26th August, 2007

Today's weather from Surat Thani;

This morning there was light overcast in Surat Thani city, where we stayed for the night. This morning we left real early to be on time for the wedding which was in Donsak, where there was a light drizzle. Temp right now is 30C with light overcast.

In Surat Thani we stay at the Diamond Plaza Hotel, which is a good deal for just under 1.000,-Baht per night, incl. breakfast, with a swimming pool, massage parlour and gym on the 3rd floor and Wifi for 100,-Baht per 24 hours in the room. If you ever get stuck in Surat Thani city, this is a good recommendation. It's also next to a big Tesco Lotus shopping mall.

Yesterday it was a nice day which saw some sunshine and both on Samui and Surath Thani there was a max temp of 33C

Camille

25th August, 2007

Today's weather;

It's raining this morning, a drizzle. Current temp is 26C

Yesterday it was warm, hot rather and very sunny!

In a couple of hours we're off to the mainland, Donsak to be precise, for the wedding of my wife's best friend and on Monday on to Phuket for a couple of nights.

Stay tuned however and please send in your comments.

Camille

Mook's old kitchen or Samui tradition, part 1

Mook is my wife's niece.

Mook's Mum is a sister of my wife's Grand Mother.

Now what's so interesting about this? Well, Mook's been living not too far away from our house, maybe 500 or 600 meters and our respective children play a lot together.
The house that Mook's living in, with her Mum, husband and her two children is about to be torn down. According to her Mum, it's about 100 years old and my wife kept telling me that I have to go and get some pictures from their kitchen, since it's an old one, she kept saying.

Today was the day and pictures where taken! Actually, so many pix were taken that I'll have to split this story up in two or three parts. But the pictures are sooooo good. Have a look below, there's some old style Samui tradition to be found in here!


This is an overview of said kitchen. As you can notice, all utensils are on the floor. Everything is prepared and cooked whilst sitting on the floor, a slightly different concept to our modern Western kitchen!

In this picture, on the left, behind the bright white cloth, there's a Durian fruit (one of my favorite fruits). At the top left of the picture, one can see a gas run cooker, next to it, two coal cookers and on the right, an very rare sample of an old style cooker, of which I took a few pix and will show you later.

A lot of things are also hanging from the ceiling and fruits, veggies and other kitchen utensils are kept there.

Same kitchen, different view. On the wall slightly left from the centre, lids for pans are kept and there's a window.

The bottom consists of wooden panels, with space in between them. The the whole house is build on stilts, so all the natural 'garbage' is 'dumped' between the wooden panels and used as chicken food.

This is a very rare old style stove. Coals are placed between the three protruding parts, a pan on top of it and off you go, cook away.

The pot in front, with the matches on top, is used to put the hot coals in, after you complete the cooking, so they can cool off in there. The big spoon like tool is used for that.

My wife has never before seen one like this on Samui. It's very rare and also very old! Amazingly, it still can be used.

Above the old stove, are these baskets that can hold coconuts. The baskets are above the stove, so the smoke of the cooking fire, makes the coconuts stronger. A common sight in old style Samui kitchens.

As you may (or not), but Samui used to be the coconut supplier for pretty much all of Thailand, until a good 20 years ago, when tourism started to take over.

Here's Mook's Mum demonstrating how she (used to) cook(s) on one of the coal stoves.

My wife still uses one of these as well. Typically when she cooks fish, outside of the house, so the whole house doesn't smell like fish.

The old style stove with a pan on it, almost 40 or so years back in time.

Next to the window are a couple of buckets of water. These old Samui houses don't have running water installed and water is hauled into the kitchen, to cook and clean. The water buckets are covered by lids to prevent mosquito's laying their eggs in the water.

The small cup is used to drink water from the bucket.

A trip down memory lane. As in good Thai style, there's pictures from loved ones on the wall, since Mum's getting close to a respective age, the pictures are a peek into the past and each has it's own story. On the left is a collection of Mum's friends when she was at school.

A very rare portrait of the King, that had to deal with the time changes.

The good old ironing machine, demonstrated by Mook's Mum. On the bottom hot colas were inserted and off you went.

It was really nice to see how proud Mook's Mum was and she was very eager to show me all the things in her kitchen.

