Saturday, May 31, 2008

Welcome to June

Welcome to June 2008

June is usually slightly wet, due to a light monsoon. June last year was fairly wet, so let's hope we get a bit more sunshine and less rain.

Enjoy your stay on Samui or in Thailand!

Camille

1st June, 2008

Today's weather;

This first day of June starts out with a bot of overcast. Current temp is 26.2C at 7 am.

Yesterday was a warm day with a mix of overcast and sun, during last night there was a bit of rain as well. Max temp reached 33.5C.

Camille

Friday, May 30, 2008

Goodbye to May 2008

Goodbye to May 2008

Time to wave goodbye to May.

Just as last year May, the beginning of May wasn't that great.

This year saw a lot of rain and strong wind, sometimes even thunderstorms. It was also very quiet on Samui throughout May and I'm sure that many business are looking forward to June, so they can pick up on business.

The second half of May turned out rather nice though and at the moment it's very hot again. In the second half of May I stayed in Koh Tao for almost a week to complete some great training dives with Andy, as reported on my dive blog.

The next couple of months should be very good for diving, so if you visit Samui, don't hesitate to contact me or have a look at my website.

Hope you enjoyed my blog this month and look forward to seeing you again next month.
In the meantime, please subscribe to my blog(s).

Camille

31st May, 2008

Today's weather;

There's sun and overcast this morning with a current temp at 7 am of 27C.

Yesterday saw lots of sunshine and no rain with a max temp of 33.5C. It was warm!

Camille

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Kinnarees light up Bang Rak

Kinnarees light up Bang Rak

The main (beach) road in Bang Rak has received a bit of a face lift.



The road has been widened and there's a nice pedestrian side walk and new road lights are in the process of being installed. The picture above shows the new, wider road. A good idea by the Tessabaan (the Municipal City Office) and for once it seems well constructed as well.



The new light's look pretty cool. On top of the pole is a Kinaree the Buddhist Mythical half-human and half-bird.



Here's a better look at one of the brand new Kinarees overlooking Bang Rak's new road. The actual lights still need to be installed!

Camille

30th May, 2008

Today's weather;

There seems to be a lot more of blue sky around this morning. Current temp at 7 am is 27C.

Yesterday saw overcast pretty much all day although there was no rain during the night this time around. max temp reached 30.8C.

Tann from Hong Kong, saw your comment but had problems with my mail inbox and couldn't post it yesterday, sorry! Hope you enjoy your stay on Samui.

Camille

Austin Hill Golf Resort, Tmn Mount Austin, Johor Bahru

We had a 2 days 1 night vacation at Austin Hill Golf Resort (N1°33.691' E103°45.967') during the 'Mother's Day' of 2008.
The room rate is reasonable at MYR110+ (Member), MYR130+ (Non-member). The room was spacious and with 2 king size bed. (Promotion till May 2008)

I took the chance to snap some photos around the Golf Resort.

My daughter and her cousins ran to swimming pool for their greatest enjoyment! The pool was not really crowded that day. But the slide at the corner was full of kids queuing up!

The path to the pool





Many families having their relax family day over here. You can enjoy the Fitness, Spa & Sauna facilities after your swim....it's located beside the reception counter.

The main entrance and the reception counter

Some others photos around the pool site......
The Lotus Pond

Tennis court at the end of the pool

Stairway to heaven?!

The antennas having their party on the roof top !! :)

And the forgotten....

Maybe it's the lucky animal of the resort, you can see it at every corner....


After the main entrance, the restaurant is on the left.


Coconut tree everywhere.....Tropical atmostphere.....

Staircase to the Pub (One bucket of Tiger - MYR40+ for 5 bottles)

On the way back to the room.....


We having our home cook dinner in the room....and I brought my daughter to the 8 lanes Bowling Alley (at the lower ground) after dinner.

I found something unusual over there......I cannot understand why some peoples playing bowling by wearing his own "Slipper"?! Don't they understand that??
And the management which takes care of the area not even bother about it. That guy react arrogance like he is the Hero over there!
That's what I mention before.....this gotta do with our education system here. Sometime is impossible or difficult to change someone mentality.

The happiest kids was playing around untill midnight and totally exhausted!

We leaving in the next morning after packed, and went home after our breakfast.

