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IT’S SHOW TIME IN THAILAND

Top Cultural & Recreational Attractions

Among Asian travellers, Thailand is seen as an attractive and exotic holiday destination, made even more popular by the country’s growing reputation for world-class, family entertainment. Thais believe in sanuk — having a good time. They are ready to sing and dance at the drop of a hat, and this has encouraged savvy entrepreneurs to invest in high quality attractions, often with a strong cultural elements that enthral international visitors. Not all succeed, but those that do have put themselves – and Thailand – on Asia’s entertainment map.

TIMELESS CLASSICS

THE ROSE GARDEN

Heritage & Legacy

For almost 40 years, the Rose Garden has championed Thai cultural heritage as a tourist attraction. Its pioneering Thai Village Show opened in 1972 when an inspired Suchada Yuvaboon decided that international visitors would enjoy learning something about traditional Thai life. It had small beginnings. Suchada recruited many of the local staff at the Rose Garden to perform in the shows under the tutelage of two teachers from the Fine Arts Department. The shows highlighted everyday Thai village life, from offering food to monks in the morning, to preparing meals, folk music, dance, harvest festivals and traditional weddings.

Audiences were small and the pioneering show struggled, until fate – in the shape of Kuoni travel agency – introduced a tour to the Damnoen Saduak floating market with a stopover at the Rose Garden for lunch and the show. International travellers loved the dose of traditional Thai culture that the Rose Garden offered, with this enthusiasm pushing the show to ever greater success.

During her tenure at the Rose Garden, Suchada shrewdly built on the Thai life theme, extending the Thai village to include hands-on experience for visitors to learn about Thai cooking, fruit carving, basket weaving and other daily tasks. She also introduced the Thai Living Tour for visitors to learn about the national heritage within and outside the resort.

The rebranding as Rose Garden Riverside in 2006 to enhance its green retreat image coincided with Suchada handing over the operational reins to son Arrut, an ardent environmentalist. Arrut has enhanced the resort’s image as a place where visitors can experience the traditional Thai way of life, turning back the clock to how Thailand used to be. Numerous daily activities in the resort’s village teach visitors about Thai arts and crafts. Effectively, the whole Rose Garden has become an intriguing cultural show with its own organic farm that offers training for the local community in healthy living. Surprisingly, instead of just reaching out to international visitors, the Rose Garden has become a centre for locals and schoolchildren eager to learn about — and participate in — traditional ways of living.

As for the award-winning Thai Village Show, Arrut has decided that after 40 years of flying the cultural flag it is time for a change. His plan is to turn the clock back 900 years to the time of the Dvarati kingdom when Nakhon Pathom was the centre of a newly emerging nation and its magnificent chedi the birthplace of Buddhism in Thailand. When the new show comes on stream in time for the Rose Garden’s 50th anniversary in 2012, it will continue to be a showcase for traditional Thai living for many years to come.

KHUM KHANTOKE CHIANG MAI

Keeping Lanna Traditions Alive

Successful businessman Watchara Tantranond is so proud of his Chiang Mai heritage that he wants to welcome visitors to his city with a display of northern (Lanna) culture. For Watchara, northern culture includes speeches, hospitality, cuisine, attire, music and dance – exactly the ingredients he poured into his huge open-air restaurant Khum Khantoke when it opened nine years ago. A khantoke dinner is the traditional Chiang Mai way of welcoming guests, dining on authentic northern dishes from small circular trays (khantoke) while seated on cushions on the floor.

The nightly show of music and dance is the highlight of the dinner, with beautifully costumed performers bringing to vibrant life traditional hill tribe and northern dances as well as cultural influences from other regions of Thailand, accompanied by music from the resident band of Thai instruments. Performers are recruited from Chiang Mai Natasin School of Dance. Khum Khantoke’s choreographers have trained the students in how to perform in front of a live audiences. Natasin provides a ready source of trained dancers for Khum Khantoke, which in turn offers steady employment opportunities.

