Happy Thai New Year (Songkran). And as a new year present, we bring you our latest release of The Pattaya Otter Diary. Actually we were in two minds whether to make this publication just a diary of the past few months or a full pictorial. Some events justified full pictorial coverage but others didn’t, so we’ve ended up with something of a compromise - a diary but with extra ‘hidden’ photos for the items we felt justified fuller coverage So as in the last diary, this single main page will consist of, for each event, a short summary of what it was about and just a few 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 which are arranged in chronological order. Clicking on any photo will as usual open a separate window containing a larger image and it will then be possible to scroll along all the photos in the particular event using the arrow buttons, and by closing the page (X) or using the ‘up’ arrow the viewer will automatically be returned to this page. In several of the events, by scrolling between pictures using the arrows you will also come upon some ‘hidden’ photos (i.e. those not also shown in thumbnail form on this page for reasons of space). In order to see all of these we suggest you start by clicking the top leftmost thumbnail in each of the following events We also provide links both here and on the home page to the previous editions of all our publications including the last 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 possibly including fuller detail of some of the events here. Haunted Wedding. On St. Valentine’s day, Ripley’s ‘Believe it or not’ show in the Royal Garden Plaza here in Pattaya staged a ‘Haunted Wedding’ This was to celebrate the actual wedding between ‘The Scorpion Queen’ (a beautiful lady who holds the world record for time spent in a cage with Scorpions) and ‘The Centipede King’. This was a true wedding and this happy pair were also joined by six other couples wishing to get married, but the whole ceremony was performed in a ‘Ghoul’ setting as the photos here will testify. But just to show it really was a proper series of marriages and not just a publicity stunt there was also the traditional Thai wedding ceremony performed by an invited group of monks. For the many spectators however it was a very novel way to celebrate St. Valentines day, not just with the unusual attire of the happy couples but also the original touches such as the wedding rings arriving in miniature coffins. Pattaya Carnival On the last weekend of February, Pattaya held a 3 day carnival the principal event of which was a Grand Parade down the entire length of the main Beach Road. Unfortunately this being Thailand the advertised start time of 4 PM didn’t happen and instead the show got under way shortly before 6 - thus making life more difficult for us photographers who had come only equipped to take shots in daylight. Nevertheless it was an impressive parade with a large contingent and many beautifully decorated floats and we show here some of the better shots we managed to take. Gallery Opium Exhibitions We paid another couple of visits to the increasingly popular ‘Gallery Opium’ art exhibitions here in Jomtien. The first, at the end of January, was by an English Artist Caroline Brown entitled ‘Sensual Moments’ which is described as ‘imaginative formulations, engaging references from tree life forms, human body forms and architecture. The second exhibition one month later featured work by the well known Thai artist Jessada Kongsommart, whose display was titled ‘Silk Threads’, and as in a previous exhibtion of his we had seen at the Art Cafe featured images drawn from his humble upbringing in the Thai countryside. Chinese Acrobats Early in March we were invited to attend a ‘performance by Chinese Acrobats’. With no idea really of what was in store we proceeded one evening to the grounds of a school in North Pattaya, there to find the area laid out with literally thousands of seats all facing a large stage that had been constructed at one end. We then watched entranced for the next 3 hours as several troupes of the most skilled acrobats entertained a full house with displays of balancing and juggling. The selection of pictures here really cannot do justice to what was an amazing evening, all for the mere pittance of an admission price. Truly another example of Amazing Thailand. . The Otter’s New Haven In mid March we went to see how the Pattaya Otter’s new home is progressing and what the view will be like. The building is only across the road from the Otter’s present abode but will afford direct beach access. As we can see, construction still has some way to go, but the view shows that the wait will be well worthwhile. Pattaya Music Festival Weekend of March 17th saw the annual Pattaya Music Festival (or to give it it’s full title which seems to grow every year ‘The Pattaya Grand International Music Festival’), bringing it’s usual clutch of bands and singers both Thai and Foreign, its millions