Of all the joints in the world, Joy loses stuff at the Juntra

Of all the joints in the world, Joy loses stuff at the Juntra

You probably saw the recent news reports (though not in The Nation, probably) about the cops discovering a cache of rifles at the Juntra Resort in Nakhon Nayok. The follow-up stories had police suggesting the arms were linked to violence in Bangkok because the resort’s owner is a politician, as is the owner of the car in which the weapons were found – in fact a ministerial adviser. Then came word that high-ranking police officers and unnamed politicians had begged investigators not to confiscate the car or weapons.
And, lo, now it can be revealed how the cops found out about the guns in the first place.
It turns out that actress Rinalanee “Joy” Sriphen got the whole ball of wax rolling by filing a theft report with the Nakhon Nayok police. Her mother’s jewellery was stolen while they and other family and friends were staying at the Juntra for a meditation course from May 3 to 9. Joy didn’t let the cops know about it until May 14, after she’d returned home and searched for the gems in case the family hadn’t in fact taken them along.
The police went to the resort and noticed “men behaving suspiciously” (an apt description for politicians) at the gate. Sure enough, they were stashing rifles in the car.
Meanwhile Joy says the jewellery, still missing, is worth nearly a million baht all told, with a pair of diamond earrings alone accounting for Bt600, 000 of that. She says her mum is quite careful with her belongings and prefers to haul precious items around in her handbag because it’s safer than leaving them at home. (No, Joy doesn’t think taking the gems to the resort was a good idea either.) She thinks her mother must have forgotten to take her purse with her at some point when they stepped out.
Interestingly, she says the resort owner helped in the initial search and didn’t appear to be miffed about Joy calling the police. Once the case morphed into a weapons seizure, though, she started feeling a little uncomfortable about the Juntra’s damaged reputation.

Supernatural baby

Congratulations to actor-TV host Kanchai Kamnerdploy and his actress wife May Faung-arom on the news that she’s three months pregnant. There have been rumours for some time, but the couple kept it secret, believing it’s unlucky to make an announcement any earlier.
May has endometriosis, which could have caused difficulties in her becoming pregnant naturally, so they went for in-vitro fertilisation.
The couple, who had dated for years, had another secret to share: They got married in December 2012! Why would they keep that undercover? Because a fortune-teller told them to, that’s why. And the soothsayer also told May to change her name to be Patida and start using Kanchai’s surname, Kumnerdploy. Yes, she’s going to do that, too.
“I have to change my name because the fortune-teller said my name is in conflict with his last name,” she explains, sort of.