S​everal areas of Bangkok can justifiably claim to be the epicenter of this great city. And while some perform specific roles as business districts or government zones, only one stands out in terms of offering genuine quality residential living – the ‘Green Heart’ of central Bangkok, where Wireless Road intersects with Soi Langsuan beside the tropical gardens and lakes of Lumpini Park.

 
This highly desirable area of Bangkok is the location of The Residences at Sindhorn Kempinski, arguably the finest project of its kind the city has ever seen. A 35-storey architectural masterpiece, it features homes of distinction and design excellence in what is now widely regarded as the city’s leading residential address.

 The Residences at Sindhorn Kempinski is a key component of Sindhorn Village, a spectacular and innovative low-density project spread across 52 rai of upscale real estate interspersed by spacious gardens, tranquil walkways, ponds and mature trees.
This extraordinarily beautiful parkland also encompasses a number of other prestigious developments, including two international five-star hotels, luxurious apartments, as well as a ‘Walking Street’ alive with gourmet restaurants, chic bars, high-end retailers and supermarket.

 
Designed and constructed to the highest specifications, The Residences at Sindhorn Kempinski has raised the bar on apartment living in the heart of Bangkok, offering owners and tenants a unique self-contained safe haven of luxury, convenience and gorgeous landscaped gardens that is also within easy reach of the city’s most important business and entertainment districts.

Despite our best efforts, life in the big city can get pretty complicated, trying to juggle work, social life, personal problems—not to mention the never-ending stream of stressful traffic. We can talk to friends and family, but their involvement might be a little too close to home…sometimes a professional opinion really helps to put things into perspective. Calling our concrete therapists from New Counseling Service (NCS) to the rescue for some solid advice! 

 Do you have a question for one of our counsellors? We will never print your real name; you can ask anything anonymously. Just send your problem to: info@ncsbkk.com or message @ncsbangkok on IG, FB, or Line. 

Dear Sober Friend,

Your concern for your friend’s drinking is understandable, as her level of alcohol consumption is potentially dangerous, according to several international agencies. Expert health organisations in the USA, UK and Australia recommend that drinking more than 4 standard drinks in one day, or 10 standard drinks in one week, means there is increased risk of health damage due to alcohol. A bottle of wine contains around 7 standard drinks, so your friend’s consumption would be considered well beyond the recommended safe level.

Whether her drinking is problematic to her or not could be a different matter. The use of any substance is generally considered to be problematic when it has a significant negative impact on one or more aspects of a person’s life, such as relationships, work, social life, parenting, etc. It may be that her drinking is not noticeably affecting any key areas of her life at this time, meaning she may not consider her drinking to be a problem. However, from a health perspective there is certainly a potential risk and the longer her current pattern of use continues, the more significant that risk becomes.

Ultimately it is your decision whether to raise this with her or not. It may be that she’s not fully aware of the health risks to which she’s exposing herself, and so may welcome some insights about this. However, it’s also possible she will not welcome another person’s perceived judgement of her drinking, even from a good friend. You know her best so you are more likely to have a sense of how she might respond.

If you decide to raise it with her, I suggest taking a gentle approach and avoid using the word alcoholic, as it can be an emotionally loaded term that could provoke a defensive response. Maybe start off by asking how she feels about drinking a bottle of wine every night and whether she has any concerns about it, and then gently share your concerns. It might be worth asking how reliant she is on the alcohol to sleep or otherwise cope with her current situation, because having that need or reliance is an indication that an addiction could be developing.

If she expresses concern about her drinking and wants to change, then any support you can offer her with this will be helpful. If she can reduce her drinking to safer levels by herself then that would be a good outcome (there are many resources on the internet that would help her with this). If she’d like some more professional support, then that is certainly available also. However, if she believes her drinking is not problematic and she doesn’t wish to change, then ultimately that is her decision and it’s probably best to respect that for now. It’s possible that just raising this with her will prompt her to re-evaluate her drinking, which may change her behaviour down the track. Either way, I wish you and your friend well in handling this situation.

 

David Ogden

Counsellor

Chef Herve Frerard on the changes we can expect and the trends to look out for

Is there a silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic? One of Thailand’s most talented chefs certainly believes so and says his industry has learned all sorts of things over the past 18 months that are already being welcomed by customers and workers alike.

“There’s so much more emphasis nowadays on how the food business conducts itself, from transportation and delivery of goods to personal hygiene and storage,” says Herve Frerard, Director of Culinary at Montien Hotel Surawong Bangkok.

 “This is down to Covid-19 which has taught us all to be far more health-conscious. And this is especially true of the food and catering business, where our already high standards are even higher today.

“For example, at the Montien we only work with GMP (Good Manufacturers Products) suppliers whose workers have been properly tested, and companies that deliver products in refrigerated trucks.

“We’re also much stricter with our workers’ personal hygiene – wearing masks and gloves at all times in the kitchens, washing hands more frequently, regular temperature checks on our fridges and even checks on staff lockers to ensure the highest levels of cleanliness.

“You see this trend to better hygiene right across the board, even in the way street vendors now prepare and sell their meals.

“Everybody benefits from this trend, including the customers, of course.”

Chef Herve, a 20-year veteran of Thailand’s restaurant scene, went on to talk about other new trends as well as the latest developments at the Montien.

Now that the lockdown is easing, what plans do you have for the hotels restaurants?

