The Hotel de Ville (City Hall), an architectural confection preserved from the French colonial days, is just one of the delights of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Thomas Schoch

AirAsia has added yet another destination linked by direct flights to its Phuket regional hub – Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The service, launched on November 4, consists of one flight a day each way, leaving Phuket at 19:20 and arriving in HCM City at 21:10, with the return flight leaving at 21:40 and landing in Phuket at 23:35.

To celebrate the official announcement of the new route, AirAsia is offering special promotional fares from as low as USD25 (from HCMC to Phuket)  and B999 (in the other direction), for bookings for the travel period from December 3 this year to April 30 next year.

Guests may book through the AirAsia website or by pointing their phones to mobile.airasia.com.

Ho Chi Minh City, often referred to by its pre-Communist name, Saigon, has a mass of historical sights, a vibrant night life, good food and great coffee. It’s also close to such wonders as the Viet Cong tunnels of Cu Chi and the vast rice fields of the Mekong delta.

Scrum down: From left, Sean Panton, Klaus Hebben, Pat Cotter, Graeme Spence and David Adamson. Photo: PIA.

A few months ago, Patrick Cotter, Phuket’s “Mr Rugby” was bemoaning the lack of local official support for the game in Phuket (see story here). Today he’s beaming with delight after the signing of a memorandum of understanding that will see an international-standard rugby academy set up in Phuket and a world-class pitch made available for the game.

The deal was signed a few days ago between the Phuket International Academy’s Sports, Art & Wellness Centre (PIASAWC), and NZRugby Resources (NZRR), a private company that specialises in rugby training.

At the end of last month NZRR signed a similar MOU with the Malaysian Rugby Union, and its overseas marketing director, Rob Yule, recently returned from a successful assignment as Iran’s National Coach. He has also coached Sri Lanka. NZRR  has other rugby training deals with organisations in Japan, Lebanon, the Philippines, Portugal, Tahiti, and Bhutan.

The Phuket MOU was signed by the PIASAWC’s general manager, Sean Panton, and David Adamson, global operations director for NZRR. Watching with delight were the PIA’s founder Klaus Hebben, Graeme Spence, NZRR’s Southeast Asia director of operations and, of course, a grinning Cotter.

“We are very excited to sign our first of many strategic alliances with leading global sporting bodies. We are thrilled to establish the Rugby Academy at PIASAWC, as it fits our philosophy of developing individuals and teams in order to enhance their performance through a myriad sports services,” said Panton.

Ball's out! A shot from the ever-popular Phuket Rugby 10s, which attracts teams from around the world. Photo © Alasdair Forbes.

Cotter, who was instrumental in bringing the two sides together, said, “It’s fantastic for Phuket, the PIA, the NZRR and sport in general on the island, and I think Klaus Hebben has done a brilliant job in getting this all started, and has set a superb example of how education and sports should be tackled on the island.”

The Thai Rugby Union, too, has applauded the deal. Its secretary, Adisak Hemyoo, remarked, “The Thai Rugby Union is pleased to support and sanction rugby at Phuket International Academy as well as any tournaments that may occur there.”

PIASAWC, currently under development near the foothills of Phuket’s Khao Phra Taeo national park, on the east side of Phuket island, will provide a range of international-standard sports facilities for both the local community and for visiting international athletes, both professional and amateur.

These facilities will include an International Rugby Board-approved pitch, and Olympic competition pool, futsal and basketball courts and a boutique hotel for visiting athletes.

Youth involvement: Players from the Baan Sainamyen Municipal School take a breather during their match in the Rugby 10s. Photo courtesy Patrick Cotter.

For its part, NZRR will provide training courses covering rugby skills, sports science, physical conditioning, game sense, skill analysis and the role of the coach, and development of rugby in the community.

NZRR acts as a conduit between those who want to learn rugby and some of the top rugby players and coaches in New Zealand, plus the latest technology and training methods.

Jim Newport - from rock photographer to movie production designer, blues singer and author.

We’re a long way from Hollywood here, but author Jim Newport, who these days spends most of his time in his home in Kamala, has chosen Hung Fat’s restaurant in Kalim for the launch of his fifth book, Tinsel Town, based loosely on his long experience of Hollywood.

Jim is one of those enviable people who’s had several lives, all of them immensely enjoyable. In his youth he was a rock photographer, hanging out in Swinging Sixties London with the likes of Eric Burdon of The Animals, and then later living in Laurel Canyon, California, alongside legends such as John Mayall and Canned Heat’s Bob “The Bear” Hite.

