Alan Parkhouse is one of the most respected senior journalists in the region. Fellow writer Scott Murray recently caught up with ‘Parkie’ to talk about his many experiences in a long and eventful career.

Alan Parkhouse is one of the most respected senior journalists in the region. Fellow writer Scott Murray recently caught up with ‘Parkie’ to talk about his many experiences in a long and eventful career.
 
Alan was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1954. He grew up in Grafton, a town of about 30,000, in northern New South Wales. He left Grafton High School at 15 to start an apprenticeship as a hand and machine compositor, or hot metal printer, at the Daily Examiner, Grafton’s local newspaper since 1859. Later, he went on to the Sydney Graphic Arts College as part of his apprenticeship.
 
Otherwise, he studied at the school of hard knocks. Alan switched to journalism in the 1980s and became the editor of two suburban papers in Sydney before moving to the bigger national dailies. He has worked in newspapers in Australia, Thailand, England, Cambodia and Hong Kong. As well as the two suburban newspapers in Sydney, and he has been the editor-in-chief of The Phnom Penh Post and Khmer Times in Cambodia and the acting editor of the Sunday Bangkok Post roughly 10 times while the editor was on holidays. 

Thailand’s most famous model and beauty queen Lukkade Metinee Kingpayome opens academy ‘Muse By Metinee’ and reveals the secrets for success
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Ms. Metinee ‘Lukkade’ Kingpayome, Thailand’s first supermodel, actress, entrepreneur and title holder of Miss Thailand World 1992, is officially revealing her secrets to success and stardom with the recent launch of Muse by Metinee.
 
With almost 30 years in the industry, Lukkade has garnered many awards and accolades for her success, learned the pitfall and secrets to make it in the industry and put all her learnings together in a well-crafted Muse by Metinee curriculum taught by Metinee herself and handpicked professionals. Courses at Muse by Metinee will help those that want to build their skills to become a top model, an actress, a beauty queen, an entertainer or simply how to bring out the best version of yourself.
 
Muse by Metinee is an inclusive learning grounds open to all genders and races from ages four and higher and is held at the state of the art and newly opened Minizize Dance Studio located at The Street on Ratchadapisek Road, starting from March 2020 onwards.

ALATi is located on the lobby floor of Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok and opens daily for an à la carte lunch from 12:00 to 14:30 anddinner from 18:30 to 22:30.
 
Tel:+662 162 9000 or email alati.siambangkok@kempinski.com.

SURF by Seafood Express

SURF by Seafood Express started as a Delivery Premium seafood more than four years ago but has now become a restaurant serving fresh seafood such as Canadian Lobster, Sri Lanka Prawn, Large Crab from and Oysters from Surat Thani.
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Open : 10:00 -22:00 (Closed on Wednesday)
Tel: 095-778-9000
Delivery Line: @seafoodexpress
www.theseafoodexpress.com
FB : theseafoodexpress / FB : SURFseafoodrestaurant

Blooming bilateral relations
“Our embassy here has four Mongolian diplomats and one local staff. My family and the families of other Mongolian staff live nearby the embassy, which is on Soi Ekkamai 22. We moved to this location from a place on Asoke Road in 2006. We are close to some government offices and the embassies of Bangladesh, Nepal and Egypt among others. Previously, one of our embassy staff was looking after both consular affairs and UNESCAP, but this became too much for them. With a growing number of Mongolians visiting Thailand, we now have a consular officer fully dedicated to the consular affairs, after separating UNESCAP and consular portfolio.
 
“There’s no Thai embassy in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital; the Thai embassy in Beijing has responsibility for Mongolia. Thai colleagues tell me that Mongolia is at the top of the list for new Thai embassy locations, and we are looking forward to that day. Mongolia has three other embassies in Southeast Asia, in Singapore, Vietnam and in Laos. Vietnam and Laos are our long-standing friends and traditional partners. We established embassies in our respective countries because we were in the same camp under the old global political system, and we are happy to maintain our traditionally friendly ties now that things have changed.
 
