By Tim Cornwall  

​In an earlier life, I was a philatelist who acquired much of my collection via various stamp auctions around the world. Although I sold my stamps a while back, I still enjoy browsing the contents of local auction houses – and one of the most interesting is John Collingbourne’s weekly auction in Banglamung, Chonburi. It’s an occasion I follow most weeks and definitely visit when I am in the Pattaya area.
Having a few items lying around the apartment I no longer needed, I thought I might take a few of them over to Collingbourne Auctioneers and listen to John’s amazingly persuasive patter to an attentive audience of buyers.
After chatting to this most engaging Welshman, I learned how I can either de-clutter or clutter my living abode even more.

How did you become an auctioneer?
In 1984, I held the lease on an acre site in Newport South Wales. It was being used as a motor station and for a haulage business, but there was still a lot of spare room so I was looking for something else to do.
     When the Severn Bridge was opened in my younger days it was much easier to travel to the car auctions in Bristol. I’d buy a car on Monday, sell it, and return the next week for another one. I became fascinated by auctions and the seed was sown.
     Many years later, a car auction was opened on our spare land in a marquee and over the next 20 years it grew to larger premises and subsequently sold.
     At first we employed funnily an auctioneer but I soon taught myself the skills so we could save the expenses. You see, I am a self-taught auctioneer and am still doing it today.

CRU Champagne Bar at Centara Grand at CentralWorld has some mouth-watering new additions to our menu.
Paired with a flute of premium Champagne or bubbly cocktail, try the Wagyu Beef Skewers with Périgueux sauce, Chicken Teriyaki Lollipops, Duck Spring Rolls with Hoisin sauce, Pork Gyoza with soya sauce and Fried Arabiki Sausages with homemade ketchup.
For fish and seafood lovers, go for the ‘Oysters on the Half Shell’, Crunchy Snow Fish Rolls with orange mayonnaise, Fried Calamari with garlic aioli or shrimp balls with XO Sauce.
Sweet additions to the menu include Fine Crisp Alsatian Tart Flammekueche, Chocolate Combination and Passion Fruit Meringue "Macaroon".
Prices start from THB 255, including the 360-degrees from our rooftop deck on the top of Centara Grand at CentralWorld.
Call +66(0)2 100 6255 or 
email diningcgcw@chr.co.th.

Travelling between Bangkok and Hua Hin has always been a challenge, what with the weekend and holiday traffic congestion, the endless ‘work-in-progress’ road repairs and a desperately slow train service.
Well, that’s all going to change - but you’re going to have to wait a few more years. Thailand’s capital and its famous royal resort are going to be linked by new motorways, high speed train services and a revival of domestic flights. The plan is to turn Hua Hin into the ‘Thailand Riveria,’ one of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s pet tourism projects that will simultaneously allow easier trade links with China and other members of ASEAN. 
Once completed, the new coastal motorway that from Bangkok to Samut Songkhram, across the salt flats of Samut Sakhon and beyond, will bring joy to motorists who for more than four decades have faced frustrating delays because of constant repairs to the existing road. Several sections of the new elevated highway have already been completed.
There are also plans to build a motorway from Nakhon Pathom to Cha-Am.
The 34 billion baht ‘high-speed’ rail project links Bangkok’s soon-to-open Bang Sue Grand Station to Hua Hin, via Nakhon Pathom, and further south to Chumpon. At certain points trains may reach a maximum design speed of 160 km per hour along the 211 km double track.
Apart from laying a new track running parallel to the existing track, the project involves the construction of a large number of railway bridges, overpasses, some  40 U-turn bridges, 12 underpasses, six container yards, and a 4 km elevated track at Hua Hin Station. A total of 58 new small and large stations en route are being either upgraded or built in the authentic traditional style.

T​ake advantage of the Suite Escape package and celebrate Thai New Year in style at the brand-new Montien Hotel Surawong Bangkok.
Escape the summer heat in a generously sized Premier Deluxe Room (56sqm) with soaking bathtub and the Montien’s signature California king bed.
Skip the line and check-in in the comfort of your room and let your butler make arrangements to discover the popular Silom district of Bangkok.
Receive F&B credit worth THB 2,500 to be used in the hotel’s Michelin recommended restaurant Ruenton and a complimentary welcome drink for two at the chic wine-bar Phar-Ram IV Bistro.  Wake up to a delicious breakfast set served in your room!
That’s not all. The hotel also offers early check-in at 8 am and late check-out until 4 pm for those booking this staycation package.

​The Suite Escape package costs only THB 5,500 net.
Inquiries and reservation, Tel + 66 2 233 7060 or LINE ID @montienbangkok
Facebook @montiensurawongbkk
Booking period now until 30 June 2021.

