Explore every delicious dimension of Thai cuisine with Chef Jasvir Sanghera (Chef Mama Duu), a spirited lady chef with a deep love and respect for the national dishes who practices her art and craft at Pirom Restaurant, InterCon­tinental Hua Hin Resort.
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As someone who always strives to do better, Jasvir picks up coveted prizes along the way. There was the Silver Medal she won at the Culinary Art Exhibi­tion, her appointments as Honorable Chef presiding for Thai Airways Interna­tional and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and her Bronze Medal in fruit carving at IFHS. And she still found time to satisfy the rigorous standards of the Society of Public Health Inspectors, Singapore.

Because of his expertise and success in directing His Majesty the King’s rainmaking and weather modification operations, Mr Warawut Khanti­yanan is regarded as one of the world’s top scientists in the field.

​As director of the Royal Rainmaking Section of the Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agriculture Aviation (BRRAA), Mr Warawut Khantiyanan supervises 500 persons involved in day-to-day operations.
 
Coincidentally, Mr Warawut was born in 1955, the year His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej initiated the concept of royal rainmaking.
 
Under his leadership, the BRRAA has implemented a rainmaking system regarded by foreign experts as one of the most successful anywhere.
 
He remains modest despite the recognition. For instance, you won't see his many diplomas or citations in his office at Kasertsat University in Bangkok.
 
“I have received many commendations, but the greatest honour for me is being granted an audience, on several occasions, with His Majesty the King,” said the 52-year-old director.
 
“The King has called on our team several times. Sometimes we’ve met with him in the field and sometimes in the Royal Palace. He made us understand his policy and how to apply royal rainmaking techniques to solve water shortages. He stressed that rainmaking is an integral part of national water resources management. The King also taught his unit new cloud-seeding techniques.”

by Robin Westley Martin

This iconic song title is of course by The Beatles, a group still loved all over the world, and it’s super appropriate at this particular point in time. The Covid-19 coronavirus has spread across the globe, and we all need a bit of help – with the self-isolation and social distancing rules that are in place we are all feeling a little ‘down’.

The spread of the virus and the death toll continues to grow in Thailand, Europe, the UK, and the US. I sincerely hope that by the time you read this that the turnaround back to the way it was before has begun. And that the infographics showing the daily loss of life and rise in new infections are less harrowing to view, and will follow the course seen in Hubei province, China, where this deadly iteration of coronavirus first surfaced.
For several days now there have been no new infections reported in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak of a pandemic that has spread around the world. Info: by early April there had been more than 1.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in 183 countries, and more than 84,000 people had died.

The poor and poorly paid in Thailand are being particularly hard hit, as they work from day to day … the money they earn daily is to buy food and other essentials, such as rent for accommodation, and for personal hygiene, about which we are constantly being advised/ordered to … Wash your hands! Sanitise! Wear a mask! … all very well, but what if you can’t even afford a bar of soap, let alone a mask, if you are lucky enough to find one on sale!

All the cash the needy residents of the community earn by selling streetfood or fresh fruit from their little pushcarts has dried up, no one to sell to, and they also run the risk of being fined should they choose to go out; the groups of ‘rubbish-pickers’ that nightly scour the streets and alleyways of Bangkok with their three-wheeled flatbed trolleys looking for bottles, cans, and cardboard that they can recycle; the army of workers in the nightlife entertainment areas: all of these are self-employed,  and receive scant help from the government now that their revenue stream is no more. And this is only the beginning; no one knows how long it might take before we get back to anything approaching pre-pandemic ‘normality’.
 
So who is there to step in, and give whatever help and succour that they can. The charities! It is true that our main priority in this war against the invisible Covid enemy is to take care of our own health and that of our families … but while we are all stuck at home together with our microwave popcorn and Netflix, let’s spare a thought for these charities. They are struggling too, particularly so, as the number of recipients that require their assistance is increasing day by day. In this piece we are going to look at two charities in Thailand, the Mercy Centre / Human Development Foundation, and the Soi Dogs Foundation.  Animals are suffering too, and are even less able to help themselves than their poor and underprivileged human neighbours.

To read 'two wheels over japan (part 1) at https://www.thebigchilli.com/feature-stories/two-wheels-over-japan-part-1

After watching two games of rugby in Kyoto and Tokyo in last year’s Rugby World Cup, Bangkok expat Andrew Macpherson stayed on in Japan to explore the country’s deep south by bike.

​Apart from tackling numerous grueling mountain rides, his epic 18-day journey also involved constant and sometimes fruitless searches for overnight accommodation.

Day 1. (15th Oct) 8.30 am start and I’m off on the coastal road to Ibusuki and on to Yamagawa, a 54 km ride from where I catch the ferry over to Nejime, which is a 50-minute crossing. On arrival, I decided to go to the most southerly point at Cape Sata, a 35 km ride from the ferry. Having watched the sun dropping in the sky, I figure it’s time to find a hotel. At 105 km and just as darkness is fall­ing, my front tyre has a puncture. It’s quickly pitch black. This is where the roadside drink vending machines come into their own, by providing a much needed floodlit area to fix a puncture.

Puncture now fixed with a new inner tube, and with information from a local who stopped at the drink vend­ing machine, who had advised me that the only place to find accommodation was by going 20 km back down the mountains I’d already climbed, or maybe about 40 km in the opposite direction.

