HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Mourners bid final farewell to beloved Princess

Railway road nearly finished

Chonburi governor stresses honesty

Pattaya City turns 30

City looking to attract more Thai tourists

Python beats fighting cocks

Youth shot dead on Pattaya 3rd Road

German dies in apparent suicide from condo roof

Youth slash American with sword

Pirated CD vendor nabbed

Russian dies after fall from hotel

Katoeys rob Iranian tourists

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Mourners bid final farewell to beloved Princess

At 10 p.m. a funeral pyre was lit to burn the sandalwood flowers in a final moving farewell that spanned the whole country. (PM Photo by Vimolrat Singnikorn)

Banglamung District Chief Mongkol Thamakittikhun lights candles and incense sticks in front of the portrait of HRH the Princess. (PM Photo by Vimolrat Singnikorn)

Senior monks chant prayers for the Princess during the religious rites.
(PM Photo by Vimolrat Singnikorn)

Banglamung District Chief Mongkol Thamakittikhun ceremoniously lights the funeral pyre. (PM Photo by Ariyawat Nuamsawat)

Residents present sandalwood flowers in honor of the late Princess.
(PM Photo by Ariyawat Nuamsawat)

Over 10,000 mourners in Banglamung District pay their last respects
to the beloved Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana.
(PM Photo by Ariyawat Nuamsawat)

Staff reporters
More than 10,000 mourners in Banglamung District paid their last respects to beloved Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana on November 15 at Photisamphan Temple in Naklua.

As per Royal tradition, students and residents perform ritual dances to pay their last respects, signaling the end of the official mourning period. (PM Photo by Ariyawat Nuamsawat)
Banglamung District Chief Mongkol Thamakittikhun led the mourners, who included local residents, government and police officials and students, all dressed in black. The Buddhist ceremony, performed by 10 senior monks, took place at the same time as the main royal cremation ceremony at Sanam Luang in Bangkok.
Chief Mongkol lit candles and incense sticks and paid respect to the portrait of the Princess. Monks began chanting, followed by a sermon praising Her Royal Highness. The district chief then presented saffron robes to the senior monks who chanted more prayers for the princess during the religious rites.
Near the ceremony area, exhibitions were set up depicting the life history and wide-ranging and beneficial work to the country carried out by the late Princess. Commemoration books were handed out to all who attended the heart-felt ceremony.
Together with the rest of the country, Banglamung mourners watched the live funeral broadcast on national television and at 7 p.m. Chief Mongkol distributed dokmai chan, the sandalwood flowers. Students and residents then performed ritual dances to pay their last respects.
At 10 p.m. a funeral pyre was lit to burn the sandalwood flowers in a final moving farewell that spanned the whole country. Mourners quietly shed tears to the memory of the Princess.
The same moving ceremony was conducted at a temple in each of the 11 districts of Chonburi Province with some 100,000 residents having a chance to bid their farewell to a beloved member of the Royal Family.

Railway road nearly finished

Public access through fence now needs to be addressed

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Army engineers constructing a 16-kilometer road along the Pattaya railway discussed with Pattaya administration how best to deal with many requests from residents living along side the rail tracks for access through the wire fence being erected along a section of the new road.

Col. Suthep Pariyaekasut and Col. Anusorn Panyabun report on the progress of the road construction.

The army has received some 120 requests for gaps to be left along a 3.8 km section of the railroad so that residents can cross it, a problem that Pattaya City said will need to be referred to the State Railway of Thailand.
Col. Suthep Pariyaekasut, director of the Construction Division, Engineering Department in Ratchaburi and Col. Anusorn Panyabun, chief of staff of the department and officer in charge of the road gave a progress report to city officials led by Sittiprap Muangkoom, Pattaya city manager on November 10 at city hall.
Col. Anusorn said the Army has been building the road since the end of 2006 and it is about 90% completed.
There has been some delay due to the connecting areas having steep slopes and often needing to have additional adjustments.
Only traffic lights, street lights and the waste water project at the Calming Reservoir now need to be completed. A feed pump and a power control box should be installed by the end of November. Additional large drainage pipes have to be placed at 50 points to handle heavy rain.
But public access through the 23,100-meter-long fence now needs to be resolved, said the engineers.
Sittiprap said that railroad area was outside city’s jurisdiction and residents living along it need to approach the state railway with their requests.

Chonburi governor stresses honesty

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Chonburi Governor Surapon Pongtadsirikun emphasized the importance of honesty, trustworthiness and transparency in government in his talk to district officials on his visit to Sriracha on November 11.

Chonburi Governor Surapon Pongtadsirikun addresses officials in Sattahip.

He also highlighted the problem of narcotics which he said is widespread in many areas in the district.
The governor was welcomed by Thanit Noipeng, Sriracha district chief, and other district officials.
Surapon said Sriracha District is growing very quickly with many businesses and foreign investors coming in. Therefore local administrative organizations must provide good cooperative services so people will trust them completely.
Government officials must have pride in their work and build a good reputation for duty and honesty. To be completely accountable to the people they serve, there must be set procedures to deal fairly with complaints or problems residents may have with the local government.
Governor Surapon said the current narcotics problem, especially involving young people and in schools, needs urgent solution.
He has received reports from narcotics officers that in Bangpra Sub-district there is a drug network spreading over 12 villages, especially in the sub-districts of Nongkham, Borwin and Thungsukla.
The governor ordered officials responsible to urgently work with residents to solve this problem so that “we can quickly eliminate drugs from our area.”