I do hope you enjoyed these pictures and the story, which will be continued with more pix fairly soon.

First we're is off to Donsak for two days, the small city where the ferry arrives on the mainland, for the wedding of my wife's best friend.

On Monday we'll proceed to Phuket for a short break and we'll be back on Samui by Friday evening. Next week's reports will be coming from the mainland, but as long as I have internet access, I'll be able to post and show you our pix.

I'd love to hear from you out there, so please feel free to post comments on my posts, by clicking on the comments button.

Cheers,

Camille

24th August, 2007

Today's weather;

It looks like a firm overcast layer which may disperse later today, since the sun is trying hard to break through. Current temp is 26.5C

Yesterday was a lovely day, plenty of sunshine and warm with a max temp of 34.3C

Camille

23rd August, 2007

Today's weather;

It's a thin milky layer with lots of sun peeking through and a blue sky just waiting to break through. Current temp is 26.4C

Yesterday the sky was covered all day long, no rain and much sunshine with a max temp of 31.5C

Camille

22nd August, 2007

Today's weather;

There's overcast with not that much of blue spots in it. Currently it's 26.5C

Yesterday was a nice, warm day with a max temp of 32.5C and no rain.

Camille

Kao Man Gai Hai Lam in Lamai

Kao Man Gai Hai Lam,

That's what it reads on the sign below and that's the restaurant in Lamai where my wife and myself had lunch today, during our trip around the island.

Kao Man Gai, is a chicken dish, prepared in a special way, over specially prepared rice. My favorite Kao Man Gai restaurant is in Bophud however (more about that place in the future), not this one. I like to visit this place for different dishes.

This is how the place looks like from the outside. They just had some major reconstruction, since the whole place moved about 30 or 40 meters to the left!

The restaurant can be found on the main road, coming direction Chaweng, after the turn to Lamai beach road. It's a bit further down the road than the big PTT gas station in Lamai on the main road, on the left side.

They also have a couple of Chinese style dishes on the menu, dishes I haven't seen anywhere on the island.

This is the dish I ordered today, 'Moo Klob', crispy pork with a slightly sweet and sour (more sweet though) red sauce. In the Netherlands it would come close to Babi Pangang. This is a traditional Chinese dish.

My wife mentioned that Hai Lam, in the name of the restaurant is a region or province in China, where apparently a lot of Chinese who inhabited Samui, came from.

My wife had a lovely 'Kaa Moo' dish, pork leg, well done, in a brown sauce/gravy. There's a lot of small road side restaurants serving this dish, but in this place one can get a very tasty one!

The Thai condiments for the dishes, the two sauces are delicious and are normally used for the Kao Man Gai dish.

If you're in the Lamai area, this place is well worth a visit, very simple and basic but lovely food! Highly recommended by me and still going strong in August 2013, we're still visiting whenever we're nearby.

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

Wat Kunaram, Lamai

Wat Kunaram, Lamai

Wat Kunaram, Lamai is best known for it's Mummified Monk, known all around Samui but also known from the National Geographic Channel, which had a feature about Wat Kunaram and it's mummified monk.

Today I found myself on one of the 'around the island trips', which on the ring road, all around, is maybe 65 km's.

A great stop is Wat Kunaram, with it's Mummified Monk.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; The entrance gate

Coming from Lamai, this is how to recognise the Temple or Wat Kunaram; it's on the left side of the road, not too far away from the Nam Muang waterfall.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Here's a picture of the 'Bot' of Wat Kunaram. 

The "Bot's" are traditionally used when men are ordained as monks, and there is a central ball in the middle of the building, which is suspended on a rope and used as a focal point of the ancient ordination ceremony.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; The building housing the mummified monk

The building that houses the Mummified Monk. Upon entering the Temple, on your right hand with small steps leading up to the entrance.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Background information

A brief explanation about the origins of the Monk, Phra Khru Samathakittikhun (Dang Piyasilo) or Loung Por Daeng. He, was born in 1894 and was a well respected family man within the local community on Koh Samui and first become ordained as a monk when he was in his early twenties. He spent two years in Wat Samret before exiting and marrying a local lady from Lamai with whom he had six children, a few still alive on the island as of today.

