Her Majesty's Queen Sirikit's Birthday

Her Majesty's Queen Sirikit's Birthday

Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat (สมเด็จพระนางเจ้าสิริกิติ์ พระบรมราชินีนาถ; Literally: "Her Majesty Queen Regent Sirikit"; born Mom Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara on August 12, 1932), is the queen consort of Bhumibol Adulyadej, King (Rama IX) of Thailand.

Happy Birthday to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit

She is the second Queen Regent of Thailand (the first Queen Regent was Queen Saovabha Bongsri of Siam, later Queen Sri Patcharindra, the queen mother). As the consort of the king who was until 2010 the world's longest reigning head of state, she is also the world's longest serving consort of a monarch, though Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, more than eleven years her senior, is the oldest currently serving consort.

Today is also celebrated in Thailand as Mothers day.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 4th July, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui has a light cloud covered sky with the sun poking pretty hard at the clouds. It looks like it's going to be sunny today. Current temp at 7am is 24.8C

Yesterday's elections have been clearly won by the Phue Thai, a political party run by fugitive, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. His younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra will be the new and first female PM in Thailand. Interesting weeks ahead for Thailand.

Yingluck Shinawatra during her election trail

Yesterday started out really nice but in the afternoon around 4pm, some serious dark clouds and a hefty but relatively short shower passed Samui. Max temp reached 31C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 3rd July, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui is waking up under a cloudy sky but it looks like the sun might burn the cloud layer away fairly soon. Current temp at 7am is 25.3C

Today is going to be a big day for Thailand, with nationwide elections for a new government are being held. The outcome of these elections could have a very long term impact on the country. Next week will be very interesting.

Election poster for the Democrat party

Yesterday the clouds over Samui did evaporate partly and there was some good sunshine moments during the afternoon for sun lovers. The early evening brought a heavy tropical shower again though. Max temp reached 31C

Camille

Visakha Bucha Day

Visakha Bucha Day

That's what it is today and it's pretty much the most important day in Buddhism.

Visakha Puja Day marks the three important incidents in the life of Lord Buddha on the same day - the full moon of the sixth lunar month. The three significant separate event are;

1. The Buddha's Birth - the Buddha was born into a royal warrior clan in the Lumbini Garden (in an area of Northern India known today as Nepal) In the morning of the Vesak full moon day, 80 years before the Buddhist Era. He was named Siddhattha five days after his birth.

2. "The Enlightenment of Buddha - While sitting under the Bodhi tree, he found his answer and attained the enlightenment at the age of 35 years at Uruvelasenanigama subdistrict, Magadha state, (nowadays, located in the area of Buddha Kaya, Bihar State, India), on Wednesday, the Vesak full moon day, the zodiac of the cock, forty five years before the Buddhist Era.

3. The Nibbana - The Buddha passed away on Tuesday, the Vesak full moon day in the zodiac year of the small snake under the two Sal trees in the Sala Grove of the Mallas in Kusinara, the capital of the Malla state, (nowadays located in Kusinagara of Uttrarapradesa, India) at the age of eighty years (around 2547 years ago).

VISAKHA BUCHA (Vesak) means the worship of the Buddha on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month. It usually falls in May. In the case of a year with an extra eighth lunar month--Adhikamasa (there are 13 full moons in that year)-- the Visakha Bucha Day falls on the full moon day of the seventh lunar month.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 1st April, 2011

Today's weather;

Things are definitely on the up, Samui woke up under sunshine this morning! Motorbikes are moving around again in front of our house in Plai Laem on a road that had unprecedented levels of water on it. The current temp at 7am is 24.7C

Most roads around Koh Samui are fine again, some have a few puddles on it and some are still flooded, overall though, things are improving and especially having a forecast with 7 days of more or less sunshine will definitely improve things around all three Gulf islands.

Yesterday saw some bits of rain but just 8mm over the last 24 hrs. Max temp reached 25.5C

Wading and swimming in the water near Donsak

For all people contacting me, last night I answered emails and messages on my blog for over 5 hours, from 18.30 onwards last night. A lot of the questions are very repetitious and I must first of all thank you all for showing support, especially David and Peter for their generous donation and Robert as well.

-However, please keep in mind that I do NOT have lists of individual hotels and their current state. If I stumble over one or hear about one I will post it here on my blog.

-If you're planning to visit Koh Samui within a week or so, expect a damaged island with a lot of clean up and repair work going on. I'm sure that hotels that aren't affected will do their uttermost best to accommodate you but Samui won't be at it's prettiest!

-If you're planning to visit Samui around mid April, I would expect a lot of damage and debris been taken care of and your visit should be fine.

