The Zeppelin German Restaurant and Steak House is on Beach Road, almost at the corner with Pattaya Klang and behind the Nova Lodge, to which it is attached. It has been part of the Pattaya scene for many years and as such, can tend to be forgotten with the plethora of new restaurants springing up. It was time, the Dining Out Team decided, to revisit the Zeppelin.

This outlet for the Nova Lodge is under the watchful eye of Rony Fineman and we dined with Rony himself that evening. The restaurant is housed in a huge wood lined barrel shaped building, with a predominantly nautical theme. Alcoves are around the perimeter and there is one large circular table that can take a party of 12 in the centre. The ambience is “comfortable”.

Parking is outside on Beach Road, though you can also park in Nova Lodge and walk through the gardens to the restaurant.

In common with the barrel theme, the menu is shaped like a beer barrel and begins with hot and cold starters. There are nine choices, generally around 140 baht, and include home made duck pate, deep fried prawns in a dill sauce and home made beef in aspic on tomatoes and cucumber vinaigrette. This is followed by seven soups at 70 baht, including green pea with bacon, Bavarian liver dumpling, goulasche and a clear seafood.

The next section has various “wursts” (130-190 baht) with the usual German favourites. Next up are the side dishes, six at 60 baht each, with potato salad, sauerkraut, french-fries and saut้ed potatoes with bacon, for example.

The menu is quite large, with seven schnitzels (195-260 B), four seafood dishes (195-300 B), fourteen specialities generally around 220 baht with lots of German pork and beef dishes, seven different steaks (250-400 B) and then cheese platters and desserts. Whew, that’s a 70 item German menu.

For starters, Rony had the shrimps in tomato and garlic, while Madame chose the deep fried variety with the dill sauce. I skipped starters and had the goulasche soup instead, but had a nibble at the other two’s plates. The shrimp had a smooth garlic tang, not at all overpowering, while Madame’s dill sauce was perfect. My soup had enough “bite” from the paprika and was served hot - good.

For mains, Rony suggested I have the fried pork knuckle, so I accepted, while Madame had rock lobster thermidor as her selection. Rony selected a bottle of Beaujolais to go with the meal and it was an excellent choice.

The mains arrived on pre-heated plates - one aspect of good dining that is forgotten by many restaurants in Pattaya (even some of the better ones that should know). The pork knuckle was huge and came with a small container of hot English mustard. The pork was also served hot and was truly delicious. Just a smatter of mustard on each piece to give you that tingle at the back of the nose followed by the Beaujolais. It is no wonder that the Zeppelin is famous for its pork knuckle. Madame enjoyed her lobster but was well finished while I was still attacking my pork.

While waiting for me, still munching, Rony suggested Madame try a crepe which came with cream cheese, raisin and cinnamon sugar filling. A great dessert. A liqueur afterwards, and it had been an evening to remember.

The Zeppelin Restaurant is quite moderately priced and has a very good range of German cuisine. The settings are high standard and the presentation of the food excellent. The Dining Out Team can easily recommend this restaurant as being of a much higher standard than the prices would suggest. However, if you are going to have the pork knuckle, leave lots of room! Thank you, Rony. It was time we re-visited and remembered!

An upcountry Thai wedding is no ordinary affair. It is a party that starts at dawn and finishes at dawn up to three days later! It results in exhausted revellers, can take many months of preparation and even years of repayment!

The groom Bjorn Richardson and his lovely bride Noi ready to greet guests as they queued up to tie sacred Sai Monkon string around their hands.

Baht and gold feature heavily in Thai weddings, which may seem peculiar to Westerners. Before the great day, the two families meet up to decide what will be the budget for the ceremony, with the lucky groom getting to foot the bill. Both sets of parents also visit the local Wat to ask the monks for an auspicious date and time for the wedding. This is supposed to be worked out using the date and day and time of birth of both the bride and groom. It is amazing, however, how often a really early time is chosen, which allows the monks to be able to breakfast, after hours of chanting at the ceremony! But I am sure they deserve it.

The bride’s parents enjoy the dowry - now called “gifts” - of money and gold from the groom.

This wedding that I attended had something special for Pattaya too, with Swedish Bjorn Richardson, the Resident Manager of the Royal Garden Resort, marrying Noi, a lovely girl from Phrae. Never would I miss the wedding of friends even if it meant an eleven hour bus trip, but fortunately there was a reprieve, flights to Phrae go a couple of times a week leaving four days for R&R and local sightseeing to recover from the festivities.

