My wife's youngest sister wedding; the event

My wife's youngest sister wedding; the event

Today was the big day for my wife's youngest sister, it was her wedding.

The big price aka sister in law

The wedding started early, by 6.30am guests started to arrive already and the stage was all set up and ready to accommodate them. Around 800 guests were expected between 6.30am and 11am.

It was a busy coming and going of local and island people, all dressed up in their Sunday's or wedding best.

One of the guests was the former Puu Yai Baan or Village head, Khun Whitaya, who later on participated in the actual wedding.

If you have been following this blog, you know by now that food is very important in Thai culture and the Southern Thai weddings take their food serious. Some guests can be seen enjoying the fish, the salad, the curry, the soup and sweet pork. I can attest that the home made food was excellent.

The sin sot or Bride Price, a traditional part of Thai weddings. The money is presented to Bride's parents, the gold to the bride

Before the official ceremony could start, the almost wed locked pair had to feed each other in the bride's sleeping room under the eyes and prompts of some elderly know it all women.

The official ceremony started

For good and for bad

An family group picture including a freshly added new brother in law!

The whole wedding was great fun but also hard work since all close friends and relatives served food and drinks to the tables all laid out on heavy trays and also cleaned the tables afterwards.

A great day though and I wish the newly weds good luck!

Camille

My wife's youngest sisters wedding, the preparation

My wife's youngest sisters wedding, the preparation

Tomorrow is the big day although I'm not too sure how big today actually is!

Today sees all the preparation for tomorrow, the cooking, the logistics and what else you can think of. Relatives and friends come from all over Plai Laem, the rest of Samui and even from Koh Phangan to help out. This is truly a family event.

This is a small wedding, so only 800 people are expected tomorrow! Tons of food are stacking up, ready to be cut, chopped and grounded. This is the women's department and hardly guys are caught hanging out in or around the kitchen. Thais social affairs are pretty well divided in two groups, the male and female group.

Today's cooking is merely to feed all the people that help out today. Later during the day the food and more precisely cooking preparations for tomorrow will start. It will be an early start tomorrow anyway, around 6am the fires will be lighted again.

Plates, cutlery and drinking glasses for 800 people needs to be cleaned.

Here's where the guys come in, setting up the tents that will protect the wedding visitors from either the sun or the rain, tomorrow should be sunny by the way! After the tents are erected, tables and 8 chairs per table are set up on the family land.

Around 11pm, just before I showed up after my 10km Four Seasons Care for Cancer run in Nathon earlier today, the guys do what they do best, relax!

This is what keeps the guys spirits high!

I squeezed out to relax a bit at home, I'm tired and will go back over later today and see if I can make myself useful.

More to come!

Camille

100 days after passing away of Grand Mother in law

100 days after passing away of Grand Mother in law

That is today and this morning the whole family gathered at Wat Plai Laem to commemorate this event and this is also the moment when part of her ashes are being put to rest in a wall surrounding the Bot in the the Temple.

Pictures of Grandmother in law and her husband whom I never met

The whole family from my wife's father and mother's side came out to pray, commemorate and celebrate the passing away 100 days ago. Everybody is praying in this picture during the Monks chants.

The Monks and tons of food waiting for them

By 6.30am we were at the temple and we brought copious amounts of food, but so did all other family members, curries, fish, meat, fruit and sweets and much more were brought into the Temple to offer to the Monks and since we were the family who this was organised for, we had to wait for the Monks to finish their food before we could start eating.

After the food, part of Grandmother in law's ash was taken in an urn to a wall surrounding the main building on the temple grounds, the Bot, and she was put to rest inside the family space.

The whole family followed by holding on to a white rope that was wrapped around the urn.

One of the monks putting the ash in the small family space near the Bot. Rest in peace Grandmother, she was a good person!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 20th February, 2011

Today's weather'

The sky is blue, the sun is out and Samui is getting ready for a hot day! Current temp at 7am is 25.7C

Monks enjoying their breakfast at Wat Plai Laem with a cat trying to get some goodies

Today has a late update because it's exactly 100 days ago that my wife's Grand Mum passed away, in Thailand a moment to celebrate and commemorate. An update of this will be shortly on the blog.

