16-05-2014

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

thephuketnews thephuketnews1 thephuketnews.com Friday May 16 – Thursday May 22, 2014

Since 2011 / Volume IV / No 20

20 Baht

SIAM PARAGON OWNERS TO BUILD HUGE LOCAL COMPLEX > PAGE 3

OUT-IN VISA RUN IS DEAD The national commander of Thai Immigration, Lt Gen Pharnu Kerdlarpphon, has confirmed to The Phuket News that most “Out-In” visa runs by tourists will soon be a thing of the past

Tanyaluk Sakoot reporter2@classactmedia.co.th

t’s official: The country’s top immigration official, the Commander of Thai Immigration, Lt Gen Pharnu Kerdlarpphon, has confirmed to The Phuket News that “Out-In” visa runs by tourists are – apart from a very few exceptions – a thing of the past.

I

Speaking on Tuesday morning (May 13), Gen Pharnu said, “We have been very lenient about this.

I’ve had many comments about [our perceived excessive leniency].”

Several factors have come together to kill off the tourist visa run.

The first, as already reported in The Phuket News is fallout from the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

Two Iranian men boarded that

flight using passports that had been stolen or went missing in Phuket a couple of years before. Hence a tightening-up on passports was inevitable.

Gen Pharnu confirmed this was a factor, but another major concern is the number of foreigners working illegally, he said “Lots of nationalities come to Thailand on tourist visas but they come to work. I really want them to

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

@thephuketnews

do the right thing, not try to dodge around the law and evade taxes.”

He said that Russians, South Koreans and Vietnamese in particular are in the spotlight. “Immigration is keeping an eye on them.” That said, other nationalities will not escape notice.

“Out-in visa runs will still be possible but they have to show a credible tourism plan and give details of their accommodation to the officials.”

LIFE

LIFE PAGE 3

Gov Maitri on negotiation and solutions

SPORT

PAGE 30

Manchester City claim 2014 EPL crown

News 2

PHUKET NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

execeditor@classactmedia.co.th

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Phuket’s lifeguards will be back on the beaches in the next few days, says organiser > page 5

No more tourist visa hops Continued from page 1.

“Thirty days should be enough for a normal tourist.

If they really want to travel around the country for more than 30 days, then they must show us a plausible plan. If officers are suspicious, then they will carry out checks.

“If we believe their purpose in coming to Thailand is not what they say it is, then we will order them to leave and they will be blacklisted. They will not be able to return to Thailand, ever.”

He also confirmed that electronic fingerprinting of people arriving in Thailand will be introduced. “Yes, this is coming soon. We are now waiting for the budget to be approved. It is expensive so we will start by introducing it at international airports first.”

He said he did not agree with complaints that the effective end to visa hops would affect tourism. “I don’t think so. Tourists will still come to Thailand for holidays, but not to start businesses or get jobs.”

Gen Pharnu added, “If you are coming here not as a tourist, then please get the correct visa. Do it properly.”

Application of the new rules is supposed to be enforced from August 12 but is apparently already being applied at the Mae Sai crossing between Chiang Rai and Myanmar.

A would-be visa runner posted on the Thai Visa website that Immigration officers were turning everyone back on Saturday (May 10), and were apparently feeling the pressure themselves.

He wrote, “So every Westerner that had approached the Thai exit border to Myanmar they have refused to let leave

Into Myanmar and out again on the same day. No tourist will be able to get stamps like this after August 12. no matter how many stamps you have and what country,” he wrote.

“All they said is that you now have to fly out only. No more exit by land via a new regulation passed.

“When we asked for more information they got aggressive and angry, even though we are being nice and just confused.

I have evidence of money and address if need be but no matter who you are they aren’t allowing it.

“They keep saying ‘Talk to my boss in Bangkok’ and shoo us off and when we ask for the phone number they say ‘No, no number!’ And when we asked where the Immigration office is they refused to tell us where.”

Pol Col Sit Siriwankul, Superintendent of the Chiang Rai Immigration Office told The Phuket News, “We are following the same action because I really want the foreigners to get the right visa according to their purpose [in coming into Thailand].”

A sampling of other border

crossings revealed a variety of actions -- and attitudes.

Pol Lt Col Tauthong Thitchai of Surin Immigration, in whose territory is the busy Chong Jom crossing into Cambodia, told The Phuket News, “Bangkok Immigration published an order to be more strict. All immigration officers have to do the same.

“The main reason is the lost Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. So Thailand is being watched by other countries because the passports went missing in Thailand. And Immigration [in Bangkok] felt they had to do something about this. Yes, we have to do it.”

The Deputy Superintendent of Immigration Police in Mukhdahan Province, which is linked to Laos by the Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, said, “We will be strict in our checking of [tourists] and we will add a fingerprinting process for checking people.”

He explained that this was because the current blacklist of people barred from Thailand comprises only names “and

we can’t check if someone changes their name.

“But with fingerprints we can check and identify people.

All the information will be linked through a central Immigration database.”

In Yala Province – which includes the Sungai Golok crossing into Malaysia, Pol Col Preemadet Sarakul seemed to be taking a different tack.

“Actually, Yala Immigration is checking and doing the same action [as other crossings], such as checking the blacklist.

“But we are being strict with just four nationalities: Lao, South Korean, Vietnamese and Russian.”

So far at Ranong, the closest border crossing to Phuket, the big crackdown has yet to arrive, though tourists who have done multiple “out-in” trips to Myanmar are being given just seven days when they come back in.

They also get a warning that they must fly out of the country before that time expires and “get a proper visa from a Thai consulate” if they want

to come back in.

The reaction from visa run companies, who shuttle mostly tourists to the border and back so that they can do visa runs, has been equally mixed.

Vijaree Makjan, owner of Phuket Visa Run, told The Phuket News, “I already knew about the Ranong action – tourists can still renew three times.

“This concerns tourists directly. It will affect my company, but not much because the company is also set up to take people to Penang [in Malaysia] as well as for out-ins at Ranong.

Hareuthai Keninn, owner of KBV Visa Run said, “It will have an effect on our company and others but this is the Immigration rule. I have to respect it. It is good for people who live here. The rule is being applied because of problems that have happened [with tourists working illegally or committing crimes].

“The staff will ask tourists for information about the timings of their visas. So far we have not been affected by this [tightened] rule.”

But Ben Mansa, proprietor of Pen Phet Visa Run said, “ Yes! It is certainly affecting me.

I hope that Immigration will discuss their concerns with the Tourist Authority of Thailand and the Office of the National Security Council before they decide to apply this rule. In the long term it will affect tourism.

“After this rule was published on the Immigration website most customers asked us, ‘Doesn’t Thailand have visa runs anymore?’ I’ve spent days explaining the situation to them.

“But in the end, I have to follow the law and adapt my business as best I can.”

Jinda ‘Dada’ Noypanich.

Hunt is on for woman who busted out of paddy wagon POLICEMEN WERE LEFT scratching their heads on Tuesday (May 13) after they found that a woman they had arrested for dealing drugs the previous day had managed to escape from their paddy wagon.

Pol Lt Col Sopon Borirak of Karon Police explained that Jinda “Dada” Noypanich, 33, from Krabi, was one of six people rounded up on Monday for possession of drugs.

Dada was carrying 4.22 grams of crystal meth.

She was booked, photographed and fingerprinted, but police had a problem: Karon Police Station has just one holding cell, and that already contained five others, all men, arrested in the same police sweep of Karon.

They could not put her in the cell with the men, so they decided instead to lock her up in the paddy wagon.

The next morning, Dada was gone. How she escaped is a mystery.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Patong Hill bus curfew works well, say police T H E CU R FEW ON trucks and buses going up Patong Hill from the Kathu side during rush hours, introduced at the beginning of May, is going well, Pol Maj Aekarat Plaiduang, Superintendent of Thung Tong Police Station, says.

“We’ve had a few try to go up the hill when they are not allowed to (between 6am and 9am, and 4pm to 7pm),” Maj Aekarat told The Phuket News.

“Usually we warn them not to do it again. But we have fined a few of them B2,000 each for repeated [curfew violations].

“The problem now is old trucks and buses, some from other provinces, that go up the hill [at other times] and break down, causing traffic jams.

“We have called the truck and bus owners for a meeting to try to solve this problem, such as by trying to persuade them to buy new vehicles or at least to maintain and upgrade the old ones.”

@thephuketnews

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

PHUKET NEWS

3

Central rival to build B20bn mall in Phuket Alasdair Forbes & Wiparatana NaThalang editor@classactmedia.co.th

T

hailand’s Mall Group, arch-rival to the Central retail group, and developer of Bangkok’s iconic Siam Paragon mall, is to build a sprawling retail, hotel and entertainment development named Blu Pearl Phuket, not far from Tesco-Lotus on the bypass.

The project will be located on 150 rai of what is now coconut plantation on the left side of the road leading to Patong from the Sam Kong intersection on the bypass.

The B20 billion project will have upmarket shops, restaurants, a hotel element and a “themed tourist attraction”.

Plans also call for a large-scale water park.

Supphaluck Amputch, VicePresident of the group, explains, “It will consist of a convention and exhibition centre with a resort hotel and a world-class theme park on the 150 rai,

A model of the three main buildings of Blu Pearl Phuket complex, to be built not far from rival Central Festival. with 650,000 square metres of internal space.”

This will be The Mall Group’s second development outside Bangkok – the first was a Mall in Nakhon Ratchassima.

The group has six Malls in Greater Bangkok. The first was built in 1981 in Ratchadamri.

The group also owns Bangkok’s Emporium mall.

The Mall Group is on a B65 billion expansion drive at present. Due to open in 2016 is its B20 billion Bangkok Mall project in Bangna, which – the

company says – will be the biggest mall in Thailand, three times the size of Siam Paragon.

It is also working on a trio of complexes on Sukhumvit Rd – Emporium, The EmQuartier and The Emsphere, costing another B20 billion, and the Bluport Hua Hin Resort Mall Project, at a rather more modest B5 billion, in the middle of Hua Hin Town opposite the InterContinental Hua-Hin Resort Ms Supphaluck explains, “Our goal is to enhance Thailand to be the centre of busi-

ness, commerce and tourism in the Asean region and the world.

“The company succeeded in building Siam Paragon into a world-class retail and entertainment phenomenon and now [we are] ready to create a new history – something that never happened anywhere before.”

The huge expansion has apparently been sparked by the approach of the Asean Economic Community, due to take place at the end of next year, which will, The Mall Group says, “turn Thailand

into the centre of world communication, airport expansion and transportation network link between the countries in the region.”

Ms Supphaluck notes, “Tourists to Thailand are expected to increase from 25 million to 40 million in the next five years, with the main destinations being Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai.” The Mall Group clearly aims to take a sizeable chunk out of those tourists’ wallets.

4

PHUKET NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM Phuket Seven Day Weather Forecast

The Phuket News offers flexible advertising options both online and in print.

GENERAL MANAGER GENERAL MANAGER

Jason Beavan 086 479 7471

gm@classactmedia.co.th

www.foreca.com

FRI MAY 16

SAT MAY 17

SUN MAY 18

MON MAY 19

TUE MAY 20

WED MAY 21

THU MAY 22

High: +34° Low: +26°

High: +34° Low: +27°

High: +34° Low: +26°

High: +34° Low: +26°

High: +33° Low: +26°

High: +33° Low: +26°

High: +33° Low: +26°

Wind 18 km/h

Wind 22 km/h

Wind 11 km/h

Wind 14 km/h

Wind 18 km/h

Wind 22 km/h

One ‘black water’ source improving S

SALES MANAGER Jittiya (Tiya) Rakdej 088 754 1371

salesmgr@classactmedia.co.th

PR MANAGER Kanyapoj (Polly) Chaiprapan 088 765 5881 pr@classactmedia.co.th

PR ASSISTANT Prapawarin (May) Yangchan 088 766 1615 prassist@classactmedia.co.th

teps taken to solve the problem of black water flowing across the sand and into the sea at Karon Beach have improved the quality of the water.

Phuket Vice-Governor Jamroen Thippayapongtada, who visited the area on May 7, said the the water is cleaner, and no longer “rotten”.

Looking at the Nong Harn [reservoir] we saw a lot of black sediment and green algae. But there were also a lot of tiny fish and crabs living in the klong [flowing from Nong Harn] which indicates that the water is not bad. The water in Nong Harn is cleaner and clearer than before.”

The battle is not over yet, however. V/Gov Jamroen said.

“As a temporary solution, we dredged the klong, added oxygen, built an over-flow dam and installed a net to trap garbage so that it can be extracted before the treated water is released into the sea.

“In the medium term we will close up the area where the water flows from the waste water treatment and pump out excess wastewater, about 3,000

Hermit crabs are back in the klong, a sure sign that the water quality is improving. litres, into a small settlement basin to allow the sediment to settle out.”

V/Gov Jamroen noted, “The treated wastewater will have a high level of nitrogen which will cause the green algae to grow fast. When the green algae floats on the surface of the water, it will look scummy but actually it is not bad water.

Suphachai Nawikapoom, Academic Specialist from the Environment Department said “In February and April, we found that the average BOD [biochemical oxygen demand – a measure of organic pollution] in the water was about 4 milligrams per liter which is not bad.

“But if we do not let the

water flow, the green algae will grow for a period and then die and this will cause bad water.”

For the long-term solution, the existing, overworked wastewater treatment plant will need to be expanded. An application is to be made to the Environment Fund for a loan to cover the cost of this.

Suthicha Sirirat

Fire raises camp SALES REPRESENTATIVE Tatiana Kazaku 084 195 9910

sales@novostiphuketa.com

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

THREE FIRE ENGINES RACED TO A fire in a work camp in Soi Kokmoo near Simon Cabaret in Patong last Friday afternoon (May 9). Smoke from the fire could be seen from many parts of the town.

It took 15-20 minutes to put out the fire, apparently caused by faulty wiring. No one was seriously hurt.

A similar fire in Chalong on Wednesday morning destroyed a block of 20 labourers’ rooms. No one was hurt. Eakkapop Thongtub

Wind 22 km/h

Death of American tourist ‘is suspicious’ say police POLICE ARE TREATing as suspicious the death of an American found half-naked in his hotel in Patong on Monday night (May 12).

John Randolph Grieg, 58, was found lying on the floor next to his bed in the PL House guesthouse on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, wearing just a shirt.

There was a large patch of blood on the sheets of the bed, and on the dead man’s arms. A scarf was tied around his right ankle.

Police noted that various items – a lamp and books – were st rew n across the f loor, along with a bottle of injectable medicine used to treat asthma, and a photo of the dead man with a male friend.

The noted that Mr Grieg, a native of New Jersey, had bookings in the guesthouse from May 1 until next Thursday (May 15), and had prepaid with his credit card.

Although investigators tend to believe his death probably came about because of the asthma, they are also examining the possibility that there may have been a sexual angle, and they took security footage from the guesthouse to check for visitors to his room.

Eakkapop Thongtub

Police ‘closing in’ on second killer SALES SUPPORT Siriporn (Nok) Seangmas 086 479 7470 sales@classactmedia.co.th

ADVERTISING 076 612 550-2 ext. 600 Fax: 076 612 553 info@classactmedia.co.th www.thephuketnews.com 99/7 Moo 1 (Billion Plaza), T. Kathu, A. Kathu, Phuket 83120

POLICE SAY THEY ARE closing in on Maung Myo, the second of the two men accused of beating French tourist Fabrice Boigeol to death when they burgled his bungalow in Rawai on April 18.

Pol Col Sirisak Wasasiri told The Phuket News on Monday (May 12), “We are sure he is still in Thailand and has run off to another province,

because he keeps calling his mother.

“We had already interviewed all of the Burmese witnesses so we do not have to go looking for them after we catch Maung.”

The Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, Pol Col Santi Chainiramai, told The Phuket News, “We are still looking for Maung Myo.

The first man we arrested for the murder, Shwe Oo Dam, is currently in Phuket Prison.

“He is going through the legal process without waiting for the arrest of Maung, who is still on the run. What happens to Shwe will be up to the judge to decide.”

Shwe has admitted to the burglary but has blamed Maung for the killing. thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

PHUKET NEWS

Lifeguards will be back on beaches within days Wiparatana NaThalang reporter1@classactmedia.co.th

L

ifeg u a rd s w il l be ready to go back on the beaches in a few days, once 38 rescue boards have been repaired in order to comply with the terms of the contract, and once a performance guarantee has been organised with the bank.

Some volunteer lifeguards are on duty at beaches in the meantime but swimmers are advised that coverage is by no means complete.

Prathaiyut Jaiyuan, who is co-owner of Phuket Lifeguard Co, told The Phuket News last Friday (May 9), “We will get the documents from the bank in 8-10 days. We have had to pledge our house and land to get the performance guarantee under the terms of the contract.”

He explained that running the lifeguards on Phuket’s beaches is more a labour of love than a serious business.

“This lifeguard company gives us a return of no more

@thephuketnews

A Phuket lifeguard with one of the special rescue boards. than 10 per cent. Realistically, you need to get at least 30 to 40 per cent if you want to call it a real business. That’s why no one else bid for this contract.

“The contract is for 10 months only. We will get B22 million, which is B2 million more than last year, but that extra B2 million will go to

buying new boards, oxygen tanks, rescue tubes, air bags and stretchers.

“The boards have to be made and there is a queue for that. It will be two months before we can get them.

“So now we have 38 old boards that have to be restored to good condition before we can sign the contract. It’s our

responsibility to have all 38 boards ready before we can sign the contract.

“Now there are some volunteer lifeguards on some beaches – jetski people and some unpaid lifeguards who are free to help, and we just use boogie boards instead of our special boards, which we are repairing.

“Last year we saved 928 people from drowning. A total of 23 people died [around Phuket] though not all on our beaches – some deaths were at Racha Island or from sinking boats.”

Mr Prathaiyut said that he is now trying to find jobs for 20 lifeguards who are to be laid off under the terms of the new contract.

“The policy to cut 20 employees, leaving us with 88, comes from the OrBorJor [Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation]. We will help these 20 employees to get jobs as lifeguards at hotels or any other job we can find for them.”

The reduction in numbers will mean that the remaining 88 can receive pay rises. “The pay of the regular employees will be increased from B11,000 to B15,000 a month and for team leaders it will rise from B14,000 to B18,000.”

The increases are overdue, he said. “We have all been working for three years without a raise.”

5

IN BRIEF PATONG

Dumb move gets dealer locked up A Burmese man was arrested after he drove a motorbike down Bangla Rd early on Saturday morning (May 10).

At about 1.30am, the Burmese man, named Phiyo, zigzagged his bike down Bangla Rd, which at the time was closed to traffic.

After a few near misses with tourists, he was arrested by police, who, on giving him a pat-down, found he was carrying 120 methamphetamine pills.

He has been charged with having drugs for sale.

PATONG

Iguana photo touts arrested on Bangla Kathu police caught two iguana touts lizard-handed on Sunday night (May 11).

Arrested were Natapon Kensing, 23, from Bueng Kan and Sulkilif Jeke, 28, from Yala. They were charged with “annoying or bullying others in public, or causing others to be embarrassed or troubled”.

Eakkapop Thongtub

6

PHUKET NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Stricken Canadian alive thanks to Aussie pair Tim Shaw editor@classactmedia.co.th

C

anadian tourist Mike Reynolds was flown out of Phuket on Wednesday (May 14) in a medical emergency flight evacuation that will deliver him to a hospital in his home country.

Mr Reynolds, though still in critical condition, does at least have a fighting chance of recovery thanks to the intervention of two modest Australians.

The Australians, father and daughter Jason and Sophie Gollan from Cronulla, a beachside suburb of Sydney, were on hand when Mike almost drowned during a snorkelling trip in Phang Nga Bay on April 22. The near-drowning triggered a heart attack.

By a very lucky coincidence, the Gollans are both trained lifeguards. The training kicked in and they swam out to Mike and managed eventually, with help, to haul him onto a small rocky outcrop, all the while performing CPR. He and his daughter worked

Jason and Sophie Gollan back home. for 40 minutes to keep the 73-year-old Canadian alive, then continued their ministrations aboard the speedboat as it raced at breakneck speed back to Phuket where Mike was rushed to Bangkok Hospital Phuket.

Mike’s wife Dora, 52, received a call at midnight from her elder daughter Katie. “Dad had an accident and I need his medical numbers…”

Dora caught the first flight she could find from Canada to Phuket and rushed to join Katie at Mike’s bedside. They have shared the vigil ever since.

At the moment, although

his eyes are open, Mike is not responsive.

“The hospital have been stabilising Mike ready for this air ambulance evacuation,” Dora told Lunch on Live radio host Tim Shaw on Live 89.5 FM on Monday.

“He’s on a ventilator; they performed a tracheotomy last week to prepare him for [the] trip home to Canada.

“We play Mike music. We hope he can hear it,” Dora was concerned that she had not been able to thank the two Australians who kept Mike alive in the vital first moments. All they knew was

that the woman who helped was called Sophie.

After a national appeal for information on Australian radio and in newspapers this week, the two heroes came forward and Dora was able to meet them on Facebook and then speak with them during an interview organised by the Live 89.5 radio station.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Dora told them. “Words cannot express what you did for my husband.

You gave him a chance of life.”

She was also full of praise for the medical care her husband has received here in Phuket.

“The medical staff at the Bangkok Hospital Phuket have been fabulous. The doctor treating Mike has let me read the medical reports in English.

The nurses are wonderful.”

For the future Dora says, “There’s still hope that there is going to be some brain activity.

The doctors have been very honest with me, telling me Mike has a one-in-10 chance of coming out of this.

“But the chance is there.

We can only hope.”

Power company staff arrive to fix their pole. The Fortuner will need rather more work.

Power pole defeats hit-and-run driver A YOUNG MAN FROM Chiang Mai managed to cause chaos in the early hours of May 15 in front of Patong Stadium when, rather the worse for wear, he managed to hit a pedestrian with the black Toyota Fortuner he was driving, then a motorcyclist and finally, about 300 metres further on, a power pole.

In the third encounter the Fortuner came off worse. When police and rescue workers arrived, they found the car, completely undriveable, and its owner in a similarly wobbly condi-

tion, being helped out of the wreckage by locals.

Traffic police officers said the driver, Thanawat Janthong, 21, luckily did not kill anyone, but after injuring the pedestrian and the motorcycle rider he was apparently trying to flee, turning into Sai Nam Yen Rd and then Pisitkoranee Rd before his terminal encounter with the power pole.

He was charged with drunk driving causing injury and damaging state property.

Eakkapop Thongtub

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PHUKET NEWS

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

7

Nai Harn Beach Condominium going according to the plan SPONSORED

Thirty-five apartments at The Wide are to go on the block for as little as B1.35 million.

500 homes up for auction tomorrow

M

ore than 500 propeties with a estimated combined value of more than B10 billion will go under the hammer at a two-day property auction in Phuket this weekend (May 17 and 18).

The live auction event, organised by the Phuket Real Estate Association, will take place at Boat Lagoon Resort between 9am and 4pm on both days.

Thanusak Phungdet, President of the Phuket Real Estate Association (PREA), said that if this event is successful the PREA plans to hold similar

@thephuketnews

auctions at least twice a year in the belief that auctions will help boost the Phuket property market.

Highlights of this weekend’s auction include 72 units at Art Patong, ranging in size from 27.11 sqm and discounted by up to 30 per cent for prices starting at B2.9 million.

Some 28 units at the Pine and Palm Building at the Karon Hill development, priced from B3.3 million will also come under the hammer at discounts of up to 25 per cent.

Twenty nine units at Phuket Villa Patong, ranging in size

from 42 sqm to 81 sqm and priced from B3.8 million will also be auctioned at up to 40 per cent discount.

Another 35 units at The Wide, near Daorung School on the edge of Phuket Town will start at 32 per cent, with prices from B1.35 million.

Another auction, this time using the sealed bid method, will take place towards the end of the month, featuring land plots and hotels, according to the PREA. For more information email: prea.auction@gmail.com.

DDProperty.com

CONSTRUCTION OF NAI HARN BEACH Condominium is going according to plan.

The structure of the first of the two buildings is already complete and is now being fitted out. The second building is also in progress: the basement and ground floor are finished and the whole building will be ready in July.

The developers of the project say this is exactly the phase they have been planning. A series of factors might have influenced the tempo, but the firm managed to prevent any delays.

Nai Harn Beach Condominium is scheduled to be finished and ready to accommodate residents by the end of the year.

The official opening of the complex is scheduled to take place between December 30 this year and January 30, 2015.

Nai Harn Beach Condominium is located in an ecologically clean, green zone within walking distance of Nai Harn Beach, the third most popular beach in Southeast Asia.

The complex consists of two sevenstorey buildings with a total of 50 apartments. Some are still available for purchase,

in particular several units on the top floors that offer stunning sea views.

Units located on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors offer sea views, while the lower floors face the mountains.

The apartments are available at prices ranging from B2.99 to B15 million. Buyers can choose between a 45sqm one-bedroom unit or two types of two-bedroom units, one covering 76 sqm and the other115 sqm.

In two-bedroom units design, one of the bedrooms is designed to be a children’s room with window locks and other child-friendly attributes.

Furniture packages are available at B400,000 for the studios and B500,000 for the two-bedroom units.

Common facilities include a big Desjoyaux Pool with a special children’s zone, a club house, café, children’s playground, car parking and laundry, while 24 hour security will guarantee safety of the residents and their guest.

According to the developer’s estimates, by the time the project is finished the prices will be 25 to 30 per cent higher than now – they are increasing at 5 per cent a month – though for now the most affordable unit in Nai Harn Beach Condominium is still priced at B2.99 million.

8

PHUKET FOCUS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

The stink that won’t go away Wiparatana NaThalang reporter1@classactmedia.co.th

he final solution to the sickening rancid stench coming from the Bang Yai canal in the north part of Phuket Town remains far from a reality.

This is despite officials’ latest measures to tackle the problem by installing ozone treatment machines last week to aerate and oxygenate the filthy water at one of the main accumulation sites.

“This solution only addresses the symptoms, but it ignores the source of the problem,” exclaimed Jaipet Hatthakham, owner of Phuket Butterfly Garden, which is located next to the small waterway where much of the foul water from the entire neighbourhood accumulates.

It was here that Phuket officials on May 12 oversaw the installation of the ozone machines to treat the foul water before it is released into Klong Rassada, which flows into Klong Bang Yai. Mr Jaipet told The Phuket News that he and local residents suspect that most of the foul water derives from a food producing factory in Rassada,

T

while the rest is from untreated sewage and kitchen waste from various housing estates and villages in the area.

When asked whether his establishment was contributing to the sump of blackness accumulating next to his property, Mr Jaipet said, “We have our own pond and water treatment system on site.

“We recycle most of the water we use and the only water we discharge [into the municipality waterway] is no more than 10 litres a day from our kitchen.”

Twice in the past 13 months the stench in Klong Bang Yai – the island’s biggest waterway – has been so bad, particularly in the area around the bridge near Bangkok Hospital Phuket, that people have reported feeling physically ill.

Twice the problem has been inspected by Governor Maitri Inthusut – in February this year, and April last year.

Each time stop-gap measures have been employed.

But the stink comes back, especially in the dry season, when there is little water to keep the effluent moving.

Following the latest outcry

by Sam Kong residents late last month, The Phuket News went

One of the measures being taken to clean up the filthy black waterway is to pump clean water into it. This creates a bizarre foam on the surface. to have a look at the accumulation of foul water on the site next to the Butterfly Garden.

We found a small moat filled with rancid, stagnant, bubbling black water, ending at a small watergate, where several men were using dieselpowered pumps to move the water further east to the site of the newly installed ozonation machines.

We met Mr Tairat Tiawtrakul of Eastern Thai Consulting 1992 Ltd. “I’ve been hired to operate this [ozone purification] machine, and it definitely is working,” he said, showing us four PET bottles full of green and yellow water.

But the difference has yet to be realised downstream in Sam Kong.

“I haven’t noticed any difference in the past three days [since the installation of ozone machines near Soi Panieng],” said one Sam Kong resident, who asked not to be named.

“It seems worse than before!”

The man, who said he’d been living in the area for over 35 years, told The Phuket News, “I’ve been smelling this horrible smell for a long time. Four different Phuket governors have tried to solve this problem.”

He explained that the governors had tried everything from pumping the sediment out of the water, adding EM (Effective Microorganism) balls and purifying the water with ozone treatment.

But their measures only

temporarily relieved the stench, the problem would always return with the hot, dry weather.

“I have a food shop next to the bridge [on Yaowarat Rd near Bangkok Hospital] in Sam Kong. When my customers were eating and they smelled this horrible smell, they just walked out.”

At times the smell was so bad that he and other locals resorted to using cloth sacks to cover the metal grills above the drains, temporarily masking the horrible smell miasma.

“Before all these problems started [in Sam Kong], the water used to flow into a klong near the Thai Village [estate] behind Rajabhat University. But when the water there started to become foul, the villagers built a dam to stop the bad water flowing into their klong.”

As a result, the dirty water was diverted to other problem spots, he said.

He added that the building several years back of Sam Kong 1 community, comprising some 150 homes, forced yet another diversion of the waterway, this time causing floods in the village of Mu 5.

