The year 2011

The year 2011

My 5th year of blogging, who would've thought that! Around 2.500 posts on this blog alone in those 5 years, wow! Anyway, welcome to a bird's eye view over 2011.

With this blog I try to show people who are interested in travelling to Koh Samui or who have been here, those that keep coming back or those that already live here some interesting places to visit, things to do or restaurants to visit.

Fo an update on my diving adventures in 2011, please visit my dive blog.

Big Buddha

This year I have been travelling extensively and besides Koh Samui, lots of other destinations have passed by, inside and outside of Thailand and still I managed to keep you updated on the daily weather reports on Koh Samui and kept the monthly Food on Wheels series rolling.

I think that I have a fairly unique insight on local island life and events because I'm married to a local Samui woman and through her and her family I am able to witness events that may not be possible for somebody visiting the island.

I hope you enjoy my musings and what follows here is a list of highlights during the last year;

January saw a visit to Orgasmic restaurant, highly recommended and my first PADI IDC outside of Thailand, on Malapascua in the Philippines.

The Royally Sponsored cremation of Prakru Suntinonthakhun in Wat Plai Laem

During February I had happy times in the Philippines and once I got back home again, there was a big event at Wat Plai Laem, the Royally sponsored cremation ceremony of Prakru Suntinonthakhun.

There was also the ceremony of 100 days after Grand Mother in law passed away.

March was going to be an interesting one, although it started all very good, with my participation in the Four Seasons Care for cancer run. It became more interesting on my way to the second PADI IDC on Koh Lanta that month. I barely made it off the island and was able to actually reach Koh Lanta! I had a very dry stay on Koh Lanta, when Samui and surrounding islands slowly turned in disaster zones due to flooding.

Early April saw clean ups start all around the island and the damage done was extensive and rather stunning. Due to donations on my blog I was able to help some people personally affected by the floods. Shortly after the flood, it was time for some more water; Songkran was there.

During April I also visited Gili Air in Indonesia for the first time to conduct another PADI IDC.

In May we visited the Coco Splash water park in Lamai, a must for kids when it's dry and warm!

My son's short lived Tae Kwan Do adventure resulted in participating in his first tournament to date.

A murder investigation was started into a suspect drowning of a well known Samui resident.

Phuket Laguna marathon start and finish, the day before

The first half marathon I ever participated in came by in June, in Phuket. A great event. I also visited Gili Air in Indonesia for the second time this year.

July saw my first trip to Osan in South Korea. Another memorable event for me this year.

During August my sister and her family visited and one of the restaurants we visited was the Captain's Choice at the Imperial Boathouse in Choengmon.

September saw me participating in the 10km run on Koh Samui as part of the Samui marathon. It was also time for the yearly Thaa Yai celebration. The first visit to Arirang, a Korean restaurant was on the schedule.

The whole family went to Bangkok for a few days during October. I ran the Amari Midnight run and we had a couple of great sight seeings lined up, Wat Phra Kaew and Dusit Zoo among others. It was also time to renew some Dutch passports.

Samui saw the yearly Rua Chak Phra event roll on.

Rua Chak Phra

There was also the issue of flooding back on the table during October, this time around Bangkok and not around Samui.

In November I went to Pattaya with some friends and visited the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, a good day out. By this time I was already on my fourth visit to Gili Air and Scallywags restaurant finally got a mention.

December saw the last IDC of the year in Khao Lak followed by a live aboard with all the six candidates.

Now I'm home, relaxing for a few more days until the IDC carousel starts again 15th January on Koh Samui.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I hope you will be dropping by next year and please spread the word about my blog and if you're planning to book hotels on Koh Samui or around Thailand, check out my Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Thailand hotel recommendation blog.

See you all next year!

Camille