The resort’s inaugural ‘Passion for Perfume’ programme in April was such a success, the resort says, that it will repeat it in August, with two two-day courses, on August 19/20 ad 21/22.

As in April, ‘Passion for Perfume’ will be hosted by perfumer Stephen Dowthwaite, founder of Perfumers World in Bangkok. “Over the two days,” the resort explains, “guests will experiment with fragrances and understand the connection between scents and emotions. In the end, couples can create their own signature perfume, a pheromone-sparking fragrance that sets pulses racing and sends a shiver down the spine.”

Steven Dowthwaite of Perfumers World in Bangkok will teach the courses.

Each day the ‘Passion for Perfume’ programme will consist of a two-hour morning session followed by a three-hour practical afternoon workshop.

Day 1 – In the morning, guests will be introduced to the ABCs of perfumery, learning the basics of blending and beginning to identify a fragrance’s key notes. After lunch, using their newfound knowledge, they will reproduce their favorite perfume using a selection of 26 base fragrances.

Day 2 – In the morning participants blend their own perfume to convey a feeling, place or atmosphere, and in the afternoon, once they understand the senses-stirring ability of essential oils and natural extracts, they will create their own personal aphrodisiac.

Along with a bottle of their signature scent, at the end of the two-day escape couples will receive a 40-page guide to perfumery and a certificate.

The price for the two-day programme, which includes lunch and snacks on both days, is B7,000 per person (about US$260), plus tax. For more information or to book, go here.

If you can’t make it this time around, the course will be repeated in October.

Phuket Archery Club owner Santi (left) and his brother Chai, on the range. Chai is holding a conventional long bow, while Santi has a modern compound bow. - Photo © Alasdair Forbes 2010.

Twang. Thunk. Robin Hood was good at it. So was William Tell – he could split an apple at 100 paces. Henry V of England won the battle of Agincourt 600 years ago in great part due to his archers. Closer to Thailand, Phra Narai in the Ramayana was an astonishingly good archer.

And now you can be too, maybe. You won’t know till you try, and you can now try at the newly opened Phuket Archery Club, in Phuket Town.

The club is the brainchild of Santi Tontungtrong, who learned how to use a bow and arrow in Bangkok, got hooked on the sport, and decided it was just what he and Phuket needs.

“We have all these shooting ranges here, and guns are too easy to get hold of,” he said. “When kids get hold of a gun, they are going to want to use it. This is a much healthier outlet for them. It’s a real sport. I want to get schools involved, too.”

The range at the club consists of a piece of open grass surrounded by a metal wall on two sides and a building on the left. Set up in this space are 16 targets at various distances from the covered firing area.

There’s a shop with arrows, bows of various types and prices, finger guards, arm guards and quivers for those who want to get really serious about things.

But the club has plenty of equipment for hire. Pay B200 for the use of it, and B50 for the range, and you get a happy hour of twanging away. The club will even throw in free lessons for those who’ve never done it before.

If you have your own equipment, you pay just B50 an hour for using the range, or there’s a deal until the end of October: pay B300 a month and get the use of the range at B20 an hour.

There’s plenty of parking space, and there’s an area for a café when Santi can get someone to rent it.

The Phuket Archery Club is just off Ong Sim Phai Rd. Heading away from the Robinson department store towards the seahorse roundabout, keep an eye on the right side of the road. You’ll see two enormous arrows sticking out of the ground.

Santi can be reached at +66 (0) 8 1979 5680, or contact his niece, Sudrak Phongpheng, by email to phongpheng@hotmail.com

Fun and games at a summer camp in Germany, 1952. Photo by Roger and Renate Rössing.

Baby boomers will probably remember the 1963 hit song Hello Muddah Hello Fadduh by Allan Sherman, a parody of letters from his son, incarcerated in a summer camp called Camp Grenada. It includes verses such as:

Now I don’t want this should scare ya,
But my bunk mate has malaria.
You remember Jeffrey Hardy…
They’re about to organize a searching party.

Take me home, oh Muddah, Fadduh,
Take me home, I hate Granada!
Don’t leave me in the forest where
I might get eaten by a bear.

