A long way to come for a Guinness

This year’s Pattaya International Ladies Club Holiday Bazaar will take place on Saturday 6th October, in PEACH, Royal Cliff Beach Resort’s fabulous Convention Hall and Exhibition Centre.

The ladies were sad to have to move away from the beautiful Siam Ballroom, where the bazaar has been staged in the past, but owing to its popularity, the bazaar had simply outgrown the space available with vendors tables spilling out into the hotel corridor last year.

This year, using the entrance lobby and Hall A of PEACH, the ladies hope to be able to have the best of both worlds when it comes to shopping. The record number of vendors, this year 85, who will be attending with quality goods from all over Asia will give the feel of a vibrant market, whilst the layout and facilities of PEACH will give the ambience of an air conditioned shopping mall.

Vendors will be selling all kinds of items for the home and family, as well as the self! There will be furniture, home accessories, jewelry, both gold with precious stones and costume, clothing for ladies and children, golf attire and accessories galore. Vendors will be bringing chocolates, Christmas decorations, toys for children young and old and a wonderful selection of children’s books will be available for sale.

Other activities on the day will include a fashion show featuring the new designs by ISAN Weaving in Nong Khai, and a Thai cultural dance performance by children from Ban Nok School.

Children will be well catered for on the day, with face painting and other crafts available for them to take part in, along with the colouring competition for each age group. The contests will be judged at 2:30 p.m. with prizes awarded then. Royal Cliff Beach Resort will be setting up a coffee shop in Hall A with space for up to 150 people at a time.

The stage for the fashion and cultural shows is easily visible from the coffee shop and it is on this stage that the Grand Raffle prizes will be drawn at 3:30 p.m.

Prizes in the raffle this year include flights and accommodation packages to both Phuket and Samui for two people, luxury accommodation in some of Bangkok’s best hotels, jewellery, home accessories, a television set, a gym membership and much more. Once again this year there are 50 prizes available, and tickets are available from all PILC functions or by contacting Judy Clausen on 038-704-537. All winners of prizes in competitions or the raffle will be notified if not present at the time of their announcement.

There will also be a free shuttle bus operating between Pattaya and PEACH, departing the Second Road entrance of Royal Garden Hotel on the hour, and leaving PEACH to return to Royal Garden at half past the hour.

If you would like any more information about the bazaar, please contact Arlette Cykman on 038-300 325.

“Island Soul”, the name says it all. These very talented young musicians from the Caribbean Islands really put their souls into their music. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s an absolute must to see them perform at the Moon River Pub.

“Island Soul” just came back from a very successful assignment in New Delhi, India, and are now performing nightly (except Mondays) at the Moon River Pub in front of the Thai Garden Resort!

“Island Soul”, a handsome group of young musicians, are all from Trinidad, except the female star of the group, Stephanie Bhoyoo, who is a typical child of her remote island: Mauritius. She has the “Sega” in her soul, the people’s music, which combines African chanting with energetic rhythms beaten out on traditional instruments. The typical body movements, dating back to the days when slaves used to seek release by dancing around bonfires, fits Stephanie and her very own rhythm perfectly.

Together with her group “Island Soul”, she also performs reggae-pop. Andy Gabriel, the band’s leader who has been touring Asia for the past five years, says that they are adapting their music to the audience, to suit the crowd. Their selection is always different. They can play hard-core reggae as well as reggae-pop, and of course a zippy combination of Caribbean Rhythm. Lately, they have been merging Sega with reggae, to create Segae - a new kind of world music.

by Lesley Warner

I’ve been feeling incredibly lazy lately and decided it was time to visit the gym. Maybe it could become my new weekend activity. I went down to the Royal Cliff, not too far from home, as I remembered that they had opened a new fitness club a year ago.

Have a relaxing soak after your workout

The Royal Cliff Sports & Fitness Club is set in a beautiful tropical garden. They have 6 tennis courts, two swimming pools with in-pool Jacuzzis and a swim up bar, jogging and walking track and a sauna and steam room. As well as the very best in state of the art exercise equipment, the gym is spacious, bright and airy so there is no need to feel cramped or overcrowded. There’s also a small clubhouse, soon to be expanded, to get refreshments.

There is a separate aerobic exercise room with a full aerobic program, also yoga, volleyball in the pool, tennis classes and soon to be Kabong, a traditional Thai exercise involving a bamboo stick (sounds interesting).

Brenda, I think she could run home to Singapore

As I was dubiously eyeing the running machines and admiring the rhythm of a lady using one of them, I asked if she objected to my taking a photo. She stopped and said, “No, of course not. My name is Brenda Dube, I am from Singapore and I would like to say that this is the best equipment I have ever used. I should know; I stay in some of the best hotels all over the world and always use the gym.” That was an honest comment, without any prompting from anyone. I thanked her and she went back to her very impressive training schedule. Then I came across Peter looking very relaxed doing, he said, 750 crunches on the Roman chair. I asked him where he came from and he replied, “Good question, I’m an Italian cockney from Luton, England.” Well, what could I say?

I was told that when you first arrive at the fitness center one of the instructors will go through a form with you to make sure that you are aware of the equipment and check your pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The instructors are available all the time to give you any assistance that you might require.

Does this look like a man doing 750 crunches?

There are nurses, and nannies available for a small fee to look after children and a games room complete with snooker table, play stations and plenty of games to keep them amused for hours if you are feeling that fit.

If you are staying at the hotel the club is free. If not there are 1, 3 & 6 month memberships, as well as annual. Winwin, the recreation & activities manager explained, “The person to talk to is Andrey (assistant communications manager). He’s our fitness guru and persuades us all into the gym. Or at least he tries to!”

When you have finished keeping fit you can choose one of the 10 restaurants to recuperate in. I picked the Larn Thong Thai food restaurant and found the food was superb.

You can enroll in fitness courses to suit yourself, depending on how long you are staying in town. Feel free to go and look round, keeping fit doesn’t seem such a chore in beautiful surroundings. For more information telephone 038 250421 or email [email protected]

Updated every Friday
Copyright 2001  Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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Updated by Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
E-Mail: [email protected]