Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Bangkok Village Restaurant at Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru.

Bangkok Village Thai Restaurant (N1 33.296 E103 48.087) is located in the One Garden Center of Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru.(Easily spotted along the Kota Tinggi Road)
I was curious about this restaurant because of the Garden setting, so we decided to visit it on one of the Saturday evening for dinner.

We were really impressed by the restaurant environment! It's located in the middle of the well maintained garden! Every corners are well decorated. Beautiful!

The Bangkok Village Thai Restaurant dining area

The other side of the dining area, the Ikan Bakar stall at the back

Beside the public dining area, there were also some private tables at another side of the garden which I think it's suitable for couple! Kind of romantic... :)
Me and my daughter walked the area before the foods serve...the surrounding was really nice and clean. On the right of the restaurant, there was a shop selling some decorative items and water features for gardening.

And I like this row of small huts, but it seems like too dark to have our dinner between it...

Nice decoration with water feature

Our order :-
1)  Assam Steam Fish
2)  Mango Salad
3)  Butter Prawn
4)  Bean Sprout with salted fish
5)  Omelette

Assam Steam Fish

Mango Salad

Butter Prawn

Bean Sprout with salted fish

The foods were average. The Assam Steam Fish had a weird taste! We have been tasted many Assam Fish and this was really weird! The Mango Salad, Bean Sprout, Omelette and the Butter Prawn were average, I felt the prawn serve was a bit dark (as you can see from the photo). Overall, the food presentations were poor. Maybe we were unlucky! :)
The advantage of this restaurant was the beautiful garden environment!

The Damage : MYR119.70 included a jug of watermelon juice for 4 adults and 1 child. A bit pricey for the mediocre foods. But the ambience is worth trying if you haven't visit the Bangkok Village Thai Restaurant.

Location map of Bangkok Village Restaurant at Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru.


Welcome to September 2010

Welcome to September 2010

Usually September is a fairly nice month but it does see some rain and may have a strong wind blowing. Overall it should be a good month to visit Koh Samui and especially the diving in the Samui archipelago is in general very good.

This is also going to be an exciting month for me since I'm about to embark my first IDC outside of Samui. The 4th September I will leave for Koh Phangan for about two weeks but no worries, the daily updates will keep streaming in. You can follow my dive adventures on my dive blog so don't be a stranger and pop in once in a while.

Wishing a successful September to you all and hope to see you looking into my blogs.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 1st September, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is going to bake under a blue sky if the current morning situation continues! Current temp at 7am is 27C

Yesterday was a sunny and hot day. Max temp reached 33.1C

Camille

Monday, August 30, 2010

Goodbye to August 2010

Goodbye to August 2010

It's that time of the month again and a good time to wrap up this August and reflect a bit over this past 31 days.

Big Buddha watching over Koh Samui

Starting out with this month's weather, it was a bit up and down but overall a very enjoyable month with plenty of sunshine during the day time and plenty of rain during the evenings and nights. A great combination. The average daytime temperature was well over 30C.

This August seemed somehow quieter than previous Augusts that I experienced on Samui. I can only hope and cross my fingers that things will pick up again during September and October. This is an tropical holiday location and in order to keep that that status, we do need people that visit, simple as that! So folks, looking forward seeing you on Samui soon!

What did I do during this month?

First off I continued with a new series that I started on this, the Food on Wheels series, which has been received pretty well so far! It's an interesting and intriguing topic with plenty of opportunities to sample! Keep your eyes focused here for more.

Talking about food, I went to eat or had take away from my usual haunts; our neighbours at Clock Lana for inspiring Isaan food, Dcheed 2 for their delicious Muu Sateh and Catcantoo for their BBQ Spare ribs!
New kids on the block this month were The Shack in Fisherman's Village and Mitra in Chaweng.

Posts on my blog this month that went down well seemed to be a post about coconut monkeys at work on Koh Tao.
This post was actually inspired an interesting post of about a girl climbing into trees to pluck fruit by Mr. Soombong, a fellow blogger.
In turn, my post inspired Martyn at Beyond The Mango Juice to write a very insightful story about monkey training. Talking about a snowball effect!
Whilst writing this post a pick up truck just come up into our garden to collect our coconuts that my Father in law had plummeting out of the trees yesterday. No monkeys involved though!

This leads me into the trail of looking at my fellow bloggers in Thailand and what they came up with.

