Organised by Media Business Services, the Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek appeals to a growing number of charterers and sailors from Australia keen to escape the Australian winter for sunshine and warm weather.

“The Balmain girls had been recommended to Phuket Raceweek by club members who had taken part in the event before. They got in touch with me and after a few emails, I put them together with a group of experienced Phuket-based female sailors,” explains Stuart Compton of Phuket charter company Sailescapes.

“Together they will be competing as an all-female team on the Farr 1104 Farrgo Express which has podiumed at every Raceweek it has competed in so far, so there’s plenty of pressure on the ladies to deliver the goods.”

With strong support from the Phuket and Thailand sailing community, participants are coming from around Asia and as far afield as Russia and the UK to compete in what has become a “must do” destination regatta, and the opening event of the 2017/18 Asian Yachting Grand Prix championship.

“The response from Australian sailors who have competed at Phuket Raceweek has always been positive. Happy sailors are going back home and telling their friends and we can see how the regatta’s awareness in Australia is growing,” says Byron Jones, managing director of Media Business Services.

“In addition to Con and the all-female team, we have two more Australian-chartered boats confirmed this year, as well as many individuals from Australia and around the world flying in to compete.”

This year, Johnny Holder will be sailing the Farr 11.06 Plus 16 from Darwin to Phuket especially to take part in Raceweek and then will likely stay on in Phuket to do some of the other regattas.

“The budget is always a factor when choosing a boat for the regatta, but this year we have been lucky in being able to sponsor Plus 16, which is owned by an old friend of mine, Johnny Holder.”

With a core nucleus including five S80 skippers on board as well as the current state champion, Macarlino says, “the chatter on board may get interesting. The weather in Perth has just turned cold, so we are all looking to get over there to enjoy ourselves and thaw out for a few days.”

Find out more details at http://www.PhuketRaceWeek.com.

Managed by chef Sirasa Laoputthipong and culinary experts, it provided instruction on the proper baking of Chigiri Bread, an attractive Japanese-style loaf.

“We’d like to thank our customers for their trust and support by holding this cooking class for parents and children. In addition to the sheer fun of baking, this class aims to enhance the creativity, self-development, and imagination of children,” said its general manager of marketing Pattarapol Techasamran.

Originating in Japan, Chigiri is a derivation of the term “Chicken and Chick”.

It is easy to bake so young children and adults can help each other at every step,” chef Sirasa added. “In addition, the bread is very tasty since it is stuffed with cheese and the main ingredients include bread flour, processed cheese, curry powder, turmeric, black sesame seeds, and ketchup. And decorating the bread is fun too.”

Parents and their children were asked to work as a team to knead the dough, mix, bake, and finally decorate the hen and her chicks on top of the bread. Children who joined the workshop also learned to focus when kneading the dough and to follow rules and precautions to avoid injuries when making and baking the bread. Finally, they could maximise their creativity by decorating eyes, beaks, and crests of both hens and chicks.

“I was very pleased to join this special cooking class as it allowed every family member to spend valuable time together. My daughter not only learned how to bake bread but also to practise her focus, attention to detail, and patience,” said celebrity Benyiam Songwattana.

As ever, the brand is all about elegance and refinement with stunning designs and maintains its high standards by using just the best one per cent of Akoya and South Sea pearls.

The new line comes in nine designs including an exquisite pearl choker, Akoya pearl bracelets, and large and classic South Sea pearl earrings with diamonds set in white gold.

The pride of the collection is a classic elegant necklace and earring set featuring White South Sea cultured pearls with diamond accents and a gold chain for the necklace and White South Sea cultured pearls on the earrings. Another necklace features Akoya Cultured Pearls with a detachable diamond and pink sapphire brooch.

Ladies will also love the Tree Brooch with diamonds and pink sapphire, the White South Sea pearl earrings with diamonds, the premium Akoya pearl ring with diamonds set in white gold and the White South Sea pearl ring also with diamonds and set in 18k white gold.

The High Jewellery 2017 Collection is now available at Mikimoto, M Floor, Siam Paragon. Find out more at (02) 129 4444-5.

Luncheon may be selected from set or buffet in the hotel outlets (except Shogun and Dusit Gourmet). An extra charge of Bt800 will be levied for Sunday Brunch at The Pavilion Restaurant.

