Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 11th September, 2011

Today's weather;

Koh Samui and Koh Phangan have heavy cloud cover and there's some strong wind today. Chances of rain are very high for today and tomorrow. By Tuesday the weather should be fine again. Current temp at 7am is 26C

Later today I'll be on my way back to Samui again!

Clouds, wind, waves and rain where yesterdays scene at Haad Chao Phao on Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw cloud cover all day long around both islands and we only had some (very hard) rain around 1pm. Max temp reached 30.1C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 10th September, 2011

Today's weather;

Some serious cloud formations are building up over Samui and Koh Phangan and it looks like they will be there for the next 3 days with some very strong wind gusts on top of that. Current temp at 7am is 26.8C

After almost 12 years I'm still enjoying living under a coconut tree

Yesterday saw a fairly cloudy day over both Samui and Koh Phangan with an occasional sunny moment when the cloud cover broke open. Max temp reached 31.5C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 9th September, 2011

Today's weather;

A fairly sunny sky with some clouds in it is hovering over Samui and Koh Phangan. Current temp is 26.6C

Looking for nice and empty beaches, Koh Phangan may just have it; Haad Yao two days ago

Samui and Koh Phangan saw yesterday not as much wind as I expected although it was fairly cloudy all day long with occasional bursts of sunshine to heat things up a bit. A nice and very agreeable day with a max temp of 31.3C

During my current stay I already went twice to Caffe' Della Mocca restaurant in Chaloklom and it was fabulous, can't wait to go back again!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 8th September, 2011

Today's weather;

This morning sees heavier cloud cover over Samui and Koh Phangan and there's some more wind. Current temp at 7am is 27.2C

The forecast predicts more wind and rain over the weekend which seems to ease up again bu Tuesday.

The current PADI IDC on Koh Phangan is in full swing!

Haad Yao on Koh Phangang yesterday afternoon

Yesterday saw a lovely and sunny day all around Samui and Koh Phangang with a max temp of 34C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 7th September, 2011

Today's weather;

The sky over Samui and Koh Phangan is laced with a thin cloud cover, just like previous days and most likely these clouds will evaporate once the sun starts to warm up. Current temp at 7am is 26.9C

A new Temple is being build near Haad Chao Phao on Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw a dry and sunny day over both Samui and Koh Phangan with a max temp of 33C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 6th September, 2011

Today's weather;

A thin cloud layer is hovering over Samui and Koh Phangan this morning but I would expect the sun to burn this away pretty soon. Current temp at 7am is 27C

Dramatic views of Koh Phangan's coast line near Haad Yao

Yesterday saw beautiful sunny, warm and dry days on Samui and Koh Phangan. During the late evening there was some thunder, lightning and rain on some parts of Samui with a bit of rain but Plai Laem where I live and on Phangan, where i stay right now, it was dry. Max temp reached 33.2C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 5th September, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui and Koh Phangang have thin cloud layers which should be burned away once the sun starts to heat up. Current temp at 7am is 26C

The PADI IDC on Koh Phangan is well on it's way by now!

Another beautiful sunset yesterday on Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw a lovely and warm day on both Samui and Koh Phangan. Around 8.30pm Samui had some serious rain though and Phangan only had some rain around 4.30am. Max temp reached 33.5C

Camille

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

Today's weather;

Koh Phangan and Samui have a light cloud cover, most likely to be dispersed by the sun soon and it's slightly windy. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C

Sunset yesterday on Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw a beautiful morning on both Samui and Koh Phangan but around 2.30pm a dark storm passed by which lasted about an hour. Strong wind and tiny bits of rain. Afterwards everything cleared up again and there's was a nice star studded sky last night. Max temp reached 33.5C

Camille

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

Today's weather;

Koh Samui and Phangan have a light cloud layer this morning but it looks like it's going to be warm today. Current temp at 7am is 26.5C

Koh Phangan beach this morning at the back of my hotel

Yesterday saw a very sunny and hot day over both Samui and Phangan. Max temp reached 33.6C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 2nd September, 2011

Today's weather;

This morning I find my self back on Koh Phangan, almost a year since I was here last time! It's so close to Koh Samui that the weather patterns are very similar.