-Anybody planning on visiting towards the end of April or early May or even later, don't worry. Do not reschedule for November, that's usually Samui's rainy season!

-The weather forecast for the next 7 days is good, with plenty of sunshine, no wind and just a few occasional drops of rain. I can only hope that the weather will be as it usually is during April and that's HOT!

-Due to the overwhelming amount of mails and messages, I won't be able to answer each individual mail or message anymore at the rate they're coming in, please accept my apologies for that but please read the above, it should answer 99% of all questions! Questions out of the ordinary I will definitely answer.

-As before, please support my blog with either donations, hitting the beer allowance buttons or keep booking your future hotel stays on Samui and around Thailand on my Samui hotel recommendation blog or Thailand hotel recommendation blog. Please bookmark them.

-For information about Koh Tao, check out Ayesha's blog on Koh Tao, she claims that all is fine on Koh Tao and they never had food or drinking water shortages and should be up for diving and business as usual later today!

For Koh Phangan updates check out the 'My Jungle life' blog for updates.

For Phuket updates, check out Jamie's Phuket weather blog.

In the meantime, Koh Lanta woke up to a lightly cloudy sky and it looks like more sunshine may be ours later today and yesterday saw actually bits and pieces of sunshine with a few rare drops of rain, the dive boats went out yesterday! Current temp at 7am is 24C and max temp reached 28.2C yesterday.

The biggest concern right now is still the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat and all of a sudden the province of Krabi with it's landslides.

So far 13 people have been confirmed to have died as a result of the recent weather in Southern Thailand.

Especially the Ban Ton Harn Ville in Khao Phanom district has been hit hard. Luckily there has also been a feel good story, at least partially!

I'm looking forward to a speedy recovery for Koh Samui and all affected areas and that rebuilding may lead to a good job done and will prevent unnecessary and avoidable flood situations.

Camille

Makha Bucha Day

Makha Bucha Day

This Buddhist day commemorates two separate events that occurred on the same date 45 years apart, during the Buddha's lifetime 2,500 years ago. The first event was the coming together of 1,250 monks from all locations and directions, to meet and be ordained by the Buddha. This event occurred seven months after the Buddha began his teaching. The second event, which occurred 45 years later, was the Buddha delivering his teachings shortly before his death.

Makha Bucha Day represents a great deal in terms of the development of Buddhism in Thailand. It is a highly ceremonial event and in Thailand it's an event that was only recently revived as part of Thai Buddhist tradition. The Supreme Patriarch of the Marble Temple in Bangkok, Kittsobhana Mahathera, did this in 1957. Before 1957, the full moon day of the third lunar month was celebrated as a Buddhist Holy Day. Because of local ceremonies that occupied this day in different parts of the country, the Makha Bucha ceremonies today take on the different flavors of the various locales.

Makha Bucha day in Pattaya February 2008

At this time in the evolution of Buddhism and Buddhist principles in Thailand, it is important to understand how the majority of Thai people view Buddha and the Buddhist philosophy.

Each year the various Temples all over the country are busy with people making 'Tamboon' or making merit.

It's worthwhile checking out temple in your neighborhood and observe this religious event.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 3rd November, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is recovering after having been in the news a bit yesterday. Right now there's still rain but the wind is slowing down and electricity has been on almost all night long, to the relief of all residents. Current temp at 7am is 25.5C.

The forecast is looking a lot better as of this morning, today subsiding winds and still a lot of rain but than slowly the wind and amount of rain goes down pretty much each day to be over by the weekend and the sun might pop out again!

It's interesting to look back at some pictures from the November 2008 flooding, which wasn't anywhere near what happened this time around.

My family is doing fine so far and we're in steady contact.

The ring road in Lamai yesterday

Koh Lanta is wet this morning, Phuket and Phi Phi, which you can see most of the time from here, where covered and white clouds but in front of Lanta were some dark clouds and they're shedding their water weight right now. Current temp at 7am is around 26C.

Today my IDC continues after having had a day off yesterday.

7-11 Lamai at ring road yesterday

Yesterday saw 263mm of rain come down on Samui, yesterdays posts with pictures and video tell the story pretty much and today has another glimpse on conditions around the island.

Things are slowly getting better now though and by the end of the week it all should be back to normal. Just hope the island can be restocked with food etc very soon and the ferry schedule will be resumed soon. Max temp reached 27C

Besides Samui, it was Songkla and Hat Yai that really have been hit bad, a lot worse than their last flooding 10 years ago with water reaching a 3 meter height at some parts.

Koh Lanta on the other hand had some really hard storm condition around 5.30am but by 7.30am it was dry again and by noon the sun was out and it remained dry pretty much the rest of the day. Max temp was around 30C

Camille

Koh Samui storm early November, some pictures

Koh Samui storm early November, some pictures

Although I'm enjoying a sunny afternoon in Koh Lanta, I'm in regular contact with my family and friends back on Samui and the stories are interesting.

