Parties, festival and events around Thailand
Pattaya will rock you
The Pattaya International Music Festival takes place from March 19 to 21, with all the fun focused on an inland amphitheatre for the bands and beachside terraces for the DJs. Now in its eighth year, the festival serves up rhythm & blues, rock and all the varieties they call music these days, locals and foreigners piling in to dance, attend workshops, make videos and meet the stars.
Need a push?
The Bangkok Triathlon rolls out on April 4 and 5 along the New Industrial Ring Road off Rama III Road. Sign up for the triathlon (a 1,500metre swim in the Chao Phraya River, cycling for 40km and a 10km run), the miniduathlon or, on April 6, the Bangkok Chakri Day Run. Register online at www.BangkokTriathlon.org.
We're the hole in one
Thailand is the golfer's Destination of the Year in Asia and Australasia, according to IAGTO, the global trade organisation of the golftourism industry. The announcement was made at the end of the International Golf Travel Market in Malaga, Spain. IAGTO, representing 320 golftour operators in 47 countries, controls more than 60 per cent of the golfholiday packages sold worldwide. Each year the operators vote for the best golf destinations.
No admission charge!
Tourist visas are free for the next year, the government says. Until March 31, 2011, all foreigners applying for tourist visas at Thai embassies and consulates anywhere in the world and on arrival here are exempted from paying the usual fee. Don't believe us? Check it out at the Foreign Affairs Ministry website, www.MFA.go.th.
