Just like their counterparts in Scotland, Ireland, the US mainland, and the world’s other premier golf locations, golfers from Hawaii are keen to travel to new and different golfing experiences. Where better than Thailand, Asia’s premier golf destination?

A delegation headed by the chairman of the Thailand Tourism Authority (TAT), Khun Vichai Srikwan, and Governor Khun Suraphon Svetasreni, has returned from a six-day visit to Hawaii with high expectations of many more golfers from Hawaii visiting the kingdom.

“Hawaii [golfers] have previously mostly gone to the US mainland to play golf away from home, but Thailand is a big attraction,” said Mark Siegel, president of Golf in a Kingdom - The Thailand Golf Experience (www.golfinakingdom.com), a cooperative marketing program comprising golf courses, hotels, and resorts in Thailand’s four major golf destinations - Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai.

The 10-person delegation’s visit to Hawaii was organized by businessman and Oahu Country Club member, Randy Ho. The club hosted two tournaments for the visitors and local players, while a presentation night for 130 travel agents and tour operators provided an insight into the delights of playing golf in Thailand.

Mark Siegel said it was the most productive marketing trip he had experienced. “We were able to raise the knowledge and awareness of Hawaii golfers about playing in Thailand,” he said, “The quality of the courses, food, entertainment, and value for money make Thailand unique. A seven-nights’ package with four rounds of golf is about half the price of most other golf destinations.”

“It was a very successful trip,” said TAT’s America’s region director, Khun Santi Chudintra, “As a peer marketing exercise, it was exactly the right approach and enabled us to talk directly with our target market. As an alternative to the US mainland, Thailand has much to offer - 260 courses and many other attractions.”

Member courses of Golf in a Kingdom: The Thai Golf Experience are Banyan and Black Mountain at Hua Hin, Thai Country Club and Muang Kaew in Bangkok, the Old Course and Plantation Course at Siam Country Club near Pattaya, and Chiang Mai Highlands in northern Thailand.

[Thanks: http://www.eturbonews.com]

Because the island is small and flat its perfect for exploring and getting close to nature, bicycle through coconut plantations along the coastline.

There are about 25 resorts on Ko Mak. Both Ko Kham and Ko Phi can be easily reached with sea kayak from the resorts on north west coast of Ko Mak. Both little islands have nice places to snorkel, depending on the direction of wind.

With stunning white sandy beaches adjoining crystal clear water it is fast becoming famous for its scenery; British newspaper The Sunday Times recently included Ko Mak as one of their ‘Top Ten Beaches in the World’, and the past few years has seen the island’s beauty also attracting film makers looking for an authentic tropical location.

A single track road meanders through the island and offers the chance for the explorative to find their own deserted beach, or perhaps take in the sights and sounds of the jungle. If you’re searching for your own slice of ‘Robinson Crusoe‘ then this is possibly about as close as it comes.

Coconut and rubber tree plantations cover a vast proportion of the island, interspersed with patches of lush virgin forest. The population of the island is created from two parameters; one group being the land owners, descendants of Chao Sua Seng, a Chinese Affairs Officer and Coconut Baron who owned the island a century ago, and the other being the workers who have settled and live on the plantations. The population now numbers upwards of 600 people.

Until the 1990’s there were only a few package hotels on the island; today there are more than 20, ranging from modest backpacker accommodation to luxury boutique resorts. The often misleading rumour that Ko Maak only caters to pre-booked tours can be no further from the truth, the majority of places welcoming walk-in trade.

With three piers currently in operation serving speed boats and ferries to Ko Chang and the mainland there’s plenty of options for getting to and from the island, and most places send a representative to the piers to tout for business and bring you to their resort for free.

Outside of the resorts there’s not much to do except soak up the splendour of nature, and perhaps take a snorkelling or diving trip to the nearby Marine Park which offers easily the best selection of marine life in the Gulf of Thailand. Days are spent lazing around on the beach, in a hammock, or perhaps taking advantage of the newly designed bicycle tracks around the island. Nightlife is virtually non-existent except for a few cosy bars and restaurants; if you’re looking for disco’s and a bit of company then neighbouring Ko Chang will far better suit your needs.

Ko Maak is that tranquil place that many people come to Thailand looking for, and those who find it usually stay far longer than planned. As to how long it will remain this way we will have to wait and see — for now though, it truly is a slice of heaven.

Songkran is a three-day holiday in Thailand, April 13-15. What began as the gentle pouring of water over the hands of friends and relatives has evolved into a water fight on a massive scale. We approached the downtown moat area on open-air tuktuks, three-wheel auto rickshaws with a bench seat in the back. We had a trashcan full of water, to which we added a giant block of ice. This made our water blessings a little more of a shock to the system than the warm buckets of moat water.

