Backpack the easy way
September 20, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Travel Tips
Don’t buy a backpack just because you like how it looks or its colour. There’s more to it than that.
HAVE you ever set out to buy a backpack only to return home empty-handed? Yes, buying a backpack can be a headache. There are so many aspects involved and it can get pretty technical too. In the shops, the variety of designs, sizes, brands, models and colours doesn’t make it any easier. How do we know what will be suitable for our needs?
Beads Of Lasting Heritage And Pride
September 19, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Related Interests
Captain Boonyarit Chaisuwan raises awareness on illegal bead hunting and the importance of conservation of artefacts
The sky was still dark when Captain Boonyarit Chaisuwan, an archaeologist of the Phuket-based 15th Fine Arts Office, readied himself for another mission. His destination: Ban Dan School, in Kapoe district, Ranong province. The archaeologist was to meet with a group of 40 students and teachers from the school who took part in a heritage conservation project in which participants attended archaeological workshops, as well as an excavation process. The project is the brainchild of Capt Boonyarit in a bid to promote conservation awareness in communities close to key archeological sites on the Andaman coast of southern Thailand. Ban Dan School and Wat Pathum Tararam were chosen because of their rice heritage, he said. The archaeologist said the project, which ended earlier this month, was to serve as a model for conservation awareness campaigns.
Feast for the senses
September 19, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Nakhon Si Thammarat, Related Interests
A riverside community in the South delights with its natural bounty
There’s a host of things to see and do and lots of tasty tidbits to sample during a day’s outing to Pak Phanang, 36 kilometres east of Nakhon Si Thammarat town. During the 19th and early 20th centuries this district was the rice bowl of the far South. Its strategic location near the mouth (pak) of the Phanang River made it convenient for ships from British Malaya and even from as far away as Java to dock and load up with hulled rice from the steam-powered mills that lined a long stretch of the waterway. ”Commercial vessels no longer tie up along here,” said Paisarn Wipoosanapat, a local resident who’d volunteered to be our guide for the day, ”but we’ve preserved the old wooden shophouses and I think the atmosphere is similar to what it must have been like in the past.”
Phangan ‘just says no’
September 12, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Local News & Event
Long associated with debauchery and wild Full Moon parties, moves are afoot to change Koh Phangan’s image and make it a drugs-free island,
Koh Phangan, long associated with wild Full Moon parties, is undergoing an image change to make the island a family destination. The monthly all-night Full Moon party on the Surat Thani island’s Had Rin beach draws mostly foreign tourists and the event is synonymous with illicit drug use. However, moves are afoot to rebuild the island’s image as a drugs-free haven for holiday makers, with drugs authorities, residents and tourism operators committed to the efforts. The Office of the Narcotics Control Board’s Division 8, responsible for the upper South, has implemented a joint operation with residents and tour businesses to prevent the use of illicit drugs at the beachside party. “The operation is the vehicle of our social order campaign to ensure partygoers stay away from drug abuse at the party,” said Division 8 chief Surasak Klam-in.
Airport needs long-term fix
September 12, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Local News & Event
It is encouraging that the Airports of Thailand Plc has shown willingness to put its money where its mouth is.
The war it is waging on unlicensed taxi drivers, tour guides, touts and other shady operators at Suvarnabhumi Airport was originally expected to last a month. Instead, it is now entering its seventh week after netting over 1,200 illegal drivers and tour guides and exceeding the time frame allotted for similar crackdowns in the past.
More clicking for holidays
September 12, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Related Interests
Online sites see spike in bookings even as travel firms struggle to come out of slump
INTERNET-SAVVY travellers are double-clicking their way to holidays in droves, even as the travel industry in Singapore wrestles with the economic credit crunch. An average of 1,997 bookings per month have been made on Asiatravel.com so far this year, up from 1,408 bookings a month last year – an increase of 70.5 per cent. In the past two months, hotel and flight bookings at Zuji Singapore increased 10 per cent year- on-year.
The rail runs through it
August 31, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Related Interests
The bamboo rail transporting firewood in Cambodia. -- CAROLINE CHIA/THE STRAITS TIMES
AS THE train pulls away from Tanjong Pagar, factories loom like skyscrapers and squat houses acquire an imposing air. Familiar sights turn foreign even before we cross the border. Our journey across five countries has just begun. Inside the chilly carriages of KTM’s Ekspres Rakyat to Butterworth, Mr Bean stumbles his way through gaffes on the Samsung flatscreen television as a family tucks into a breakfast of bread and apricot jam. Other passengers catch a nap on plush fabric seats before we hit the checkpoint at Woodlands. It will be the first of four borders we pass in our bid to travel 5,000km to the edge of China via the route of the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project.
Strong turnout at Natas
August 28, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Related Interests
Travel-smitten Singaporeans, lured by attractive low fares and special promotions, began queuing at the entrance of the Singapore Expo as early as 7 am, three hours before the doors opened. --ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
IF RESPONSE on the first day of the NATAS travel fair is anything to go by,worries over the H1N1 virus have given way – to wanderlust. Travel-smitten Singaporeans, lured by attractive low fares and special promotions, began queuing at the entrance of the Singapore Expo as early as 7 am, three hours before the doors opened. Some visitors even took a day off work to attend the fair. Exhibitors were not surprised by the strong turnout. Chan Brothers marketing communications senior executive Jane Chang said: ‘The turnout is very encouraging, especially since the 10 am opening is earlier than the previous fairs. It was not unexpected because demand was also very high during our own company travel fair two weeks ago. Singaporeans love to travel.’ Dynasty Travel marketing communications senior manager Dorothy Lee was also not surprised. ‘Singaporeans have put off their travel plans when the H1N1 flu first surfaced. Now that they have a better understanding of the virus, Singaporeans are ready to travel again.’
Phuket to become AirAsia regional hub
August 24, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Local News & Event
PHUKET CITY: Thai AirAsia will begin direct flight services to Phuket from several new major cities in the region starting by the end of the year, the low-cost carrier has announced. AirAsia will base five aircraft at Phuket International Airport as part of its plan to establish Phuket as an aviation hub, Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld told a press conference at the Royal Phuket City Hotel last week. The cities include Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City and Chiang Mai. The first of the new flights will begin in November.
Foreigners ‘own 90% of Phuket beach land’
August 24, 2009 by RDER
Filed under Local News & Event
This land is their land.
About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found. A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong. Local officials and legal experts have helped clear the way for foreign investors to take control of the country’s rice farms and property in resort provinces, according to research on foreign land ownership by the Thailand Research Fund.