Find out more by calling (02) 200 9000 extension 2345,e-mail: dtbkdining@dusit.com or visit http://www.Dusit.com/dtbk and Facebook.com/dusitthani.

Couples who confirm their wedding with The Chatrium during the event can choose from such benefits as a one-hour after party room rental charge for 50 persons inclusive of soft drinks and mixers, Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok Privilege Card for 1 year, cocktail or buffet style food stall (100 portions), Chinese set table for 10 persons with a selected set menu, complimentary champagne tower with a bottle of sparkling wine, a 30-litre barrel of house draught beer and much more. Discounts on food and beverages are also being offered. Packages are priced from Bt200,000 to Bt500,000 and the privileges are tied to the cost of the package.

“Wedding Fair 2017” is being held at the QSNCC from June 8 to 11 and will be open on all four days from 11am to 9pm.”

AN INCREASING number of young people from Japan’s cities are migrating to provincial areas to live in the same town as their grandparents.

The “mago-turn” trend – mago means “grandchild” – is similar to the “U-turn”, when city people return to their hometowns and the “I-turn”, when people migrate to different rural areas from where they grew up.

For young people who want to be closer to nature but feel uneasy about living in an unfamiliar place, moving to where their grandparents live can be an attractive option, since it’s easier to assimilate into the community.

Taro Nakazawa, 24, was born and raised in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, and moved to Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, in April. He works with a local “community revitalisation corps” promoting tourism in the city.

Nakazawa’s parents hail from Hokuto and he often visited his grandparents when he was growing up. He’s been drawn to the area’s magnificent mountains and highlands since childhood.

Taro Nakazawa lives with his grandparents, Kenichi and Kesae, in Hokuto./Yomiuri Shimbun

Although Nakazawa had hoped to live in the area someday, he joined a construction firm in Kanagawa after graduating from university.

But the death of his maternal grandfather last August prompted him to make the move sooner. “I thought it would be better to move while my [paternal] grandparents are still healthy,” he says.

His income is lower than what he earned in Kanagawa, but “I don’t have to ride a packed train. I work less overtime. I feel like my life has become richer.”

Nakazawa lives with his paternal grandfather, Kenichi, 89. “I enjoy having him here because he makes our home lively.” Grandmother Kesae, 84, says he helps with the heavy work.

Naoko Sakaguchi, 36, a coffee-shop owner in Asahi, Toyama Prefecture, moved from Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward in 2007 to take care of her grandparents. Her shop, called Hygge, is housed in an old renovated residential building.

“At first I was worried about whether I could be comfortable living here,” she says. “But people in the neighbourhood were very kind – they welcomed me as the granddaughter of Mr and Mrs Sakaguchi’.”

Naoko Sakaguchi, right, chats with a customer at her coffee shop in Asahi, where she moved to take care of her grandparents./Yomiuri Shimbun

With the support of her relatives living nearby and new friends, Sakaguchi opened her coffee shop in 2015, fulfilling a long-held dream.

During the period of high economic growth in Japan, young people moved to urban areas to seek jobs. Their children are doing the opposite. The Tokyo-based non-profit Furusato Kaiki Shien Centre (Hometown Relocation Support Centre) advises people who are considering relocating to rural areas. Deputy executive director Kazuo Kasami refers to the phenomenon as “mago-turn”.

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the organisation began receiving more requests from younger people. Kasami realised there were quite a few planning to live in the same towns as their grandparents.

“I thought this was a new style of migration, different from U-turn or I-turn,” he says.

There are no national data on mago-turn, but a local survey of people who moved to Suo-Oshima in Yamaguchi in fiscal 2015 found that nine people – 8 per cent of the 116 respondents – said they moved there because of their grandparents.

Kasami says young urban people don’t consider rural areas inconvenient and the towns often hold fond memories for them, such as family visits and nature excursions.

Some remain hesitant to give up city life because of job, housing or relationship concerns.

“With mago-turn, people are likely to have fewer concerns about such issues,” says Meiji University Professor Tokumi Odagiri, an expert in rural policy who’s familiar with issues relating to provincial flight.”

Taking advantage of family connections makes it easier for people to find work or a place to live. If the grandparents own agricultural land that’s been passed down for generations, farming could be an option for their grandchildren.

“If mago-turn results in more young people moving to rural areas, the areas will be rejuvenated and the wave could attract other young people without family ties to the region,” says Odagiri.