Upon reaching fifty years of age, once his children were all grown up, Loung Por Daeng, decided to dedicate the latter part of his life to Buddhism and returned to the temples where he felt so at peace. He was ordained as a monk in 1944.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Here's a picture of Phra Khru Samathakittikhun (Dang Piyasilo) or Loung Por Daeng, it's fairly difficult to get a good shot, due to the lightning.

He then traveled to Bangkok where he spent some time studying and learning more about Buddhist texts and meditation, one of the great passions of his life.

It is believed that upon returning to Koh Samui he went to meditate in a cave, Tham Yai in Lamai, which is located within present day Tamarind Springs.

Later he moved to Chaweng and was one of the first monks to stay in the location that nowadays is known as Wat Pang Bua.

He was one of the first Jao Wat's, which is the Thai term for Abbot, who led the temple into its present existence.

Following this, he decided to return to his family home, which was located just behind the current Wat Kunaram where the temple school is located.

Most famously, two months before his death, at the age of 79 years and 8 months, he requested the company of his students to inform them that he felt his death was imminent and wanted to instruct them as to his last wishes. He requested that should his body decompose that he be cremated and his ashes scattered at the famous 'Saam Jaeg' in Hua Thanon, meaning the three forked road intersection, in Thai.

He went on to request that should his body not decompose, he would like to stay at the temple and be placed in an upright coffin on display as a symbol to inspire future generations to follow Buddhist teachings and be saved from suffering.

In his final seven days of mortal life, he no longer spoke to anyone or ate or drank anything, concentrating solely on his mediation and the path to enlightenment. He died a week later in the same position that we can see him sitting in nowadays.

He's in impeccable condition considering he died 30 years ago and on his head one can still see some hairs.

When his eyes fell into his head, the monks at the temple fitted him with some sunglasses.

He is still sitting in the original position of his meditation.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Directly next to the building that houses Loung Por Daeng, one can find this interesting display of coins and paper money from all over the world, that visitors left at the temple.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Amulets for sale

No temple is complete without selling amulets of it's own temple. Here one can purchase amulets of Loung Por Daeng, these are believed to bring good luck and fortune when worn around the neck. However, one must also treat the amulet with respect and always keep the it above floor level or it shall lose it's charm.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai; Blessings

A Thai tradition is having a white or bright colored string around the wrist. Each temple offers this and in Wat Kunaram it seems to be a day job for the monks.

Wat Kunaram, Lamai

Here's a picture of another traditional part of each temple, seven Buddha statues representing the seven days of the week, so one can worship the day one is born.

The temple is well worth a visit just to see this extraordinary mummy of Loung Por Daeng. Despite a constant increase of tourist visitors over the years, Wat Kunaram retains much of the Buddhist traditions and ambience of the time when Loung Por Daeng meditated there. It has not turned into a tourist museum but more a place of historical and cultural heritage that to many is seen as the site of a true Buddhist miracle.

With thanks to an article about Wat Kunaram in the local magazine Community, the July 2007 issue.

Please do 'like' my Koh Samui blog Facebook page and enjoy the beaches around the island or in front of your hotel or resort and get some well deserved rest and a break. If you're done resting or need something else to do, there's plenty of things on offer on and around Koh Samui, you can go snorkeling or diving or take a dive course. You can also enjoy some of the trips I recommend, like a half day gourmet lunch and snorkeling trip at the Southern part of Koh Samui or a photography trip where you get to see the most photo genetic spots on the island or go for a drinks tasting tour if you like a tipple or two.

Contact me for more detailed information on any of the options mentioned.

If you like to donate to this blog, use this secure link PayPal.Me/CamilleLemmens.

Camille

Updated 9th June, 2017

21st August, 2007

Today's weather;

There's a bit more overcast compared to yesterday and only thin, pale blue spots. The wind seems not to be as strong anymore. Current temp is26C

Yesterday was a nice day, we were out diving with my IDC candidates around Koh Tao in order to complete part of the PADI Instructor Specialty Training program, have a peek here for some underwater pix. It was nice and sunny around Koh Tao and we had a good day out with two lovely dives. Max temp was 33.6C

Camille

20th August, 2007

Today's weather;

It's milky white with blue spots in it. Current temp is 26.3C

Yesterday it was a warm day, we were diving at Chaweng beach, which was fairly busy and it was warm. The sun heated things up nicely.

Camille