We were drenched before we’d gone a tenth of a mile. The slow traffic consisted of every pick-up truck in the city, packed with revelers with water buckets of their own, and unfortunate motorcylcists, whose flimsy water pistols were no match for the pedestrians pulling buckets of water out of the moat. Thailand is the land of smiles, and no one, no matter how drenched, seemed to take the least bit of offense from the dousings. Children took particular glee in the freedom to squirt total strangers with water. Coca-Cola took the opportunity to set up a truck with dancing girls, but the dancers got more than their fare share of soakings from passers-by.

They’re calling today “Black Songkran” because of the wet blanket thrown over the festivities by partisan violence in the capital and Red-Shirt protests even here in Chiang Mai. But for the hour I spent emptying three trashcans full of water on strangers and probably twice that dumped back on us, Songkran was a blast. To all the kids that got me good, here’s wishing you suk-san wan songkran.

[Thanks: http://www.pastemagazine.com]

On the day the Thai capital should have been filled with revellers noisily celebrating Songkran, the biggest national festival, the sprawling city awoke to the crackle of automatic gunfire amid a state of emergency.

It was not exactly the “Land of Smiles” many visitors had expected.

“I’m disappointed. Where’s all the fun? I’ll have to wait until next year,” said Singaporean businessman Matthew Tan, who travels to Bangkok every year for Songkran.

Columns of smoke rose over the capital as the anti-government protesters hurled molotov cocktails, lobbed firecrackers and even drove hijacked buses towards lines of advancing military personnel.

The demonstrators are loyal to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and have taken to the streets to press for the resignation of current premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, who issued the emergency decree for Bangkok on Sunday.

The chaos forced some of the city’s most glitzy shopping malls to stay closed when normally they would have been heaving with well-off locals and expectant tourists.

Disappointed shoppers arrived at the glass-and-steel Siam Paragon and Central Chidlom malls to find hastily printed paper signs simply saying: “Sorry, today we closed.”

Other malls opened but warned of bag checks for security reasons.

“I was supposed to pick something up but I guess I just have to go back to the hotel and then fly home,” said 43-year-old Filipina Sharon Pangilinan, at Central Chidlom, who was due to fly back to Manila later Monday.

“I guess you can’t see where the situation’s going… it’s pretty scary and I have two little ones with me,” she added.

The Grand Hyatt hotel nearby said ‘a few’ people had decided to check out because of the deteriorating situation on the streets, but some tourists were just baffled by the Thai political crisis.

“We would like to go to the Grand Palace but I don’t know whether we can. We’re just going to walk around the shopping malls and see which places we can visit,” Parisian tourist Marion Gulerama, 23, told AFP.

“We’re not afraid. We know that the fight doesn’t have anything to do with tourists,” she added.

Meanwhile, the traditional Songkran ritual of dousing people with water for the hot season could hardly be seen.

Stalls selling waterguns were open for business but found few buyers, while about a dozen children could be seen spraying water on Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok’s main thoroughfare, which is usually teeming during the festival.

Instead, television footage being beamed into millions of homes showed scenes of real M16 rifles in the hands of soldiers firing minute-long bursts over central Bangkok.

[Thanks: http://travel.asiaone.com]

Hi-Light

Thai Cultural Shows at 14.30 - 21.30 hrs.
along with the other forms of entertainmet. at 18.00 - 24.00 hrs

For more information
TAT Call Center 1672

Village tourism activities at 14.30 - 21.30 hrs.
Experience the atmosphere tourism activities. And interesting attractions of Ranong Province. In a show like.
- Raft bam boos downstreaming simulation, Simulated firefly tour.
- Simuleted local Attractions, Pa-yam Island, Elephant Island and beautiful waterfall
- Seeing crafts demonstrations from local sources.
- Meet the travel services agent and promotion packages from them.

- Demonstration of Thai ancient market at 14.30 - 21.30 hrs.
experience the local ancient market and Ranong dressing
-  sales of local products and enjoy with local foods

[Thanks: http://www.tourismthailand.org/]

* Do not bring your valuables to the party. Thousands people are there, you’ll never catch the thief.

* At the party, you may forget or lose your bags, so it’s better if you leave them at the resort.

* Bring enough money for the drinks and keep it attached to yourself.

* Take the resorts details for contacting the resort in case of emergency.

* Wear shoes to protect your feet from broken bottles but do not wear the expensive ones.

* Take good care of your camera, you’re not gonna lose only the item but also memories of the good time.

* Keep away from DRUGS, no matter what anyone says. Someone might try to sell them to you but remember DRUGS are ILLEGAL in Thailand and VERY STRONG PENALTIES.

* Do not eat or drink anything that is offered by strangers.