“So we had to close the watergate to prevent flooding. The water got dirtier and smellier. It also leached into the public lake.”

To prevent further flooding of Mu 5 and leaching into the public lake, villagers had to shut the watergate and build a retaining dyke between the moat and a public lake. They have to be careful how often and for how long they open the watergate.

“This bad water f lows through Sam Kong via Klong Bang Yai and ultimately out to sea at Sapan Hin.” He and other villagers say that the main source of stinking effluent is the food factory.

“Three years ago, I used to ride my motorcycle past one of the [food production] factories.

I could smell a rotten, sour, smell then, and it was getting stronger by the day.”

He noted that it was possible to tell the type of food being produced from the colour of effluent, which he said changed from white in the morning to yellow in the afternoon.

“I would like to tell government officers to preserve Phuket’s environment... This problem needs to be taken care of constantly, not just when people complain or protest.”

The man added that the food factory has cleaned up its act following recent inspections by the Department of Industry.

“If you go to the waste water treatment facility of the factory now, the water [coming out] will be clean because the Department of Industry came on April 1 and told them that if they dump any bad water again, the factory will be shut down.”

“We have the telephone number of the Industry Department which we can call any time we smell rancid water.”

Now comes the problem of dealing with all the effluent coming from the constantly multiplying homes that are not connected to any kind of sewerage.

thephuketnews

Opinion THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

OPINION

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

9

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/thephuketnews

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @thephuketnews

editor@classactmedia.co.th

TOP 10 STORIES ON thephuketnews.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chiang Rai’s famed White Temple smashed by quake Strict new immigration regulations mean crackdown on visa runs Distraught husband petitions hospital for explanation after wife and son die after childbirth Immigration clarifies Phuket visa run ‘crackdown’ Immigration boss confirms the Out-In visa run is dead Missing MH370 ‘behind visa run crackdown’.

Fingerprints next?

Siam Paragon owners to build huge complex in Phuket Death in Phuket of US tourist ‘suspicious’, say police Thai men biggest cheaters, small penis size blamed Phuket death hill curfew ‘working well so far’ – Police

Visit thephuketnews.com for all the latest news

EDITORIAL

Good and bad news

W

e in the news industry often shine a spotlight on the negatives, but the truth is that bad news sells. According to a Pew Research Center survey of news preferences in the US over 20 years, readers’ interests have remained broadly the same: war, weather, disaster, money and crime.

It should be no surprise then when we put stories on the front page that involve murder, blockades of roads, dirty klongs, and boat sinkings – it’s what you want.

There is also a case for saying that if we – and here I refer to the fourth estate – didn’t highlight some of these horrific crimes, as well as issues of land grabs, environmental degradation and road accidents, action may never get taken to solve them.

Of course, we can’t get

on our high horse and claim to be the white knight bringing justice to Phuket, but we most certainly play our part, along with the community at large, in clamouring for change where it is needed.

However, this does mean that when things do start to change that we also have a duty to report it.

There have been two major announcements this week that may shake up Phuket as we know it. The first was the appointment of Michael Ayling, former Managing Director of Laguna Resorts and Hotels (LRH), as MD and General Manager of Royal Phuket Marina (RPM).

As we pointed out in our news story, RPM, although it has never had any trouble attracting yachts or selling apartments, has struggled to develop the hoped-for retail

and restaurant business. Mr Ayling’s appointment should help “create a buzz” that will bring people in from outside.

The second piece of big news was the announcement that Thailand’s Mall Group, which owns Bangkok’s giant iconic Siam Paragon mall, is to build a huge retail, hotel and entertainment development named Blu Pearl Phuket.

Located almost opposite the recently revamped TescoLotus and just down the road from Central Festival (which itself is planning a large expansion), the plans reinforce the image of Kathu becoming the new ‘CBD’ of the island, Phuket’s own Siam if you will.

It is yet further proof that – no matter how much bad news we hear – Phuket is containing to move forward.

In other words, it’s a positive development. That ain’t bad.

A few days ago I disembarked at the Phuket long-distance bus terminal on Thepkrassattri Rd after a 12 hour bus ride from Bangkok. The bus fee was B680.

Wanting a taxi home to Kathu I found my way to the first of two information counters, one at the rear of the terminal and the other at the front entrance, but the prices I was confronted with, along with other foreign travellers, left us almost speechless.

When expressing my disbelief at the prices the young woman behind the counter fiercely defended “my boss’” right to charge whatever she wanted to charge.

The young girl said I wasn’t the first to complain. A local “taxi” employee tout yelled at me if foreigners didn’t like the fees then they should go home.

I asked about ‘local’ bus services. “No. There are no local bus services at the local station.” Tuk-tuks? “No. No Tuk-tuk services.” What about metered taxis? ‘No, there are no metered taxis in Phuket.”

I was offered a ‘discounted

price to Kathu, about 8 km away, of B400, normally B450.

Frustrated, I walked out of the terminal and bargained with a passing tuk-tuk that cost B200.

Allai

Rules are rules [Re. Strict new immigration regulations mean crackdown on border runners] After more than 20 years of travelling to Thailand I get more and more confused with the constant visa changes.

Fifteen years ago I bought a condominium, before buying I was informed I needed a non immigrant ‘O’ visa to put the condominium into my name. I travelled to the Thai embassy in Malaysia, explained my situation and was issued with one no problem.

Ever since then I have received the same visa, a one year multiple entry non immigrant ‘O’ visa from the Thai consulate in Hull in the UK. Last year I was told by Hull they were no longer able to process non immigrant ‘O’ visas and I would have to apply to the Thai embassy in London.

It took many phone calls

over a few days to get anyone to answer my call. When I finally got a answer they informed me that I needed the equivalent of B800,000 in a UK current account, I said I had much more in a instant access savings account.

The answer was no – without the money in a current account and three months worth of bank statements I could not apply for the visa, so the next time I travelled to Thailand I had to use a double entry tourist visa.

Before I left the UK I put the equivalent of B800 000 into my current account and thought on my return I would have no problems applying for my visa.

I phoned the embassy yesterday and yet again another change – now only if you are over 65 or have a Thai wife can you apply for a one year multiple entry visa.

I am neither over 65 nor have a Thai wife but I have a condominium, car and motorbike driving licences, a bank account, hundreds of Thai and foreign friends, and over the years I have spent millions of baht in Thailand.

Editor

SIMON OSTHEIMER Managing Editor editor@classactmedia.co.th From Hong Kong; a decade’s experience as editor of magazines and newspapers in Shanghai (City Weekend, that’s Shanghai), Beijing (tbjhome, Urbane), Hong Kong (Time Out Hong Kong), Kuala Lumpur (Vision KL), Bangkok (Bangkok 101) and Phuket. Contributor to Esquire, Fah Thai, Tiger Tales, Conde Nast Traveler, Silkroad, Vacations & Travel, Travel & Leisure, Voyeur, SCMP, CNN, Surface, Dwell and others.

ALASDAIR FORBES Executive Editor 087 884 9964 execeditor@classactmedia.co.th From the UK; 40 years as a journalist and editor on magazines and newspapers in the UK, Middle East, Hong Kong and Thailand: Cheshire Observer, Chester Chronicle, Saudi Gazette, Gulf Mirror, Gulf Construction, Gulf News, Hongkong Standard, Asian Business (Editor) and Phuket Gazette (Managing Editor for seven years).

CLAIRE CONNELL News Editor editor1@classactmedia.co.th From New Zealand; BA (English) from University of Otago; Diploma in Journalism from the University of Canterbury. Five years’ experience at Gisborne Herald and Marlborough Express.

J.P. MESTANZA editor2@classactmedia.co.th From USA; Degree in Journalism and Media Studies, from Rutgers University. Three years experience at The Jersey Journal, Sports Page Magazine, and My9 News.

I have never overstayed my visa or committed any crime. So why the crackdown on people like me?

Bill 1960 Anyone that wants to stay here long term should abide by the rules. It’s because of the idiots that don’t, that law abiding expats suffer being tarred with the same brush.

Geoffphuket Brilliant tactic if you’re trying to reduce the amount of tourist dollars entering your country.

Josh Daley You serious? What does this have to do with tourists? It’s cracking down on illegals who are working in Thailand with no visas, paying no tax, and stealing jobs from Thai people.

Max Grant I agree with all of your comment. This island already has so many foreigners and expats living here – Saiyuan doesn’t even look like Thailand any more because it’s easy to come and live here.

JayJay

Have an opinion? Comment on stories at thephuketnews.com @thephuketnews

KODCHANAT THINSEPON

Sport Editor

HAVE YOUR SAY Taxi trauma

CONTACT US

Email: editor@classactmedia.co.th Phone: 076 612 550

STEVEN LAYNE Life Editor editor3@classactmedia.co.th From the USA; BA in Communication Arts from Bangkok University International College; six years’ experience at Nation Junior Magazine, Bangkok Recorder, Phuket.net, Farangs.com and Phuket Gazette.

WIPARATANA ‘TAMMY’ NATHALANG Reporter 083 103 7632 reporter1@classactmedia.co.th

ANTHIKA ‘SRIPRAE’ MUANGROD Reporter 091 165 0259 reporter4@classactmedia.co.th

TANYALUK ‘MANGO’ SAKOOT Reporter 091 165 0260 reporter2@classactmedia.co.th

NISAKORN ‘SAI’ KITTIPRAPANANT NIPAPORN ‘JANE’ SANGKRIT NATASUANG ‘SATANG’ BUSARANON ATHIKOM ‘KATY’ KEYURANON Graphic designers

ADVERTISING

076 612 550-2 ext. 605 Fax: 076 612 553 info@classactmedia.co.th www.thephuketnews.com

99/7 Moo 1 (Billion Plaza), T. Kathu, A. Kathu, Phuket 83120

10 THAILAND NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Prayuth: We listen, we don’t decide Wassana Nanuam

I

t is not up to the top brass to decide on the Rattha Bukkhon group’s proposal seeking His Majesty the King’s intervention to help solve the political impasse, it is for the whole of society to decide, army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday.

However, he praised the group for at least proposing a way out, unlike people who seek only to blame others without regard for the damage being caused to the country.

Former supreme commander Gen Saiyud Kerdpol, leader of Rattha Bukkhon (State Citizens) group, on Monday submitted letters to the chiefs of the three armed forces asking them to seek His Majesty the King’s advice on bringing the kingdom out of the political crisis.

Gen Saiyud said he would wait for their answers until Wednesday. Details of the contents of the letters were not made public.

Gen Prayuth said he had received the letter and had read it. He said he “only listened” to the group’s proposal. He did not indicate how the military

Thai Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha (right) shows the way to former Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan (left) as they visited troops and received a briefing on the border situation at a military base at Kantharalak district of Si Sa Ket province near the Thai-Cambodian border on February 9, 2011. Photo: AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul chiefs would respond to it.

“We only listened to it.

It’s only his idea, and he is not forcing anyone [to agree with it]. He only proposes it for consideration,” Gen Prayuth said.

The armed forces chiefs last week discussed the plan

for an interim government under Section 7 of the constitution being pushed by People’s Democratic Reform Committee leader Suthep Thaugsuban and Rattha Bukkhon, which comprises retired senior military personnel.

They agreed then that the

option was not appropriate as it could disturb His Majesty, who is the King for all Thais, according to a military source.

Gen Prayuth said society should not put blame on Rattha Bukkhon for proposing a controversial option, as all Thais should have the right

to come up with a proposed solution.

The proposal by Gen Saiyud and his group was only one of several being offered to bring the country out of the crisis, Gen Prayuth said, adding that everyone wanted to help restore peace and normality to the kingdom.

“Whether such an option can be done or not, it depends on the rules, acceptance, propriety and many other factors that need careful study to ensure it would not create more conflict in the future,” Gen Prayuth said.

“It’s not about if soldiers agree or disagree it can proceed right way. There are many more procedures and authorities with direct responsibiities to consider this matter.”

The army chief said he admired the Rattha Bukkhon group for its loyalty to the royal institution and its good intention in trying to restore peace to the country.

“They are better than many people who do nothing and only blame others, people who don’t even think about how much damage has been done to the country,” he said. Bangkok Post

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

IN BRIEF CHIANG RAI

Far north suffers fresh earthquake The National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) Tuesd ay conf i r med a 5-magnitude earthquake shook Chiang Rai’s Mae Lao district on Monday evening. Group Captain Somsak Khaosuwan, the N DWC di rector, said the centre did not make an off icial an nouncement after the quake occurred at 6.05pm because it did not significantly impact local residents.

NARATHIWAT

Bombers ‘caught on CCTV’ Police have said that progress has been made in the investigation into a spate of bomb explosions in Narathiwat and security measures will be beefed up to boost public safety.

An intense investigation has been launched into the coordinated bomb blasts that went off in eight locations in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district on Sunday night, killing one person and injuring nine others.

*TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY FOR THE RENTAL PROGRAM. ALL MATERIALS, PLANS, SPECIFICATION IN THIS MARKETING MATERIAL ARE ARTIST’S IMPRESSION WHICH SERVES ONLY AS GUIDELINE FOR A GENERAL CONCEPTUAL IDEA OF THE PROJECT. THE COMPANY RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE AND/OR CORRECT DETAILS WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE FACT SHEET INCLUDING ALL PHOTOS, MAPS, FLOOR PLANS IS FOR REFERENCE ONLY AND SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE OR BE CONSTRUED AS MAKING ANY OFFER, REP RESENTATION, UNDERTAKING, PROMISE OR WARRANTY. THE INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS MAYBE APPROVED BY AUTHORITIES AND CANNOT FORM PART OF AN OFFER OR CONTRACT. ALL PLANS ARE SUBJECT TO ANY AMENDMENTS APPROVED BY THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES. FLOORS AREAS ARE APPROXIMATE AND SUBJECT TO FINAL SURVEY. WHILE THE BEST ENDEAVOR HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE HIGHEST ACCURACY OF ALL INFORMATION INCLUDED HEREIN AS OF THE DATE OF PRINTING THIS FACT SHEET, ITS OWNERS OR AGENTS CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INACCURACIES. DATE OF PRINTING: APRIL 2013 PROJECT OWNER: AMARI ESTATES PHUKET CO., LTD., WITH A REGISTERED CAPITAL OF BAHT 32,000,000 (THIRTY TWO MILLION BAHT) ( 78 % PAID UP). REGISTERED ADDRESS: 2013 NEW PETCHBURI ROAD, BANGKAPI, HUAY KWANG, BANGKOK 10310, THAILAND. SITE LOCATION: LAND HELD UNDER TITLE DEED NO. 14324, PATONG SUB-DISTRICT, KATHU DISTRICT, PHUKET PROVINCE. PROJECT AREA: 18 RAI 2 NGAN 73.3 SQ.WAH. ALL LAND UNDER THIS PROJECT BELONGS TO ITALTHAI REAL ESTATE CO.,LTD. WHICH LEASES THE RELEVANT PROJECT LAND TO THE PROJECT OWNER PURSUANT TO THE APPLICABLE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND ALL LAND IS FREE OF ENCUMBRANCE. CONSTRUCTION COMMENCEMENT AND COMPLETION DATES: APPROXIMATELY Q3 2012 AND APPROXIMATELY Q4 2014

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Syria envoy Brahimi: mission impossible L

akhdar Brahimi, who gave up Tuesday after trying unsuccessfully to mediate an end to Syria’s civil war, has spent his career in the diplomatic trenches of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

The 80-year-old Algerian succeeded in cajoling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its fractious opponents to two rounds of peace talks in Geneva this year but failed to halt the civil war, which has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced millions since March 2011.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced the resignation in New York,with Brahimi standing beside him, saying it would be effective from May 31.

Brahimi, one of the world’s most respected veteran envoys, had been involved in high-stakes diplomacy for long enough not to set expectations very high.

“I’m not disappointed, because I did not expect any result this first time,” he said of the glacial pace of talks back in January, warning that there was no “magic wand.”

But in the months since the gulf between the two sides has grown even wider, with Syria scheduling a presidential election for June 3 despite Brahimi’s warning that doing so would sound the death knell for the negotiations.

Lakhdar Brahimi, United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, gave his resignation on Tuesday. Photo: AFP/Stan Honda And the United States and Russia, which had strongly backed Brahimi’s efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, are now bitterly split over the crisis in Ukraine.

Brahimi was known for bringing patience, pragmatism and a healthy dose of humour to the many impossible missions he embarked on, and Syria was no different.

“At this rate, we’ll need 20 years. You’d better hurry up, as I won’t be around in 20 years,” he reportedly told the Syrian delegates in Geneva.

As a veteran of Algeria’s war of independence against colonial

ruler France over five decades ago, and later as foreign minister, Brahimi carries weight in the Middle East, and was the envoy of both the United Nations and the Arab League.

“The fact that he speaks Arabic, the fact that he understands the culture, must play a role,” Syrian opposition spokeswoman Rafif Jouejati told AFP. Brahimi, also fluent in French and English, earned his spurs in 1989 by helping the Arab League broker the deal that ended Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.

He was UN envoy to South Africa during the watershed 1994

elections that saw Nelson Mandela win office, then moved on to civil war-torn Yemen.

After serving as UN envoy to Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, he was sent to Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein.

Former war correspondent Harriet Martin, who profiled Brahimi in her 2006 book on mediators, Kings of Peace, Pawns of War, described him as a charming, clever strategist with a dry sense of humour.

“He also has a quiet sense of his own power – and the limits of it. Unlike other mediators, he is not intimidated by the big diplomatic power games he is often caught in the middle of,” she told AFP. “For a man of 80, his patience is limitless,” said Ghassan Salame, dean of the School of International Affairs in Paris, who knows Brahimi well.

“He looks for the soft spots of belligerents and works towards the final goal despite the rocky road”.

In the case of Syria, however, that road seemed to hit a dead end, with the regime following up on a string of battlefield victories with a controversial election, the opposition plagued by infighting and the international community as divided as ever. AFP

AirAsia to screen for lost or stolen passports IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENTS IN very few countries in the world are linked into the Interpol database of missing and stolen passports. Thailand, for one, is not.

But later this month low-cost carrier AirAsia will begin using Interpol’s I-Checkit system to screen the passports of all its prospective passengers against the world police body’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database.

Once implemented later this month the pilot project will see AirAsia become the first airline to integrate I-Checkit with its check-in systems across its entire international network, allowing passenger passport numbers to be compared with the more than 40 million records from 167 countries contained in the database.

I-Checkit will allow the airline to query the SLTD database but not gain direct access to it. With the pilot project respecting national legislation linked to data protection, no personal data will be transmitted to Interpol, with only the travel document number, form of document and country code screened against SLTD. Should a passenger’s passport register a positive match against the database, AirAsia has procedures in place that will, as the airline puts it, “refer the passenger to local authorities”.

Interpol’s procedures would simultane@thephuketnews

From second left: Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia Bhd; Roland K. Noble, Interpol Secretary General; Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X Bhd. ously be engaged to notify all relevant Interpol National Central Bureaus worldwide.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, said, “AirAsia is extremely pleased to be the first airline globally to collaborate with Interpol to implement I-Checkit.”

The I-Checkit system will be deployed across all of AirAsia’s international operations in 100 airports across Asia and 600 international flights a day to more than 20 countries worldwide.

In the event of a positive match registered via I-Checkit, alerts for further verification

will also be sent to Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in the country that owns the travel document data, and to Interpol’s General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France.

“Interpol is very proud to be piloting I-Checkit with AirAsia. This will raise the bar across the industry for passenger safety and security by preventing individuals using stolen or lost passports from boarding international flights,” said Interpol SecretaryGeneral Ronald K Noble during his visit to AirAsia operations at Kuala Lumpur’s recently-opened KLIA2 terminal.

ASIA NEWS 11

12 WORLD NEWS

IN BRIEF FRANCE

Minister defends sale of warships French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius defended Tuesd ay i n Wash i ngton the sale of two warships to Russia, despite US opposition – while leaving open the door to re-examine the contract in October. Per a 2011 agreement worth US$1.2 billion, France is to deliver two Mistral warships – an advanced helicopter assault ship – to Russia. The first is due October 2014 and the second in 2015.

BRAZIL

Leader warns against violence Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday her government accepted people’s right to demonstrate during the World Cup but warned that it would not tolerate violence. With less than 30 days to go, military police deployed to the streets of Rio to protect buses that were running in the face of a strike by drivers, although angry drivers still damaged 74 buses and there was travel chaos.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Biopic hits and flops: celluloid at Cannes Helen Rowe

A

great or glittering life is no guarantee of a gripping biopic, say film-makers, as the Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday with the first big screen adaptation of the life of Monaco’s Princess Grace.

From Alexander the Great to Princess Diana by way of Jerry Lee Lewis, Amelia Earhart and J Edgar Hoover, cinema is littered with biopic turkeys that promised much but fell flat at the box office.

Even before its release, this year’s Cannes opener Grace of Monaco, with Nicole Kidman as the former Hollywood star Grace Kelly who married her prince, has had its fair share of controversy.

The princely Grimaldi family has branded the film a “fiction” and will boycott the premiere while a transatlantic row over editing between French director Olivier Dahan and US distributor Harvey

Australian actress Nicole Kidman listens to British actor Tim Roth on the eve of the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in France, on May 13. Photo: AFP/Loic Venance Weinstein has made headlines.

And while publicity – of any kind – often helps a film, Dahan will be hoping his movie can avoid the kind of critical mauling meted out to another recent biopic, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Diana.

Like Grace, Diana married a prince in a “fairy tale”

wedding and captivated the world public before dying in a car crash.

Her life was hardly short on drama but Hirschbiegel’s 2013 film starring Naomi Watts as Diana bombed when it was released, taking only around US$60,000 (B2 million) on its opening weekend in the US. One reviewer described it as “fabulously awful”; another said it fell into the trap of being “excruciatingly wellintentioned, reverential and sentimental”.

Emmy Award-winning US writer and film-maker Sheila Curran Bernard said biopics were notoriously difficult to pull off.

Dangers include directors not being free to pursue their own vision and consequently producing a movie that appears too “enthralled” with its subject.

“People get life rights from people, especially if you’re working with a living character but then it’s a question of whose vision of the story is

it?” she told AFP by telephone from the US. “Because what a writer or a director sees might not be the same thing that a family sees in somebody’s life.... getting approval can work out but there’s also the risk of being too celebratory to the extent that there’s nothing there,” she said.

“The risk is ending up with a film that everyone is happy with but that nobody wants to see,” she added.

Two other biopics at Cannes this year are Bertrand Bonello’s film about designer Yves Saint Laurent and Mike Leigh’s movie about painter JMW Turner.

Bonello’s film follows Jalil Lespert’s “official” biopic on the high priest of fashion released with the blessing of his business and romantic partner Pierre Berge earlier this year to lukewarm reviews.

French veteran actress Catherine Deneuve, a friend of the designer who died in 2008, praised the actors but concluded that Lespert’s movie

was “not a film that disturbs”.

She said she expected Bonello’s film to be “darker”.

“I did not recognise the atmosphere that I knew (in Lespert’s film), that tension, that nervousness, the love affairs,” she told Le Monde in April.

“Bonello will surely deal with the darker side of things, the melancholy, the health problems, the alcohol, the drugs...,” she said.

French film director Lionel Delplanque, whose 2006 film President depicts a fictional French head of state, said another main cause of blandness in biopics was the failure of the film-maker to find an angle.

“The point of view is very important,” he said, giving Milos Forman’s 1984 film Amadeus about Mozart as an example of one of the most successful biopics.

Approaching Mozart’s life from the perspective of an envious fellow composer, a real-life figure named Antonio Salieri, Amadeus won eight Oscars in 1985 including best picture and screenplay for writer Peter Shaffer who adapted it from his own stage play.

“He (Salieri) is the first man to recognise his (Mozarts’s) genius and his tragedy was living in the same century as a genius,” said Delplanque.

That extra dimension, albeit one that involved a lot of creative licence and took advantage of the fact that all the characters were long dead, allowed the film to rise above the merely biographical and episodic, he said.

Cannes Film Festival organisers have defended the right to creative licence of the makers of Grace of Monaco.

AFP

thephuketnews

14 BUSINESS NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

HOW TO DO BUSINESS WITH THE RUSSIANS – PART 4

What are you good at, Mr Russian? have interests in several spheres at a time. A peculiar fact is that sometimes it is quite difficult to tell a Russian company from the ones owned by Thai or Turkish nationals.

Anton Makrov Understanding the Russians

A Rise in company registrations shows local confidence IN SIGNS THAT THE Phuket economy is heading in the right direction, despite the turmoil in Bangkok, the number of companies registered locally topped 20,000 in March this year, a growth of more than 700 since last August.

In terms of new registrations, there was a sharp fall from September to December 2013, when monthon-month figures dropped below 100, but a just as

steep increase from January through March 2014, when new registrations reached approximately 180.

With recent news that Thailand’s Mall Group, which owns Bangkok’s giant iconic Siam Paragon and Emporium malls, is to build a huge retail, hotel and entertainment development named Blu Pearl Phuket in Kathu, businesses are continuing to invest, and set up, in Phuket.

ccording to the latest statistics from the Phuket Employment Office (PEO), Russians are the second-largest group of foreign workers on the island, outnumbered only by the British.

Over 700 Russian nationals hold work permits and officially do business in Phuket. In this sense, a reasonable question arises: what jobs do they do?

It’s not really possible to get an answer to this question by simply analyzing the PEO data: most of the work permits say that their bearers work either as directors or managers, and do not specify the field of employment proper.

It is a widely know fact that most expats (whatever country they come from) do business with their compatriots, turning their knowledge of native language into the main tool of trade. This is especially true of the Russians.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) within the US Department of State rates Russian language as one of the more difficult for an English speaking to learn, putting it in the same category as Zulu, Khmer, Bengali and, yes, Thai.

Food and Restaurants

Tourism

The Russian F&B business is targeted at both tourists and residents alike. For most Russian nationals Thai food is an extreme adventure rather than a simple way to stave off hunger.

Some Russian restaurants and companies are quite well know while others (producing, for example, Russian cottage cheese) are absolutely invisible. Also, having a restaurant is a popular side business for business people working in other spheres.

According to Thai Ministry of Tourism & Sports, one of every 10 foreign tourists arriving to Thailand is a Russian national and the share is growing each year.

The Ministry states that 223,000 Russians visited Thailand during March 2014. It’s quite reasonable, therefore, that Russian tour companies and travel agencies want their slice of the pie and compete for it.

Tours, latex, diving, pearls … it is really difficult to find a field neglected by Russians.

And a lot of business owners

Surprisingly, there are quite a few Russian media outlets on the island including The Phuket News’ sister newspaper, Novosti Phuketa, several magazines aimed at Russian tourists and even a couple of TV channels.

Mostly these are side business launched by their owners to promote their main businesses such as, for example, real estate. Novosti Phuketa newspaper seems to be the only exception.

Russian Orthodox Church. Photo: Maurice This simple fact turns a native Russian employee into a valuable asset for a company willing to work on the Russian market or target clients from Russia.

And the value doubles if you take into consideration the fact that, among Russians, grammatically correct speaking and writing are viewed as the main signs of education and professionalism.

In Phuket there are four business spheres in which Russians are most active.

Real estate “Buy land; they’re not making it anymore.” After the collapse of Soviet Union, Russians took this line by Mark Twain as a business guideline, and property is still viewed by many of them as the safest investment.

Foreign property became a trend among well-off Russians

about a decade ago, with resort areas being the most popular.

There are several professional Russian real estate agencies on the island and hundreds of freelance amateur wannabe agents attracted by a chance to make quick money.

Media

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Albert Ocasio.

Angsana announces new GM ANGSANA LAGU NA Phuket has announced the appointment of Puerto Rican Albert Ocasio as General Manager.

Mr Ocasio joined Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts in January 2011 as Hotel Manager at Banyan Tree, Vabbinfaru, in the Maldives. He was promoted to General Manager at the Angsana Velavaru, also in the Maldives, in April 2012.

He has more than 17 years’ experience in the luxury travel market. Before joining Banyan Tree, he held positions at RitzCarlton properties in the US, Middle East, Mexico and the Caribbean.

He also played a key role in various pre-openings and task force assignments with both Banyan Tree and Ritz-Carlton.

BUSINESS NEWS 15

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Ayling takes over the top spot at RPM Alasdair Forbes execeditor@classactmedia.co.th

M

i c h a e l Ay l i n g , former Managing Director of Laguna Resorts and Hotels (LRH), is to take over as MD and General Manager of the Royal Phuket Marina (RPM).

Mr Ayling joined LRH also on the financial side but stepped up to the top job in February 2009 with the departure of the then-MD, James “Mayor of Laguna” Batt.

He left Laguna two years ago to start his own hotel consulting company.

Mr Ayling’s appointment signals a new direction for the marina, with the addition of a hotel element – his area of expertise.

On Monday (May 12), his first day on the job, he told The Phuket News that he would retain his interest in his consulting company, Nuobello, but that the post with RPM is “full on”.

“But I still have my interest with Nuobello – I still have my partner and staff.”

Michael Ayling.

