The New Year in retrospect

December 31st 2001 has been and gone, and the hangover of January 1st 2002 is but a fading memory. Many will remember which bars they went too, though there will be those who are still trying to find those missing hours between midnight and 4 a.m.

Chatchawal Supachayanont, general manager of the Dusit Resort Pattaya Hotel presented two round trip tickets Bangkok-Phuket, courtesy of Thai Airways International, with luxury accommodation for two nights at the Dusit Laguna Phuket Hotel, to Ms. Tiffany Su from the People’s Republic of China at the “Magical Siam” New Year’s gala dinner held at the hotel.

2001 was a momentous year, but 2002 was heralded in with enough explosives along Beach Road to unearth Osama bin Laden and hopefully scare away even the worst demons that could visit us over the next 12 months.

Sanga Kichasamred, owner of S.K. Construction Company, arranged a New Year’s party for customers and employees on December 29 at Mabprachan Country Club on Siam Country Club Road. The special guest of honor was General Khanit Permsap (right) from the Royalty Security Command.

As always, the big hotels produced the most lavish productions for their guests, ranging from Space Odyssey 2001 (with even more than that number of guests) at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, to classical Thai productions at the Siam Bayshore, Thai Garden Resort, Dusit Resort and the Montien for example, glittering Hollywood Nights at the Amari Orchid Resort or through to a circus, complete with elephant and full time pooper-scooper at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Wearing traditional costumes from their motherland at the Royal Cliff.

Other venues, such as the Captain’s Corner, decided to relive the swinging 60’s, with “Elvis” Ottesen and Rick and Harpic, whilst the Buffalo Bar decked out the ladies in the 60’s gear, complete with the bee-hive hairdo’s for some. The Horseshoe Point had horse shows but no horse meat and all the restaurants put on some special New Year’s fare too, with Bruno’s, New Orleans, PolTony’s, Paradise Cafe and Grill, Casa Pascal and Greg’s Kitchen all packed with hungry patrons while many of the pubs also promoted the end of year event, with Shenanigans leading the way with the resident band playing right through as well.

Acrobats wow the audience at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort.

But for many people it was the jostling excitement of the main traffic thoroughfares like Walking Street that held the attraction. Noise, fireworks, cannons, lion dancers, acrobats and amazed tourists heralded in the New Year with much frivolity freshening ales.

As guests enjoy a sumptuous New Year’s Eve meal at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, the year 2002 slowly melts into existence.

Yes, 2002 is really here, and for those of you who may have missed it, part 2 of Dr. Iain’s special New Year Nite Beat is being telecast Friday 11th and Sunday 13th. Watch and you may find where those missing hours just went!

“Should old acquaintances be forgot ...” And the band plays on at the Amari Orchid Resort.	As always, the Hard Rock group added flair to the party.
Talk about a mouthful - the Thai Garden Resort treated guests to great fun, including acrobatics, juggling and more, at their New Year’s Eve gala party.	That’s one way to get a good look at the fireworks!
Thousands of people crowded South Pattaya to welcome in the New Year.
Dancing into the New Year at the Siam Bayshore Resort.	The “Heart Beat” gets everyone’s heart racing at the Indian Community’s New Year celebration at the Hard Rock.
The management of the Horseshoe Point Resort & Country Club, led by MD Chainarin Srifuengfung (4th right) treated guests to a fun time at their New Year’s party.
Mrs. Achana Snitwongse Na Ayudhaya, managing director of the Montien Hotel Pattaya, and Vinit Chidchanognarth, general manager, count down to the year 2002 with the hotel’s staff at their “Thai Carnival” party.
Hans Spoerri, GM of the Siam Bayshore and Siam Bayview Resorts, entertains guests at the Siam Bayshore New Year’s Eve party.
	(above) Rick and Harpic look back to the 60s as their way of welcoming in 2002. (left) Ib “Elvis” Ottesen and his lovely wife Kanikar dressed 60s style for the New Year.
Indian Community leader Amrik Singh Kalra speaks words of wisdom for the coming year at the Indian Community New Year’s celebration.	(From left): Ingo Rauber, executive assistant manager of the Dusit Resort Pattaya, MC of the night Apichart Intrvisit and his friend, and Chatchawal Supachayanont, general manager of the Dusit Resort Pattaya celebrate the coming of a New Year.

Resident of the Ban Phoonsri Uppathum Drug Treatment Center welcome in new hope with the New Year

Chakrapong Akkaranant

Col. Jirat laid out a big meal for residents of the center and performers.

A New Year’s Eve party was arranged by the staff at the Ban Phoonsri Drug Treatment Center for the young people undergoing treatment to free themselves from the chains of drug addiction.

Local school kids put on a show for the New Year party.

Pol. Lt. Col. Jirat Phichitpai, deputy superintendent of the narcotics suppression bureau, is the founder and director of Ban Phoonsri Uppathum Drug Treatment Center in Soi Phothisarn.

