to another location?’ So, it was just trying to be true to a character that might have to save his life in every environment he was in,” Mannix said. | 29 |

Explore

More Than A Picture

There’s a reason why Tam Coc in the northern Vietnamese province of Ninh Binh rivals Ha Long Bay on tourists’ must-see list

NINH BINH

Thuy Hang Viet Nam News

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am Coc, also known as Ha Long Bay on land, is home to an awesome stretch of giant limestone karsts jutting out of the rice paddies surrounding a small river.

Located about 8km southwest of Ninh Binh City, or 100km south from Ha Noi, Tam Coc, which literally means ‘Three Grottos’, is a secluded oasis away from the big city.

The journey to Tam Coc starts from the Van Lam wharf—where visitors can step inside a typical scene from a northern village. There’s an ancient banyan tree, a river wharf surrounded by bamboo boats and a communal house. | 30 |

“The landscape is seemingly untouched by time and that’s the way locals want it to stay,” says Vu Thi Tuyet Nhung, a tour guide for Tam Coc-Bich Dong tourism management board. “Although tourism has developed over the past few years, they still want to keep the original features of the region.”

Tourist Tran Mui from HCM City, agrees. “Nobody uses motor boats here because they would disturb the natural landscape,” he says, gesturing to the bamboo boats tethered by the jetty.

“Although the boats look flimsy, they are a defining feature of this place.”

Bobbing up and down on one of the bamboo vessels, surrounded by the beautiful landscape and breathing in the fresh air—it’s idyllic, says Linh Nham, a visitor from Hoang Mai District in Ha Noi. “Coming here makes me feel

light-hearted and calm.”

Rocking boat

Once you push off from the jetty, your little boat will take you down the river, which winds like a silk ribbon around the limestone mountains.

Colours change with every season.

The bright green paddies that stretch out alongside the water turn golden when the harvest season comes in June. And come the wet season from August to September, the river is covered with purple water lillies.

It’s difficult to take a bad photograph here.

Krist Van Laere, a Belgian tourist, May 10-16, 2009

Perfect shot: The stunning landscape of Tam Coc attracts thousands of tourists every year.

Serenity: Foreign tourists enjoy the relaxing and peaceful landscape of Tam Coc.

says he came to Tam Coc after seeing a photo of the area in his travel guide.

“I was really impressed by the photo.

It was taken from above and showed the winding river, speckled with tiny boats, meandering through the rice fields.

When I came here, I realised the picture was completely faithful to reality. It’s so relaxing and peaceful here.”

Grotto extraordinaire

Floating downstream, visitors eventually come to Ca Grotto—the first of three grottoes on the Tam Coc tour. This natural piece of art, dripping with stalactites and stalagmites, is known across the country as

May 10-16, 2009

‘Nam thien de nhi dong’ (the second nicest grotto in Viet Nam). It is the longest and widest in the area.

If visitors come to the cave in the morning, they can see the cliff at the grotto’s entrance sparkling with the reflection of the dawn.

Once you enter the cave, it is dark and all other sounds seem muted apart from the gentle swish of oars as they sweep through the water.

Navigating the bamboo boats through the cave takes skill, says Hanoian tourist Nham.

“The rowers must be really good because they never bump into one another and seem to know exactly where they are going in the darkness,” she says.

Having emerged into the sunlight again, the next cave over the river is 60m-long Hai Cave, which opens like an enormous mouth filled with long, sharp teeth. Droplets of water fall

from the tips of the stalactites into the river.

The final grotto is only around 100m from there – named simply Ba Cave. It’s the shortest and the lowest cave on the journey. Visitors can reach up and touch the roof with their hands if they don’t mind being dripped on.

The next leg of the tour is on dry land—a trip to a small temple built by a local resident to worship the King of the Forest—Ong Ho (Mr Tiger).

According to tour guide Nhung, in the future, the tour will not end at this spot, but will go on to nearby Trang An Eco-Tourism complex and Hoa Lu, the capital of the country between 968 AD and 1009.

“The new trip should start in 2010,” she says.