“Mago-turn could become a major pillar of future migration policy.”

Facing declining populations, some local governments have introduced measures to support people who migrate to the areas where their grandparents live, aiming to attract more young people.

In April 2016, the government of Bungotakada in Oita Prefecture began offering 100,000 yen to people moving there if their grandparents lived in the city.

Other governments offer academic scholarships to households with children and subsidise events that will help people to settle in their hometowns.

However, migrating to provincial areas is never easy.

“Migration, including mago-turn, requires meticulous preparation,” stresses Koichi Hayashi of Iju Koryu Joho Garden (Migration, Exchange and Information Garden), which offers guidance for people considering a move.

Hayashi tells people who are thinking about leaving the city to write down the reasons they’d like to live in the countryside and what kind of lifestyle they hope to have.

He urges them to visit their prospective destinations several times and speak with the residents before deciding. “It’s a good idea to visit when the local weather conditions are at their worst, like when it’s extremely cold or hot.”

UNDER a dual onslaught of global warming and localised, urban heating, some of the world’s cities may be as much as eight degrees Celsius warmer by 2100, researchers warned this week.

Such a temperature spike can have dire consequences for the health of city-dwellers, robbing companies and industries of able workers, and put pressure on already strained natural resources such as water.

The projection is based on the worst-case-scenario assumption that emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases continue to rise throughout the 21st century.

The top quarter of most populated cities, in this scenario, could see the mercury rise 7C or more by century’s end, said a study in the journal Nature Climate Change.

For some, nearly 5C of the total would be attributed to average global warming.

The rest would be due to the so-called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which occurs when cooling parks, dams and lakes are replaced by heat-conducting concrete and asphalt – making cities warmer than their surrounds, the researcher said.

“The top five per cent of cities per population could see increases in temperatures of about 8C and larger,” said study co-author Francisco Estrada of the Institute for Environmental Studies in the Netherlands.

Estrada and a team used different projections of average planetary warming, combined with the UHI effect and potential harms, to estimate the future costs of warming on cities.

The median city, right in the middle of the range, stands to lose between 1.4 and 1.7 per cent of GDP per year by 2050 and between 2.3 and 5.6 per cent by 2100, they concluded.

“For the worst-off city, losses could reach up to 10.9 per cent of GDP by 2100,” wrote the team.

UHI “significantly” increases city temperatures and economic losses from global warming, they added.

This meant that local actions to reduce UHI – such as planting more trees or cooling roofs and pavements, can make a big difference in limiting warming and minimising costs.

Cities cover only about one per cent of earth’s surface but produce about 80 per cent |of gross world product |and account for around |78 per cent of energy consumed worldwide, said the researchers.

They produce more than 60 per cent of global car-|bon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and gas for fuel.

The world’s nations agreed in Paris in 2015 to the goal |of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial revolution levels by curbing greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.

For the latest study, researchers used data from the world’s 1,692 largest |cities for the period 1950 to 2015.

BANGKOK LIFESTYLE centre Betrend is welcoming the new school semester by offering the latest in stationery, gadgets, office supplies and decorative items in which modern design meets smart functionality.

With the concept “School Journal”, there are four categories of products aligned with different characteristics that youngsters share.

The “Dreamer Inspire” line is sure to make the first day of school a creative one with its colourful stationery. There are Caran D’Ache 849 Paul Smith pens, Happy Berry bags with graphics and wooden scotch-tape dispensers.

Caran D’Ache 849 Paul Smith pen, Bt1,640

The “Gangster Cool Stuff” includes Lamy Al-Star Pacific special-edition pens, Sheaffer Ferrai Satin pens and Lab C Pocket Sleeve bags.

The “Pioneer Leader” gear shows leadership abilities with handy and functional Sharpie highlighter pens and an Orca filing box.

The “Craft & Creative” line bolsters the imagination with art supplies like Touch medium-size markers with broad and fine tips, Boston paper strings, Croco decorative items, Moomim pens, rulers and notebooks.

They’re all available through June at the Betrend stores at The Mall, Emporium, Siam Paragon and Bluport.

This has been designated the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations, and travel website Booking.com has just issued its annual Sustainable Travel Report.

Among the findings, 30 per cent of global travellers said one of their chief motives for choosing eco-friendly accommodations was their use of locally produced and organic food.

With that in mind, Booking.com turned to its internal data to see which destinations, and which accommodations in those destinations, stand out when it comes to organic food.

