Goodbye to July 2013

The end of this July is in sight and it's time to say goodbye. It was quite an eventful month, especially towards the very last couple of days.

Firsts let's check the weather though for this July of 2013. Quite frankly, it wasn't good. Lots of cloudy days, lots of rain and lots of strong wind. Not typical for your average July on Koh Samui. Although you can expect some rain and cloudy days during July since it's part of a monsoon period (although the rainy days usually hit the East coast harder this time of the year), Samui got much more than asked for! 

On the other hand though, the amount of rain did the island good, the ground water levels have had time and plenty of water to fill up again. If you were here for a sunny holiday, it may have been slightly disappointing with the amount of rain coming down. We even had a few stormy days with some toppled over trees all over the island!

To compare other July's, going back since 2007, please have a look at my archives, half way down the page on this blog, right hand side. Open a month that you’re interested in and check one of the last posts of each month, starting with ‘Goodbye to…………’, just like this post and it will tell you the weather conditions for that month.

You can also check each individual post for that month if you wish to.

Koh Samed, Ao Phrao beach covered in oil

As already mentioned, the last couple of days of this July version were filled with news and most of it not very good news. The biggest news must have been the oil spill in the Gulf of Thailand that reached Koh Samed. Very sad and not good for the environment, unsure what the long term effects on the ocean will be with the chemicals being used and scary, come to think of the fact that oil platforms are within 40 kilometers of Koh Samui.

Big local news were the killing of a police officer at a local gas station in Chaweng and the fire that erupted on a Raja ferry in Lipa Noi just a few days ago, which material damage of around 10 million Thai Baht.

Other shocking nationwide news was the revelation that Thailand has the worst traffic safety in the world, according to a recent study.

The day before the Surat Thani half marathon the wind wreaked havoc near the finish line

On a personal level, it was a fairly quiet month work wise, since I was all month at home, not travelling around teaching PADI IDC's. It was busy on the running front though, after my first marathon that I ran last month in Lansaka, I had four races lined up this month, a 13km race in Phun Phin, a half marathon in Surat Thani and a last minute surprise, the third weekend of this month featured the Koh Phangan Full Moon marathon, where I attended last year already the 10km run, during which I came in 2nd in my age group and this year I decided to run the full marathon distance. This time I managed to come in as 7th in my age group for the classic 42,195 km distance, the last spot that earned you a price.

A fourth race was scheduled last weekend in Wiang Sa, also in Surat Thani province, like the other 3 races, but I never made because of a knee injury I developed during the Koh Phangan marathon. It's a few weeks off running now, to let my knee heal. That's hard and not easy but necessary!

During hte first kilometers of the Koh Phangan Full Moon marathon

We enjoyed good food at some of our favorite restaurants around the island, including Juzza Pizza in Fishermans Village, pork sateh and 'raad na' at Dcheed 2 in Chaweng and Korean food at Arirang in Choengmon just to name a few.

Hope you enjoyed the blog this month and I look forward welcoming you again in next month, August 2013, when Samui should be full with visitors, looking for the islands beautiful beaches and ll the other things that make Samui such a great destination.

Don't forget to use my Camille's Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Camille's Thailand hotel recommendation blog for all your hotel bookings on Koh Samui and around Thailand. By doing so, you will support my blog. Thanks folks!

Camille