He moved from photography into movies, becoming a highly successful production designer. He’s been nominated for Emmy awards twice and has been responsible for the “look” of TV series such as Lost and movies such as Bangkok Dangerous, in which he got to design and build a starkly but gorgeously minimalist house and then later on blow it up as part of the movie’s plot. Bangkok Dangerous star Nicholas Cage was impressed enough with the house to ask him for the plans.

In his Jimmy Fame persona, Jim Newport sings Hendrix at this year's Phuket Blues-Rock Festival.

And then there’s his rock star persona, Jimmy Fame, singing blues, especially songs by Jimi Hendrix. “Eric Burdon once told me that being in a rock band had to be the best job in the world. ‘After all,’ he said, ‘how many jobs are there where you go to work and afterwards everyone stands up and applauds?’”

Singing the blues gives him his “instant karma”, while movies are a different kind of satisfaction, rather more long term, but still part of a team effort.

And then there’s the writing, which gives him yet another kind of satisfaction, this time solitary. So far, he’s had four books published – the Vampire of Siam trilogy, and a work of “faction”, Chasing Jimi, involving real characters from the Swinging London days in a semi-fictional plot.

The new book.

And now there’s his fifth book, Tinsel Town (subtitled Another Rotten Day in Paradise), about Hollywood around the time when he was making his mark there, a time he describes as “the wild and woolly Easy Rider days of independent filmmaking. A non-stop party.”

The first part, he admits, is generally autobiographical, but then the plot takes off at stranger, more fictional angles. It “doesn’t gloss over the cracks in the scenery, the grit, the stench, the plain old-fashioned blood and sweat that making movies is really about,” Jim says. “It gives the reader a glimpse into what it was like to enter this privileged arena.”

Despite the triple life and the weirdness and the famous people he has rubbed up against, Jim’s still one of the nicest people you could meet, so if you’re a reader who enjoys a rollicking good tale, make a note to meet him and buy a copy of the new book at Hung Fat’s on Friday, November 20, between 7 and 9pm.

To learn more about this book and the others he has written, visit Jim’s website here.

Detail from one of Kwanchai's intricately detailed bird's eye views of the capital.

Galeria 346, on the corner of Phuket Rd and Kra Rd, has scored an art coup by securing an exhibition of the highly talented 26-year-old Thai artist Kwanchai Lichaikul, from October 24 until the end of January next year.

Kwanchai, who was born in Uttaradit but is based in Bangkok, has put together an exhibition titled Ideal City, featuring intricate paintings and drawings of the capital city, which at first sight are reminiscent of the detail-filled murals to be found in Buddhist temples.

Closer inspection, however, reveals more secular, more disturbing elements – political demonstrations and anti-terrorist training exercises, for example – all taking place among the workaday lives of the people of Bangkok.

The welcoming facade of Phuket346, café, art gallery and very, very small hotel.

Kwanchai says his work is “inspired by today’s society and community, which consists of various people with different ways of life – people live in the uncertainties created by the economy, society, politics, religion, environment and culture, which are all intertwined.”

Society is seen from a bird’s eye view, with groups of people, animals, buildings, houses, roads and other structures presented by Kwanchai as a story, and combined with his own dreams, imagination and personal point of view, to give a vision of a recognisable yet fantastic city.

Galeria 346, which started life in the 1930s as Phuket’s first ice shop, is today a café and art gallery downstairs with three cosy guest bedrooms above. For more on the place, go here.

Barman P'Rah in his kingdom.

You’d have to wonder why anyone in their right mind would decide to open a bar on an island that already has about 14 million of them, most of which last as long as it takes to set light to the money invested in them.

But Bodega, the new kid in Patong, is packing them in – and without a bar girl, flower girl or gibbon-handler in sight. Not so far, anyway.

It’s run by a delightful (and, it has to be said, unfairly good-looking) couple, Robbie and Amy. Both are originally from the UK but could accurately be described as world citizens. They met in South Africa, where she was in advertising and he ran Cape Town Backpackers, voted best hostel in Africa for two years running.

They were married on a beach on Koh Samui last year and moved to Phuket in May this year. Instead of spending the usual three or four years slugging back beers while adjusting to the place, they promptly started setting up La Bodega which, actually, is a lot more than a bar. It might be described as a sort of a mini-Montmartre with a Thai-Spanish flavour and jelly vodka shots. If that makes any sense.

Singing for his supper - it's open mic night every Friday.

In any case, art is definitely a focus. Amy says, “Bodega is different because the vision is to showcase authentic original local talent. We were amazed, after moving here, how much talent there is on the island and how so many people want exposure and a place to freely express themselves.

