A message from The Pattaya Otter. With a shortage of newsworthy items caused partly by the current ‘low season’, partly due to several planned events or trips not having come about for various reasons and partly due to the Pattaya Otter finding him self less able to attend those that do take place, not least due to lack of advance information about them, The Pattaya Otter has decided for the time being to suspend publication of The Pattaya Otter Pictorial and substitute in its place a much simpler single page diary of events he has attended recently. This Diary page will consist of for each event a short summary of what it was about and one or two pictures to illustrate the event. In order to keep it simple and easy to publish it will be necessary for viewers to scroll down the page to read about each of the events. Wherever possible however, where a photo is shown, clicking it will still open a separate window containing a larger image, and when this is closed the viewer will automatically be returned to this page. We will still provide links both here and on the home page to the previous editions of the Pictorial as well as to the page of Information about Pattaya, and as and when circumstances permit we still hope to publish future editions of the full Pattaya Otter Pictorial. Pattaya Marathon. Seems a long time ago now, but back in July Pattaya staged it’s annual marathon race. This year the event start was moved from the Beach Road to the Bali High Port and this also resulted in some course changes. As usual in addition to the full distance race there were half marathon, quarter marathon and a ‘fun run’ plus a wheelchair event, with the main race starting at 4 AM and the others at half hour intervals so that all the front runners in each event completed their respective courses at about the same time. In addition to the serious runners including several International stars, there were a number of novelty entrants including ‘Roger Rabbit’. With the early start the fast runners completed the course before the sun came up and the overall winner crossed the finishing line just as it was becoming light. Although there were some problems with the more congested space at the new start point overall the event was another success. Filipino Latin Night Also in July, the Association of Filipionos in Thailand held a Gala Latin Night Charity Dinner and Dance at the A1 Cruise Hotel in North Pattaya. As well as an excellent meal, we were entertained by a number of spectacular latin dance exhibtions. The Guest of Honour was H.E. The Philippines Ambassador to Thailand, who is seen here presenting one of the raffle prizes to our own Richard Smith. Pictures from this event courtesy of Allan. A New Arrival In a very quiet August the only event of note was the birth to our good friends Peter and Yupin of their first child, a daughter. We attended a celebration party in Peter’s apartment during which a christening ceremony was performed by our own Father Allan and the baby was formally named as Kate. We wish Peter, Yupin and Kate every future happiness. Jesters Fair The annual Jesters Charity Fair took place in September. This event which has been held for a good number of years now consists of Children’s Fair on A Sunday afternoon followed by another fund raising event for the adults at Jamesons Pub the following Saturday Evening. All proceeds go to help needy children here in Pattaya. For once the fair was held in fine weather and a large crowd was attracted. As usual the event consisted of a series of games and attractions for children and a large number of participating stalls selling items for all. The Lions club also had their traditional ‘guess the name of the cuddly toy’. The inevitable raffle also took place, all contributing to a record amount of money raised. Royal Cliff Celebration Cocktail Party. Also in September the Royal Cliff Hotel held a cocktail party to celebrate their being awarded  Awards of Excellence by several International Food and Beverage Publications. All members of their Wine Club plus many other distinguished guests were invited to a gathering in their Grand Ballroom where each of the hotel’s seven restaurants laid out samples of their food for tasting. Each of these stands also offered a selection of complimentary wines from the hotel’s top suppliers. All of which contributed to an excellent party. Pictures from this event courtesy of Allan October and the rains finally arrived After an extended period of drought which had brought severe water shortages, the rains finally arrived in October. Unfortunately they tended to all come in large deluges as witnessed by Allan with this picture taken from his office in downtown Pattaya. Expats at Das Berliner Bistro The Pattaya City Expats club usually has a monthly club dinner at different restaurants in and around Pattaya. For October their usual evening dinner was changed to a lunchtime event at Das Berliner Bistro in North Pattaya. As can be gathered from its name this is a popular German style eating and drinking establishment and the reason for the change of time was so that we could be entertained by an ‘Ooompah’ style traditional band that performs there every Saturday and Sunday lunchtime. We tucked into huge pork knuckles whilst downing steins of excellent German beer, and as the band played on a great time was had by all, even when the band took a break we had an excellent accordionist to entertain us. A day out round the region Pattaya City Expats Club co-chairman Max Rommel has lived in Pattaya for many years and has compiled a large number of photos of attractions to visit in and around Pattaya. As well as showing some of these to the club members, Max organised the first in what is hoped will be a series of one day outings visiting a number of these attractions. For this first tour around 40 club members were taken by bus to a number of venues in the region around Pattaya. For our first stop we visited a glass and china making factory where as well as seeing samples of their products we were taken on a tour of the factory to witness the glass being blown, shaped and cut. The next stop was at a large fruit farm where we first took a tram tour of the vast acreage that it encompassed including a large rubber tree plantation where we had a demonstration of how the trees are cut and the rubber tapped. We then stopped off at a honey producing centre within it’s grounds where again we were able to sample the produce. Space here does not permit showing the vast array of plants we were shown nor of the sheer size of the place and it took us several hours to see most of it. By which time we were ready for lunch which was taken at the Ban Phee Forest Reserve, a spectacular open air setting set amongst trees and streams. There we were given a traditional Thai food meal and later had time to explore the extensive surroundings. All agreed that this was a very successful if rather tiring day out and we look forward to possibly doing a more relaxing one in the near future. Just a thought. A recent headline in the local Pattaya Today newspaper read:- “Elephants and prostitutes cleared” Must have been a very interesting trial. Or is it just me? And that’s the end of this diary.