A survey was conducted in February and March of 11,069 people in 11 travel markets, all at least 18 years old and who had travelled at least once in 2016 and were planning at least one trip for 2017.

Once the highest-rated destinations were found, the highest-rated accommodations on Booking.com in those destinations were compiled. The final accommodation choice for each destination was picked from these compilations based on its environmentally friendly credentials.

The following list of top global destinations for “organic food”, combined with a mix of environmentally friendly accommodations, emerged.

STOCKHOLM

As well as being the world’s design powerhouse, Stockholm is a contender for Scandinavia’s friendliest citizens. You’ll be welcomed with open arms in the Swedish capital, where medieval alleys, majestic parks and an awe-inspiring Royal Palace will leave you eager to explore.

Where to stay: Hotel Skeppsholmen

Just a three-minute walk from the beach, this eco-friendly hotel is set in a charming 1960s building on a peaceful island, with rooms featuring traditional wooden shutters on the windows. The restaurant serves classic Swedish dishes on a terrace that provides great waterfront views.

MONTEZILLON

Located in the heart of the Swiss Alps, Montezillon is a striking destination to enjoy views from powerful mountains, hikes through transcendent forests and refreshing swims in pristine lakes.

Where to stay: EcoHotel L’Aubier

In a quiet location with panoramic views of Lake Neuchtel and the Alps, the hotel has a restaurant serving organic cuisine made with ingredients from its own “bio-dynamic” farm. Guests can also enjoy herbal teas, hand-made syrups and organic wines.

UBUD

Ubud, Indonesia, is a deeply spiritual place. At every turn, the scent of incense drifts on the air and travellers radiate inner peace. Yet minutes away, the paths lead into lush jungle, rice paddies, picturesque hanging gardens and ancient temple complexes.

Where to stay: Rumah Dadong

Boasting an outdoor pool and surrounded by lush rice fields, the hotel offers a great getaway. For guests interested in exploring the area, Ubud Monkey Forest is a 15-minute drive away, while great organic restaurants are only five minutes away.

COPENHAGEN

The Danish capital is a city of tip-top design, plentiful parkland and people with a passion for “hygge” (cosiness). It’s also eco-friendly, child-friendly and once you get chatting to the locals, just plain friendly. From classy Frederiksberg to funky Christiania, this city ticks all the boxes.

Where to stay: Stay Apartment Copenhagen

Housed in a converted industrial building from the mid-1900s, this spot features minimalist Scandinavian design. The cafe is a popular meeting place for a glass of wine or cold beer in the evening. Each morning an organic breakfast buffet is served.

BERLIN

Berlin doesn’t claim to be Europe’s most beautiful capital, but it represents Europe’s past – and its future. It’s hard to believe that barely a generation has passed since Berliners tore down the Wall, and since then, the city has resonated with open-mindedness.

Where to stay: Gorki Apartments

Gorki Apartments are centrally located in Berlin’s trendy Mitte district, surrounded by numerous bars, organic cafes, galleries and shops. It’s housed in an attractive 19th-century building near Rosenthaler Platz. Guests can relax in the elegantly furnished apartments, which consist of individually furnished apartments and two spacious penthouses.

You have to book for at least two nights (anytime through December 22), but the rate includes airport transfers, breakfast for two, dinner for two at the restaurant Edgewater and a 20-per-cent discount on all food, beverages and spa treatments.

With its private plunge-pool villas, the resort is ideal for couples. It sits on secluded Hanuman Bay on the island’s northeastern shore, 10 minutes from the airport but away from flight paths.

The Blue Fire Grill, Edgewater and the swim-up Wet Bar offer the best informal holiday dining and the Navasana Spa is designed for pure relaxation.

“With our recent extensive refurbishment, including our popular swim-up wet bar and chill-out zone overlooking the beach, Outrigger is the perfect retreat for couples in hip Koh Samui,” says general manager Marc Landgraf.

There’s a free daily shuttle-bus service to Chaweng Beach, the island’s main entertainment, dining and shopping hub, and to Fisherman’s Village on Bophut Beach, with its market, bars and restaurants.

Outrigger guests can also sign up for lessons in conversational Thai or learn to paint batik, carve fruit and etch leather.

Plan a stay at (77) 914 700 or reservation.kohsamui@outrigger.co.th.