June 2002 78th Issue

Happy fourth of July

The Annual American Independence Day Picnic has a new home this year. And the view will be spectacular. This year's 226th birthday bash for the United States of America will be held on Saturday, July 6 from 2pm to 7:30 pm. Due to construction on the field of the picnic's traditional home at the New International School of Thailand, this year's event will be held at the lakeside park inside the Thai Tobacco Monopoly. Lake Rachada is the body of water located near the southwest corner of Sukhumvit and Asoke roads, and it will be the beautiful backdrop for the American community's biggest social event of the year. Lake Rachada is just north of the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.

Entry to the American Independence Day picnic will be free to children, and cost only 100 baht if you're 12 years old or over. For those not familiar with the Thai Tobacco Monopoly, free BTS shuttle buses departing from Asoke Station will take you straight to the picnic grounds. Parking should also be available near the lakeside park site.
Every year Americans, as well as family and friends of all nationalities, enjoy authentic all-beef American hot dogs, mouthwatering ribs basted in the U. S. Marines' special barbecue sauce, sizzling grilled chicken, Washington State apples, cheeseburgers with all the fixings and…American beer! The battle for market share between Coke and Pepsi is legendary, but in celebration of America's national day, and only on this day, Coke and Pepsi settle their differences and provide soft drinks free of charge.
Parents and children participate in traditional field games like the egg toss, the watermelon-eating contest, three-legged races, the dunk tank and tug of war. Music by live bands, face-painting, clowns, volleyball matches, rock climbing walls, BMX mountain bike exhibitions and bingo will keep young and old entertained throughout the event. And if you're feeling lucky, participating in our raffle draw could win you a seven day package at the JW Marriott Phuket and Spa or round-trip air tickets overseas with five-star hotel accommodations. Raffle tickets will be on sale for 50 baht each. The evening ends with one of the longest and most spectacular fireworks display seen in Bangkok, over the lake, bombs bursting in air…
In the early 1970s, American lawyer Charlie Kirkwood and his wife Ginny, began holding annual celebrations at what was then the Polo Club on Wireless Road. Over the years, these parties grew in popularity. When the Kirkwoods returned to the United States, the annual celebrations ceased. After a brief interval, the American Chamber of Commerce stepped in to continue the tradition. In 1997 the Chamber discontinued support of the event. For two years, there was no public celebration of American Independence Day in Bangkok. In 1999, a small group of concerned Americans led by Alex Mavro met to determine whether there was sufficient interest in restoring an annual Independence Day celebration tradition. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) was approached for their backing, which was immediately forthcoming. The Joint US Thai Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) and the American Woman's Club (AWC) responded similarly. The New International School of Thailand (NIST) quickly signed on, as did the American Embassy. These five supporting institutions comprised the original Star Spangled Coalition. The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) joined the Coalition in its second year. Now in its fifth year, the Star Spangled Coalition has succeeded not only restoring this fun family American tradition, it has made a difference to the children of Thailand. Over the past three years, the Star Spangled Coalition has donated 500,000 baht to the renowned social organization, Population Community Development Association. These funds, raised at past Independence Day picnics, were used to pay for the scholarships of underprivileged primary school children studying all over Thailand. If you wish to make a donation, volunteer to help, or need more information, contact planning committee coordinator, Roy Tomizawa, at 02-218-3886 or tomizawa@netserv.chula.ac.th, or Star Spangled Coalition founder, Mr. Alex Mavro, at 02-285-3512.

Over the coming months we will bring you extracts from travellers journals in several parts, continuing this month with 'A Glimpse into Cambodia'

Two hours at the Wat did not seem like enough but I have a lot to see so must press on. I am constantly never further than two feet away from a local kid trying to sell me an 'I love Cambodia' T-shirt, tin of coke or tell me some history for two dollars. Next stop is The Bayon, a ruined city which once was home to a million people. This forms the centre of the fortified city of Angkor Thom which is some 10 square kilometres in extent Huge icily smiling garganuan faces are carved into the walls of the eerie and unsettling third level. The city was built by Angkor's greatest builder, Jayavarman VII in the 12th century and has five monumental gates, one in each wall of the city.

