Thursday, September 30, 2010

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

Today's weather;

Samui was experiencing a 'Fai Dab' or power cut this morning upon awakening and the awakening bit around 6am was in the middle of a strong storm with hard wind gushes and plenty of rain. Welcome to October or welcome to the rainy season? Current temp at 7am is 24.6C

Yesterday saw a tiny little bit of rain during the morning and it cleared up later in the afternoon. Max temp reached 31C

Camille

Goodbye to September 2010

Goodbye to September 2010

This September was a nice month. There was plenty of sunshine but the days were also laced with just enough rain to make for some very agreeable days temperature wise and to raise the water ground levels to more acceptable levels since the non rainy season over November and December last year.

This years September was pretty much in sync with the the 2009 and 2008 versions.

For the first time I spent two weeks on Koh Phangan and I must say that i really enjoyed Koh Phangan, mainly because of the feel the island has, like how Samui was some 15 years ago.
The IDC I taught there together with Haad Yao Divers went also very well.

What else did I write about this month? Well, food as usual! What's new?

Two places on this blog are new, the Sripoca Restaurant in Bang Po is new on my list and well worth visiting and an absolute MUST visit is Caffe della Moca in Chaloklum on Koh Phangan, this is home made Italian food at it's absolute best!

For the first time ever I ran a quarter marathon or a distance of 10.55KM on Samui and the 5KM Ibis run is coming up this Saturday!

We also had an addition to the family in the form of TeeTee of Thuung Thong!

Last but not least, I visited this years Thaa Yai event/ceremony at our local Wat Plai Laem temple.

Not to forget my popular Food on Wheels series which I posted a few times about during this month with some interesting , well, food on wheels pictures. How about this traditional Thai ice cream in a bun?

Other Thai bloggers came up with some interesting posts and I can only urge you to visit them and have a look;

Martyn at Beyond the Mango Juice talks about Iris Bulbs and is seemingly getting in touch with his feminine side.

Mr Boonie has as always a series of interesting posts but his latest happens to be about a Thai saying and it involves chicken breasts and snakes feet and a it's a small miracle he didn't stumble over his own words when writing this post.

Andy's always fascinating blog about the Thai admin world has plenty of entries this month but one about new licence plates is slightly different!

My fellow weather blogger from Phuket, Jamie, is talking about a sunny September, check it out!

Tom Yam has a very interesting post about a Temple or Wat in the boonies around Lopburi where there's a 10 meter long tree trunk part that brings luck in predicting the lottery numbers! Go figure!

Paul talks about his own alcohol withdrawal experiences in Wat Thamkrabok, a famous temple where you are made to vomit each day during your withdrawal period which speeds up the detoxification process. Plenty of other interesting stuff to read on Paul's blog as well.

Mike of Thai Blogs talks amongst others about Thai marriage and it's customs and ceremonies.

Steve at Thailand Musings talks about Jai Yen or cool heart. a thing we Westerners in general can slice a piece off from. Not always easy!

Ben our own Thai Pirate visited Siam Park in Bangkok and got me absolutely convinced to go there as well with our kids to see it and check it out and have a day of sanuk!

Cat at Women learning Thai has some free give aways in the form of a soft ware dictionary. You gotta be fast, Sunday is cut off time!

That's it folks. Hope you enjoyed my posts this months and I'm looking forward seeing you again next month.

Camille

The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.

We had 2 days to choose for the Cable Car ride on this trip to Langkawi, because it's to avoid the bad weather. Fortunately, the 2nd day was a bright sunny day! So we decided to ride on the Gondola! :)

The Langkawi Cable Car Station (N6 22.273 E99 40.296) is located in the Oriental Village of Langkawi. The distance is approximately 26km from Langkawi Grand Continental Hotel, Kuah town, the journey took about 30-40 minutes. Vehicles parking and admission is free.

The street of Oriental Village, Langkawi Island.