“We also know, as ex-travellers to the region, how much tourists want to see this talent but have no idea where to find it. People come to Patong to party and have fun, but they also want something a little different from the experience.

The girls get with the groove. The beers help.

“The focus for us right now is to get known as a place where anyone can come and display art, play music, sing, rap, DJ, breakdance, read poetry, mime – whatever you want. We believe that if we attract the talent, the interest will come and Patong will have a place to visit for something local, original, and a little bit different.We want to be known as a place that always has something interesting happening. We want to showcase talent, simple as that.”

Apart from the art and that central essential – the bar – Bodega has bright, clean rooms to let at prices ranging from B700 a night during the “summer” season to B2,000 a night over the Christmas/New Year period. All rooms have king-size beds, free wi-fi and cable TV.

On the third floor you’ll find the Sino Tattoo Studio featuring artist-in-residence Mint, who’s prepared to brand you permanently with his own designs or yours. Surprising and original paintings by three Thai artists adorn the walls of the bar, and are for sale.

Yen of Mour Tour delivers another upbeat song.

The place attracts an eclectic mix of foreigners, young and old, and funky artistic Thais. The local hip-hop crew, South Side, are regulars in Bodega (there are turntables at one end of the bar – whoopa whoopa), and there’s the house band – the Thai Gypsy guitar group Mour Tour, featuring four guitars and a bongo (yes, one), whose joyful, upbeat songs are a great aid to chugging beers. Guitar-toting hotel guests are persuaded to play/sing, and on Fridays it’s open mic night.

Let’s not forget the food and drink. “Kick-arse breakfast” (says Robbie), Thai and international dishes for lunch and supper. Cakes. Fruit smoothies. Excellent coffee and wines to match.  Plus beers, spirits and cocktails, of course

Robbie and Amy also believe in giving back to the community, and are getting ready to launch what they call The Bodega Project. Amy explains, “The idea is that a portion of all profits from the sale of a piece of art or a tattoo will go into a fund to set up art sessions with Thai kids who want to draw, sing or play an instrument.

“The lead singer of Mour Tour, Yen, has said he would love to teach music to young students who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. Our displaying artists (Amnat, Wimmon and Suriya) feel the same way about painting. We have yet to launch the project and will keep you posted.

“We also have started a Bodega Man project, with wooden painted dolls [they are kept in a birdcage above the bar] which we want children and artists to paint in any way they want. We will auction them and sell them to tourists to raise funds and raise awareness about harnessing talent on the island.”

What? Us worry? Robbie and Amy.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at the bar and on the “verandah” that juts out into the soi is “What? Me worry?” or maybe “Don’t worry – be happy.” The crew at Bodega, led by head chef and master of entertainment Jed, and the excellent barman P’rah, are experienced party-makers. At one stage during the Observer’s visit (we seem to recall) trays of jelly vodka shots were doing the rounds. Lots of trays.

Amy giggles. (Actually,  most of us are all giggling by this time.) “Not sure about the jelly shots, those were too funny. We had no idea what the chef was up to!” she says.

La Bodega is easy enough to find. Head down Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, go past Jungceylon and it’s down the next soi on the left, the one with the Waterworld dive shop on the corner.  Tel 076-602191, Skype bodegaphuket. For updates and events, the website is here.

La Bodega opens at 8am for breakfast and currently closes at midnight. There are plans to be open eventually around the clock.

Classy: The Royale Nam Tok.

Topped up on tom yam? Surfeited on som tam? All noodled out? Need a different diet? Head for the Restaurant Royale Nam Tok in Kathu. It’s a bit of secret; the owners are quite happy to have it just ticking over, rather than being rushed off their feet, but this is one of the very best European restaurants – if not the very best – on the island, possibly in Thailand.

The owners – Corry, who deals with the diners, and Marc, the chef – ran the high-class De Tafeljoncker restaurant in Antwerp for 18 years, during which they snagged a score of 16 out of 20 points in the Gault Millau Guide for the quality of their cuisine, along with two “toques”. That’s very high praise.

When they decided to move to Thailand they simply packed everything from the restaurant into three containers and had it all shipped to their newly completed house in Phuket, with its long veranda and decorated pillars. During the day, it’s their home. In the evening, out comes the restaurant furniture, the staff, the crockery, the highly polished silverware and glassware.

View from the other side of the pool. Don't forget: swim BEFORE you eat.