By prolonging the tour to equally tranquil spots that are more than easy on the eye, you can’t really go wrong. | 31 |

Explore

Salt County

A trip to the coast of southern Chiayi and northern Tainan takes one to endless fields of what looks like vast, dirty mounds of snow | 32 |

TAIPEI

Richard Saunder The China Post

T

ake a quick jaunt along the coast of Taiwan’s southern Chiayi and northern Tainan counties and it soon becomes apparent what the major industry is (or rather was) in this part of Taiwan: salt.

Most of the ‘land’ here is under water in the form of mosaics of huge man-made ponds. Furthermore the character ‘yan’, the Chinese name for the salty stuff crops up in place names all over the area: Yancheng, Yanliao, Yanchengdi, Yantian, even Yanshui, site of Taiwan’s biggest adrenaline rush—the famous Beehive Rocket Festival, held every year at Lantern Festival time.

That same quick jaunt will also reveal that this isn’t one of Taiwan’s May 10-16, 2009

more scenically appealing areas: the mirror-like pools everywhere are intriguing at first, but it doesn’t take long to grow tired of the monotonous landscape. There are however several good reasons to come to this pancakeflat part of the island.

The area boasts several of Taiwan’s best temples, there’s excellent seafood and fish meals to be enjoyed at Budai Tourist Fish Market on the coast southwest of Chiayi City (not all the countless pools hereabouts are used for evaporating salt), and there’s the Black Faced Spoonbill Reserve at Chigu just north of Tainan City, a thoroughly ordinary and rather bleak stretch of coast which just happens to attract a large proportion of the world’s few remaining Black Faced Spoonbills, which spend winter here.

Chigu is famous not only for endangered birds however, but also for salt. The small, nondescript village is surrounded by huge shallow pools, used either for rearing fish or for evaporating salt.

Most of Taiwan’s salt industry is now automated, but in a couple of spots around Chigu, salt extraction is still done the old way.

Chigu’s most famous salt-related ‘attraction’ is the salt mountain.

Apparently the twenty metrehigh mound, which contains about 50,000 tonnes of salt is worth a staggering NT$120 million (US$3.53 million), but was abandoned here when processing salt this way became uneconomical.

It looks great in some older photos, but nowadays is an ugly tourist trap, looking for all the world like a vast, dirty mound of snow, and surrounded by tacky tourist advertisements such as boats, a little train, a model Santa and even a ‘Float on the Sea’ pool — a small highly saline swimming pool in which, Dead Sea-like, it’s impossible to sink. Lord help anyone who goes in there with an open cut, though!

Much more worth the time is the Taiwan Salt Museum, which stands beside the road near the salt mountain, in a modernistic new building May 10-16, 2009

designed to represent a huge pile of salt. The slightly steep admission fee (NT$150 or US$4.50 for adults) may put some off, but it’s worth paying up as it’s an impressive achievement, somehow managing to make the subject of salt far more interesting than I ever knew, although most of the exhibits are labelled only in Chinese.

Near the entrance is a gift shop selling everything you can imagine related to salt (and maybe a few things

mixing with the ground underneath.

Some are still filled with seawater (brought in from the sea via a system of ditches with water gates) placidly mirroring the blue sky above, while the water in others has already evaporated completely under the powerful southern sun, and the remaining layer of snow-white salt is swept up into small pyramids, one in the centre of each pool, ready to be dug up and piled in huge mounds beside the pools

you never imagined!) Try the walnut and almond salty ice cream, which actually tastes very good!

To get a feel for what’s entailed in making salt by hand, however, the best place in the area to go is to Jingzijiaou Uaban Salt Fields, signposted off the main route 17 a couple of kilometres north of Chigu, just south of the town of Beimen. This place is well away from the tourist crowds of Chigu, and on our visit one fine sunny Saturday in early April, with the short salt harvesting season at its height, we were the only visitors.

Here lies a compact series of irregularly shaped pools, their floors covered in a mosaic of little stones laid, like crazy paving, to prevent the salt

by a solitary lady and her wheelbarrow.

