Sunday, January 31, 2010

Welcome to February 2010

Welcome to February 2010

Usually February is a nice month with plenty of sunshine and not too much rain.
The first week of this month looks like there's going to no rain at all with plenty of sun.

It's a also a fairly quiet month during which you may obtain some good deals on rooms since Samui is in low season. (Oops, my mistake! February seems to mingle in the high season months, especially due to the fact that Chinese New Year falls in February this year.)

Hope to see you around Samui shores!

Camille

1st February, 2010

Today's weather;

February kicks off rather nicely with a blue sky shaping up although it's a bit hazy with some big clouds in the far distance. Current temp at 7am is 27.4C

Yesterday saw a lovely blue sky all day long with a max temp of 30C

Camille

Goodbye to January 2010

Goodbye to January 2010

For the third time in a row, January was a nice month if it comes down to Samui weather, plenty of sunshine and hardly any rain at all, just like 2008 and 2009.

On a personal note it was not that great, with my Dad passing away, I do miss him and think a lot about him and time we spent together.

There were however lots of restaurant reviews of new places; Sakana, a new and real nice Japanese restaurant in Bophud; the 4K restaurant in the beautiful X2 resort in Hua Thanon; the conveniently located but slightly bland Ranong restaurant in Chaweng and the Catcantoo in Bang Rak with the amazing ribs!

Not to mention the places we visited again or ordered take away from, like Bravo Pizzeria and Haveli, amazing Indian food both in Bang Rak or the simple but delicious muu sateh's in Chaweng at Dcheed 2.

There were also plenty of Temple visits, both in Kanchanadit and Samui and a visit to the lovely Donsak Orchid Garden during our Surat Thani trip.

Thanks for visiting this month and hope to be seeing you again next month and many more to come!

Camille

Night at Port Dickson Beach, Negri Sembilan

Port Dickson Beach at Night (N02 30.708 E101 49.605)
We had a stop at one of the beach along the Port Dickson Coastal. There were 2 photos I took for sharing...

I took out my tripod, and placed it towards the Port Dickson town. Photo below...
Port Dickson town from far away

I should make use of the Manual Focus rather than Auto Focus! Regretted after I look into the photos...
The next photo was shooting along the beach, which I'm more satisfied compare with the first photo.

The beach was quite crowded that night, I saw some of campers setting up their tent along the beach. It was a nice area to relax...

After hanging around the beach for an hour, we went back to the Resort for rest...that's end our first day at Port Dickson.




MY TRIPS - Home

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Elephant Trekking

I've never actually done an elephant ride. Might take the kids one day, I am sure we'd all enjoy it. There are elephant trekking places all over Phuket. Some are close to the main beaches, others get a bit more off the beaten track (better in my opinion, I don't want to be trekking with a view of Patong or within earshot of a busy road!). And it's good business for sure, riding an elephant is on many tourists "must do" list. My parents have been over here visiting a number of times, and it was on their 2nd visit in 2004 that they went off for an elephant ride. I asked mum to write about the experience.. although it was over 5 years ago now and she's forgotten a couple of things - can't remember exactly where the place was, but it was between Kata and Naiharn... and she's not sure of the price they paid, but said she did bargain a bit and the price seemed quite reasonable for a new and unique experience.



Some people are against using elephants in this way and say the animals are not treated well. My parents experience was only positive, but just last week there was an incident in Phuket where an elephant went wild, a couple of tourists were injured and the elephant threw a car down a hill. That is of course a very rare occurrence - I've never heard of such a problem before in Phuket, but remember that elephants are wild animals no matter how many years they have been working with people.



OK, here it is - Our Elephant Experience in Phuket by Paula Monk.



When I was a child I would look through my books and see pictures of far away, wonderful lands. I was fascinated, but in the 1950s, growing up in post war Britain, it didn't seem possible that I would ever see any of those places for myself. I was filled with wonder at the sights of children riding on elephants and imagined how it would feel. That little dream lay dormant for almost a lifetime. The world has moved on during that life time and people travel far and wide – ordinary people like me.



