Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 26th October, 2016

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 26^th October, 2016

Today's weather;

This morning looks nice over Koh Samui with a partially cloudy sky but some parts of the island may have some rain this morning or later on today. Current temp at 8am is 28C

The PADI IDC that I'm team teaching on Phuket started yesterday and on Phuket we have a slightly clouded sky this morning with a few blue spots but it looks like things are clearing up again here after a few days of hard wind and lots of rain. Current temp at 8am is 27.2C

King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Koh Samui in 1962, the only visit to Koh Samui that he ever made, to the best of my knowledge

Yesterday saw a nice and fairly warm and dry day around Koh Samui with a max temp of 33C

King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Rawai beach on Phuket back in 1959. A time during his reign when he travelled a lot and visited many cities and villages around the country.

The forecast remained stable for the next ten days on our island, which translates into partially clouded skies on most of the days with some tropical showers thrown in, especially come this Sunday and Monday it may get wet,

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 4th October, 2016

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 4^th October, 2016

Today's weather;

It's cloudy over Koh Samui this morning but the sun is trying hard to peek through and I expect the clouds to evaporate quite a bit later today, once the sun starts to heat up and there's a nice breeze. The prediction states it should stay dry, but you never know, especially this time of the year, so close to the monsoon season. Current temp at 7am is 27C

At Kata on Phuket it's also very cloudy, but light grey clouds and not those dark grey clouds anymore and there are also a few isolated blue spots in the cloud cover. I will not be surprised if we will have a shower or two today. Current temp at 7am is 28C

We had a lovely day of diving yesterday, the ride out to the dive sites in the morning was a little bit rough but once at the dive sites and the way back home were nice and we hardly had any rain. A good days work and diving!

Here's a picture of me from 2004, almost twelve and a half years ago by now. It shows Wat Plai Laem or Wat Laem Suwannaram. There is now a wall build on the land you see and the Meh Guan Ihm statue is still under construction, as it looks like,getting close to completion. It's fascinating to see pictures from old Samui and witness the changes or 'progress' that took or still take place

Yesterday saw a nice, sunny and warm day until 6pm when there was a some very hard rain and a tropical shower swept over the island. Max temp reached 33C

As mentioned yesterday, many restaurants on Phuket only offer vegetarian food during the 9 day period of the vegetarian festival and many people will eat vegetarian food during these nine days. You can recognize restaurants or places that only offer vegetarian food, called 'ahaan dcheh', by these yellow flags. If you see such a flag, it means that only vegetarian food is offered. In the meantime, the processions continue each day in different parts of the island. This coming Friday I may be able to visit such a procession, fingers crossed

The forecast for the next ten days on Koh Samui predicts cloudy days with a fair breeze and possibly some hard rain come this Thursday and Friday afternoon. Otherwise a tropical shower is always an option during this time of the year. This doesn't mean there will be no sunshine, most days will have some sunshine as well.

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 15th September, 2016

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 15^th September, 2016

Today's weather;

It's very hazy this morning in the sky over Koh Samui but I expect the sun to burn away the cloud cover soon, once the sun heats up. There's a also a nice breeze. It may stay sunny with a few scattered clouds throughout the day and I don't expect any rain. Current temp at 7am is 28C

This shop can be found in the middle of Nathon, between the beach road and the main road. In this shop you can buy school clothes and all kinds of stationary plus loads of non related things. This used to be the only or one of the few shops on the island where school uniforms and school related things could be bought, for all schools around the island. Now there are more shops that carry similar merchandise, let alone the big shops like Tesco Lotus and Big C. In my early Samui days, I visited here a lot, since thsi was one of the few shops were you could have papers laminated, some 17 years ago. I drove over with my bike to laminate a bunch of papers that I used whilst teaching scuba diving on the boats. Those were the days. The shop will now be renovated soon, I wonder what it will look like afterwards. Another little bit of Samui's history biting the dust?

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day with some clouds moving in towards the end of the day but it remained dry and it was warm with a max temp of 33C

The forecast for the next ten days is looking good. Some partially cloud covered skies with the wind fading come Tuesday but Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday may see some hard rain. 