He said he had spent several weeks talking with RPM owner Gulu Lalvani, “to make sure we’re the right fit for each other.”

He confirmed that RPM is now looking to build hotels. “As you may be aware there’s a lot of land here. So there’s a really good development opportunity, which is what attracted me. I think the location’s great.

“An initial master plan has been done so it’s now a case of fine-tuning the master plan and looking at our options to turn it into an integrated resort with numerous hotels and property developments.”

He declined to say how

many hotels. “It’s a big piece of land. It just depends on how we structure it.”

RPM, although it has never had any trouble attracting yachts or selling apartments, has struggled to develop the hoped-for retail and restaurant business and to “create a buzz” that would bring people in from outside.

“We have a few options, in the short, medium and long term. We need to increase foot traffic. With an integrated development where we have a number of hotels, by definition that will increase.

“Royal Phuket Marina has great potential and it will be nice to be part of realising it.”

He takes over from Mert Ulusoy of Turkey, who has been with the marina for six years, initially on the finance side and for the past 27 months as General Manager.

Mr Ulusoy told The Phuket News that he has no solid plans at the moment. “I have a couple of possibilities, in Thailand and Hong Kong.

But I’m going to wait a little while to see.”

The swimming pool at the dusitD2 in Patong.

New Dusit brand debuts on island THE DUSITD2 PHUKET Resort, formerly the Grand Tropicana and then a Courtyard

by Marriott, opens officially today (May 16) on the corner of Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd and Ruamjai Rd in Patong.

Described as “a contemporary hotel and resort brand whose distinctive combination of cutting-edge design, hightech connectivity and efficient, modern convenience reflects the needs and desires of today’s new generation traveller,” the D2 brand slots in between the five-star Dusit Thani brand and the three-star Dusit Princess hotels.

The Patong D2 is the fourth, coming after the opening of one each in Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Changzhou in China. Five more are in various stages of completion in Khao Yai, California, India (in New Delhi and Gurgaon) and Kenya.

The Patong property has

390 guestrooms, a big swimming pool, and a rooftop swimming pool and bar with views over Patong Bay. In the same complex, with the same owner – Bangkokbased Destination Property – is the Hard Rock Café, Kids World, Siam Adventure Club and the soon-to-open Hooters restaurant.

The hotel has five different room types: the 32-squaremetre Deluxe Rooms, 42 sqm Premier Rooms, 40 sqm Premier Pool Access Rooms, 48 sqm Studio Suites and 64 sqm One-Bedroom Suites.

F&B outlets are the Sidewalk Café, the rooftop bar, Flavours Restaurant, and Grab & Go bakery. There is also a swim-up bar in the pool. A meeting room in the hotel can accommodate up to 35 people.

Launch room rates on the hotel website range from B2,200 to B5,200 per room night.

Two Phuket hotels in Traveler Hot List

A highlight of Point Yamu is its 100-metre pool.

TWO “GREATER PHUKET” HOTELS have made it into the new Condé Nast Traveler magazine Hot List for 2014.

The first is the recently opened Point Yamu, on Cape Yamu, while the other, though strictly not in Phuket – but in what has come to be known as “Greater Phuket” – is Iniala.

Traveler has this to say about Point Yamu: “Christina Ong, the Singaporean hotelier behind the COMO group, must have hugged herself when she came across the empty shell of Point Yamu.

“Its developers had gone bust, so the place was up for grabs, fully built but undecorated... She hired the Italian designer Paola Navone – a lover of uncluttered white spaces – to do the interiors.

“The result is one of those places where guests arrive with all sorts of expeditions planned, then fail to move.

Because of its elevation, a constant breeze ripples across the big pool terrace, the perfect place to settle with a book after a celestial breakfast.

Rates at Point Yamu range from B7,200

to B9,000 per room per night.

Iniala, which recently made headlines when American TV stars the Kardashians stayed there, is described thus: “Eleven brilliant designers worked on the three villas and penthouse at Iniala, and the results are eye-popping, mostly in a good way.

Published high season rates at Iniala are rather higher than those for Point Yamu. They range from US$3,500 to 6,750 (B115,000- 223,000) per night per villa, plus, plus.

FROM ONLY THB

995

PER MONTH!

Safe Smart Simple

Storage Solutions

 Sizes to Suit all Budgets  Personal & Business Storage  Motorcycle Storage  Left Luggage Service  We Sell Boxes  Storage Insurance Inclusive

Reserve Your Storage Space

Call 076 29 29 09

@thephuketnews

or visit mystorageasia.com

Secure, Clean & Cost Effective Self Storage

Mon to Sat 9am-6pm, Sun & Holidays 10am-4pm

Jungceylon Shopping Center, Patong, Phuket

16 WEIRD NEWS

THE BIG LIST Survival instincts If there’s one thing we’ve learned from reality TV, it’s that humans can survive in almost any given situation

Rubble rousing: When the Bangladeshi factory building in which 19-yearold seamst ress Reshma Begum had been working collapsed in April 2013, killing over 1,100 workers. Begum, however, lived for another 17 days under the rubble with a small supply of dry food and water. The young mother was eventually pulled out of the wreckage by rescue workers after she made banging noises under the ruins.

Not-so smooth sailing: In January 2014, a seven-metre boat carrying Jose Salvador Alvarenga washed ashore on the deserted island of Ebon Atoll – part of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. The Salvadoran fisherman said he had been blown off-course during a trip off Mexico and had drifted in the Pacific Ocean for, get this, 13 months. Alvarenga said he survived the roughly 8,046 km journey by eating birds, turtles, fish and drinking urine, rainwater, and bird blood.

Life in freefall: In January 1972, a Croatian nationalist group bombed the Yugoslavian commercial flight that attendant Vesna Vulovic was on. The 22-year-old survived the bombing, as she was in the middle of the plane, and plummeted with the aircraft – a full 10,160 m (a Guinness freefall record). The lone survivor of the flight, she was in a coma for 27 days and had two broken legs.

Interestingly, she wasn’t even supposed to be on that flight as she was mixed up with another flight attendant with the same first name.

Ice woman: In 1970, Anna Bagenholm lost control of her skis while riding down a steep Swedish mountainside and fell headfirst into a thick layer of ice.

Unfortunately, a hole opened in the ice and she was left with just her feet sticking out. It took rescue workers 80 minutes to remove her and, even though she was breathing though a small air pocket, she had no pulse and a body temperature of 13.7 degrees Celsius. After doctors managed to revive her, she became a radiologist at the same hospital where her life was saved.

Aquaman: Harrison Okene survived three days under an air bubble when his tug boat capsised in the middle of the sea off Nigeria. Okene was in the bathroom when the boat began to sink and managed to crouch in an air pocket that provided limited oxygen.

Rescue divers were searching for corpses when they felt a hand reach out. Terrified, the divers looked up and found Okene alive but freezing in the frigid waters.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Jacko statue removal blamed for relegation T

he reason Ful ham Football Club were relegated from the English Premier League is not because of their sloppy play on the field – it’s because the current team owners removed a Michael Jackson statue.

That’s what the former owner of the team, Mohamed Al Fayed, said while he presented the 231cm statue to its new home at the National Football Museum in Manchester “This statue was a charm and we removed the luck from the club and now we have to pay the price,” said Fayed.

The statue of the late pop star was installed at the back of Craven Cottage, the team’s home field, back in 2011. Fans mocked the statue and it was removed last September after Fayed sold the team to current owner Shahid Khan.

“Now [Khan] has paid the price because the club has been relegated. He called me because he told me he wanted Michael to return. I told him, no way,” said Fayed, who was a friend of Jackson’s and was with him when the pop star attended a match at the stadium in 1999.

Fish rain down from sky above Sri Lanka Spain police arrest man FISH ARE GENERALLY known to swim, not fly.

That’s why a community in Sri Lanka was surprised to find scores of fish falling from the sky during a recent heavy downpour.

Residents of the seaside village of Chilaw in western Sri Lanka said they could hear loud thuds during a large storm, as hundreds of fish fell onto roofs and roads.

Scientists believe that the strong winds from the storm lifted the fish out of a nearby river, a phenomenon that happens when swirling

whirlwinds occur over shallow water. The winds end up vacuuming objects out of the water, like rocks, frogs and fish.

According to a report on BBC, “Some of the fish – each three to five inches (5cm-8cm) in length – were still alive and were later put in buckets of water by villagers who ate them later.”

This is the second time in two years that this has happened in Sri Lanka, after a storm in 2012 brought about a rain of prawns in the south ern part of the country.

over cocaine sandwich SPANISH POLICE SAID last Wednesday they arrested a Colombian man after he was found to be carrying a ham and cheese sandwich stuffed with over 100 grams of cocaine.

The 29-year-old was detained at a bus station in the Mediterranean beach town of Benidorm and he is suspected of drug trafficking, police said in a statement.

A photo released by police shows a sandwich

opened in half with nine small cylindrical plastic capsules spread over cured ham and cheese.

Police found over a kilo of cocaine in the man’s home in Benidorm as well as marijuana and detained his roommate, a 20-year-old Colombian national.

Spain’s close ties to its former colonies in Latin America have made it the key entry point for cocaine from the continent bound for Europe. AFP

Peru man survives 1,500-metre fall A PERU VIAN AIR FORCE NCO W HOSE parachute malfunctioned during a training exercise survived a 1,500-metre fall with nary a broken bone.

“It’s a miracle he’s alive,” emergency room doctor Guillermo Pacheco said. “It was the will of God he survived.”

Amasifuen Gamarra, 31, underwent a battery of medical tests at the hospital in Arequipa, in southern Peru, Pacheco said, “and there weren’t any fractures.”

The doctor said Gamarra jumped from a military plane at 1,500 metres, but when he went to open his parachute, the webbing wrapped around his neck and he lost consciousness.

“We don’t know what cushioned his fall, but he’s alive. It’s a miracle,” the doctor repeated.

The sergeant, who served in the air force for eight years, was transferred to a military hospital for additional medical testing. AFP thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Bang! Firecrackers and the Chinese

KHANOM CALLING A small town in Nakhon Si Thammarat offers pink dolphins, full moon parties, and retro bars > page 10

@thephuketnews

02

Gov Maitri on his negotiation success

03

2 CULTURE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

The burning truth behind firecrackers CULTURAL INSIGHTS Anthika Muangrod reporter4@classactmedia.co.th

I

f you’ve ever visited Wat Chalong, you may have been startled by the sudden burst of loud firecrackers being lit inside large clay ovens shaped like beehives.

Whether they’re used to mark an auspicious day or to conclude a funeral, Thais, and those of Chinese descent in particular, love their firecrackers. But why?

Ask around and the most common answer you’ll get is that people believe the loud sound is to scare away evil spirits. Others will tell you that setting off fireworks signifies prosperity – the more you light, the more your life will improve.

Such beliefs are ancient, and came to Thailand via China.

It is said that the first Chinese firecrackers were made out of dynamite inserted into a bamboo pipe. The resulting explosion most likely put the fear of god into everything around it – children, dogs, villagers, and perhaps even spirits.

One particular beast that the ancient Chinese hoped to scare off was the Nian, a mythological beast described as a cross between a cow and a rhinoceros.

Miss Suthasinee Promdaen, Chinese

The annual Vegetarian Festival sees firecrackers thrown at participants. Photo: Jesse Rockwell Culture instructor at Thaksin University in Songkhla, told The Phuket News about the legend of the Nian, how the beast would come and take food from villagers while they were cooking over fire pits made from bamboo.

“It is said that during one raid by a Nian, a hot piece of bamboo suddenly exploded in the fire and scared the creature.

“Some locals believed that the Nian was particularly afraid of the red splash from the fire, so this is why they started to write good things on red paper and red clothes, and put them in front of their houses. They believe that this prevented the Nian from visiting their homes.”

Ms Suthasinee went on to explain

another theory linking firecrackers to the mythological beast.

“The Chinese word ‘Nian’ sounds like the word for ‘year’, and at the end of each year the weather was always cold and people got sick,” she said.

“Ancient Chinese concluded that the cold and sickness was caused by the Nian, so they believed that through lighting firecrackers, the Nian – the cold and the sickness – would go away.”

When thousands of Chinese immigrants came to seek their fortune on the island, the idea of communicating with the spirit world through firecrackers carried over from China to Phuket.

A groundskeeper at A Put Jaw Temple, one of the oldest Chinese temples in Phuket, explained that locals have been

lighting firecrackers here for a long time to honour Chinese deities.

“In the past, people didn’t light firecrackers at funerals... they were just for the Chinese gods.”

These days, he said that the reason why people light firecrackers is because they like to make loud noises and that the loud noise represents prosperity.

Indeed, the Thai word for loud, popular and famous is one and the same – “dung”.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for the popularity of firecrackers is that people just get a thrill out of setting them off, and any excuse will do. The owner of a firecracker shop in Phuket Town thinks so.

“Nowadays, people will light firecrackers for almost any occasion – an auspicious ceremony, the Vegetarian Festival, funerals, moving into a new home... pretty much any big event.”

The shop owner explained that while there are many sizes and types of firecrackers, the quantity doesn’t have any universal meaning.

“At Wat Chalong, many people make a vow to have a good working life. When their vow is fulfilled, they may light 2,000-3,000 firecrackers, but the number is really up to them.”

Although the sheer thrill and excitement is probably the most prominent reason for lighting firecrackers nowadays, there is no doubt that underlying belief in the paranormal still persists to some degree.

Making a new friend Kerrily Jennings info@oasisedphuket.com

F

ree to a Good Home!”

We see this everyday, as expat families come and go, often (and sadly) leave behind a loved pet – cats, dogs and even sea monkeys!

The trauma of even ma k ing that decision, then explaining it to the younger family members, and finally, hopefully, finding a suitable new home for their pet, can be so overwhelming.

Especially at a time when life is already full with finalising things at this end, whilst initialising things at the other.

Never fear though, as there is an awesome solution: pet rocks.

Yep, they don’t come any lower maintenance than these critters. They don’t need feeding, bathing, vaccinating or exercising.

It’s old school Tamagotchi but hardier, no batteries and less demanding. Plus the kids get to design their own perfect pet. Choose a rock, colours, boogle eyes

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS & EVENTS:

• Creating Compost Workshop – May 17 @ Gecko School Thalang • Kids Art Fossil Sculptures – May 17 @ Oasis ed. Phuket, Rawai • Chia Seed Pets – May 17 @ Boat Lagoon • Flash Photography Workshop – May 17 @ Oasis ed. Phuket

and bling.

The best thing? They travel. Join our Pet Rock Workshop on May 24 at Oasis ed. Phuket, Rawai.

For bookings and more information please contact Kerrily Jennings at info@ oasisedphuket.com or visit oasisedphuket.com thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PEOPLE 3

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

The art of negotiation MEET THE GOVERNOR Wiparatana NaThalang reporter1@classactmedia.co.th

I urge the people not to block the road when they have a problem – such action has much more damage on the people’s livelihood in the long run. It is important that people learn to communicate with their leaders through local offices, the village chief, head of the district and so on

M

aitri Inthusut is not only a hard-working governor, but also a peacekeeper and an ambassador.

Speaking to The Phuket News at his mansion in Phuket Town, Governor Maitri talked about his role as the people’s leader, and particularly in diffusing the recent blockade in Mai Khao.

“My first reaction was to phone up the number one and number two policemen to send them to the scene... but as the problem persisted and escalated, I realised that I would have to drop what I was doing [meeting with the Indian Navy] and go to Mai Khao myself... I had to ride on a motorcycle for the final eight kilometres in the rain to get to the centre of the protest.”

Although it was reported widely in the media that the blockade was triggered by locals angered at police for wrongly accusing and arresting innocent youth for the rape of a pregnant girl, Gov Maitri explained that the problem was escalated by “outsiders” who weren’t directly involved in the incident.

“The police interrogated the youth but they didn’t harm them. Their mannerisms were bad, but this got blown out of proportion by outsiders.”

After finally making his way through the angry crowd, it was time to negotiate.

The governor’s primary approach to problem solving is simple: “You’ve got to start with the ‘easy’ before moving on to the ‘complex’ – a step by step process.”

The governor notes that here are two important rules for demands – they have to be reasonable and they have to be delivered once agreed to.

“One of their demands was to transfer the police, another was to set up an investigations committee – these were deliverable, but some of their demands weren’t...”

The governor was referring to the demands to make the accused minors do a public reenactment, and for the police to come and apologise in the village.

The governor at the recent road bloackade on Chaofa Road West. @thephuketnews

Gov Maitri with the Indian Ambassador to Thailand.

“For one, the law doesn’t allow minors to do such public reenactments, and secondly, there would be a good chance that onlookers would try to harm the boys.”

Gov Maitri explained that when certain demands cannot be met, it’s important to devise alternatives. And this is what he did in Mai Khao. In lieu of a crime reenactment, he offered to arrange special medical treatment for the ailing mother of the wrongly accused boys.

And in lieu of having the police apologise in the village, where emotions were high, he offered to stage an apology at a neutral location, at provincial hall.

The governor is well versed in the art of negotiation and he often refers to his own philosophy on the subject. Namely, he points to his, ‘Seven Principles of Local People’, and in particular, the principle of listening – for without all parties exercising this principle, negotiations will go nowhere.

But the other side won’t listen if delivery is flawed. Gov Maitri insists that one of the reasons why police were unable to negotiate with villagers initially was because of their verbal impoliteness.

For this, the governor refers to point number four from his ‘Seven Spells for Training Kids’, which refers to being submissive in dealing with sensitive or fragile situations.

“Just by referring to the villagers as pee [word used to address a senior person in Thai], their guard instantly dropped and they were willing to listen,” he notes.

For the governor, it’s not just about defusing the situation as quickly as possible; but just as important is to follow through with the made promises and to ensure that good will is long lasting, so as to address the root of the problems, not just the symptoms.

To demonstrate his good will to the people of Mai Khao, the governor has offered assistance to ensure various needed com-

munity projects see fruition.

These include installing U-turn hazard lights; providing medicine from the Red Cross to elders and free diabetic medical checks via mobile units; arranging nature appreciation courses for local teenagers; organising a community football match between police and villagers; and expanding public utilities.

But the governor insists that these are not rewards for the blockade; rather a showing of good faith so as to re-establish a long neglected dialogue between the people and their leaders.

“I urge the people not to block the road when they have a problem – such action has much more damage on the people’s livelihood in the long run.

“It is important that people learn to communicate with their leaders through local offices, the village chief, head of the district and so on. All issues can be be solved without being escalated.”

Since taking office in October 2012, Governor Maitri has demonstrated that he is a man of the people, in touch with the grassroots. Throughout his tenure, he has not been afraid to get his hands and knees dirty in the community, tending to goats, pineapples, vegetables or going out to experience first hand woes caused by drought, garbage and foul water, for example.

“Some people have criticised me as just trying to make an image for myself. But these people are the ones hiding behind their computer... They were not with me, with the grassroots, to be able to absorb the situation... We need to share responsibility in every part of the community.”

Beyond being an ambassador among the people, the man is certainly an ambassador for the people.

A representative of Phuket to the world, Gov Maitri is committed to building relationships with the other countries in Southeast Asia and throughout the world.

One of his current pet projects is ‘Friends of Phuket’; its aim is to join “city to city, cluster to cluster, company to company and customer to customer”.

The Chinese cities of Xi’an and Macau, as well as Penang, Bali, and Cebu are among the current focus ‘Friendship Cities’ he notes, adding that there will certainly be more as the island prepares to be a centre of the region in terms of the Asean Economic Community, expansion of MICE tourism, the ITOP (Inter-Island Tourism Policy Forum) Forum, and the Asian Beach Games later this year. And there’s more.

“I will go to receive the flag for the 39th International Collegiate Programming Contest in Russia this June. We will host this world computer competition at Prince of Songkla in Phuket in June next year.”

But will the man ever get a chance to relax?

“That’s not part of my job,” he says, modestly.

4 ENVIRONMENT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Time for the middle class to shine THAI EYE

Kanokwan Homcha-aim kanokwan@myseek.org

Solar panels may appear initially expensive, but they’re a long term investment. A 1 kilowatt solar panel can reduce your electric bill by B750 per month

Top right: A small solar garden in Phuket. Photo: Steven Layne

A

smile comes to my face as I recall a visit last summer to my friend in Isaan.

He has a lovely home, but the most striking part is his large garden which, at night, uses power from solar energy stored during the daylight hours. He said that people in his hometown started to invest in solar energy, turning the power of the sun into solar gardens and then selling their excess electricity to the government, feeding it back through the central power system.

IKEA in England recently put solar panels on their store shelves, alongside roof-tile, carpeting, book shelves, and beds. Their solar panel system offers customers a decentsized system of 3.36 kilowatt for £5,700 (take a deep breath, it’s almost B300,000).

But hang on, this price includes consultation, full- installation, maintenance, and efficiency monitoring.

I’ve been following solar panels for many years. For much of that time it seemed as if having panels on your roof was only for rich people. Well, this statement is not true anymore. Statistics of solar panel installation in middle-class households in some states in the USA showed that it is expanding, even though their average income is experiencing

a decreasing trend. At the moment, the middle-class earns between US$40,000-90,000 per year.

Between 2011-2012 families in Arizona and California that had rooftop solar panels installed had an average income of $40,00050,000 per year, while in New Jersey, the average was even lower at $30,000-40,000.

For Thailand, the government is shining a fresh light on this burgeoning industry, through promotion of its Solar Photo-voltaic Rooftop Policy.

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), which services Bangkok, has opened a Buying Electricity from Solar Rooftop programme with solar feed-in tariffs.

This means that if you install solar panels with a production rate of 0-10 kWp, the MEA will buy it back from you at B6.96 per unit. Note that normally electricity rates from the MEA are less than B4 per unit. Interesting price gap, isn’t it?

A solar rooftop system consists of not

many pieces of equipment – notably solar modules, an inverter and a safety kit.

There’s no need for a battery, at least for the buy-back programme, because this system is called “Grid Tie” or “Grid Connect”, which directly links to the MEA transmission line.

The house carrying these solar panels will pull out electricity generated from solar panels first, and if not sufficient enough, the rest of the power will pull from the MEA transmission line; therefore negating the need for a battery.

Solar panels may appear initially expensive, but they’re a long term investment.

A 1 kilowatt solar panel can reduce your electric bill by B750 per month (calculated at the rate of B4 per unit). That means if your bill is around B3,000 a month and you don’t want to pay an electric bill anymore, you would just need a 4 KW solar system installed.

How cool would it be to have your own power system, courtesy of Mother Nature?

How green are your fins?

Phuket Marine Biological Center re-launches Green Fins-Thailand

JOE DIVER Joe Blasy joeblasy@gmail.com

A

s a dive instructor involved in marine conservation, one common question I am asked is, ‘Why isn't there some programme or system in place which provides some direction and accountability on proper, sustainable reef use?’. This question usually comes after witnessing instructors, guides, boat operators, or snorkeling tour operators behaving badly.

Most divers that ask that question are surprised to learn that just such a programme exists, and with some fairly big names attached. Unfortunately effective policy implementation can be as elusive as a Purple Painted Frogfish.

At present, participation is free but voluntary.

‘Green Fins’ is a United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), which was launched in Thailand in 2008. Its mission: ‘To protect and conserve coral reefs by establishing and implementing environmentally friendly guidelines to promote a sustainable diving and snorkeling tourism industry.’ The programme got off to a great start in 2008 with the launch of an innovative and informative English- and Thai-language website followed by outreach programmes to educate reef stakeholders.

The website has a detailed resource section explaining environmental protection laws in Thailand, in addition to providing printable logos and posters for participating members to display in their shops and on their boats. Green

Fins recently gained a new coordinator and thus has begun a new round of campaigning. The Green FinsThailand project is operated though our own Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC). Several Southeast Asian nations participate in the programme.

Green Fins has emphasised sustainable practices by creating a 16-point “code of conduct” for reef users, identifying the main causes of coral reef ecosystem degradation. The most innovative but sadly underpromoted and underused feature of the website is an online survey section where customers are asked to evaluate companies' ecofriendliness. If the PMBC sees a trend of negative reports from any one company, it will elicit a visit from PMBC staff who will help educate the offenders.

With the huge increase

in boat traffic, divers and snorkelers, marine conservationists like myself hope that one day participation in Green Fins will be required before any renewal of a Tourism Authority license, with regular visits from PMBC officials to assure reef users are practicing responsible behavior. If there is to be any chance our reef ecosystems will be around for our children, this is a simple imperative.

For more information on Green Fins-Thailand, visit greenfins-thailand.org or contact Petchrung ‘Aey’ Sukpong of the PMBC at aeysea@gmail.com, or call the PMBC directly on 076 391 128.

Joe Blasy is a dive instructor for Sea Bees Diving (sea-bees.com) in Phuket.

He can be contacted at joeblasy@gmail.com.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

HEALTH 5

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

The grand GMO experiment

How the US-led food monopoly is honing in on a market near you – Part One Steven Layne editor3@classactmedia.co.th

H

ealth-conscious citizens around the globe were given a slight, albeit significant, boost of faith in the global food chain recently when Delaware became the first US state to pass a mandatory labeling law for GMO (genetically modified organism) products. The law, set to take effect by 2016, will require that retail food products deriving from GMOs be labelled as such, thus giving consumers a chance to make informed decisions as to what they put in their body.

Over the past decade, similar laws have been enacted in various countries, mostly in the European Union. In fact, the US is one of the only “first-world countries” that does not require labelling of GMO products. This despite the fact that most Americans surveyed are actually in favor of GMO labelling.

The main reason there’s been delay of mandatory labelling laws in the US is due to lobbying efforts by a powerful conglomerate of food and agrochemical corporations, led by one in particular – Monsanto. The company’s profits derive not only from the sale of GMO food products, but also from the seeds, herbicides

GMO global food production in 2005 when only five countries (solid orange) supplied more than 95 per cent of the world’s GMO crops. Striped orange indicates countries with experimental crops (including Thailand). and pesticides that are needed to ensure that such crops can thrive.

While the jury is still out as to whether or not GMOs are in our best health interests, the underlying moral issue is that scientific experiments have now leached beyond controlled labs, and into indifferent and unsuspecting human population samples, worldwide.

Indeed, there is a lot at stake in this emerging food monopoly. According to recent estimates, as much as 80 per cent of all agricultural crops in the US are now GMO – either intentionally through commercial exploitation (implementing

Raising awareness, funds for 22Q

A

r t C o or d i n at or at British International School Phuket (BISP), Ms Claire Lester has taken the initiative to organise the only “22Q Worldwide Awareness Day” in Southeast Asia, through an event this Sunday (May 18) at the Phuket Bird Park.

Activities will take place at the tourism attraction on Chao Fah West Rd from 9am-5pm, one of the highlights being an art competition with prizes.

Nearly 100 locations across the globe, including Phuket, are participating in the event to raise funds and awareness for 22Q, also commonly known as the DiGeorge anomaly (its full official name is 22q11.2 deletion syndrome), a genetic syndrome resulting from the deletion of a small piece of chromosome 22.

With an occurrence rate of 1:4,000, 22Q can lead to a wide array of conditions and symptoms, including congenital heart disease, cya nosis, autoimmu ne and immune disorders, seizures, skeletal abnormalities, learning difficulties, hearing loss, and growth hormone deficiency, among others. @thephuketnews

While there is yet no cure for 22Q, there are a number of ground-breaking treatments and therapies that can greatly improve the a patients’ condition.

Ms Lester will also plans to run a race a month in exotic locations, starting with the 10km marathon at Laguna in June. Her aim is to raise awareness

for 22Q and raise money for charity in the UK that does great work for people affected by 22Q. Fo r m o r e in fo r m a tion about Phuket’s 22Q Worldwide Awareness Day, visit facebook.com/ 22QatthePhuketBirdPark. Claire Lester can be contacted at clester@bisphuket.ac.th

monoculture practices in order to supply the mass market), or even unintentionally, via crop contamination (when a GMO crop naturally pollinates a non-GMO crop, the subsequent yield being GMO).

This means that most processed foods (canned, boxed or packaged in a factory) that derive from American harvested corn, maize, wheat, canola, potatoes and soy, for example, have a high probability of being GMO products – though you would never know from the label.

So, you ask, what’s the big deal about GMOs anyway, and what does it really mean for us here in Thailand?

One undeniable fact is that the US’s food and drug regulations, or as in this case, lack thereof, invariably impact policies for food, drugs and by default, health for the entire planet.

Unlike the US, Thailand does have a GMO labelling law. However, these laws are loosely enforced and vague enough that many GMO-derived products don’t require labelling.

For one, a label is only required if one of the top three ingredients of the product has more than 5 per cent of its weight ratio deriving from genetic modification.

This means that secondary ingredients can be 100 per cent GMO and no label would be required. Furthermore, the law only applies to GMO corn and soy products; thus all other GMO products are not covered by the law.

The law also doesn’t apply to smaller food producers who supply directly to consumers.

And it is this group of people – those who assume that local produce is the safest bet – that are at risk of unknowingly becoming the next guinea pigs in the Thailand GMO experiment.

To find out more about the history of GMOs in Thailand, including what produce and products have a known and suspected connection with the grand GMO experiment, tune in for Part Two, to be published in a fortnight.