Now we have family in Thailand (it was called Siam in my childhood) and on one of our visits I was determined to fulfil my childhood dream. I can't now tell you the name of the place where we went for our elephant ride. It was in the rural south of the island, in hilly terrain. I feel there couldn't have been a better place – the elephants were well looked after and so were we – my husband and I. The jungle was thick and lush and the views from the hill tops were superb.



We climbed up onto a platform of wood and bamboo to wait for our elephant and the young man who would guide us through our adventure. The back of the elephant was level with the platform and we climbed onto her back – I wish I could remember her name – and tried to get comfortable in the hard metal howdah. Even before we started to move we felt rather insecure, perched up there. It is high up and the seat is not strapped too tightly to the elephant.



My parents on the elephant ride in Phuket



Slowly we moved off. I was all grins and happiness! At first the ride seemed fairly smooth, but soon we were traversing the slopes of the jungle through narrow pathways. It was like a fair ground ride – I was thrilled and exited and scared stiff at the same time! Going down hill it almost felt like we would be lurched forward and roll over the beautiful elephants head! We hung on tight and enjoyed the thrill. Mostly our elephant strolled slowly along the familiar paths – sometimes she broke into almost a trot, accompanied by gasps and squeals from us.



The mahout



Elephant trekking in Phuket



Our elephant man started the ride sitting on the elephants head, between his ears.

Often we would stop completely when the elephant felt like a nibble at the trees – her trunk swinging to reach the tastiest bits. After a while our elephant man slipped down from the elephant and walked ahead. Oh my! Here we were, my beloved and I riding alone on an elephant though the jungle! Did I ever dream that I would be doing this? Soon our young guide came back and asked for my camera – a moderately simple digital camera. I wondered if he would know how to use it. But he was a superb photographer and we have a collection of fantastic photos of the pair of us on our elephant. The pictures definitely capture the excitement we were experiencing, far more than the fear.



View from the top!



Don't fall off! Hold on tight!



Our ride lasted for a long time – about an hour we recall. As we realised we were coming to the end of the ride we became aware that we felt physically tired. It is hard work to keep the body stiff and alert and to be holding on tight. But above all, we felt exhilaration that in our 60s we had taken the chance to fulfil a dream.



We climbed from the back of our beautiful elephant onto the platform. The world seemed so still and at peace. We climbed down and gave her some bananas. Wow, she looked so big from ground level! Then she was led away for a rest and to wait for the next people to delight in the experience. We fed young elephants before we left and stroked their heads. It was a lovely place to be and has provided us with a treasured memory.



More Things to Do in Phuket

Some of our favourite restaurants

31st January, 2010

Today's weather;

An almost near blue sky is showing off this morning with a current temp at 7am of 27.3C

Yesterday was nice in the morning with a mini shower in the early afternoon and than a couple of successive showers in the later afternoon and evening. Max temp reached nonetheless 31C.

Yesterday our 7 year old daughter had two teeth extracted at the dentist which she didn't like at all but today it's all looking fairly good and she's fine.

Camille

Friday, January 29, 2010

Wat Kiri Wongkaram, Baan Taling Ngam, revisited

Wat Kiri Wongkaram, Baan Taling Ngam, revisited

It's been over two years ago since I posted something for the last time about Wat Kiri Wongkaram in Baan Taling Ngam and it's about time to give you an update on this temple.
First of, this is one of the two temples on Koh Samui that has a mummified monk on the premises, the other temple being Wat Kunaram near Lamai.

Both temples have seen their respective mummified monks being relocated in a nicer building than their previous ones.


This is the new building for the mummified monk in Wat Kiri Wongkaram, a real nice building especially comparing to the state of the other buildings on the temple complex.

The new accommodation for Luang Por Rerm Khun Wongkaram.

A picture of the Luang Por Rerm Khun Wongkaram when he was still alive.
The mummification is achieved by a strict diet and apparently his hair and nails still grow, according to a flyer available at the temple and sections of the nails are cut and used as protective charms.