“There are 49 Mongolian diplomatic missions around the world including embassies, missions to UN and consulates, and our economic growth makes it possible and worthwhile to maintain them. We have big embassies in Moscow, Beijing, Washington DC, Tokyo and in Seoul, while other embassies are comparatively small. Our embassy in Bangkok is about average in size.

The Gurkhas guarding the British Embassy have been part of the UK’s presence in Thailand for many decades, but sadly things have changed dramatically in recent years with the demolition of the embassy and its move to an office block on Sathorn Road.
 
As the Gurkhas will be returning to Nepal shortly, Bangkok St. George’s wanted to bid an apt farewell by holding a curry lunch at Bistro 33 on 11 January. John Hocking, the new President of Bangkok St. George’s Society, coordinated the arrangements between Sgt. Major Hari Lal Pun MBE and the staff at Bistro 33 to make it a most successful albeit emotional afternoon.
 
It proved a busy event with almost 70 people attending, including representatives of the Royal British Legion, and everybody thoroughly enjoyed the tasty Gurkha curry. After a rather noisy raffle draw presided over by Laura and Martin Smith, the Sgt. Major made a surprise presentation to John Hocking and Gale Bailey. Both were delighted but overwhelmed, especially as the kukuri knives badges they received are regarded as a high honour.
 
The Sgt. Major then held an auction for a kukuri (Gurkha knife), with the proceeds being shared between the Gurkhas and St. George’s Society. Many bids were made but finally it was won by Andrew Dalton, a former Australian soldier (2002- 2013) who completed three tours of Afghanistan where he worked briefly with the British Gurkhas who he holds in high regard.
 
To round off the event, a donation was made to the Royal British Legion Chonburi Branch Thailand to help their welfare work. St. George’s Society would like to thank all concerned for making this event so successful, with special thanks to Barry Shea, Susan and staff of Bistro 33 for their generosity and service. Thanks also to the Royal Oak and others who donated raffle prizes as well as R.B.L. representatives.

The DSI was established in October 2002 primarily to create a strong, proactive law enforcement agency that would focus on national security and also transnational and organized crime.
 
Pol Gen Sombat has been director-general of the DSI since his move from the Royal Thai Police in January 2004. The DSI now has only one office in Bangkok but there are plans to expand to other regions of the country. “We have got here many highly qualified officers chosen from the ranks of police, customs and revenue departments, as well as prosecutors, accountants and lawyers from a variety of other government departments.”
 
Pol Gen Sombat said that the biggest problem for the DSI is training. “Some of our recruits don’t know how to investigate, so we have to train them. We have a close relationship with foreign investigation experts in the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries. They come here to instruct our officers,” he revealed.
 
Pol Gen Sombat dismissed a criticism that was rife in the agency’s early days: “Some officials didn’t like the DSI because they thought it overlaps other agencies. They still had an old working culture mindset. Things are better now and we cooperate very well.”
 
He also admitted that in the beginning some officers thought that they were better than other law enforcement people because they were selected to the DSI, but that situation has also been resolved.
 
Pol Gen Sombat highlighted two controversial cases currently being investigated by the DSI. First, the disappearance of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaichit, who had defended several suspects in connection with the violence in the restive South and who went missing on March 12, 2004. The second case was the murder of environmentalist Charoen Wat-aksorn, who was gunned down on June 21, 2004 after testifying before a Senate committee about attempts by some influential people to grab public land. He was instrumental in pressuring the government to scrap plans to build the Bo Nok power plant in Prachuap Khiri Khan province.
 
Pol Gen Sombat is well aware that the handling of both cases has received a great deal of attention, and criticism, from local and foreign media as well as human rights organisations.
 
“I can assure you that everyone at the DSI is doing their utmost to solve both cases,” he said.
 
The DSI was assigned to investigate the Somchai case about five months ago because it was a priority case that the police were having difficulties with.
 
“I am really trying to solve this case and I am confident that we will succeed. But a lack of evidence makes the investigation very difficult. You see, Somchai’s body has not even been found yet.”
 
As for Mr Charoen, he added, “we have arrested several people, but his wife is not quite happy and still wants us to arrest more. We have no evidence on which to do so, and this has disappointed her. We work according to the evidence, and not because of pressure from any party. We do our best but we have to follow laws, regulations and to respect human rights.”