6 EDUCATION

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

PSU, Internships Thailand tie-up It is simMany of our prospective interns are fascinated by Thai culture and heritage – this is why they come here. Joining with PSU Phuket is in line with our objectives to provide our interns with authentic experiences with quality companies, people and now, schools

Main photo, l-r: Deputy Dean for Research and International Affairs Pornpisanu Promsivapallop; FHT-PSU Phuket Dean, Associate Professor Prathana Kannaovakun; WWI Thailand Managing Director Jorge de la Torre; PSU lecturer Chantinee Boonchai.

T

he Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism at the Prince of Songkla University (FHT-PSU) Phuket has entered into an international exchange agreement with Worldwide Internship Thailand Co Ltd (WWI).

Underlining the agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding, signed on May 8 by FHT-PSU Phuket Dean, Associate Professor Prathana Kannaovakun, Ph.D., and WWI Thailand Managing Director Jorge de la Torre.

The first area of the MoU involves a Hospitality Management Certificate (HMC), through a four-month programme arranged

by WWI that will offer its foreign students – mostly from Europe and the Americas – a one-month on-campus study course at PSU Phuket, and a minimum three-month internship with one of WWI’s hospitality partners.

The internship can take place right after

or right before the study.

Upon programme completion, students will be issued the certificate, which will be jointly awarded by FHT-PSU and WWI. Another area in the MoU is a study abroad and student recruitment programme, in which WWI will act as a representative for FHT-PSU in promoting and recruiting semester abroad programme students in any overseas countries.

Likewise, FHT agrees to act as a representative for WWI in promoting and recruiting interns for WWI. Work Experience and Travel Thailand Summer Program (WETTS) is a third and less-formal programme designed for three or four weeks.

Participating foreign students will spend a week (or optional two) in PSU, a week working in a local hotel or NGO, and a week traveling in Thailand, visiting popular destinations such as Phuket, Samui, Koh Phangan and Bangkok.

Ms Prathana told The Phuket News she is pleased to enter into such an agreement “PSU Phuket is expanding rapidly and developing more into an international-standard institution. [Worldwide] Internships Thai-

land is the type of company who we want to be aligned with to reach our goals,” she said.

Ms Prathana added that PSU is planning to launch an International College which will initially offer a two year liberal arts diploma to recent high school graduates – from Thailand and abroad.

“We want to show the world that Thailand and Phuket in particular, is not just about sand, sea, sun and other things in this category... We have so much more to offer in terms of culture, history, heritage and architecture.”

Jorge de la Torre agrees. “Many of our prospective interns are fascinated by Thai culture and heritage – this is why they come here. Joining with PSU Phuket is in line with our objectives to provide our interns with authentic experiences with quality companies, people and now, schools.”

May’s monsoon madness PHUKET FOR KIDS Donna Stephens info@phuketforkids.com

S

tatistically, and I have checked this, May can be one of the wettest a n d m o s t hu m i d months of the year on Phuket. Everyone is looking to the sky, and when the rains do not come, tempers become short and children’s behavior can get a little crazy as the weather gets to everyone.

But don’t let the heat get your family down as there are many perks to being on Phuket in the month of May, and it is certainly a great time to visit.

The high season crowds begin to disappear creating a more relaxed atmosphere at the beach. Many top hotels bring back the very extravagant but affordable Sunday brunches. So sit by a pool and take advantage of the feast.

This is a great time for a mini-break as hotels

offer very affordable deals and packages. There is some cloud cover which means the sun’s intensity is somewhat diminished.

You can watch spectacularly brilliant thunder storms. Even if it rains, the rain generally does not last all day! And the winds begin to pick up – so get down to the beach and fly that kite.

So don’t sit at home feeling crotchety and testy from the heat. Lash out on a weekend away or day out at the pool or beach with the kids. Alternatively, you could visit Bann Teelanka.

If you have driven along the Bypass road recently you may have looked twice and thought your eyes were deceiving you. No, this is not an optical illusion

but Bann Teelanka, also known as the Upside Down House. This phantasm is sure to keep children busy all day long.

Care has been taken to ensure this house has been kitted out with attention to detail that really will spin your head and turn you on your heels. But the house is only one part of this attraction. The garden maze has been designed by award-winning Adrian Fisher Designs from the UK. When you do find your way out of the maze, meet for a de-brief at the café.

This attraction is really a great treat for the kids and a wonderful day out on Phuket for the family.

See phuketforkids.com for more information. thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

COLOURING PHUKET!

@thephuketnews

KIDS 7

8 DINING

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Savoury somtum in Sam Kong STREET EATS Tanyaluk Sakoot reporter2@classactmedia.co.th

To be honest, I never thought I’d cook food for a living. I was never that good in cooking... I prefer to eat more than cook

Clockwise from above: Larb moo, somtum pu-plara, Supan “Noi” Chareeyo, tom-sap.

S

upan “Noi” Chareeyo, 33, heads a small, family-run restaurant in Sam Kong, serving favourites from Central Thailand as well as Isaan – Thailand's northeast region.

Prior to moving to Phuket 10 years ago, Supan and her husband, Vichai “Joe” Goman, 40, had tried their hand working in a number of eateries in Bangkok.

Noi and Joe are both from Isaan – Noi from Maha Sarkham and Joe from neighbouring Kalasin.

“To be honest, I never thought I'd cook food for a living. I was never that good in cooking and sourcing ingredients. My husband is a very good cook, but I prefer to eat more than cook,” Noi laughs.

But her culinary interest gradually grew, especially after working alongside her husband at a small, Thai and Western restaurant they owned in the capital. By the time she moved to Phuket, she was cooking and sharing her food with friends.

Nine years passed, and after working in various hotels, the couple decided to open their little restaurant in Sam Kong, naming it Tummun, which roughly translates to “pound [with a pestle] joyfully”.

But it's not only Isaan food they serve up.

“I like to cook general Thai dishes – made to order. I learned my recipes from different restaurants and gained many secrets from my husband's family.

“For every menu item, I choose all the ingredients mindfully and cook myself.”

Noi explained that she wants to avoid

what she noticed at other restaurants; places that would serve less but charge more, or serve more and charge less, albeit with lowgrade ingredients.

“If my customer is happy with what I cook for them, then I am happy too.”

One of her popular dishes is somtum puplara – papaya salad with salted small crab and fermented fish – which Noi says is particularly popular among male athletes after a game of football (a popular football pitch is across the street, see directions in end info).

Other popular Isaan menu items include tum-pa (spicy jungle salad), tum moo krop (papaya salad with crispy pork), tom-sap (spicy

soup with bone pork), keang om-pak (Isaan style vegetable soup), larb moo (spicy minced pork and herbs), somtum pu ma (papaya salad with fresh blue swimming crab) and many more.

Noi reveals that the secret to authentic Isaan cooking is the use of fermented fish – plara. In addition, the grilled chicken and pork need to have a special seasoning, but she won't say more than that.

As for her most popular non-Isaan dish, putt-khana moo-krop – fried kale and crispy pork with rice.

Quite simply, “It is easy to cook and fast,” and not to mention, delicious! All menu items start from only B40.

Tummum is located opposite TK Park Soccer stadium, en route to Rajabhat from Sam Kong. Open from 8am-8pm on Monday, and 8am-6pm, Tuesday through Saturday, but closed on Sunday.

For further directions, or advanced orders, call: 088-708-8303, or visit the restaurant's Facebook page: tummunisaanfood.

Instant noodles consumption down, which means prices are going up

C

heap convenience just got more costly.

Some instant noodle companies have increased the prices of their product due to slower sales in the instant noodle market, according to the president of the Association of Thai Wholesaling and Retailing, Somchai Pornratanacharoen.

It is likely that the rest of the producers of instant noodles will increase their prices on the backs of rising production costs. The

prices of instant noodles have increased by 25-50 satang per pack; however, under the present regulations, each pack will have to be sold at no more than

B6 apiece, Mr Somchai said.

A slower economy and the increase in the cost of living have prompted the public to spend less of their income on consumer goods, affecting the sales of instant noodles.

Mr Somchai has called on the government to quickly address this issue in order to allow more competition in the market, adding that he hopes a new government could soon be formed in order for the country to move forward. NNT

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

MOTORING 9

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Tim Newton broadcast@classactmedia.co.th

P

huket News TV were recently invited to fly the new Cavalon – the first in Thailand and a new generation of recreational plane – at the Phuket Air Park in Paklok.

We were greeted by Best, Able and Torben, the team who have brought this first Cavalon into the Kingdom. As with any new aeroplane there are mountains of paperwork and registration to get through before you can even think of flying it. It sounded all too hard to me. I was simply in awe of their dedication to make this happen – a new flying machine in Phuket, a new style of aircraft, a new experience for me as walked towards the hangar.

And there it was.

Well, it clearly wasn’t a ‘plane’. Where were the wings? But it wasn’t a helicopter either. There was an engine ‘pushing’ the aircraft through the sky unlike a helicopter where the rotating blades do all the magic of ‘lift’ and the motion forward as well.

The Cavalon is a new take on the auto-gyro concept. The first time many of us saw a gyro-copter was in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In 1967 it was a radical aircraft indeed, but the auto-gyro/gyro-copter concept never re-

L-r: Pilot Tim Morell, Phuket News TV’s Tim Newton, Torben Busic Jensen, Best Wanamakok. ally took off. Maybe it was just too different for the average flyer, maybe it all looked a bit ‘clunky’, maybe we didn’t think we were as clever as James Bond.

(Point of note: Sean Connery never actually flew ‘Little Nellie’ in the film).

So, this is how it works, sort of. The spinning blades above you are providing the ‘wing’, it just happens to be rotating and providing the lift to get you off the ground. The forward propulsion comes from the spinning blades behind you.

Aha? Got it? Okay, you might have to Google a better explanation. In essence,

it flies almost exactly like a small plane.

Having flown ultralight aircraft for many years I felt entirely at home in the Cavalon.

Pilot instructor Tim Morell, a young Swede who moves around the world teaching people how to fly, had the perfect bedside manner to calm down any nerves, and it does take a bit of courage to jump into this radical looking craft.

But close inspection revealed some beautiful German engineering and a very slick looking machine. Tim was happy to explain everything in astonishing detail

– he really knew his stuff and I was utterly convinced we would get back in one piece.

For the purposes of our Phuket News TV story we did a few ‘touch and gos’ at the Phuket Airpark before flying off and checking out some of the beautiful little islands off the east coast. With the headphones on for communication and even with the doors off (this Cavalon model comes as two-seater, side-by-side, with doors) there was no sense of it being too noisy or in any way ‘scary’. The Cavalon will cruise happily at 145 kph and uses up to 20 litres per hour of flying.

Torben Busic Jensen fell in love with the Cavalon when he first saw one and now has the franchise for the Auto Gyro brand here in Thailand. Of course, everyone wants to know ‘how much’. We were flying in the fully-tickled specification of the Cavalon Auto Gyro. Ready to fly it’s going to cost over B5 million, though there are many variations of specification and there are other, cheaper models without doors or a tandem seating arrangement.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s a Cavalon Auto-Gyro. And it was the most fun I’ve had with my clothes on for a long, long time. Thanks to Able, Best, Torben and Tim for the ride and introducing me to this exciting new-generation flying experience.

Watch Tim go up in the air at thephuketnews.com/tv

Acqua Restaurant

Cheryl Johnson

Novosti Phuketa

Siam Safaris

Aleenta Resort and Spa Phuket - Phang Nga

Choice Foods

Novotel

Siam Supper Club

Clare Plunkett

Oriental Art Gallery, Surin Skyla's Surf and SUP Club Oriental Events Splash Jungle Outrigger Laguna Sri Panwa Phuket Resort & Villas

Alex Oddy Amari Hotels Andaman Wine Club Andara Resort & Villas Andrew Joyce Angsana Laguna

Class Act Media Da Maurizio Daniel Moran DaVinci Restaurant Delish Café

AVL Wizard

Dewa Phuket Beach Resort

Baan Rim Pa Group

DiVine Restaurant

Banthai Beach Resort & Spa

DJ Dave at Live 89.5

Banyan Tree Phuket BB&B

DJ Kirsty at Live 89.5 Dorothy Macpherson

On behalf of

Phuket Has Been Good To Us Thank you to everyone involved in the

2014 Miami Beach Party Your generous support helped make the night a great success!

Double Tree Bangkok Sukhumvit

Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa

Double Tree Resort by Hilton, Surin

Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok

dusitD2 Phuket Resort

Hyatt Regency Phuket

EKA Soundz

IMAGE Asia

Breeze at Cape Yamu

EthniCity

Island Bliss

British International School

Farang Food Paradise

Jagota

Best Western Allamanda Laguna BiJen Creative Jewellery Bliss Beach Club Boathouse Wine & Grill on Kata Beach

Cape Sienna Cefalu by Duilio's Centara Grand Beach Resort Centara Karon Chalong Bay Rum chartercatamaran.com Chava Resort

@thephuketnews

Four Seasons Info— Media Co, Ltd FunStart Gloss Guiseppe "Pepe" Viva H.C. Anderson Hard Rock Café

Jan Hollister Joe's Downstairs Joob Joob JW Marriott Khao Lak Kamala Beach Resort Sun Prime Kata Beach Resort and Spa Lady Pie

Laguna Golf Club

Paresa

Sue Ultmann

Patpong Liquor

SunWing Bangtao Beach

Pernod Ricard Thailand Pesto Phuket Simon Cabaret Pimalai Resort & Spa, Koh Lanta, Krabi

SunWing Kamala Beach Swissotel Resort Phuket

Pluto Ice Cream

The 9th Floor Restaurant & Bar

Point Yamu by COMO

The Bell Phuket

Production by Kritidech Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort Pullman Phuket Arcadia Lemongrass House Rembrandt Hotel & Live 89.5 Towers, Bangkok Loch Palm Golf Club River Rovers Lotus Valley Golf Resort RnR Décor Max Tiverne Robin Ruth at RPM Mezzo Wine Bar & Royal Nam Tok Bistro SALA Resorts and Spas Mid Air Circus Arts Sarah Pettigrew Millennium Hilton Bangkok Serendipity Designs, Co., Ltd Movenpick Resort & Spa Shannon Moran My Gate 2 Success Sheraton Grande Nike Golf Asia Sukhumvit Nikki Beach, Phuket

The Kids Club The Landmark Vietnam The Metropolitan by COMO, Miami Beach The Oasis Spa The Pavilions Phuket The Peninsula Bangkok The Phuket News The Regent Phuket Cape Panwa Tigers and Dragons Two Chefs W Taipei Worldlennium

10 TRAVEL

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Khanom – land of pink dolphins Anthika Muangrod reporter4@classactmedia.co.th

I

’ve been dreaming for a long time about feeling powdery sand under my feet on an empty beach filled with coconut trees, setting up a hammock, drinking fresh coconut juice, and playing a guitar. No beach chair touts, no hundreds of tourists, and no noise. Just being under the shade of a pine tree and listening only to the sound of waves crashing onto the shore. I found it in Khanom.

Khanom is a small, quiet town in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, northeast of Phuket and facing Samui. With only one traffic light, it is well-known for its long white beaches, beautiful mountain scenery, and the pink dolphins. Yup, you heard right.

Clockwise from top: Khanom’s waters are home to around 60 dolphins, the pancake-like rocks known as Khao Pabpa; paying respects to the statue of Luang Pu Tuad on Koh Nui; one of the sheep at Tontarn Resort and Spa, DOLPHIN DELIGHT award-winning guide Pakasit No trip to Khanom is complete without a sighting of ‘Lung Daeng’ Paijitsattaya. the pink dolphins. I took a boat with Khanom Fishing

& Tour to see them. The tour company provided an experience tour guide, Pakasit ‘Lung Daeng’ Paijitsattaya, who recently won two tour guide awards and also works as a Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation volunteer.

Lung Daeng explained that seeing pink dolphins along the coastline shows that the environment is clean, with a healthy ecosystem, though the locals and volunteers are planting more seaweed along the coast to provide a place for marine animals to lay eggs.

Our trip starts early at Klong Bang Paeng, the main port for local fishing boats (the best time to see pink dolphins is in the morning, from around 7.30am to 9am). We ride through the mangrove forest of the Hat KhanomMu Ko Thale Tai National Park. It’s so peaceful, so quiet, and so different from Phuket. We pass the wooden houses of fishermen. It looks so classic, so rustic, so simple, yet still adorable. It’s a taste of how southern Thailand must have looked decades ago.

Soon, we start seeing dolphins swimming. We had to be fast when looking around because they were visible for just seconds. Then, suddenly, two baby dolphins jumped above the surface together.

Dolphin is a fun loving, playful and highly social mammal. There are four kinds of dolphins living in the waters off Thailand, but the most common is the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin.

When they are born, the dolphin’s color is gray, but becomes pink as they become older.

Sadly, they are threatened with extinction, as Lung Daeng explains while recounting a story.

“One of the dolphins was caught by a businessman who wanted to put it in an aquarium in Samui, but luckily the police stopped him and took the dolphin back to the sea.”

On our trip I was fortunate to meet the male dolphin who had been captured and then released. He remembers the sound of Lung Daeng’s boat, and comes every time he hears it. Lung Daeng calls him ‘Tone’.

In Thai language, ‘Tone’ translates as “one, a singleton, the only child of a marriage, or the only one of a kind”.

The fishermen and the locals call him that because they always see him traveling alone.

When we arrived at the place where Tone lived, Lung Daeng started tapping fish on the outside of the boat to let the dolphin know we’d arrived.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

“I’ve been doing this for seven years.

Nowadays, when he hears our boat coming, he will float nearby waiting for food,” laughed the guide.

“Many fishermen in the area feed them too. This is to stop them taking fish from the fishing net and becoming trapped.”

According to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation, there are around 60 dolphins living in the area. They can swim as fast as 37 kph, and come to the surface every five minutes to breathe.

“We have agreement with fishermen that we will not go too close to the dolphins,” says Lung Daeng. “We must be at least 50 metres away from them if we want to watch them, and we stop the boat engine every time a dolphin is around to make sure we don’t hurt it.

All operators should be careful when the engine is on. Some pink dolphins

have scars on their bodies after being cut by the blade.”

Unfortunately, he says that many boats don’t follow the agreement. They like to go close so that their customers can watch and take pictures of the pink dolphins. But he says this only makes the dolphins go further out to sea, meaning other boats that come later don’t have a chance to see them.

“No one is going to stop us coming to see the dolphins in this area, but we must not do bad things that can hurt them.”

After our visit to the dolphins, our boat trip headed to tiny Koh Nui, famous for its spring water. Because it was high tide at the time, we were unable to taste it, but we did visit the ‘Luang Pu Tuad’ monk statue, who – according to our guide – was the one who first discovered the spring.

Back on the boat speeding along, we

Experience the great Singapore sale with special fares from Silkair.com

S

ilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, will be launching the Great Singapore Sale promotion for travellers visiting Singapore.

Customers departing from Thailand,can look forward to roundtrip fares to Singapore from as low as B8,960 for travel out of Chiang Mai, B7,260 and for travel out of Phuket.

SilkAir customers will be able to pack in more of their shopping with 30kg free check-in baggage allowance for Economy class, travel in greater comfort with complimentary inflight meals, and the chance to earn miles on the KrisFlyer frequent flyer programme even with the special fares on offer.

SilkAir customers can sweeten their stay in Singapore with exclusive Boarding Pass Privileges.

Customers may simply present their SilkAir boarding pass within 30 days of their flight at selected merchants to enjoy discounts, making their visit to Singapore even more worthwhile.

KrisFlyer members can enjoy these privileges at any time. Participating merchants include dining outlets, hotels, retail shops, tourist attractions and transport companies.

More details on the Boarding @thephuketnews

TRAVEL 11

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Pass Privileges are available at www.singaporeair.com/boardingpass.

The Great Singapore Sale is the biggest sale of the year in Singapore, with locals and visitors alike seeking out the best deals from merchants islandwide.

This year, the sale will be held from May 30 to July 27.

Mr. Ryan Pua, Vice President Commercial, SilkAir, said, “We’re pleased to introduce these special fares for our customers, giving them the perfect opportunity to indulge in a world-class shopping experience in Singapore.

The full service experience on SilkAir, which includes 30kg free check-in baggage allowance in Economy Class, provides great value for our discerning customers. This allows them to shop to their heart’s content during the Great Singapore Sale.”

The exclusive Great Singapore Sale airfares are available for purchase through the SilkAir website or via SilkAir appointed travel agents.

It runs from May 13 till June 20, 2014, with travel period between 30 May and 30 September 2014.

For more information on the promotion, visit silkair.com.

saw pancake-like rocks called ‘Khao Pabpa’ that only exist in two places in the world – Thailand and New Zealand.

‘Pabpa’ in Thai means “folding clothes”, which the rocks resemble.

Our last stop was at a small beach, where we ate lunch off an upturned canoe, using rocks as beach chairs.

QUIET TOWN

Khanom at night is quiet, with not many things to see or do. That is, apart from the ‘Ample Moon’ party, which is held at Nadan Beach once a month for the full moon.

Don’t come expecting Phangan though – the Khanom party is much more family-friendly, with cocktails and seafood, and live Thai pop music (the vast majority of tourists here are Thais).

During the day, you might want to

visit the natural fish spa at the Tontarn Resort and Spa in Kuan Thong subdistrict, about a 15km drive from town.

If you’ve never experienced it before, it’s hard to describe the feeling when fish start cleaning your feet. Many people scream out when the fish start nibbling, though the sensation is just ticklish.

There are a few differences when compared to normal fish spas. For starters, these fish are larger, measuring from half an inch to three inches or even longer, there are also thousands.

Secondly, this is not just about removing dead skin. The idea is that the process helps your blood circulation. In fact, the operators told me that the elderly are particularly fond of the treatment.

As well as hosting a fish spa, the Tontarn Resort and Spa also has a sheep farm, the first and so far only one in the south of Thailand, although they share the paddock with goats and alpacas.On my last night in Khanom, I visited the Once Upon A Time bar and restaurant in the centre of town, probably the most popular local hangout for young Thais and foreigners.

As the name suggests, the theme of the bar is old Thailand. There are many decorations that reminded me of my childhood and even further back, such as an old small scooter, 20 year old candy boxes, a three wheeled tricycle, traditional barber chairs, and school tables and chairs.

Just below the balcony of the bar is a small canal lined with working longtail fishing boats. It’s this juxtaposition of the old and new, working life and tourist attractions, which sums up Khanom.

12 TECHNOLOGY

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

IN BRIEF Apple closing in on Beats buyout

Apple are in the final stages of acquiring Beats Electronics, makers of the hugely popular line of headphones.

Talks of the US$3 billion (B97.7 billion) buyout comes just months after Beats, co-owned by legendary rapper Dr Dre and music executive Jimmy Iovine, released a popular music streaming application for mobile phones.

Experts say that Apple are looking to use the app as a way to compete in the cloud-based mobile streaming sector, specifically taking on Spotify.

Japan arrests man for 3D gun

Authorities in Japan arrested a 27-year-old man for possession of several 3D-printed guns after he uploaded a video online firing one of them with blank bullets.

Because of the country’s gun ban, police confiscated five plastic guns – two of which could fire real bullets – but found no ammunition in the man’s apartment. One of the guns was the Liberator, the world’s first 3D printed gun, that was designed in the United States.

“I can’t complain about the arrest if the police regard them as real guns,” the man told reporters.

Retro-tech: When old is new again J.P. Mestanza editor2@classactmedia.co.th

The generation that has grown up with computers, cell phones, and MP3 players may soon look at the past as a way to gain a new experience. With the way things are going, typewriters might become the next fashion statement

Nintendo to creat new console

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, said the company will launch a new console that they will release in “emerging markets” as early as next year.

The console will be made only for these regions, which were not identified, and a formal presentation will be given at E3 gaming convention in June. “It would be difficult to enter those markets if we didn’t create something new... For the mass market you need to provide something that most of the middle class can afford,” Iwata said.

Mario Golf: World Tour

Clockwise from top: Jack White’s Lazaretto vinyl LP; the RetroN5; the Analogue NT.

GAME REVIEW J.P. Mestanza editor2@classactmedia.co.th

E

W

ant to buy a vinyl record and play Nintendo again? No, this is not 1992, and yes, we’re serious.

It seems every time we get used to a piece of technology, something better comes along to take its place.

Consumers are always in a state of catch-up (unless you’re Tech Talk columnist Byron Noel) with the latest gadgets already old once the cashregister is rung up.

The most obvious examples are in the music and videogame industries. We’ve gone from vinyl records to cassette tapes to compact disks to mini-disks to digital. The same goes for gaming as the PlayStation 4 is basically a computer and entertainment system, a far cry from the 8-bit graphics on the Atari 2600, released in 1977.

Despite this, a movement has begun to revive devices and gadgets of old to expose them to a new audience.

One such retro advocate is rocker Jack White, of The White Stripes, who released a solo album that is sold exclusively on vinyl, and Lazaretto is not just any album, it’s arguably the most souped-up vinyl record ever produced.

The LP can be played at three different speeds (35, 48, 78), and has a locked groove on the outer edge, a unique feature that allows the album to play continuously over and over (similar to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album). It also has two different introductions for one song, depending on where the needle is dropped, and has two different finishes on either side.

The best feature, however, is that this remarkable album has a hologram of a floating angel etched by hand.

In addition to the vinyl revival, we have several companies looking at the past future of gaming.

The RetroN5, developed by Hyperkin, is a retro (duh) gaming console that plays titles from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega Genesis, Famicon, and

Game Boy Advance. Though it’s not the best looking system, it includes an HDMI out that plays in 720p and comes with a wireless controller that works with Bluetooth – not bad for US$150 (B4,500).

For something more luxurious, there’s the Analogue NT, an aluminum-clad console that plays original NES and Famicom games (think Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt). It also has an HDMI port (1080p upscaling) and four built-in controller ports, though the controllers are sold separately.

The Analague NT is available for a whopping US$500 (B15,000), an item clearly made for those who play Donkey Kong while munching on caviar and foie gras.

Elsewhere, even the Tamagotchi – the handheld digital pet popular in the mid-1990s – is making a comeback.

The company has recently launched the same small, key-chain device albeit with a digital human baby instead.

It’s not so much an updated version as it is a re-release with updates including the ability to send gifts and text messages by tapping two Tamagotchis together. Characters can also be sent on virtual “playdate” through tapping.

The company is trying to cash-in on the popularity of mobile devices as it comes with its own mobile app (3 million downloads so far).

The generation that has grown up with computers, cell phones, and MP3 players may soon look at the past as a way to gain a new experience. With the way things are going, typewriters might become the next fashion statement, just don’t tell my editor...

TOP MOBILE APPS THIS WEEK

TOP CONSOLE GAMES THIS WEEK 1

Titanfall

Xbox 360, Xbox One

6

Pokemon X/Y

3DS

1

Star Wars Journeys (Game)

iOS

2

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

3DS

7

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4,

2

Beats Music (Music)

iOS

3

2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil

Xbox 360, PS3

8

inFAMOUS: Second Son

PS4

3

Hearthstone (Game)

iOS

4

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

PS3, PS4, PC

9

The Elder Scrolls Online

PC

4

Flood Fighter (Game)

iOS, Android

5

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment

Vita

10 Grand Theft Auto V (18+)

Xbox 360, PS3

5

Todoist (Files)

iOS, Android

ven with its straightforward play and silly graphics, Mario Golf: World Tour for the 3DS is just as fun and challenging as its Gamecube version.

The game is a triedand-true Mario-version of golf, but don’t be fooled by the simple look: it’s hard. Just like in real-life, gamers have to take into account course conditions (wind, foliage, weather, altitude and so on) before taking a shot. This is where the game thrives though, since half the challenge is in the core sports-aspect of the title.

One of the other best parts of the game is the online play, specifically the ability to play in tournaments created by both players and officiallysponsored ones alike, such as the IGN Invitational, which offered several ingame prizes.

Aside from normal golf play, Mario Golf: World Tour also offers the opportunity to earn coins, which can be used to unlock courses and other items. These items can, in turn, be used to enhance your shots – a bomb will explode in the air and drop the ball straight down, the mushroom gives it a speed boost, and the ice flower can bounce your ball across water.

The courses are also very challenging, especially DK Jungle where large f lowers “chomp” at your ball while its in the air. Balls can also hit barrels and be sent to a different hole altogether.

The element of fun is not lost on this game and its certainly one of the best Mario sports games in a while. The fact that it’s on the hand-held 3DS is even better, since it can be played on-the-go.

Our final score? Mario Golf is a hole in one.

Which game would you like us to review? Let us know at editor2@classactmedia.co.th. thephuketnews

FILM 13

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM 4, 2014 THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, FRIDAY,APRIL MAY 16, 2014

Sinful pleasure 13 SINS J.P. Mestanza editor2@classactmedia.co.th

The audience will be taken aback by some of the gruesome scenes, including one memorable part that includes motorcycles and is a throwback to 2013’s The Counselor (you have to see it to believe it)

I

ndependent films can be hit or miss a lot of times, especially when they are remakes.