Things in summer camps have improved since those days, and most kids now can’t wait to get away from home and join in.

That’s what Phuket International Academy is no doubt counting on to fill its Kids’ Camps in August. And for homesick kids who live in Phuket, there are day activities so that they get to sleep in their own beds, and not worry about getting eaten by bears in the middle of the night.

Parents can opt to pay for half- or full-day options, or full residential stays taking full advantage of the slew of sports, arts and adventure activities each day.  ”The emphasis of these camps is to help students develop their self esteem, confidence and leadership qualities,” PIA explains. Yes… but fun is surely the main point.

Children from six years of age up to 14 are eligible. There will be two five-day camps, from August 2 to 6 and 9 to 13, with a weekend camp in between. Prices for non-boarders are B500 for a half day, B1,000 for a full day, B5,000 for five days and B2,500 for the weekend camp. For boarders the prices are B10,000 for either of the five-day camps.

To register your kids, send email here or call +66 (0) 76 336 000 and ask for Mik.

What's that down there?? Using Hollywood-style green-screen magic, a family fly over Phang Nag Bay in their "rot saleng"- Thai-style motorbike and sidecar.

Laguna Phuket has just launched its annual Summer Family Festival, with a new twist – families can now star in their own professionally-produced Hollywood-style motorbike tour of Phuket.

The Family Festival,  first launched last year, is aimed at all the family, whether visiting Phuket or living here. For children there will be three-hour programme each day (2 – 5pm), featuring in turn activities such as Wacky Games, Sports Skills; Climbing Capers; Treasure Hunts, High Ropes Adventure; Wet ‘n’ Wild; Arts & Crafts, Slip ‘n’ Splash; rock climbing and other outdoor adventure activities. For hotel guests these sessions are free. For non-guests the price is B200 per child.

There will also be a bouncy castle for the little ones, and evening Kidz Lounge sessions with movies and video games and a new KidzSole flying trapeze.

For parents, there will be a barbecue and beer tent with screenings of all the World Cup matches, along with live music, quiz nights and other entertainment.

The new “Hollywood@Laguna” will feature a rot saleng – a Thai-style motorbike with sidecar – in front of a green screen. Footage taken of the family will be combined with shots of various parts of Phuket, including James Bond Island – this motorbike can ride on water, part of the magic of Hollywood.

Families can even be involved in a choreographed “bike crash”, then continue making the movie with appropriate crash victim make-up.

For more on Hollywood@Laguna, go here. For more on the Summer Family Festival, go here. The festival continues until October 31.

The MY Sarsen - waiting for a charter.

Need a boat that can go anywhere? Anywhere there’s plenty of water? Actually, not so much a boat – more of a small ship. Across the Pacific? Easy. Penguin watching at the South Pole? Sure, why not?  We have just the boat for you – and it’s in Phuket.

In fact, the MY Sarsen has been in Phuket, moored at Ao Po Grand Marina, for more than six months, waiting for a charter. She belongs to Moir Holdings Australia Pty, a company set up by wealthy Australian Fred Moir, who made his money in mining machinery.

Fred has a Thai wife and a house in Phuket, hence the Thai connection. He also employs an almost entirely Thai crew for the Sarsen. The full complement is 18 crew, though currently there are only six aboard.

Fred told the Phuket Observer, “The original plan was to do trips down to the Antarctic.” (The Sarsen was built in the 1970s as a research vessel and has a reinforced hull to allow it to work in pack ice.) “We did two trips down there, but we couldn’t get a lot of interest in keeping the thing going. So I’ve just got her parked here while we think what we’re going to do next. I’m quite happy to look at opportunities.”

One possible charter on the horizon is a trip to Howland Island, smack in the middle of the Pacific. Howland Island was the destination of the final flight of 1930s aviatrix Amelia Earhart. She never made it, and the location of her aircraft – and her remains – is still a mystery. The Sarsen‘s charterers hope to solve the mystery.