* If you don’t plan to stay up all night at the party, you are advised to stay in bungalow facilities outside Haad Rin (unless you think you can sleep with that very loud party noise). Besides, there are more than hundred bungalow places to choose and you can go back to your bungalow anytime you like by all night taxi service.

* DRINKS, DANCE AND HAVE FUN!!

Some time ago, a group of tourists found that the most beautiful moon was in Koh Phangan. They arranged a party along the crescent-shaped beach of Haad Rin to celebrate the Full Moon night. From then on, people from all over the world come to join the celebration…

And now there are 7,000-10,000 people at the party each month. The party begins at dusk, When the round yellow moon makes its appearance over the white sand beach. In twilight, small tables are lined up on the beach and thousands of lamps are lit…

As the evening progresses the beach explodes into a dancing frenzy as different m.c.’s take their furn on the decks. There is something for everyone here, trance, techno, drum and bass, commercial dance and reggae, no-one is disappointed. Jugglers and fire-eaters entertain the crowds as the night goes on and with the brilliant impromptu fireworks display, the party atmosphere is complete. After a few hours it could be time to chill-out for a while, maybe grab a drink or a bite to eat from one of the many beach traders and wade out or sit down in the warm surf of the Gulf of Thailand, pure, pure heaven.

Revived and relaxed it’s time to return to the main beach and get blown into another dancing dimension, While all around people are doing the same, there are no barriers here, no inhibitions, just people enjoying themselves with one unified intention, to rejoice in the magic that is the paradise Of FULL MOON PARTY!

THERE’S NO ENTRANCE FEE TO JOIN THIS UNFORGETABLE PARTY !!

Though the origins of the festival are unclear, it is thought that perhaps the festival was bought to Phuket by a wandering Chinese opera group who fell ill with malaria while performing on the island.

They decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet and pray to the Nine Emperor Gods who would ensure purification of the mind and body. On recovery, the people celebrated by holding a festival that was meant to honour the gods as well as express the people’s happiness at surviving what was, in the nineteenth century, a fatal illness.

The festival always falls on the first days of the ninth Chinese lunar month, and for nine days participants observe the following commitments:

• Cleanliness of the body during the festival
  
• Clean kitchen utensils not to be used by others who do not participate in the festival
  
• Wear white during the festival
  
• Behave physically and mentally
  
• Avoid eating meat
  
• Avoid sex
  
• Avoid alcohol
  
• People in mourning should not participate
  
• Pregnant women and menstruating women should not attend ceremonies

One of the most exciting aspects of the festival is the various, (and sometimes gruesome) ceremonies which are held to invoke the gods. Firewalking, body piercing and other acts of self mortification undertaken by participants acting as mediums of the gods, have become more spectacular and daring as each year goes by. Men and women puncture their cheeks with various items including knives, skewers and other household items. It is believed that the Chinese gods will protect such persons from harm, and little blood or scarring results from such mutilation acts. This is definitely not recommended for the feint hearted to witness.

The ceremonies of the festival take place in the vicinity of the six Chinese temples scattered throughout Phuket. The main temple is Jui Tui Shrine not far from the Fresh Market in Phuket Town. The first event is the raising of the Lantern Pole, an act that notifies the nine Chinese gods that the festival is about to begin. The pole is at least ten metres tall and once erected, celebrants believe that the Hindu god, Shiva, descends bringing spiritual power to the event.

For the next few days, the local Chinese/Thai community brings their household gods to the temple, along with offerings of food and drink. It is assumed that the household gods will benefit from an annual injection of spiritual energy that fills the temple. Visitors can observe and even participate in the lighting of joss sticks and candles that are placed around the various gods.

Usually street processions take place, where visitors can see participants walking in a trance. Other events include hundreds of local residents running across a bed of burning coals, or climbing an eight metre ladder of sharp blades while in trance.

Apart from the visual spectacle of this festival, visitors can partake in specially prepared vegetarian cuisine made available at street stalls and markets around the island during this time. The vegetarian dishes are not easily distinguished from regular dishes - soybean and protein substitute products are used to replace meat in standard Thai fare and look and taste uncannily like meat. Look for the yellow flags with red Chinese or Thai characters to find vegetarian food stalls - and keep your camera handy!!

Source: http://www.phuket.com

It’s not on Samui but most party goers will stay here and get a boat over to the action. Once a month at Haad Rin Beach, Koh Pha Ngan. 10,000 or more people have party on the one-kilometer sandy beach. People party from dusk till dawn and even onto the next day. Thai and western DJ’s play sounds to cater for all party goers’ tastes from Hip-Hop, House, Trance, Garage and Jungle. International visitors and Thai celebrate this world famous event together. There’s a great deal of drugs and booze and pretention, and a number of bars along the beach, and you might catch an episode of Trigger Happy TV in one of the pubs at 3am if you’re lucky.