In 13 Sins, German director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) uses slick movie-making techniques in order to gloss over some of the more unrealistic aspects of the horror and psychological aspects of the story. In some places, he hit the mark perfectly – in others, we wanted our money back.

As local film fans will be aware, this is a remake of the 2006 Thai film 13 Beloved.

It’s clear that Stamm is using the film as an audition for Hollywood, throwing everything he’s got at this one.

The film tells the story of Elliot (Mark Webber), a salesman who has just lost his job and has a mountain of debt. His fiancee Shelby (Rutina Wesley) is pregnant and his little brother Michael (Devon Graye) is mentally challenged and could potentially be put in psychiatric care, away from the family.

While driving and stopped at a traffic light, Elliot gets a phone call from an ominous voice claiming to be part of a ‘game show’ who asks our protagonist if he wants to play, with US$6 million on the line. The catch? Elliot has to perform a set of 13 tasks, each one more difficult, gruesome, and much more criminal than the last. If he does not complete all 13, then he loses everything.

Webber, a longtime actor who has largely

Starring: Mark Webber, Devon Graye, Tom Bower, Ron Pearlman, Rutina Wesley, and Pruitt Taylor Vince Director: Daniel Stamm Running time: 92 minutes

SFX Coliseum Phuket (Central Festival)

13 Sins (E) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (3D/T) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (E) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (G/E) Brick Mansions (E) Oculus (E)

@thephuketnews

11:30, 13:40, 15:50, 18:00, 20:15, 22:20 13:40, 16:40, 19:40 11:20, 13:20, 16:20, 17:20, 19:20, 22:20 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 14:20, 20:20 11:10, 13:25, 15:40, 17:55, 20:10, 22:25

Martin Webber plays Elliot. been a background character up until this point, is finally put in the driver seat and shines in this. He is more than believable as a down-and-out loser who suddenly rides a wave that sees him shuffle between hero and villain, sometimes at the same time.

The first task has Elliot kill a fly and then eat it, which nets him US$1,000 in an account in his name, but from here on out things become much worse than an episode of Fear Factor. The tasks eventually get the attention of the authorities, mainly Chilcoat (Ron Pearlman), a detective who is bent on bringing Elliot to justice for all the acts he performs in the film – until he finds out what forces are at work.

13 Sins is as much a mystery as it is horror, but much more graphic than any thriller out so far this year. The audience will be taken aback by some of the gruesome scenes, including one memorable part that includes motorcycles and is a throwback to 2013’s The Counselor (you have to see it to believe it).

While it’s not a great film, 13 Sins is highly entertaining and includes plot twists that were not in the original source movie. It’s a horror film that, because it was done outside of the the Hollywood system, had a fresh take on the genre with subtle nuances that straddle the line between gritty and noir.

All in all, it’s not a bad way to spend 90 minutes – sorry, hold that thought, my phone’s ringing. What? Six million? Sure I’m interested...

IN BRIEF Kickboxer remake gets stars

The remake of the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Kickboxer has signed on Dave Bautista and former UFC champion Georges St. Pierre for the film.

There is no word on what roles Bautista, a longtime professional wrestler, and St. Pierre will play. The remake will be helmed by director Stephen Fung (Tai Chi Hero) and include legendary stunt man and fighter Alain Moussi (Pacific Rim, Pompeii).

The original film, set in Thailand, saw Van Damme avenge his brother’s near-wdeath with a final Muay Thai fight showdown.

Ray Winstone joins Point Break

Producers have confirmed that Ray Winstone will join the cast of the Point Break remake, taking on the Agent Pappas role that was originally played by Gary Busey.

The film, a remake of the 1991 original, will be directed by Ericson Core (187; Daredevil) and will co-star Luke Bracey as Johnny Utah.

Gerard Butler, who had previously signed-on to portray the character of Bodhi, (originally played by Patrick Swayze) dropped out of the film last week due to scheduling conflicts.

An official release date has yet to be confirmed .

Lethal Weapon reboot coming

Fast and Furious director Justin Liu is attached to lead a possible Lethal Weapon reboot.

Producers have already approached Thor star Chris Hemsworth to play the lead in the story, which would centre around the son of Mel Gibson’s character, Martin Riggs. Producer Joel Silver is also on board, but it is not clear whether Danny Glover or Gibson will return for a cameo.

There is no tentative release date for the film.

US BOX OFFICE TOP 10 Film

Weekend

Gross

1 Neighbors

$51.1M

$51.1M

2 The Amazing Spider-Man 2

$37.2M

$147.9M

3 The Other Woman

$9.2M

$61.7M

4 Heaven is for Real

$7M

$75.2M

America: 5 Captain The Winter Soldier

$5.6M

$245M

6 Rio 2

$5.1M

$113.2M

7 Moms’ Night Out

$4.2M

$4.2M

of Oz: 8 Legends Dorothy’s Return

$3.7M

$3.7M

9 Divergent

$1.7M

$145M

10 Brick Mansions

$1.5M

$18.3M

SFC Jungceylon Phuket (Patong) 13 Sins (E) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (3D/E) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (E) Brick Mansions (E) Noah (3D/E) Oculus (E) Under the Skin (E)

12:30, 14:40, 16:50, 19:00, 21:10 13:40, 19:40 12:20, 15:20, 18:20, 21:20 14:50, 22:10 16:40, 19:20 12:50, 15:10, 17:25, 19:40, 22:00 12:30, 17:00

As some movies and movie times change every Thursday morning, after The Phuket News has gone to press, the accuracy of the following information cannot be guaranteed.

For up-to-date information, visit sfcinemacity.com, or call the cinemas directly: SFX Coliseum Phuket 076-209000 and SFC Jungceylon Phuket 076-600-555.

14 ENTERTAINMENT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Drumming to beat cancer

O

n Sunday (May 18), there will be a free drumming and dancing event in Patong as part of a worldwide drumming initiative called Drumstrong.

The event will feature a three-day rhythm and arts festival that will raise awareness and funds to help defeat cancer.

One of the main highlights will be a giant drum circle that will run nonstop for 24 hours. Many drum circles around the world will send “live” video to the main Drumstrong drum circle during this time, as they will all drum together and share a musical experience that promises to connect people around the world in a unified cause.

The Phuket Drum Circle (PDC) will represent Thailand, and the event will be a non-stop drumming session from 5-7pm in Patong (6-8am at the main drum circle in Charlotte, USA).

The event will be held on the beach across from Bangla Rd, but in the event of rain it will take place at the Music Matter Jazz bar in Phuket Town.

This public event is open to anyone who wishes to participate and people are encouraged to bring any percussive instrument, or borrow one from someone who has extras.

The PDC is an open public gathering of percussionists, dancers, and friends, who organise events twice a month on Phuket beaches.

Phuket’s drum circles attract people from all backgrounds.

“The PDC offers a supportive space that people living on the island can access any time, and experience the benefits of an interactive rhythm event,” explained one of its members.

Drum circles are also called interactive rhythm events and are considered an ancient form of community music making, where anyone can join in and bring percussive instrument. A grow-

ing body of research indicates that drum circles have several benefits.

Studies by Barry Bittman, MD, indicate that drumming events can increase the count of cancer killing cells thereby strengthening the immune system. According to B. Quinn, PhD, a brief drumming session is enough to double brainwave alpha activity, and foster calmness and euphoria.

People from all walks of life participate in drum circles and for different reasons, which include music making, de-stressing, self expression, community bonding, emotional release and simply to exercise creativity.

Drum circles are increasingly popular in educational, therapeutic and corporate team building settings. Most US Fortune 100 companies have used drum circles with their employees.

For example, Apple has conducted regular team building drum circle events for over 20 years, while Toyota has its own in-company drum circle.

For further information or to donate to cancer initiatives supported by Drumstrong, visit www.drumstrong. com. If you wish to learn more about the Phuket Drum Circle visit the Facebook page: Phuket Drum Circle, which is updated regularly.

Class Act Media is a proud media sponsor of this event.

BKK to host huge EDM show

B

angkok’s premier electronic music promoters, AG Productions and Retox Sessions, have joined forces with Contango and You2Play to bring back a much-loved electronic music festival To feature some of the world’s hottest acts in electronic music, the You2Play Together Festival 2014, will take place on May 31 at BITEC Bangna in Bangkok.

Having mesmerised the audiences last year with megastars like Snoop Dogg, Justice, An21, Max Vangeli, Quintino and more,You2Play Together Festival will again this year promise a stellar line-up to blow away dance music enthusiasts.

Headlining this epic event will be the Grammy Award-winning DJ and producer, Afrojack. The 26-year-old has made a huge impact on the music industry and is a key player in the worldwide explosion and popularity of EDM. Boasting a global following of millions, DJ Bl3nd, straight out of LA, is also in the line-up, ready to explode his signature high-energy mix for the Bangkok crowd.

Another not-to-be-missed act will be MAKJ. Hailed as one of the next rising stars in the electronic dance music world, MAKJ (real name Mackenzie Johnson) is a name to watch.

Despite a busy schedule, D-wayne will join the concert, as will Abdesamad Ben Abdelaouid, better known as Apster, a new talent from the Dutch house scene.

Local talents opening for the inter-

national superstars include DJs Plerny, Skinny Mark, Zuper L and Gift OKB. The You2Play Together Festival 2014 will take place on Saturday May 31, 2014, from 7pm onwards, at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center. (BITEC) on Bangna-Trat road.

Tickets are still available and priced between B1,475 and B1,900, excluding VAT. Tickets will also be available at the door on the day of the event. Age restriction is 17 years and over. Valid IDs or passports are required for entry.

For more information, visit togetherfestival.net and retoxsessions.com.

Class Act Media is a proud media sponsor of this event. thephuketnews

16 ISLAND SCENE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Dave O’Connor, Bliss Chef Alex Oddy, and Simon Samaan.

PHBGTU HOLD MIAMI BEACH PARTY AT BLISS BEACH CLUB It was all smiles and positive vibes at Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation’s annual fundraiser party, the Miami Beach Party @ Bliss Beach Club held in Cherngtalay on Friday (May 9).

Royal Phuket Marina Director of Business Development Zoran Lalvani, Fon and Henry.

Right: Tracey Burr.

Far left: Sonu Kapoor with friends.

Centre: Katarina Bonér.

Sue Ultmann from Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.

Josh Mitchell from Breeze at Cape Yamu.

From second from left: Ajarn Pranee, Robert de Graaff, Dirk Grossman, Busaba de Graaff.

Dirk Grossman, Robert de Graaff, Busaba de Graaf, and Boon Yongsakul

ALBATROSS LUFTHANSA CITY CENTER GRAND OPENING Dozens came out for the grand opening of the Albatross Lufthansa City Center travel agency on Boat Avenue in Cherngtalay. Thursday May 8. thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

ISLAND SCENE 17

FAMOUS BIKINI CONTEST 2014 Famous nightclub in Patong held a 2014 Bikini Contest & Pool Party on Saturday (May 10), which started in the sun and ended with an evening party. This event was proudly sponsored by Class Act Media.

SOI DOG OPEN DAY Soi Dog Foundation organised its first ever Open Day at its shelter in Maikhao on Saturday (May 10), with the aim to encourage more dog and cat adoptions. Visitors toured the shelter, and talked to the resident vets and staff who were on hand all morning to help with adoptions. @thephuketnews

18 EVENTS

FRI

16 MAY

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM own Spa sanctuary. After your pampering session, let us treat you to complimentary afternoon tea in pure Pavilions style! Spa opening hours: 10.00 am – 8.00 pm Afternoon tea is served from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm Book your Weekend Indulgence by contacting spa.phuket@thepavilionsresorts.com

Suk Singpatong + Sitnumnoi Every Saturday Night, Num Noi Singpatong, the head trainer and owner of Singpatong + Sitnumnoi Gym in Patong Beach, has been launching an elite fight series “Suk Singpatong + Sitnumnoi Saturday Night Fight” in Patong Boxing Stadium (Sai Nam Yen), where top international fighters will compete. Visit the official website at www.patong boxingstadium.com.

Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

Wizard of OZ production at PIADS 2014 Whole school production. Friday 16 May 2014 - 7pm, Saturday 17 May 2014 1pm. Venue - PIADS Multi-purpose Hall. All welcome to enjoy this classic stage performance. Tickets available at the school reception - Adults 300 THB, Children 150 THB. Email: kim.minnaar@pia.ac.th, Phone: 076 336 076 ext 1706

Pool Competition at Expat Hotel

Jungle Yoga for Kids Spend a day in the newly opened Santosa Detox and Wellness Center in Kata and bring your children (4-12 years) to our FREE Jungle Yoga class this Saturday at 2pm. We will guide them through an adventurous, playful and fun yoga class. Parents can enjoy the day relaxing and enjoying healthy delicious juices, tasting some of our delicious vegetarian and raw food in the Santosa Restaurant and treat yourself with spa treatments form the Santosa Spa. Call +66 (0) 76 330 600 or visit www. santosaphuket.com for more information

Pool Competition at 9pm. Expat Sports Bar, Soi Taipan, Patong. expatsportsbar.com.

Indian Curry Night on Fridays Come to Navrang Mahal in Karon Sea Sands Resort & Spa for an authentic Indian Feast every Friday in Karon Beach.

Try out our delicious naans, mutton vindaloo, chicken tandoori, dal makhini, butter chicken, samosas, lassis and many more mouth-watering dishes. For only 499/- nett and special reduced prices on drinks.

SAT

17 MAY

The Good Shepherd Merchandise Shop Open Every Wednesdays and Saturdays. Plaza Del Mar, Laguna (Behind Bake). Time: 10am to 1pm every Wednesday and 9am to noon every Saturday. We have a wide and wonderful selection of handicrafts such as toys, greeting cards, ornaments, lanterns, bags, purses and many more. You can also find exquisite arts and craft created by local residents. Pre-loved items include books, clothes and toys. Handicraft items are made by the disadvantaged members of society that The Good Shepherd strives to empower. All proceeds go directly to The Good Shepherd mission. See thegoodshepherd.info.

Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

Weekend Indulgence Leave all your worries behind and enjoy a day of pampering and relaxation with The Pavilions’ ultimate Weekend Indulgence, designed to make you feel on holiday - even if just for a day! Every Saturday and Sunday enjoy 50% off all our Spa Pleasures, heavenly treatments designed to revive and energize body & mind in the privacy of your

BBQ at Expat Hotel Time 8pm, Expat Sports Bar, Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong. www.expatsportsbar. com.

SUN

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Phuket Walking Street Phuket Walking Street, “Laad Yai” is a Village & Community Development Potential Project (SML) of the “Old Phuket Town Community” in Laad Yai, Phuket Town.

The visitors can enjoy the Old Phuket Town atmosphere which benefit to the local economic growth in the Old Phuket Town community. Open every Sunday from 16.00 - 22.00 Hrs. For more info visit facebook.com/phuketwalkingstreet or contact: 089 474 5253.

Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

18 MAY Traditional Sunday Roast Angus O’Tool’s Karon Beach

DrumSTRONG

by Phuket Drum Circle Join the Phuket Drum Circle on Sunday May 18th, in this non-stop 2 hours drumming and dancing event in Patong Beach (at the end of Bangla Rd), from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. This event is free and it connects with drumSTRONG.com – a worldwide 24 hour non-stop drumming session that raises awareness and funds for cancer research. The Phuket Drum Circle will represent Thailand as more than 30 countries will send live video to the main drumSTRONG event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

Lunch or dinner served from 2pm. Your choice of either roast beef, chicken, loin of pork or leg of lamb served with roast and boiled potatoes, three fresh vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Only B320 per person which includes a free glass of house red or white. Opposite Centara Karon Resort. See otools-phuket.com.

MON

19 MAY

BBQ All You Can Eat at Shakers Mondays & Thursdays. BBQ all you can eat: pork, chicken, beef, prawns, fish and squid with salad buffet, cold and hot sauces, garlic bread, baked potatoes, potato salad and more for B325 per person. 7pm-11pm. Located in Patong on Rat-U-Tit 200 Pee Road next to Hotel Mercure. patongshakers.com

Live Seafood & Jazz Sunday Brunch at Banyan Tree Join Banyan Tree’s indulgent LIVE Seafood Sunday brunch featuring lots of LIVE Canadian Lobsters, Tiger prawns, freshly shucked Oysters, Wagyu rump and Foie Gras. Meander from one live cooking station to the next, and don’t forget to leave room for cheese and dessert. With live Jazz music and a kids club, starting at B2,500++ per person including free flow of selected beverages. Advance bookings are highly recommended. Contact 076 372 400. fb-phuket@banyantree.com.

Thai market night Experience an authentic taste of Thailand and simple a wide variety of dishes prepared fresh for you. Market night price is weight of chosen items every Monday at Ban Aroi from 6.30 - 9.00 pm. For bookings, please call Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas on 076 336 900 # 781.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

TUE

20 MAY

Half Chicken Spit Roast Tuesdays and Saturdays: Half chicken spit roast with french fries, salad buffet, potato salad & gravy sauce for B225 per person.

7pm-11pm. Located in Patong on Rat-U-Tit 200 Pee Road next to Hotel Mercure.

WED

EVENTS 19

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 tox Center in Kata. A great opportunity for women to meet, connect and experience a rejuvenating evening. We will treat you with massage angels; our amazing chef will offer some hors d’ouvres from our Santosa vegetarian restaurant AND you will also get to try some of our own Santosa handmade natural beauty products. We will finish the evening with a fascinating and insightful talk on anti- aging, this Thursday 7.00 pm. Call +66 (0) 76 330 600 or visit www. santosaphuket.com for more information

FRI

23 MAY

21 MAY

Live in Phuket” at Seduction Beach Club & Disco on Tuesday 27th May 2014. Starts from 10 pm onwards. Mackenzie Johnson, better known as MAKJ has achieved an almost unfathomable amount of success. His dedication to his craft and ambition to surpass any and all competitors will further propel MAKJ higher than you could ever have imagined. See more info at: www.seductiondisco.com Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

SAT

31 MAY

The Art of Pasta

BBQ Steak night Enjoy flame-grilled steak, cooked to perfection and served with fresh selections from our buffet BBQ night THB 1,190++ per person. Free children under 7 and half price for 7 to 12 yrs old every Wednesday at Panache from 6.30 to 10.00 pm. For bookings, please call Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas on 076 336 900 # 781.

Join us for an afternoon dedicated to the epitome of Mediterranean delight. Chef Belinda will host a unique workshop to show you how to make fresh pasta from scratch and prepare the most classic of Italian recipes. At the end of the class, all chefs will be invited to enjoy a well earned glass over a steaming bowl of pasta. Buon appetito!

Join us for The Art of Pasta at The Plantation Restaurant on the 23rd of May at 11.30 am Pasta workshop, including your home cooked lunch, recipe booklet and Pavilions apron at 1,200 THB++ per person. To book your cooking class contact restaurants. phuket@thepavilionsresorts.com

NEON NIGHT RUN PARTY Neon Night Run is a unique, fun running party! With races distances for both young and old, plus great music and colorful bright lights. Fun for the whole family with BBQ, stalls, kids entertainment, face painting, prizes for best NEON costumes, glow sticks, etc. Schools compete to win the new Thanyapura Cup. Entry fee for individual runners/walkers is 300THB. Everyone welcome. Register now at www.thanyapura. com/event

and enhancing peoples experiences with art. 22 April-8 May 2014, “Brothers–A Revolution Song” Oil Paintings by Chaianan Bumrungchoo and 10 May–12 June 2014 “Child-like”–Water Colour paintings by Vincent Henon For more info please contact info@oasisedphuket.com Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

BBQ Ribs All You Can Eat Wednesdays and Fridays. BBQ ribs all you can eat with salad buffet and potato salad for B295 per person. 7pm-11pm. Located in Patong on Rat-U-Tit 200 Pee Road next to Hotel Mercure. patongshakers.com

THU

22 MAY

Phuket International Rugby 10 The 16th Strategic Sports Phuket International Rugby 10s 2014 will take place on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of May at the Thanyapura Sports & Leisure Club in sunny Phuket. If you are interested in playing in this year’s tournament, please contact Pat Cotter at phuketrugby@gmail.com. Better hurry, places are filling up fast!

Proudly supported by Class Act Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

TUE Ladies night A women networking event full of surprises at the new Santosa Wellness and De-

@thephuketnews

27 MAY

DJ MAKJ Live in Phuket Join us for the special evening, “DJ MAKJ

Elephants for Orphans 2nd annual charity fundraising event in support of Baan Sri Thammarat Orphanage.

On Saturday 31st May from 6 pm onwards at La Vie en Rose Restaurant & Wine Bar. Adult 700 THB/ Children 350 THB. Proudly supported by ClassAct Media: The Phuket News, Novosti Phuketa, Live 89.5, The Phuket News TV.

EVERY DAY

FREE Herbal Steam Sauna & Ice Bath At the newest Detox and Wellness center in Kata. We invite you to experience a relaxing and rejuvenating evening in our herbal steam sauna and ice bath. This is FREE every day from 4 – 8pm. If you would like to continue the evening with a sunset dinner overviewing the ocean the Santosa restaurant has a wide variety of raw food, vegan and vegetation meals. Call +66 (0) 76 330 600 or visit www.santosaphuket. com for more information

daily event updates on Art Exhibitions Oasis ed.Phuket Oasis ed.Phuket hosts a new Art Exhibition at The Book Cafe in Rawai.To be engaging

20 TIME OUT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Crossword by Myles Mellor & Sally York

1. Which Pacific island chain used the British national anthem as its anthem until 1860?

2. Which is the oldest luxury hotel in Asia?

3. What was the name of the last king of Burma?

4. The Wright Brothers’ first powered flight was shorter than the wingspan of a jumbo jet. True or false?

5. How high do you have to count before you use the letter A? Answers below right.

SUDOKU

Across 1. Blubber 5. City on the Loire 10. Ready a gift 14. Hodgepodge 15. Confounded 16. Epitaph opener 17. Red River, to the Vietnamese 18. Addict 19. Copacati worshipper 20. Aims high, like a TV host?

23. Low islands 24. Heads up 25. They meet in the middle 28. Self-image 30. Accords 34. Myanmar natives, e.g.

36. Piz Bernina, e.g.

38. Indeed 39. Appeared on TV host’s show twice?

43. Be up 44. Inits. on a rocket 45. Sportsman’s guide 46. Feature of some photo layouts 49. Chinese brew 51. Finish lines

Var. 21. Angel 22. U.S.N.A. grad 25. Browning’s Ben Ezra, e.g.

26. Assoc. of nations 27. Fare reductions 29. Loud Australian bird 31. African antelope 32. Rhodes of Rhodesia 33. “Land ___!”

35. Pittance 37. Hard throw, in baseball 40.

Onion plant Down 1. Prominent Danish 41. ___ owl 42. Record holders physicist 47. The Supreme Court, 2. Insect repellent e.g. ingredient 48. Child’s play?

3. Stage area 50. Erode 4. Syllogist, e.g.

5. Sweet confection 53. ___ Tower 55. Expressed pleasure 6. Of no use 7. Tech support caller 56. ___ Canyon 8. Landlord’s paper 57. Snap request?

58. Plot unit 9. Hindu holy man 59. Pipe type 10. Odd idea 60. Hypothetical 11. City north of substance Carson City 12. Big name in oil 61. 90’s party 13. Hymn of praise: 62. De novo 52. Car until 1957 54. Thai currency 56. Lift the mood of a TV host?

63. Wild ___ 64. Object of many prayers 65. Zing 66. Soup vegetable 67. Beat 68. “Le ___,” Emile Zola novel 69. Knawe, for one 70. War horse 71. Sheldrake

Solutions to last week’s puzzles:

Answers to this week’s Pop Quiz: 1. The Hawaiian Islands; 2.The Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok (1876); 3. Thibaw Min; 4. True; 5. One thousand.

GOT YOUR NUMBER

3

Pet

of the week

The number of years the average person spends on the toilet during their lifetime.

85

Percentage of the world’s population who earn less than US$200 (B5,500) a month.

100,000

Number of slices of bread that could be toasted by a single bolt of lightning (if you could figure out a way to do it).

150

Maximum number of stable social relationships the average human brain can handle at one time.

8:1

Chances of being killed by a policeman compared with chances of being killed by a terrorist.

Source: Uberfacts

This cute beagle named Sushi belongs to Sasiwimon Chaiyaporn. Sushi is two and a half years old, and is a very hyperactive and happy dog. She loves to walk and run a lot, and loves her bed with a pillow.

She eats everything but her favourite food is raw mango with chilli dipping sauce.

Want to see your pet here? Email photos to editor1@classactmedia.co.th

This week in history ■■ May 16, 1843 The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.

■■ May 17, 1939 Baseball teams the Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States’ first televised sporting event, in New York City.

■■ May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens er upts in Washington State USA, killing 57 people and causing B81bn in damage.

■■ May 19, 1962 Marilyn Monroe sings her famously sexy version of Happy Birthday at a birthday salute to US President John F. Kennedy in New York.

■■ May 20, 1992 Black May: HM King Bhumibol orders Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon and Gen Chamlong Srimuang to end their battles in the streets of Bangkok.

Officially 52 die, but the real number is thought to be much higher.

■■ May 21, 1927 Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo non stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

■■ May 22, 1960 The Valdivia earthquake in Chile, the most powerful ever recorded, at 9.5 on the Moment Magnitude Scale, kills around 6,000 people. Tsunamis hit Hawaii and Japan.

Source: Wikipedia thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 17

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Property PROPERTY FOR RENT

2 BR. PRIVATE POOL 180SQM APT Rent from 65,000THB. Incl. c l e a n i n g , l i n e n ,t o w e l s c h a n g e weekly. Fast fibernet. Cable TV.2 big bathrooms.Wash/dry machine.

Big complete kitchen.Quiet location.

Only extra cost electricity. Contact: 086 940 6560, E-mail: 4711en@ gmail.com

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/thephuketnews

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @thephuketnews

5 mins to PIA and Nayang Beach

Beautiful Villa For Sale: 4 Bedroom/4Bathroom detached villa on 164Sq.Wah with swimming pool.

Superb location between ChalongPhuket Town. Now 8 Million Baht. Call for appointment to view. 089 868 5143

3 beds, 2 Bath, western kitchen, Indoor utility/storage room, lounge, dining area, covered terrace, covered car port, small front garden. Quality furniture throughout. Internet TV. 120 sqm interior space. 4 Air Cons. 25,000 Baht per month for 1 year long term rental.

Available Mid May 2014. Contact: kanaloa55@yahoo.co.uk, Call: 084 189 5149

Land & House for sale: 2.5 rai (N.S.-3 K document) near Kathu waterfall. 2 houses, 1 small house & 2 pools, big garage. 3 way Entrance. B28 million. Call 081 893 0540, 076 385 775 email: anong540@hotmail.com.

Villa for Rent:

Cheng Talay area Large 5 Bedroom 5 Bathroom set in 1.2 Rai gated garden with double carport and private pool / sala area. Long or short term rentals. B90,000 Per Month 076 272 177.

GOLF villa at Loch Palm:

DELUXE PENTHOUSE/ LOFT 120SQM Rent from 29,000THB/month, Long/ Short term, Inc. weekly cleaning, towel & linen change. Fibernet 65MB,Cable T V, King bed, big bathrooms,terrace 20 SQM. Quiet, 500 M to Chalong pier. Only extra cost electricity. Email: 4711en@ gmail.com, Call: 086 940 6560

PANORAMIC SEA VIEW L AND: Spec t ac ular view of Phang Nga Bay, James Bond and Phi Phi Islands. Road access, underground utilities. 4.5 km from Heroine Monument. 1.99 Rai at 5.9MB per rai. Chanote title. 089 473 8338, PhuketOne@gmail.com.

GOLF villa at www.lochpalm.com with pool on 8th hole green. Luxury 3 bedrooms with en-suites. 12 month lease.

Avail 1st March. THB 55000 per month plus bond. Call Tim 0858942268, Email timshaw@bigpond.com.

Sales - D Condo Mine:

Sales - down payment 250,000 B D Condo Mine Phuket Town by Sansiri. Finished in March 2014.Corner room on the 7th floor with nice view. 2 Bedrooms Call:089 159 3239.

Inexpensive land plots on East coast of Phuket for sale, 0.3 - 5 rai, some with a sea view (Bang Pae, Pak Lok, Yamu Hills). Direct sale by owner. Comercial property: two-storey building: 50 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 3 kitchens, 4 rai land plot, 7 min from airport. Nicely renovated. Can be a hospital/school/ commercial/residential property.

35 mln baht. Contact: Lana, Email: lana.phuket@gmail.com, Tel: 080 27 16 484

Luxury 1 Bedroom F/F Apartment

dcondo Creek in PK for rent

NEW DE LUXE BIG STUDIO 70SQM

Brand new fully furnished condo for rent. Studio of 29.82 sq.m. Fitness, clubhouse,100-meter-swimming pool length. Great location. Starts from 11,000 THB/mnth, Tel. 076 681 188, www.plus.co.th, Email: Phuket@plus. co.th

65 Sqm. cable T.Vs(2)& wifi cleaning and laundry service available. Great location central Patong (Soi Sansabai) short or long term welcome. Tel Ian 087-8879070 e-mail Ianscondo@ yahoo.com

Rent from 24,000 THB/MONTH. Inc. weekly cleaning, towel & linen change. Extra cost electricity.