The result is an ever-so-slightly over-the-top place that looks like your grandma – the 102-year-old dowager duchess – may have had a hand in the decor. Dining chairs are slightly rococo and upholstered in striped silk. Crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling of the main room. There’s a 100-year-old harmonium made in Chicago, a chest of drawers covered with so much marquetry that it’s hard to spot the handles, a curved glass display case packed with silver and ornate crockery.

There are carefully-draped curtains that are guaranteed to keep the place warm on the dreariest of Belgian winter nights. The tables are fully draped – no naked legs here – and napkins come with napkin rings, the first time I’ve seen that in Phuket. All in all, it’s exactly what you’d expect in a very-high-end European restaurant.

Except for the swimming pool, the palm trees, the frogs and cicadas calling and the occasional chorus of squeals from a small pig farm nearby when Napoleon starts shoving the others around.

Dinner starts in style and continues in that vein. A platter shaped like a cake stand arrives, raising the three delicate amuse-gueules it holds almost to chin height. I’ve had crême brulée before, many times, but not foie gras crême brulée. Wonderful, especially when, with a little dip of the head, you can slurp it straight off the plate with benefit of knife and fork. No, I didn’t. Not really. I always behave in restaurants with chandeliers.

Take me to your lieder: After dinner, a bit of a singalong with the harpsichord, perhaps?

Starters arrive on long boat-shaped crockery, three or four bites per person. The wine (Chilean Cab, in my case) has also arrived, along with a tiny tasting bowl. The wine list is long and tempting. The food menu is shorter, but with enough variety to satisfy every palate. Corry says that, apart from a few established favourites, the menu is changed every six weeks.

Some random samples at time of writing: Salmon tartar with capers, garden herbs and condiments; Filet of barracuda Flemish style, in a pot with shallots, tomato and herbs, and butter with capers; Salade Royale with duck liver, rock lobster and smoked duck breast on a salad with Witlof bread, nuts, apples and home-made wine vinegar and herb olive oil.

You get the idea. It’s all guaranteed to make even the most dedicated of gastronomes dither. Oh never mind. I’ll have one of everything. And a long feather.

The Royale Nam Tok is not cheap by Phuket standards, though if you do your thinking in Euros or sterling, it’s far from expensive for the quality. Getting there: at the main crossroads in Kathu, with Patong at your back, go left, towards Loch Palm Golf Course. Then turn left towards Kathu waterfall (namtok in Thai, hence the restaurant’s name). Drive about half a mile past the wakeboarding centre, and it’s just inside a small soi on the right. It’s well signposted.

Tel: 076-321272, email here, website here.

Laem Phromthep, where the singing of the anthem will take place.

Phuket’s iconic Phromthep Cape will be in the national spotlight on October 29 when a large crowd is expected to turn out for a nationally televised singing of the Thai National Anthem.

The announcement that Phuket’s southernmost tip has been chosen for the event came at meeting chaired by Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop at Phuket Provincial Hall.

“Phromthep Cape is the most appropriate place for this event because it is Phuket’s most famous scenic vista, and it will look beautiful as the sun is setting at 6pm,” Gov Wichai said.

The event is one of many designed to build national unity as part of the government’s Thai Khem Kheng (strong Thailand) scheme proposed by the Finance Ministry.

Under the scheme, each of Thailand’s 76 provinces features in a televised singing of the anthem as part of the national ‘time check’ that takes place at 6pm daily across all Thai television and radio frequencies.

Running in alphabetical order, the provincial anthem singing kicked off on September 20 in Krabi and ends in Ubon Ratchathani on December 4.

The national unity campaign will end with a large ceremony in Bangkok on December 5, birthday of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Apart from the live rendition of the national song, the 10-minute production will feature a taped segment extolling the virtues of Phuket’s culture, natural beauty and attractiveness as a tourist destination.

The bravery of Phuket’s two beloved heroines, Thao Thepkrasattri and Thao Sri Soonthorn, will also be featured.

“The bravery of the heroine sisters can arouse unity and patriotism among all Thais,” Gov Wichai said.

The event will be broadcast on the NBT network, Thai TV Channel 11, starting at 5.50pm.

Some 20,000 to 30,000 people, including students, government officers, elected officials and members of religious organizations are expected to take part.

Tourists and local expatriate residents are also welcome to take part.

Given the logistics, all attendees should  be at Laem Phromthep no later than 4pm on the day to give the organizers time to ensure the event runs smoothly.

To prevent traffic snarls, a park-and-ride shuttle service will be set up at Nai Harn Lake.

- Phuket Gazette

Loy Kratong is a time to concentrate on banishing all negative thoughts and emotions.