As part of the revival of the Montien, we have combined two former restaurants into a brand new one – Ruenton, serving Thai-Chinese cuisine. This is now up and running, and proving as popular as ever. The larger space is multi-functional with several separate rooms for private dinners and parties. It’s also given us a bigger venue for our buffet breakfasts.

We have also opened Phar-Ram IV Bistro, a Parisian-style bakery-bistro. It’s an entirely new venue which serves light lunches and pastries, and then later becomes an evening wine bar featuring a European menu with French flair.

The Montien’s former signature restaurant, Le Gourmet Grill, which opened originally back in 1967, will be revived in due course. And for those with long memories will be pleased to know that our former ballroom dancing hall AnAn will reopen and feature a range of functions.

Another exciting development is the opening of the hotel’s main lobby on the South Wing, scheduled for December this year. This is the face of the hotel and therefore a very important step.

Once the lockdown ends completely, do you think the restaurant business in general will return to how it was two/three years ago? If not, what changes do you visualize?

It will definitely return to what we had here before. But restaurants will have to raise their offer to attract new and old customers.

What kind of restaurants and chefs will prosper in this new era?

We’ll see smaller restaurants, for sure, more family oriented and closer to the people. You can also expect a new wave of bistros and wine bars. You’ll also see more private chef’s tables in people’s homes and exclusive venues.

Who has been hardest hit because of the lockdown – can they come back?

It’s not just restaurants owners who have suffered but also the people who worked there, sometimes for years. Restaurants that were institutions, open for 25 years or more, have closed. The owners may well have lost their confidence in the future and won’t reopen.

Phuket’s Multihull Solutions Regatta got off to a great start as PRO Simon James, back from a hiatus in the Welsh hinterlands, was able to fit in three races for all classes on day one between squalls and pounding rain.
Fourteen boats were entered in the regatta, but at the start of the regatta the crew on The Sting woke up, took one look at the weather and went back to bed. Charles Robinson’s Star Trek was dealing with problems in another galaxy and then warming up for the first race, Richard Delaney’s Pulse Red broke its rudder, so there were 11 boats raring to go for the 10:30 start time on the first day. Tide tables being what they are it was imperative that PRO James get the boats off early so that the crews could be back at the host Phuket Yacht Club by mid-afternoon when the tide receded.      
The skies really opened up near the end of the third race and everyone received a thorough soaking but spirits were high. This was the fifth regatta the Club has staged since the onset of COVID, and for many it is just such a relief and respite to be out doing something and competing against the backdrop of all the restrictions brought on by the pandemic. 
This is the eighth regatta where Multihull Solutions has been the title sponsor since they started their sponsorship of the event back in 2014. The winners of the previous regattas are as follows:
2020 – Fugazi; 2019 – Phantom; 2018 – Fugazi; 2017 – Thor; 2016 – Hurricane; 2015 – Hurricane; 2014 -   Java
Paul Stamp has now taken over as the Southeast Asian Manager for Multihull Solutions and was graciously on hand to officially start the regatta, Andrew deBruin has moved back to the company’s new office in Brisbane where he will oversee the company’s operations in Asia.    
It was great to see PYC Commodore Scott Duncanson on the water again as he was steering Fugazi in this regatta. Scott has done a wonderful promoting and organizing the club’s junior sailing program. 

​This superb two-storey property is located on 333 twah (approx. 1,320 sq m), making it one of the largest plots in a peaceful residential area of popular Bangsaray. It features four double bedrooms, four bathrooms, European kitchen, snooker room and lounge areas. Other highlights include a large swimming pool, landscaped garden, a fish pond and waterfall, plus a two-tier sala with small gym. Built by the current owner, the house and land have plenty of potential for reconfiguration and expansion. This sale presents a great opportunity to join Bangsaray’s booming property scene. Price 15.75 million baht.

​For more information Tel:096 884 4178 (English) or 084 651 0550 (Thai).

By Robin Westley Martin

In these dark days of Covid, people from all walks of life in Thailand are facing desperate situations, with some even considering suicide as a way out. Offering them a lifeline are the Samaritans of Thailand, a group of volunteers who work tirelessly to make sure that those in difficulty always have someone to talk to.

Khun Trakarn Chensy, Chairman of the Samaritans of Thailand, has devoted most of his free time to the charity since 1997. In this inspiring article, he explains how the organization works and what it takes to become a volunteer.
               
What can I do? Where can I go? How can I feed my children? When can I go back to work? Why does no one care?
The torment caused by Covid-19 that has spread across the world does not only affect people physically, by becoming sick. It also affects us mentally. And the resulting stress and trauma can be even more debilitating than the disease itself … it affects whole families, from children to senior citizens – even if they have not caught the disease themselves.

Families in lower income groups have been particularly hard-hit. In Thailand many of them toil from day-to-day, in the subsistence economy; they sell their wares on the street; they wheel food-carts around; they work as taxi drivers; they work as maids, as cleaners in the hotel industry, as tour guides; they work in restaurants, in the entertainment industry, and more.
Much of this work has dried up over the last eighteen months, and so have the meagre savings they may have scraped together over the years. Many are in dire straits, and as things have recently become so much worse during the third
Thailand wave of Covid-19 infections they are in despair. Depressed. Hungry. Sick. Worried. Nowhere and no one to turn to for help. And in their desperation, as they hit the all-time low, many have chosen to take the final solution … suicide.