But apart from that trip, the Sarsen’s diary is pretty much free. So if you’d rather not buy that B10 million condo right now, here’s a way to use the money – just book the Sarsen for a couple of weeks and take a load of friends with you.

To find out more about the Sarsen, go here. To get in touch with Fred Moir, email us.

And Fred also has a 10-seater Pilatus PC-12 aircraft for charter. So now you have a choice – slow or fast.

Shake those abs - photo by Boris van Hoytema.

Ladies: Suffering from jelly belly? All you need is a pair of bike shorts and a scarf around your hips and you’re good to go at Royal Phuket Marina for the belly dancing course that starts there on June 6, finishing at the end of August.

The course consists of ten lessons in the following two months, covering “Techniques” and “Choreography Structure”. Giving the lessons, we’re told, will be the “famous” Malika.

The course costs B600 per lesson, or there’s an “early bird” price of B500 for those who sign up before May 30. To sign up, or to get more information, call Murat at +66 (0) 8 1797 3364 or email him here.

The lessons will take place in the RPM gym from 12:30 to 2pm every Sunday.

Tetsuo Suse is bubbling over with excitement.

Japanese musician and resident of Phuket, Tetsuo Suse, has scored a countrywide first for the island with his new microbubble spa. In fact, he may have scored a world first with the two microbubble steam rooms he’s installed at his MB House spa, which opened in January.

Microbubbles are the next big thing in spa treatments. Unlike ordinary bubbles that quickly float to the surface and burst, microbubbles are very small – typically one-fifth of the diameter of a human hair, and stay in the water, gradually getting smaller until they collapse in a tiny burst of energy.

If it sounds as though it might be a little weird to sit in a tub full of tiny explosions, out guinea pig assures us that you won’t feel a thing. We sent him in to do the treatment: shower (with microbubble water); steam room (with microbubble steam) followed by a cooling soak in a goemon tub (full of – what else – microbubble water).

The 'friends' goemon tub.

A goemon tub (pronounced “go-eh-mon”) is, for those who’ve never come across it, a circular tub just big enough for one person – about the size of a cartoon cannibal cooking pot. Suse has also broken with Japanese tradition and built a larger goemon so that two or three friends – close friends – can soak together.

The guinea pig said the experience was, at least, a great deal more relaxing than his last job, testing the slides at Splash Jungle. And he reports that his nose did indeed feel smoother and his fur was shinier after the treatment.

Wild claims are already being made in various websites for the therapeutic effects of microbubbles – they produce ultrasonic waves, bursting at high speeds that massage deep into your skin and muscles; they can reduce stress and fatigue and even help you to lose weight.

The massage room upstairs, where microbubble therapy continues.

Suse makes no such claims, but he does firmly believe that they can deep clean the skin, removing dead particles and leaving one scrubbed and with a smooth, white, healthy skin. This, as anyone who has seen all the commercials for skin whitener on Thai TV will know, is potentially a big, big winner.

He does note that people from cold countries, with their generally paler skin, get whiter faster. Stands to reason. Thai skin, he says, takes longer before it is noticeably paler.

For those who can’t spend all day everyday getting smoother and whiter at MB House, Suse is the exclusive agent in Thailand for Neola products, the only full-on skincare products made with microbubbles. Nivea does apparently make some microbubble products, but Suse is dismissive of these. “They only use a very little microbubble water, so it’s like milky coffee. Neola’s like espresso,” he says.

The steam room and goemon baths are in the garden behind the main reception area at Suse’s home, sharing the shade with a pool full of doctor fish. Stick your feet in the pool and they’ll nibble off any dead skin. Actually, Suse himself is not keen on the fish – they tickle too much, he says. But they are popular with customers.

Upstairs from the reception area is the massage room, with traditional Thai massage, foot massage and aromatherapy massage. And yes, the oils used also contain microbubbles – although normal water and oil don’t mix, microbubble water and oil do, apparently.

Feed your feet to the fish; let these cute chaps cure your cuticles.

