Goodbye to October 2010

Goodbye to October 2010

It's that time of the month again! October 2010 is almost done and over with and it's a good moment to have a look back at this month.

The weather was interesting, there was some decent rain but there was also plenty of sunshine, what I would call 'a mixed bag'. This in itself is not so strange as during late October it's not unlikely for the monsoon to start. This year we thought we had a very early start since during early October we had some very wet days and it's wet again towards the end.

It looks like this was the wettest month out of the last 3 that I recorded, except maybe for 2007, 2008 and 2009 were very mild months and had nice weather to show for.

This month I participated in a 5km run, organised by Ibis Samui. There was some very strange parking techniques on display early this month. My 'Food on Wheels' series had a few more additions and this one about ice cream in a bun is remarkable.

I also posted a few things about my current stay in Koh Lanta where I'm teaching an IDC. My newly launched diving website was an exciting moment for me this month, have a look and check it out!

On a sad note, my grandmother in law passed away towards the end of this month. She turned 90 years old!

Before I sign off this month, let's a have a quick look at some other bloggers around Thailand;

Rick at Behind the Noodle curtain just moved to Bangkok and is discovering a lot of new things in his new surroundings, amongst others an intriguing post about money trees, to be found all over the country.

Martyn at Beyond the Mango Juice has a great post about the local fire water or Lao Khao.

Mr. Boonsong aka Boonie keeps producing some great posts and pictures on his blog, have a look at his blog and learn some interesting facts about Thai life style and possibly some Thai words as well.

Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon may possibly be one of the strangest blogs about Thailand but a very interesting one with information that you probably wouldn't be bale to find anywhere else. Andy does a great job in keeping us updates about administrative subdivisions of Thailand - history, current news, facts hardly found in English and he's doing this now since 3 years! Congrats Andy and keep up the good work.

He also runs the My unseen Thailand blog and he posted about a great museum; the Nonthaburi Local Museum.

My fellow weather reporter in crime can be found on Phuket and Jamie's Phuket weather blog is a must, after you read mine of course.

The Jungle Life on Koh Phangan writes about the rain that's goes hand in hand during this monsoon heavy month.

Paul Garrigan always has plenty of interesting posts to choose from but this month he wrote about his fear of the Thai educational system and how it will affect his son. Something that hits home to me as well! Excellent post!

Malcolm in Wangpo Tetsaban is still enjoying his retirement and keeps us updated from his neck of the woods. He has a good posts about how the local villagers helped and pitched in for the water flood victims in Thailand.

Talen who just moved to Pattaya goes a little bit outside of the city and writes amongst others about Wat Yansangwararam.

Lawrence in Phana is actually in the UK right now but still manages to blog about Thai related topics and he has a great post about Kathin celebrations in a Devon/UK Temple.

Mike in Prachuap Kirikhan has daily updates and one is about Mao Berry wine and juice, made in Thailand.

Steve is musing over the full name of Bangkok, check it out and be surprised!

Our local Thai pirate talks about palm tree grubs, food I dug out of our garden as well!

Last but not least, Cat at the learning center for the Thai language has amongst others a list of 39 Thai words you must know.

Well if you made it till here and you read just a few of the above mentioned posts, let alone got lost in I don't how many other posts on these blogs, you learned a lot of interesting facts about Thailand and had some great stories to read!

Looking forward to November and your visits next month!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 31st October, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Lanta is still enjoying a dry spell, which should finish by tomorrow when all of Southern Thailand is going to be hit by a massive storm with strong wind and big waves. The Western side will have to endure this for one day but the Gulf is in for a couple of days of heavy rain. Right now there's a thin cloud layer that may well be burnt away by the sun once it heats up. Current temp at 7am is 25.5C

Samui is also still dry but is experiencing some strong and heavy wind which caused a power cut for around 3 hours during the night. It's very cloudy right now but dry and with a current temp of 25.3C at 7am.

Yesterday saw a mixed bag on Koh Lanta with sunshine, overcast and occasional bits of rain with a max temp of 30.2C.

Samui was dry but had very strong wind gusts and a max temp of 29.5C

Camille

Food on Wheels; The original pancake

Food on Wheels; The original pancake

Back to the roots and basics. This is about pancakes but the mother of all pancakes so to speak, the original.

Two months I wrote about pancakes on Koh Tao, the classic variation in my series on 'Food on Wheels'.