FROM THE YEAR 2006
The head of Thailand’s oldest and biggest independent law firm, David Lyman has found peace and serenity in his adopted home

As a youngster, David Lyman didn’t want to become a lawyer as his parents and many of his relatives were. Instead he joined the US Navy, but couldn’t escape his destiny. While debating whether or not to stay in the Navy,he decided to try studying law, and said to himself after the end of the first semester: “This is what I really want to do!” Four decades later he can still say, “I never regretted it.” 

Mr Lyman is now Chairman and Chief Values Officer of Tilleke & Gibbins International Ltd., which is the oldest and biggest independent law firm in Thailand. With 265 employees, the company serves more than 5,000 corporate and business clients from over 100 countries. The clients include national government agencies, banks, airlines, shipping companies and fashion houses.
 
“The company was established in 1890 by a Ceylonese, Mr William Alfred Tilleke. It was bought by my father in 1951 and I took over after his death in 1984,” Mr Lyman said. 

“I came to Thailand for the first time with my parents in 1949, when I was 12 years old. They had decided to live here for good because it was a very friendly place – as it still is today – in comparison with other countries in the region at that time, when wars of independence raged in many nations around Thailand.
 
“My father compared Thailand to the ‘eye of the hurricane’ because the eye is always calm, sunny, no wind blowing while the storm rages all around. Thailand is still a land of calm and sun,” Mr Lyman said.
 
“Of course,” he continued, “I know what is happening in the South and so on, but generally speaking the Thais are a quite accepting and open society. 

“They are open to new ideas. I have learned how to appreciate their culture and how to function within it, just as my parents did. I have also adopted the ‘Thai way’ of doing things. I try to live by a code of ethics, stay out of local politics, be honest, work hard and do my best to understand how the system works, because you have to work within the system. And that’s how we have developed a world-wide reputation.” 

David’s parents made substantial contributions to the Kingdom. Mr Albert Lyman was a founder of the American Association of Thailand (now the American Chamber of Commerce) and also a founder and chairman of the Bangkok Stock Exchange (now the Stock Exchange of Thailand).
 
Mrs Freda Lyman received the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand 5th Class in 1961 for her work with the Foundation for Crippled Children and was the first foreign woman to be decorated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
 
“We have had a good relationship with virtually every government because we don't involve ourselves with political matters,” Mr Lyman said. “Of course we have to understand the political situation and to know the politicians. I have known some of them since we were all young. We grew up together.
 
“I am not concerned about ‘good or bad’ government. All my concern is that this country must develop. The Thai people want to see it develop. There’s a saying that ‘Thailand succeeds despite governments’. It succeeds because of the nature of its people and their culture. And as I said, it is the ‘eye of the hurricane’. It has a peace and serenity that you can’t find anywhere else in Asia.”
 
Business-wise, Mr Lyman said that there was not much competition here until 1965. “Now, there are a lot of foreign-owned or foreign-oriented firms as well as the Thai lawyers who were trained in Thailand or overseas, and lawyers who left their firms and established themselves here. There are fine lawyers in this country. Good client service is a key to a successful practice. Many law firms can do the same things we do, and we can do the same things they do,” Mr Lyman stressed.
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​Why cooking as a career?
It started when my mother was a chef in a hotel restaurant. I worked as a casual staff in the restaurant and I thought “this is fun.”

Two biggest influences on your career?
Vincent Maillard, Executive Chef of Lily Of The Valley in St. Tropez / Frédéric Vardon, Chef and owner of Le39V Paris.

Best early kitchen experience?
Two or three months ago, when I had a chance to work with Michelin chefs from Italy.

Worst kitchen experience?
When I started out as a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant in France, I was not used to the way they work and had lots of pressure.

Best meal you’ve ever had?
Lunch at L’assiette in Paris, very nice handcraft French comfort food.

What’s your cooking philosophy?
Classic, Tasty, Beautiful and Hot.

What’s your signature dish?
Slow-cooked 48-hour Chuck Roll at The District Grill Room & Bar.

Favorite cookbook?
Le Dictionnaire Amoureux of Chef Alain Ducasse.