of spectators and the inevitable huge traffic jams. As before the event was presented on three separate huge stages, two on Pattaya Beach Road and one at the ‘Bali High’ port next to the new(ish) pier and took place over 3 evenings. We went down to the Bali High stage on the Saturday (second) evening to catch the flavour of the action and if possible, given the huge crowds, capture a few photos of the artists performing. Although not personally familiar with any of the artists performing they were clearly a great hit with the thousands in front of the stage there all taking full advantage of the free admission to have a great time. With some time and effort we gradually edged close enough forward to take these pictures of a few of the performers who on that particular evening seemed to be mostly well known Thai solo artists (apparently the previous evening had been rock bands but we only found that out later). Even though the quality may not be up to our usual standards due to the distance from the artists we hope these give you some flavour of another very successful event in the Pattaya Calendar. PC Classic Annual Yachting Regatta We won’t even attempt to print the full name of this event as it would take the entire page, suffice to say it is one of THE annual social occasions in Pattaya, consisting of an afternoon’s yacht racing at The Royal Varuna Yacht Club, situated on the headland between Pattaya and Jomtien followed by a prize giving and grand dinner around one of the swimming pools at the Royal Cliff Hotel nearby. Spectators were invited to the club’s grounds to watch the racing from the comfort of the shore whilst tucking in to a buffet meal whilst the sailors braved gusty winds and choppy seas to put on a display of very professional sailing. We were especially impressed by the large number of very young sailors in their small ‘Optimist’ dinghies which at time seemed to be dwarfed by the waves. With the kind assistance of The Pattaya Mail (for which we also took photos) we were able to board the hotel’s giant catamaran to enable us to get a closer view of the yachting action and managed to take a large number of pictures, a selection of which are shown here. . PCEC 5th Anniversary On Sunday March 26th, the day after the PC regatta, The Pattaya City Expats club held their usual weekly meeting at Henry J. Beans restaurant in North Pattaya. But this was a very special meeting as it was the 5th anniversary of the club’s foundation. A special birthday cake was prepared and after being cut by club chairman Richard Smith and former chairman and founder member Max Rommel, all present were given a slice. After current and past members of the club’s Governing Board posed for photos, Max then gave a talk on the history of the club, it’s reasons for coming into existence and it’s rapid growth to become a prime forum for English speaking expats in the local community to meet and exchange information. . Expats go sailing Another event on the High Seas. This time a group of around 30 members from The Pattaya City Expats club were invited to go for a day’s sailing by Gulf Charters, a yachting charter company operating out of the Ocean Marina complex. The purpose was to give us a flavour of sailing on large yachts and see how many of us might be interested in taking this further and maybe as a group, purchase or hire a yacht in the future. But for this occasion it was just another fun day out. We travelled down to the Ocean Marina which is some 15km South of Pattaya and where a large number of luxury yachts and other large craft are berthed. There we were divided into two groups, one going on a 30 foot catamaran and the other on a 50 foot mono hull yacht. We chose the catamaran which with hindsight proved not the best from a photographic point of view due to it’s more enclosed deck, leastwise for photographing ourselves although it did allow us some excellent shots of our companions on the other craft. We motored out of the marina and then switched to sail and were given a good flavour of what crewing these large and beautiful craft involved. After cruising in relatively calm conditions for around 2 hours we then returned to the marina where an excellent buffet lunch had been laid on for us. Our thanks to Gulf Charters for organising a really great day out and we will see what if anything develops from it. And Finally As we mentioned at the start of this diary edition this is the Thai New Year (Songkran) festival which as some of you will also be aware is also known as ‘The Water Festival’ when for the best part of a week, total mayhem breaks out with everyone being doused with water from pistols, buckets and hosepipes, not to mention the odd elephant. So we couldn’t let this pass without sending our intrepid (and maybe incredibly stupid) photographer out to bring you some pictures of this year’s event. Just click on the small one here and use the arrows to browse through a selection of this year’s lunacy.