Saturday, 31 July 2010

Protest demo against oil drilling in the Gulf of Thailand

Protest demo against oil drilling in the Gulf of Thailand

As already reported earlier this week with a text message and a photo post, today was the big day for the demonstration around Samui's ring road.


Due to various reasons I couldn't have a look until shortly after 10am, the demo being scheduled to be held between 10am and noon. I only covered a short distance, between Tesco Lotus in Chaweng and the post office in Maenam.


Some places were really crowded, especially in front of hotels or resorts but in-between there were plenty of long and empty stretches. The kids in the picture above even had custom made t-shirts!


It was nice to see many people involved though and being rather enthusiastic, both Thai and Western. Above shows school kids from the Bophud government school.


It seemed to be well organised and cars with loud speakers were making the rounds, keeping everyone involved. There were also thousands of little flags distributed in two languages (Thai and English) asking to stop the drilling.

All in all it seemed to be a rather successful event with many participants, which is always good to see. Although my expectations of being able to stop the drill are not that positive, this was a well organised event.

Camille

Goodbye to July 2010

Goodbye to July 2010

It's that time of the month again, July 2010 is about to leave us, welcome to August 2010.
Before we completely wrap up this July however, a few remarks;

The weather was good this month, for a July. We had the usual July rain showers but they were mainly during the evenings or nights and Koh Samui was and is in dire needs for rain. There was also some strong wind again but this is also pretty standard for a July and we even had a mini storm. All in all, if you were on Samui for a holiday during this 2010 version of July, you should've had plenty of sunshine. The 2009 and 2008 versions were slightly wetter, it seems when I'm looking back at the archives.

It was also a busy month on a personal note with my sister and her family and a very good friend visiting during this month. There are also a few blog readers that visited the island during this month, a big thanks goes out to all of you who regularly visit my blog, it's appreciated.

My sister stayed at the Chaweng Cove Resotel for a second year in a row with the second year in a row being satisfied with the price/waht's on offer ratio. The food is unfortunately nothing to write home about but that left us with plenty of choices to eat outdoors and this month saw visits to plenty of my fave restaurants on the island; Le Café des Arts, Il Duomo and Prego for some great pizza and Italian food, Catcantoo for it's famous spare ribs, SITCA after their cooking attempts, MK Suki in Chaweng (oops, Catcantoo is in Bang Rak!), Sabeinglae in Lamai, Angela's in Maenam and plenty of other places where I go each month, the small Thai eateries like the Dcheed 2 with it's great Saté muu, Clock Lana and the Kao Man Gai place in Lamai.
Lots of outdoors eating this month and good times were had by all of us.

This month saw also two highly popular posts, one with pictures of one of the speedboats involved in last months Full Moon Party collision, I must admit, the pix do look intimidating and interestingly enough, two people who were on the boats involved found my blog and commented and spoke about their experiences.
The other popular post was about pictures of the damage done after we had a real storm roaring over our island for a couple of hours, although the damage was rather marginal.

On to another topic, posts from bloggers around Thailand that I found worth reading this month and who I can highly recommend to you, have a read through their respective posts and visit their blogs, there's some interesting stuff out there;

For starters Rick's blog about Thailand and a post in which he sees the countries tourism on the mend again.

Martyn always looks beyond the Mango juice and is a regular in Isaarn, this time with a post of Udon Thani's night market, well worth checking out, first of all I love (night) markets in the LOS and Udon is a great city on top of that as well.

Boonsong, the new kid on the bloggers block likes screamers and thinks that males make the most noise.

Andy has two great blogs, one about all provincial and legal news, a most interesting blog and he writes about a frustrating mission impossible of finding museum brochures and his other blog is about a lesser or unseen Thailand and he really knows how to find those unseen spots, like this museum in Yannawa.

Jamie in Phuket has the real inside info on Thailand's biggest island (is it still really an island if it's connected by a bridge to the mainland?) where he just did a photo walk with his daughter and he also has one of the other few weather blogs in Thailand, the Phuket version! A true brother in weather crime ;-)

Monique is a Limburger, just like me and is residing on Samui just like me, she's a great photographer however, unlike me. Here's a cool shot of a monk taking care of a dog.

Jungle Girl on Koh Phangan has a touching story about a small and young Burmese girl trying to make a living on Phangan's beaches.

Malcolm is retired in Thailand and claims to love it! Can you believe that! Here's a great post how their little home transformed into their castle in the boonies near Kanchanaburi and the lessons he learned about the local customs. The boonies are called Whang Pho by the way.

Talen has a fantastic blog about Thailand and in this post he talks about the news over one week with interesting stuff about a Thai good looking violinist turning Olympic athlete to the shooting of a new movie in Thailand; the Hangover part 2.

Lawrence lives in the Isaarn metropole of Phana and gives us a recipe of the most important Nam Prik Thai relish, something each Thai should know how to make and now you can try it as well.