Location map of Austin Hill Golf Resort


Related post :
* Budget Hotel at Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru.
* EVOSS 25th Oct 2007
* Austin Hill Resort





MY TRIPS - Home

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Mulligan's Pub, Tmn Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru

Mulligan's Pub (N1°29.756' E103°48.972') is the only Irish Pub in Johor Bahru at the moment. It's located next to Coffee Trap Pub & Bistro at Taman Permas Jaya - opposite of Jusco Permas Jaya.


The Irish decoration really attracted me. I love hang around the area mostly in the evening.
The external


I believe this area will be pack of peoples during the coming UEFA EURO Cup 2008.

Around 6pm onwards, you can see many golfers sitting at the bar counter. Yeah, this is all about Mulligan.

The internal decoration




We were having a bucket of Tuborg (5 bottles) with the cost of MYR42.00+.

You will appreciates the cozy environment if you experience yourself.






Related post :-
* Bar Banyan, Johor Bahru.






MY TRIPS - Home

29th May, 2008

Today's weather;

There's overcast this morning but the sun is trying to break through. Current temp at 7 am is 25C.

Yesterday was warm and sunny with a max temp of 32.5C. Last night around 10 pm we had the seemingly routine rain fall.

Yesterday I installed two new gadgets, a storm tracker and a gadget that shows the current moon phase. Both can be found at the bottom of this page.

Camille

Restaurant Tips: Pak Nam Seafood

I admit that life sometimes becomes a bit repetitive, mostly governed by work and school, and we tend to sink into regular patterns. We eat at home much of the time (see Home Cooking), and when we eat out we tend to head for regular hangouts, places we know, places that are safe for the kids, places where we know we can get good food. I vowed to try some new restaurants this year, and finally last week, when I had a holiday and both kids were at school, we found a new restaurant which we liked and indeed went back a few days later with the kids.

Pak Nam Seafood Sign Entrance to Pak Nam Seafood

Pak Nam Seafood is right on the northern edge of Phuket Town on Ratsadanuson Road which winds around the edge of "Monkey Hill" from the government offices in the extreme northeast of town to just north of the Mission hospital which is on the main road out of town to the airport. They said it only opened last year, but seems to be popular, and I think the answer may be the food.

Pak Nam Seafood had been recommended to us by friends. You may have trouble finding it. Best way to get there - take main road out of Phuket Town and turn right at lights after the Mission hospital, then drive about 2km, and you'll see the restaurant on the left. I have added a Google Earth location here. Views to the sea, you can see Koh Maphrao and also Koh Yao Yai in the distance, also views of a building site and the edge of Phuket Town. The view below is also from the restaurant. Try to get a balcony table looking in this direction.

View from Pak Nam Seafood

Yes I do put ice in my beer

Cold beer ordered. Now for food. One of my favourite dishes in any restaurant, if it's available, is "Yam Gung Seab", a spicy yet sweet dried shrimp salad. Until now the best I have had was at Laem Hin Seafood, but I think this one at Pak Nam Seafood wins.

Yam Gung Seab

Yam Gung Seab

Even the fried rice was good. You know sometimes fried rice can be very bland. This had flavour and accompanied the salad well.

Fried Rice

Then we had the "mystery dish". We ordered Gung Cream Salad. Sounded interesting. Was very tasty. Some fried breaded prawns and a mountain of fresh salad covered in dressing....

Gung Cream Salad at Pak Nam Seafood

We will be back again. And we do vow to try some more new restaurants in the near future. I'm sure there are more that suit "our style". If you can find Pak Nam Seafood, give it a try!

More of our Favourite Phuket Restaurants:

Dairy Hut
Kan Eang Seafood
Ninth Floor

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

28th May, 2008

Today's weather;

A weather change occurred overnight and it's very cloudy this morning with a current temp of 26.3C at 7 am.

Yesterday was steaming hot, like in late April. However, around 9.30 pm last night there was a shower and after midnight, there was the good old thunderstorm including a power cut! Total rain measured just over 40 mm last night. Max temp in the daytime reached 34.3C though.

Camille

Cedar Point Hawker Center, Johor Bahru

N1°28.874' E103°45.759'
This food court is one of the oldest around Johor Bahru area. It's located opposite of Pelangi Plaza & and the back of the Omega School.