Apart from the Neola products, Suse can sell you an MB shower head or a full-on MB generator. He’s also rather excited about upcoming technology from Japan that will use microbubbles to clean the grey water from your bathroom or kitchen. “I was in Shanghai recently to demonstrate the MB generator, and the water in the taps in that city is pretty smelly. But after I treated it with microbubbles, the smell disappeared,” he says.

Some wild claims about the benefits of microbubbles cam be found on the Internet – that they produce ultrasound when the bubbles pop, which can make a five-minute MB bath as effective as a one-hour massage; or that they can ease the pain of arthritis, or can even reduce excess blubber.

Suse makes no such claims – just that you’ll come out of a session at MB House with a clean, smooth, paler, healthier skin.

And we did have to ask: do microbubbles cure hangovers? Sadly the answer is no, but a good steam and soak, we reckon, could ease the pain.

MB Hose is a bit off the beaten track, on the right of the road about 7km east of the Heroines’ monument, along the road to Pa Khlok, Bang Rong and Ao Po. Call +66 76 352 014 for an appointment (it’s busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays). The website is here.

Gottle a gear - Mon with captured Tokkae.

Phamon Samphanthamit – better known to his friends as Mon, is the guy you need to know when your spouse runs from the bathroom shrieking “Snake! Snake!” – a not uncommon occurrence; after all, paradise is well known for harbouring at least one snake…

Most of the snakes in Phuket are pretty harmless. The biggest, growing up to 10 metres in length, are the reticulated pythons. They’re not poisonous, but are quite capable of catching and swallowing your pet poodle.

Much more dangerous are the cobras, particularly the rather common monocellate cobra, which Thais call ngu hau. Get bitten by one of these and you need to get to hospital ASAP. Less common, but even more dangerous, is the king cobra (ngu jong ahng), which can reach almost 6 metres in length.

Apart from being life-threatening, the venom from both of these snakes destroys body tissue around the bite area, usually necessitating surgery. So it’s good to know someone who will come to your house and deal with snakes. You can call the local villagers who will be happy to beat the snake to death (and possibly beat your bathroom to death in the process) or you can call Mon.

Mon works for the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation (WAR), based in Bang Rong village on the northeast side of the island, and part of his job is catching snakes alive and releasing them in places far from human habitation.

“They are beautiful animals,” he says, “and I have never wanted to kill any of them.” In fact, he admits to a bit of an obsession with snakes, often capturing them so that he can add to his library of snake photos, then releasing them again.

Monocellate cobra, photographed by Mon. Quite common in Phuket, and definitely dangerous.

Mon recalls handling his first snake when he was six years old. He found out later that it was a potentially deadly banded krait, and he quickly learned to be careful to identify a snake before catching it. He’s been bitten three times, each time, happily, by non-venomous snakes.

His advice, if you find a snake in your home or garden:

1. Leave it alone.
2. Try to identify it, or at least make a note of its size, colours and head shape.
3. Call Mon at +66 (0) 84702 3302 or +66 (0) 76 260 491.
4. Keep an eye on the snake so that you’ll be able to show Mon where it is.

Mon will also come and cart away Tokkae lizards. Tokkae, at around 8 inches, are the T Rexes of the gecko world; they feed on all kinds of bugs and also like to snack on their smaller relatives, which is useful. The downside is that the males make an almighty racket at night – “tok-tok-tok-tok-TOKKAE!” – and they are not toilet-trained.

So wait till your tokkae has wiped out the local gecko population, or until you can no longer stand the noise, then call Mon.

Mon takes no payment for his services, but he will accept donations to WAR.

Koh Tapoo, or James Bond Island - just can't take a picture without pesky tourists getting in the way...

Koh Tapoo (Nail Island) was swiftly renamed by savvy tourism operators to cash in on the twenty seven and a half  visitors who came to Phuket each year in those days. The renaming was prescient; these days it’s hard to take a picture of Koh Tapoo without 10,000 tourists in the foreground.

But Golden Gun is far from the only movie short in part or completely in or around Phuket. There are dozens of them.

In fact, Phang Nga Bay appeared in another Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, released in 1997. In this case the baddie, Elliot Carver, hid his evil stealth ship in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. The movie makers found it a great deal easier to film the marine shots in Phang Nga Bay, which looks a lot like Ha Long.