Rick at Behind the Noodle Curtain is getting ready to move to the Land of Smiles and writes about his plans of actions and how all this affects him, Interesting reads!

Andy has a highly interesting blog about the administrative subdivisions of Thailand - history, current news and facts hardly found in English of Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon found a site with New years Cards for 2010 of the Three National Thai symbols. There's plenty of more good posts there if you want to find out about the wheeling and dealing of the Thai administration, which is surprisingly interesting.
He also has a great blog named the Unseen Thailand where he travels the less beaten path. He found an interesting museum in Bangkok, the Museum Siam, just go and have a read at his blog and before you know it you find yourself stumbling around the Big Mango looking for this place!

On to my fellow weather geek Jamie in Phuket. He also has two blogs worthwhile mentioning. The first is obviously my own blogs Phuket twin, The Phuket weather blog. He visited the local Phuket football team and writes about this in one of his updates.
Jamies Phuket is his other blog and that's exactly what this blog offers, cool inside info about Phuket. Amongst others he writes about a street fair in Kathu, always giving great photo opportunities.

To my big delight, Monique is back in action with her photo blog, a fellow Limburger on Samui who takes breath taking pictures, in my humble opinion.

Tom Yam writes about his life in Takhli in the province of Nakon Sawan. He's the new blog kid on the block and had some good posts up this month, one about tails!

Entrance Paul on to the scene. He's a fairly new blog kid on the block but has some very interesting posts about the things you encounter when living in a different culture. Very interesting observations and his latest post touches on an great topic, how to interact with your Thai neighbours. Keep it up Paul!

Malcolm who is retired in Thailand had been sick and didn't post a lot throughout August but at last there were some posts appearing again and he seems to be recovering. All the best from Samui to you Malcolm and looking forward to some more of your posts.

Mike in Prachuap Kiri Khan has also a few blogs to boost. He's a long time blogger about Thailand and he wrote an interesting post on how you can cross Thailand by foot within a day. Have a look and be surprised.
His other blog is about Thai Temples or Wat, one of his latest posts was about Wat Thap Sakae in Prachuap.

The great Talen has finally made the move to Thailand and is staying in Pattaya for his first year in order to settle down. He and his girlfriend Pookie are staying in a brand new condo, which in Thailand brings in a whole set of unexpected surprises and he might start considering opening a water theme park soon. He seems to be enduring it all in good spirits though and I wish him all the best settling in!

Lawrence who resides in Phana shows us once more that there's no such thing as coincidence or how every Thai person somehow is related to the next!

Steve at Thailand Musings is also considering coming to Thailand in the near future and I wish him good luck with his plans. This month he was writing about various topics but one post that sticks out for me is about Haad Yao in Koh Phangan, for the simple reason that in early September I will be exactly on this beach for about two weeks teaching my first PADI IDC outside of Koh Samui. I'm really excited about that!

Ben, our very own Thai Pirate who lives in Suphanburi province gives us some excellent first hand information flying to/from Thailand with a cheap ticket, useful information indeed!

Catherine at the 'Women Learning Thai...and some men too' blog has come up with an interesting post about a new way of learning the Thai language, a method that seems to be on the rise; Learning Thai via Skype. Useful info if you're looking for on-line tuition.

A long read and I hope you made it all the way to here but it also shows that Thailand has some interesting bloggers posting about various Thai related topics. Another thing I really like is that all the Thai Bloggers mentioned here live throughout the Kingdom and can give valuable information about local areas!

See ya all next month!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 31st August, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui offers a sunny blue sky with a few clouds in it this morning. Current temp at 7am is 27C

Yesterday was a hot day. In the early evening there was a marginal bit of drizzle for a short while and we enjoyed a max temp of 34.3C

Camille

Street Fair in Kathu

NEWS - This street fair will be repeated September 9 - 11, 2011.

Kathu district covers a large part of Phuket from Patong to the edges of Phuket Town. It's an old area of Phuket with lots of history, where the Phuket Vegetarian Festival originated and was the center of the tin mining industry in Phuket for 200 years. And it's where we live, as do thousands of other people. There are older streets and lots of new housing in Kathu. Lots of shops, schools, hairdressers, temples and the odd aircon dealer and vet. You know, normal everyday life. From Patong to Kathu takes 10 - 15 minutes by car. Patong is tourism central. Kathu is where people actually live!