There's a sunny sky with a few clouds in it but I wouldn't be surprised if those clouds will be burned away quickly by the sun. Current temp at 7am is 25C

The forecast for next week is looking very good with more sun and no rain!

This mornings sky over Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw plenty of sunshine, no rain and a very warm day on Samui and Koh Phangan. Max temp reached 33.3C

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

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 31st March, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui at last woke up with electricity still running (at least near my house where electricity was cut off over for almost 56 hrs), no rain pouring down, the airport open and the ferries running again. It's still cloudy and roads are flooded and some bits and pieces of rain may come down but it looks like the worst is over. Current temp at 7am is 24C and 'only' 95mm of rain came down over the last 24 hrs.

I'm starting to relax!

On Koh Tao the evacuation of stranded tourists that started yesterday will continue today with thanks to the Royal Thai Navy. 3 seriously ill people from Koh Phangan hospital were evacuated by helicopter.

Yesterday saw still lots of rain but the airport opened up and the ferries started running again and electricity came back on again. Max temp reached only 23.9C

I'm receiving many emails and messages on my blog and I will try to answer them all but it will be later today. Everybody planning a holiday around 8th April or later, you should be fine although the cleaning up activities may still be in process.

Don't forget to hit the donations buttons, with over 5000 visits per day currently, somebody out there must think that this blog is useful, show your appreciation by hitting my beer money or donation buttons here! Thanks!

Koh Lanta is having a light cloud cover, it looks like the dark clouds have moved on. Hopefully there will be some sunshine today! Current temp at 7am is 24C

Yesterday saw an almost complete dry day with mini bursts of sunshine occasionally. Max temp reached 30C

The landslide in Krabi was not as devastating as initially mentioned, only one instead of 7 villages were affected and despite 10 bodies being recovered, only around a 100 people are missing and not 1000. However, landslides are now reported in 4 provinces, including Phuket.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 29th March, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui is waking up under very dark clouds and is about to assess last nights torrential rain damage. Just over 400mm came down over the last 24 hours and 90mm between 1 and 4am. There will be damage to roads and buildings, I just hope it all will be within limits and reason.

Current temp at 7am is still 25C

The tendency is that all long term residents have never experienced anything like the current floods, even the November 2010 floodings were not as bad as the current situation.

The water levels in front of our house on the road between Plai Laem and Choengmon have never been as high as they are now. A lot of problems are caused because the water is 'boxed' in and can't follow it's natural flow to the ocean because of too much construction blocking the way to the ocean.

There are power cuts all over the island, so land phone lines won't work and the batteries on mobile phones will be getting very low soon or are dead already. The power cuts are either genuinely because of over load and are partly on purpose in order to avoid electrocutions. The spaghetti wire above the roads doesn't really look too re-assuring.

Max temp yesterday didn't get any higher than 26.5C

The current prediction is about another 80mm of rain for Samui and surrounding islands until 7pm today and than it's supposed to ease off with sun and no waves and wind starting from Friday onwards.

Good luck to everybody on Samui, hope it will be all good again very soon!

The situation on Koh Phangang and Koh Tao is not looking good, especially Koh Tao seems to have had some serious battering with plenty of structural damage and they must be running low on food and especially drinking water by now. I don't expect the airport to open today, due to wind and rain.

The overall situation in the South of Thailand is very bad, see the chart below. The current death toll is nine. The Nation resports; Flood waters are now wreaking havoc in the provinces of Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Trang, Krabi and Phatthalung.

To date, 13 districts of Surat Thani have been declared disaster zones, with the inundation having damaged four bridges, 11 roads and two temples.

Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the flooding had damaged 613 schools in Trang, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Songkhla and Phatthalung.

Bangkok Airways cancelled all 36 domestic and international flights in and out of Samui yesterday, due to the severe thunderstorms hitting the island and the surrounding area. It said affected passengers should contact its ticketing office to rebook their flights at no additional charge.