Yesterday saw a sunny and warm day over Samui. Max temp reached 29.7C

Camille

Grandmother in law passed away today, RIP

Grandmother in law passed away today, RIP

At the tender age of 90 years, my grandmother in law passed away after a short stay in hospital as a result of a brain hemorrhage.

My wife grew up under her wings and is very sad at the moment. It's unfortunate that I'm in Koh Lanta right now and can't give her more moral support.

Her body will be brought over to Wat Plai Laem and the funeral ceremony will be held within the next couple of days.

A beautiful and lovely person with a very big 'Jai Dee' or good heart has passed away.

Camille

Thaa Yai 2010 in Wat Plai Laem

Thaa Yai 2010 in Wat Plai Laem

Back to a home game for this years Thaa Yai. Last year saw us celebrate and participate in Wat Chaweng but this year it was back to the roots so to speak.

Busy preparations

It seems like I have lost track on how many Thaa Yai's I've attended but it must a quite a few by now. The last four years, since I'm blogging I've always attended.

Home made food selection for the monks

It's always an early day though, my wife gets up at 3 or 4am to start preparing the food, but she's already gathering ingredients, talking about it and getting all excited about it a couple of days in advance.

One of the food baskets with a lovely heart!

One of the nice tings about this event is that you get to see many relatives and friends that all gather once a year for this event. Each year I see more and more familiar faces.

The food baskets as pictured here, are part of the tradition of welcoming the deceased back again amongst for a few weeks each year. This particular basket has a nice food made garment layer over the rest of the food.

Some of the baskets are a real treat to the eye and later also to the stomach!

A display of various food baskets with candles burning. Always an amazing view.

If you have the opportunity, try to visit one of these local events, they're interesting to experience.

Camille

Koh Samui Jazz festival 2010

Koh Samui Jazz festival 2010

Sometimes you don't see the most obvious things when they're staring right at you. Like the Koh Samui Jazz festival 2010 which started today! Thanks to my fellow blogger Talen, who blogged about this event living in Pattaya, my eyes were opened and apologies to him, but I copied his content into this post, so I hope you enjoy a visit to one of the venues all around Samui next week.

The annual Koh Samui International Jazz Festival kicks off this weekend and will last for one solid week of jazz filled fun. The party starts on Friday the 24th of September and will go on till Thursday September 30th.

Over 20 international jazz acts will join local Thailand jazz bands on 11 stages throughout the island for a total of 42 shows, and best of all it’s FREE!

The objectives of the Samui International Jazz Music Festival are to bring the joy of Jazz Music to this fabulous location and inspire young Thai Jazz musicians by granting them the chance to perform with international artists. The event also promotes Koh Samui as a tourist destination during the Green Season.

The 2010 Samui International Jazz Music Festival is being brought to you by Amsiam travel in cooperation with Bangkok Airways, together with its main sponsors the Surat Thani Provincial Administrative, Thai Hotels Association (THA) and the Tourism Association of Koh Samui.

Cool jazz music along with the beautiful sun and sand of Koh Samui is a combination that can’t be beat, especially when it’s free…so, don’t miss out.

More information on the 2010 Koh Samui International Jazz Festival can be found at Samui International Music Festival. The full event line up including dates and times is posted below.

Camille

New addition to the family

New addition to the family

Yesterday was a big and exciting day for our kids, the reason being that we were about to pick up a cat that is going to live with us.

She's about 8 weeks and ready to move away from her mother.

Here she is, Thuung Thong or Golden bag as she has been named by my wife, or Tee tee for me.

The kids are over the moon with our new family addition and she's busy exploring her new surroundings, tumbling over her own feet once in a while and being distracted about every two seconds whilst wondering around.

It's great to have her around!

