Amazing Gateways

from TAT

Thailand marks the center of a region that is becoming more and more frequented by the rest of the world. With access by air, land and sea to and from these destinations, Thailand acts as the perfect natural gateway and starting point for any trip to South East Asia.

The Mekong River Region

The Mekong River winds down through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, before it reaches the South China Sea. Thailand’s central position in this region allows it to act as the perfect gateway with good access to the roads, bridges, and waterways that now connect this region. Bangkok International Airport offers regular flights to Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam, all of which are also accessible by bus or train.

The Malay Peninsula

A recent agreement has helped to link the tourism promotion efforts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and expand the available information and tours in the area. Phuket and Hat Yai airports both offer regular flights to Kuala Lumpur every day and to Singapore four times a week.

by Suzanne Bradbrook, Lafayette California

After seeing my last tour member off at Don Muang, I asked my long time van driver to deliver me back to my hotel in Bangkok. Khun Orawan has worked for me, conducting tours for small groups of Americans, for over four years and we had become good friends during this time. Now he would return to his family and I would go back to Pattaya and wait for my next tour group, not due for another two weeks.

"Khun Suzanne," he asked, "You like to go with me to Pee Chai funeral tomorrow? ("Pee Chai" means older brother in Thai"). Farang never come and we like to have you very much. You maybe take picture for family to remember, can do?"

I contemplated the offer and not having any pressing commitments, I decided to accept. Khun Orawan, who I call "Awn", was close to his 49 year old brother and devastated by his early death. He picked me up early the next morning and we were off to meet his family. The day was spent preparing for the family event and I helped pick out the many flowers and tried to help prepare the giant pots of Thai food to offer the guests. A wake was planned for the night before the ceremony and a family dinner after the cremation. The family treated me like an honored guest, and though they were not rich by any means, the ceremony and love between family and friends was touching and comforting, even for a Farang who didn’t even know the deceased.

Awn was chosen, along with the owner of the company the deceased worked for, to actually light the fire that consumed the casket. Actually, aside from the chanting and unintelligible rituals, the whole scene was one of joy rather than sorrow. I became good friends with Awn’s 70-year-old mother who could speak English amazingly well and who was anxious to speak and be friendly.

The all-night wake, with non-stop talking, eating, drinking and game playing, was the first event I was involved in. I didn’t make it through the night, though, and slept a couple hours on the stone floor with only a small pillow and a mosquito net for company. I was awakened at about 5:30 a.m. to go to the Wat. The Monks are only allowed to eat before noon and must secure all their food from alms given by local believers. They brought back quite an array of food and the Wat’s members prepared quite a scrumptious meal. I don’t know if the food we ate was part of the Monk’s bounty, but I doubt it.

After the Monks ate we were served a meal of rice soup (Khow Tum), some mystery meat which I think was pork and chicken but don’t really want to know, and a huge basket of fruit (ponlamai) with lychee, farang, chompoo, rambuten (ngok), thurian, malacoo, and a few other fruits with unknown names (that are probably unpronounceable anyway). The Monks then all sat cross-legged on a stage and chanted for about one hour. On occasion the family would go individually and pat the casket cover, a beautifully ornate gold colored box. There were some flowers, orchids and other tropical blooms tastefully displayed but not overdone. A photo of the deceased was displayed on an easel, otherwise the Wat was not decorated especially for the ceremony. Dogs and cats ran freely through the building and the children were surprisingly free and not clothed, making for some surprising occurrences when they felt the call of nature. Thai families take care of all children like they’re their own and I saw several different women (men don’t do such things) care for the same child during the day.

We went back home (sister’s) at about 10:30 and ate again. Not fancy food but delicious and prepared with care and love. Fortunately I like my food spicy but even at that some foods were so hot that I couldn’t eat them. I never have any repercussion with digestion, which is probably due to the huge quantity of malaco (papaya) I eat every day. The fruit is chock full of digestive enzymes and seems to accommodate anything I throw down my gullet. I’ve had little trouble with my digestion or regularity since I started eating the fruit.

Back to the Wat at about 2:00 for more chanting and ceremony. At about 4:30 the Monks disassembled the casket cover and exposed a very plain wooden box. It was placed on a decorated wagon, covered with a gold colored cloth and paraded around a shrine with a very tall decorated tower/chimney that turned out to contain the cremating oven. Only the immediate family was invited to parade behind the casket.