A picture of the accommodation building, build in 1957. Still in fairly good shape though and I really like the big painting of Thai characters on the walls of this building.

The main Temple, build in 1968 and still in use for the monks daily prayer and religious ceremonies is not in that great shape and could really use some paint and general maintenance.

When you're making a trip around the island this is a beautiful and quiet get away from it all place to visit. Enjoy.

Camille




30th January, 2010

Today's weather;

There are just a few clouds in the sky, the potential for a sunny day is there. Current temp at 7am is 27.6C

Yesterday saw a bit of overcast in the early morning just to clear up and have a sunny afternoon. Max temp reached 34.5C

Camille

Weng Yin Seafood Restaurant at Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan

Weng Yin Seafood Restaurant (Restoran in Malay) (N2 26.087 E101 51.771) is located along the main road of Teluk Kemang, Port Dickson - Negri Sembilan.

Weng Yin Seafood Restaurant

The reason we chose this restaurant for dinner was because it had a Thumb-up from the Malfreemaps. 
The restaurant was packed of peoples when we reached. So we gonna placed our order asap! :)


All the dishes here was recommended from the lady who took our order...

3 Flavoured Fish (Sorry, don't know how to translate in English)
Butter Prawn
Kung Pao Chicken
Tao-Fu mixed with Vege
Onion Omelette
Spicy La-la Clam
And another two dishes I forgot already....:)
Total eight (8) dishes. Foods were serve in about 15 minutes, I'm satisfied with the service!

Three (3) flavored Fish


Butter Prawn
 
Kung Pao Chicken

Tao-Fu mixed with vegetable

Onion Omelette

 Spicy La-la Clam

Overall the dishes were Delicious!
Especially the Fish! It was very fresh and crispy on the skin. (It's deep fried and added the sweet sour sauce) We Love it very much! The lady said, they are famous with their Crabs, but we didn't order due to one of us not taking crab. We were having our sweet time to finished all the dishes happily!
And the Damage : MYR190.00 for 7 adults and 4 children.
It really Worth second visit!!

Food rated : 4.8/5

Location of Weng Yin Seafood Restaurant






MY TRIPS - Home


Thursday, January 28, 2010

29th January, 2010

Today's weather;

Partly cloudy with big blue patches of blue. Current temp at 7am is 27.3C

Yesterday saw rain in the early morning at 9am, than blue skies until around noon where we encountered a little bit more rain but it there was overcast pretty much for the rest of the day with a short shower or two more. Max temp reached nonetheless 30C.

Camille

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

28th January, 2010

Today's weather;

It's cloudy and it's raining but at the same time, to the left and right of the localized rain over Plai Laem, there are blue skies. Current temp at 7am is 27.8C

Yesterday saw blue skies with some cloud formations in it all day long. Max temp reached 29C

Camille

Mom Tri's Oasis Restaurant (Kata Beach)

My normal restaurant choice for lunch is something cheap and simple... there are several choices close to where I work in Karon Beach such as Mama Noi, or a great Phad Thai shop, or several small local places. But a couple of weeks ago I was invited for a business lunch at Mom Tri's Oasis at Kata Beach. I have eaten before at Mom Tri's Kitchen which is overlooking Kata Noi Beach, so hoped for similarly delicious food.

Mom Tri's Oasis Entrance

The Oasis restaurant really is right on Kata Beach. There were sunloungers just a couple of meters away.... felt a bit odd... I was told that the restaurant is much nicer in the evening when the beach is empty.. there were not many diners on the day I was there.. guess we'll have to go back in the evening one day when I am feeling rich. Yeh, it's not really expensive - I am sure plenty of people would say that the prices are very reasonable considering the quality, the location, the service..

The location is actually very very nice...

