The British Queen Mother honours the Pattaya UK Club

The Charity Bike Ride looks like being bigger than ever this year, with some entrants clocking up hundreds of thousands of baht in sponsorship before they even turn a wheel. Old hands like Jack Levy and Kim Fletcher have been out at night, pacing themselves over the 50 km, while the (fitter) others have been happy just to potter around the sois, keeping themselves loose and supple.

The Doc and his bike - ready for 50 k?

However, recently there has been a “wild card” entry, with Nite Beat’s Dr. Iain asking for entry forms from Kim, stating that despite his age he would compete and do the 50 kays as well. Now since Dr. Iain’s most physical exercise these days is falling about laughing on the telly, how does he intend to get ready for the 50 clicks?

Looking sage, he was overheard to say, “Age, experience and animal cunning beats youth and enthusiasm any day.” So what is his trump card? We are now at liberty to tell you that it is a special bicycle being made by Ecolux in Bangkok, to his exacting specifications. Using the latest robotics technology the bike is being made out of space-age materials, like Unobtanium and the highly secret NASA derived No-weightium.

The new bike is being delivered to Dr. Iain’s laboratory for final tweaking and saddle fitting, and the good Dr. has even indicated he will wear shorts for the bike ride. Since no-one has seen his knees for several decades (or admits to having seen them) this should be something to behold!

Dr. Iain has already accepted the fact that with this late entry, he will not do too well in the total sponsorship stakes, but pledges will be taken on his fax 038 426 243, or otherwise in person at the Pattaya Mail Offices. It’s all for a good cause, the kids at the Fountain of Life Center, so by helping the Doc, you will be helping the children.

More details next week on the Doc and his Ecolux bicycle!

by Miss Terry Diner

The Royal Cliff Wine Club, under the captaincy of Ranjith Chandrasiri, the resident manager of the Royal Cliff Grand, held another of their successful wine tastings last week. With wines supplied by the Perithai Company and described by their representative, the knowledgeable Frenchman Florent Leroi, the members of the club were exposed to two types of Zinfandel, a Shiraz, a Sauvignon and two varieties of Bordeaux wines with differing percentages of the Merlot grape.

Royal Cliff Wine Club members were treated to two types of Zinfandel, a Shiraz, a Sauvignon and two varieties of Bordeaux wines with differing percentages of the Merlot grape, all presented by the Perithai Company.

The Zinfandels were amazing, being almost complete antitheses of each other. In fact, I scored one as 2nd in the group of wines tasted and the other last! The complexities of wine and the understanding of them are now becoming a little clearer. For the wine club members, there is more now to choosing wine than counting the number of words on the label.

The next wine tasting for the members of the Royal Cliff Wine Club will be September 27th and Ranjith is promising more of the world’s better wines will be available. You can contact Ranjith for more details through email at wineclub@royalcliff.com or telephone the Royal Cliff Beach Resort on 038 250 421.

By Lesley Warner

It’s Sunday again and I decided on another sporting activity, this time with a bit more action than fishing. We all had to meet at Adventure Scuba in Soi Yamato at 8.30 a.m., then walk down to the sea front. When I saw the boat it was a relief, nice and big, a purpose built diving boat. There was a lower deck for the diving gear and an air-conditioned cabin for those that were not hardy sea travelers and upstairs a nice covered relaxing area with comfortable seats and tables.

The instructor checked to make sure all was ok.

Unfortunately, I had not picked a good day and the sea was extremely rough and it was pouring with rain, but I decided against the seasick pills. I said to Max that my great ‘Grand pappy’ was a sea captain so some of it must have rubbed off. Luckily it had, as I didn’t suffer, but the majority did.

Our sea captain was Weecheun, and since he has been a captain on the high seas around Pattaya for more than 20 years, I felt quite safe.

We dropped anchor at the small island of Sac and the divers went off to put on their gear, which seemed to take quite a long time. I haven’t tried Scuba diving, I had done a bit of snorkeling around Corel Island in Phuket but only from the beach, so Max offered to take me. My first concern was that I wear contact lenses and would not be able to see if I got water in my mask. I was assured that this wouldn’t be a problem so I decided to give it a go.

Getting ready

Firstly, though, we needed to see the divers safely into the water. Some were tiny Thai girls and I have no idea how they managed to stand up with so much heavy equipment. Max said the dive would last approximately 50 minutes; everyone has a ‘buddy’ and a Dive Master or Instructor with each group. That day we had 3 Dive Masters: Lah, Pierre and Tim, and 2 Instructors: Kieran and Max.

The divers all safely in the water, Max presented me with mask and flippers and told me to jump off the boat. I decided to climb down the steps into the water, as I felt it would be a bit more comfortable and I was still worried about my lenses.

Once in the water, after the initial panic that I suffered when I put the mask on and couldn’t breathe through my nose, I started to enjoy the underwater scenery. We had to go near the shoreline to see well but the coral and sea life were beautiful. I had no problem with my contact lenses but my legs were killing me from trying to move the flippers up and down and not move my arms.

I did notice on my swim back to the boat that the jet skier’s have absolutely no regard for a person in the water; they think nothing of speeding through the divers. I spoke to Max about this and he said that the diving organizations in Pattaya would like to see areas marked out for divers safety. It is a serious problem.

Max taking a turn at the helm

There were two dives that day but first we were served up a great lunch, and I have to say it was some of the best food I have had in a long time. Made by the chef in the kitchen on board, this was free as was the water, tea and coffee. You could purchase coke or beer if you wanted. (Beer after diving).

At the end of the day I was tired, so goodness knows what the divers felt like, not too bad I suspect, as they were all planning a night out. I shall definitely give it a try sometime. Max offers short courses for those of us unsure how we would take to this sport. For more information contact (038) 710898-9.

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