Camille

Major Cineplex in Tesco Lotus in Chaweng

Major Cineplex in Tesco Lotus in Chaweng

Going to the movies on Samui, Major Cineplex in Tesco Lotus in Chaweng is the place to go. I must admit that I completely overlooked this option for having something to do during the day or early evening time. Major Cineplex has outlets all over Thailand.

The Major Cineplex in Tesco Lotus in Chaweng is located directly next to the Bowling alley at Lotus, near the food court. It's only the second time I visit the movie theatres here, mainly due to not having time due the kids. Now, at last, I remembered the movies and realised we can visit them during school time!

It's also a great place to bring the kids in the weekends!

Going to movies is really cheap, the most expensive ticket is around 160,-THB and for that you sit in a reclining seat with adjustable arm rests with cup holders! A bargain, really.

A nice touch is that you need to stand up when a special song for His Majesty the King is played.

No kidding, don't forget to do this, the whole theatre will stand up and you can get arrested for Lèse majesté if you don't follow suit. This has happened before in Thailand and is considered a grave offense to the King and has severe penalties. Thailand is one of the few countries in the world that actively uses the Lèse majesté laws, but is a topic for a different post.

There are three theatres in Samui so plenty of movies to choose from. For a rainy day or just to cool off on a hot day, the Major Cineplex is a great place to visit. Be sure to wear long trousers and a warm shirt since sitting in a very cold air conditioned room for over two hours in shirts and Tee shirt will be an unpleasant experience!

All movies will have subtitles, Thai movies will most likely have English sub titles, but check before you buy a ticket and all English movies will have Thai subtitles.

If you're in the boonies or non tourist cities, it's quite possible that the English movies are dubbed in Thai without subtitles, not very likely to happen on Samui though.

Camille

Le Café des Arts, Chaweng

Le Café des Arts, Chaweng

This Thai/French (with emphasis on French!) restaurant is part of the Papillon Resort on Koh Samui in North Chaweng. It's down the road that leads to Chaba Cabana and you just need to follow the road, about two times you probably feel or think that nothing else is coming any more but you need to keep going and all of a sudden, at the end of the road the Papillon Resort and Le Café des Arts show up at your right hand.

Most nights we went out of dinner together with my sisters family but a few nights they went their own way and during one of these nights they visited the Le Café des Arts and for their last night on Samui during this years trip they decided to go back here.

The setting is really nice, a great and unusual view over Chaweng Beach is yours from their beach side Le Café des Arts restaurant.

The menu has an extensive choice but the staff must've had a fairly off day, especially compared to the first night when my sister came here, yesterday we had to wait a relatively long time for simple things like two bottles of beer! With thirsty guys around your place that's not a good service!

Once the food came around, everybody enjoyed his meal, I had the above pictured Grilled Lamb cotellets.

My sisters sons both had the T-Bone steak, as pictured above, one of the reasons they came back actually!

A pleasant night was had by all and if you're in for a nice relaxed evening in a lovely open air restaurant with a great view over Chaweng, Le Café des Arts with it's French cuisine may be your choice.

Camille

Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts or SITCA

Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts or SITCA

Loyal readers of my blog might remember that my sister is visiting Samui right now and yesterday she and her family went to the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts or SITCA. An institution when it comes down to Thai cooking classes on Samui and one of the very first to offer this on our lovely island. A success story now copied by many hotels, if you want the original, this is the place to go and make sure you make a reservation well in time!

SITCA is located in Soi Colibri, very near to the entrance for Centara Grand Beach Resort in Chaweng. Within walking distance of the Chaweng Cove Resotel where they are staying. It's in the very beginning of the Soi at your right hand.

A little bit further down the Soi you will find the excellent Japanese Yamato Restaurant.

I must admit that the frontal view of SITCA is very inviting and makes me nosy to see what's going on inside.

They offer two cooking classes per day and my sister and family went to the class that starts at 4pm. The nice thing is that you can invite somebody to share your cooked dishes with once you're finished with the cooking. Since they're 4 and my family is 4, that was bit of a no brainer so around 6.30pm we arrived, a tad bit early but after a short wait we all went upstairs to enjoy a nice meal.