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Welcome to April 2016

Welcome to April 2016

It is indeed a Welcome to April 2016, the month with many activities to enjoy in Thailand and Koh Samui.

April is typically the warmest month in the year on Koh Samui and this year the Thai government is expecting serious drought problems in some of the Northern provinces.

On Koh Samui, the last three years, we strangely enough had rain during the recent three Songkran festivals. Very odd indeed.

Other than that, just expect heat, lots of heat and sunshine during this month.

Welcome to April 2016; Big Buddha in 1980 (picture by Keldbach)

Besides the already mentioned Songkran festival, the Thai New Year, which is the third New Year being celebrated around Thailand, including 'our' Western New Year and the Chinese New Year, there are other events around the island.

One event being the first ever Koh Samui Bikini Beach run, to be held on Sunday 10th April with a 1.5km beach road and a 1.5km run on Chaweng beach, totaling 3km. Unfortunately I won't be able to participate since I will be teaching a PADI IDC on Koh Lanta.

Welcome to April 2016; Big Buddha in 1994 (picture by Dave Carlo)

April will also mark the first year remembrance of the Koh Samui bombing of Central Festival. 

A month to look forward to, have fun but be safe during Songkran and enjoy this fairly unique festival all around Thailand but especially on our island if you find yourself here.

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Koh Samui in the 8-tees

Koh Samui in the 9-tees

Here are some pictures by Dave Carlo from Koh Samui in the 9-tees, around 1994, so all copyright belongs to him! A nice step back in time.

Chaweng beach road during a rainy day, when the road wasn't paved yet.

Such a pier brings back memories, although I didn't arrive until the late 9-tees on the island. It looks like the Fisherman's Village pier, maybe, possibly?

Who's been long enough to remember Santa Fe in Chaweng, a very popular night spot for the local Thai young folk that eventually got closed down because of the violence. 

Samui airport with all of it's early charms, parking was a nightmare though!

Big Buddha, the road got just paved a year or two ago

These kind pf pictures seem to be popular, so I hope you enjoy this lot as much as I do!

If you have any old Samui style pictures, please share hem with me, thanks in advance!

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Chaweng beach in 1980

Last week I posted a picture of Chaweng beach in 1980 from a Tweet by Retro Siam (link can be found below first picture) on my Koh Samui Blog Facebook page and it got a couple of thousand likes in no time.

The picture form a Tweet from Retro Siam, Best bungalows on Chaweng beach in 1980, with a view to the South

This was reason enough to check online for a few more pictures from the 8-tees and especially of Chaweng beach in 1980. A few of these pictures can be seen here.

Chaweng beach, picture by Keldbach.com, more pictures can be found at www.keldbach.com

Having arrived myself at the end of 1999 on Koh Samui, my work, being a dive instructor, had me dive Chaweng beach on a regular base in early 2000. At that time I didn't appreciate diving Chaweng beach that much and now it's one of my favorite sites or rather THE favorite site around the island.

Chaweng river, picture by Keldbach.com

Sadly enough, there is hardly any direct and convenient access to Chaweng beach anymore for diving purposes. Most resorts don't allow divers to pass through and the few public access areas are very inconvenient for logistics. The parking area is far away from the beach, making it very difficult getting the gear to and from the beach.

Chaweng river mouth, picture by Keldbach.com

As part of my job as dive instructor, back in my early days on Koh Samui, I was also working at Centara Grand Beach resort, where I spent hours on an end, watching over the pool and the beach. Hard work indeed!

Chaweng beach, picture by Keldbach.com

One of the good thing about diving on Chaweng beach, was the trash hat I collected over the years with underwater clean ups and various dive courses I taught there. The stuff I found over the years is stunning, from money and still in working order cameras and Go Pro's to about a hundred dive masks in all price ranges and conditions, to clothing (sunglasses, hats, shoes, you name it!) and bigger things like parts of jet ski's and sun bathing chairs.

