mrsouza

The girl on the cover looks armless enough

Armless, but not harmless.

This is great, another fantastic issue well worth the read.

Thanks George

Thanks. Please give us more feedback, good or bad. We are only at the second issue, but we have added 8 more pages compared to the previous issue. Now packed with 56 pages of insansity.

This is awesome. After more than 12 years in Phuket with nothing even close to be called a radio station, this is more than welcome.

Funny thing though, it seems like we will have no less than 3 new English speaking/programming radio stations very soon. I guess it's due to the recent change in the constitution that eases up the use of the frequencies.

One question remains, where will you transmit from? Khao Rang in Phuket City? I assume you are only allowed to broadcast within a 30 km radius?

(For those of you that complain about the music before they even started broadcasting, MP3-players are on sale at Big C).

I guess magazines getting articles they don't need to pay for is another reason why our caring, sharing free-lance travel-writers don't get paid as much as they should?

How do you compete with "free"?

This was not a freelance gig by definition. Rather a request for short essays that could be published in print. If someone turns out to be a good writer, then of course future renumeration can be discussed. Considering how many words people at TV hack down every day without getting paid, I cant really see any difference.

Just make sure its "family friendly" and has a punch to it.

it can only be one or the other.

True, true....

Plenty of people post on here about their less than favourable experiences with the Tuk Tuk Brigade.

Anyone game to write about that one?

I just received a positive story/experience about a tuk-tuk driver. I guess there are a couple good ones out there too.

Anyhow, we need more stories and I am sure if you lived here for a while, you have stories to tell.

The article described, is common to a lot of travel mags. The entries generally run 4-7 lines. Hardly a tome. What one usually reads about are heartwarming things like,

"Making A Delivery On Bangla Rd."

My name is Owen and I'm a lorry driver from Luton. While walking down down Bangla Rd one night with my katoey life partner celebrating our 2 day anniversary, we chanced upon a rotund woman squatting in the middle of the street and moaning. I assumed she was just a typical fat lady on a junket from Oslo suffering from drinking one too many lagers, but my beloved Jasmine knew differently. She rushed over to help the pale and gasping woman just in time to catch a baby that was popping down the delivery chute. Although my hectic life hauling toxic waste for export to Africa doesn't permit me to have a family, I consider the bangla miracle of life event to have been my child birth moment. Needless to say, this is a night I'll look back upon and cherish forever.

Spot on!

If you can make it around 600 words we have a winner.

If the story is published, do you pay for it? If so, how much?

This is for your 15 minutes of fame and vanity. Priceless.

I'll buy you a beer though, or two.

Hi y'all,

For the next issue of My Phuket we plan to run a series of articles that describes the best or worst experiences people had in Phuket or Thailand.

It can span anything from a rip-off tuk tuk ride to paying the electric bill, or a lovely day in a special place. You name it.

Just make sure its "family friendly" and has a punch to it.

Please do not publish it here as it would spoil the fun, email it directly to [email protected]

The best stories will be published in the upcoming issues of our magazine. You can be published under an alias if you wish.

Thanks!

Wow, feels like we are under review for the Michelin Guide.

I would like to add that dinner was never on the invitation, we offered free drinks and nibble food. It is, of course, a little mishap if the nibble food (and water?) was finished prematurely.

All comments noted and will be considered for the next party.

As for future events, I would suggest that you have sneak previews of every issue a couple of days before it hit the stores. It should be exclusive for advertisers (present and potential), co-workers, freelancers etc.

Throw quarterly parties for the readers, VIPs and self acclaimed VIPs.

Sure. Actually, this is exactly what we did with the last party since the magazine is not out yet. We also offered it for download as an exclusive for Thaivisa-members.

Quarterly parties is not a bad idea. All we need now is more advertisers so we can afford them.

Change is no problem because it is a single coin and Thais won't need a calculator.

Oh dear...bad marketing.

You should make it 99 baht. A two figure number is OK. Three figure number makes it look terribly expensive.

As a very ex-marketing man, I agree

Better still, make it 50 bht, more affordable!

Yeah, maybe you guys are right. I just thought 100 baht is a practical even number and you don't have to wait to get the change, which always takes forever.

Kewl. I am at bath number 69. 21 more to go and I get my very own mag! 8-)

Unless you get a special discount, you have 31 more baths before you get your hands on it.

How much is it?

100 bath (sic)

As this appears to have mainly been a PR Party to launch a new magazine

Where can the New Product be purchased?

The magazine will arrive from Bangkok tomorrow and distribution starts this week.

I don't have the complete list of sales outlets yet, as we are given those after it has been sold by the distribution company.

