Beautiful Sunset

Another beautiful sunset, taken from our terrace!

Jolanda & Marcus arrived last night. They are staying for a few nights, on their way to Australia! We had a quiet night in, with dinner & drinks on Wendy & Roger's balcony... chatting till the wee hours.

Ian took Marcus to Lamai this morning, in search of 'wind' - for kite surfing. But the conditions weren't right - so they went to the Rum Distillery instead :-)

Jolanda & I are sitting on the balcony now.. playing on our PC's and chatting at the same time.

Ciao for now, Tammy :-)

Another weekend in Samui

Yesterday Ian & I went to a Building Trade Show. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I had fun walking around talking to people about house building stuff... for once I am the customer, so I took great joy in asking the sales people questions about their products .. eg. what's the benefit of an ozone generator over traditional chlorine system for the swimming pool? A little nerdy, but for once it wasn't me preparing the marketing spiel for a trade show! :-)

We came home with loads of brochures, and a few good ideas (albeit expensive ones). I found these great wooden shutter blinds (www.finewoodshutter.com/gallery.html), some groovy roof guttering (www.rainwater-solutions.com), and some sunproof/water-resistant outdoor fabrics (www.suniture.com)... just to name a few!

We're still waiting for our architect drawings. They are a few weeks late already... something to do with a PC crash in the architect's office... and they had to get new PC's or rebuild them or something along those lines(?)... anyway, we were hoping to get the drawings yesterday.. but we're still waiting. Hopefully we'll get them next week, and it won't affect our overall project schedule! :-)

It was Troy & Danielle's last day in Thailand, so we took them to the 'One Dollar Cafe' for lunch... an aptly named Thai cafe, where all the dishes are around 1 US dollar! Lunch for the 4 of us, incl drinks, cost less 8 USD. After a quick stop at the 'bug man' for Troy to try some deep fried grasshoppers, we dropped them at the airport (on their way back to Melbourne). Afterwards, we went out with Wendy & Roger. First for a quick bite at our fave Italian restaurant (Antica Locanda), and then to watch the rugby at 'The Office' - a bar in Bangrak.

Most of the people in the bar were there to watch the England vs. Sth Africa game which was shown on the big screen. However, I was shepherded off to a corner to watch the Australia vs. Scotland game on another TV... funnily enough, I was the only Australian in the bar, and I sat next to a Scottish guy called Robbie. He comes from the Shetland Islands, but had also lived in Yetholm, a small village about 6 miles from where my Dad was born. We had a good old chat... and he even taught me a few Gaelic expressions.

Just another weekend in Samui...

View over Chaweng bay

This is the view of Chaweng bay, looking down from 'Jungle Club'. We live in the northern part of the island (obscured by the paw paw tree in this picture).

Jungle Club

During the week we took Troy & Danielle up to the 'Jungle Club' for the day. It's a lovely resort on top of a hill (4WD compulsory), with great views over Chaweng bay and the north of the island.

We spent quite a few hours chilling by the pool, and indulging in fruity cocktails (not me, I was the designated driver!). It's so peaceful up here, and the bar staff are so friendly... I could easily spend a few days in their hammock!

www.jungle-club.th66.com

It's been a long time

I just realised it's been 2 weeks since we last wrote.. sorry about that! The weather's been great recently (good for swimming at the beach), and we've been out a bit with Troy & Danielle (see previous post - it was their wedding on 12th November).

Last Sunday we went to a party at one of the local bars (Club 44). It was their 2nd birthday party (the bar obviously, not the staff). We organised some flowers for them (a huge basket of lilies, roses, etc for less than 10 pounds)... it's something you do in Asia, when places are opening up or celebrating - you give flowers to restaurants & bars. They put on some really yummy food, of which Prem (Kik's daughter) did most of the cooking on the BBQ.

I've learnt another useful Thai phrase - "No Problem". I don't know how you spell it, but it sounds like "Mai Pe Lai".

Wedding practice

We got a surprise email from Tamara in London asking if we could help her brother get married!

Therefore at 7am in the morning we were down at the local temple watching them being blessed and joined together by a very sweet monk. Despite the language barrier the symbolism of most of the proceedings was pretty clear to everyone - it was very touching.

After a trip down to the beach for some wedding photos we returned to Troy and Danielle's resort for a champagne brunch and an afternoon/evening of wild celebration - pictures not included to protect the guilty!

Another Visitor

Yes this is a scorpion... yes it was in our bathroom...

However our cleaner, who found it, had no trouble capturing it on her brush and depositing it outside. While they do sting, these little scorpions (this one was only abut as long as my little finger) are not particularly dangerous.

Loy Kratong

It was the Festival of Loy Kratong at the weekend in Thailand. This involves the making (or buying for lazy farangs like ourselves) floating "Kratongs" of flowers, incense and candles and the launching them from an auspicious place (e.g "Big Buddha" temple). Apparantly the further they float away the longer a couple will be happy together - ours was still going when we left!

In addition to the floats, there was a real party atmosphere at the temple - Bingo, dart throwing games and even a "Miss Loy Kratong" Samui 2006 competition!

Of course no event in Thailand would be complete without the food stalls selling everything from noodles and fruit, to deep fried bugs - Yum!

Coconut tree doctors

The cocunut tree doctors came to the hill today. [We only have two trees on our plot, but others have lots]. These fearless individuals climb up the trees and cut away the dead leaves, and harvest the ripe coconuts -yum!).

They also "treat" the trees to protect them from the dreaded coconut weavil that is threatening to destroy the Islands famous foliage. [We've heard that they actually use DDT, and are not entirely sure this is a joke] .

Several trees in the surrounding area are just leafless trunks having been killed by this pest, which was accidentally imported into the island and has no indiginous predators. (Apparantly squirrels would do the job, but unfortunately these are considered a delicacy in Thailand - so would probably be eaten themselves by the locals before they had a chance to kil off the weavil!)

Godzilla or Godzukki

In addition to our visitors, we have a semi-permanent house guest, meet our Gekko.

We think he? usually lives in the roof but many evenings we have spotted him? running round the walls, hunting flies and smaller reptiles (known as chit-chats).

He? is pretty camera shy though and rarely poses for photos - this is the best we've managed so far.