The pancake today is the real Muslim pancake, the guy in the picture above is everyday at the main road near 'Old Town', as reported on in the recent post about the Koh Lanta Museum, and sells his pancakes. However, there's nothing fancy about this, you can get options, with and without egg for either 10 or 15 Baht. No Nutella, no banana, no frills and thrills. The only additions he still has are the condensed milk and sugar, but I don't count them as add ons, they're part of the furniture so to speak!

The reason I went to Koh Lanta's 'Old Town' was because I needed the 4th injection in a series of 5 for rabies, after I got bitten a while ago by a dog whilst running. A picture of the hospital is coming soon.

Every day around 5pm he comes out of the woodworks and the locals gather around him and go sit in the small sala behind him to enjoy his pancake ad I assume to shoot the shit.

His hot plate is fired by wood, which is in the big white bag next to his push cart.

This is the end result of the pancake, a nice square of egg and dough (?) with all of his ingredients in front of him. Back to the basics or what? The taste was also good!

Hope you enjoyed this entry, I was pleased to be able to buy a pancake here and find the 'mother' of all pancakes carts around Thailand!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 30th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Lanta is having a seemingly thin layer of overcast which could be easily evaporated once the sun gets heating up later this morning. Current temp at 7am is around 27C

Samui has a mixed bag, some blue sky with some clouds in it, this could go anyway during the day! Current temp here is 27.2C

Yesterday saw a day of overcast on Koh Lanta but it stayed dry. Max temp reached around 28C

Samui on the other hand had plenty of rain all through the day and it wasn't until the evening that it stopped raining. Max temp reached 29.5C

Camille

Koh Lanta Museum, Old Town

Koh Lanta Museum, Old Town

On a trip to the Old Town, in the very deep Southern part of Koh Lanta, in search of the local hospital, I drove past the Old Town and decided to have a look inside and I was struck by the charm of this small village. Just for the record, one of the road sign spelled Old Town as 'Oil Town', a classic TIT!

One of the very first things that struck me and caught my attention was a house built in a style of mansions and houses in the deep South of the USA. Have a look at the picture above, to me that house yells 'The South will rise'.

To my big surprise however, it turns out to be the local museum! As described on the plaque above. Unfortunately it looked very much closed and not to be opened in the near future.

One of the few or rather only things on display is this boat, whatever it represents. This is actually what caught my eye and made me decide to stop and have a look, since it looked so scenic!

The whole house has been recently renovated and painted but it also looks that the day after it's official opening and the brass left Koh Lanta, it was closed immediately. Don't these stairs look like stairs coming straight out of a Stephen King novel or movie?

I would love to have the opportunity to visit the actual museum and will ask around a little bit if and when it may be open or maybe get somebody to open it just for me.

Stay tuned!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 29th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Lanta's sky is covered in clouds this morning with a current temp of 26C at 7am.

Samui on the other hand has rain since last night. Current temp at 7am is 25.3C

Sunset last evening at Klong Nin on Koh Lanta

Yesterday bot Koh Lanta had a splendid day, lots of sunshine, flat ocean and dry! There was a tiny bit of rain late during the evening. Max temp was 30.6C

Samui on the other hand started out with sunshine but during the day various parts of the island had some serious cloud formations showing up and here and there rain was falling down. During the evening rain set in pretty much all over the island. The forecast for 1st and 2nd November shows a strong storm with heaps of rain and massive wind guts and big waves. I wouldn't be surprised if ferry and plane traffic will be interrupted. Max temp reached 29.7C

Camille

Grandmother in law passed away today, RIP

Grandmother in law passed away today, RIP

At the tender age of 90 years, my grandmother in law passed away after a short stay in hospital as a result of a brain hemorrhage.

My wife grew up under her wings and is very sad at the moment. It's unfortunate that I'm in Koh Lanta right now and can't give her more moral support.

Her body will be brought over to Wat Plai Laem and the funeral ceremony will be held within the next couple of days.

A beautiful and lovely person with a very big 'Jai Dee' or good heart has passed away.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 28th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Lanta looks a lot nice compared to yesterday, the sky shows some blue although there still are plenty of clouds around. Current temp at 7am is 25C

Samui is following along and has sunshine this morning with a current temp of 24.7C at 7am.