On the way home from work last week, I had noticed tents and a small stage being erected along the road between Ket Ho junction and Kathu village. So on Friday night we went to look at what was going on. This was a very small local fair for the local community, the municipality basically blocked off half the road for a few hundred metres and in came food stalls, games for kids, and the first thing we saw, dance performances by kids from the local schools.

Thai Dance

Kids doing traditional Thai dance

We watched a few of the dances and then took a little walk along the street. It was pretty crowded, given that everything was packed onto one side of the road and there were stalls lining both sides. The kids had already seen that they could do some painting, so we dropped them at the painting stall where they could entertain themselves for 20 Baht and get a canvas and paint, sit down and create a masterpiece.

Kids painting

Many of the stalls were selling food, everything from spicy sausages to grilled squid and spicy salads. We actually went back on Saturday (the fair was on for 2 days) and bought up a whole load of snacks, back to our house with some friends, pick up some cold beers on the way and whaddaya know, an impromptu party!

Sausages!

Street Food in Kathu, Phuket

Chicken!

It was a fun thing.. very Thai... "Oh what the heck, lets close off the road and have a party!". And a LOT of people were there, or it seemed like a lot in the narrow space. I liked this bunch of kids all dressed up and painted dancing with bamboo poles.. I think this is a Northern Thai tradition actually, but given the number of immigrant workers in Phuket, no surprise to see it here.

Bamboo Dance in the street

Meanwhile, our son had completed his Ultraman painting, and our daughter had done a cute cat. Our kids like these events, in fact they seem to enjoy doing pretty much whatever we do. I am thinking of writing a "Phuket for Kids" page, but from my point of view, I say just take your kids along to whatever you do, except maybe shopping and massage. It's different as residents but wherever we go, our kids see something new, and learn something I hope. On Saturday we took a little detour and drove round some back roads in the center of the island passing huge fields of pineapples. We stopped to show the kids - this is what pineapples look like when they're growing. Now they know, and I tell you, kids enjoy knowing things. I had no idea how pineapples grew until I saw them here! Anyway, here's Ultraman:

Ultraman, I think

And a quick word for our sponsors... it needed a good bit of support by the local constabulary to run the event, to keep traffic flowing since the fair took up half the road! This guy below is a local policeman who we see often, sometimes on duty, sometimes in local restaurants. I have also seen him with pierced cheeks during the vegetarian festival - check the scars...

Kathu City Law

Here he is... this photo from 2006:

Vege Policeman!

The vegetarian festival starts October 7th this year - details here: Phuket Vegetarian festival 2010 Schedule. You'll always find something going on around Kathu during the festival.

I realise this kind of very local street fair will pass most visitors by, but I know some tourists do like to explore, rent a car, drive around, find some back roads.. where the real Phuket is found. Welcome.

Map showing location of this street fair:


View Kathu / Ket Ho Street Fair in a larger map

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Food on Wheels; Time for Coffee

Food on Wheels; Time for Coffee

More time for coffee or time for coffee again? Before I started the Food on Wheels series, I didn't realise how much coffee is sold on wheels! My first post in this series was about a small and cute motorbike on wheels selling coffee and today we see the same subject return.

Last week when I reported about the Soup on wheels car, I wondered if I could top last weeks sample. Well, I think that I come close this week. Whilst driving around Bophud, I spotted this pretty cool coffee on wheels salesperson and I had to stop him and take some pictures of him.

What I like about his set up is the small miniature version of a Tuk Tuk next to the driver. Nice work! Behind the miniature Tuk Tuk is a big coffee cup, unfortunately not very viewable.
All around though, a good idea and showing some creative thinking again! There are plenty of plain looking food on wheels carts around and this one sticks out!

Another coffee on wheels shot, taken on Koh Tao, this is a manually pushed car, although it looks like permanently parked in front of the 'mother shop'. Just to proof my point that there's an abundance of coffee on wheels.

Hope you enjoyed this entry and the series as such.