Although a fire early in 2010 destroyed some of the restaurant buildings, the show carried on with additional sala (pavilions) raising the seating capacity to 700. A new air-conditioned building designed along exquisite northern architectural lines will add seating for 728 persons when it opens in October 2011.

Watchara is now planning to export his cultural showpiece to southern China, whose Dai population has a close affinity to northern Thailand in language and culture. Construction of a second Khum Khantoke, with seating for 1,100 persons, is under way in Xishuangpanna with plans to open in 2012, thereby setting in place a cultural link between Chiang Mai and China’s Yunnan province.

THE NEW GENERATION OF ‘THEME VENUES’

SIAM NIRAMIT BANGKOK

Taking Thai Cultural Performances to New Heights

Pannin Kitiparaporn has been involved in the amusement park business for over 20 years. She turned to Thailand’s rich cultural heritage when looking to invest in a new tourist attraction, believing in the capability of her company to create a world-class show.

After five years of research, theatre construction, rehearsals and frequent script adjustments, Siam Niramit opened in October 2005 to great acclaim, taking audiences on a fascinating journey through the history and mythology of ancient Siam and modern Thailand. It is hard not to be impressed with the gigantic stage, innumerable sets, magnificent costumes and 150 performers as flying angels, demons, giants, heroes and dancers. A supporting cast of animals brings to life key aspects of Thailand’s cultural heritage.

The biggest challenge to the creation of Siam Niramit was Pannin’s insistence on authenticity and cultural integrity, while understanding the need to make the show entertaining to ensure its commercial viability. “Today’s audiences want to see something fast paced, exciting and entertaining. Thai art and culture are not like that,” she explains. To achieve the right blend of cultural integrity, entertainment and the latest stage technology, Pannin and her team spent over a year painstakingly adjusting the script scene by scene. “Sometimes scenes had to be revised 10 or 20 times. There was a lot of frustration.”

The theatre has the world’s largest stage, and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Pannin wanted it large so that the audience would feel like they are watching a real event. This is enhanced by Pannin’s desire for authenticity. “We designed the sets and costumes from historical records, paintings, architecture and murals,” she explains. “Our Lanna is really Lanna. Our almost 100 sets are real recreations as we want our audience to imagine they are in those places.”

After almost six years on stage, Siam Niramit’s blend of cultural authenticity and entertainment, high quality production and fascinating story line continue to attract international visitors. Highlighting its achievement, Siam Niramit recently received the Prime Minister’s Creative Award in the field of performing art for its outstanding stage performance based on history, culture and tradition while employing modern technology and techniques to make it more attractive to foreign visitors. Even more relevant, Pannin will ride on the show’s international appeal by opening a second Siam Niramit theatre in Phuket at the end of 2011.

NONG NOOCH PARADISE, PATTAYA

‘PARADISE ON EARTH’

Located just outside the popular beach resort of Pattaya, these gardens began life in 1954 as a fruit orchard. However, during travels abroad, Nong Nooch Tansacha was inspired by beautiful gardens in Europe and America to create her own botanical gardens. At first it was a private spot for friends, but after tourism began to grow in Pattaya during the 1970s, Mrs Nong Nooch opened her gardens to the public in 1980, complete with its now famous cultural show to give tourists a first-hand taste of life in Thailand.

Such is its popularity, that the cultural show is performed four times daily and features music and dance from the various regions of Thailand, festivals, religious activities and martial arts. Performers are recruited from local schools and colleges, and continuously trained in Thailand’s traditional dances by choreographers and dance teachers. As elephants are so intimately a part of Thai heritage, the Amazing Elephant Show takes on a life all its own.

Nong Nooch’s original vision of a beautiful garden is now in the hands of her son Kampon, who has transformed the former fruit orchard into 700 acres of landscaped botanical gardens of outstanding beauty with one of the world’s premier collections of palms and cycads, as well as orchids, cacti and a host of tropical plants. The garden staff is large, with many having worked on the project since the beginning. The Thai affinity to the soil makes Nong Nooch Paradise a complete experience for visitors.