The Terrace of the Leper King contains a series of walls which are decorated with five or so tiers of meticulously carved apsaras (shapely dancing women). The attention to detail is astounding, the figures look as fresh as if they had been carved yesterday. Another terrace is decorated with human sized garudas (mythical human-birds), lions and an amazing Parade of Elephants. Many of the Buddha statues have been beheaded by the Khmer Rouge as part of their attempts to obliterate religion during their campaign. The children are becoming more persistent with their selling techniques and the beggars know when they're onto something good. I look for a shaded pocket of tranquillity out of the heat and away from the concourse amongst the ruins of the lost city of Angkor.
Ta Prohm is my next stop, it is a 17th century Buddhist temple and one of the largest edifices of the Angkorian period. It has been left just as it looked when French explorers set eyes on it over a century ago. Many of the other temples are in various states of reconstruction and restoration but this one has been left to the all-devouring jungle. It is totally overgrown, massive tree roots dangle and cling to crumbling buildings, I almost expect to see primitive man cooking his days catch on a fire around this place. It is a mythical labyrinth where time has no meaning, an awesome place unlike any other I have seen. I have visited the highlights of Angkor in a day and time has beaten me, I could easily come back tomorrow and the next day for more but now it is time to head back into Siem Reap and reflect upon today's events.
Siem Reap is a small dusty town with little activity after dark. I take a stroll out in search of my evening meal and meet a local who want to practise his English, he is sporting a Kalashnikov so I politely oblige. Although there is still a serious surplus of guns in Cambodia violence is getting rarer every day. Carrying a firearm to these people is merely the same as carrying a spade or pickaxe. A motorcycle screams past with a squealing pig tied to back of it, I think its time to get some rest before tomorrows early start.
Its dark, raining and I'd rather be asleep. Pack up my few belongings and get back on the moped as my driver takes me south to the port. We pass through numerous farming villages as the rain turns the road into a muddy river and progress is slow and treacherous. Bid my farewells and board a river taxi that will take me to the ferry mooring for the trip to Phnom Penh. The taxi slowly chugs down river and into a floating village where the roads are water and groups of wooden houses and small boats make up the blocks. This is the edge of Cambodia's greatest lake, Tonle Sap which swells from around 3,000 to over 7,500 square km in the wet season. The pontoon on which I am standing is a tiny floating shed onto which more and more people keep clambering. We are finally ushered into a small speedboat designed to carry twenty passengers, there are at least fifty people on this boat. I am lucky to get inside as many sit precariously on the roof as there's no real deck to speak of.
The skipper guns the engine and we are motoring across the great lake at high speed, god only knows how the people on the roof are managing to hold on, this thing must be doing at least 25 knots. I have about two inches of space in which to find the most comfortable position for the four hour trip. A jolt and rapid deceleration as we've driven over a fishing net, people don't seem too concerned though so I won't be. Off again and soon we're into the Tonle Sap River speeding past water villages and the flood plains of central Cambodia. Three uncomfortable hours later after competing for space with fruit, chickens and being climbed over by nearly every child on the boat we slowly draw into the banks. It has taken me this long to recover from the truck ride from Poipet, now I have another level of pain to contend with. Catch a motorcycle taxi through the dusty streets of Phnom Penh to a guesthouse where I can finally relax.

Within a couple of hours I have six new Khmer friends offering to drive me around and trying to sell me marijuana for 8 dollars a kilo, women even cheaper. Today I'll take things at the Asian pace and leave my touring until tomorrow. Phnom Penh is situated at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonl? Sap Rivers and was once considered the loveliest of the French-built cities of Indochina. The European influence here is not as evident as it is across the border in Laos. Phnom Penh seems to be rapidly outgrowing its French heritage and developing an entirely new one. Long dusty boulevards buzzing with motorcycles intersect the city, smaller streets and alleys lined with cafes, shops and food vendors run off in every direction.