We all know buffaloes can’t talk. But few creatures have more stories to tell than this 5,000-year-old “backbone” of Asia. Thailand’s culture, beliefs and customs evolved as a “rice civilization” and Thai people have been seamlessly fused with water buffaloes in all aspects of farming since ancient times.  
On a recent trip to Thalee Noi (small sea) shared with some 45,000 resident and migratory birds, mangroves, marshes, mongoose and crab eating macaques, I was mesmerized by the swamp water buffalo. Here, a small water borne herd glided past our longtail boat, nurturing their young, gracefully embodying a sense of strength, endurance, resilience, and calm we could all use these days. Inspired and intrigued, I took a closer look.
If water buffalos could speak, they would reflect on five millennia of partnership with mankind, from Neolithic days in the Yangtze River delta, bolstering society with their sheer strength, labour, meat, horns, hides, milk and butterfat. The global water buffalo population is now about 172 million, with 96 percent of them in Asia, comprising 22 ‘River’ and 16 ‘Swamp’ varieties.
In Thailand, however, there is a recent and alarming population decline. In 1987 there were about six million swamp water buffaloes, with numbers dropping to 700,000 by 2015. Rice harvest mechanization and higher prices for buffalo meat and hide in neighboring countries have exacerbated the lightning speed demise. Are we so willing to watch our ancestral companions vanish?

Name:  Joseph Henry
Nickname: Joe
Born: May 3, 1967, in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Education: Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.
Family: All my family lives in Vancouver, Canada. I was in a long-term relationship with a Thai lady, however we did not have children, so  I’ve no family here in Bangkok.
Where do you live?   I live in the Thonglor area of Bangkok.
Profession: I am a Corporate and Marketing Communications expert with 25 years of experience in Asia.
What is your present position? (Work, and name of company):  CEO and Co-Founder of Vivaldi Public Relations
What does your company do?:  Vivaldi is primarily in the business of  consulting on reputation management strategies for companies organizations and major events through public communications channels like the media, online and social channels too.
​Any other business interests?: Right now, Vivaldi is developing new business services that will meet market demands requiring creativity, digital content, and influence in Thailand and internationally in the coming years.  In this time of crisis we are seeing opportunities!
First job – and why?: Through some friends, I had the splendidly good fortune to meet Khun Suddhitham Chirathivat, who at that time was the CEO of Central Pattana on my first visit to Thailand.  It was not long after that he offered me a Marketing Manager position at Central Pattana.   Without hesitation, I jumped at the opportunity to move over to Bangkok.

These three quotes are ascribed to the ultimate showman P.T. Barnum, but they could just as easily have been uttered by Jon Nutt, Thailand’s very own incarnation of a quirky, yet savvy impresario.
After a quick search on Google I discovered that in the 1600s John Nutt was a notorious English pirate, who had raided the west of England and Canada. Now his (maybe) descendant is taking no prisoners, as he raids the previously unassailable dominance of the established rulers of MMA, such as the UFC, and others.
Jon Nutt is an imposing six-foot plus, and this frame is perfect for him as the ringmaster of his chosen profession of fight promoter. He is the founder and owner of Full Metal Dojo in Thailand and has gained an enthusiastic following in the Kingdom, while his fame is spreading further afield at an exponential rate, mostly due to Jon and his team’s expert use of social media … and the ever-important word of mouth from important ‘influencers’ whom Jon calls friends. Plus of course  unbridled self-promotion, from which I expect nothing less from this larger-than-life character.
It was Jon’s mother who first encouraged his interest in martial arts at the age of eight, so by the time he had left college he had participated in Greco-Roman wrestling, and trained in Brazilian ju-jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, and Shotokan karate, as well as regular boxing.
After a relatively short career in contact sports, Jon became aware that he would probably never be a world champion fighter, and it was when he was handed a microphone for the first time, to comment on a boxing bout, that he realised almost immediately that this was what he was born to do.
The Jon Nutt we know in Thailand, the showman, whose energy seems to know no bounds, was born that day.
At my interview with Jon, I greeted him. “Hi Jon, How are you?”
“I’m amazing, every day,” was his reply. This was not bragging, it’s just Jon’s natural way, I soon realised. Jon is a force of nature who seems powered by a nuclear reactor, I knew I was going to enjoy my time spent with him.
Hi enthusiasm is infectious and I soon learnt that Jon – who has lived full-time in Thailand since 2007 with his Thai partner and family – believes that Thai fighters are the future of MMA in the lower weight divisions. He says, “The best striking martial art is Muay Thai, hands down. Karate and Tae Kwon Do don’t compare. Give me three to five years and I can guarantee that you will see fighters from Thailand on the world stage, and some of them will be UFC champions.”
Full Metal Dojo (FMD), Jon’s own company, promoting MMA action in Thailand is not one of the heavyweights (yet), and Jon knows this. But he says that pound for pound FMD is one of the best live-action shows around.
​He is not focusing on the fat cats who only hang around to be seen. His market is for the real lovers of boxing and MMA, and if you go to one of his shows you will not forget it in a hurry.