Stay tuned for more updates in this series.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 30th August, 2010

Today's weather;

A bit later than usual but due to connectivity problems I couldn't post any earlier. Samui is enjoying sunshine this morning but there's a thin cloud layer around. Current temp at 7am is 26.3C

Choengmon beach at 8am, two days ago

Yesterday saw a warm day with some rain during the early evening. Max temp reached 32.2C

Choengmon beach two days ago, 8am towards the Boathouse

Camille

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 29th August, 2010

Today's weather;

A cloud layer is blocking the sun this morning and Samui will most likely have few sun beams and rays today. Current temp at 7am is 27.3C

Yesterday started out great with lots of blue skies and sunshine but after noon this changed into overcast and around 3pm we even had a few minuted rain. It was hot tough, nonetheless. Max temp reached 33.6C

Camille

Friday, August 27, 2010

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 28th August, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has some nice wind this morning with a slightly overcast or rather thin layer of clouds. Current temp at 7am is 27.7C

Yesterday saw a blue sky pretty much all day long and it was hot! Max temp reached 34.2C

Camille

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah at Ayer Keroh, Malacca

The photo taken when I was at Ayer Keroh, Malacca sometime ago. The landmark was stated 'Graha Makmur' and 'Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah' (N2 13.952 E102 16.864) in the map and I'm not sure which is which? Please enlighten if possible...

I like the environment during the night time especially the lighting and accompany with the water feature. My daughter and her friend were having fun around the area that night, and they were really happy running and the place was really wide! :)

Map location of the Landmark in Ayer Keroh, Malacca


Thai Gold price in fluctuation

Thai Gold price in fluctuation

In November 2008 I wrote a piece on this blog about Thai Gold, view it here, in which I describe some back ground information about Thai Gold, why it has a different colour to what we are used to with our Western Gold and lots of other useful and informative information about Thai Gold. It's well worth checking that post!

At the end of the post I also included a picture of the price for Thai Gold on 2nd November 2008.

That price was 12.500,-THB per Baht. Yesterday the price for Baht of Thai Gold at the same gold shop here on Koh Samui was 18.450,-THB, almost 6.000,-THB per Baht more expensive.

If you invested in some Gold back in early November 2008, as I mentioned, you could have made a nice little profit by now!

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 27th August, 2010

Today's weather;

A blue sky is shaping up although right now there are a few white clouds still up in the sky over Samui. Current temp at 7am is 27.3C

Yesterday saw a very sunny but also very warm day or can we call it a hot day! Max temp reached 32C

Camille

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 26th August, 2010

Today's weather;

A very blue sky has showed up this morning over Samui, it looks like a hot day today! Current temp at 7am is 26C

Yesterday saw a nice day with regular bouts of sunshine turn into heavy thunder and rain just after dark around 7pm for a while. Max temp reached 31.5C

Camille

2nd visit to Riverside Seafood Restaurant at Kota Tinggi, Johor.

After let the kids having their fun at the resort on the next day morning and some 'jungle monkey disguise' around the area...we say bye-bye to Pulai Desaru Resort and follow by our lunch at this Riverside Seafood Restaurant (N01 43.547 E103 54.733) along Kota Tinggi road. (The restaurant was moved to the opposite since my last visit)
It's a very simple setup for this seafood restaurant.

The Riverside Seafood Restaurant of Kota Tinggi

There were only 2 tables occupied that time maybe because lunch time was over...so we placed our order immediately.

The order :-
1)  Fish Head steamboat (Signature dish)
2)  Claypot chicken
3)  Sambal Squid (sotong) (my favorite)
4)  Ginger duck
5)  Vegetables

Fish Head steamboat (Signature dish)


Claypot chicken

Sambal Squid (sotong)

Ginger duck

Vegetables

Our purpose here was to taste the Fish Head Steamboat. It might not the Best in Johor, but I like the herbal soup with chili. The soup was yummy and spicy mixed with the fish head! The Ginger duck was really special, it cooked well and the taste quite similar with the wild boar. The chickens and the sambal squids were delicious too! We had a great lunch in the restaurant!

The Damage was MYR120.00 included drinks for 8 adults and 2 children. It was really reasonable!

You can enjoy the Firefly tour package after having dinner in the restaurant at night, wasn't it sound good? Drop by if you pass by.

Related post :-
Riverside Restaurant, Kota Tinggi, Johor (1st visit)

The location map of Riverside Seafood Restaurant at Kota Tinggi, Johor.


A morning without Sunrise at Desaru Beach, Johor

Suddenly I had a urge to snap the Sunrise of Desaru beach on the next morning of our short vacation. So I woke up around 6am, and strolled around the Pulai Desaru Resort, breath in the morning fresh air...it was totally dark at the pool side...(around 6.15am)

When I walked to the beach area, surprised! There were few resort guests waiting for the Sunrise too! I found one of the comfort corner and started to get my tripod ready for it. (I was lucky enough by not attack from any sand fly that morning!)