Pattaya City turns 30

Vimolrat Singnikorn
The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of Pattaya City offers a good chance to remember past and present achievements in a ceremony being planned by city hall on Saturday November 29 at the Great King Taksin Monument and City Hall.

Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon chairs the meeting to plan the grand celebration.

Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon chaired a meeting on November 7 to prepare for the ceremony, which begins with ritual prayers by 9 monks and attended by Mayor Itthipol Khunplome to mark “Pattaya Establishment Day”.
Later, in the conference room at city hall will be a historical slide show and an exhibition of photographs showing Pattaya’s development from the past to the present.
Former mayors and councilors have been invited to the grand ceremony which will have a royal blessing dance and food for everyone.

City looking to attract more Thai tourists

Vimolrat Singnikorn
Faced with a sharp decline in overseas visitors coming to Pattaya in the last quarter of the year, the city now looks to actively attract more Thai tourists with events aimed at the local travel market.

Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay explains plans to boost tourism.

On November 6 at Pattaya City Hall, Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay explained plans to boost tourism, starting with a road show within the country and the publication of an annual calendar of tourist events in Pattaya for 2009.
The aim is to attract more visitors from Bangkok and neighboring provinces to make up for the drop in foreign visitors.
A promotion for domestic tourism to Pattaya will be held at the Zen department store in Bangkok from December 11-14.
Verawat said the world economic downturn has affected every sector of the economy with many businesses having to cut back or stop operating. The city has held discussions with the private sector to try to improve tourism.
Pattaya City has had several tourism activities in November, such as the Loy Krathong festival on November 12 involving a competition to create krathong floats from natural materials at Lan Pho Market in Naklua and the Miss Noppamas and Mister Noppamas beauty contests.
Incidentally this will be the first Mister Noppamas contest ever held.
From November 14-16, the Fifth Eastern Cattle Breeding Competition was held at the Banglamung District Office, attracting no less than 10,000 fans and some 200-300 reservations for accommodation, he said.
Many more activities are planned through to the end of the year.
Each planned tourist activity provided by Pattaya City will be well-publicized, such as on a large billboard and LCD advertising screen on Walking Street and at other places including Central Pattaya.

Python beats fighting cocks

Monty the python ate Foghorn Leghorn and crushed his friend before being caught and shipped out to a less populated area.

Patcharapol Panrak
Fighting cocks of Charoen Imsomboon, 56, had been disappearing at an alarming rate, 9 so far having vanished from their coops at his house in Sattahip.
Charoen, a municipal slaughterhouse worker, suspected that neighborhood teenagers had stolen them to be sold as the fighting roosters. The roosters were worth about 2,000 baht each.
Then the mystery was revealed when Charoen checked on his roosters early in the morning of November 8 to see why they were making a racket: the answer was all too obvious in the shape of a three-meter long python, weighing about 50 kilograms, which had one rooster in its stomach and had squeezed another to death.
Pichit Kiakkhuthan, head of the Sawang Rojanathamasathan Sattahip Rescue Foundation, received an urgent call for help from Charoen at 3 a.m. that fateful November 8.
Despite the early hour keen rescuers went to the scene along with experienced snake catchers and necessary snake-catching tools.
They didn’t have any difficulty catching the giant because it had eaten an entire rooster and didn’t see any need to escape or even move.
The monster was transported and released back into the wild on Kao Lam Poo Chao, so that Charoen’s fighting cocks can safely crow again to their hearts’ content.

Youth shot dead on Pattaya 3rd Road

Rithhirong and his accomplice Komkrit are put on display for the media behind the weapons and drugs with which they were caught.

Theerarak Suthatiwong
A young man died after he was shot by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle on Pattaya 3rd Road on November 8 after an earlier argument at a bar.
Police said Arisaman Yamansabidin, 18, the son of a tourism boat and jet ski owner, died on the spot from gunshot wounds near the Golden Gym.
Pattaya police, led by Pol. Lt. Col. Chatchai Ruenthawin, later raided an apartment in Ao-Udom and arrested Ritthirong (surname not available) and charged him with the murder.
A 9mm pistol with ammunition and 1,350 ya ba pills were also seized from the apartment.
Police alleged that the dead man, Arisaman, was drinking with his friends in a bar at the next table to Ritthirong and his friends. But Arisaman taunted and insulted Ritthirong who later returned on a motorcycle, ridden by Komkrit (“Film”) Wongsuwan, and shot Arisanan on the road.
The motorcycle rider is still being sought.
Pol. Col. Noppadol Wongnom, superintendent at the Pattaya Police Station, said the accused already had three pending warrants for his arrest in another murder of Kritsada Phonpaipan or Tao Pacha Chin.
Police alleged that Rithhirong was a ya ba dealer in the area and bought a gun from the profit of his drug dealing and “had been shooting at other teenage gangsters.”
Rithhirong was refused bail pending his court hearing.

German dies in apparent suicide from condo roof