Is the iPad waterproof?

During the recent Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek, the hotel was abound with representatives from the event's various sponsors – including Mount Gay Rum, Phuket International Hospital, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Mont Clair Wine amongst others.

One company called Overboard came with a great deal of waterproof bags and cases.

Jokingly Chaovarit, our Assistant Front Office Manager, dared the agent to throw his iPad, which was in one of the waterproof cases, into the swimming pool. The agent responded by asking Chaovarit to do the honours for him.

Chaovarit did exactly as requested.

SPLASH! 

Now guests can play with their iPad whilst in the swimming pool I guess...

              

Cape Panwa Hotel and Phuket Green Island

A massive "Phuket Green Island Island" event was organised last weekend in honour of retiring Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha.

On Sunday, there was a “Dive against Debris” – the world’s largest dive clean up with over 300 registered divers taking place.

Cape Panwa Hotel too, did its part - on Monday afternoon, staff met up on the hotel beach to clean the area. They walked along the beach and through the gardens picking up pieces of rubbish.

The debris was disposed of carefully and items that could be recycled were 

separated and sent for recycling.

I am looking forward to the piece of “art” that John Underwood (a Phuket artist)  will be creating from the fishing ropes and marine debris that we collected. 

But no matter what your feelings are about art; I am sure that you will all agree that Phuket’s marine life is now better off.

              

Mooncake Festival

The Mooncake Festival fell on the 30th of September this year and it was wonderful to be in Phuket Old Town on that day.

Phuket has a great number of links to the Chinese community and is thus rich in Chinese traditions. If you want to learn more about the growth of the Chinese Community in Phuket I recommend that you visit the Phuket Thai Hua Museum.

The Chinese celebrate this lunar festival by distributing "mooncakes". The mooncake is thin pastry enveloping a sweet dense filling – traditionally made from red bean or lotus seed paste. These days you can find all sorts of fillings, including shrimp and durian, while some have a salted egg yolk in the middle to enhance taste. Each cake is imprinted on the top with a Chinese symbol representing ‘longevity’ or ‘harmony’ or "fortune". You are meant to cut and share the cake by eating only a small wedge.

The celebrations that I saw involved eating mooncakes (obviously), matchmaking, markets, floating lanterns, burning incense and Dragon Dances.

If you are not lucky enough to see this at least try a mooncake or visit a Chinese Temple – I was lucky and did them all.