The wedding ceremony in Phrae started at 6 a.m. with the groom and most of the groom’s friends collecting prepared trays of sweets, fruit, gold and baht offerings for the parents of the bride. In a noisy, dog barking, drum banging, cymbal clashing procession they arrived at the locked gates of the bride’s home. There they asked and were given permission to enter.

Bjorne, the happy groom, looked very regal in his Thai jacket (not surprisingly being a former member of the Swiss National Guard) and his bride, Khun Noi, stunningly beautiful. The high-set teak timbered house was filled to capacity as the 200 guests trooped upstairs, sat and knelt on the floor.

The happy couple tests the wedding bed, where, by tradition, they were supposed to spend the next 3 days and nights, often under the observation of an elderly related couple!

Then the monks arrived and commenced chanting in Pali. This was even more difficult to understand because of the northern accent, but none of the farangs present were hypnotically sent to sleep because of our incredibly uncomfortable positions.

After what seemed like days, the monks blessed the union. The senior monk anointed their heads with sacred fragrant ointment and tied a white string called a sai monkon around Noi and Bjorn’s head and wrists. It was also extended around the family and a banana tree arrangement holding symbolic gifts. The Sai monkon thread acts as a conduit for merit. It also acts like a feng shui symbol of protection to keep the good spirits inside and the evil spirits away.

The monks were then served their breakfast by the guests who afterwards are then allowed downstairs to start theirs. But there was much more ceremony yet. As soon as the monks departed we all trooped upstairs again for more kneeling on the floor.

The couple knelt in a crouched position with their hands joined over a bowl of holy water. The senior family member poured water over their hands. At that stage, Bjorn the groom, had to ask permission to marry Noi and then present her family with gifts of baht and gold.

The guests then queued up to tie more sacred Sai monkon string around Bjorn and Noi’s hands, and escorted them downstairs to their marriage bed where they were supposed to stay for three days! “Can you imagine it!” said Bjorn.

In a noisy, dog barking, drum banging, cymbal clashing procession, the wedding procession arrived at the locked gates of the bride’s home where they asked for and were given permission to enter.

The bridal bed was decorated with more baht and rose petals. There were also masses of flowers everywhere. The sacred string tying them together was then cut allowing Bjorn and Noi to sneak away to change, joining their relatives later.

Back that evening, the partying started in earnest. The bride and groom were standing under a now flower bedecked entrance. Banquet tables were set out in the grounds and we all sat down to great Thai food and drink. A stage had been erected with speakers and lights and I thought we would be in for an evening of speeches and Karaoke entertainment. No such luck. A few members made short speeches, including Bjorn in his very creditable Thai. Khun Noi’s beautiful sister in traditional costume performed a graceful Thai dance.

Then it was our turn, just when we thought we could all relax and watch the performers, all of us were dragged up by smiling Thais to do our shambling semblance of Thai dances. They were determined to teach us, unfortunately. No sooner had we sat down there would be another grinning Thai wai-ing to us as an invitation on to the floor. There was barely time to drink enough anaesthetic in between.

Another difference was seen at this point. Instead of the Western traditional wrapped gifts, friends and relatives gave money in envelopes to the circulating bride and groom. Apparently this is meant to help pay for the cost of the reception as well as start the couple off in family life. These parties of good food, good friends, fun and dancing, traditionally carry on for three days and nights while the bride and groom are occupying the marriage bed, often under the observation of an elderly related couple! Indeed, as Bjorn had said, “Can you imagine it!”

In Thailand 20 years ago, and even still today in some parts of the country, the happy couple do not spirit away on a honeymoon but move in with the bride’s parents and real family life begins in earnest. As a token, Bjorn and Noi spent an obligatory one night under her parents’ roof before leaving for Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

We all wished them well until the early hours of the morning and following the very different ceremonies associated with a Thai wedding, their future is hopefully assured.

This week we have a map instead of a picture; it comes from an English railway monthly magazine ‘Railway Gazette’ and dates from 1965. It is not very inaccurate; some place names are not spelt as they are today, but they can be recognised. Most serious is the transplanting of the Bangkok inner suburb of Makkasan to a point a little way west of Prachin Buri, a journey of some three hours on the slow Eastern line trains! The Bangkok area is not too clear, but it seems that both the Maeklong Railway and the little Pak Nam Railway are both included. Both were taken into the State Railway set-up in the ’50s, but by 1965 the Pak Nam Railway had been closed for some six years. Only one line of the State Railway itself has been closed since the drawing of the map; this is the short branch from Hat Yai to Songkhla, replaced as usual by a less convenient bus service. Songkhla station, a fine wooden building dating from 1917, still stands and parts are in use for offices and a restaurant.