It was a misty morning, and I started to have bad feeling...I might not see the Red Ball! Yes! I was right, when the sky started to bright up, I can't find the Red Ball! Even I'm facing the right direction (East)...OH! Not again...
End up, I have to snap the surrounding of the beach without a choice...

The Rocks in front of me...Desaru Beach (about 6.50am)

Couple ramble romantically at the beach...

I only be able to caught this around 7.15am...(below)

And the weather was still misty on my left...So I walked back with disappointment and had my breakfast at the Windows Cafe from the resort...

A Misty morning at Desaru Beach

I went back to the room for sleep again after the nice and simple breakfast provided from the resort...
Why the Red Ball is so shy to show it's face?!


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 25th August, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is cloudy, although earlier on there was sunshine. Current temp at 7am is 29.1C

Yesterday saw plenty of sunshine and it was hot. Max temp reached 31C

Camille

Monday, August 23, 2010

Food on Wheels; Soup from a car

Food on Wheels; Soup from a car

During my recent visit to the Fishermans Village Walking Street night, held every Friday night, I stumbled over this prime sample of Food on Wheels, Thai Style!

It's a pick up car where in the pick up part of the car a complete little restaurant is mounted or installed and they sell soup or kaitiao (ก๋วยเตี๋ยว). This one advertises in pork and chicken with mushroom noodles soup but most likely they have more variations on offer.

It really is almost a small restaurant on wheels, next to the car were tables and chairs placed so their guests, mainly Thais, could sit down and enjoy their soup.

These kuaitiao stands/shops are all over the country and a local fave which I enjoy a lot as well but in a mobile version like this they're rather rare.

It remains amazing how creative Thai people are in coming up with ideas for making money and this ranks high on my scale of being inventive!

On to next weeks post, it will be hard to top this one!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 24th August, 2010

Today's weather;

The sun is just about to break through the cloud cover that was covering Samui. Current temp at 7am is 27.3C

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day with some overcast as well, although the sun prevailed, especially the afternoon it was hot. Max temp reached 31.3C

Camille

2nd Visit to Jade Garden Corner Seafood Restaurant at Sungai Rengit, Johor.

We had our dinner at Jade Garden Corner Seafood Restaurant again at Sungai Rengit, Johor (This was our second visit, you can read our first visit here). The distance from The Pulai Desaru Resort to this seafood restaurant is about 32KM, the journey took about 30 minutes relax drive from the resort. (I would like to correct the restaurant is actually located at Jalan Kerisi of Sungai Rengit. Not Jalan Hee Seng in my first post, apologies.)

There was only 2 tables occupied when we arrived, the time was around 6.30pm. This restaurant will be really crowded when dinner time around 8pm during weekend, so if you wanna visit it, it's advise to come early.

The Jade Garden Corner Seafood Restaurant at Sungai Rengit, Johor.

I snapped some photos of the Lobsters in the tanks...before they....


This one wanna Escape! It asked me to help, but I said...'It's too late!' :)

Lobsters is the dish you Must try if you happen to be here, it's also because of this small village nickname - Lobster Village.

Our foods ordered :-
1)  Mixed vegetables
2)  Omelette
3)  Butter Prawns
4)  Jade Special Lobster (Signature dish)

Mixed vegetables

Omelette

Butter Prawns

The Jade Special Lobster


There were total of 3 baby lobsters and each of them cut it became 2. All foods were satisfied! Seems like better than our previous visit! The lobsters still as Delicious as we had it before, the omelette was nice, the vegetable was tasty and the prawns were really fresh! We had a memorable dinner at this restaurant!

The Damage was MYR217.00 include 4 bottles of Tiger Beer and others drinks. (For 4 adults and 1 child)

BUT...we might not visit next time because of :
1)  We wanna try out others Seafood Restaurant at Sungai Rengit.
2)  I noticed the Lobsters was charges extra after I saw the bill while back to resort.

Anyway, it's worth if you haven't taste the Lobster of Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant.

Related post :
Jade Garden Seafood Corner at Sungai Rengit, Johor

Location map of Jade Garden Corner Seafood Restaurant at Sungai Rengit, Johor.