After about 100 meters walking from the entrance, we saw the Cable Car Station just situated on the left. Wah! It was a Long Queue!

The Langkawi Cable Car Station

The admission fees of the Langkawi Cable Car :-
Adults - MYR30.00 (Malaysian - MYR15.00), Children - MYR20.00 (Malaysian - MYR5.00)
(But the signage never stated the admission fee for Malaysian)
Operating Hour :-
Monday – Thursday * 10:00am - 06:00pm
Wednesday * 12:00pm - 06:00pm
Friday – Sunday & Public Holiday ** 09:30am - 07:00pm
*  Last admission at 6:00pm and last trip down at 7:00pm
** Last admission at 7:00pm and last trip down at 7:45pm

Visitors are advise to call before visiting to avoid disappointment.
Tel : +604-9594225

There will be a Middle Station for you to stop for panoramic view on the platform and continue to the Top Station of Mount Machinchang.

Well, despite the hot weather and the long queue, we bought the tickets and queue! Although the queue was long, but it only took about 10 minutes for us to got into the Gondola! That was Fast! Great! 

The queue at the Langkawi Cable Car Station

Queuing for the Gondolas.

The gondolas slow down when it arrive to the station, it's more than enough time for the passengers to step out slowly and even enter! Before the gondolas getting our of the station, there was a photographer to take photos of the passengers, but you can refuse it!

Passengers get into the gondola...

The sophisticated mechanism of the Langkawi Cable Car

The Middle Station was on the top on the mountain

We were in the gondola and hike up to the Mount Machinchang of Langkawi Island! It was a pleasant journey and it only took 10 minutes to reached the Middle Station. The Seven Well Waterfall was clearly appeared during the journey...

The Seven Wells Waterfall of Langkawi Island

Beautiful scenery from the Cable Car.
Do you notice the climbing degree of the cable car?! :)

Dramatic View from the Cable Car Station

We had a stop at the Middle Station for photography and continue to the Top Station.

The Middle Station of Langkawi Cable Car

The Middle Station. View from Top Station

The Top Station of Langkawi Cable Car

It was an Exciting ride for the total of 2.2km in 17 minutes!! Especially when the gondola approaching the Middle Station, the gondola was facing the Limestone Mountain! And it being pulled up almost Vertically with high speed to reached the station! Wah! Unforgettable experience! (You can refer from the photos above after we got into the gondola)

We walked to the 360 viewing platform on the left of the station after a small rest...the weather was extremely hot that day! Luckily there was a Ice-Cream stall at the platform.

The Viewing Platform

It was a double storey platform and I took my Ice-cream and enjoyed the Dramatic View of Langkawi Island on the 2nd level! That was a Great Enjoyment! (710 meter above sea level, reading from my GPS) Too bad the North platform was closed for maintenance during our visit....

The North Platform was under maintenance...

You can imagine the weather that day from the face of the poor little boy above. He was queuing for the Ice-cream for more than 30 minutes until a lady help him to get his ice-cream. He was being push out from the queue all the time! Very bad attitude of the tourists!

The Cable Car of Langkawi Island

Another view of the Top Station. I spotted the Lighthouse (N6 21.838 E99 40.996) of Perdana Quay, Langkawi Island.

The Lighthouse of Perdana Quay, Langkawi Island.

We spent an hour at the viewing platform and continue our journey to the Famous Sky Bridge (Hanging Bridge) of Langkawi Island!! Bye Mount Machinchang, and we will Never forget you!

The Langkawi Cable Car was awarded for ‘The Longest Free Span Single Rope Cable Car – Total In Length – 919.5 meter’ (One of the Steepest Gradient in the World – 42 degree.) and endorsed by The Malaysia Book Of Records. Beside that, it was also received the ‘Outstanding construction, architectural quality & technical proficiency of steel works’ from PRIX ACIER AWARDS 2005.