Since I hadn’t spotted any accommodation in the previous 20 km, I opted for the road ahead and cycled off into the darkness, although I had lights on my bicycle at this point. A wrong turn at a junction found me on a track that petered out into a sandy beach, so a bit of backtrack­ing was called for. Eventually with 153 km cycled that day I arrived in a town, where at about 11.30 pm the only sign of life was a lit window at a launderette. The bench in front of the window was to be my accommodation for my first night of the cycling trip, not quite what was planned. But with a rechargeable front light that had run out of power at least three hours earlier, I deemed it too dangerous to continue riding down more mountains without being able to see the roads.

THE FOLLOWING BANGKOK RESTAURANTS HAVE HOME DELIVERY SERVICES: 

Hungry Hub
Hungry Hub, the buffet app in Thailand, has just expanded its service to include "value set meal" takeaway / delivery covering more than 70 restaurants, starting from 399 Baht / set.
This project is to help restaurants during COVID-19 shutdown. They include well known restaurants like Arno's, Boon Tong Kee, Penguin Eat Shabu, Rod Dee Ded The Steakhouse and W Hotel (Kitchen Table).
Fixed delivery fees of 50 Baht of up to 8km. Order at www.hungryhub.com

Bawarchi Restaurant
The legendary queen of all curries - Butter Chicken and Kashmiri Rogan Josh plus a whole lot more.
Delivered from our kitchen fresh to your home. 
Call us now and leave the rest to us. 
FREE delivery AND 20% off from our usual menu prices 
Call 026567357 or 0618140088

Photography by Tadamasa Nagayama

The 2019-2020 Sport Corner Siam Hockey League capped off what was the most exciting season yet with a drama filled playoffs and championship.  
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Peak Biolabs and Novotel earned the right to play for the championship by winning their respective semifinal series.  

In the first playoff series, Novotel took out Hertz in a two-game sweep after Hertz earned the right to select their first round opponent by finishing first in the final regular season standings.  Novotel took their selection as strong motivation to prove Hertz made a mistake by picking them, as Novotel had finished third in the standings ahead of Aware.

Both semifinal games of the series saw Novotel take control of the game, and when Novotel was able to get a few pucks past Hertz goalie Lance Parker, Novotel netminder Leo Liao shut the door and proved why he was the best goalie in the league all season.

In the other semifinal series, Aware and Peak played the closest playoff series in the four seasons of the SHL.  The two teams split the first two games with Aware winning game one and Peak game two, with both games only being decided in the final two minutes. The third and final game was a back and forth affair with Peak pulling it out, again with the game going deep into the third period without a clear winner. ​

Do you ever play traditional Irish ballads? Lots of 'em, often.

Any difficult audience requests? The most difficult song I play is ‘You'll Never Walk Alone’. Lots of chords! My favorite song is American Pie. Fortunately, just about everyone in the world can sing along to the chorus.

Any music you’d like to play but doesn’t work with local audiences? Just about anything I play will work at one time or another. The song ‘Taxi’ by Harry Chapin is one of my favorites but it's long and not a lot of people here know it. An expat from the US who I knew for a couple of years, but had never seen me play, came into the pub and requested Taxi. I played it. He said, "That's impressive". He left and never came to see me play again, even though he lived in the neighborhood.
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Ever faced hecklers? Love 'em!
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Best compliment you’ve ever received as a musician? Someone once gave me a hundred dollar bill. Another time a group of people were sitting at the back of the pub all evening. When I finished one of guys came to the stage and said, "That was really good. Where's your iPad or your tablet?". I said I don't have one. He said, "You can't just KNOW ALL those songs."
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When not performing, how do you relax? This is a family magazine.

​​What’s next for you? If I survive the plague... during normal times I'm at The Australian Pub on Sukhumvit, Soi 11 every Tuesday, 9 to midnight. The Clubhouse, Sukhumvit Soi 23 the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month from 8 to 11 pm. Weekends at Father Ted's Irish Pub in Hua Hin.

Opportunities in Bangkok’s second-hand business market have never been better Prices of small and medium businesses for sale already plummeting, creating some rich pickings for investors taking a long-term view of prospects for the Thai economy.

Brokers say that the asking prices of going concerns like restaurants, bars, pubs, small hotels and hostels have dropped significantly since the COVID-19 virus outbreak. “There’s never been a better time to buy a business,” said one of Bangkok’s most experienced brokers. “Bargains are
everywhere and more are coming.

“Last month I sold a European restaurant in Bangkok for under 50% of the listed price. The buyer, also from Europe, has got a great deal.

“A bar in the Central Business District was last week reduced from 5.5 million baht to just 3.5 million baht. That’s potentially another fantastic deal – if you’ve got the money,” he cautioned.

Among the other bargains right now is a recently refurbished pub in the CBD and a go-go in Nana Plaza, which has been reduced in price from 12 million baht to just two million baht. Nightlife areas like Nana have been told to close under the new government lockdown of Bangkok. Restaurants have also been forced to shut until the middle of this month, or maybe longer, depending on the effectiveness of the new regulations.
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Meanwhile, brokers are witnessing a big increase in the number of businesses for sale. “It’s an unusual situation which will see a correction in the not too distant future. For now, though, it’s bargain time,” remarked one middleman.