Yesterday saw both Samui and Koh Lanta starting off with some sunshine but rather early in the morning dark clouds and plenty of rain during the remainder of the day came along. Max temp reached 27.2C on Samui and 29.5C on Lanta.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 27th October, 2010

Today's weather:

Koh Lanta has some overcast and it looks like rain later during the day. Current temp at 7am is around 26C

This post won't appear though until late in the afternoon due an island wide power cut and although the electricity is on at the Narima resort where I'm teaching an IDC due to it's generator, the internet routers are not connected to said generator.

Samui on the other hand is still nice and sunny and is having a go at it! Current temp at 7am is 27.1

The wind has changed at last and Samui now is under an Eastern wind for the next 6 months or so.

Yesterday saw a partly clouded and partly sunny day on Koh Lanta with some rain around 8pm. Max temp reached

Samui was lovely yesterday and had plenty of sunshine. Max temp reached

Enjoy it whilst it last since there are strong storms with heavy wind, big waves and plenty of rain predicted come 1st November!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 26th October, 2010

Today's weather;

After having arrived safe and well on Koh Lanta yesterday, here's my first update. I woke up a few times last night from the heavy rainfall sweeping over Koh Lanta. This morning sees overcast and I'm not sure if the sun will be able to lift that. Current temp at 7am is 26.3C

Today I'm starting an IDCS course to be followed by the IDC tomorrow.

The beach I'm staying at, Klong Nin, this morning at 7am

Samui is nice and the sun is looking to burn the thin cloud layer away quickly. Current temp at 7am is 27.2C

Yesterday had a nice and sunny day during all day, in the morning on Samui, the whole trip down to Lanta and the remainder of the day on Koh Lanta. Max temp reached 33C

Camille

Results in the 'update outside of Samui' poll

Results in the 'update outside of Samui' poll

The original question was if you want updates during my up and coming travels outside of Koh Samui, as they have started today, whilst I find my self on Koh Lanta, just having heard on the BBC news about a potential Tsunami warning with a 7.5 Richter scale earthquake off the Sumatra coast.

In the poll there were 71 participants and the 3 questions I asked and the responses were as follow;

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN UPDATES OUTSIDE OF KOH SAMUI

YES 25 (35%)

NO 16 (22%)

COMBINE LOCAL AND SAMUI UPDATES 30 (42%)

This result means that 55 voters out of 71 are interested in updates about my travels. 30 voters or 42% like to get updates about Samui and whatever location I'm at!

I can live with the latter result, since that's what I was supporting (without voting myself) and I will try to update both locations at all times.

The result is very straightforward and strongly in favor of updates outside of Koh Samui, so that's what I will try to get going.

Thanks for taking the time to vote and I hope that the 'no' voters will still drop by!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 25th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Another blue sky is ruling full on over Samui this morning. Current temp at 7am is around 27C.

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day, just as I predicted in the morning. Max temp reached just above 33C.

Today I'm on my way to Koh Lanta for about two weeks to teach my first IDC there.

The results of the poll will be published later today, there are still 4 hours left to vote and up till right now, 71 people have voted.

Camille

End of the Buddhist Lent Day or Wan Ohk Pansa

End of the Buddhist Lent Day or Wan Ohk Pansa

It's 3 months ago since Buddhist Lent day or Wan Kao Pansa. Today is Wan Ohk Pansa, the end of Buddhist Lent and all monks who were supposed to stay inside their respective temples for 3 months are allowed outside again.

This fact is celebrated each year with big 'show' cars that ferry monks around to show them to the people around their respective temples and many people make merit by spending money and/or new clothes for the monks, which is called thod katien. In this picture you can just about make out a monk sitting in the front of this car.

A side view of the Plai Laem Temple car. All over the island similar cars were making the rounds today.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 24th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A thin cloud layer obscures a blue sky over Samui but I expect the sun to burn it's way through this layer soon. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C

Yesterday saw a very nice day with an all day long blue sky and a max temp of 33.7C

Over this weekend I also changed servers for my dive website, it still has the same URL; www.idcthailand.net but has a new design and content. Dutch and German pages are under construction and are still a work in progress. Check it out!

Today is the last day for voting and later today I will publish the result. So far 70 people have voted, thanks for taking the time and effort.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 23th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A near blue sky is caressing Samui this morning. Current temp at 7am is around 27C.

Today I'm diving at Sail Rock where there was a whale shark sighting yesterday. Hopefully I'll see enough interesting things to write an entry in my dive blog.

