PATTAYA, 24 JULY 2020: Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya is rebooting its business to boost bookings for events, corporate meetings and team building as it taps the surge in Thailand’s domestic travel market.
For its team-building packages, the resort property is telling company executives that “a company that plays together, stays together. The team-building components on offer include cooking sessions to adrenaline-pumping sports activities.
Cookout
Cooking is a life skill, and those interested in the culinary aspects of Thai culture can get to learn the ropes directly from local professionals at Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya. Under the watchful eyes of a trained chef, the cooking class, conducted at a cooking station at the hotel’s Starz Diner, allows you to choose from a range of classic Thai dishes including pad Thai, seafood soufflé and chicken with cashew nuts.
“You need to have the passion for food, and also the patience and love to cook for other people’s enjoyment,” said Sous Chef at Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya.
For the uninitiated, the chef recommends starting with the Som Tam (papaya salad) or Yam Woon Sen (noodle salad) as it doesn’t require much skill involving the frying pan.
Those looking for a challenge can attempt the seafood souffle wrapped in banana leaf, as that requires the dexterity of the hands to pound the ingredients to a nice pasty texture before steaming. Thai cooking can be rather time-consuming involving many steps of preparation, such as chopping, pounding and slicing fresh ingredients. It places emphasis on the harmonious blending of a variety of ingredients, and the different combinations of flavours and aroma make the cuisine a gastronomic experience, he added.
Pool Activities
What a splash! The trendy beachfront Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya, with the largest free-form pool and man-made beach in the Eastern Seaboard, is the perfect outlet for those looking for a fun-packed day without the hassle of moving around or wondering what to do next. Once you’ve laid your eyes on the 2,000 square metre pool, you will forget about heading to the real beach that just steps away from the hotel. A daily stream of entertainment organised by the Hard Rock Beach Club keeps the pool scene lively and rockin’.
Start with a game of water basketball or water volleyball before moving on to the more wacky ‘zorbing’—rolling on top of the water while inside a giant-size inflatable ball. And when you’re tired out, have a leisurely swim through the beach-sand pool, work your way around the rocks and enjoy a cocktail in your own cabana.
Golfing
The resort city of Pattaya, along the Gulf of Thailand, has emerged from a fishing village in the 1960s to be golfer’s paradise with more than 30 golf courses within an hour’s drive from the city. Most courses have been designed to international standards by some of the world’s top names in golf course architecture.
In 2012, Pattaya was voted the “Best Golf Destination in Asia” by the International Association of Golf Tourism Operators (IAGTO). The best courses include the classic, traditional tree-lined Siam Country Club Old Course, the first privately owned golf club in Thailand and home to the annual LPGA Thailand tournament.
About 85% of Siam Country Club’s golfers are foreigners, and it is especially popular with the Japanese. “This course is a legend,” said SuksanSuwanpanich, Acting Managing Director of Siam Country Club Pattaya Waterside. “It is considered prestigious to be able to play the most famous course available and golfers like that.”
Go-Kart
Strap on your helmet and bring out the racer in you. Choose your own level of thrill and speed and pit your skills against friends and colleagues on this 750-metre professional track, the first kart-racing circuit in Pattaya.
At Pattaya Kart Speedway, there are beginners as well as competition-model karts. Adrenaline junkie or not, everyone should give go-karting a try if they want to experience the feeling of being a Formula One racer at a lower cost but with added safety measures. Controlling the kart and not letting it skid off the track is challenging, as it requires you to balance the movement of the kart and your own body, steering in the direction of the turn and shifting your body weight at the same time. The race takes place on an asphalt oval track consisting of one straight and five left-turn corners and a single right challenging U-turn.
Paintball
Did that bush move? Is it an ambush? Suddenly a splatter of bright, neon orange hits the tree above you and everyone dives for cover. It’s your turn to fight back. Paintball is a game of skill, strategy and guts typically played outdoors in a woodland setting. Players, dressed in camouflage gear and armed with paintball guns, try to eliminate the opposition by marking them down with paintball.
The main objective is to capture the opposition’s flag and get it back to the home base. Head down to Paintball Park Pattaya, and be greeted with the sign “Have you got the balls to play?” hung on its wooden walls. The 3,200 square metre space has two “battlefields” themed like the forest and designed with barriers made of empty barrels and wooden shacks to simulate guerilla warfare. It accommodates up to 30 people per court.
Companies do use paintball park for corporate entertainment and staff training, and the park hosts on average about three corporate requests a month, with most of them arriving from Bangkok, said Suthep Wongchaiya, manager of the paintball park.
Paintball allows people of varying skill levels to work together as a team. You may discover that someone who is shy in the office can shine through as a great tactical leader while playing this game, he added. “People get thrilled when they hit and get hit, and you give them the chance to splatter paint over their boss!”
You may also like Five Things To Do in Pattaya Beach at https://bit.ly/5-things-to-expore-Pattaya-Beach-TTRWeekly
Where to stay: Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya: http://bit.ly/HardRockPattaya-TTRWeekly