The casket was then re-encased in the golden facade and all the decorations and picture were displayed. After a couple hours of more distant family and friends arriving and greeting the immediate family members another chanting session commenced while everyone sat respectfully. Some Monks then disassembled the casket again and rather unceremoniously shoved the actual casket into the oven. A stack of kindling was placed under the casket and the iron door closed.

Paper flowers with wick-like stems were passed out. The brother’s boss and Awn were presented with much larger paper rose wicks and were escorted to the oven where a small door was opened and the wick/flowers were lighted from a flame from a lantern held by the oldest Monk; then they reached inside the oven and lighted the kindling. All the remaining attendees filed past and placed their paper flowers through the open door. By the time everyone (approximately 50 persons) put their flowers in, there was quite a blaze. The door was shut and soon a dark cloud of smoke belched from the chimney.

After some more visiting, the crowd departed one-by-one until by about 7:00 only the immediate family and I remained. We proceeded to the older sister’s home again and another party ensued. More delicious food and drink. The Thais drink a rice whiskey but it is rare that anyone shows any signs of drunkenness (mow). They eat and drink slowly and for long periods of time, as much as 5 hours for one meal. Maybe that’s why a fat Thai is a rarity.

I lasted a couple of more hours and saw that the party would probably go on for some time so I excused myself, handed over the exposed film and took a bus across the river to a place closer to my hotel, then took a taxi home. I arrived before midnight and being quite tired and feeling happy with the Thai spirits, I retired to contemplate the day.

It is rare that a Farang gets to witness such an event and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

The Royal Cliff Beach Resort will again be the venue when guest Austrians join Ibycus to perform piano quartet program on Saturday, March 28th.

Photo: Mr. Vincent Stadlmair

Sponsored by Lauda Air, Austrian musicians will be joining Ibycus members at the end of March to create a very challenging piano quartet program of Schumann and Brahms. Violinist Anne Soren and cellist Vincent Stadlmair, former cellist of the Franz Schubert Quartet and currently principal cellist of the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, will join violinist Simon Stadlmair and pianist Claus Franke to perform Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major op. 47 and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C minor op. 60 on Saturday, March 28.

The hall opens at 5 p.m. and the concert itself begins a 5:30 p.m.

Tickets at 500 baht for adults and 200 baht for children including snacks and drinks, are available in Pattaya at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort (250 421-40 ext. 2007), or Ibycus in Bangkok at 932 9208 (Fax 539 4987) or at the door.

The World Travel & Tourism Council is to conduct an intensive study on the economic and employment impact of the Thai travel & tourism industry.

The study is one of several major initiatives announced by WTTC President and CEO Geoffrey Lipman at the conclusion of a two-day visit March 2-3 to help highlight the major role that Travel & Tourism can play in the national economic recovery programme.

During his visit, Mr Lipman met with senior officials of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Abhisit Vejjajiva, Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Pradit Phattaraprasit and the Executive Secretary of UN ESCAP Mr Adrianus Mooy.

He also met with the Parliament Standing Committee on Tourism, general managers of riverside hotels and other senior industry figures in the private sector, including Praphant Asava-aree, managing director of the NCC Management and Development Co and Thailand’s only WTTC member.

During the next few months, the WTTC will be working with each of these parties to unroll a range of economic, environmental, investment and marketing initiatives to give further impetus to Thai travel & tourism.

Said Mr Lipman, "We recognise the major role played by travel & tourism as Thailand’s leading foreign exchange earner. However, it is more important for government policy-makers to recognise its importance in the national economic recovery programme and give it all the financial backing it needs.

"The British Tourist Authority knows for a fact that every pound sterling spent on promotion generates 27 pounds worth of returns for the UK economy and national job-creation programmes. This holds true for Thailand as much as other countries, which should make travel & tourism much more important as an export industry."

The economic impact study, commissioned by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, will go a long way towards quantifying the precise impact of travel & tourism on Thai jobs and Gross Domestic Product.

Due for completion by the end of 1998, the study will be based on the new satellite accounting system that is soon to become the global standard for measuring the impact of travel & tourism industries on national economies. Similar studies have been done for Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.

It will be conducted by the WEFA Group, one of the world’s leading economic information and consulting firms founded in 1963 by Lawrence R. Klein, 1980 Nobel Laureate in Economics.