Each year the staff at the drug treatment center organizes a New Year’s party for residents of the center, providing them with an opportunity to be reintroduced to active participation with others as they attempt to change the direction in their lives.

Child star performs for the residents of the center.

The New Year’s party celebration gives each individual the opportunity to confirm their commitments of taking back control of their lives and making a new start in the coming year whilst saying good-bye to former ways.

The treatment provided at Ban Phoonsri centers on caring for the individual as someone with an illness, as opposed to a convicted criminal, using total abstinence from the first day of arrival.

Residents welcomed in the New Year with confetti and dance.

Educational awareness on how addictive substances take control of the body is part of the rehabilitation program, which includes spiritual training and group therapy to help individuals understand inner problems and how to cope with everyday situations.

Over 20,000 people have passed through the Ban Phoonsri Drug Treatment Center since it first opened over 11 years ago. Each individual undergoing treatment takes a solemn oath to change their behavior.

Mom Tri's new venture: a room with a view... and a wine cellar!

story and pictures by Peter Cummins

Fancy a honeymoon in a superbly appointed Thai suite, high above the Andaman Sea over Kata Beach, with its own wine cellar carved out of the rock face? Or, if you are TOO OLD for a honeymoon (is anyone THAT OLD?), what about a few days, anyway, at Mom Tri’s just-opened Suite Toye Talay?

Pattaya Mail special correspondent Peter Cummins was not in Phuket for a honeymoon - or, so he says - he was in Phuket recently to cover the Fifteenth Phuket King’s Cup Regatta during which our Eastern Seaboard sailors performed superbly, beating some of the world’s best keelboat sailors (reported in Pattaya Mail (vol. IX, #51, 21/12/2001 and Vol. IX, #52, 28/12/2001). While there, Peter had the good fortune to be invited to the opening of a unique wine cellar, at the Suite Toye Talay inaugurated by one of the world’s foremost wine experts, Sotheby’s Serena Sutcliffe. Here, he gives an account of the splendid evening.

Mom Tri (third right) and close friends enjoy a sunset at the opening of the Suite Toye Talay in December.

Mom Tri Devakul

Mom Tri Devakul is known far and wide as an architect, an entrepreneur, a bon vivant - a man so talented, in fact, that he cannot really be categorized. Harvard educated, a winner of so many design awards and decorations that his ‘abbreviated’ bio-data runs to five pages. His modest demeanour, ready smile and almost self-effacing, scholarly approach, belie the brilliance of a most unusual person.

But among his many pursuits and activities, there is one outstanding passion: Mom Tri is an ardent lover of wine; not just any wine, but outstanding vintages, rated the world’s best. This is common knowledge about a very un-common man. What is not so well known, perhaps, is Mom Tri’s almost messianic desire to propagate a love of fine wine and viniculture to as large an audience as possible.

The message is abundantly clear at Mom Tri’s own-designed Boathouse, secluded behind the lush foliage and flora at Kata Beach which is the home of one of the world’s best “above-ground” wine cellars. Since its inauguration in 1993 - and every year since - the Boathouse has won the prestigious “Award of Excellence” from the Wine Spectator magazine - the only Asian cellar to be thus honoured in the fiercely-competitive world of viniculture.

Now, with more than 360 labels from every wine-producing country in the world, the Boathouse Wine Club promotes wine appreciation to the world-at-large, offering wine tastings, wine-makers’ dinners, and even wine weekends. Mom Tri has most successfully introduced the ‘marriage’ of wine to Thai food.

Suite Toye Talay

One weekend in December, the justified fame of the Boathouse wine cellar took a quantum leap forward. Mom Tri announced the opening of his Suite Toye Talay, at the Villa Royale, his private residence high above Kata Beach. His timing was impeccable - as usual. It “just happened” that Serena Sutcliffe, head of Sotheby’s Wine Department, and her husband David Peppercorn, director of Decanter Magazine, were guests at the Boathouse and officiated at the opening of the Suite.

The cellar: carved from the rock face.

Serena, one of the few experts to hold the “Master of Wine” qualifications, had come to Thailand from a New York auction which went to more than US$4 million, the best wine sales in 2001. “And that,” said Serena, “was even after the September tragedy.” Arriving in Thailand to conduct the dinner-cum-wine tasting extravaganza held at the Oriental, as one of the last great events in the river-side hotel’s year-long 125th anniversary celebrations, Serena and David quickly adjourned afterwards, to take a few day’s rest at their favourite “hide-away” - Mom Tri’s Boathouse on Kata Beach, Phuket.

At the height of the Fifteenth Phuket King’s Cup Regatta of which the Boathouse has been an ongoing sponsor - holding the magnificent candle-lit ceremony at Kata Beach to celebrate His Majesty’s seventy-fourth birthday - Mom Tri called on Serena and David to ‘launch’ this incredible Suite, perched cliff-top at Villa Royale. Serena did, indeed, ‘launch’ the Suite, ship-style, by breaking a bottle of champagne against the southern wall, while David cut the ribbon on the door leading to an “en-suite” wine cellar, carved out of the rock face.