Chaweng beach in 1980 by Jochen Weber, more pix here

Chaweng beach in 1980 has changed, no surprise there. Some may not like it, but it's part of progress and the city that you live in has changed since 1980 as well. Important is how the change evolves and sadly that may bot always be for the better.

Especially in the early days, without the ecological knowledge and know how available today, resorts are build in different ways, which affects us all, ideally and hopefully in positive ways nowadays with the way new resorts are being build or should I say how they should be build?

Chaweng beach in 1980 by Jochen Weber, a view to the South

A unique feature of Chaweng beach in Thailand and for that matter, all beaches around Koh Samui, is that the resorts are build on the beaches and there's a beach road with no direct view onto the beach. Not many places or islands in Thailand have a similar set up. Koh Lanta and Khao Lak come to mind, where i'ts similar but most places or islands in Thailand have a beach, a road and behind the road, the hotels are build, like on Phuket.

Chaweng beach in 1980 by Jochen Weber, a view to the North

I do hope you enjoy these pictures though and also enjoy Chaweng beach how it is today, since in ten years time we will look back at how it is now and we will miss exactly that, what we have now!

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 22nd September, 2015

Today's weather;

It's cloudy this morning over Koh Samui and hazy on top of that. It looks like it may stay cloudy today. Current temp at 7am is 26.7C

According to Wikipedia, info about the haze;  

"The 2015 Southeast Asian haze is part of the Southeast Asian haze-series (2005-2015), a longterm crisis better source needed] which happens roughly every 2 years in summer and fall. The 2015 event is affecting several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia (especially the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan), Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand. It is caused by forest fires due to the combination of illegal slash-and-burn practices and annual dry season in the Indonesian provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan."

Old style gas station in Baan Namuang

Yesterday saw a cloudless day but it was very hazy all day long and warm! See the explanation about the haze above. Max temp reached 33C

The forecast changed drastically overnight. Cloudy days are back and wind and rain can be expected from Thursday evening onward until Monday night. It looked so promising yesterday but it's gone all to smithereens again.

Do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and 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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 18th May, 2015

Today's weather;

It looks really nice this morning around Koh Samui, with plenty of sunshine and a blue sky and just some scattered clouds. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C

I arrived in Moalboal, Philippines yesterday and today we're starting a PADI IDC course here under a partially sunny sky. Current temp at 8am local time is already 31C

Yesterday we kicked off with a PADI IDCS course and after that we had some very hard rain for about an hour around 11pm.

Old 'Hainan' style house in Hua Thanon

Yesterday saw some very hard rain again as part of a tropical shower, besides that there was also plenty of sunshine Koh Samui around. Max temp reached 34C

Fire wood at Panagsama beach in Moalboal, Philippines. Most households have wood fired fires to cook and these packs of wood are for sale along most of the roads here

The forecast predicts fairly cloudy skies for the next tend days and it looks like the wind will pick up come tomorrow afternoon/evening and chances of scattered tropical showers are high over the next couple of days.

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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 19th April, 2015

Today's weather;

There are a few clouds in the sky bit it's mainly blue skies around Koh Samui and it's already warm early in the morning. Current temp at 7am is 27.5C

I just ran a half marathon distance, starting at 5am and it was very humid.

No real news on the Samui bombing, except more articles claiming it to be politically motivated with excluding the Southern unrest.

A classic, old style Samui combination; coconuts, monkeys and an old jeep (or sometimes an old truck) in the modern world

Yesterday saw another dry and warm day with mostly nice blue skies around the island. Max temp reached 31.5C

The forecast shows a cloudy Thursday but otherwise nice blue skies and sunny days. All rain seems to have disappeared for the next seven days.

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

Chaweng in 1982

Found this video of Chaweng in 1982 on Youtube. A nice trip down memory road for those who visited Samui back in those days. It's interesting to see that there was hardly any development at all on the beach in those days, two people almost all on their own in the water.

Great to see some videos back from those days, this is rather rare footage since a video recorder was not a common thing to own, let alone carry around on your holidays to exotic locations like Thailand back in those days.

I came to Samui in late 1999 and it has already changed a lot, add another 17 years and the changes are drastic! I really enjoy this video and I hope that you enjoy it as well.