Today my driver is taking me to the Tuol Sleng Museum. In 1975 Tuol Svay High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest such centre of detention and torture in the country. During the first part of 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims per day. The prison has now been turned into the Tuol Sleng Museum, which is a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. An uneasy feeling of nausea comes over me as I walk around this chilling place. The silence is haunting. The walls are filled floor to ceiling with thousands of photographs of the men, women and children that were destroyed within these very cells. Images of horrific torture too appalling to describe are also on display, I feel ill. Almost all the people held at S-21 (about 20,000 men, women and children including nine westerners) were later taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek to be executed. We pass under an solemn sign reading 'Genocide Centre' on the way to Choeung Ek 15km south of the city. Over 8,000 skulls, arranged by sex and age, are visible behind the clear glass panels of the Memorial Stupa erected here in 1988. The remains of 8985 people (many of whom bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting bullets and found bound and blindfolded) were exhumed in 1980 from 129 mass graves, 43 of which have been left untouched. The largest single grave contained the remains of 450 people, today it is a 2 by 4 metre hole about a metre deep with a stagnant pool of water in the bottom. Fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits. I feel shocked and numbed to think that all this barbarism occurred less than twenty years ago. Feel a little sombre on the way back and decline the offer to stop at a firing range to shoot Colt-45s and AK-47s, I don't really feel that it would be appropriate after what I have witnessed today.
Back in Phnom Penh the road ahead is blocked by hundreds of people in total disorder. Police, armed forces and a TV. crew arrive, I get a little nervous and want to get away but my guide has other ideas, his curiosity gets the better of him. We head towards the commotion and discover that an armed robbery is in progress and I'm in the middle of it. A man has locked himself in a car and is threatening to detonate a box of grenades if the police don't back off, I really shouldn't be here. All part of everyday life in Phnom Penh apparently.
Survive the little skirmish and take a walk around the city in the late afternoon sun. The riverfront is lined with posh restaurants on one side and shabby food vendors on the other. The difference between rich and poor is big here, there are many amputees due to the abundance of landmines and more beggars than in any other Asian country I have visited. However the Khmers are very inquisitive people, every child on the street can't resist saying hello (the only English word they know) to the foreigner, I reply with the mandatory 'suor sdei'.
It is not advised to venture out alone in Phnom Penh at night so a couple of us, and our drivers head into town to sample the nightlife. Head to a place called Sharky's as recommended by the affable expat who runs the local caf?. Before any of us takes the first mouthful of beer we are surrounded by Vietnamese girls who try, in their best English, to complement us as an endeavour to get drinks and whatever else out of us. Is there no serenity in this city?!
The bus south out of Phnom Penh travels along National Route 4, finally a flat tarmac road! It is my first Cambodian journey that has not resulted in extreme discomfort and pain. We are in the sleepy coastal town of Sihanoukville within four hours, however get ambushed by a hoard of touts and moto drivers who end up fighting over us… for a 2000 riel ride. They evidently do not get many travellers down this way. The guesthouse is quiet and out of the way near the beach, time to relax before the big journey to the border tomorrow. Sihanoukville (also known as Kompong Som) is very quiet but has the potential of being Cambodia's primary beach resort in a few years time. Relax in a small local caf? this evening looking back over my journey through Kampuchea.
The ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Kong, Thailand pulls out at 12.15. No surprise that its fully loaded but at least everyone is allocated seats this time. We are on a time limit as the border closes at 5p.m. and the officials have been known to turn back travellers who arrive a minute too late. Four hours of pounding ocean and tacky, deafening Asian TV. and we pull in to the island near the border. The ferry is swarmed by dinghy's all eager to make a quick buck ferrying us across to the mainland. Climb off for a quick get away but our driver has other plans. After changing boats twice and stopping for fuel we are driven around the north of the island and into the pounding swell with less than 20 minutes until the border closes. After what seems like hours of being ground to a pulp in the hammering rain we finally arrive on the mainland … on the Thai side.
This leaves us with a scramble back into Cambodia for exit stamps with minutes to spare. The customs officials take their time scrutinising my passport (which is dripping wet) but finally stamp me out of Cambodia. I walk in the rainfall across the checkpoint and back into Thailand.
A country that is fresh out of civil war with an infrastructure in disarray has great potential. Despite the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge the Cambodian people are optimistic about the future even though one can sense a slight tension still lingers in the air. The place has an inexplicable buzz and offers a contrast between beauty and horror found nowhere else. On one side are magnificent temples, innocuous and unadorned farming communities, and benevolent people and on the other the Killing Fields, Khmer Rouge, police corruption, and hundreds of thousands of acres of uncleared ordinance. Cambodia is a true gem in the crown of South East Asia, a place I will never forget and one which I am sure to see again.

Article and Photography by Martin Young, next month 'A break in Krabi'.

Hua Hin Jazz Festival

Jazz is creative, spontaneous, lively and energetic and Thailand's oldest beach resort gets very much into the groove from June 21-23 with the Hua Hin Jazz Festival. This event is a chance to enjoy the sublime sounds and cool rhythms from sunset to sunrise and more as over 12 headline bands will be kicking up a storm rattling out tunes from old school bebop jazz to comtemporary hip-hop jazz. This three day event has been set up by the Hua Hin Hotelier's Club, representing the resorts leading five-star hotels, in conjunction with Volvo and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and is expected to attract over 12,000 people from international music lovers to Hua Hin locals. Major sponsors include Volvo, TAT, Avis, Bangkok Airways, Singha Beer and Dole Thailand.
Ensuring your stroll along the sand goes with a swing, on Friday there'll be glorious "Sunset Jazz" on the beach with performances outside participating hotels from 6-10pm. On Saturday there'll be a large outdoor stage (Festival Stage) in the town centre featuring a veritable who's who of the best Thai musicians and bands from 11am to midnight. There will be performances from "Mr Jazz" Tewan Sapsanykorn (pictured), the perennially funky T-Bone, and Bangkok International Big Band among others with contemporary dance acts completing the lively line up.
Things are wrapped up in fine style on Sunday with more intoxicating jazz on the festival stage from 12-3pm and a spectacular grand finale at the Hilton Hua Hin's opulent ballroom from 3-5pm (free admission).