Remember The Killing Fields, the grim 1984 movie about Pol Pot’s days in charge of the rapidly dwindling population of Cambodia? Remember the scene of desperate Cambodians climbing over the fence into the French Embassy in hopes of getting asylum? The fence belongs to the Provincial Hall in Phuket City.

Or how about Good Morning, Vietnam, the bitter-sweet-funny romance starring Robin Williams? Vietnam was still deep into Communist paranoia in those days, and shooting the film there would have been impossible, so director Barry Levinson settled on Thailand, with the streets of Thalang standing in for Saigon.

The grim Brian de Palma Vietnam War movie, Casualties of War, released in 1989, and starring Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox, also used locations in Kanchanburi, Phang Nga and Phuket for the same reason.

But it hasn’t all been spies and soldiers. The 1992 journo flic, Turtle Beach, starring Greta Scacchi, Joan Chen and Jack Thompson, though purportedly set in Malaysia, was shot in Phuket. Phang Nga Bay featured again in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Sort of. The limestone towers of Phang Nga were shot from the air and then CG’d massively to create Kashyyyk, home world of furry spaceship pilot Chewbacca and his cuddly cousins the Wookies.

Leo, with Maya Bay in the background.

Probably the most successful movie in terms of drawing tourists to Phuket was The Beach, the 2000 Leonardo di Caprio backpacker adventure movie. Phang Nga Rd in Phuket Town stood in for Khao San Rd in Bangkok, and Maya Bay on Phi Phi Lay Island was The Beach.

There was considerable controversy over alterations the movie makers made to the foreshore at Maya Bay, remodeling the dunes and planting extra palm trees. Environmentalists protested and made filming difficult. Arrayed against the greenies were the boatmen ferrying movie staff and equipment – and palm trees – to and fro. It came close to fisticuffs on a number of occasions.

The Observer’s sources indicate that darker forces were behind all of this – a battle between hotel owners for the lucrative contract to house hundreds of movie people for months on end. Details of that story, of course, are not likely to see the light of day.

But the movie was a big success, and thousands of people poured into Phuket and headed for Maya Bay, then wondered disappointedly why they were sharing the beach with thousands of other people.

One surprise: in 1987 the Aussie love story Echoes of Paradise, starring Wendy Hughes and purportedly set on Bali, was shot in Phuket. Maybe Indonesia was miffed that Wendy’s love interest, supposedly a Balinese dancer, was played by Hong Kong’s John Lone.

A large chunk of the second Bridget Jones movie, The Edge of Reason, which starred Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, took place in Phuket. This piece of romantic froth eventually grossed 263 million bucks worldwide. Must have been the scenery.

The list goes on, and it’s not just movies; it’s TV, too. And it’s not just Hollywood, but movies and TV productions from many other countries.

The 10-episode Australian TV series, Vietnam, was shot partly on Phuket, and last year scenes for Bollywood action star and heart-throb Sanjay Dutt’s Blue were filmed in Thalang Rd in Phuket Town. Dhoom Dadakka, The 2009 Indian contender for unfunniest comedy of all time, was also shot partly on Phuket. The Amazing Race, the TV “reality” show, has twice visited the island, and another Bridget – Bridget Marquardt – rode an elephant and went parasailing in Phuket in her travel series Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches.

Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant discuss romance with Phang Nga Bay in the background.

In 1996, Phuket featured in an episode of the German doctors-and-nurses series Klinik Unter Palmen, and one of Portugal’s longest-running soaps, Tempo de Viver, also paid a visit. Even the Danes have got in on the act, with travel series På togt med Troels Kløvedal – Nordkaperen i det Indiske Ocean (how do you pronounce that?) sailed the waters off Phuket in a schooner. And there are many more – too many to mention here.

Finally, a mention of a Thai movie made recently in Phuket: Tin Mine. This revolved around a young man coming of age on a tin dredge in Phuket in the 1940s. It was the official Thai entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2005 Academy Awards. It didn’t win, but it’s not a bad movie, so if you want a taste of Phuket before tourism, watch it. If you can find a copy, that is.