Related post :
My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
Underwater World of Langkawi Island
Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island.
Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island
The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island  
Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island 
Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island 

Location map of Langkawi Cable Car Station


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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

Today's weather;

A light cloud cover hovers over Samui this morning with a current temp at 7am of 26.3C.

Yesterday saw a little bit of rain in the morning, before noon but the sun came out after noon again and it remained relatively cloudy all day but fairly warm. Max temp reached 31.2C

Camille

The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island

The Lighthouse Restaurant (N6 16.887 E99 43.794) is located at the Tengah Beach which is about 200 meters from the intersection of Jalan Pantai Tengah and Jalan Pantai Cenang. This was where we took our dinner on the day 1 of Langkawi trip. (This restaurant was rated as one of the expensive restaurant in Langkawi).

The Lighthouse Restaurant of Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island.

It was a 2 storey Mediterranean-style building. The environment was perfect! Beside the beach and cozy decoration. You can choose to dine in the restaurant or on the beach. We definitely choose the beach...

The dining area of Lighthouse Restaurant


This was really a nice place...enjoying our dinner and accompany with the Beautiful sunset! I ordered a glass of Tiger Beer and continued to snap the surrounding with the sunset. We were waited there until the sky getting dark then only inform the waitress to serve our meal...:)

The beer and the spectacular sunset

I ordered a Ayam Percik with rice and my wife had a Ikan Kukus Halia with rice. Both are Chef Recommended (on the Menu). My daughter just had a bites for both dishes, because she already had some foods before dinner...

Ayam Percik

Ikan Kukus Halia

Rice and some appetizers

The Chicken was a bit spicy with the Special Recipe's Curry, and the fish was fresh! We enjoyed the dinner especially at the beach with the sunset!
The Damage : MYR110.00 for 2 main course and the Tiger Beer.

Well, it was a bit pricey! I believe the ambience charge higher than the food. Haha! 
Anyway, it was worth it because of the environment. :)

After about an hour hanging around, we gotta go to some others places and we have to say bye to the Restaurant and sunset!

Food rated : 4/5
Environment rated : 5/5

The sunset from The Lighthouse Restaurant

Related post :
My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
Underwater World of Langkawi Island
Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.
The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island.
Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island 
The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island  
Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island 
Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island 


The Lighthouse Restaurant - Langkawi
Lot 2161, Jalan Pantai Tengah Mukim Kedawang,
07000 Langkawi.
Tel : +604-9552586  Fax : +604-9552633

Location map of The Lighthouse Restaurant at Langkawi Island


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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

Today's weather;

Samui has a nice blue sky this morning with a thin white layer around it! Current temp at 7am is 26.8C
Enjoy it whilst it lasts, after this weekend the weather might change drastically with really strong winds and some rain.

Yesterday saw some drizzle during the morning hours but in the afternoon the sun broke through and it was nice. Max temp reached 31.3C

Camille

Monday, September 27, 2010

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

Today's weather;

Samui has a thin cloud layer which the sun is working hard in order to dissolve it. Current temp at 7am is 25.1C

Yesterday saw a dry day with occasionally some sunshine during the morning but rather cloudy during the afternoon. Max temp reached 31.1C

Camille

Food on Wheels; One more time Thong Sala's pier on Koh Phangan

Food on Wheels; One more time Thong Sala's pier on Koh Phangan

My last update on this seemingly popular Food on Wheels series was from Thong Sala's pier on Koh Phangan, when my family came to visit me during my day off when I was teaching an IDC on Koh Phangan.

In the meantime I'm back on Samui again and I just started to teach a new IDC! However, on my way back to Samui, I saw two more interesting food vendors with wheels at the Thong Sala pier whilst waiting for the 'always late' Seatran ferry.

The one pictured above had all kinds of BBQ-ed chicken, including liver and heart, liver being an all time fave of me. The stick on the bbq is mine! Can you imagine someone carting around in your neighborhood with a BBQ attached to the side of his motorbike. Thought so!