Since yesterday evening Samui is having a lot of rain and somewhere during the night the power went off, not to come back as of right now, a good 18 hours later! Apparently the power may be off for another 2 or 3 days due to a problem at the main power distribution station.

A view on the ring road near Bangkok-Samui hospital

Here on Koh Lanta we had very strong and heavy wind very early in the morning but around 8am that subsided and we have sunshine now during the afternoon.

Samui on the other hand is in for less wind and almost no rain tomorrow but than another 3 to 4 days of rain are on the horizon before there may be any sign of sunshine again.

Chaweng downtown

As expected and as shown in the picture above, there is flash flooding around the island, this picture showing downtown Chaweng. With the new drainage system, I expect the water to subside a few hours after the rain stops.

More flooding in Chaweng

My wife reported about flash flooding near our house in the Plai Laem area. Let's hope they can get the power back on again quickly!

All the best to my family and friends on Samui.

Camille

Upgrade of Ko Samui municipal status officially announced

Upgrade of Ko Samui municipal status officially announced

Andy's excellent blog about everything about the administrative subdivisions of Thailand - history, current news, facts hardly found in English, reviews of corresponding books, the Wikipedia coverage of these entities..., well, this Andy, posted about this event.

On Monday 4th October, the upgrade of Ko Samui from subdistrict municipality to a town municipality was published in the Royal Gazette. What makes this announcement a bit strange is the fact that the upgrade already happened in 2008, and thus it is published more than 2 years later. In fact, the announcement was signed by then Deptuy Minister of Interior Suphon Fongngam (สุพล ฟองงาม) on June 9 2008. This is also the date which I found in the annual list by the Department of Local Administration as the date on which the upgrade became effective.

The interesting question is why this announcement was kept in the pipeline for this long time, the median value for all the announcements I have already gathered in my XML is that the publication happens at 51 days after the signature - and now this announcement easily captured the maximum position with 847 days. The additional documents added in the announcement - the description of the boundary as well as the map - don't show any indication that were not yet present at time of the signature, the only date shown on both is the June 9 2008. Besides, preparing a map and the boundary description for a municipality which covers the complete island is nothing which should take that long.

Lots of thanks to Andy, check out his blog!

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

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!

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit's Birthday

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit's Birthday

Today is the Birthday of Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat or สมเด็จพระนางเจ้าสิริกิติ์ พระบรมราชินีนาถ (Literally: "Her Majesty Queen Regent Sirikit"); born Mom Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara.
As the consort of the king who currently is the world's longest reigning head of state, she is also the world's longest serving consort of a monarch.

Happy Birthday

Royal flag of Queen Sirikit, often seen around Thailand in August (near her birthday and Mother's day).

Food on Wheels; Coffee on the road

Food on Wheels; Coffee on the road

Here's the start of a new series that I would like to introduce; Food on Wheels.

As all regular visitors to Thailand or if you live here, you know that food is never really far away in Thailand. Even in remote areas, somebody will drive by on a bike or sam lor (three wheeler) selling something to eat. Samui is no exception to this and just like the rest of Thailand will present itself with plenty of photo opportunities. Each week I'll try to put a picture up of some kind of food or food related item and they will all have one thing in common, they come on wheels!

Today's entry is near my son's school in Chaweng and is a cute little mini motorbike attached to a sidecar on which coffee is sold and various other drinks, like Thai tea. Amazing from my Western point of view and I love it!

Hope you will enjoy the pictures of this new series.

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

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

Corruption and history of the Thai ID cards

Corruption and history of the Thai ID cards

Here's an interesting article from today's The Nation which covers the current corruption in developing a new Thai ID card and it's history.

After eight years of delay and the outlay of billions of baht, the "Smart Card" project to provide all Thais with a modern ID card has become bogged down in a corruption-plagued scandal.
The project was started by the Thaksin Shinawatra government in 2004, but no investigation has ever been ordered into why Bt7.91 billion was approved for 64 million identity cards for all Thais, which were wracked with problems and divided into three lots over the past five to six years.

Only the first 12 million cards were issued completely in the first lot in 2004, after Bt888 million out of a total Bt1.67 billion was approved. These cards cost Bt74 apiece after two other bid lots were abolished following allegations of corruption.

No details are immediately available as to where the remaining half of this initial government outlay has gone.

Of a total of 26 million cards sought in the second lot at a bidding price of Bt962 million, half were awarded to IRC HST Joint Venture for Bt486.8 million, or Bt37.45 apiece. However, a complaint was lodged with the ICT Ministry, which later aborted the bid, and reopened it in 2007.