View - Kata Beach from Mom Tri's Oasis

Sometimes I feel a bit out of place in fancier restaurants with huge wine lists (and Oasis has a huge wine list just like it's neighbour, the Boathouse). So I had some wine and ordered a salmon salad which was extremely tasty - you can taste the difference sometimes with the quality of ingredients - even a simple piece of lettuce is not to be taken lightly - and the lettuce in my salad was good lettuce! And I always appreciate a few sun dried tomatoes :)

You can see the full menu on the Mom Tri's website - I think the website shows the dinner menu, which is more extensive.. I was there for lunch and there were fewer choices, mostly what they call "Thai Tapas". What struck me the most was the way time flew sitting there in comfort, sipping wine, gazing over the beach... after 2 hours I reckoned I had better get back to the office, thinking "I could get used to this". Next day was back on the 40 Baht Phad Thai :)

Mom Tri's Oasis Restaurant

Related links...

Mom Tri's Villa Royale Hotel
Mom Tri's Kitchen
Mom Tri's Boathouse Hotel
More Phuket Restaurants

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ostrich Showfarm at Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan

Port Dickson Ostrich Showfarm (N2 26.778 E101 51.749) is located along Jalan Kemang 13, about 450 meter away from the main road of Teluk Kemang, Port Dickson.

The weather was not so good during our visit. No sun and almost rain...

The entrance fee are : MYR8.00 for adult and MYR4.00 for children and senior citizen. I believe the farm does not have subsidy from the Malaysia Tourism.

I was wondering why it called 'Showfarm'? It's because of the 'Show' in the farm? Please elaborate this if you have an answer...:) Ok, the first Showtime - Monkey Plucking Coconut : 11am - 3pm. Second was Ostrich Race : 11.30am - 3.30pm. (The shows will stop perform if rain). Oh my! The So Called Showtime!!


The first animal we saw...the Goat. Oh! I told myself...please show me something interesting...


Then we had been 'Follow' by a White Peacock...
 
It ran away once we walked close to the Ostrich

Then...we saw the Ostrich! With the signage beside...

Juvenile Ostriches (7-16 months)
A) Male feathers are Black in color & female feathers are Grey in color.
B) They do not have teeth, so it is safe to hand feed them.
C) Ostrich belong to the ratite family. The characteristic of the ratite family is they do not have breast muscle, so they cannot fly.

Once the kids read the 'B', they started to feed the Ostrich...

But her face tell us that, she still fear from the Ostrich bite! :)

The Ostrich from Port Dickson

The second ostrich farm note was :-

Breeder / Laying Bird
A) Female ostriches start laying at 1.5 years old.
B) Laying time is from 8am-10am and 4pm-6pm.
C) After laying, the egg will be collected immediately to avoid any soil contamination.
D) The production of eggs are around 40-90 eggs / season. (1 season = 8 months)

The second farm was not allow to Feed! Maybe the ostrich will attack?! I'm not sure...

We continue the walk, I saw there were Monkeys jumping around on the ground. Kind of funny! I did not get the name of it, cos there's no signage...

The Macaque

Too bad, suddenly it started to rain...what a luck! But the children still Busy feeding the rabbits...Haha!

So we had a rest at the Cafe area. The drinks over here are selling at reasonable price...
Beside the cafe, situated the Souvenir Centre. The write-up and the Egg machine which take care of the Ostrich egg got our attention. Quite a nice knowledge to us...

About 10 minutes later, we continued our tour in the farm. There were few interesting 'Birds' beside the cafe, photo below...

It might belong to the Peacock or Turkeys family

If your weight is more than 120kg, Please DON'T stand on it!

Ostrich Egg

Beside the egg, you can have the Ostrich Ride within the area. But the children don't see any interest on it. Strange? Hmm...

I saw One little monkey which was very interesting! I think I spend most of the time captured this monkey in the farm. It was Cute! Haha!

The Little Cute monkey at PD Ostrich Showfarm



The Iguana looks old...wondering what's the age of it?!


That all about it! Basically, the farm got limited animal to see and the animals environment need to Improvement. Most of the animals are not living in the comfort area. All of this might because of the limited fund from the owner. I felt the entrance fee is not justify with the Ostrich farm, they should make more interesting area and make the farm look more clean. There's always a room to improve!

One of the Decoration in the farm

Location map of the Port Dickson Ostrich Showfarm




MY TRIPS - Home

27th January, 2010

Today's weather;

A heavy cloud layer rules over Samui with few blue spots this morning and with a current temp at 7am of C.