Yesterday saw a lovely sunny day. Max temp reached around 33C.

This is the last day to vote. Top left corner, have a look. 69 readers of this blog voted so far.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 22nd October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has a few more clouds to show for this morning compared to the last week or so. Later during the day I do expect the sun to break through. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C

Yesterday's sunset at Bophud's bay.

A nice and sunny day was ours yesterday around the island. Max temp reached 33.3C

Voting is slowing down, with two more days to go 65 votes are registered. Check the top left location of the poll on this blog.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 21st October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui's been fairly cloudy with some steady, strong wind this morning, although there are blue patches in the sky. Current temp at 7am is 27.2C

Yesterday saw a sunny and warm day except for a quick shower around 7pm. Max temp reached 32.8C

With just 3 more to go before my poll closes on this topic, it's time to vote in case you haven't done so far. The poll can be found at the top left side of my blog. 61 votes are in right now.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 20th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A beaming sun is shining over Samui in an almost near blue sky this morning! Current temp at 7am is 26.7C

Yesterday saw plenty of sunshine with some cloud forming towards late afternoon but it remained dry all day long. Max temp reached 33.2C

In the Central and North eastern region of Thailand some of the worst flooding since 50 years are happening right now.

You have another 4days left to vote in the poll that you can find at the top left part of this blog on this topic. 52 people have voted so far, I didn't know what to expect but this is already a good number!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 19th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A partly cloudy sky is hovering over Samui this morning with the sun very likely to break through later on during the day. Current temp at 7am is 26C

Yesterday saw a mixture of mainly sunshine and occasionally some overcast and it remained dry. Max temp reached 32.5C

Camille

Food on wheels, More eye tim or ice cream

Food on wheels, More eye tim or ice cream

Indeed, my wife saw the vendor passing and called after him from the balcony which caused a road from three hungry kids on a school break, our two children and a friend of my daughter.

Calling him over also proofed a great addition to the Food on Wheels series.

This is the culprit, a motorbike with side car, the side car being converged into a big holder for the ice cream container, with three little rascals impatiently surrounding the vendor.

This is a slightly bigger version than the eye tim vendor I photographed and reported about on Koh Phangan.

Note the little bell on his steering wheel, the red piece of wood between the bike and the side car, to announce his presence.

Today's ice cream was home made coconut ice cream or eye tim maplau. with a view into the actual center of the earth, according to the kids when the vendor drove up our drive way.

Excitement takes over and my son is very happy with his share, girls will be girls though and the two of them are a little bit more subdued trying to merge in the background.

In the previous post about the ice cream vendors, I mentioned the sandwich bread or bun in which the Thais like to eat their ice cream, well, here's the bun, ready to get stuffed with eye tim and it's ingredients, in the three boxes, from left to right, peanuts, jellied fruit and sticky rice. have a slice of that!

The finished product, a bun with ice cream. Believe it or not but it's extremely popular with pretty much all Thais! It beats me, I rather stick with the standard straightforward ice cream in a cone! Just for the record, I did try the bun filled with ice cream but it just didn't do it for me.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 18th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A thin cloud cover hovers over Samui this morning with plenty of sunshine options for later during the day. Current temp at 7am is 26.1C.

The forecast for the next 7 days looks very good, hardly any rain at all!

Yesterday saw a great morning with plenty of sunshine. During the afternoon the clouds moved in and we had a big and powerful but short shower around 3.30pm. Max temp reached 34.1C

Please don't forget to vote in the top left corner of my blog, on this topic. 27 votes so far and 6 more days to vote.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 17th October, 2010

Today's weather;

It's been a while but Samui woke up under a blue sky this morning with a current temp at 7am of 26.2C

Yesterday saw a lovely day, after a start of the day with a light cloud cover, a blue sky emerged for the rest of the day once the sun started to beam and it was nice and warm and dry all day long. Max temp reached 33.3C

During one of my runs I was attacked by a dog and bitten, just an artificial scratch but funnily enough all of a sudden the dog had no owner and the people whose house he seemed to belong to didn't want to have anything to do with a financial compensation for my set of 5 rabies shots at 450,-THB per pop.

Please vote in my poll which I started yesterday, the post it relates can be found here and deal with my up and coming travels and if you're interested in finding out about destinations outside of Samui. So far 17 people voted and the tendency is to write about both destinations, where I will be at the time being and give an update about Samui. You still got another 7 days to vote.