The photo above shows the preparation table where all the food is chopped and rolled together and who knows what you do with the food before it's going to be cooked.

After that it's off to the kitchen where on 10 stoves all the ingredients are mixed together and some wonderful dishes see day light. Yesterday a Massaman curry was on the menu with spring rolls and a sourish but lovely prawn salad. It was interesting to see how all 4 of them produced different curries!

After the cooking was completed, everybody goes upstairs, including possible guests and your meal starts. It's nice to meet other people who participated in the cooking class and enjoy everybody's effort.

The actual portions are very luscious and SITCA claims that nothing goes to waste, either the staff will finish the food or it's given away to the needy!

If this course wetted your appetite, contact SITCA well in time, yesterday there was a group of 10 and a group of 5 people, so a reservation may not be a luxury.

They also offer various dishes on each weekday so you can choose what day you prefer food wise and afterwards you will receive a book and a cd with instructions on it, o you can repeat your efforts at home once more.

Inside the store they also sell loads of cooking accessories and ingredients.

Well worth a visit and an afternoon spend with fun!

Camille

Kila Amphur Koh Samui 2010

Kila Amphur Koh Samui 2010

Today was a busy day, starting out with this years version of the Kila Amphur in Baan Namuang. Remember last years version? No worries if you didn't, my wife thought I wasn't there, but I got the pictures to proof it!

After visiting here, I went home for some work on my website and after that we visited my sister and her family in their hotel, the Chaweng Cove Resotel and enjoyed some relaxing time at the pool and the ocean.

The Kila Amphur is a gathering of the school tribes and is held throughout the country, at different days in various provinces.

This years edition was a hot variation and I was very glad to know that my sons school was number 4 in the picking order and it was over and done with a lot earlier compared to the other schools and and kids and parents, who had to wait a lot longer before their tour around the track field could start. We were out of there in a flash today! It was uncomfortably hot, that early in the morning at 8am!

The place was packed with kids, teachers and parents however, just like each year. The interesting variation for me was to see a lot more Westerners out there today, compared to 4 or 5 years ago when I went for the first time and I was about the only Westerner out there!

The mayor and his compatriots are sitting high and dry in the shade, can't blame them! They have another two days to go of this gathering! I do pity them in this case.

Up to next year, when we probably have to be there for two days, one day for my son and one day for my daughter, maybe I need to coordinate this next year better and plan some dive courses around this time.

Camille

Building a well on Samui

Building a well on Samui

After yesterdays post about the drought in our garden, here's a post on how we actually get our water on Koh Samui.

Since a year or two, the government has put water pipes in the ground that are supposed to deliver water to the majority of houses, mainly if your house located near one of the major roads on Samui.

The current drought however has already disrupted this water delivery for over a couple of months in many areas and especially in the Chaweng area.

My wife's youngest sister had a problem with water delivery and her parents decided it was time to put a well in for the youngest daughter.

These wells are hand dug and take a week or two to build, pending on the local water levels and how deep the well has to be.

As can be seen in the picture above, it's a fairly simple construction with some build in sun cover.

Since our and the younger sisters houses are build on the slopes of a hill, the water levels aren't too deep and they hit water at relatively shallow depth, the reflection of the water shows clearly in the picture.

They will still dig deeper though and somebody will have to get in there and put the baskets in the water and mud to get the bottom dug deeper.

The pulley looks simple but is very effective. The hook will have a bucket attached to it and inside the well somebody will fill the buckets all day long.

This is the fortification of the actual well, once they have finished digging the concrete circle parts will be lowered into the well to prevent it from collapsing.

Like in the tunnels of the 'Great Escape' movie, loads of sand need to be disposed of and in Plai Laem it's slightly easier than in the movie, it's just heaped up behind the well construction site.

Some 9 years back these wells went for around 30.000,-THB, nowadays they range between 40 and 50K, pending on the depth the well needs.

Our well hasn't dried up since we had it build, I can only hope for the younger sister that she will be as lucky, but looking at the water ground level of her well, it looks like she will be just fine.

Camille