Serena was virtually overwhelmed by the beauty, the design and the lay-out of the “honeymoon suite”, as one of the selected guests termed it: “a honeymoon suite with its own wine cellar”. It is 100 percent Mom Tri, in every minute detail of the meticulous furnishing, the location and, especially, the planning. “It is unique,” said Serena who has spent much of her life assessing wines, wine cellars and other accoutrements relating to the enjoyment of fine wines. “It is the ONLY such suite in the world and it is in such an exceptional environment, offering an original private wine cellar with 130 different labels of top quality wine,” the Sotheby wine expert enthused.

An “en-suite” wine cellar

The “L’Ambroisie Wine Cellar”, as it is called, features New World wines from Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States (California) and traditional vintages from France, Italy and Spain. From January 2002 new releases will continuously be introduced, and vertical selections, bringing an analytical element to the fascinating discussion of viticulture, are being initiated. “L’ Ambroisie,” says Boathouse Food and Beverage head - and a wine connoisseur himself - Rodolphe Gay, “is an environment of profound expression much like art or music, for personal enjoyment.”

The unique wine cellar at Suite Toye Talay (L to R) Mom Tri, David and Serena sample the vintages.

Some of the wines include a complete range of the Leeuwin Estate Art Series from Margaret River, Western Australia: Chardonnay 1998, Riesling 1995, Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 and Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, 1998; and an Italian Forchir Pinot Grigio, 1999.

From South Africa comes a Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc 1998, as well as the legendary “Vin de Constance” (Dessert Wine). In the 18th and 19th centuries, “the sweet luscious and excellent wine of Constantia” was recognised as one of the great wines of the world. “The legendary Constantia,” writes renowned wine critic Hugh Johnson, “was bought by European courts in the early 19th century in preference to Yquem, Tokay, Madeira and even kings vied for possession of this wine,” Johnson notes. “Louis Philippe sent emissaries from France to fetch it and Napoleon turned to Constantia to seek solace in his lonely exile on the island of St Helena.”

This Constantia certainly had a pedigree, for “Frederick the Great and Bismarck ordered it and the then British Prime Minister - who had sampled it with much delight at Downing Street - made sure that consignments from the Cape were delivered to Buckingham Palace for the king,” Johnson adds.

French vintages at the Ambroisie include Rully les Saint Jacques 1996, from “Aubert de Villaine” (co-owner of Domaine de la Roman) and from the Iberian Peninsular are Les Terrasses 1997 and wines of Alvaro Palacio, winemaker of L’Ermita Spanish Wine, regarded as one of the best wines from this new generation of vintners.

Mom Tri’s Kitchen

No one who has ever been an invited guest of Mom Tri can leave without partaking of gourmet food and, of course, exquisite wines. Right after the opening of the Suite, which itself had been preceded by drinks on the private seafront promenade, the group of personal friends of Mom Tri and the guests of honour, Serena and David, adjourned to the elegant dining room of Mom Tri’s Kitchen for a splendid dinner.

A seafood soup with basil and a South African Sauvignon Blanc, Klein Constantia, 1998, was followed by a plate of soft shell crab with green herbs complemented with an excellent 1966 French Burgundy, Rully les Saint Jacques, Aubert de Villaine.

David Peppercorn opens the wine cellar, while Serena and Mom Tri watch.

Then came one of the host’s masterful blendings of east and west exotic tastes: roasted leg of lamb, served with a Thai Paella. This was accompanied by an extraordinary - and rare - 1996 Italian Amarone Allegrini, a wine which has to be tasted to be believed.

A cheese platter, with a 1993 Chambolle Musigny, Comte Georges de Vogte Burgundy and, finally, a chocolate mousse, with a 1994 French Rhone Muscat de Baume de Venise, left nothing further to be desired, said or, even, thought about. It was a dinner prepared by the gourmet gods and the wine was straight from Bacchus.

Among the guests who are all close friends of Mom Tri, were Princess Sakina, sister of the Sultan of Khedar, former King of Malaysia, William Warren, his long-time friend and well-known author, and Louis Bronner, the multi-lingual, charming general manager of the Boathouse, whose association with Mom Tri covers many years and who is equally at ease with European and Asian royalty, frequent guests at the Boathouse.

Mom Tri presented the British couple with a copy of Bill Warren’s definitive, illustrated book on the Chao Phraya, in exchange extracting a promise that Serena and David will be “back soon”.

There was no need to promise. “We shall return as soon as possible - even with our busy schedule,” said the lovely Serena. As I spotted them taking a last swim in front of the Boathouse the next day, before returning to their labours and some rather chilly weather in England, I never doubted that they “would be back” to Mom Tri’s Boathouse.

So will I - at the first possibility!

Enquiries should be directed to: The Boathouse, Kata Beach, Phuket 83100, Thailand. Tel: (66-76) 330015-7; fax: (66-76) 330561; Internet: www.theboathouse phuket.com; e-mail: [email protected]