The place where you can find the vote is on the left top of this blog.

Camille

My up and coming travels

My up and coming travels

Soon I will start travelling around Thailand as part of my work as a PADI Course Director in order to conduct PADI IDC in various locations.

This and next month Koh Lanta and Kao Lak are on the schedule and in early January I will travel to the Philippines and Koh Phangan again.

My question to my readers is if you're interested at all in updates from those locations outside of Koh Samui? I created a poll at the left top of my blog page and would love to see your answers and feel free to answer in form of comments in this post.

An option that I'm considering is to have a local update followed by the daily Samui update, since I will be in touch with home on a daily base and can still give fairly accurate local Samui weather information.

Looking forward hearing from you all!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 16th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is fairly cloudy this morning and I can see it partly getting dissolved when the sun manages to come through. Current temp at 7am is 25.4C

Yesterday saw a sunny morning with the cloud formations breaking up and the sun getting some free reign again. Late in the afternoon there was some drizzle. Max temp reached 29.5C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 15th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A lot later than usual, due to problems with my server earlier today, but here we are, enjoying a nice morning actually. Samui is cloudy but the sun peeks out from behind the clouds occasionally and it's dry. Current temp at 10am is 28.1C

Yesterday saw a fairly nice and dry day except for a storm with lots of rain around 3pm. Max temp reached 28.7C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 14th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is cloudy this morning but dry. Current temp at 7am is 26.2C

It seems that the worst is over for the time being and the prediction for early next week is a lot nicer, no wind and rain anymore. Let's wait and see if that works out.

Yesterday was a nice morning with a bleak sunshine pretty much all morning and afternoon until around 3pm when a very dark front moved over Samui with lots of rain. This passed rather quickly though and it remained dry but cloudy for the rest of the day and night. Max temp reached 31.4C

Camille

Dog eat Dogekko eat gekko

Dog eat Dogekko eat gekko

It's a dog eat dog world and my fellow blogger posted this interesting blog about a Gekko or Jing-jok eating a baby Jing-jok. Something I did hear about but never saw, until I saw it captured in pictures on fellow blogger Malcolm's blog just a few days ago!

So how can I describe my utter surprise when yesterday my son all of a sudden starts to frantically and excitedly shout and point at the ceiling of our living room where a dog eat dog situation was developing in a gekko eat gekko or jing-jok kin jing-jok real life situation.

The series of pictures I made are done with some serious zoom, all the way to max, so the pictures may be a bit grainy but well worth the effort of catching this event on a memory disk.

How much I dislike these small creatures because of their droppings everywhere (haven't heard anybody yet not complaining about their droppings!) they are useful and keep all kinds of small critters out, like flies, mosquito's, spiders etc since they eat them all!

Little by little the smaller gekko was being eaten by the grown up gekko and some fascinating pictures emerged.

Ever seen a six footed gekko?

Strangely enough my son thinks it real funny, even looking at the pictures he laughs about it!

Anyway, once more proven that only the strong survive with thanks to Malcolm!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 13th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Upon waking up there was some feeble sunshine over Samui, which was a nice surprise considering how the last couple of days have been. Current temp at 7am is around 27C

Yesterday saw a cloudy but dry day. Max temp reached 28.7 Celsius

Camille

Food on Wheels; Kao Lam

Food on Wheels; Kao Lam

As part of my ongoing Food on Wheels series, here's a new jewel; Kao Lam or sticky rice in Bamboo.

The Kao Lam vendors are relatively difficult to spot since they only have a very limited amount of Kao Lam with them and they usually carry it on the back of their bikes, in a small basket or the like. Really easy to overlook.

The bamboo sticks are hollowed out and filled with sticky rice either white or black rice and sometimes black beans are added, than a sweet coconut sauce is added and the top is closed off with a seal made out of coconut hair from the coconut shell mixed together with banana leaves.

The vendors are driving all over Samui and it's to stop them. The price depends on the bamboo size but is typically around 40,-THB for a big one or 50,-THB for 3 small ones.

This is how they look like once you peel the bamboo off, this being a black rice variation Kao Lam. If you like sweet, they're really nice, although I prefer the white rice ones. If you see them around, try to stop a vendor and buy some, they're well worth trying out.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 12th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Right now Samui has a dry spell but it's very heavily clouded. Current temp at 7am is 23.9C

Last night there was a thunderous and loud storm at some stage that woke me up.

