Vegetarian dishes

Editor;
Re: Eric Bahrt’s comments as to why can’t all restaurants serve vegetarian food all the time - for a restaurant to stock required ingredients for both Vegans and non-Vegans becomes a significant logistical problem. Unless a restaurant has a very large customer turnover, there would probably be a considerable spoiling of food, especially since the vegetables must be fresh just about every day. In any case, there are plenty of vegetarian restaurants around in Thailand these days, so it really is not necessary that all restaurants cater to vegans. And, most upscale restaurants do in fact have a vegetarian menu, case in point being Cabbages and Condoms in Pattaya which serves excellent vegetarian food.
I do find it interesting that so many vegetarian restaurants go to quite a bit of trouble to make some of their food look and taste like meat.
Eric, I’ve enjoyed your comments in the Pattaya Mail and Bangkok Post, and would like to meet you. I am planning a trip to Pattaya end of this month, and will be having dinner with friends in C&C on the 30th. If you’re free that evening, come around - hope to see you.
RL Holt
Chiang Mai

True lies

Editor;
This past week, True Visions proved how little knowledge and care they have for their international sports fans. Without warning, they pulled ASN from their lineup. No words, no apologies, and the only way we found out was that on Saturday morning, Oct 1, it was gone, replaced with some useless, boring and probably very cheap thing called Trace Sports.
Several inquiries to the customer service staff revealed that yes, they had indeed stopped the service, have no plans to pick it back up, and have no plans to show NFL, NHL or any other of the sports programs previously shown on ASN, on any other of their multitude of soccer, pardon me, sports channels.
The cancellation of ASN prompted a furious outbreak of emails and phone calls, with many previously loyal True Visions customers either cancelling, or threatening to cancel their service. Personally, I downgraded my service to the lowest possible, as I’d still like to have something to watch whilst looking for an alternative. I’ve found a few, including a satellite service called JSat with a High Def sports package that looks like it might be worth investigating, and should any pan out, I, too, will cancel my True Visions subscription after 20 years of subscribing to them.
Meanwhile, perhaps we could convince Sophon Cable to pick up the ASN service? Those with fast internet connections (unfortunately I’m not one of them, even though I pay for fast internet) can no doubt find live games on the internet. Others will perhaps venture out to entertainment venues, such as the Haven on Soi 13, to watch North American sports there.
This truly is Amazing Thailand, but not in a good way.
Paul Millard

Jesters Fun

Editor;
Although the Jesters Fair appeared to be a washout a few weekends ago, it was seen as a huge success through the eyes of many children. When the rain stopped at about 12:30pm the children, most of whom came from the many children’s charity groups, had a magnificent time. With their free coupons, stall holders were very generous and allowed them jump on the bouncy castle, ride ponies and play games. With wide eyed wonder the children from the Hand to Hand ministry ran back to show off their brand new remote control cars and other prizes that they had won, for free!
A very big thank you to the Jesters for all of their hard work and making the day so special for our kids. A day that they are still talking about and will remember for a long time to come!
Margie Grainger

5 Rs

Editor;
The 5 R’s in too many Thai classrooms depend on unthinking Rote Repetition Routine without Recall Retention, forcing memorization of factitious subjective vs. objective True/False items, lacking authenticity and produced artificially rather than by a natural process. Standardized lockstep mindsets are, in reality, virtually antithetical to the free spirit and intentional purpose of education. Trendy aloof Bangkok-centric ex-spurts who are unduly obsessed with meeting unattainable prescribed targets impose vested interest supplementary income-generating “cram exam scams” aimed at passing stressful multiple guesstimate standardized tests that have little to do with actual intelligence, existential life experience, innate talent or capacity to achieve.
Learning How not What to think creatively and abstractly while questioning Why and Wherefore requires comprehensive With not For participatory educational reform. The mutually determined goals call for less passive theory and more active practice, practice - and more practice. Decentralized budgetary management control and autonomous local decision-making ask what works most effectively and efficiently within each rural village, based on cooperation rather than competition, as described firsthand by community school area residents. Progressive reforms aim for fair-minded freedom of expression, know-how readiness, logical problem-solving savvy and common sense understanding, which reinforce everyday survival coping skills and call for student involvement, allowing chosen representatives to help determine their own civic-minded future priorities and career options.
Dr. Chanchai Prasertson
Bangkok

Vegetarian dishes

True lies

Jesters Fun

5 Rs