Phuket Bike Week 2017 is all set to close with a grand finale in Phuket Town on Saturday evening. The hub of the action is the town’s Saphan Hin Park and a full timetable of entertainment ensures there is something for all tastes.
The incoming boss of Vietnam’s national rail services operator has pledged to improve reservations and travel experiences. Vu Anh Minh told media reporters the advanced seat and sleeping berth reservations system would be overhauled to provide more convenience.
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have confirmed the 28 April will see a music themed boulevard stage its debut performances. Music Street will operate on a trial basis on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on the centrally located Alexandre De Rhodes Street.
A spokesperson for the government of Thailand has announced that the 5 May is no longer a public holiday. The date marked the day in 1950 when the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned.
Quang Ninh provincial authorities have backpedalled and scrapped an arbitrary ban on kayaking in Halong Bay. The ban on the activity in the northern Vietnam tourist hotspot was lifted barely one week after it came into effect on the 1 April.
The stand-in director of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority last week tore up a contract for the procurement of a fleet of gas powered public buses. Somsak Hommuang said the reason behind the scrapping of the contract for the fleet of NGV buses was that the Bestlin Group had not delivered all of them.
Thailand’s Culture Ministry is preparing to lay the red carpet to welcome puppetry troupes for the 2017 ASEAN Puppet Festival due to kick off on Thursday. The 12GO ASIA team says puppetry shows will be held at four different locations in Bangkok with the grand finales scheduled for Tuesday 25 April.
Thailand’s public bus operator says Bangkok stations are expected to be inundated with travellers returning from celebrating Songkran in their home towns. The assistant head of the Transport Company says up to 200,000 passengers are expected to arrive at the capital's three main bus stations today.
Tourists in Chiang Mai kicked off their Songkran Festival celebrations a day early on Wednesday. In several locations around the city, revellers armed themselves with water-pistols and buckets of water to soak passers-by.
The Cambodian government has approved a proposal to set up an online ticketing system for Angkor Wat. Visitors will be soon be able to book and pay for their admission tickets to the Angkor Archaeological Park and its satellite temple complexes via a secure internet portal.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Transport registered bus operators have promised not to jack up ticket prices for the Khmer New Year holiday. Secretary of state for transport, Tauch Chankosal, said the 29 companies had all agreed that while there would be no discounted fares over the holiday, they would not tack on surcharges.
Officials at Myanmar’s Yangon Central Railway Station reported record demand for tickets north to Mandalay early yesterday. Lines of passengers at each of the ticket counters in the station’s booking hall were at least 20 deep and guards reported that some people had queued overnight.
City authorities in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai say the water in the Old City moat will be clean enough for water fights at the Songkran Festival. After an inspection tour on Monday, mayor Thassanai Buranupakorn declared the water measured up to hygiene standards and was not a risk to people’s health.
The Beach Bar Koh Samui is the venue for an exciting cultural and musical extravaganza this weekend. The Chaweng Noi Beach establishment is all set to welcome top names in the alternative music industry as well as the likes of professional Thai cooks and tai chi tutors.
Authorities in Hua Hin have set up a code of conduct for this year’s Songkran water throwing festival. The police force with jurisdiction over the popular Gulf of Thailand holiday resort town says there will be a midnight deadline for water throwing and that the activity will be confined to designated zones.
A temple in Chiang Mai has built a massive sand pagoda to celebrate the forthcoming Songkran Festival. Resident monks and novices at Jedlin Temple built the 15 metre high sand structure with the help of people living in the Phra Singh sub-district of the northern Thai city.
Pattaya council officials have outlined proposals which will see the operations of beach umbrella vendors subjected to a whole new set of regulations. The most significant from the vendors’ point of view is that they will be required to remove deckchairs and umbrellas from the city beach on Tuesday evenings and not put them back until Friday.
Curators at the Thai National Museum in Bangkok are preparing one of the facility’s Buddha statues for this year’s Songkran Festival parade. The statue, Phra Buddha Sihing, has been dusted off in preparation for a parade around the streets of Bangkok on Wednesday.
Authorities in the Thai city of Khon Kaen have announced they will build a museum to house collections of religious artefacts unearthed recently. Local residents dug up the pieces at Chom Sri Temple.
The governor of Bangkok has announced that traditional water fights for this year’s Songkran Festival will go ahead as normal. Aswin Kwanmuang said the only difference this year is that Thailand is still in mourning for King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the festivities need to be more low key to reflect this.