Tewan Sapsanyakron, 53 years old, is Thailand's most renowned jazz musician who will be taking a starring role at the Hua Hin Jazz Festival with his Novel Jazz band, which display a funky fusion of Thai and international sounds. Tewan has jazz in his blood and started to play the violin at 12 years old, graduating to the saxophone at 17. He became a professional musician at 20 and has mastered a number of instruments over his long and distinguished career, including soprano saxophone, alto sax, tenor sax, clarinet and Thai flute. Between 1970 and 1983 he was a member of the group Oriental Funk, the most famous jazz band of the period. He has also played with Hot Pepper and Bruce Gaston's fabulous Fong Nam band. A founding member of the Hua Hin Hotelier's Club , the Hilton's Dirk De Cuyper says "It'll be everybody's weekend and help put Hua Hin on the international map". The Club comprises of: Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa, Sofitel Central Hua Hin Resort, Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa, Hyatt Regency Hua Hin, Anantara Resort & Spa, Dusit Resort & Polo Club, Evason Hua Hin Resort & Spa and Chiva-Som International Health Resort. It's a non-profit organisation too, so all proceeds of the Jazz Festival and future events will be donated to Royal charities, ensuring all that jazz is not only the ultimate in toe-tapping entertainment but that it's also for a good cause.

Hua Hin Jazz on the Beach Schedule
Friday June 21, 2002
TIME, HOTEL, PERIOD, BAND
1730-1930 Hilton 1 Bangkok Connection
1930-2130 Hilton 2 Amazing Quintet
1800-2000 Dusit 1 Mahidol University
2000-2200 Dusit 2 Bangkok Connection
1830-2030 Sofitel 1 T-Bone
2030-2230 Sofitel 2 Mahidol University
1900-2100 Anantara 1 Bangkok International
2100-2300 Anantara 2 T-Bone
1930-2130 Marriott 1 Niran Jazz
2130-2330 Marriott 2 Bangkok International
2000-2200 Hyatt 1 Position
2200-2400 Hyatt 2 Niran Jazz
2000-2200 Evason 1 Bubble Jazz
2200-2400 Evason 2 Amazing Quintet
Saturday June 22, 2002
TIME, HOTEL, PERIOD, BAND
1730-1930 Hilton 1 Bubble Jazz
1930-2130 Hilton 2 Position
1800-2000 Dusit 1 Amazing Quintet
2000-2200 Dusit 2 Bubble Jazz
1830-2030 Sofitel 1 Bangkok Connection
2030-2230 Sofitel 2 Amazing Quintet
1900-2100 Anantara 1 Mahdol University
2100-2300 Anantara 2 Bangkok Connection
1930-2130 Marriott 1 T-Bone
2130-2330 Marriott 2 Mahidol University
2000-2200 Hyatt 1 Bangkok International
2200-2400 Hyatt 2 T-Bone
2000-2200 Evason 1 Niran Jazz
2200-2400 Evason 2 Position
Sunday June 23, 2002
TIME HOTEL VENUE PERIOD BAND
1200-1500 Hilton 1 T-Bone
1200-1500 Dusit 1 Bangkok Connection
1200-1500 Sofitel 1 Bubble Jazz
1200-1500 Anantara 1 Niran Jazz
1200-1500 Marriott 1 Amazing Quintet
1200-1500 Hyatt 1 Mahidol University
1200-1500 Evason 1 Bangkok International

Hua Hin Jazz Festival Schedule (main stage)
Saturday June 22, 2002 Venue: Hua Hin Junction
TIME, DETAILS, LENGTH
1050 MC 10 mins
1100 Position 50 mins, MC 10 mins
1200 Amazing Quintet 50 mins, Dance Show 10 mins
1300 Prart Group 50 mins, Dance Show 10 mins
1400 Mahidol University 60 mins
1500 March Jazz Band 30 mins
1530 Bangkok Connection 50 mins, Dance Show 10 mins
1630 Niran Jazz 50 mins, Dance Show 10 mins
1730 T-Bone 50 mins, MC 10 mins
1830 Bangkok International 60 mins, Big Band and Mr Winston Byrd
1930 March Jazz Band 20 mins, MC 10 mins
2000 Tewan Novel Jazz 120 mins, MC
2200 I.A. 50 mins, Dance Show 10 mins
2300 Afro Thunder 50 mins, MC 10 mins
Sunday June 23, 2002 Venue: Ballroom, Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa
1500 MC, All Jazz bands (Finale) (3 hours)
1800 Finish

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