This fella is selling 'Kao Niao Muu' or sticky rice with pork. He had three variations of pork on sale and it was delicious what both these vendors had for sale!

Have a look around at your neighborhood or during your visit to Thailand what is on offer from these street vendors on or with wheels, you'll be surprised!

Camille

Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island

After visited the Underwater World of Langkawi Island, we stop at the Cenang Beach (N6 16.884 E99 43.780) to enjoy sunset. There was a Restaurant named The Lighthouse Restaurant just situated beside, so we decided to have our dinner here.

I ordered a glass of Tiger Beer (MYR8.00) and started to snap the Beautiful sunset photos of the beach!

The Beautiful sunset accompany with Tiger Beer

7.18pm. The Red Ball still visible, in Red and Orange colour.

7.19pm. The sky remain small portion of Blue...

7.23pm. The sky was fully painted with colour!

7.25pm. The sky totally turned to Gold colour!

7.30pm. The colour started to changed from Gold to Pink, and the Blue came back...

7.32pm. It surrounding started to dark, and the Beautiful Sunset still continue to paint on the sky!

I was happy because be able to took the Breathtaking sunset scene from Cenang Beach of Langkawi Island. My beer was not as cold as it served because I was totally attracted my the sunset and forgot to drink...:)

Related post :
My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
Underwater World of Langkawi Island
The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.
The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island. 
Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island 
The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island  
Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island 
Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island 


Sunday, September 26, 2010

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

Today's weather;

A thin cloud layer rules over Samui this morning but it looks like the sun may break this party up rather swiftly. Current temp at 7am is 26.4C

Yesterday saw the rain drizzle down almost all morning until around noon, than the sun broke out and it was nice and sunny. Max temp reached 30.8C

Camille

The Ibis Koh Samui Trophy 2010

The Ibis Koh Samui Trophy 2010

This is an adventure run where you get to run 10km, complete 30km on a bike, swim 500 meters and kayak for 5km. That is, if you participate in the Adventure Race, add a bit for the extreme race and you're looking at biking 45km, running 15km, kayaking 10km and swimming 1000 meters. Tired already from just looking at those figures?

There's a also a 5km fun run and that's where I'll be participating on this coming Sunday 2nd October. If you would like to participate and register on line for this run, you can do that here.
Start and finish will be in Bophud's Fisherman's Village. Entrance fee is 150,-THB and besides online registration you can also registration and collect your race number at Ibis Hotel Bophut on Friday October 1 from 1pm until 7pm
Registration on Race day October 2 from 6am until 7am at venue (Bophut beach road)
Online and telegraphic transfer
For more information: Active Management Asia 02 718 95 81-2

It's looking like it's going to be a great event and I hope to see some of my readers there!

Camille

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Sapam Chinese Shrine (Kuan Te Kun)

I had meant to visit the Chinese shrine at Sapam for ages. Sapam is a village about 7km north of Phuket Town. Just south of the village is Wat Sapam which I have visited before. The village is/was a fishing community. The access is just off the main road between town and the airport, about 1.5km south of the bypass road. The Chinese shrine is right at the corner at the entrance to the village. The village road is only about 500m long before you hit the sea on the east coast of Phuket.

Sanjao Guan Te Kun

Although the shrine is commonly called "Sapam Shrine", or "Sanjao Sapam" (Sanjao is the Thai word for a Chinese shrine), the actual name is Kuan Te Kun - the sign above says Sanjao Kuan Te Kun, and I guess says a similar thing in Chinese. I wanted to visit, as this is one of the participating shrines in the Phuket vegetarian festival, and this year (2010), the first main street procession of the festival will start at Sapam shrine on Saturday 10th October. I intend to be there nice and early, around 6am. So this visit was a kind of familiarisation trip.

It's not a big shrine compared to Kathu or Jui Tui for example, which is not surprising as it serves a small community. You can read something here about the history of the Sapam area.