Queen bed,terrace 20 SQM. Big bathroom, Wifi Fibernet 65MB. CABLE TV, complete kitchen set.

Email: 4711en@gmail.com, Call: 086 940 6560

WRITE YOUR CLASSIFIED NOW OPEN!!

NOW AVAILABLE!!

1,2,3,4 bedroom different private pool villas for RENT in Naiharn-Rawai., start from 15000 baht/month. (Holiday rental, Short-Long term) Please contact: 087-877-2320 En / 084-854-9889 Th

IN THE NATURE ROMANTIC THAISTYLE RESORT Daily 1500Thb, Weekly 7500Thb, Monthly 30000Thb Included: Daily room cleaning, Linen changing once/week, Internet Wi-Fi, Cable TV, Smart TV, Electricity, Free bicycle, BBQ grill, Exes to Cinema room. www.coco-palace.com

DELUXE STUDIO 34 SQM Rent from 13,000 THB/month, long/ short term. Extra cost electricity.

Furnished, Wifi Fibernet 65 MB, Cable TV, microwave, blender, water boiler, plates, weekly cleaning, towel & linen change.Quiet area, Lot of parking space. Email: 4711en@ gmail.com, Call: 086 940 6560

INEXPENSIVE LAND PLOTS AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Apartment for long term rent

Rent- 2 Bed Bungalow Nai Harn

Patong Tower ( M 704 ) fully furnished 68 sq. mtrs for long term rent. Included: Cable TV ; Satellite TV ; Wifi internet access ; parking ; security ; Price 18,000/M, Contact: Jaspal Singh, jaspalt@loxinfo.co.th

Air Condition – Color TV, Free UBC cable Platinum Package. Free Internet.

Master bed, excellent mattress, Sealy Posturepdic. Couch + chairs w/ end tables. Counter bar w/ stools. Cooking Equip / Fridge. Short term – 16,000 per month, Long Term – 13,500 per month Plus Damage Deposit. Available now 1--April-2013. Call Nok 087-244-1322

OFFICE/ SHOP FOR RENT

PROPERTY FOR SALE

PREMIUM: PAY ONCE PER MONTH B2,799+VAT. PAY ONCE PER MONTH WILL RUN ONLINE FOR 30 DAYS AND IN 4 ISSUES OF THE PRINT EDITION PER MONTH. *INCLUDES 1 PICTURE IN THE PAPER AND 10 PICTURES ONLINE.

Headline: ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......

Body: ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......

189 CHARACTERS

...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......

Ground Floor space with excellent positioning on Chalong Pier Road.For more information, please call 081 416 4177 or 076 381 341, Chalong.

...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......

Online upgrades:

Website link B199

Print upgrades:

Extra lines B99

Urgent banner B199 Box B199

Colour Background B199

Colour Headlines B199

Supalai Hills house for rent The Villa is 244 sqm.Which has 4 comfy bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen, set in private, secure surroundings and conveniently located as it’s just a 20 minutes drive to the BIS and PIA international schools.Only 15 minutes drive away from Phuket’s top beaches Bangtao and Surin.0848519795 Email : robert. anthony.krause@gmail.com

@thephuketnews

GRAND VIEW CHALONG BAY: VILL A & L A N D: 3 bed room, 4 bath room, 2 livingroom, 1 dinningroom, 1 kitchen (american style), 1 garage (2 cars), 1 swimming pool (10x4), 1 bed room for a maid, 1 bath room for a maid, Internet, Security 24/24, Sea view and jungle view, Total sqm 556.92, Total land sqm 581, a.p e ll e gr in o2810 @ gm ai l.c o m, 084 241 3387. Price 4.24MB.

INCLUDE NOVOSTI PHUKETA PHUKET’S ONLY RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER (FREE TRANSLATION TO RUSSIAN) B1,699+VAT.

DEADLINE: MONDAY 11.59PM (MIDNIGHT) FOR THAT WEEKS ISSUE Hand this in at agent shops, our office or fax: 076 612 553

18 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PROPERTY IN PHUKET PROPERTY FOR SALE CONT.

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com 7th Floor Suites (Hotel) Building For Sale

NEW PRIVATE POOL VILLA CHALONG 5.9 MB. 165 SQM. Rent 45,000 THB. 2 STOREY .3 Bathrooms, 2 Bedrooms. 4 AIRCON. Modern Western style. Thai company. Good Parking. Email: 4711en@gmail.com, Call: 086 940 6560

Pr ic e 14.9 M B.TH B/ Rent from 100,000THB/month, 200m. from the beach. Gated.24 hours security. Resort 33 units. Good rental return,8pct.

Thaicompany. Email: 4711en@gmail. com, Call: 086 940 6560

17 MB.THB/RENT 150,000THB/ MONTH. New Deluxe Patak villa 300. Quiet area. 5 bedrooms,4 kitchens,6 bathrooms.10 air cons. Good Parking. Many possibilities. Holiday rental 4 units. Email: 4711en@gmail. com, Call: 086 940 6560

2 separate Chanote titles each about 1,200 sq metres (4.5 and 5.5M), or will sell as one lot.

Underground services. 081 273 7326, email: kmar74@hotmail.com.

For serious interest email: maurice.phuket@gmail.com, Tel: 081 788 8280

New House For Sale Kathu

Special Sale Luxury Apartment 2 really big beds rooms, big kitchen and living 135 sqm include furnishing in the center of Kata - sea level close to shops and sea in a charming property: with-poolsauna-parking etc; market price (10.5 mill bth) NOW 7.5 mill bth Tel: 0817888280 or mail maurice. phuket@gmail.com

For Sale 2 villas with this view

Situated at Ao Por, 2 modern contemporary villas. Infinity pool, 3 bedrooms, 4 bahtrooms, study, large living area, terrace and covered parking for 2 cars.

Priced from 24 MB. info@thecurvephuket.com, www.thecurvephuket.com.

Sin gl e H ou se Sp e c i a l Price Rent/Sale: Nice house fully furnished with teakwood furniture, ready to move in. 240 sqm. 4 bed 4 bath, close to Kathu waterfall and market. Near Loch Palms, major stores, BIS and KIS. B45,000 per month. Call Oranwan 086 883 3169.

Special Sale Luxury Apartment

2 BEDR. KATA GARDENS 6B 180SQM

Total 1.5 rai (2,450sq metre) on gently sloping land with sea view of Phang Nga Bay.

Price total 38 million Baht (9.50.000.euro) include chanote and Thai company.

Sabai Village Kathu behind Red Mountain Golf Course , 2 Bedroom , 2 Bathroom with off street parking. 42.9 Sq Wah in a small QUIET boutique estate. Full Chanote Title. CALL GIM 081 606 5772

2 BEDR. KATA GARDENS 6B 180SQM

East Coast Sea View Land

Kata Beach Center 9 apar tments and a 300 sqm Penthouse on the roof plus fully equipped restaurant and pool with terrace are free of rent and now available.

RAWAI VILLA: BARGAIN PRICE Spacious property in 1,000sqm garden. Private 9x4m pool. Three large beds, all a/c and en suite. Big Western kitchen. Plus guest house. Furnished.

Private access. Price cut for quick sale. Call: 087 273 0141

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

1-bedroom 60 sqm include furnishing in the center of Kata - sea level close to shops and sea in a charming property: with-poolsauna-parking etc; market price (4.1 mill bth) NOW 2.6 mill bth Tel: 0817888280 or mail: maurice. phuket@gmail.com

One Sale 3 Luxury Apartments 1. 2 really big beds rooms big kitchen and living: 135 sqm 2. 1 bedroom 60 sqm 3. 1 bedroom 58 sqm a total of 253 sqm in the center of Kata - sea level close to the shops and sea in a charming property: with-pool-sauna-parking etc; Total market price (18.4 mill bth) NOW 13.4 mill bth Tel:0817888280 or mail: maurice.phuket@gmail. com

Great investment oppor tunit y i n Pa t o n g . I h ave 2 N E W LY RENOVATED condos in same complex near Simon Cabaret. Both condos fully funished + free hold.

Condo no.1 4th floor studio unit 50sqm already rented out. Condo no.2 just funished renovation 3rd floor 1 bedroom 50sqm every thing brand new. This one never use and could be your residence plus earn income from other condo.Complex has huge pool + garden and 24 hrs. security. I want 5 MB for both. Eng 085 471 9246 Thai 087 621 3405.

Modern Villa in Marina: A spacious family home in Boat Lagoon.

Modern contemporary style with 4+1 beds, 4 bathrooms. Large dining area, private swimming pool and fully furnished. 29.5 MB. Size 616 Sq.M. Call 076 238 948.

Land & House Park, Chalong: Villa for sale, 4 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, 1 Kitchen, 1 Living room, Fully furnished and equipped, Garden 240 SQM. B6.8 M Tel. 083 394 4536(Eng) /084 443 5389(Thai/Eng) flaviofurlanis@yahoo.it.

EXCLUSIVE UNIQUE RESORT W LAND 4 separate buildings with 11 different custom maid rooms, restaurant / cafeteria in a sweet and idyllic sanctuary for the sense. Surrounded by lush green mountains and tropical forest. The Resort is an oasis of natural beauty and only a couple of minutes walking to beautiful Naiharn beach!

Location Soi Naya PRICE 33.3 MB. Cotact: oliver@thurmanngroup.com, Call: 087-877-2320

AO POR SEAVIEW LAND:

DELUXE STUDIO 34 SQM

1.5 Rai cleared, tiered land with constructed, drained access road from “Beach Road”. Chanote. 400m from Ao Por Grand Marina. Building will have 270 degree view of islands and Krabi. B10,000,000, 082 277 5971.

6.8 MB.THB/rent from 60.000THB. At Twinsands ABSOLUTE 5 Star Hotel and Spa! Just outside Patong, Sea view. Pool view. Excellent restaurant. Modern style. Parking space. Good rental return 10 pct.

Email: 4711en@gmail.com, Call: 086 940 6560

Patong Free Hold Condo:

Patong Condo for sale: A nice foreign freehold condominium for sale in Patong is located in a recently complete development of one & two bedrooms condominiums. Located on the fourth floor of a total of five. 080 052 8082.

Land Plot for Sale: Chanote title at Cherng Talay / Pasak7 (Phuket - Surin Beach area) Phone 090 487 8084. Email: utaipan@ yahoo.com.

Land for sale: 2 rai of land in the South of Phuket. Unique location on the hills between Naiharn and Rawai, 5 mins from the beach.

Panoramic view on Chalong bay and Naiharn. Easy access via private road, reputable neighborhood (German village), tropical forest.

Ready project for a 3 storey villa.

3200 sq. m. Call Svetlana 086 743 4657 or Alexander +7 926 914 5555, oxum@mail.ru; samat2011@yandex.ru, Price : 18.5 million for 1 rai .

Kamala Pool Villa:

Large 3 Bedroom house in mature estate offering high security. (Option to build 4th bedroom)Located in a peacefull no thru road, min’s from beach. Recently renovate, available for immed move in. Chanote title, Price 12.5 MB Call 087 078 9707 Email: kiwigolfpro@outlook.com.

Freehold House for sale: Freehold house for sale in estate in Cherng Talay. Land 735m2, floor area 230m2, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom. Many upgrades incl new carport included. Price B11 million. Call 083 509 8797 for info or viewing.

House for sale in Kathu Urgent!!!

House for sale, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 living area , Large laundry, Large Balcony, Western kitchen, Fully Furnished 5 LCD T Vs, Pool Table. At Kathu.

Tel: 086-0826078. Email:astroboy1959 @hotmail.com

Luxury Villa in Chalong: Perfect condition, 660 sqm on 3 levels, 1,600 sqm land, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, swimming pool 12.5m x 6m with jacuzzi, large sala, double garage. Top quality construction. Reduced price: B25.5 million www.tamata-phuket.com crishausb@hotmail.com. 086 271 3260 or 086 273 4149.

3 Bed Pool Villa Pa Khlok: 3 Beds, 2 Bath 6x3m pool. Full aircon and funishings. Ready for occupation and rental. Secure estate, private parking. 6km from Heroines monument. Close to PIA, BCS and shops. 081 737 0722.

The Title: Rawai Condo New 2 BR, 1.5 Bath, Building B, 2nd Floor, Sea view, 6.7 million ThB. Sinking fund and first year fees included.

Contact: Teddy 0897727136 (English).

3 & 4 Bed Pool Villas: Laguna / Layan. Luxur y pr ivate pool villas in secure development.

Available now. All beds ensuite.

Fully furnished. Rental programme available. B12-20 million. Contact owner: 085 549 7110.

Beachfront Condo in Cape Panwa: Two floors 282 sq. m of

WALK TO BEACH LUXURY VILLA. California style Luxury living 300 meters from Bang Tao Beach – In small luxury villa compound built to European standards by Swedish developer.

Gated 24 hr security. Management & maintenance on site; Maid, Concierge Services. 3 spacious King bedrooms with en-suites and rainfall showers.

Fully equipped kitchen and laundry.

260 sqm open plan living area; 50 sqm private pool, Jacuzzi. Sold fully furnished and decorated directly by owner. Secure legal ownership: Freehold via BVI company; land lease via off-shore structure. 21.9MB Contact: PEDER BERGGREN, Email: peder.berggren@hotmail.com, Tel: 0923578710, Fax: 076202641

living space with stunning views. 3 bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms + Study + large kitchen. Fully furnished.

Communal 40m pool 5 steps away.

Beach 15 steps! 091 876 2330.

Nai Harn Baan Bua: When only the best will do!!!!4 bed/pool villa in Phukets best kept gated community.410 sq.mtr villa.812 sq.mtr land.Overlooking lagoon.Beautiful.Ph: 0812704291. or thailandmls@gmail.com.

Price 22.5 MB.

Home Office Near Thanyapura: New 2-storey home

office near Academy for sale, 280 sq metres, Chanote title, 2 beds 3 baths, nature mountain view. Main street, multiple entrances and exits. 10 minutes to Airport. Only B4.95 million. Call: 086 948 2294.

LUXURY 3 BR IN The Residence

3-storey villa for sale

New 3-storey villa in Phuket for sale.

Glass elevator, pool, ocean view.

700 sqm. Close to Villa Market mall.

Freehold possible. Priced at 13 MB. Contact: Mattias, Call : 090 067 3444 Email: info@progressivephuket.com

3 bedroom 4 bathroom, Land area 580 m2., Spacious living quarter’s feature open plan living & dining areas, a fully equipped, open-concept gourmet kitchen. The Villa comes fully furnished, Contemporary and expansive indoor and outdoor living spaces are offered, private pool.

Services as Restaurant, Gym, Spa ,Maintenance ,Security and Maid.

Massivly Reduced price 18.9 MB! Contact: oliver@thurmanngroup. com Call: 087-877-2320

Land Close to Thanyapura/PIA: Half Rai 1.3MB, 1 Rai is 2.5 MB, total 3 Rai of Land, Mountain View, Chanote, 3 Mins drive to Thanyapura/PIA School, 15 Mins to Airport. Contact Marisa 084 305 6667 or marisar1978@ hotmail.com.

Villa with Pool for Sale: Freehold 3/4 Bedroom Villa. 3 Air Con. 4k. to Ao Makarm Beach. 10x5m pool with 4th bedroom / office on other side. Plot size 104Sq Wah. 416Sqm. Reasonable offers. Call 089 831 4703/084 304 6723.

250m road frontage near Bypass: 16 rai next to Phumundra,

behind Premium Outlet. 250m road frontage, 300m deep. Sloping upwards, starting at 15m and ending at 65m above sea level. 6M/rai. Contact owner direct at 081 893 6630.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 19

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

PROPERTY IN PHUKET

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com PROPERTY FOR SALE CONT. Kamala Boutique Resort:

This boutique resort business which consists of 5 individual villas. The resort is fully occupied presently with long -ter m rentals of fer ing excellent rental income with very little maintenance. The resort land plot totals 2,080 sqm with a built up area of 750 sqm. There are 3 villas, 200 sqm each with 4 bedrooms,3 bathrooms, 1 villa with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and 1 villa with 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. Each villa is open plan living & dining area and an open plan western style kitchen. Storage room, office room, air-cons, satellite TV, telephone line and Internet. This is an ideal investment for the nearly retired or retired couple whom wish to enjoy life with a monthly income. There is also a beautiful 20-meter common pool for all residents to enjoy and relax in the beautiful landscaped gardens.

Remote controlled gated security and car parking. 076 279 280.

House for Sale - Chalong: House on The Corner f o r S a l e: Q u i e t l o c a t i o n

and only 50 0m from the main road. Thepkrasattri, Heroines Monument. 70sqw x 28 0sqm, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big living room with open-plan kitchen (9 x 9 m),1 s e p a r a t e d k i t c h e n , carpark for 3 cars and a small storehouse, 2 aircons, cable TV, 1 phone line TT&T. Price: 2.7 MB. including furnitures. Must See! jochenschmitz16@gmail.com, 081 607 8000.

Quiet stand alone villa, 3 bed, 2 - 5 star baths, 5 aircon, full furn, garden dining lush green, 50 Wah, quality new paint, excellent condition, B3.5 million, firm. Contact: peterb@inter globalau.com, 084 843 3492.

25 year lease for sale. Well situated in fast developing and sought after area close to Laguna. Some fixed rent applies. Contact 087 884 0644 for more info.

2 Rai, Cherngtalay:

MAI KHAO LAND

DIRECT OWNER 5.1 RAI VERY QUIET 1 KLM TON SEA, CAN BUILDING OR INVESTMENT. 2.750000BTHS. THAI; 082-8123486

Lagoon. Free hold 2 separated apartments. 6.2 MB., picharly@gmail.com, 087 060 8400.

The Aqua pool villa-sales/ rent: In Land & House Park Phuket

Pool Villa Mission Heights: 5 year old fantastic

(Manthana Zone) Land area = 440 sqm.

Home area = 300 sqm. 3 bedrooms 4 bathrooms 1 living room and kitchen 1 swimming pool (3m*10m) out door jacuzzi and pavilion Sales: from 1112.8MB. Rent: from 85,000 - 120,000 B/Month. 088 751 2389.

Cheapest Seaview land for Sale: Panorama view of sea view

Resort for Sale: Resort 2 rai, with

chanote. 22 double villas with kitchens, large pool and big coconut garden with own well. Restaurant and bar with satellite TV and Adsl. Opened for 15 years, with lots of repeat customers, parking, quiet. 086 940 1860.

House for sale in Boat Lagoon: House for sale in Boat

golf course view mountain view land for sale. Near Mission Hills Golf course.

6 rai chanote title. B3 million per rai.

087 675 9555, email: pee_bang56@ hotmail.com.

bungalow style (no stairs) pool villa in a small gated community 1,2km from mission hill golf club 6km to PIA, 3bed 3 1/2 bath, huge living room, large saltwater swimming pool, newly planted garden, 2 car carport, 2 telefon lines, fiberoptic internet, price 12mill./13mill. or 15mill. depending on your needs, picharly@gmail.com, 087 060 8400

3 BR LUX POOL VILLA IN NAIHARN 3 bedroom 3 bathroom, Chanote (Freehold), Land area 402.80M2 Living area 208 M2. Luxurious one-storey villa offers privacy and features your own garden and pool to enjoy the ambiance of outdoor tropical living. Fully furnished, large kitchen with built-in basin, stove, and cabinets. Private and Peaceful area. Only 9.6 MB. Contact: oliver@thurmanngroup.com, Call: 087-877-2320

Kalim Sea View, Freehold Condo for Sale: 11.9 MB 2 min

walk to beach, big balcony & sunset view, 180 Sqm, 2 Ensuite Bed rooms, big living space. 089 617 2312, PhuketAREA.com - Search C146.

Price Reduced, 4beds Villa:

RAWAI PRIME LAND PLOTS:

Comfor table 4 bedrooms villa, plus maid room. Approx. 450Sq.M building, corner plot, energy saving, management ser vice available for investor.Located in secured gate community, near British International school. info@mindproperties.net.

Land for Sale: 400m from Naiyang Beach. 3 Rai 1 Tarangwah.

6.5MB per Rai. Call 087 091 8331 or email chiangmaibeltrade@hotmail. com for more information.

Beach Land on Koh Yao Yai:

6.26 rai direct beachfront, power, water, road, unobstructed views, chanote title, white sand, peaceful.

Only 5.8 mil baht per rai. Doesn't get much better than this! Beautiful beach land. 081 649 3557.

Adjacent to Mangosteen Resort, quiet residential area. 3 different sizes: 1-1-86.5 rai - 11.80 MB 2-0-87.5 rai 16.64 MB 3-0-35.5 rai - 22.50 MB Best land and best price in the area. Quick sale, price negotiable.081 536 5846. hajo_von_keller@hotmail.com

House for sale: Baan Manik area, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, ceiling fans all through out, 2 aic con units, furnished. 2.7MB, no offers. For more info - Farang - 080 323 1918, Thai 081 607 9874.

Patong Tower for Sale:

And for rent. Sea view and mountain views. Freehold from 64 to 448 sq metres. Phone no: 080 692 6114. Email: orsoreal estate@hotmail.com.

FOR SALE Penthouse in Rawai: 360 panoramic breathtak-

ing views of Chalong Bay, mountain views and Big Buddha. Two bedrooms, 310 sq.m of spacious living area and balconies. Contact Izzy 0862788300 or Danai 090 170 0429.

Mai Khao Prime Location Land: I will sell my piece of land next to the new tourist attraction in Mai Khao. Perfect for investment in future like shops, guesthouse. Please email for mobile number and more details. ohmidzi@gmail.com.

pool, security 24/7, cafeteria. Studio 46sqm fully furnished. Freehold for foreigners. Price: 2.6MLN. Urgent sale, no agent. Tel: 089 728 4005. Email: thamad17@yahoo.com.

Sea-View Chalong-Residence: Dream pool villa with

D E TA C H E D O R S E M I DETACHED: Large detached 4

Bed.4 Bath 2 en suite, 4 air con. OR 2 adjoining semi-detached. Live in one, Rent one ? Water storage with pumps. Secure Parking. Quite Soi. All in Excellent condition. B3.5M. kimera5@yahoo.com 082 738 3007.

5 bedrooms all with ensuite on 1 rai of land. Big hall, office, maid’s room. Brand-new construction opposite Wat Chalong on the way up to the hill. A huge 685 sq.m of living area, fully furnished. Modern European-designed kitchen. Big sea view pool terraces incl sala and attractive bar area. Security alarm system. Selling price on request. By owner directly. Call 085 654 4011 or 089 404 0737. Email: schulz.th@gmx.de.

Villa and farmland for sale:

A big beautiful house with 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, fully furnished. Located in stunning panoramic hilltop scenery in Takuapa, Phang Nga, covering an area of 127 rai. Surrounded by fertile farmland with fruit trees. Price 96MB. Contact K. Peerawat: 08 4 308 8484. Email: peerawat002@hot mail.co.th

Patong Apartment Reduced Price: Condo 4 years old. Swimming

PAT O N G c o n d o s f o r sale: Beautiful, modern Condos/

Apartments, furnished, best/quiet locations, garden, s-pool, from 36-67sq metre, sea-city-mountain views, from B2,375. Call 087 819 2162 or caltirol@hotmail.com.

House and Business for sale: 3 storey, 5 bedrooms, good

location, off road parking, busy road.

Contact Thai 084 630 6920, English 082 534 7410, jeedyvcd@hotmail.com, davidweath@yahoo.com.

Khao Sok, 25+ rai, B400,000 per rai: 25 rai, 3 ngan in Khao Sok, Klong Sok district. B400,000 per rai. Close to Khao Sok National Park entrance. PNSS3 title, to be upgraded to Chanote soon. Phone 081 693 2759.

@thephuketnews

New House for Sales low price than Project, Phanason Villages at Bang Joe for 50 Sqm, 3bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, Free contract. Contact: 089 729 9503.

New House for Sales:

New house for sale: At Siri Village, Pa Khlok, 2 flrs, 3 beds, 2 shower rms, kitchen, living & dining area, garden, car park, 2 aircons, unstair curtains, 1 furnished bedroom.

3.8MB Contact Kirana 088 760 6083.

Pool Villa Rawai: 4 Bedroom/ 4 Bathroom European style single storey house with self contained guest house and pool in Rawai on 736m2 plot. Large master bedroom with en-suite, walk in wardrobe. Modern western style kitchen with granite tops, built-ins throughout. Established 7 years. Plenty of outdoor living area with several verandahs and under cover car park, air-conditioning in all bedrooms and lounge. Situated about 2km from Chalong circle in a quiet lane 1km from Viset Road. House & Guest house 180 sqm Land area 736sqm (184TW). 3 bedrooms Master ensuite, 4 Bathrooms 7x3.5m salt water pool.

Electric gate. Well water. Concrete road access. Call 087 891 9349.

This luxury three bedroom home is located in a secure estate with security and office. It is only five minutes from Bangtao Beach and Laguna Phuket including the Laguna Phuket Golf Club and 20 minutes from Blue Canyon Country Club and Phuket International Airport. The villa comes fully furnished with luxury leather lounge suites and quality furniture, all bedding, kitchen utensils and cooking facilities.

For details and inspection, see www. phuketselect.com or contact graham@ phuketselect.com or call 081 897 0225.

3 Bdrm House for sale Thalang: House for sale. 3 bed and

2 baths, large living and dining room, 4 X aircons, 2 X car ports and garage.

House 7 yrs 1 owner , well maintained with 135sqm living area. Land Chanote 92tw. 3.5MB 081 737 3116.

House for sale: Cherngtalay area, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, ceiling fans all through out, 2 air con units, furnished. 2.7MB, no offers. For more info - Farang - 080 323 1918, Thai 081 607 9874.

Seaview Land For Sale: Land

located right in the heart of Chalong with panorama view of Chalong pier.

Close to a number of sandy beaches; Naihan Rawai Kata and Karon.

Easy access to major depar tment stores. Surrounded by public facilities including education institutes and hospitals. You will benefit from a perfect location that's rapidly increasing in value. 3 rai and 1 Ngan with Chanote title. Call 087 278 7206, 089 215 5041 e -mail: kubesjoy@ hotmail.com.

Luxury 3 Bed Villa For Sale:

12 Rai Chanote to sell: One of the last pieces of beautiful sea view land between Ao Makham and Ao Yon Road. Infrastructure done B210 million.

Call 081 917 0377, 10am-5pm.

Luxury Condo Rent / Sale:

Seaview Townhouse Patong: Bet ween the c it y and

the jungle at the northern edge of Patong. 70m alt. 10mn walk to the beach. 4 storey + 290 sqm, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 toilet.

4 aircon, partly furnished. Email: andamanhills@gmail.com.

Budget Bungalows:

Two Bungalows in Chalong.2-3 bedrooms.Close to all amenities.

One has room for a pool,the other is like a rain forest. From only 2,300,000 Baht.Ph:0812704291.

Email: thailandmls@gmail.com.

2 B e d r o o m , L- r o o m a n d f u l l y equipped kitchen, 160 -212sqm.

Very high standard with a nice view.

Big balcony, swimming pool, gym.

Location: Kathu, 10 min. Patong Beach, 5 min. Phuket Town and all department stores and international hospitals. Rent Long term: B45,000 – B63,50 0 Buy: B8,50 0,0 0 0 – B11,500,000. Contact 086 268 7901 or send e-mail to: condophuket@ yahoo.com.

20 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PROPERTY IN PHUKET

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com

PROPERTY FOR SALE CONT.

ale s t en g r U RAWAI VILLA: BARGAIN PRICE

FREEHOLD - LAGOON VIEW!!!

F. MODERNIZED 1 BEDR. CONDO, ALLAMANDA 1 FOR SALE BY OWNER. EUROPEAN KITCHEN, GRANITE/MARBLE BATH, DOUBLE SINKS, FURNISHED, INCL.2 GOLF MEMBERSHIPS. INFO & PRICE : E-MAIL : ORNILS@SBG.AT

Spacious property in 1,000sqm garden. Private 9x4m pool. Three large beds, all a/c and en suite. Big Western kitchen. Plus guest house. Furnished.

Private access. Price cut for quick sale.

MB12.9. Call 087 273 0141, alangath@ gmail.com

Modern Family House for sale: Beautiful 3 bedrooms villa in Rawai. 160sqm indoor. 400sqm outdoor. Shared swimming pool. Modern villa renovated in 2011-2012. Fully furnished. For more info: phuketvilla jasmine@gmail.com

Highfield Mission Hills Phuket: 10-terraced hilltop Building Plots. Fantastic sea & mountain view. New road - water - electricity.

Only 10 minutes to Airport & Tesco Lotus. 2.5m-4.5 Baht. 087 978 5803-4 / stanjsmith25@yahoo.com

Lu xu r i o u s G o l f V i l l a @ Laguna Village: MUST BE SOLD

Reduced by 600,000B. ONLY 16.9MB.