Most fascinating are the ‘dotted lines’, which show ‘lines under construction or proposed’. Had they all been built it would have increased the State Railway’s route kilometreage by some 50%, and a lot of money saved on jerry-built ‘Expressways’ now covering the country, and which, battered day and night by ten-wheeler ‘artics’ will be in ruins within the lifetime of many of us. Railways are not ‘fashionable’ in Thailand, although one day a change may come, from a realisation that a well run railway has no equal for the rapid carriage of goods and passengers, safely and in bulk.

Of all the lines shown ‘dotted’, just two have been built in the intervening 35 years. One best known to us here in Pattaya is, of course, the line that passes the city to the east of Sukhumvit Highway; access other than from North Pattaya is not easy, thanks to the failure of the City Hall to provide easy reach to the access road. The line currently terminated at Sattahip, and one of the considerations was supposedly the traffic that would emanate from an enlarged commercial port at that place; it doesn’t seem to have come to rail, and I suspect that the far bigger Laem Chabang Port has most of the traffic anyway. It is interesting to note the name of ‘Laem Chabang’ on the map, with no one told what was, even then, in mind. There is no sign of the connection to Map Tha Put, but this would no doubt be encompassed by the extension to Rayong, Chantaburi and Trat - not likely to be built!

The other line which has been built, for freight only, so far, is that from ‘Na Bua’ to a point on the Eastern line near the printed position of ‘Makasan’; this is always referred to as the Kaeng Khoi to Khlong Sip Kao line. Its use is to avoid through freight trains in both directions between the North Eastern lines and Laem Chabang Port from passing through the congested Bangkok area.

And that is all! End of Story? Well, I hope not, and in fact I believe that quite a lot of the proposals are still ‘on the books’ although I have no official details. Let us look at some.

Denchai to Chiang Rai is still, almost certainly wanted; it is difficult country, but even more so from Chiang Mai, otherwise perhaps an obvious choice. Phrae and Phayao would be served, the latter shown as Pha Tao on the map; Ngao, also shown is incidental, and so seems to be the extension to tiny Chiang Saen on the Laos border.

‘East/West’ lines are a long felt want, and the plan provides for two. Mae Sod to Nakhon Pakhon, with a connection to Mukdahan seems good, service as it would Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Loei, but missing out Udon Thani in favour of a small place, Khumphawapi, which is not even on the line to Udon and Nongkhai today! Udon is important enough to be served. Turning the Suphan Buri branch into a trunk route via Lop Buri, a point at Ban Lam Narai (first word ‘Pho’ on our map), on the Kaeng Khoi to Bua Yai line which avoids congested Nakhon Ratchasema, thence from Bua Yai to Mukdahan, serving Roi Et, but apparently missing both Maha and Yasothon also seems sensible, especially as some of it exists already, and through traffic to and from the south would gain access to the north avoiding Bangkok. I recall that a recent Prime Minister ordered the State Railway to start work on the Bua Yai-Mukdahan section, but as was his habit, he changed his mind the next day. The connection from Ban Lam Narai to Loei does not seem to have any potential, other than speculative development, nor does the short branch from Nong Songhong (not on my map) to Si Chang Mai. The ‘Friendship Bridge’ at Nong Khai was probably not even thought at that time!

I am doubtful if the extension from Rayong to Trat would ever be built, despite all the development on the Eastern Seaboard area. And finally, now that everyone flies to Phuket, I don’t think the extension on the island from the end of the Khirirat Nikhom branch from Surat Thani would ever be even looked at.

The thoughts in this piece are mine alone, with an inexpert knowledge of the country; the ‘dotted’ lines on the map are the thoughts of, no doubt, more than one man, and understanding of transport needs in the Kingdom half a lifetime ago. Readers may have their own ideas too: let me have them, maybe for a follow-up, at P.O. Box 97, Pattaya City 20260.

Lastly, try to find Wang Pong on the map. There’s a railway story there too, which I’ll tell another time.

When collecting coins or bank notes, these words often turn up. Most know what a pattern or specimen is, but do not know why they were made.