The WTTC will also train statisticians at the Tourism Authority of Thailand on the methodology of the study so that they can continue to update the data annually after the initial study is completed.

As an integrated economic system, the Travel & Tourism Satellite Account can translate public policy decisions, visitor counts and projections, and macro-economic trends into a dynamic Travel & Tourism model which forecasts the economic flow through impact on the narrow Travel & Tourism industry and the broader economy.

Other initiatives announced by Mr Lipman on the conclusion of his visit:

— Formation of a Destination Marketing Council: Similar to one created for China, the Council will bring together leading tour operators and others involved in selling the Thai tourism product for a day or two of brainstorming on what can be done to give greater global impact to the Amazing Thailand tourism promotion campaign.

— Green Globe Destination Project for the Chao Phraya River: Riverside hotels have given in-principle agreement to a project to position the River of Kings as a Green Globe Destination ahead of His Majesty the King’s auspicious 72nd birthday in December 1999.

— Promotion of investment in Thai tourism: A proposal is to be sent to Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Abhisit Vejjajiva, who heads the Board of Investment, on organising a special seminar just to promote investment in the Thai travel & tourism industry.

— National Tourism Conference: Support has been pledged to the Parliamentary Standing committee on tourism for the organisation of its National Tourism Conference towards the end of 1998.

— Co-operation with ESCAP: The WTTC and ESCAP will be working together to further develop the tourism component of regional projects such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region and the Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Co-operation caucus.

Said Mr Lipman, "This was my second visit to Bangkok in six months, following up on the seminar we organised in Bangkok on November 11, 1997. I am glad to say that it has been highly successful and should go a long way towards helping Thailand recover as soon as possible from its economic crisis.

For further information: Geoffrey Lipman, President & CEO, World Travel & Tourism Council 20 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7TT Email: [email protected]. Tel: (44-171) 8389400. Fax: 8389050. Or Imtiaz Muqbil, Regional Representative, South & Southeast Asia, World Travel & Tourism Council, 24 Soi Chidlom, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Email: [email protected]. Tel: (66-2) 255 1480. Fax: 2544316.

by Barrie Kenyon

1. Passenger. Herding creatures usually found in pairs or small groups. Very anxious to collect into a group known as The Line which can be formed without reference to safety criteria or time limits on a 24 hours basis.

2. Position Closed. Computerized sign posted at numerous unmanned counter locations and commonly interpreted by passengers as Form Line Here.

3. No Record Ticket. Any passenger who has booked through a travel agency specializing in discounts.

4. Worldwide Flight Schedule. A complex but entertaining manual of misinformation much beloved by graduates in the sociology of knowledge and by lovers of abbreviations.

5. Departure Time. A term of obscure meaning which is varied at will.

6. Carry on Bag. A large dimensional hold all which passengers often interpret as meaning bicycles, microwave ovens, live animals and wide screen TVs from duty free areas of airports in the Middle East.

7. Upgrade. Complimentary invitation to a higher class than warranted by the ticket. Commonly believed by passengers to be activated by the wearing of a collar and tie even if accompanied by short pants and flip flops.

8. Fog. A useful weather phenomenon strongly attracted by airports and their environs. A useful synonym for "factors beyond our control" and a more convincing explanation to passengers than "operational reasons".

9. Special Meal Request. Optional service provided for vegetarians and others under serious medical risk. Commonly subdivided into helpful categories such as No Meat or Fish, Asian Vegan and European Healthy Eater but all amounting to Baked Beans and Watercress Salad. 70% of Special Meal Requests are canceled during the inflight service.

10. Standing Passengers. A term used only on the Miami to Haiti route and on certain domestic Russian flights where cattle, sheep and pigs may be allowed in the economy class aisles, on a discretionary basis, to avoid riots at the check in counter.

11. Tour Group Leader. A helpful post of responsibility which has been encouraged at times of stress to reduce passenger arguments with check in staff.

12. Voluntary Oversale Ticket. A passenger who is happy not to board a full flight in return for a free bed, a handful of vouchers offering frequent snacks and the guarantee of a window seat on the next available flight some days hence.

13. Notifiable Pax. Passengers whose check in must be instantly reported to Interpol. They include all single men over 35, couples traveling with children of an apparently different nationality and anyone carrying a video camera.