Mike of formerly My Thai Friend now blogs under the name of Thailand blogs and has a great post about a fascinating aspect of Thai culture, Thailand's obsession with uniforms; everybody who's got a job probably has a uniform to go with it!

Steve of Thailand Musings fame has an interesting read about Songthaews, the red pick up cabs with the open but covered (DUH?) rears you see all over Thailand. Click on the link to see a picture so it all makes sense again. My father in law on Samui used to have one of these Songthaews.

Ben, our own Thai pirate talks about the harsh realities in Thailand of owning pets and how they can get bitten by poisonous snakes.

Well, I wonder if you made it all the way down here, usually my posts are not so big or long but thanks for dropping by and I hope to be seeing you all again next month.

Camille



31st July, 2010

Today's weather;

There's a cloud layer hanging over Samui but it looks like the sun may break through later today. Current temp at 7am is 26.7C

Don't forget about the protest against the oil drilling today, between 10am and noon on the ring road.

Yesterday saw a warm day with plenty of sunshine, it wasn't until the evening that we had some rain. Max temp reached 32.8C

Camille

Friday, 30 July 2010

Stop Oil Drilling around Samui

Stop Oil Drilling around Samui

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow between 10am and 12 or noon the effort will be made to make a human chain by a minimum number of 35,000 local residents (including those from Koh Pha-Ngan, Koh Tao and Suratthani) and visitors (including foreigners who are sympathetic to the cause) by linking hands forming a continuous human chain along Koh Samui’s 52-kilometre long ring-road. Read here to see my previous post on this topic.


Signs are at various locations around the island

Camille

30th July, 2010

Today's weather;

It's slightly cloudy with some blue spots out and about over Samui. Current temp at 7am is 26C

Yesterday saw plenty of sunshine but around 5pm there was a serious shower for about an hour. Max temp reached 30.9C

Camille

Thursday, 29 July 2010

Coffee shop in Lamai

Coffee shop in Lamai

The coffee is unfortunately closed


Imagine just a small shop that serves basic coffee and lots of different teas and all kind of variations of Thai tea. Well, it's there, in Lamai and to be exactly next to Lamai's Tesco Lotus and one of my favorite Lamai restaurants, the Kao Man Gai Hai Lam restaurant, which is run by relatives of Puu, the Samui born owner of the coffee shop.


After yesterday's start of my Food on Wheels series with a shot of a coffee vendor, I'm back to coffee again today, considering I'm not a big coffee drinker, rather coincidental.



Puu, the owner of the shop is a very nice person and easy to talk with. He worked for a long time as NGO in Trang with marine ecology issues. If you're interested in his place, it's available for rent if you're looking for a shop.


Coffee and all tea is only 20,-THB per cup and is made on the spot in these interesting little boiler machines. Just don't expect any fancy coffee, it's straightforward coffee and comes in one make, tasty and strong however!


The shop has a good atmosphere and feel to it and if you're in Lamai or go shopping in Lotus there, top by and have some Kao Man Gai and a cup of coffee from Puu.


Go there as long as it lasts, before you know it Puu has found somebody who wants to rent his place.

Camille

29th July, 2010

Today's weather;

It's cloudy and slightly grey right now over Samui but dry with a current temp at 7am of 25.3C.

Yesterday saw a great and hot day with plenty of sunshine. Around 7pm though it started to rain with some thunder and flashes thrown in and the rain stayed around for a few hours. Max temp reached 34.2C

Camille

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Food on Wheels; Coffee on the road

Food on Wheels; Coffee on the road

Here's the start of a new series that I would like to introduce; Food on Wheels.

As all regular visitors to Thailand or if you live here, you know that food is never really far away in Thailand. Even in remote areas, somebody will drive by on a bike or sam lor (three wheeler) selling something to eat. Samui is no exception to this and just like the rest of Thailand will present itself with plenty of photo opportunities. Each week I'll try to put a picture up of some kind of food or food related item and they will all have one thing in common, they come on wheels!

Today's entry is near my son's school in Chaweng and is a cute little mini motorbike attached to a sidecar on which coffee is sold and various other drinks, like Thai tea. Amazing from my Western point of view and I love it!

Hope you will enjoy the pictures of this new series.

Camille

28th July, 2010

Today's weather;

It's cloudy again on Samui but dry. Current temp at 7 am is 26C.

Yesterday was a dry day to my surprise and the last two days were actually rather nice, nothing like how they were predicted. Max temp reached 31.1C

Camille

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

27th July, 2010

Today's weather;

It's very cloudy this morning over Samui and rain is in the air although it's still dry at the moment but with relative strong winds. Current temp at 7am is 26C.

Today, the day following Asarnha Bucha Day is the Buddhist Lent Day, which is known in Thailand as Wan Kao Pansa. Tonight the Wientian ritual where you walk around the temple with a candle is about to happen but the forecasts predict rain around that time.

Yesterday lots of rain were predicted but only a trace materialised. It was overcast all day long though and the max temp went up to the thirties Celsius again, to be precise; 30.3C

Camille