Sea View Land for Sale: Seaview 1 BDRM New Condo Patong: Stunning seaview,

city view 1 bdrm condo on hill 500m from Patong beach. Fitness centre, roof top pool, security, car park, freehold. Only B4,400,000. Keith 084 628 3430, keithb025@gmail.com.

Sea View Land for Sale:

Ao Makham. 5.5 rai, B10 million per rai.

Contact Siriporn 089 649 9939, email: siri_phuket@changrunner.com.

! Surplus to family invest needs. 3-bed, plus maid's qtrs. This home has been lovingly cared for. Leasehold/freehold.

BVI status. POA. Ph 082 810 4184, phuketres@gmail.com

HIGHEND CONDO PHUKET

DUE TO DIVORCE SETTLEMENT, PA R T I N G W I T H M Y A M A Z I N G SE AVIEW STUDIO WITH UNBELIEVABLE VIEW. DESPERATE, CASH PRICE OFFER AVAILABLE. UNIT IN PHUKET’S MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED HIGHEND DEVELOPMENT. SERIOUS OFFERS CALL 081-8928788, 081-891-4086

Ao-Yon, 13.5 rai, chanode title.10m/ rai.Call Siri 089 649 9939, email: siri_phuket@changrunner.com.

House for sale near Central

Town house in Chanakarn houses estate. Walking distance to Central Phuket Town. 32 Sq wa. Fully furnished, air cons every room. Wooden floor,Thai/Western kitchens. Call Issarapan or A: 081 535 4839.

Beautiful Naiharn Pool Villa:

1.5 Rai Private Land Cape Yamu: 1.5 Rai flat land at Cape

RPM Owner Direct Unique luxury condo 2 bed, 2 bath, 155sqm. Foreign FREE HOLD. Recent architect remodel. New Jacuzzi. Views to lake, mountain, marina, pool etc.

Completely furnished to very high standard. Motivated owner leaving.

Contact Brian (Owner) 089 054 4354, +632 906 435 7146, Alan 087 999 6174, bggvirgo@gmail.com.

See RoyalPhuketMarinaCondos.com for complete details.

New Luxury Villa For Sale:

3 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, living room, kitchen, private swimming pool (12 metre). House area of 600 sq.m., land 1.5 rai (2400 sq metre). Located on the shore of the ocean on the Koh Kho Khao, Phang-nga. larion2555@ gmail.com. 084 226 4574.

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

SeaView near Airport: 4 plots (3 connecting, 1 separate) 1km north of Airport, along the road to MaiKhao Beach. Sea view towards south east.

NorSor3Gor. 4.5 Rai in total. B4 million per Rai. Contact owner: 081 893 6630.

Yamu. 2 x 0.75 Rai adjoining plots.

OrBorTor road access to quiet end of soi location. Sale direct from the owner.

B3.75 Million per rai negotiable. Call 081 087 9237.

Hot Price Sale- PuriAnda Villas: New Pool Villa in Rawai

2 Bed/3 Bath, Built-In & Partial fur.

Private pool & jacuzzi, sala, 50 0 m.to beach Price 7.9 mil.Baht with Chanote title Tel.081 691 3029, E: kris. silanachai@yahoo.com.

Secure private hillside by Naiharn Beach. Quality furnished throughout. 3 big bedrooms, office, 4 baths, 230 sm plus carport etc. 1050 sm land. New condition. 15x4.6 m pool. Freehold.

Nice. Only 17.5MB. Contact 089 727 5407, villa-sale-phuket.com.

Free Hold Condo For Sale:

43 Sq. Free hold. 1 balcony (Great view). 1 bed room. 1 living room.

2 air conditioners. Full furniture.

Internet.Swimming pool. Gym. Automated door lock and key card.

Call 080 040 9077.

Investment Proper t y for sale!: New, modern waterfront town-

home at the Boat Lagoon for sale.

Rented out long term at B570,000 per year. 3 bed/4 bath, 2 balconies, terrace at canal, 6 m berth in front of house.

250 sqm living space. Top condition.

Luxury finishings. Brokers welcome.

B9.9 million. 086 747 9292 (English) or 081 970 5204 (Thai/English).

Apartment on Golf Course: 3 Bedroom Pool Villa, Rawai:

Donsak Beachfront Land 3 Rai: 67 metres absolute beach

frontage, fully infrastructured, ready to build. Close to ferry going to Koh Samui. Chanote title. 4.5 MB for all. Email: nhoj0512@hotmail.com.

160m2 Private Pool Villa. 3 Bedroom, 4 Bathroom (3 En Suite), Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, Large Balconies & Terrace, Carport. Freehold, Chanote title. 2 minutes from beach! See proper tyforsalephuket.co.uk.

Royal Kamala Condo-Sale & Rent: In Kamala. Freehold 1, 2, 3 Bedroom apartment with kitchen, living room, balcony, swimming pool, fitness, security guard, parking. Ready to move. 085-368-3009, salesdirector@ royalkamala.com

Golf View, Kathu. Tastefully renovated large (83m2) apartment in Phuket Country Club. Golf view. 1 bed but easily converted to 2. Store, large Western kitchen and all furniture included. Ideal (holiday) home.

Contact 081 273 7326, Email: keith marshall747@gmail.com.

NEW House For Sale

Serenity near the Beach, Chumpon: 210 sq.M contempo-

Sea-View Contemporary Pool Villla: Located near Phuket

Land area 500m2, House area 164m2. 3 bed, 4 bath, fully furnished, aircon in all rooms, fans, Internet, satellite TV, swimming pool, independent water supply wells. Finish work December 2012. B8.5 million. Call 088 838 3242.

Mission Heights:

town. L and: 8 5 5 sq.m. H ouse: 650sq.m. Furnished. 3 beds, 2 offices, 2 staff quarters, 1 free room. 2 Parkings. Price B38 mill.Tel: 081 895 3628 E-mail: jin_koy@yahoo.com.

Furnished House for Sale Phuket Villa 5: 3 bedroom

furnished house near Kajonkiet School. Secure area, Cul De Sac. Nic e gardens, t wo bathrooms.

B3.5M negotiable. Call 081 370 8114 (Thai) 087 889 3838 (Eng), email:davidgem98@hotmail.com.

206.4 sqm, Chanote title in Phanason residence(next to Makro). 1 min to Central festival, 5 min to town. Call 084 061 4314, 076 393 965.

Land for sale:

Happy Home Apartment for sale: Nice apartment, fully

furnished at Rawai. The apar tment is set in a private compound with pool. It is located only 5 minutes from beach and convenient to Phuket Town. Only B15 million.

Tel: 081 893 2165 www.happyho meapartmentphuket.webiz.co.th.

Luxury brand new villa, fully furnished and ready to move in, 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms with infinity 10 metre long swimming pool and truly beautiful sea view. Located in a small development, only 50 metres from the sea and 3 mins from Ao Po Grand Marina. For sale B19.9 million or for long term rent B150,000 per month. Call 081 343 0777, email: montha_phuket@ yahoo.com.

Spac ious one bed room apar tment with ocean view, nor th of Patong. Floor area 96m2 internal and 72m2 terrace including water feature with sala and jacuz zi. Per fect bachelor pad with rental income. Email for info: bart duykers@mac.com.

For sale:

Reduced for Quick Sale:

Studio condo at The Point near Lotus, Big C, Central. Fully furnished. Great views 6th floor. Cost B2.8M. Reduced to B2.25M. Call 087 889 3838 or 081 370 8114.

Email: davidgem98@hotmail.com

rary 2 story house, pool. 400 M. to ThungWualen. Situated in a green belt of jungle,palm plantations, 10 mins walk to the beach No traf fic jams. Chanote title. Total 2648 sq.M., Contact: chitsamon@hotmail.com, Tel: 083- 391 4405. Price: 10.9MB.

Beaut iful L and L aguna Cher ngt alay: Chanote t it le,

Land for Sale Cherngtalay:

Beautiful 2,400sqm (1.5RAI) Chanote titled land plot in Pasak 8, located on the highest point of a gentle slope.

Quiet and safe area. Only 8.5MB. Agents welcome. Phuketlandvilla@ hotmail.com, 089 875 9609.

Ocean Front Villa for Sale:

2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom with Off street parking in small QUIET Boutique Estate behind Red Mountain Golf Course.

Full Chanote Title Contact Gim English/Thai Ph 081-6065772 for an Inspection !!

yellow zoned, save area. Nearly 4 rai, direct from owner. Subdivided i n 6 p l o t s e a c h c a . 1, 0 0 0 s q m . ready to build. Only 7.5 MB per rai.

K hun Chanc hira, 0 81 3 67 76 8 3. chanchira.panpaen@googlemail.com.

Condo At The Heights, Kata: Immaculate 2-bed foreign-

freehold unit in award-winning project. 195 sqm, sea view, near gym & pool. Quality furnishing throughout.

Designer kitchen with utility-store. phuket.pn@gmail.com.

Pool villa for sale or rent:

Hillside setting. Luxurious 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom pool villa for sale or rent.

Sale 20M Baht. Rent Low season Daily 6k, Weekly 36k, Monthly 80k. High season Daily 7k, Weekly 42k, Monthly 100k. One complete year 85k per month. Call 087 078 6379.

Absolute Beachfront:Set on the beachfront, the ff villa offers uninterrupted sea and island views of the south east coast of Phuket.

Situated between two 5 star resorts: Vijitt and EVASON near Laem Kanoi. 081 480 3834, http://www. facebook.com/Phuket.Beachfront.

Beautiful Karon Villa: Stunning,

safe, secure estate villa , close to beach, crystal clear salt water pool 3 large bedrooms, modern open living, fully furnished, freehold, everything done – enjoy the lifestyle. Phone 081 719 4688 Email : elbej@hotmail.com

Rawai Beachfront Pool Villa for Rent/Sale: Rawai Beach

front pool villa for sale. 3 bedrooms, furnished. Contact Siriporn on 089 649 9939.

Absolute Beach Front Land: Songkla district near new

deep sea port. 4.5 Rai divided into 7 Chanote plots. Reluctant sale.

B4.9M the lot. Email: jmic chia@ yahoo.com or call 087 276 0529.

Laguna/Layan Beach Luxury 13M Salt-Water Pool Villa For Sale (Or Rent): Three large

bedrooms with bathrooms in tastefully re-decorated bungalow set in mature garden plot of 550m2 within secure development for ownership and/or investment. B15.5 million. Email: irynain@gmail.com.

Condominium for SALE in Patong: Freehold title, Studio type,

32 sqm. of the living area, Furnished, 1 Bathroom, Fitted kitchen with dining area, Swimming pool, Restaurant. Call 083 103 3801 (English and Thai).

thephuketnews

CLASSIFIEDS 21

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PROPERTY IN PHUKET

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com

PROPERTY FOR SALE CONT. SEA VIEW LAND CHALONG

Stunning view, 3420 Sqm. Chanote-Title, access Road, electricity, close to all services. Visit www. phuketsaleland.com or contact batfro64@gmail.com

Seaview Condo For Sale/ R e n t : R a w a i S e av i e w c o n d o, Orchid Garden Resort For Sale: 18 Bungalows, 2Rai, 15MT

Pool, Office, Restaurant, Bar, Laundry Room, Sauna, Exterior Shower ans bath, fish pond, 2story, 3bd, 2bath, remodeled main house. 3 meter walls, security ststem, cable, satellite and internet, parking and in a lush garden setting. Annual turnover 5.5 MB. The sales price is 25.5MB. Land valued at 23.3MB. Located on a street with homes priced up to 50MB. Reason for sale, owner retiring. Email : jbs@ hammerintl.com, Phone : 087 275 1700

Luxurious,Furnished. Foreign free hold.120 sqm 2 beds 2 baths. Rent 2000 baht per night. Long term 45k / month. Sale only 6.5 MB. Call: 090 408 3800, Email: adrian_troy@yahoo.com

3-storey apartment on the beach 3-storey apartment with a penthouse and sala for sale. Only 100 m from Phuket’s top-rated Nai-Harn Beach.

220 sqm. Freehold possible. Priced at 9 MB. Please call Alexander 080 521 0736.

Beautiful Karon Villa: Modern open living villa has it all, fully furnished, private secure estate close to beach. Enjoy the private salt water pool and undercover parking, 3 large bedrooms freehold investment. 081 719 4688.

2 Pool Villas next to PIA:

Rawai Great Buying: Lovely

house with 2 bedrooms or separate SC flat downstairs.Well ventilated with natural light in pristine condition.Distant sea views.4,995,000 Baht. Warren Crowe 081 270 4291 or thailandmls@gmail.com.

Family resort for sale.:

Land For Sale: Mission Hills. 3/4 of rai in small community, very quiet and private, close to all services, 10 min to school, airport, beach, golf, Tesco. B2.5M. 087 276 0529 for info.

Chalong Beach Front Pool Villa: Chalong Beach Front Pool World Class Sea Views: 4 Bedroom British Colonial style house, Cape Yamu, Phuket. Amazing views spanning over 100km, as far as Krabi. Price reduced from B35 to B28 million. 086 279 6283, email: kdesmond59@yahoo.co.uk.

Beautiful lakeview family resort in quiet area.4 apartments with each 2 bedrooms fully furnished, land include 1600sqm, company and license include, swimmingp ool, 2 garage, automatic gate and very private estate.More details please c o nt ac t 0 8 8 3 912 2 6 5 (Engli sh speaking). krisverstricht@hotmail. com.

Paklok, Chanote, Mountain View, 200m from main road, 11 km from monument and 4 km to Mission Hill.

Interested or want a larger size?

CALL 084 305 6667, email: mari sar1978@hotmail.com

Superb Ocean View Lux Penthouse: B148,000 per sqm,

R AWAI VILLA: BARGAIN PR I CE Spacious proper ty in 1,000sqm garden. Private 9x4m pool.

Three large beds, all a/c and en suite.

Big Western kitchen. Plus guest house.

Furnished. Private access. Price cut for quick sale. 13,500,000, alangath@ gmail.com, 087 273 0141.

Ocean Front Land: 7 rai with 185 metres of sea frontage. Water, electricity, road and boat access, located 800 metres from Yacht Haven marina, perfect site for small beach front development. For quick sale only B5 million per rai. Tel 081 343 0777 Email: montha_phuket@ yahoo.com.

INEXPENSIVE LAND PLOTS: Very Spacious European From Owner: Villa in peaceA spacious family home in Boat Lagoon. Modern contemporary style with 4+1 beds, 4 bathrooms. Large dining area, private swimming pool and fully furnished. Size 616 Sq.M. Call 076 238 948.

ful place in Rawai. Large living area and terrace. 3 bedrooms, 4 aircon, 3 bathrooms, 1 guest toilet.

Western kitchen, garage, laundry, beautiful garden, swimming pool.

612 sqm plot, chanote title. Price B9.5 million. Contact Tanya 083 506 8345, geta909@gmail.com.

LUXURY 5 BED HOUSE IN LAGUNA Wonderful 5 bed house over looking the lake & Golf course in Laguna.

Sale: Reduced to: 28.7 MB Rent: 180,000 P/M. Call Mick: 0848186045 Email: mr.mickb@yahoo.com or www.hoteldealsphuket.com/realestatephuket

@thephuketnews

Hill Land for Sale: Very nice location hill land by the Bangwat Dam, total 60 rai, 96,000 square metre. Contact: Attapong 081 892 0610 (Thai), Jantiwa 081 890 8268 (Eng). e-mail: jantiwa_ j@ hotmail.com.

288 sqm of heaven. Plunge pool, 3 bed, 4 bath overlooking perfect panoramic ocean views. Beach shops, fabulous restaurants, nightlife all a 3 minute walk. B42,624,000. Contact: 088 761 4030 or imgphuket@gmail.com.

Land for sale near Loch Palm At the back of the Loch Palm Golf Course, approx 510m2, partial view on the golf course. Part of a small gated community of 2 villas (+ 2 to be built soon). Next to small lake and it is guaranteed that no building can block the view, ever! It comes with a Chanote title and if buyer are interesting, we would provide complete house plans for free.

Asking price is THB 6M, negotiable.

Contact 087-2664583 (English/French) or 082-4406884 (Thai).

Seaview Thai house for sale Nice and peacefully area surrounding with Seaview of Andaman. The back yard is the Mountian of Koa Pra Teaw National Park View.with great sunrise and next to the Aor Por Marina, The Air Park, The pier to Koh Yao. Contact: thureewan@gmail.com, Tel: 088 752 4532

Must see! Great 4bd villa:

back of Mangosteen hotel. Very good access , road, electric, water. Size approximately 30 by 70 meters. Chanote.

Contact 087 897 0501.

Modern Villa in Marina:

Ready to move in, villa 1 on 1,100 sqm. land, for sale B15.9 mil and villa 2 on 2,20 0 sqm. land, for sale B19.9 mil. Brand new, each with 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 12 metre swimming pool, guest bungalow with 1 bedroom 1 bathroom. Perfectly located in a development with underground e l e c t r i c i t y a n d s e c u r i t y, o n l y 8 0 0 metres from Mission Hills golf course, less than 10 mins to airpor t, Phuket International Ac ademy and Ao Por Grand Marina. Call 081 343 0777. Email: montha_phuket@yahoo.com.

2 Plots of land for sale in Mission Heights. 900 Square meters 1.5 MB. and 1,050 Square meters 1.75 MB. Gated community, ready to be built. picharly@gmail.com, Phone 087 060 8400.

Villa For Sale/Rent,3 bed rooms,area 1 rai call Siriporn 089 649 9939,email: siri_phuket @changrunner.com.

Paklok Land Only B7,999/ Sqwah: Only B7,999/Sq wah at

2,200 Land, Nai Harn -12,9 min: Located in Sai Yaun 9, at the

Land for sale Mission Heights:

Truly exceptional 4 bd villa on the 1900 sqm land, surrounded by jungle.

10x5 m pool must see! 10 min drive to Tanyapura and to Naithon Beach.

Great lovely home for large families!

084 060 7050, molokophuket.com/ buy/1999-east-residential-for-sale. info@molokophuket.com.

Inexpensive land plots on East coast of Phuket for sale, 0.3 - 5 rai, some with a sea view (Bang Pae, Pa Klok, Yamu Hills). Direct sale by owner. 095 068 1672, 080 271 6484.

Yacht View Freehold RPM Condo: Gorgeous Yacht Views Nai Harn Pool Villa For Sale: land area 336 sqm land,158 sqm interior floor, fully fitted Western kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 toilet/shower, 9x3 m pool, tropical fruit garden, chanote title, modern open design, fully furnished, 50 inch TV. B7,950,000, vankets@ gmail.com, 085 473 7812 .

from Living, Dining, Master & Ferrari Sail Covered Patio. 2Bed 2Bath 194sqm 19.9MB Best views in Royal Phuket Marina Tel 0848519795 or 084 308 3113 A2554@icloud.com. youtu.be/7LqM7maWNgQ.

REAL ESTATE SERVICES

Phuket Country Club Condos: 3 Only Luxury Contemporary

Freehold Condo For Sale: 45 Sq.m Freehold. 2 balconies (great view). 1 bedroom. 1 livingroom. 2 air conditioners. Full furniture. Internet.

Cable TV. Laundry. Fresh market.

Swimming pool. Gym. Restaurant.

Call 080 040 9077.

Condos, 1 per floor C/W lift. Located on the 15th fairway 275 M3 per floor total.Common Pool and Sundeck.

Underground parking 1/unit, Floor 3 show unit complete Floors 1&2 are unfinished, waiting for owners choice of flooring and kitchens. Could still develop into one very large private home. Floors 1&2 could be offices star ting from B10 million. Or B32 million for project Partial financing available. Info contact 084 840 1262, north8east98@yahoo.com

TechWorX Retrofit Great Investment Opportunity: Completed show house and infrastructure seven further plots for development. 1.5km from Mission Hills Golf Club. Please call 087 888 1761 (Aom) for details.

Smart phone or pad controlled Multiroom Audio-Visual, Home Theatre, Lighting control, CCTV and intruder alarm systems retrofitted to buildings use the latest wireless technologies. Please email for info package. info@techworx.asia

22 CLASSIFIEDS HEALTH SERVICES

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

HEALTH SERVICES

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

classifieds@thephuketnews.com

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

ADVERTISE HERE

MARINE SERVICES

STORAGE

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

MARINE SERVICES

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

HOME IMPROVEMENT

REMOVALS

ADVERTISE HERE

Specialized in large commercial and small residential cooling & heating systems.

076 319406-8 086 4702026-7 www.choochuay.com

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 23

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Jobs

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/thephuketnews

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @thephuketnews

MARKETING AND SALES. Personal assistant and sales representatives for led-light business in Chalong. Looking for energetic and easy going thai persons to contact VIP customers in a fast growing business. Good english and computer skills required. Salary + high commissions. Contact: Francisco de Miguel, Email: boost@aboranet. com, Call: 0811394774

Russian staff needed Phuket-based company is looking for a Russian national with good command of English (and preferably Thai) language. Full time employment in line with Thai laws (non-b visa, WP). Salary starts from 30,000 THB. Please send CV and photo to opaopa543@mail.ru

Class Act Media is southern Thailand's most comprehensive media company, incorporating Phuket’s leading English newspaper ‘The Phuket News’, Russian language newspaper 'Novosti Phuketa', Phuket’s leading English radio station ‘Live 89.5’, Phuket English TV 'Phuket News TV' and a host of publications & services including ‘The Phuket Colouring book’ & ‘Phuket Ticket Master’.

RECEPTIONIST & FLOOR SUPERVISOR Sanctuary is a cool,funky & unique beach resort on Koh Pha Ngan island.

Great jobs for experienced receptionist & restaurant floor supervisor & cocktail bar person ( Thai National only) Contct Email: relax@thesanctuarythailand. com, Tel: 082 171 3614

SALES REPRESENTATIVES Qualifications: ● Thai or Expat. ● Excellent communication and negotiation skills in Thai and English. ● Highly motivated self-starter with a positive attitude. ● Works well under pressure and has a will to succeed.

We offer: ● Competitive salary, bonuses and travel expenses.

Business Development Executive

FREELANCE WEB / SEO / EDITING Do you require up-dates/SEO to your site, blog or Open Cart? Also: s-engine/RSS/Blog submissions - PDF/ Photo flip shows - Web Photo Video’s etc. Email: mr.m.hopkins@gmail.com.

We are searching for Thai nationals to fill our position as Area Business Development Executive to manage our list of customers in Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak. Applicants should be fluent in English and have previous sales experience in Horeca. Must own a vehicle for business travel within the region. Email:hr@pin naclegastro.com

● A friendly work environment. ● Social security paid by the company. ● Excellent career progress opportunities.

For more information, call K. Mod on 076 612 550 ext. 101, or email hr@classactmedia.co.th To apply online, visit thephuketnews.com/job.php

Class Act Media Co., Ltd.

99/7 Moo 1 T. Kathu A. Kathu Phuket 83120 Tel: 076 612 550-2 Fax: 076 612 553

Now Hiring • Servers / พนักงานเสิร์ฟ • Floor Supervisors / ซูเปอร์ไวเซอร์ • Line Cooks / กุ๊ก • Bartenders / พนักงานผสมเครื�องดื�ม • Hostesses / พนักงานต้อนรับ • Kitchen Manager / ผู้จัดการแผนกครัว • Cleaner’s / พนักงานทำความสะอาด • Kitchen Stewards / พนักงานล้างจาน • Retail Sales Assistants / ผู้ช่วยแผนกขายสินค้าที�ระลึก

HOOTERS IS HIRING Hooters, the all American Themed sports Bar famous for its Wings, Beer & Iconic Hooters Girls with over 400 locations Worldwide is set to open Thailands first legendary Hooters in Patong , Phuket. We are now looking for talented, fun & energetic people for all positions

- Positive attitude / มีทัศนะคติด้านบวก - Hard working / ตั�งใจทำงาน - Pride in appearance / มีความมั�นใจในตัวเอง Documents to provide for applicant -Copy of educational certificate -Resume -Copy of visa or passeport( for non thai citizen) -Copy of ID -Copy of any other relevant licences/certification -Picture 1.5x 2 Inch -Copy of any qualifications/ testimonials shield -Copy of current driving licence -Copy of employment letter from former employment

Please forward up To date resume with picture included to be sent to admin@hootersphuket.com

English Speaking Laurent. 084-892-7517

@thephuketnews

Thai Speaking Nat. 076-366-381 #262

24 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Buy&Sell

BOATS & YACHTS

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/thephuketnews

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @thephuketnews

BOAT & CAR FOR SALE!!

Boat: Swedish imported Buster XL maid by aluminum 2 scow, Suzuki 4 stroke 150 HP outboard Engine used only 200hrs, Brenderup-trailer + wakeboard + all needed accessories.

Car: Mitsubishi Triton 4 wheel, only 6 years old.

TechWorX Marine.

Service and install of Smart phone or pad controlled Marine AV and IT, Media servers systems. External antenna 3G/4G internet systems. Reliable onboard Wi-Fi. Phuket and Bangkok.

Please email for info package. info@ techworx.asia

Boat and Car sells as a package or separate Reduce price now only 1.2MB! For more information please contact: 087-8772320 or E-mail:oliver@thurmanngroup.com

Luxury Yacht for Sale For sale 20 02 Ber tram 510 Fly bridge luxury yacht. Reduced to only USD675,000. Contact Marcus on marcus@leema rine.net.

NEW ZODIAC 420 YACHTLINE

13 Metre Wooden Hull Cruiser: Cap. 17 PAX. Wooden hull, 3.5 metres W, draws 1.5 meters, diesel engine generates 123 KW. Perfect for fishing or day tours. Fitted w Fish Finder and GPS. Was B1,500,000 now only B500,000. Call 082 414 6931, email: phil@krabikon nect.com.

Speed Boat For Sale Steppa Fiberglass 32 feet Flybridge two 200 hp Yamaha outboard engines.

Ideal for diving and tours. B850,000.

Call 081 894 2124.

SPECIAL OFFER FROM MA X MARINE ASIA – A great sporty RIB, designed as a tender/people carrier for a larger vessel of approximately 70 feet. A smooth, fast ride guaranteed from the world’s most famous inflatable boat brand.

-Hypalon tubes -Honda 50hp EFI 4 Stroke outboard -Boat cover FOR SALE AT 750,000 THB Contact Craig Murphy on 081-970-0583 Or, Paul Stamp on 08-40 60 70 20 www.maxmarine.asia.

Boat Sales and Charters: A steal for a quick sale: 2007 Italian demo yacht Cranchi 47ft Hard Top. Fully loaded with Tropical air con, genset, Electrical winches, garage, roof, Raymarine Premium Navy, BBQ, Ice Maker, 3 Fridges, “Bose” Sound, 2007 Italian demo yacht Cranchi 47ft Hard Top. Fully loaded with Tropical air con, genset, Electrical winches, garage, roof, Raymarine Premium Navy, BBQ, Ice Maker, 3 Fridges, “Bose” Sound, Neon light, Twin 570HP with reliable shaf t drive, under 300 hours, Brand New Condition.

Euro 335,000. Tel: 089 971 0278, eddyelan@yahoo.com.

N E W S E A L I N ES AVA I LABLE: Orders are now open for the

Want to build or charter your own boat to get out among Phuket’s many islands for fishing or pleasure? Then please contact the experts on 081 270 4291 or go to www. fishingboatingthailand.com.

new range of Sealine Sports and Flybridge, both 380 and 450. For details of this exciting new range Contact: inq@ sea-yss.com - www.sea-yss.com - 081 370 1995.

SPEEDBOAT FOR SALE:

A very good condition with bedding for 5, air-con, generator, kitchenette, BBQ grill, twin propulsion, Mercruiser 5.0L bravo III DTS, raymarine chartplotter, GPS and depth sounder. B4.5 million.

Call 089 647 5204.

Yacht sale 36-ft Searay

SEATBOAT 369 sale. Year 2009, engines 2x225 hp, capacity 22 passengers, great condition, ready to run, 2 stern exits, bathroom, shower, set of new options (coach, tent anto-staining), all documents.

Priced at 1.9 MB, negotiable. Call Andrey 085 368 5908.

2 2 m . I n d o n e s i a n Pi n i s i Ketch: Licensed and registered in

Bertram 505 Conver for sale

Thailand. She is in good condition and currently working as a snorkel and sunset tour boat. For sale or long-term rental. Price negotiable for quick sale. dragonheartthailand@gmail.com.

Launched in 1989 this long range sport fishing vessel is powered by 2 Hino Marine 360hp V8 Turbo . The interior is fully air-conditioned and features a saloon, three cabins and a galley.

Price : 7,000,000 THB , Stefano, info@ thebigblues.com, 087 834 5293 .

Crownline 320 LS 50 kts B o w r i d : Ve r y f a s t - n i c e s p o r t boat,2x350 MPI engines, year 2009, like new, lifetime hull warantty, only 100 working engine hours, Thai flag, tax payed. Only 3M THB, Airberth 0,5 M THB seperately. yacht@elas.si.

2009 POWER CATAMARAN 45ft. 4 cabins. Volvo D- 4 IPS 300.

Genset. Aircon. “Bose” surround. Raymarine. Low hours. Fully loaded. Fast and economical. As new. Bargain. Only 339,000 euros. Email: eddyelan@yahoo.com 089 971 0278, Eddie.