Signboards, happily in English as well as Chinese, explain the surprisingly complicated process of extracting salt from seawater by evaporation: from letting seawater into the first (and lowest) evaporation ponds until, 10 ponds later, the crystallised salt is dug out, takes over two weeks during the main salt-extracting season (March to May), although the process is begun afresh every three days or so.

Sounds like a lot of work to produce a pack of salt that costs so little at the local supermarket, but then, the info board informs us, each crystallisation pond here (and there are 98 in all) can produce 250 to 350 kilograms of salt every three days! | 33 |

DATE BOOK SO U T H KO R E A

Hi Seoul Spring Festival

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he Hi Seoul Spring Festival is a colourful exploration of Korean culture through performances across the capital. See fantastic street parades with traditional Korean band music, glorious reproductions of historical royal events, outdoor theatre, martial arts, dance displays and more.

Venues include the five Palaces of Seoul, Seoul Plaza, Cheonggyecheon Stream and Hangang River.

When: May 2 - 10 Where: Seoul

INDIA

P H I L I P P I N ES

Buddha Purnima

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Pulilan Carabao Festival

he Buddha Purnima festival is a triple whammy celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death all in one. Buddhist sacred sites and temples all over India are inundated with pilgrims.

The style of celebrations varies across the sub-continent, but all are awesome to be a part of as a spectator or devotee. In Sarnath, north of Varanasi, there tends to be a huge colourful fair on the site where the Buddha preached his first sermon. In Gangtok, East Sikkim, the streets fill with shaven-headed, maroon-clad monks who slowly process while meditating on sacred scriptures. If you are near Sanchi or Kusinagar, it’s well worth a visit there too.

Although the celebrations tend to be less colourful in Bodhgaya (where Buddha reached enlightenment under the Bodhi tree), there is plenty going on in most of its monasteries, guesthouses and of course, the main temple.

When: May 9

VIET NAM

Perfume Pagoda Festival

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ee a water buffalo like never before—oiled, shaved and generally ornamented - during the Pulilan Carabao Festival. Families gather their carabao, scrape off the mud, and even smarten them up by shaving their hair.

The clean pink flesh is then massaged with aromatic oil and dressed in crowns of frangipani and hibiscus! Every family then proudly brings their anointed buffaloes to the church square in a fabulous procession of floats and trucks decorated with flowers, fruit and vegetables. The priests ask the buffaloes to kneel and bless them, ensuring their good health and vitality for the coming year.

When: May 14 - 15 Where: Pulilan

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iet Nam’s longest festival is held at the beautiful Perfume Pagoda (Huong Pagoda), a stunning synthesis of natural scenery and local architecture that according to local beliefs is also Buddha’s heaven.

This important pilgrimage site is found amongst the many evocatively-named pagodas on the mountain. The place to worship Bodhisattva Kwan Yin and Buddha himself is reached after a sampan boat ride past peaceful farmland.

From Chua Thien Chu (Pagoda Leading to Heaven), a path winds uphill to the Perfume Pagoda itself, with refreshment stalls along the way. The long walk is worth the effort. On the way pilgrims can wash away some negative karma at the Clearing Unjust Charges stream. Further on are the stalactites and transparent white statues of Tien Pagoda. Pilgrims greet each other with A Di Da Phat, meaning generally “Praise Lord Buddha, may he bring us health and luck”.

When: Ongoing until end of May Where: Huong Pagoda

H O N G KO N G

Hong Kong International Art Fair

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t the Hong Kong International Art Fair, galleries from across the world bring their finest contemporary pieces to the Convention and Exhibition Centre for visitors to browse and buy. The “Art Futures” section focuses on new galleries and emerging talent.

London’s White Cube and Lisson galleries are among the 110 appearing at the 2009 Hong Kong International Art Fair. The list also includes Tokyo’s SCAI The Bathhouse and Galleria Continua from San Gimignano in Italy.

There are guided tours and talks for those who want to learn more about the art on sale. If your pockets aren’t deep enough for a genuine Picasso or Warhol, try the on-site bookshop for a more affordable souvenir.

When: May 14-17 Where: Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre