Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 12th April, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui's sky is blue with a few scattered fluffy clouds in it, gearing up for another warm day and a sunny Songkran tomorrow. Current temp at 7am is 27.7C

Bang Rak Bay

Yesterday saw a sunny and hot day on Samui with a max temp of 29.7C

Around noon I went for a dive on Chaweng Beach to see if any big items, like beach chairs, umbrellas etc could be found, since many have been swept away by the ocean during the floods, but there was a little bit of surf and visibility was very low. We had to reschedule the dive for a later date with now aves but the short time under water showed a changed scenery, usually at 6 or 7 meters the ocean floor is flat like a mirror with a hard sandy bottom. Yesterday there were ripples everywhere and it seemed that the meter of sand that was washed away from the beach relocated itself off he beach! A clean up is surely in the making, I'll keep you updated.

Camille

Chaweng beach; The Beach, before and after the floods!

Chaweng beach; The Beach, before and after the floods!

Many requests have come in over the last couple of days regarding the conditions on Chaweng Beach, the amount of debris and the general state.

As already mentioned in previous, everybody on Samui is working hard to get things in order again and clean up work is in full swing all over the island! This includes the beaches, please see the following pictures how it was a few days ago and how it is now!

This is also re-assuring for all people asking for info and updates about the Centara Grand Beach hotel in Chaweng. The pictures are either taken in front or near the Centara and the hotel is up and running and business is as usual!

All pictures taken by Joe Clasby.

The amount of debris was stunning on the beach!

The water had the color of mushroom soup a few days ago! Now the water is getting clearer day by day!

A lot of sand was washed away, staff is working to stabilize trees and fix steps down to the beach

For traffic jams, stay on the left side of the cone!

Chaweng Beach in front of Centara Grand Beach Resort yesterday, the transformation completed!

Hope this settles everybody's 'nerves' who was worried about the beaches and especially the Centara Grand Beach Resort since I received most questions and inquiries about this hotel.

Some beach parts may still be dirty but in front of the hotels I would expect clean beaches!

Camille

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

Today's weather;

At last Samui woke up under sunshine, this morning! Clean up work is going on and repair work started everywhere. New pictures pop up everywhere and I try to give you some idea how mad it was and how things are right now. Current temp at 7am is 26 C

Thanks to Wieslaw for your donation, much appreciated, it helps to keep the spirits up and keep the blog going!

Yesterday saw a tiny bit of rain in the morning on Samui but sunshine during a hot afternoon! Max temp reached 29C

Some excellent pictures can be found on the My Home Koh Samui blog.

Many people keep asking about the condition of the beaches around Samui, well, here's a picture of Free House Bungalow on Bophud beach by Oh, from 2nd April. Later today I hope to get some picture from the beach near Centara hotel in Chaweng.

An aerial picture of Phun Phin, where Surat Thani's railway station is located, 4 meters of water were reported here, picture from the Bangkok Post.

On a good note, apparently highway 44 between Krabi and Surat Thani is open again so my gateway to Samui is open, now I can get to Surat and just need to find a way to get to Donsak and take a ferry to Samui come the 9th April.

How it was, bridge in Chaweng near Ali Baba, picture by Joe Clasby.

Parking

Sunset yesterday on Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta also woke up under a blue sky with a current temp at 7am of 24C

Yesterday saw a nice and hot day on Koh Lanta, max temp reached 32,4C

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

Very low water around Koh Samui

Very low water around Koh Samui

This year the low water around Samui seems to have found a new low, so to speak. During the 11 years that I've been here now, I've seen some low tides, especially around this time of the year, but this year seems to be taking the stroedel.

Around Nathon, where I took these pictures, the water recedes a lot each year but now the water also recedes at places that usually stay covered in water.

The Thai people love the low tide and go out in masses to look for various kinds of shells ('hoy'), octopus ('waai') and small fish. My mother in law said the other that it was the first time in her life that she could just pick up small fish from the beach near Plai Laem that were caught out by the low water. This made for some good deep fried fish for our son!

Here's another picture of Nathon with the pier and an incoming ferry in the background. You could almost organise soccer games on these vast amounts of space!

Camille

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

Oil on Samui beaches

Oil on Samui beaches

Messages on Thai web forums about Lamai beach being covered in oil and an sms message portraying the same problem on Chaweng Beach made me decide to have a look for myself today.

The sight I encountered wasn't very pretty. The picture above shows small black pellet kind of debris all over Chaweng's beach which are oil based. After I left the beach I had a hard time cleaning my flip flops of the oily substance that was sticking to my flip flops and I upon touching those pellets it was not easy to clean my hands.

It's very sad to see a syringe amongst the debris as well, one of a few that I noticed today on a short stretch of beach.

Besides the oil based debris, some stretches of beach, as here in front of Al's Resort, there was also a lot of general debris. On either side of this resort the beach seemed to be a lot cleaner and the general debris was a lot less.

Here a closer look at what kind of debris was on the beach, various kind of shoes were strangely enough represented rather well.