LIV Aboard For Sale Compressors and tanks also available.

Please contact Joe : 087 891 8912 joe@similan-diving-safaris.com.

Kawasaki 750Sxi Jet Ski Pro Stand up. Trick conversion kit, R&D ride plate, Race bars with finger throttle, Hydro-turf floor mat with foot-holds, Very reliable, fast, and great fun. Very good condition. B150,000. Contact: garysmith436@btinternet.com.

40FT Steel Cutter Sloop:

SELLING YOUR BOAT?

Ready to cruise.Centrecockpit. Safe, strong German design.New Sails, 44HP Yanmar Engine, 6 Berths, solar, wind generator, BBQ, dinghy&outboard.

AUD$90K. 085 3780 498, yacht.an taia@gmail.com.

With high season just around the corner, now is the right time to get her listed, Boatshedphuket.com are always looking for new listings,big or small, power or sail, contact Alan Giles. 084 842 6146.

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 25

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com BUSINESS FOR SALE

COMPANY FOR SALE

Company for sale - Owner retiring Restaurant for Sale Urgent!

Seafood European and Thai food in Patong close to beach and main shopping Jungceylon. First class equipment included pizza oven.

Main road location, 350 sqm. Good lease cheap rent. Owner health problem must sell URGENT . Only 8 MB! kingcable_aaa@hotmail.com 0870 368 551.

Well known 12 year established company specializing in sales and rental of containers, site/sales offices, Porta Loos as well as Self Storage. Customer base includes Tesco Lotus, Laguna, Marriot, Boat Lagoon and many more. Enormous potential for expansion and export. A conservative value of company assets exceed 11MB which is included in the sale price of 14MB. Call Gordon 081 892 4804, www. safewayasia.com.

Business for sale Business only or business and property. Est 2003. Repeat business from big data base, non-tourist related soft furnising manufacturing and retail business. Genuine enquires only, no tyre kickers.

For further info email samos1941@gmail.com.

Restaurant/ Bakery for Sale Thai/ Western restaurant (seats 60+) with fully-equipped kitchen and bakery (air-con, coffee machine etc), TV, car parking and 3 double bedrooms (2 ensuite). Great opportunity in growth area of Cherngtalay (near Laguna). Only 3.5MB, Contact: neilmcgregor1@sky. com, Call: +66 80 719 7390.

HONDA CITY '03 1.5AT, 118XXXkm Very reliably & friendly car, carefully used for last 3 years. Good condition with some wears. Clean interior, good car audio, fresh tires. Best choice for young family. Honda ser viced only. Igor, Chalong, B28 0,0 0 0, 0 8 3 102 0070.

CAR FOR SALE

Bar / Guest House for sale Sports Bar and 9 Bedroom Guesthouse in popular location of Karon Beach for Sale or Rent. Kitchen and working laundry included. For information contact, Thai: 085 795 0875 or Eng: 087 884 1857.

@thephuketnews

Nissan Teana Finance available. 11 months old. 2.5l.

Full Options. Contact: Bernard, Call: 086 945 2626

PEUG EOT 2 07 f o r sa l e:

2008 Peugeot 207cc, 33k kilometers, 1 owner, per fect c ondition, leather seats, Convertible, B940,000.

080 523 8819.

BUY & SELL IN PHUKET

26 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

BUY & SELL IN PHUKET

CATERING EQUIPMENT

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

List your classified now at thephuketnews.com

LOST & FOUND

SERVICES

TRADE SERVICES

GAS B.B.Q clearance sale The B.B.Q Center. GAS B.B.Q clearance sale cheapest in Thailand. All models only 19,000 Baht. Call Khun Thip: 076 366 860, 081 597 5568

CLUBS & MEMBERSHIPS New in Phuket

BACKGAMMON 086 951 5511,

Stolen HUBLOT Watch REWARD !

During a house burglary in Surin Beach Phuket area was stolen a HUBLOT bracelet watch in pink gold. REWARD THB 100,000 to anyone who can provide tips so the watch is returned.

Contact : johan@vertigophuket.com, Call: 083 2809100

MOVING & STORAGE

CALLING THE DOG LOVERS OF PHUKET

Total Web Solutions: Need a professional SEO website customised for your business needs? A website that you can manage, control & update.

To make a difference with your website contact Blueswell.net. websolutions@ blueswell.net, 081 091 9282.

TechWorX Residential.

Smar t home automation systems.

Smart phone or pad control, Multi-room audio-visual, Home Theater, Lighting control and Electrical systems for new and renovation projects. Please email for info package. info@techworx.asia

Soi Dog are looking for dog lovers in Phuket to come and spend time with our 300+ street dogs in residence at our shelter in Mai Khao, North Phuket.

We need volunteers to help socialise and walk our dogs - as this is fundamental in preparing our lovely dogs for adoption in Phuket and around the world. Whether you can spare one day a week or can come every day, we would love to have you help our dogs. Volunteering at Soi Dog is an amazing experience and may well change your life. For more details, please email Diana at volunteering@soidog-foundation.org

tonivanLaak@hotmail.com

COMMUNITY

We Sell Boxes & Moving Supplies: At MY STORAGE

Self Storage you can buy quality moving and packing supplies like individual boxes, bubble wrap, packing tapes & knives plus secure padlocks. We also help you to move and store. Call 076 292 909.

PERSONAL SERVICES

JEWELLERY / WATCHES A Unique Thai Cooking Class Are you looking for original Thai Style of Cooking? Relaxed & Intimate beach front class at Blue Bar Layan Beach.

Available ever yday and star t time flexible. Promotion at 1,500 B per person includes transfer & ingredients(3 dishes). Call 081-7288269,psupparin@ gmail.com

Breitling Crosswind 18K Gold Breitling Crosswind Chronograph - 40 Diamonds - 43mm 18k Yellow Gold - Reference: K13355 
nr: 1677. PreOwned - Purchased October 2004 from authorized Breitling dealer. Call 090 901 3601 etc.

GENNEWA GOLD MEMBERS

Attention Gennewa Gold members. Please contact urgently. randyalltime@gmail.com

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

SPORT

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

27

23

New logo shining fresh light on charity efforts Finish line in sight for running couple I IT’S TIME TO CATCH UP with our running couple, who have been trying to fit in training with their busy schedule.

Between work and other commitments, Duncan Worthington and Chanut “Tum” Nawnarong had a chance to sit down to answer questions from The Phuket News.

loop all the way around, so it was quite a good route to run multiple laps.

Tum: We managed to get in a good run around Bang Wad dam on Phuket last weekend.

Our first time running there – a 6km loop and Duncan did three loops. A good 18km outdoor effort.

Any [new] setbacks that either of you have had to overcome?

Duncan Worthingon: The training is tough, there are good days, bad days, and worse. And not all goals are met along the way. I completed a 25km run for the first time a couple of weeks ago, which was one of my milestones along the way.

Next up is 30km.

Chanut “Tum” Nawnarong: No setbacks. When I can find the time, I have been focused on increasing distance and in the gym I have focused on core and strength training.

How are you [Duncan] mentally preparing for your first marathon?

DW: I am realistic. My main goal since the beginning was to finish. Sometimes I get carried away and start to think maybe I could do such-and-such a time, and then I bring myself back to reality.

I don’t get nervous before a race. Where I need to be mentally strong is part-way through, when I’m tiring, or when things are not going as hoped. That is when mental strength is needed.

How have you both been training in your schedule?

DW: That’s been a challenge.

We were both in Pattaya working for 10 days, which cut into our training. However, we did manage to get out training most days and didn’t fall too far behind.

We were based at Ocean Marina and it’s actually a quite a large area, almost a 2km

@thephuketnews

Tum, still time for a marathon before LPIM? Tum: Due to the workload, I won’t be running any events before Laguna Phuket. After a full two months break from extensive training my focus is on getting back to fitness.

This year I have not run as much as I have in the previous year, so my goal right now is to get my fitness back up to as good as possible.

MARATHON

n the run-up to the 9 th Laguna Phuket International Marathon on June 8, organisers unveiled a brand new logo at a press conference last week in Bangkok and have released details on the host resort’s charitable efforts.

The new logo has three runners, with a female athlete in the middle, surrounded by palm trees in a paradise setting and was unveiled in preparation for next year’s event – the 10 th year of the marathon. Participants will be given medals that resemble the new logo once they cross the finish line on June 8.

In addition, the Laguna Phuket resort have announced that they are continuing their fundraising efforts and outreach of the “Fully Booked!”

Mobile Learning Centre at this year’s marathon.

“It is our hope to make the race a run paradise, at which runners enjoy running, meeting their peers, and participating in fulfilling charitable causes,” Hemmin said.

The Mobile Lear ning Centre is part of the Laguna

Phuket Foundation, a which operates various charitable programmes and has raised over B4.6 million throughout the years.

The foundation will also organise rundraising efforts at the Laguna Phuket Triathlon and Challenge Laguna Phuket events later this year.

In addition, this year’s Laguna Phuket International Marathon will see the continuation of the “Green Runner” initiative, which replaces plastic cups with reusable resin cups for all water stations.

The initiative will also see 40 volunteers clear up trash on the course throughout the day.

there’s a lot more women getting into the sport. I think we will see a trend towards having more women participate,” he told The Phuket News.

With the uptick in female runners and increase in par-

ticipants, there’s no telling how much the marathon can grow.

“We like to grow gradually and ensure the quality of the event. So we won’t grow just for numbers. We want to provide a quality event to all,” he said.

From left: Roman Floesser, GM of Go Adventure Asia; Santi Pawai, Director of Tourism & Sports Phuket; Prapa Hemmin, Director of Sales - MICE & Corporate Events of Laguna Phuket; and Noppadon Pakprot, Executive Director Events Department of Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The literacy initiative is intended help both local and regional schoolchildren in the area and was launched back in April 25, said Prapa Hemmin, Director of Sales-MICE and Corporate Events at Laguna Phuket.

Thailand’s running bug MARATHON Anthika Muangrod reporter4@classactmedia.co.th

AN EVENT THAT STARTED out with less than 2,000 participants has grown to more than double that size in less than a decade.

Part of the reason? Thailand has been hit by the running bug.

“I think there is a running boom in Thailand, that’s the reason why we’ve had such

growth. Especially young people who have started running now,” said Roman Floesser, general manager of Go Adventure Asia, organisers of the Laguna Phuket International Marathon on June 8.

The list of first-place finishers over the years have largely been men. At the moment, just over 20 per cent of marathon participants are female, but Floesser notes that more women are competing.

“Just from what I’ve observed going to other events,

28 SPORT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

Ronins hope White Elephants will live up to their nickname FREE KICK Kazira Hans kazesfreekick@gmail.com

A

fter a 1-1 home draw and a slip down the Yamaha League-1 table, Phuket FC fans have to wonder what will happen this Sunday (May 18) when the Ronins travel to play a team with their backs against the wall in the “White Elephants” of Trat FC. Having won only three games all season, Trat FC find themselves on the border of the relegation zone at 14th on the Yamaha League-1 table.

Phuket FC needs to be more creative than their usual 4-3-3 game plan which leaves a gap in the middle. If coach Stefano “Teco” Cugurra wants to use three men ( Anusak Laosangthai, Ney Fabiano and Wasan Natasan) upfront, then perhaps we don’t need another two players out wide on the wings.

Because this leaves only one man, be it Watchara Kriarum

BY THE NUMBERS Phuket FC

6th place (5 wins, 3 losses, 3 draws) 18 points (+4 goal differential) Top scorer: Wasan Natasan (5 goals) Last match: 1-1 draw vs Phitsanulok

Trat FC

14th place (3 wins, 6 losses, 2 draws) 11 points (-1 goal differential) Top scorer: Kendall Jagdeosingh (4 goals) Last match: 2-2 draw vs Pattaya

or Alef Pochi, to play defensive midfield alone. This is why Phuket FC’s midfield game has been non-existent in the past few matches.

Unfortunately, coach Teco

may be without key players Fabiano and Eber Henrique as each has picked up four yellow cards.

Without Eber, coach Teco will need someone in the midfield to stop Labi and link the game between the back and front, someone with experiences and speed.

It could be Rattapol, but he will need to play better than the last time he did against Phitsanuloke TSY FC last Sunday, otherwise Phuket’s defenders

will be tested.

Keep a close eye on Trat FC’s leading scorer Kendall Jagdeosingh (#26), a striker from Trinidad and Tobago, one of only three league players who have scored a hat-trick this season (along with Valci Junior of Bangkok FC and Babo Mark Landry of Chiang Mai FC).

Kendall is fast and skillful with both feet, not to mention his strength in shielding the ball from defenders. Challenging him will not be an easy job for

Phuket’s Yusuke Sato.

Trat coach Hannarong Chunhakunakorn usually starts his matches with a 4-4-2 formation, with Ukrainian defender Andrey Boyko’s (#13) 190cm frame preventing air balls.

Next to him is 185cm South Korean national Kim Yeong Yoon (#40), so it will be difficult for Phuket FC to land crosses into the box.

In the middle, Trat FC has Kassiaty Labi (#23), who spikes forward often to assist Jagdeosingh’s attack. Meanwhile, Pathomchai Seaisakul (#20) helps expand the attack into a three-prong offense.

If Phuket FC can cut the link between the White Elephant’s triangle gameplan, the Ronins might come out with a point, or even all three.

Trat FC are inconsistent: they can be spectacular one week and play like butter melting under hot Phuket sun the next. Let’s hope that the White Elephants don’t wake up this Sunday morning (May 18) thinking they’re champions.

Kaze’s prediction: Trat FC 1-1 Phuket FC

Phuket draw at home with Phitsanulok FOOTBALL J.P. Mestanza editor2@classactmedia.co.th

WITH ALL THE ACTION taking place in the first half, the Ronins eventually settled for a 1-1 draw against SYM Phitsanulok FC at Surakul Stadium last Sunday night (May 11).

Phitsanulok opened the scoring early when striker Yod Chanthawong placed one in the back of the net, but just minutes later, Phuket captain Wasan Natasan equalised.

Phitsanulok dominated the possession in the first half but could not get more than one score on the board.

Phuket FC were a different team in the second half and took much more control of the ball with several chances for a game-winner, but the match ended 1-1.

16th Strategic Sports Phuket International

Rugby 10s

23rd May 2014 The Athena Siam Coffin Dodgers Vets Tournament 24th-25th May 2014 Men's Open Tournament Venue - Thanyapura Sports Club

thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

SPORT 29

Organisers cancel FIVB Phuket Open ICC VOLLEYBALL J.P. Mestanza editor2@classactmedia.co.th

CITING THE ONGOING political un rest that has plagued Thailand for the past year, promoters have cancelled the the FIVB Phuket Open that was set for October.

The annual event was originally scheduled to take place October 15-19 on Karon Beach in the southern part of the island. Last year, more than 60 teams from 32 countries around the world competed in the event, with prizes of more than US$100,000

(B3.2 million) on the line.

The competition – part of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour – was one of two women-only events on the FIVB 2014 calendar. The second event, which takes place in Prague, will still take place this month.

“The FIVB will pursue negotiations with promoters who may be interested in staging an Open event during that same period,” the FIVB statement read.

This would have been the eighth women’s event to have been played in Phuket and the ninth time in Thailand (the other site was Bang Saen Beach in Chonburi Province).

earn semi-final spot

CRICKET Stuart Reading editor@classactmedia.co.th

T

he Village required a victory and 2 bonus points while ICC needed just one bonus point to advance to the semi-final match against Laguna in the Jones Lang LaSalle league, so a highly contested game was on the cards last Sunday (May 11) at the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG).

Village forced ICC to field first while they hoped to set a big target to have a chance of securing the two vital bonus

Vagabonds win ahead of 10s RUGBY UNION IN PREPARATION FOR the 16th Phuket International Rugby 10s on May 23-25, the Phuket Vagabonds rugby squad took home the title at the Chris Kays Memorial Pattaya 10s tournament earlier this month.

Continuing their strong performance at the Bangkok 10s in February, the Vagabonds were able to put away the Thai Mosquitos Rugby team – a side full of Thai national players – 10-7 in the waning moments of the final match.

Vagabond’s Brett Pentland Smith first took the ball over the Mosquito’s line and the Phuket side, with a failed conversion, took the lead at 5-0.

Wit h m i nutes lef t i n regulation, the Mosquitos answered back – along with a successful two-point conversion – and made the game 7-5. That score was also the first time an opposing team had gained points against the Vagabonds in all five matches of the tournament.

In the final moments, the Mosquitos were only 8m from the winning score, until Vagabonds’ Matt Thomson @thephuketnews

forced a fumble for teammate Ta Moko to pick up and sprint to make the score 10-7, securing the title for Phuket.

Next up, the Phuket Vagabonds will take on teams from around the world at the 16th Phuket International Rugby 10s on May 23-25.

Team from South Africa,

Australia, and Southeast Asia will compete in the tournament, which will take place at the Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club.

For more information, visit phuketrugby10s.com.

Class Act Media is a proud media sponsor of this event.

points to make it through to the finals play off.

The Village’s unfamiliar partnership of Craig Paterson (9) and Martin Platts (0) did not go to plan and ICC got off to a flying start taking them both out within the first three overs of the innings.

With the normally bighitting Mark Ashman (8) and Farcie Berowsky (8) also struggling to make runs, the Villagers looked to be heading for a low total with the last three batsman making a combined score of 21 between. At the end of the 35 overs, the innings total stood at 114-8.

Pick of the bowling attack for ICC was Ravi Naik

(3 for 15).

After the break, the Village needed to keep the ICC score below 57 to get the two bonus points.

The first two overs saw the fall of both opening batsman, Shah Ullah (2) and Ali Ahmad (10). Very next ball, Divan Mydeen trapped Vicky Mehra lbw for a golden duck.

Surendar Kumar (16) and A Virdikar (7) then posted a 28-run partnership before Virdikar was bowled by Farcie Berowsky in the 8th over.

With just 12 more runs to secure a playoff spot, ICC’s Ravi Naik (12) and J Mohammad (13) provided relief to push the score along to 60-6

before Mohammad was cleaned bowled. With this, the Village missed out on two bonus points.

Ravi Naik was clean bowled

by Berowsky (3 for 22) and ICC were languishing at 73-7.

Mydeen (4 for 25) , the pick of the bowlers for the Village, removed Balesh Desai (3) and D Vaiganker (0) with ICC now reeling on 90-9 and still requiring 25 runs for victory.

ICC were eventually all out for 95 in 18.1 overs.

The playoff of the JLL league will see ICC take on Laguna this Sunday (May 18) at the ACG, with the winner earning a spot at the grand final against points champion, Thalang.

30 SPORT

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PREMIER PREDICTIONS: ENTER NOW AT THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Manchester City stroll to EPL title FOOTBALL

The overall competition winner receives 2 nights accommodation at the Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort in a Premium Suite with Private Pool, buffet breakfast for 2, Sheraton Club Lounge benefit, and 1 dinner at Malati or Gecko’s restaurant for 2, overall value B61,400.

The monthly competition winner for May 2014 receives a B1,500 voucher to spend at Walkabout Sports Bar Karon Beach.

M

anchester City secured a second Premier League title in three seasons by comfortably defeating West Ham United 2-0 at a jubilant Etihad Stadium last Sunday (May 11).

City effectively needed only a point to claim the championship ahead of Liverpool, but goals in each half from Samir Nasri and captain Vincent Kompany meant that they completed their mission with room to spare.

The result took City’s goals tally to 102 – one short of Chelsea’s Premier League record from 2009-10 – and made Chilean Manuel Pellegrini the first non-European manager to win an English top-flight title.

“I think that I manage a great group of players, a great institution and great fans,”

MONTHLY SPONSOR

TITLE SPONSOR

MAY STANDINGS

1. fazza 2. celticpride 3. garymac81 4. AAY 5. aquamarine 6. diggersd 7. HugsThailand 8. mickyleeds 9. jigdellasoul 10. sami

OVERALL STANDINGS

58 55 55 52 52 52 52 52 49 49

1. celticpride 2. MRB 3. jwiegand 4. Kathu Bandit 5. scottkip 6. zestrealestate 7. fazza 8. sam3838 9. sami 10. mickyleeds

854 824 821 809 800 797 791 791 788 785

English Premier League

Manchester City’s Belgian midfielder Vincent Kompany (C) celebrates with the Premiership trophy after his team won 2-0 against West Ham. Photo: AFP/Andrew Yates. said Pellegrini.

Liverpool, who led the table with three games to play,

finished two points below City in second place after coming from behind to win 2-1 at

home to Newcastle United, who had Shola Ameobi and Paul Dummett sent off.

The home fans celebrated with their customary ‘Poznan’ dance – bouncing up and down with their backs to the game – and then flooded onto the pitch in delight at the final whistle.

“As a kid, you grow up and dream of lifting trophies. I feel like I am living that dream when I do this,” Kompany told reporters after hoisting the title.

Liverpool went into their game against Newcastle with a slim hope of winning a first league title since 1990, but they fell behind in the 20th minute when Martin Skrtel sliced Yoan Gouffran’s cross into his own net.

However, carbon-copy goals by Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge, both of whom volleyed in Steven Gerrard free-kicks, turned the game around in the space of two minutes in the second half.

Agger’s goal was Liverpool’s 100th in the league and made this the first English top-flight season in which two teams have reached that milestone since 1960-61.

“It’s been an incredible journey this year, so to finish with 12 wins out of 14 is an incredible achievement by the players,” said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.

Tottenham Hotspur secured the last available Europa League berth by crushing Aston Villa 3-0 through a

Team

MP W

D

L

1

Man City (c)

38 27

5

6 102 37 65

86

2

Liverpool

38 26

6

6 101 50 51

84

3

Chelsea

38 25

7

6

71 27 44

82

4

Arsenal

38 24

7

7

68 41 27

79

5

Everton

38 21

9

8

61 39 22

72

6

Tottenham

38 21

6

11 55 51

4

69

7

Man Utd

38 19

7

12 64 43 21

64

8

Southampton

38 15 11 12 54 46

8

56

9

Stoke

38 13 11 14 45 52 -7

50

10

Newcastle

38 15

4

19 43 59 -16

49

11

Crystal Palace

38 13

6

19 33 48 -15

45

12

Swansea

38 11

9

18 54 54

42

13

West Ham

38 11

7

20 40 51 -11

40

14

Sunderland

38 10

8

20 41 60 -19

38

15

Aston Villa

38 10

8

20 39 61 -22

38

16

Hull

38 10

7

21 38 53 -15

37

17

West Brom

38

7

15 16 43 59 -16

36

18

Norwich (r)

38

8

9

21 28 62 -34

33

19

Fulham (r)

38

9

5

24 40 85 -45

32

20

Cardiff (r)

38

7

9

22 32 74 -42

30

Paulinho strike, a Nathan Baker own goal and an Emmanuel Adebayor penalty, all of which arrived before half-time.

Spurs’ victory means that Manchester United will not play in Europe next season for the first time since 1989-90.

United drew 1-1 at Southampton in Ryan Giggs’s final game as interim manager, which saw last season’s champions finish 22 points below cross-town rivals City in seventh place after a miserable campaign.

Norwich City’s relegation was confirmed after they lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal, although they were already

F

A GD Pts

0

practically assured of joining Fulham and Cardiff City in the Championship.

Arsenal’s FA Cup final opponents Hull City finished the campaign by losing 2-0 at home to fifth-place Everton, who prevailed through goals from James McCarthy and Romelu Lukaku.

T hi rd-place Chelsea, meanwhile, came from behind to win 2-1 at relegated Cardiff, with Andre Schurrle and Fernando Torres securing victory after Craig Bellamy had put the Welsh club ahead.

Ashley Cole, whose contract is due to expire, captained Chelsea on what may have been his last appearance. AFP thephuketnews

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

SPORT 31

Andaman Pearl, Class Act Media unite for fans FUTSAL Steven Layne editor3@classactmedia.co.th

C

lass Act Media (owner of The Phuket News) is now official media sponsor of the island’s pro five-a-side futsal team, Phuket United, who are currently 2nd place in the Futsal Thailand Premier League.

Phuket United, who have won 10 of their 12 matches so far this season, will be on the road this week to take on 10th place Khon Kaen (5 wins, 2 draws, 5 losses) this Saturday

(May 17) at 4pm.

The partnership between Class Act Media and Phuket United – nicknamed the ‘Andaman Pearl – will ensure regular

print and broadcast coverage of all the club’s matches and the addition of match guides for select home fixtures played at the 4,000-seat Saphan Hin In-

door Stadium in Phuket Town.

The first match guide will be available for the June 8 showdown against the FTPL’s top club and reigning AFC club champions, Chonburi Bluewave – a team comprised of the kingdom’s top national players and currently the only undefeated squad in the 16team league.

The pressure will be on for Phuket, who lost to Chonburi 9-0 back in February. This time, however, Phuket’s energetic

home fans may help sway the result.

Meanwhile, United look ahead to their next two home matches: Suphanburi on May 21 and a face-off against 4th place Thai Port on May 24.

The Phuket United squad has two top-flight Brazilian players in “Action” Jackson Santos and Edson “Gugu” Silva, as well as a top lineup of skilled and experienced Thai players that includes two national squad members

– Anuwat “Baat” Panoppha (#15) and Thanakorn “Max” Piyaprichayut (#10).

Both Baat and Max will represent Thailand at the 4th World University Futsal Championship in Antequera, Spain on July 13-21.

This Sunday’s (May 18) match-up against Khon Kaen can be seen on live via SMM TV (tv.smmonline.net) at 4pm.

Class Act Media is a proud media sponsor of Phuket United.

Thai-owned Leicester City desperate to capitalise LEICESTER CITY CHAIRMAN Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has set his sights on keeping the newly promoted Foxes in the English Premier League as long as possible.

Having won the Championship title, Leicester, owned by Thailand’s duty free retailer King Power Group, will play in the top flight next season.

“We should be able to stay [in the EPL] for at least two or three years and then my next goal will be taking the team to the top five or six in the Premier League,” King Power boss Vichai said at a press conference last week.

Vichai said he bought the Foxes when they were in the Championship because he wanted the challenge of

Live Sports TV Schedule *Times may be subject to change

CHANNEL START END

SPORT

EVENT

TEAMS / INFO

Friday, May 16 816, 669

14:30

16:30

Rugby Union

Super XV

Hurricanes v. Highlanders

16:40

18:30

Rugby League

NRL

Rabbitohs v. Storm

IT 7

16:40

18:30

Rugby League

NRL

Broncos v. Titans

521

16:30

19:30

Aussie Rules

AFL

Essendon v. Sydney Swans Crusaders v. Sharks

Saturday, May 17 816, 669 669

14:30

16:30

Rugby Union

Super XV

16:35

18:30

Rugby Union

Super XV

Reds v. Rebels

19:55

22:00

Rugby Union

Aviva Premiership SF2

Saracens v. Harlequins

22:00

00:00

Rugby Union

Super XV

Stormers v. Western Force

00:05

02:00

Rugby Union

Super XV

Cheetahs v. Brumbies

813, 163, SS1

17:30

21:00

Motor Bikes

MotoGP

Le Mans Qualifying

521

10:30

13:30

Aussie Rules

AFL

Richmond v. Melbourne

16:30

19:30

Aussie Rules

AFL

Fremantle v. Geelong

816, 669

12:30

14:30

Rugby League

NRL

Eels v. Dragons

IT 7

14:30

16:30

Rugby League

NRL

Cowboys v. Roosters

814

23:15

00:50

Rugby League

English Super League

Hull KR v. Hull FC

816

22:30

00:30

Soccer

FA Cup Final

Arsenal v. Hull Bulldogs v. Warriors

Sunday, May 18 669

11:00

13:00

Rugby League

NRL

669

13:00

15:00

Rugby Union

Super XV

Waratahs v. Lions

813, SS1

16:00

20:00

Motor Bikes

MotoGP

Main Races, Le Mans, France

816

21:00

00:00

Tennis

ATP Tour

Final, Rome

521

13:30

16:30

Aussie Rules

AFL

St Kilda v. Gold Coast Suns

@thephuketnews

guiding them to the highest level.

“When we bought Leicester City four years ago, many people asked me why we did not buy a Premier League club and I told them that it was not a challenge for me,” he said.

Asked if he planned to bring Thai players to play for Leicester, Vichai said some Thai players may be good enough but securing work permits to play in England would be a problem.

He said Leicester had accepted several young Thai players to train at their academy.

“We will find at least 10 Thai players to train at our academy in the upcoming season,” he said.

Bangkok Post/AFP

HASH BALL 2014 When/Where: Friday, June 6 @ Royal Phuket City Hotel, Phuket Town What: Black and white colour for ladies. The ball is available to PH3 members and their partners only.

Prices: Marshall volunteers of both the Triathlon/Ironman 2013 pay B200. Marshall volunteers of either the Triathlon or Ironman 2013 pay B500. Runners who participated in 10 runs since the last AGPU pay B800.

PH3 members/partners pay B1000. Available from Clitmas P****y on Saturdays.

More info: phuket-hhh.com