TIMELESS VARIETY

TIFFANY’S SHOW, PATTAYA

SHOWING YOU A GREAT TIME

Pattaya’s love affair with transvestite shows began as a one-man show for friends on New Year’s Eve 1974 at Balai Hai restaurant. It was so popular that it became a regular feature at Bala Hai, giving birth to the Tiffany’s Show and the legend of Pa Tui, drag queen and much-loved comedian. Sadly, Pa Tui (Pradeow Phansuk) passed away in 2010 having delighted myriad audiences over the years with his humour and outrageous style.

Entrepreneur Sutham Phanthusak was so enthused about the potential of Tiffany’s Show that he built a theatre in North Pattaya to bring the show from Balai Hai and develop it into the hugely successful operation of today. Thais are quite accepting of what they call the “third sex” (transvestites/

transgenders). Tiffany’s Show helped to pioneer that acceptance while also offering an opportunity for its performers to delight international audiences with their glamorous stage performances.

The theatre has since expanded to seat 1,000 persons, added the latest in light and sound technology and stages four shows daily. Sutham’s daughter, Alisa, has taken over the management and introduced changes, such as composing their own songs and adding a Thai cultural element to the performances. However, it is the outstanding glamour of the performers and the superb costumes they wear that so enamours audiences.

Such is the reputation of Tiffany’s Show that attracting performers is never a problem. Alisa conducts regular auditions to maintain a performing staff of over 80. She admits they require a lot of training to learn Western cabaret styles for lip-sync performances. Their reputation has also travelled overseas, with invitations to perform in China, Japan and London, where they caused a sensation at the Olympia Exhibition Centre.

Twice a year at the theatre, Alisa and her staff host the Miss Tiffany Universe Pageant for Thai competitors (May) and Miss International Queen Pageant (November), attracting competitors – and intense interest – from around the world and creating opportunities for the international transvestite community to show off their talents and beauty in an appropriate way. Proceeds from these events are donated to the Red Cross Society and Chaipattana Foundation.

RIPLEY’S WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT, PATTAYA

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum made its debut in Pattaya in 1995, becoming a key attraction in the Royal Garden Plaza and offering a daytime activity for families in what is often perceived as a nightlife resort. After 16 years in operation, this world-famous museum of over 300 oddities remains popular among Thai and international visitors, young and old.

The good response to the museum has led to the gradual addition of other Ripley’s attractions, says General Manager Somporn Naksuetrong, pointing to Ripley’s 4D Moving Theater, Ripley’s Infinity Maze, and newcomer Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks – no connection relation to Madame Tussaud’s in London. All the attractions are located alongside the museum and offer high standards of operation in true Ripley’s style.

The arrival of Ripley’s Haunted Adventure caters to the Thai love of a good ghost story. Many Thais are very superstitious and have a strong belief in ghosts — usually rather nasty and vengeful ones. Based on a true story about a California coffin-making company called Grimsby and Streaper, where strange happenings constantly occurred, Ripley’s Haunted Adventure seemed a natural choice to intrigue the Thai psyche, particularly as it utilized real actors. Somporn has no trouble recruiting Thai performers as horror actors, giving them professional training from Scare School in the US, the results of which are undoubtedly convincing.

These shows are just a few of the numerous entertainment attractions Thailand now offers its welcome visitors. These are the trail blazers who have won awards in recognition of their unwavering commitment to providing a fun time for international visitors, dedicated to the business of delivering ‘sanuk’.

The Rose Garden

Km 32 Pet Kasem Road, Sampran, Nakhon Pathom, 73110 Thailand

Tel: +66 34 322 544

Fax: +66 34 322775

Web site: http://www.rosegardenriverside.com

Khum Khantoke Chiang Mai

139 Mu 4, Chiang Mai - Lampang Road,

Tambon Nong Pa Khrang, Amphoe Mueang, Chiang Mai

Tel: +66 (0) 5330 4121-3, (0) 8 9758 7558

Web site: http://khantoke.com/en/index_en.html

Siam Niramit

19 Tiam Ruam Mit Road, Khet Huai Khwang, Bangkok 10320