Yesterday saw very strong wind and lots of rain in the morning and around 10am it was dry to more or less remain dry for the rest of the day, except for some drizzle. Cloud cover was all day long thick and heavy although the sun did try to break through once! Max temp reached 27.6C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 11th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui woke up with rain this morning under a very grey sky. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C and it's raining right now.

The forecast turned slightly to the better, for the coming week there's still plenty of rain predicted but the strong wind has been blown off which is good for the diving!

Yesterday saw a nice day, bits and pieces if sunshine and it was dry all day long. Max temp reached 28.4C, it seems it's about time to say goodbye to the 30+C days for the time being.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 10th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has some serious overcast to show for and it's been a very wet night. Current temp at 7am is 25C

Yesterday saw a lovely and sunny day with blue skies up till around 6pm when the wind started and grey clouds moved in and soon afterwards the rain started which seemed not to stop at all. On and off there has been rain during the night. Max temp reached 32.6C

The PADI IE was completed successfully under a nice sun!

Camille

Upgrade of Ko Samui municipal status officially announced

Upgrade of Ko Samui municipal status officially announced

Andy's excellent blog about everything about the administrative subdivisions of Thailand - history, current news, facts hardly found in English, reviews of corresponding books, the Wikipedia coverage of these entities..., well, this Andy, posted about this event.

On Monday 4th October, the upgrade of Ko Samui from subdistrict municipality to a town municipality was published in the Royal Gazette. What makes this announcement a bit strange is the fact that the upgrade already happened in 2008, and thus it is published more than 2 years later. In fact, the announcement was signed by then Deptuy Minister of Interior Suphon Fongngam (สุพล ฟองงาม) on June 9 2008. This is also the date which I found in the annual list by the Department of Local Administration as the date on which the upgrade became effective.

The interesting question is why this announcement was kept in the pipeline for this long time, the median value for all the announcements I have already gathered in my XML is that the publication happens at 51 days after the signature - and now this announcement easily captured the maximum position with 847 days. The additional documents added in the announcement - the description of the boundary as well as the map - don't show any indication that were not yet present at time of the signature, the only date shown on both is the June 9 2008. Besides, preparing a map and the boundary description for a municipality which covers the complete island is nothing which should take that long.

Lots of thanks to Andy, check out his blog!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 9th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has some overcast but the sun is trying hard to break through. Current temp at 7am is 26.7C

Today the PADI IE will be completed. keep your eyes out to my dive blog for an update!

Yesterday saw a nice and mainly sunny day for a change again, although the forecast for next week isn't looking that great, with lots of strong wind and a bit of rain again.

Max temp reached 32.5C

Camille

Samui style car parking!

Samui style car parking!

Driving around the island this week, I noticed some strange parking style habits amongst my fellow islanders.

The first one that got my attention was this car whose driver managed to wrap his car around an electricity pole 10 meters after a sharp, 90 degree angled curve in Plai Laem, not too far away from where I live. Now in itself that is not so hard to do, but to manage this within 10 meters of said curve is a rather astonishing feat.

This picture shows the angle of the wrap around.

This picture gives you an idea about the power that the pole had to deal with.

An overall idea how the car is positioned. It's pretty interesting to try to figure out how this happened. If this is your car, don't be shy, you can post anonymous and let us know how you managed to accomplish this!

A couple of days later, to be more accurately, today, I'm driving around Samui and I see this car parked in-between the Maenam post office wall and an electricity pole. What is it with electricity pole's this week?

As you can see in the picture, he missed a big, red letter post box and a telephone booth and he skidded across the road to park his car against traffic direction. Pretty astonishing!

It was a bit of a tight fir as this picture shows. Amazing talent out here on the road, but don't have yourself fooled, safety is not always an issue here!

The first car pictured here was moved away after a couple of days, this second car was moved later in the day, when I passed by again, I just know that the car wasn't there yesterday!

Safe travels.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 8th October, 2010

Today's weather;

A grey sky looms over Samui this morning with a current temp at 7am of 25.7C

Yesterday saw a dry day but there was overcast pretty much all day long. Max temp reached 29.3C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 7th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is covered under a grey cloud this morning although it's dry for the time being. Current temp at 7am is 26C

Yesterday was a nice weather day and a busy day. The weather was sunny all morning and early afternoon long, with dark clouds later in the afternoon but still dry.