The Tessabaan is looking into the Laem Sor area of the island, at the South Western corner of Samui since apparently that's where the oil is coming from. If there are any updates I will let you know.

Camille

The yearly reminder, don't drown on your holiday!

The yearly reminder, don't drown on your holiday!

I don't want to spoil your holiday mode, but unfortunately each year people lose their lives on holiday in ways that can be easily prevented. One of these ways is drowning because of rip currents or under tows. Each year I report about this, look here for 2007 and here for 2008 posts.

Each year, people drown on Chaweng's, Koh Phangan's, Phuket's and other Thai beaches because of these currents.

Using your common sense and watching out for signs, like this one in front of Centara Grand Beach Resort on Chaweng Beach with yellow or red coloured flags to design the danger level. Check out the warning signs all along the various beaches around Samui and other Thai holiday destinations.

In German and English, this warning sign in front of Malibu Resort, also on Chaweng Beach.
Usually it's older and weaker people that get caught out and most deaths attributed to "undertow" happen when people playing in the area where the waves run up onto the beach get their feet knocked out from under them when the water flows back down to the sea. They get dragged a short distance into the breakers, and aren't strong enough or knowledgeable enough to get back to shore.

Here's how a rip current works, if you get caught in one, swim alongshore to the left or right, to escape the seaward-flowing jet of water. Riptides can flow much faster than you can swim: if you try to swim directly back to shore against the current, you'll soon become tired and risk drowning.

Hope this helps and enjoy your holidays in Koh Samui and Thailand.

Camille

26th August, 2008

Today's weather;

It's a near perfect blue sky overland this morning but heavy clouds linger over the Gulf. The current temp at 7am is 27C.

Yesterday was fairly cloudy but with enough sunshine as well. As usual during this August, it was warm! Max temp reached 33C.

Chaweng beach early evening, around 7 pm

Yesterday we did a night dive at Chaweng beach, my dive blog will be updated soon and after the dive there was a beautiful, star littered sky!

Last night there was some heavy rain in the middle of the night though, good timing and good for the plants and other vegetation on the island!

Camille

24th August, 2008

Today's weather;

There's a fair amount of clouds on the sky this morning although the sun starts to peek through. Current temp at 7 am is 27.5C.

Chaweng beach yesterday around 10 am

Yesterday was once more sunny and warm with a max temp in the mid thirties.

Camille

13th August, 2008

Today's weather;

It's fairly cloudy but also fairly bright, it looks like the sun may burn the layer away early. Current temp at 7 am is 26.6C.

Yesterday was similar to previous days this month, starting out with overcast but gradually more and more sun coming in. Max temp reached 32.2C.

Chaweng Beach yesterday in the early afternoon, during our Open Water dive of my current IDC.

Camille

27th July, 2008

Today's weather;

There's a good layer of overcast, too thick to allow much sunshine through right now but it is dry with a current temp of 26.7C at 7 am.

Yesterday was a day which started out very wet in the morning with strong winds and lots of rain to be replaced in the late afternoon with the occasional sun beam and drier weather. Max temp reached 30.7C.

Last night we did a night dive on Chaweng Beach and there was surprisingly good visibility, considering the day time circumstances. Keep an eye out for my dive blog for updates. Here's a view of Chaweng Beach shortly before night fall at around 6.30 pm.

Camille

14th July, 2008

Today's weather;

A thin cloud layer is still there, seemingly just waiting to be burnt away by the sun once it heats up, just like yesterday. Current temp at 7 am is 27C.

Yesterday we completed the current July IDC on a sunny Chaweng beach. The cloud cover yesterday morning turned out to be nothing else but a thin layer, quickly burnt away by a blazing sun. All day long it was lovely and sunny with a max temp of 34C.

Below two pictures of Chaweng beach, slowly getting busier and enjoying the sun.

Camille

A reminder not to drown on your Thai holiday!

A reminder not to drown on your Thai holiday!

As already posted on this blog just before the last monsoon season on Samui, here's a quick reminder about rip tides that can prevail in Thailand.

Right now not really a threat on Samui and surrounding islands, but something that may be more likely to occur around Phuket or the Andaman coast.

This sign is up on Chaweng beach, just to remind people. Please read the article again that I'm linking to in the beginning of this post.

Camille

Pictures of today's weather

Pictures of today's weather

It's a bit of mixed bag!

This morning started out great, during the final part and closing of this current PADI IE on Chaweng beach, see my dive blog for a full report.




The beach is lovely and sunny, like you expect a beach to be on Samui during the latter part of June.

More scenic impressions of Chaweng beach this morning.

Just when I got home after leaving Chaweng, all hell broke loose around Big Buddha and Plai Laem with a strong wind storm and some rain and since that, the sky has been dark, although it's mainly dry.
For the next couple of days, strong winds are predicted with the occasional rain.

Camille

Sunny day, dream away..............

Sunny day, dream away..............


.................At this nice beach in Maenam.

Just to show how beautiful the weather has turned the last few days, getting ready for the April heat!

Maenam beach with a bit of Koh Phangan in the background.

Maenam beach, lazing away under a palm tree.

Phuket is also going into a hot spell, see Jamie's Phuket weather blog for more news.

First day, arrived at Prachuap Khirikhan

The first day of our trip.

Today we left at 7 am for the car ferry in Nathon where we had a reservation waiting for us, which proved to be very helpful, since all the buses for the main land are on this ferry as well, so it was pretty jam packed in the car parking area.

The ferry trip was rather uneventful, as was the trip over to Prachuap Khirikhan, our first stop over of this trip. We try not to travel too much each day, so the children aren’t stuck in the car all day. It looks like today may have been one of the longer days.

Coming from the South, just before you reach Prachuap, Thailand has its smallest passage with just a few kilometers between the coast at one side and Myanmar at the other side.
There’s also nearby a point where the two coasts are just a few kilometers apart from each other

Prachuap is a lovely, sleepy little town which won us over immediately, which we reached by 3 pm. Very quickly we found a hotel, the Had Thong Hotel, where we got a Jr. Suite for just 1.100,-Baht per night.

During the Ayudhaya period (1350-1767), the town was known as Muang Bang Nang Rom, a small fishing village, this was later changed during the early 1900 to Prachuap Khirikhan meaning ‘A town among Mountain Chains’. There are some lovely views here and great beaches to be found in this province.




After having checked in to the hotel, we decided for a small tour to see what was up here and we discovered ‘Ao Manao’ or Lemon Bay. Funnily enough, this bay is located smack in the middle of a Thai Air Force base, but it’s accessible for non Navy personal and has a lots of charms inside it’s premises. First of all a couple of beautiful bays but also a lot of green with some pleasant, unexpected attractions. The picture above is 'Ao Manao' just before sunset.

Here;s another bay at the Air Force base. All in all a worthwhile place to visit with plenty of things to see, besides just hanging out at the beach.

The Air Force likes to show their heroes and this is one of them, in front of the Air Force museum on the base. Very heroic! It almost looks like a surfer but he's actually standing on a propeller blade.

Some old and outdated planes are on display throughout the whole base, which is right up my ally and me and the kids had a great time getting shots of all the various planes.

there’s also a monkey conservation program as well, for the Duskar Langur monkeys and they were all over the place, running around or sitting in trees and minding their own business.

Here's a bunch of them sitting in a tree and eating and chatting away. The kids just loved it!

There's also an Air Force museum, as already mentioned, which was closed unfortunately and just overall, it all has a great quiet and relaxed feel to it and we felt straight away at home. The interesting thing is however, that all the time you’re in this Air Force base. Very interesting!

After having checked the Lemon Bay and the various sights at the base, we returned to downtown Prachuap and had something to eat in a local restaurant.
Prachuap hosts a very nice and cozy ‘boulevard’ where again, everything is very relaxed and easy going. The restaurant we ate at was called Ma-Prow (coconut) and had some good food, Fried fish and squid, pork with veggies and glass noodles with curry powder and crab meat (pad Bunsen pong curry puu). It was a tad bit expensive for being located at the beach/boulevard I guess, but it was good nonetheless.

All in all a very nice and relaxed place, Prachuap Khirikhan and I can highly recommend stopping by if you happen to be in the hood.

Tomorrow we’re off to Bangkok. We will try to get an early start, since it’s children’s day tomorrow (only in Thailand?) and we want to maximize our time in Bangkok, since we only have two days there. This pretty much means shopping tomorrow at the various shopping malls Bangkok hosts, like Central Chitlom, Siam Paragon and who knows how many other ones the missus comes up with ;-)

Camille

Don't drown during your Thai holiday!

Required reading for holiday makers during the rainy season on Samui.

Before I start off with restaurant reviews or other posts, here's some well meant warning for all your beach lovers during the rainy season, roughly from November through to February, if it boils down to this topic. This was posted before at my dive blog.

Having just joined the Thorn Tree forum, the official Lonely Planet travel forum, where lots of good travel advise and information can be found, I stumbled over a prolific poster there, Tezza, who runs a couple of blogs, one about beaches and islands in Thailand and on this specific blog, he has a great post about not drowning during your Thai holiday.

You may think, what is all this about and it won't concern me, but have a look and read up on it, he talks about rip tides and undertows and this should be required reading for everybody visiting Thailand, especially during the rainy season, when the likelihood of these rip tides is greatest!

It's a subject I was about to write about somewhere in the near future, since the rainy season is about to start, or should I rather say, started already with a vengeance, and a few weeks ago I already took this picture in front of Centara Samui hotel in Chaweng, a big warning sign on the beach, warning you about potential rip currents. There are various similar signs and explanations along the beach, on big sign posts.

Each year, more people than you can imagine drown on Samui beaches, mainly Chaweng and Lamai beach, due to these rip currents and they don't make the international headlines!

Main victims are elderly people who get caught up in rip currents and who either don't have the strength or knowledge or both to get out of them rips.

So, Tezza, thanks for the informative post and I hope that plenty of people will read it.

Camille