Leave a comment and tell me when you arrived!

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

Construction of the ring road around Koh Samui 1969-1970

Getting around Koh Samui in the 'early days' was an adventure. Listening to stories of my wife, who is born and raised on Samui, 

Manual labor on the ring road

Visiting other parts of the island involved walking for most of the day and staying overnight with relatives and walking back the next day. 

More manual labor

From the Choengmon area, there was bus/song thaew per day to Nathon, which back in those days and still is the main place for any official and government related business.

This all changed in 1967, Khun Dilok Suthiklom, the 'mayor' of Samui back in those days or 'Phuyai baan of Samui' and he asked for funding to governmental organisation to build of what we nowadays know as the ring road.

Old picture of the ring road

This construction started and in 1969 and 1970 was in full swing, as the black and white pictures show.

The start of building the ring road was manual labor, as can be seen in the pictures above but one of the problems for building the ring road was the hill between Bang Po and Nathon and the rocky sides of the road around Lamai. Heavy construction machinery was needed.

Ring road construction Bang Po in 1982

As could be expected, delays were encountered, due to monsoon and rain, just like construction around the island nowadays. Some things just never change!

In 1973 the ring road was completed by putting the concrete plates in place and just recently, tar was added on top of the concrete plates at most of the ring road.

In the beginning the road was no wider than 2 meters, which has been changed a few years back, when the ring rod was widened. Most of the time only to create parking space for bikes and cars it seems.

Hope you enjoyed this, the old Samui pictures. Most of the pictures and some of the informatiom was found at this link.

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

Chaweng beach in 1983

Over the weekend I spotted a few pictures of Chaweng back in 1983. I'm a sucker for these kind of pictures, so if you have any old pictures of Samui that you would like to share, please send them to me and I will post them here and credit your pictures to you.

In front of the current Centara Grand Beach resort. Picture by John Stall (aka Cap'n Squall) 

Back to these pictures though, I received allowance to use and post the pictures here, much to my delight, since I think these pictures are awesome and show why Koh Samui became so popular.

The plot of land where Centara Beach resort is now located. Picture by John Stall (aka Cap'n Squall)

The pictures taken near the future Centara resort are also awesome, in my opinion, they have a personal touch for me as well, since this is another resort I used to work at during that same time frame between 2000 and 2009. Very good memories of this place.

I recently met the former manager, who had this function for many years, he just moved to Laos for a new position and another friend, Joe, is still working here as a manager, and he sometimes supplies pictures for my blog.

Bridge over klong at First Bungalow Resort. Picture by John Stall (aka Cap'n Squall)

As you can see, Chaweng Beach changed a lot in 31 years, but that in itself is no surprise. Every changes during that time frame, my home town , your home town, pretty much everywhere. It does show however how much Chaweng beach has changed, and that is a  lot!

A view to the North. Picture by John Stall (aka Cap'n Squall)

My wife is born and raised on Samui and it's great to hear stories back from these days. We live in Plai Laem and that's where she has been raised and lived. When she wanted or needed to visit Chaweng, it meant a day's walk along the beach, around Choengmon, stay overnight with relatives and at the earliest, go back home the next day.

My fave, taken from where Malibu Beach resort, where I used to work for a dive center on the beach for a few years between 2000 and 2009, with a view towards where now the Ark Bar is. Picture by John Stall (aka Cap'n Squall)

There are a few more pictures left, so keep your eyes glued here, over time I will post some more pictures of 'old Samui' pictures.

Enjoy!

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

Before and after; Chaweng one way road 2006 and 2014

Here's a recent and 8 year old picture of Chaweng, where currently the one way beach road starts!

November 2014

Above is the corner where the one way beach road in Chaweng starts, on the left. The road on the right leads to the ring road. Te building in the middle of the picture has various small shops under it's roof, mainly selling copied goods and other assorted souvenirs.

March 2006

The picture above has the same crossing, from a slightly different angle and it looks very different indeed. One big difference is that there was still no one way system in place. Nowadays unthinkable!