The place has many improvement since my last visit about 6-8 years ago. The canopy was built to have better cover during rain. I was suffer last time because without this! :) The ex-company which I'm service 9 years ago was located at the same row with Omega School.

And also equipped with big fans every corner. Environment is cooling.

Today I decided to go back there to have my favorite "Char-Koay-Teow" (fried koay-teow). It's one of the famous at JB.

Guess what? Disappointed. The standard drop very much!
Beside this, there are about 8-10 store over here selling good food easily more that ten years. Curry Fish Head is another delicious food around.

We were having some beers until the sun go down....recall all those memories which is more than 10 years ago.......:)

Location map will update later......






MY TRIPS - Home

Monday, May 26, 2008

27th May, 2008

Today's weather;

Once more we have a blue sky reigning over Samui in the morning with a current temp at 7 am of 27C.

Yesterday was a nice day with some overcast in the afternoon but dry all day. Max temp reached 31.7C.

Camille

Nathon Market

Today we visited Nathon

And I took the opportunity to visit the market and take some pictures. It's not the most spectacular market but an average sized Thai market with plenty of good photo opportunities and 'smelling' experience, with all kind of new fruits, fish, meat and other things wafting their odors around. In a positive sense!





It wouldn't be South East Asia and in this case Thailand if food wouldn't be all around and over the place. Here some quick snacks at the ready and totally fresh. Deep fried tofu and deep fried corn or potato.



Here's picture of Horseshoe Crab or Mengda as the Thais call them. The female crabs carry eggs and those eggs are used to make a salad. It's a fairly hard to find dish on a menu but small restaurants catering to Thais tend to carry them.

Mengda is also a reference of Thai boyfriends that leech off their girlfriends. Guy hangs out at home doing nothing and girlfriend goes out to work, a lot of time in the red light/sex industry. These guys are called mengda's.


The stuff that Thai curries are made of, the curry pastes. Six different curry pastes are at display here.

The bucket at the bottom right has a substance in it that in Thai is called 'Kee Plaa', shit of fish. It's the intestines etc of fish, that's eaten. Enjoy!


Pret-a-Manger, Thai style. The finished Thai curry, ready to be put in a plastic bag and to be eaten at home. These kind of food stalls are all over Thailand and have some excellent food on sale. Besides the curries there are usually also a couple of non curry dishes for sale.



At the right side of this picture, the famous Durian is shown, they're in season right now. In the beginning I didn't like neither the smell nor the taste of Durians, but at some stage I came around and started to enjoy this strange fruit. Once I started to enjoy eating Durian, I didn't think they smelled bad anymore, now it's more like, wow, Durian is in the air, let's get some.

Thong Durian, the golden Durian, is the one I like most, there are several varieties of the fruit but this is the one that has the sweet taste, once you can call it that! I've eaten Durian meat and love it nowadays and even had some Durian ice cream in Malaysia! The link to this website even makes it into a drink!

The funniest thing or quote I found is this one though;

"The durian is said to be a 'heating' fruit, which is unusual as most fruits are 'cooling'. Legend has it that this heating property makes the durian an aphrodisiac. A local saying goes, 'When the durians come down the sarongs come off!'."

Thais also say that you shouldn't mix alcohol with Durian, it makes you do crazy things and can get you violently sick!

Here's another link to a website called Durian, which funnily enough has a webcam of a street in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, the city I last lived in before moving to Thailand.

Last but not least, there are a few Durian plantations on Samui and we just bought the best tasting fruits off of one of my wife's cousins. Hmmm, lovely!

To get back to the picture though, on the left, the green bean string or pod, is a typical Southern Thai ingredient and is called Sator or in English also know as the 'Stinky bean', guess this pictures sums it all up! Durian and Sator all in one picture! Personally I like sator in quite a few dishes!

Here's a link to a website full of Thai vegetables, including pictures and also showing off Sator in picture 25 and a link of a Nation journalist's visit to a typical Southern Thai restaurant in Had Yai, describing a sator dish.

Well, this turned out to be a blog posting full of interesting Thai dishes and food, Mengda, 'Kee Plaa', Durian and Sator.

Not too sure about the 'Kee Plaa' (yet?) but all other food I can highly recommend! Maybe a bit much to try all in one go, but definately worthwhile looking out for.

Camille