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 Yet another spectacular event at the Royal Cliff, this time to celebrate the fact that the hotel’s Grill Room and Wine Cellar had been given the ‘Award of Excellence’ by the Wine Spectator Magazine, New York.
In celebration therefore all wine club members plus other guests and celebrities known to the hotel were invited to a cocktail party and wine tasting with ‘heavy snacks’ promised in the invitation.
The first problem for yours truly and also some friends was to acquire suitable clothing to wear as the invite specified ‘lounge suit’, and my only existing suit was more of the lounge lizard sort.
So if nothing else, this gave me the opportunity to try out the services of one of the many excellent tailors that operate in Pattaya. I chose on recommendation ‘Jim’s International’ on Second Road - Jim being a very affable Indian Thai gentleman, and I was not disappointed.
So, duly suited and booted, we arrived at the event, not knowing exactly what was in store for us.
The first surprise was to find that the car park was already overflowing and we were directed to park in the nearby convention centre, where a shuttle bus rapidly ferried us to the main hotel and thus upstairs to the Grand Ballroom where the event was to be held.
On arrival at the entrance to this room, we were presented to the line of assembled Hotel staff and chief guests, shaking hands with each one in turn as we progressed down the line (I felt just like the Queen).
Then it was on into the room itself, to find that each of the hotels many restaurants had been given a section of the room in which to display its offerings.
These consisted of snacks (some quite substantial) as well as a selection of wines to accompany them, and it appeared that we were expected to progress round the room, in no particular order, sampling each of the fare of food and drink on offer, all at no cost I hasten to add.
There were selections from the Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese Restaurants as well as from the various cafes and snack bars in the hotel, but my personal favourite was the roast beef on offer from the Grill Room stand - simply sumptuous.
Formalities were kept to a minimum, with Wine Club President, Ranjith Chandrasiri introducing the Royal Cliff managing director Khun Panga Vathanakul who spoke briefly about the importance of the award.
Then it was back to the eating and drinking, with several of the wines on offer being sampled more than once, indeed with an attendance estimated at around 300 and a clean glass and plate on offer on each sampling, the volume of washing-up must have been enormous - fortunately not something we had to be concerned about.
Eventually we reached the stage when we simply could not eat or drink anything more and after thanking our hosts, bid farewell and were duly transported back to our cars.
Another truly memorable evening.
Apologies for the lack of accompanying pictures - it did not seem appropriate. The one at the top is courtesy of the Pattaya Mail.
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