Max temp reached 30.2C

My current IDC was completed yesterday but after classes we visited the Government hospital in Nathon since my wife's grand mother, aged 90, was taken there after a brain hemorrhage. Now we have to wait to see if she can recover.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 6th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Clouds, lots of rain last night, a rainbow this morning and currently dry. That's Samui for you this morning with a current temp of 24.1C

Yesterday saw a typical rainy season day, for the first time this year. Grey clouds in various shades all day long with rain on and off all day long. Max temp reached 29C

Camille

Food on wheels; Children crepes or pancakes

Food on wheels; Children crepes or pancakes

The Thai government schools on Samui are closed or about to close down, our daughter still has two days of exams ahead of her and our son started his 4 week reign over the house already.

Since it's time for another entry in the Food on Wheels series, I thought that a school related entry was in place.

This is a very popular lady at my sons school in Chaweng, the same school our daughter visited as well for 4 years. She sells crepes or pancakes with all kinds of wild options, as can be seen in front of her cart. All the boxes contain sweets in various sorts and forms, ranging from chocolate flakes to various kind of jam and also contain some very typical Thai treats like pork skin.

Plenty of liquid add ons are available as well, like fluid chocolate . Get the picture? The kids are in pancake heaven with this lady!

She's got a routine of spreading the dough on the hot plates which shows years of experience.

She's also very busy and at the end of the school day, when she shows up, waiting times can be serious, especially enjoyable if you have to wait in the blazing sun! She only has two hot plates, fired on by a bottle of gas, well hidden in the inside of the bike.

Hope you enjoy this entry, if you have children here in Thailand, you may be familiar with this lady's sisters who stand outside schools around the country!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 5th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Since waking up Samui has been experiencing rain this morning with a current temp at 7am of 25.7C

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day all day long. Max temp reached the lower thirties Celslius

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 4th October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is once more covered under a cloud layer upon waking up. Current temp at 7am is 27C

Yesterday saw a dry day until late afternoon when the first drops fell down. A few more showers followed. Max temp reached 33.2C

Camille

Welcome to October 2010

Welcome to October 2010

October is the month preceding the rainy season or monsoon but in general October still has very favorable weather, like in 2009 and 2008.

On the other hand, sometimes the rainy season can set in early and 2007 and 2005 were prime examples of that.

In a day or to, the weather conditions on Samui brighten up again and hopefully we'll have a nice and sunny October.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 3rd October, 2010

Today's weather;

A cloudy sky rules over Samui and sun is insight yet!The current temp at 7am is 25.5C

Yesterday saw regular amounts of rainfall and drizzle all day long pretty much with a max temp of 30.8C

Camille

IBIS 5 km Fun Run on Koh Samui

IBIS 5 km Fun Run on Koh Samui

This morning at 7am I was running a 5 km run as part of the Samui Trophy which was held afterwards.

It was fun and especially the fact that you were running on the road between Bophud/Fisherman's Village (great feeling running in the old part of the Village) and Bang Rak, a road I travel almost daily.

Yesterday afternoon I signed up at the the Ibis hotel and there were a few merchants selling running and biking gear.

The bikes of the Adventure run participants. In a team you somehow need to overcome a 500 meter swim, a 10 km run, a 30 km bicycle ride and a 5 km kayak! They figure you can do this within 3.30 hrs! Ouch!

Allrighty, my second participants medal within two weeks! After the quarter marathon about two weeks ago now a new one! They're racking up rather quickly.

The next run being talked about is a Four Seasons run in November and January! Hope I'll be here and can participate.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 2nd October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui woke up under a very cloudy sky that's slowly breaking up, last night there was another heavy shower. Current temp at 7am is 25.4C

This morning at 7am I was actually running the 5km Fun Run as part of the Ibis Adventure challenge or Koh Samui trophy.

Yesterday saw a rainy morning once more followed by a sunny afternoon. Max temp reached 31.6C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 1st October, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui was experiencing a 'Fai Dab' or power cut this morning upon awakening and the awakening bit around 6am was in the middle of a strong storm with hard wind gushes and plenty of rain. Welcome to October or welcome to the rainy season? Current temp at 7am is 24.6C

Yesterday saw a tiny little bit of rain during the morning and it cleared up later in the afternoon. Max temp reached 31C

Camille