Meanwhile, just as the floods have been raging in the South, PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey said 47 other provinces were suffering from drought.

Chaweng ring road

Bophud

Koh Lanta's sky is also dark and grey but the amount of rainfall here is just a fraction of what came down in other parts of Thailand. Current temp at 7am is 25.5C an yesterday's max temp reached 27.6C.

Yesterday saw some heavy rain but nothing serious. 'Just' 45mm of rain in 24 hours. All dive boats were cancelled yesterday though and I'm not sure if the dive boats will run today. As far as I know the car ferries are still running.

A next updated is not expected before noon since I'm conducting and IDC on Lanta and won't have time to be online that much.

Keep hitting the right buttons though to upgrade my beer allowance and if you plan on booking hotels on Samui or around Thailand, please use the links provided, all bookings through these sites will help me make more beer money!

Camille

Situation on Samui worsening, airport closed

Situation on Samui worsening, airport closed

The rain has been relentless today and by 4pm the airport was officially closed, this is on BKK Airways Facebook page, funnily enough nothing is listed on their website;

All flights to/from Samui are cancelled due to bad weather. Passengers can contact 02 270 6699, 1771 or 077 422 512-9 (Samui Office) for rebooking the flight. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Lines of people at Samui airport today

Samui airport today

Maenam area today

Chaweng today

The situation on Koh Phangan is not that great, see picture above and on Koh Tao long term residents report about flooding as worse as they have ever seen and they're slowly running out of food and drinking water.

The worst for Samui is still coming with a predicted 260mm of rain tomorrow. Wind Guru is predicting more rain tomorrow with a lot less wind but by Thursday things should have calmed down again.

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

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

Food on Wheels; Thong Sala pier, Koh Phangan

Food on Wheels; Thong Sala pier, Koh Phangan

Here we are back with some great samples of Food on Wheels in Thailand. The location this time is the Thong Sala pier on Koh Phangan, the main pier on the island where two big ferry companies, the Seatran and the Lomprayah each drop off and pick up people at least twice a day.

Many times when I was travelling between Samui and Koh Tao, this was a great place to quickly hop off the ferry and grab some food. The cart above is a perfect sample and it offers a lot of snacks, both Western and Thai style.

This lady has a a much toned down option and she sells sandwiches only but transports them and her self around a bike!

The Thai junk food option can't be left out, nice and greasy, right there for your convenience!

Hope you enjoy these pictures and maybe they make you more aware of the street vendors in Thailand and what they have to offer and how creative they sometimes are in announcing their presence or their product.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 17th September, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Phangan is waking up to a cloudy sky but it looks like the sun will come out soon and the settle today's score in it's advantage. Current temp at 7am is 26.6C

Sunset at Baan Thai beach, Koh Phangan

Yesterday saw a very nice, sunny and hot day in both Samui and Phangan. Max temp reached 34.7C

The IDC on Koh Phangan is finished and tomorrow I will travel back to Samui!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 16th September, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Phangan has woken up under a fairly sunny sky although this sky is laced with clouds. Current temp at 7am is 27C

Yesterday started out nicely bu until noon there were dark skies that took over however, we didn't have any rain. After noon the sun broke through though and it was a nice and sunny afternoon just like Samui. Max temp reached 32.8C

During the evenings I feel that it's cooler than a month ago!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 15th September, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Phangan is waking up under a weak sunshine. It looks it may get hot today! Current temp at 7am is 25.1C

Yesterday saw a merely cloudy day with occasionally some sunshine on Phangan. During the night there was some rain.

Samui saw some more rain, also during the daytime. Max temp reached 31.2C

Yesterday I had for the first time a night dive at Sail Rock and it was great! Today the current IDC will be completed and soon I will be back on Samui again!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 14th September, 2010

Today's weather;

Koh Phangan is waking up to a cloudy sky and no sunshine in sight. Current temp at 7am is 26.3C

Yesterday saw a nice day with the sun breaking through plenty of times but in the early evening around 7pm there was a serious rain shower. Max temp reached 30.5C

Camille