It will however be available in all major book stores in Phuket and selected 7-Eleven, Family Mart etc. We are also working

on a completely new system for distribution and sales that will be ready this month, more about that later.

The first issue will also be distributed for free at over 400 locations around Phuket.

Very nice pics, mrsouza ! Thanks for sharing them for the non-goers.

Is it by any chance possible to explain some of the photos, as WHO the people are ?

For instance, are you the gentleman in black/white trousers on photos 41/44, holding a speech ?

Cheers.

LaoPo

I have updated some pictures with the names I know of, I am lousy with names so forgive me for the persons I don't know or remember.

http://myphuketmag.com/gallery/

Well said mfiskong, and thanks for the kudos.

A gracious reply from MrSouza - I assume you are one of the hosts/organisers?

It must be disheartening to organise, and presumably pay for, a party to whom you invite many strangers, only to be bombarded with complaints and abuse the day after.

No one said it would be easy

But if ribs for ‘over 100 persons’ were supplied, and around 120 persons turned up, why did so many of the 120 fail to get any? Something does not add up here.

Yeah, I am with the My Phuket team. To be honest, this was the first time we organized an event like this, so we didn't expect things to be perfect. But it was a good party and, I guess, a way to kill a few hours after a long week of hard rain and hard work for all invited.

I would like to make a small correction to your post, a majority of the people here seem to have enjoyed the party. The complaints will of course be taken into account for the next one. We will, however, not change our attitude and sarcasm, learn to live with it.

I agree that the prices at this venue is maybe a little over the top (no pun intended), once the freebies were finished. Most of us live here and don't mind paying for drinks, but at a more modest price level. Ratri is a great place though and I think it served well for our maiden party.

Suggestions for location of the next party are more than welcome. I am sure I can convince George to co-host another one in the near future.

Thank you all for coming, I think it was great, better than expected. We had almost 200 signups, and around 120 people showed up (calculated drop-out). Originally the plan was to limit the party to 100 persons, but we decided to let in all the people that signed up.

A few remarks:

- Regarding food supply and drinks. There was a small miscalculation regarding demand and supply. 60 liters of beer ran out in little over one hour, you guys sure are a thirsty bunch.

- Everyone was issued a name tag so that you could recognize each others screen names. Not sure why someone here stated differently.

- Alasdair's remark about "free loaders" was a joke, come on. Being a cynic is a requirement for living in Phuket.

- Quite a lot of people stayed after the free drinks stopped being served at 20:30, so I would not say people rushed out at 19:30.

- Buckwheat brought in ribs for over 100 persons, and it disappeared faster than an ice cube in hel_l. Thanks Buckwheat, you're the best. Next time we have to stack up a few more pigs for the BBQ though.

Here are some more photos from the party:

http://myphuketmag.com/gallery/

Hope to see you all again soon!

We just got the printed version in the office. It's a sweet looking thing if we may say so ourselves.

I have to retract a previous statement though, the cover still says "100 Bath". We did send an updated

file to the printer, but they must have missed to replace the old one. Well, TIT.

At least we will have the cleanest and best smelling readership in Thailand.

Just curious as to why your going up against John at Phuket magazine?

Nothing against new magazines but after living here for over 20 years it just seem that it is getting to be overkill.

I don't think we are going up against anybody. We have the greatest respect for Phuket Magazine, its a good and well established magazine. There is however a void in the middle market. With 5 million arrivals per year, I think there is room for another magazine.

By overkill, I assume you are referring to all the maps, guides, pamplets and all sorts of flyers that are circulating on the island. They are just that, we are doing a magazine. Apples and pears.

hey, just what Phuket needs, another magazine....

Nobody noticied that the map of Patong has Kamala at the wrong end >>hehehehhe

appears to me it is geared to the tourist.

Good luck with it.

The map-snafu was discovered in the last minute. We submitted the corrected files to the printer and hope it will come out correct in the printed version.

Yub, its tourist oriented with a local flavor. Phuket is, after all, a tourist destination. Give us a few issues to grow, and you will see we are not just "another magazine".

Good idea and all the best of luck for the future. I am looking forwards to getting a copy at the launch/T.V. party on Friday.

How often will the magazine be published?

Initially we go for 6 issues per year, bi-monthly. If proven successful and we can sell enough ads, we might go monthly.

It's OK. The piece about driving was amusing. But somewhere it says you shouldn't go swimming from May to October and elsewhere that, when in Patong, you should shop only at Jungceylon. Both are ridiculous.

I recently lost a friend due to swimming during the monsoon. So I do not consider this is a ridiculous statement.

Regarding Jungceylon, I think you refer to page 25. That was merely a cynic statement about street hawkers.