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

Coconut workplace in Hua Thanon

If you're on your way down to the Sweet Sisters cafe, the 100 year old house or the distillery in the Ban Thale / Hua Thanon area, you may pass this very traditional coconut workplace.

The entrance to the premises

This workplace is very much Samui old style tradition! Coconuts bought around the island, for anywhere between 2-3 Baht per coconut (pending on the season, demand, etc) are gathered here and being worked on.

Piles of coconuts are everywhere

Working the coconuts

First thing is to sort them out for being usable, a job already started by the collector and secondly and very important, is splitting the coconut open with a sharp object, the sea-am เสียม, mounted on a wooden pole (as pictured below). Once the coconut is split open, it will allow access to the coconut meat, which is scraped out of the nuts and gathered.

Smouldering remains of coconuts

The coconut meat is than used for many applications, like making virgin coconut oil or coconut sun lotion. Both products are being sold here on the premises at the shop.

The sea-am เสียม is a popular decoration item and comes in many different forms and shapes. The Natural Museum in Lamai has several on display.

The splitter or sea-am เสียม

Coconut farming was the main source of income on Samui, besides fishing, back before the island was discovered as a tourist destination, back in the 1970's. Samui was one of the main providers of coconuts in Thailand, back in those days and many local people had monkeys to climb the trees and release the coconuts.

Traditionally, the 'good' or favorite children received the land plots with the valuable coconut trees inland and the less favored children or sometimes 'the black sheep' in the family received ownership of the at the time being 'useless' beach land. 

How times have changed!

The shop selling virgin coconut oil and more related articles

This workplace is one of the few places left on the island where coconuts are being processed and is well worth a visit, to see come old style and traditional handy craft work in process.

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

Manora dance at Wat Bo Phuttaram in Bophud

During the recent 'Tod Katin' ceremony at Wat Bo Phuttaram, one of the events taking place was a rather rare and exclusive Southern Thai dance which goes by the name of 'Manora' or มโนราห์.

In 15 years time living on Koh Samui, it was the first time I witnessed a Manora dance.

The Manora dance invocation by the music ensemble

The dance starts with a rather lengthy invocation, accompanied by music. The musical ensemble consists of a pair of hand cymbals, a pair of small knobbed gongs, a pair of wooden sticks, a barrel-shaped gendang, a reed instrument and a vase-shaped single headed drum.

The whole performance, a dance drama, follows a strict pattern, the music, the invocation, the customs and the moves follow a strict pattern, is my understanding. Looking at pictures from other performances, the clothes are looking all the same indeed.

As already mentioned, the dance is exclusive to Southern Thailand and a few Northern Malaysian states and is also known as Nora (โนรา) or Lakon Chatri (ละครชาตรี).

The basic features of the performance include a lengthy invocation, a dance by the main character, and a play or skit. The invocation is enacted by slow rhythmic movements of legs, arms and fingers. The dramatic repertoire of Manora performance is based on Thai legends of Manohara, derived from Buddhist Jataka tales, many of which already accultured into Malay society centuries ago

The costumes are very colorful and beautiful and the performance I witnessed was done by a Bang Po family, apparently the only Samui based troupe that can perform this dance.

This performance was a complete surprise by me, I had no idea it was scheduled and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to be able to see another performance.

It's part of a long Southern Thai tradition and rare indeed, I hope to see it again a lot faster than having to wait another 15 years!

If you have the opportunity to witness this approximate 2000 year old dance drama whilst in Southern Thailand, make sure to make time for such an event to witness it. Well worth in my opinion and a rare insight in old Southern Thai dance drama tradition. I'm glad I could witness this at last!

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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 24th October, 2014

Today's weather;

This morning is a lot nicer compared to yesterday with an almost clear blue sky over Koh Samui. Current temp at 7am is 25C

Hainan style house in Hua Thanon

Yesterday did not stay dry at all, we had lots of rain during the morning and a cloudy day with no sunshine at all. Max temp reached 27C

The forecast remains the same, a mixed bag of cloudy and sunnier days with occasionally some rain. It's not rainy season yet but it sure is on it's way!

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