Thailand’s most famous festival is undoubtedly Songkran, the Thai New Year, the annual three-day water battle in April. At the other end of the year is a very different, much quieter yet infinitely more touching festival – Loy Kratong.

Stemming probably from the Indian festival of Dipawali, Loy Kratong allows participants to get rid of their anger, frustrations, jealousies – all those negative vibes – by watching floating them away on a river or a klong (or in Phuket from a beach) in a kratong.

Kratongs are small rafts, usually circular and about six to 10 inches across, decorated with folded banana leaves, flowers, joss sticks and a candle. Gently pushed into the stream or out onto the sea, they carry away all those bad vibes, allowing one to start afresh and newly calm.

Legend has it that the first kratong was made and launched by Queen Noppamas in Sukhothai some 700 years ago, so today Loy Kratong often features Noppamas Queen contests.

While the candles of the kratong light up the waterways, khom fai lanterns spangle the sky.

Another feature of the festival in Phuket is the lunching into the air of khom fai – delicate paper balloons about a metre in height and half a metre in diameter, lofted by a small flame burning in the base. Hundreds of these taking off and mingling with the stars are a thoroughly uplifting sight.

The main celebration of this festival in Phuket takes place at Saphan Hin, just southeast of Phuket Town, but many other places join in, including most of the island’s hotels.

Traditionally, the base of a kratong is made from a horizontal slice of a banana tree, but sadly, in recent years some people (particularly vendors selling kratongs to the public) have substituted styrofoam, creating unwelcome pollution of waterways and sea. So if you buy a kratong, make sure it’s the traditional type.

This year’s festival is on November 2.

In the main bar at Magnetic Terrace.

We wrote recently of the revival of Gitano – the same name in a different place. Last Friday another old watering hole reopened, this time with a different name in the same place.

Old hands will remember, from 10 years ago, the Whispering Cock, a Brit-style local pub in Cherng Talay, on the way into the Laguna complex. It had timber and brick walls, a a grass roof and retired horse doctor John Woodger as its landlord.

It had the usual brews on tap – Singha and Heineken – a couple of TVs for the big matches (and the Fashion Channel when there weren’t any) and a goodly crowd of regulars.

Nothing like a glass of red to warm the evening up.

Woodger and his landlord, the Italian Baron Bepy Graziani di Ceneda, carried on a desultory feud which amused the regulars so much that they teasingly formed the GOMs Club – for Grumpy Old Men.

For a long time the Whispering Cock had no real competition in the area, but it was only a matter of time before others decided that they could pick up some of Woodger’s business. Peppers was the first. Bepy then reinvented his own Thai restaurant, right next door, as BB’s, a sports bar. Finally, control of the Cock reverted to Bepy, who converted it radically into a cocktail bar, renaming it Jacquie O’s.

John, when last we heard of him,  was living quietly in the north of the island and a couple of years ago Bepy went to his reward after a lengthy battle with cancer, leaving control of his empire in the hands of his wife Noi.

The main entrance to Magnetic Terrace.

She was there on Friday to see the rebirth of Jacquie O’s, this time as a restaurant, bar and cocktail lounge called Magnetic Terrace. Is it a terrace? Well, not really- it’s more of a chalet from the outside. Magnetic? It certainly pulled them in on opening night. We understand the new owners of the business used to have a successful bar in Africa with the same name, and are hoping it’ll work here too.

The menu has Thai and French items – the samples on opening night certainly tingled our taste buds, and the wine was excellent.

Although the outside, with its open-air seating area, will ring faint bells with the old Whispering Cock regulars, they will have a hard time recognising the inside. Very chic, sophisticated, urban – urbane, in fact.

A friendly crowd in the outside seating area.

The front door leads into the main bar, the place for serious drinkers, with tables for diners off to the left. To the right is a large lounge with comfortable seating for people who wouldn’t think of drinking alone, and another bar. Behind that is a pool table for those who wouldn’t dream of drinking alone or while sitting down.

A couple of the old regulars were there to toast the new place, and they seemed happy with it, and the new crew, Biliana, Gwen and Julien, were grinning from ear to ear at the turnout.

It’s hard to come up with something new that won’t compete head-on with the other bars and restaurants in the area, especially with BB’s next door, Pepper’s across the road, the very suave Supper Club, the oh-so-slightly eccentric Kargo, the classic Italian Toto’s (another Bepy creation), Tawai, or Tatonka, to name but a few. But the Magnetic Terrace crew have managed it. Worth a visit or ten.