The 2007 auction sought a full 26 million cards, and ended in a Bt920-million deal awarded to VSK Joint Venture in July that year, which priced the cards at Bt35 apiece.

Of these Thai ID cards, I know the last 3 versions, not including the smart card

Bidding for a third lot - 26 million cards -was opened in June 2009. VK Joint Venture won the Bt902-million contract, which required new conditions set up by the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA). These included new designs and harder-to-crack anti-forgery features.

The third-lot cards, called IE model, were embedded with IC Chip NXP (Model P5CD080), which offers 80kb of memory. That was greater than that issued in first and second lots. This version also featured a Card Operating System - Model JCOP V 2.4.1, which complied with Global Platform version 2.1.1 requirements.

Five days after Cabinet approved the deal, on December 11 last year, then DOPA director-general Wongsak Sawasdiphanich received an Interior Ministry document asking DOPA to reconsider the contract it had just awarded.

Wongsak set up two panels to study the ministry directive. They concluded that the project should proceed further with the IE model - or for the current "partly-smart" version to be dusted off. But the vote by both panels to use a "non-smart" version was not unanimous.

On March 9 this year, the ICT ministry questioned the DOPA decision and asked for it to re-approve the IE model.

DOPA later backtracked and approved the IE model. But all agencies never explained their decisions or the reasons for their about-turns.

The inaction of all agencies involved over the issue means that anyone applying for ID cards is given a "yellow paper" permit as a temporary substitute for actual cards, like in the old days when the normal procedure for issuing an ID card took 15 days.

People seeking to obtain ID cards are not even issued the third-generation "non-smart" cards, because district officers are not sure what cards they should issue if people apply for a new card or seek to renew one that has expired.

After DOPA approved the IE model, the ICT Ministry handed 600,000 cards to the department. But days after receiving the first million cards from the ministry, DOPA rejected them all on June 14. It said the IE model violated two conditions - the front of the cards has red microtext laid across it, and the back of the card does not feature the map of Thailand.

This type of technical problem occurred previously when DOPA rejected the first six million cards many years ago - because they could not be used by the department's computer. The problem ended when Thaksin ordered DOPA to accept all cards.

It remains to be seen how the problem will be tackled this time. It may eventually be dealt with by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who needs to resolve problems between the Interior Ministry and the ICT Ministry.

Samui is still safe!

Samui is still safe!

After yesterdays long awaited crack down on the Red Shirt gathering point in the middle of Bangkok, the legit question arises, is Samui still safe?

The answer is simple; YES. Samui is as safe as it was just a few days ago when I wrote about Samui's safety and the current crackdown in Bangkok and it's consequent curfews for Northern and North eastern provinces has not affected Samui or any Southern province at all.

Here are pictures of Chaweng's beach in front of Al's Resort, rather quiet although a few folk were out and about. This picture shows a view towards the Southern end of the beach.

Here's a picture showing the Northern end of Chaweng Beach.

In my humble opinion, the social unrest will stop very soon and things will return to 'normal' and hopefully Samui's beaches will be full again and Thailand will have peace again and any opposing fractions can work out their differences in a peaceful way.

Camille

15th April, 2010

Today's weather;

A nice blue sky is shaping up over Samui with a current temp at 7am of 29.9C!

Sunset yesterday in Nathon

Yesterday saw another hot day with a max temp of 31.7C

It was so hot, that during the Open Water dive of my current IDC that I'm teaching, I burnt the soles of my feet whilst walking around on the pavement and Chaweng Beach's sand before entering the water!

The Songkran death toll count kicks in and currently there are 114 fatalities, 19 more than last year at the same days count.

With all the unrest in Bangkok which involves the so called Red shirts, who are following Thaksin Shinawatra's political goals, he's supposedly very ill from prostrate cancer.

The plot thickens.

Camille

12th April, 2010

Today's weather;

It remains warm and sunny with a nice blue sky over Samui today. Current temp at 7am is 28.6C

Yesterday was hot but saw also some overcast. No rain though!!! Max temp reached 32.2C

The aftermath of 'Black Saturday' are depressing with a minimum of 21 people dead and 858 injured. The red shirts are still occupying Bangkok's center and the finger pointing starts by both sides.

All Songkran festivities have been cancelled tomorrow in Bangkok.

Camille

11th April, 2010

Today's weather;

It's cloudy but warm! Current temp at 7am is 29C

Yesterday saw a sunny and hot day, once more. Max temp reached

The headline news was unfortunately the riots in Bangkok which left apparently 15 people dead, including a Japanese photographer working for Reuters. It's labelled now as black Saturday in Thailand's press.

Camille