Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 16th April, 2011

Today's weather;

Once more Samui woke up under a blue sky with some odd clouds in it. Current temp at 7am is 26.2C

It's completely back to business as usual on Koh Samui now, since a couple of days already. The numbers of visitors to this blog drop off as well, so thanks for checking in and I do hope some will hang around and regularly keep dropping by.

Spirit house washed around in Bang Po

Yesterday saw once more a hot day with a nice blue sky in the morning but during the afternoon clouds took over although it stayed dry. Max temp reached 29.8C

Camille

Some video's of Samui's March 2011 flooding

Some video's of Samui's March 2011 flooding

Have a look of some of these video's, apparently at some areas on Samui the flooding are worse compared to November 2010.

This is in Lamai

This is also in Lamai

This is between Maenam and Bang Po

The airport is currently still open but there are delays.

If you find my blog and updates useful, don't feel embarrassed by donating some beer money! Plenty of buttons do the trick here and if you want to book your hotels on Samui or in Thailand, please use the links provided. It all helps to keep this blog going!

Camille

Siripoca restaurant, Bang Po

Siripoca restaurant, Bang Po

This is one of the locals fave places, well hidden away but simple and delicious straightforward Thai food.

The Siripoca in Bang Po, is not easy to detect and you would miss it if you don't know where it is. It's not too far away from Bang Po Seafood restaurant, of which I posted a while ago.

It's also not the best looking place and has nothing that really stands out visually when you're looking for it, It's just a few meters backed away from the ring road but worth looking for if you're in this neck of the Samui woods, for instance if you're on your way to Samui immigration in Nathon or renewing your driving license in Lipa Noi!

As already mentioned it's all very basic but very functional. The typical meat display with duck, chicken and pork (moo krob or crispy pork).

All seating arrangement, tables and chairs, are directly on the sand but there's a fantastic view on to Koh Phangan, well worthwhile the stop!

Besides selling Thai food a la carte, they also sell all kind of Khanom or sweets ads the Thais call it. Little and/or small sweet snacks. Well worth trying out! Soon more about this.

We've been here before to get some Kao Man Kai, which my wife ordered, but when I test a place, I always choose the same thing, so I can compare between two of my fave dishes, One dish is Phat Phet Mu Krob (Stir fried crispy pork) which I ordered today and it was very good! Tasty and spicy, just the way I like it! See the above picture. Here's a good recipe for Phat Phet Mu or ผัดเผ๊ดหมู, you just need to replace the pork in the recipe with crispy pork!

The other test meal I use is Plaa Muek Phat Krapao or ปลาหมึกผัดกะเพรา. Since I eat both of them a lot and I have my fave places for each of these dishes it's really simple to compare once I order them! Siripoca passed the test with flying colours!

On to the Khao Man Kai or ข้าวมันไก่, my wife's choice today. Siripoca is well known for this dish and she enjoyed it. This is a classic Thai meal but it's also a kind of recycled meal; bones are boiled to make stock, the stock is used to cook the chickens and rice and to make soup, the bones from the chickens are used to make more stock and so the cycle continues.

It's not just any old rice that comes with this meal, if tit's done correctly, the rice is cooked in the stock!

Getting back to the Khanom, they also have Khanom Thuai or ขนมถ้วย on offer, a really nice and sweet dessert topped with a great coconut layer. There are just a few places on Samui that offer these kind of sweets or Khanom Thuai.

This is how they are served. Two identical cups on top of each other, which when opened reveal their sweet treasure.

Dig in and enjoy. This is one of the good eateries on Samui with a clean kitchen, which my wife finds very important and the restaurant is popular with local Samuians and alike. What better proof for good tasting goodies can you have?

Camille

Babylon Bar, Bang Po

At last, there's a place to go to with your children.

It's the Babylon Bar on the ring road, just before the mountain into Nathon, if you're coming from direction Maenam.

So many times we wondered where we could go with the children during weekends and we always ended up driving around the island and go to the beach. Babylon Bar is offering a new option.

They have three big bouncy castles and set up with some glides. A children's swimming pool is in the making with more toys near the pool.

It's also a great place to have a children birthday party. You can order sets of meat for the BBQ and off you go, the kids have fun and you can BBQ some meat! Excellent.

They also have a restaurant and bar and we ordered some Thai food which was excellent, my wife really enjoyed her Yam Bunsen and Patsa Iu and I had a lovely Matsaman curry.

For the kids it's only 50 baht to play in the fenced off play ground. All in all a very good deal and highly recommendable for a day out with a nice stop at the beach!

For reservations or birthday party info call 08 5792 8806 or 08 7876 6068. I'm sure we'll be back more often!

Camille

Khanom Chin food stall in Bang Po

Khanom Chin in Bang Po.

Today, early in the morning, I had to go the Immigration office in Nathon, to see if my yearly Non Immigrant B Visa had arrived. After a bit of waiting and some stamps and signatures in my passport, I could happily embrace my new one year Non immigrant B visa.

On the way out of Nathon, after having done some various errands along the way, we were all hungry and my mother in law, who came along for the trip, suggested to go and eat Khanom Chin in Bang Po, in this supposedly excellent place for this kind of food.

Khanom Chin are Chinese style noodles with a Curry on top. Especially in the South of Thailand, these curries are very spicy but Khanom Chin is in general eaten throughout Thailand.



This is how the place looks like, it's located at the ring road, in Bang Po, the North of the island, and it looks like a shack.




It's mainly visited by locals, since they serve a very traditional Samui style curry and everybody just kind a joins around this big, table like thing. At one end the food is prepared and at the other three sides of the tables one can sit down and eat.
Rice is not served but they do serve a soup as well, a Long Thong.

These are the various vegetables (Pak) that go along with the Curried Khanom Chin.

Here's the famous Khanom Chin, doused in a very spicy curry.

Since I'm not a big fan of Khanom Chin at all, I had to go for the only alternative available, the Long Thong soup. The soup was very good and I ended up ordering a second bowl, since one wouldn't stop my appetite.

As a dessert I had this Lot Chong, the only Thai style dessert I actually like.

If you're in for a somewhat more adventurous eating experience, in sharp contrast to yesterday's Prego experience, this can be advised.

Camille