Yesterday saw lots of overcast in the morning with some serious rain around 9am for a short while. After that it remained dry however. max temp reached 29.3C

Camille

Monday, January 25, 2010

Two funny sites, a quiz and a list of Thai commercials

Two funny sites, a quiz and a list of Thai commercials

Here are two very funny sites that may entertain you for a bit, the first is a quiz and can you; Tell The Difference Between a Thai Lady and a Thai Ladyboy?

The next link is a list of; 11 of the craziest Thai TV commercials this decade

This is a sample and it's possibly the funniest and/or most tasteless Thai commercial, pending on where you draw the line, I think it's hilarious.



Just something different for a change, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Just for the record, I scored 7/10, which is still withing safety margins, considering I thought two ladies to be ladyboys.

Camille

26th January, 2010

Today's weather;

Partly cloudy but with big patches of blue sky and a current temp at 7am of 27.7C.

Yesterday was sunny and warm with a max temp of 30C.

Camille

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Catcantoo Bar and Restaurant, Bang Rak

Catcantoo Bar and Restaurant, Bang Rak

Back on Samui after my prolonged Koh Tao trip to teach some diving specialties and to follow the PADI IE, it's about time to post a Samui related blog item and it's about another restaurant.

Catcantoo is located opposite the Bang Rak Seatran pier and is an offshoot from the Catcando bar opposite Sweet & Soul in Soi Green Mango in Chaweng's night life area.

The location is easy to find and they have a nice menu. During the daytime you can find many retirees sipping on heir first beers of the day even before noon. Don't let that stop you to visit, they're a friendly bunch or rather, they keep to themselves and don't bite!

The restaurant is simple in lay out and it can be warm and dusty, since it's located directly next to a very busy junction and traffic from the Seatran pier can be thick plus the fact that the very busy Plai Laem market is just about a 100 meters away.

What Catcantoo is really famous for are the spare ribs as displayed above. They must be the best on the island since the meat literally will fall off the bones and it's absolutely delicious! You can get a half rack for 290,-THB, a full rack for 360,-THB and pig out on two full racks for just 460,-THB, they come with beans and coleslaw and potaters. This is a real must!

Silly enough we thought that the full rack wouldn't fill two people so we ordered a side dish as well, these 'super nachos with chicken' and we struggled to finish everything.

If you're up for spare ribs, don't look any further, this is the place to be.

Camille


25th January, 2010

Today's weather;

It's partly cloudy with potentially the wind building up again. Current temp at 7am is 28C

Yesterday saw lots of wind and lots of sunshine! Max temp reached 29.1C but it felt a lot warmer.

Camille

Saturday, January 23, 2010

24th January, 2010

Today's weather;

It's partly cloudy on Koh Tao and the wind has picked up. Current temp at 7am is 27.8C

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day but around 9pm it all of a sudden started to rain here on Koh Tao for a short while. Max temp reached 30.4C.

We're almost done on Koh Tao, today the PADI IE finishes and we're off to Samui on the afternoon ferry. It's good to go back home again, especially to celebrate our daughters birthday today!

Camille

OTOP Samui, Coconuts at Lipa Noi

OTOP Samui, Coconuts at Lipa Noi

Remember or ever heard of the OTOP program, One Tambon One Product, very popular under Thaksin Shinawatra's reign over Thailand.

What would suit Samui best, being known for one thing before it all turned into a tourist industry, right, the coconuts. Hence in Lipa Noi there's a small factory annex outlet for coconut carved products.

The shop is in Lipa Noi not too far away from Nathon at the Immigration office side of Nathon.

There are hundreds of different items made out of coconut wood for sale, from cups to plates and all kind of different items.

To the side of the shop is a work place where the items for sale are all being made. Two or three machines are constantly churning out new products.

All items are being lacquered and are drying here, next to the shop. This is the original shop that supplies all other souvenir shops on the island, if you want the cheapest price for your coconut made wood products on the island, here is where you can get it.
Camille