Goodbye to March 2011

Goodbye to March 2011

This has been a very memorable March indeed. It all started out very good with a successful PADI IE for my candidates on Koh Lanta, directly followed the next day by a the Care for Cancer 10km run I did on Koh Samui in a personal best time.

My wife's youngest sister got wed and a good time and party was had by all on 14th March.

The 18th March saw some rain and there were a few flash floods, nothing too serious and looking at pictures of Samui some 7 years ago was great as well.

Work wise things were really shaping up, PADI IDC's scheduled in Gili Air in Indonesia in late April and things got even better with an IDC scheduled in Osan in South Korea in late June! Great news! It got even better and 22nd March I received news that for the 5th consecutive year in a row, since it's introduction by PADI Asia Pacific, I received the Platinum rating, a rating that allows me to become one of only 57 PADI Course Directors worldwide to earn this level of recognition! Good times!

Come the 26th March and I'm on the road again in order to start teaching an IDC on Koh Lanta. Stock up on food and drinks at home for the family and off I am. There was bad weather and big waves predicted but the trip over to Donsak was smooth but to my big surprise, the road from the ferry to the highway, a stretch of just 25km was flooded near the highway and travelling on was seriously interrupted! The picture above shows people waiting for things to happen that day near where the road is flooded.

I barely make it to the highway and can continue my way to Koh Lanta, where I arrive safely. The rest is history! The South of Thailand is hit by serious flooding, the worst that I can remember in my 12 years!

The road between Krabi and Surat Thani is now also closed due to water damage, so getting back to Samui in due time, may be a bit of a challenge!

My blog here goes crazy with over 10.000 visits and over 20.000 page views, popular posts are when the airport was closed and the video's.

Yesterday it really took off when Samui, Koh Tao and the South became world news!

If you're interested in updates on Phuket, please check Jamie's Phuket weather blog, he has some good and fair news on the Phuket area.

Currently the situation is getting better, I can only hope that the weather forecast for the next 7 days, being very sunny and now ind or rain, will continue just like April should be!

Thanks for all the support and I hope you will keep checking in when things return to normal again! If you want to book your hotels on Koh Samui for your next trip, please use my Samui hotel recommendation blog with a personalized view on the hotels listed!

Camille