Chinese Dragon

The dragon above is one of 2 on the stairway at the entrance to the shrine. Everything was looking very shiny, I could see recently used mops hanging to dry and pots of paint in a shed across the road. At the time of the vegetarian festival everything is made to look its best. Statues of gods are carefully cleaned, shrines spruced up... the belief is that during the festival the gods or spirits descend into the shrines.

Inside Sapam Shrine

The main doors into the interior of the shrine were closed, but I could walk around the covered area outside where statues such as the one above were found. Also, see below.... this spiked ball (I believe) will be tied to a rope and used by a devotee (Ma Song) during the vegetarian festival - swung into the flesh of his back. There is a lot more to the festival than just Tofu :)

Prayers?

I have more photos of this shrine on Flickr: Sapam Shrine. I'll be back here on the 10th!

Update - photos at Sapam Shrine on 10th October:

Sapam Shrine Vegetarian Festival

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

Today's weather;

Samui can observe some fine cloud formations this morning although right now it doesn't necessarily look like rain. Current temp at 7am is 27.5C

Today I start another IDC on Koh Samui!

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day all day long. Max temp reached 32.2C

Camille

Underwater World of Langkawi Island

Underwater World (N6 17.261 E99 43.736) is located along Jalan Pantai Cenang of Langkawi Island. It's about 600 meter from the intersection of Jalan Pantai Tengah & Jalan Pantai Cenang.

Underwater World of Langkawi Island

Entrance Fees : Adults MYR38.00 (Foreigner) MYR28.00 (Malaysian), Children 3-12 years old MYR28.00 (Foreigner) MYR18.00 (Malaysian), Senior citizens 50 years old and above : MYR22.00
Opening Hour : 
Mon - Thu : 9.30am - 6.30pm
Fri - Sun & Public Holiday : 9.30am - 8.30pm

"The new building (with 60,000 sq. ft built-up area) which displays Tropical Rainforest, Temperate and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems, and a three-dimensional (3D) theatre with a 200-seating capacity is now open to the public. The new temperate section also includes an underwater penguin tunnel for visitors to view swimming penguins." Source from here.

This new building (Phase II) is officially opened by Malaysia Ex-PM : Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on 28th May 2005.

Once you enter the Aquarium, there were some Lizards display in the glass box...


Follow by the Tropical Rainforest

Flamingo


Then we entered the Penguins World.


African Penguins

Rockhopper Penguins


The Tunnel where you can see the penguins swim on top of you...

Southern Fur Seals was dreaming...

I believe all of these Penguins and Seals are because of Malaysia Ex-Prime Minister - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Expedition to the Antarctica during February 2002.

The path lead us to the only cafe within the Underwater World, the Eden Cafe. You can have some drinks and have a rest here. The Marine section will be after this Cafe...

The Eden Cafe of Underwater World

The entrance of the Marine area

The Leopard Stingray swim Too fast that I can't get a clear photo...and the sharks were too calm...

There were many types of Sea Urchin around the marine section

The Giant Stingray continue to swim on top of us...

What is this ugly stuff? OH! It's a Stone Fish

Beautiful Mantis Prawn

I like the colour of the Jellyfish very much! :)

The Coral World was at the end of the Aquarium...

The last section of the Aquarium was the souvenir center...we didn't buy any of it.

The Souvenir Section

We spent almost 1 and the half hour in it and say bye-bye to The Underwater World of Langkawi. My daughter was very happy because of soooo many type of fishes!
When I stepped out of the building, Surprised! The ZON (Duty Free store) was just beside, YEAH! I gotta grab some beers! The price was Incredible!! MYR1.80 for Tiger per can! MYR2.70 for Budweiser per can! Oh! Grab one dozen and gonna enjoy it at the Hotel later...

Related post :
My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island. 
The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island. 
Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island 
The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island 
The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island  
Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island 
Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island