Last week I wrote about the One Baht, RS127 (1908) struck during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910). This coin was sold last week in the Singapore auction with an estimate of US$10,000-12,000. The price for a coin like that is normally Baht 200,000, but because the word ESSAI is written very small on the left side of the Elephant, the price is much higher.

Specimen banknote, 500 Baht, issued on the occasion of His Majesty the King’s 50th Anniversary as King of Thailand. Both the regular banknote and the Specimen banknote were sold above face value, regularly for Baht 1,200 and the Specimen in a much lower number, Baht 1,500.

And what makes these few letters on this coin so much more valuable? Collectors of stamps know that printing mistakes make a stamp much more valuable. But this is not a mistake. Coins are being struck with dies, and when the dies are finished, a Mint normally likes to get the final approval from the authorities before striking the number of coins ordered.

Then a few pieces are struck, and given or sent to the ones that will give the final approval. Since the coin is not yet approved, and they might be lost or by mistake spent, one wants to be able to distinguish these coins from other coins. In the case of the One Baht RS127, ESSAI, I believe it was His Majesty the King that had to give the final approval. I would think that The Mint in Paris, who struck this coin, sent a small number of ESSAI coins for approval, so Ministers and others involved in the matter could inspect the coins before striking the number ordered, in this case 1,037,000 coins.

King Chulalongkorn, One Baht, RS127. ESSAI written small at the elephant’s left side. Estimated at US$10,000 to 12,000 in Singapore auction last week.

In this case approval was given, but unfortunately the King passed away, and these coins were only distributed at His Majesties Funeral. Some of the ones that got the ESSAI or Pattern might have kept it, and this might be the reason for this rare coin being sold in Singapore last week.

Another reason might be, since this was a new design for a Thai coin, the authorities might have sent some coins to other National Banks to show them the new design. One can even speculate more how a pattern coin comes up for auction; another reason can be that the Paris mint sent the coin as an example of their work to another client to show the beauty of their work.

Specimen bank notes are often seen for sale. The reason for this is also the same as for the coin above. But for bank notes, it was or is even more important for the National Banks to inform other National Banks of their new bank note, designs, colors, watermarks and other ways to distinguish copies and fakes. Today, with the advanced color and printing equipment so many have access to, someone might be tempted to make their own banknote.

Some National Banks even distribute their new banknote, in specimen, to commercial banks and money-changers, and these are suppose to be returned. But sometimes this is forgotten and some private individual gets hold of it and sells it. The prices can be enormous.

Over the years, some National Banks have noticed this, and they have started producing specimen notes for the collectors’ market. The Bank of Thailand has made some that have turned out to be very popular among collectors.

The price of the old coins like Patterns, ESSAIS (different countries have different names) and old Specimen bank notes produced for another reason than attract collectors in the first place will still do good in the collectors’ market. But these modern Patterns and Specimens produced by Mints and National Banks only for the collectors’ market, sometimes by “mistake”, I do not believe will keep their price in the long run.

Fleas are plentiful pests that cause an extremely irritating itching skin disease in animals. Simply tagging on some medication or a flea collar is not enough to protect your pets. The environment has to be treated too.

These annoying little pests breed in the house dust and actually spend most of their time off their host animals, so pest control is needed in and around the house or kennels. Every six weeks spray the premises with a residual environmental insecticide after thorough vacuum cleaning.

All cats and dogs in the household should be treated regularly with residual insecticides (i.e., ones that have a lasting action). Many insecticides are toxic to cats so seek a Veterinarian’s advice before buying and applying them. Preparations are available as sprays, dips, pour-ons and spot ons. There is even a new oral flea control available.

Powders and flea collars are not really all that useful. Shampoos are not residual as they are rinsed off, and it is not much fun washing the average house cat. Some so called ‘flea-control’ products, such as flea traps and ultra sonic collars, are virtually useless.

The saliva injected when the flea feeds causes an allergic reaction in some dogs, cats and even people. This causes itchiness and an urgent need to scratch. The skin damage in animals varies and can range from simple hair loss to extensive dermatitis with scabby lesions.

The presence of fleas can be seen by brushing an animal’s fur on to a sheet of white paper. The flea poo will show as minute flecks of dark red, evidence of their feasting on Fido.

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” — Josh Billings

“I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.” — Unknown

“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.” — Rita Rudner

“Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we’re the greatest hunters on earth!” - Anne Tyler

“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” — Ben Williams

“Cat’s Motto: No matter what you’ve done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.” — Unknown

“No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.” — Christopher Morley