Down the plughole backwards - the Superbowl swallows another victim.

The Observer was invited to the official opening today of the shiny new Splash Jungle water park at West Sands, next to Mai Khao Beach and the airport. We hired a guinea pig to test out the rides. Here’s his report on the Big 5 rides:

“Being short and furry (cute, too), I opted to start on the lower level, about four miles up. Well, that’s what it feels like when you’re short and furry. A lot of steps. There are three chutes on this level, each twisting this way and that.

“The beige-coloured one is tackled while sitting in an inflatable ring with two solid handles for white-knuckle gripping. It’s a bit like how I imagine bob-sleigh would be. Ever seen that on TV? When they take a bend too fast and disappear over the top, followed by an explosion of snow? I’ll swear I came that close. Oo-er.

“Up the steps again goes your intrepid guinea pig. This time the nice chaps take away my bob-sleigh for the next ride in the green chute. I’m told I have to go down feet-first, forearms crossed on my chest. What you might call the coffin position.

A tough job, but someone's got to do it: two of the Splash Jungle lifeguards demonstrate how it's done.

“This one’s more like luge, without the luge. It’s impossible to stay in line while slaloming  round the bends, and I suspect I take a couple of curves with my head bumping along the bottom of the channel and my feet sticking way up the air. In the last millisecond, everything straightens up, however, and I exit into the pool feet first, which means my nose gets a high-pressure clean-out.

“Your fearless guinea pig now climbs up a lot of steps again to the blue chute. This one’s completely enclosed. A pipe. A big drain. A big Black Hole. How do they know there’s nothing in there? Rocks? Missing persons? The Starship Enterprise? Things that eat guinea pigs? Oo-er. But I’m being paid the big bucks, so once again I assume the coffin position, which seems particularly appropriate for this descent into night, and plunge in.

“I cross the event horizon. It takes milliseconds. And hours. But once again I exit, astonishingly in the same universe, and get my sinuses cleaned out again. I’ll swear I was upside down a couple of times. Impossible to tell when it’s completely dark and you’re traveling at just under light speed. Phew.

“Now it’s the biggies. The top of the tower (a lot more steps). Here, at roughly the same height as Mount Everest, there’s a choice: The Boomarango, the Superbowl or back down the stairs. But the boss is standing behind me with a cattle prod, so the stairs are out.

“Once more into the ring with the white-knuckle handles. Once more into a dark tunnel that slopes down at roughly 90 degrees. Yes, I’ll swear it’s vertical. Then out into the sun on a wide runway that curves skyward. So this is the Boomerango.

The plumbing at Splash Jungle, with the Boomerango at left.

“They told us that it’s impossible – impossible – to go off the end of the chute. Now I know they were wrong. Here’s me. Here’s the end of the chute. About two millimeters to go and I’m still going waaaay too fast.

“Then I stop and start sliding back. They were right! But now I’m travelling backwards at warp speed. I can’t see where I’m going. What if I hit something? I have no control! But let’s be realistic – when was the last time a guinea pig was in control of anything? I splash down safe again. Phew.

“More steps. And more. Back up to the top again. Climb back into my ring. Enter another black tunnel. Superbowl time. Out of the tunnel into the bowl. Round the rim at a speed guaranteed to turn the hair white. Round again, and then backwards down another black hole. Down the plughole. And splashdown.

“I’m alive! I’m alive! I’ve done the big five! Can I get paid now, please?”

Okay. Five lettuce leaves, wasn’t it?

No, you cheapskate. It was ten… That’s more like it. Thank you. Don’t call me – I’ll call you. Not.

Entry fees to Splash Jungle until April 30 (including taxes) are B2,100 for adults and B 1,229  for children (height 100-130 cm). Children under 100cm tall get in free. For Thais and foreign residents the prices are B1,755 for adults and B1,229 for children between 100-130 cm tall. Shuttle buses from various points in Phuket are included in the ticket prices.

For more information or reservations, call +66 (0) 7637 2111