Virt

Snake under our beach chair at Maenam in March.

A bit hard to see what kind of snake it is, but i was in a bit of a hurry taking the photo and didn't want to get to close to it, because i had no idea if it was harmless or not

If it was oil/tar it would still there until someone bagged it up and took it away.

False alarm maybe?

Wouldn't call it a false alarm since there was something at that time, but i'm glad to hear it's gone by now.

Wasn't that nice to get it on feets/sandals and later drag it up to the hotel, so the floortiles and stairs got covered in that black stuff.

We asked the Thai waitor at our usual hotel about it and he replied it was stuff dumped by boats/ships, so i assume it was something to do with diesel,oil,tar etc.

But it's nice to hear it's gone by now.

Hopefully it stays that way.

Jimmy, Ban Tai looks fantastic. I'm assuming it's near Bang Po but can't exactly figure it out.

Can you help out with directions or which resort is on it? I'll be in a car trying to find it.

Cheers,

Matt.

I could be mistaken but i think it looks like Mimosa resort and spa not so far from maenam beach.

I think we passed it at a beachwalk last month on our vacation.

Good thing that our next vacation is allready paid and booked.

2 ½ month to go.

Maenam and Lamai this time

Can't wait.

Having to return to the airport after taking off is never fun, because all sorts of thoughts starts to form in your mind, when you are up in the air.

Tried it once where the plane had problems with it's radars and the pilots had to circle around for several hours to spend fuel before the plane was light enough to land again and it's not to fun.

Good to hear that nothing happened with Thai plane and everyone returned safely to Bangkok.

Off course it's not a perfect for the passengers that has to take another plane to Samui and arrive later than planned, but i hoped everyone arrived well and is enjoying their vacation now.

Got my memorycards so here is a few.

This is what it looked like when i saw it in the early morning.

Those small patties looking like tar or something were soft and broke up easily on contact, so they got stuck to your feet,shoes etc.

Hopefully it's long gone by now.

But it was a nice sunrise that morning by the way

Didn't have a steady wifi while on vacation, so that's why i ask now after returning home from vacation on Samui.

Been there 5 times and never experienced the problem so bad before.

Walking down the beaches and ones feet was covered in what appeared to look like some kind of black oil/tar or something.

Experienced it on Chaweng and Lamai but not up at Maenam.

Chaweng had a lot more it that Lamai though.

Don't have my memorycards with pictures at me atm, but got some pictures of what it looked like, when going down to the beach in the morning looking at the sunrise.

Will post a few pictures when i get them later this weekend.

I noticed a lot of other tourist beeing covered in it aswell, and they didn't look very pleased about it.

Is it particular bad this year or are there just beeing dumped more into the sea from boats or something?

Also noticed the thaistaffs on the hotels scrabed it together in the morning, but instead of getting rid of it in bags etc, they just dug several 2 feet deep holes in the sand and dumped all of it in there and put sand on top of it again.

Rinse and repeat each morning.

Is that actually removing the problem or just hiding it?

It still says on the projectsite that a modern cinema is planned.

http://www.cpn.co.th/project_detail.aspx?menu=New_Project_Landing&id=10

And i must admit i find it hard to see how they will turn that ugly concrete hell into a "Shopping atmosphere in “Reminiscence of Southern Lifestyle” resort-style with 4 main decoration themes" as they write in the description.

But who knows,

Maybe they pull it off and it will actually become a popular shopping center.

Personally i have no interest as a tourist to visit a place like that to buy brand products.

I prefer to buy them where i live, so i'm just a little bit more sure it's an original thing i'm buying.

I hope for those that live on the island it becomes popular so it does not end up like that big ugly worn out white hotel on the hillside in north end of chaweng.

Here is a short description of a fraction of the places we visited during this vacation and could recommend.

Babus hot indian in Maenam

Found it with the directions from SamuiJimmy and it was nice and tasty food.

Next time we have to try some of their things which has more sauce/gravy in them, because what we ordered didn't came with any, but was still tasty.

Bikini bar BBQ in Lamai .

Best ribs i have had so far on the island during our 5 vacations.

Perfectly smoked and seasoned.

Yummy.

Duomo Chaweng.

Still makes a great pizza.

Gringos Chaweng.

Always goes there when we want some nice Fajitas and chicken nachos.

The japanese restaurant in tesco lotus chaweng.

Good japanese food and very authentic.

Especially enjoyed their tori karaage which is chicken marinated in Soy sauce, garlic,ginger and coated in potato starch and deep fried.

The thai restaurant to the left of pee soon opposite Samui natien resort Chaweng.

Sorry but can't recall it's name and don't have my memory cards with pictures at me atm.

Really nice, cheap and very tasty thaifood.

and now a totally crazy recommendation for some really junk food after a good nights drinking

The burger joint near Iyaya clock tower/ red drink bus in chaweng.

Nothing fancy and really can't call them burgers by standard, but they did the trick and actually were quite tasty, but it guess there will be some people disaggreeing with me on that one.

Overpriced though.

Also visited an indian restaurant in an small alley on chaweng main road which maded some really tasty lamb korma, but can't remember it's name.

Restaurant small and nothing fancy, food very good, but not thaifood cheap.

I remember it was on the left side when walking from north to south and it had a chalkboard out on the chaweng street where it said free wifi.

Next time i try to remember to take a shot of the restaurants and the food i eat so it's easier to locate again and to see what is served.

Now i just have to try and convince my girlfriend and see if we can afford to come back in July

Brought our own boxes of zinfandel redwine on this vacation but is about to run out, so this thread could be useful :-) do they have some redwines in box on the island that is similar to some ok valpollicellas? Taste wise im into some of the more rich flavoured wines. Think amarone, barolo, chateau neuf du pape but just trying to find something in a box that is not tasting like coloured water ;-)

Cannibal market in maenam thursday :-)

A few from maenam area yesterday. Had a 5 hour walk around the area and so far we like maenam area a lot.

I just spoke to the owner of the Shell Museum just outside Nathon and he says he has pufferfish.

They're just filled with air. He also warns that they must be kept in a dry and hot climate.

If it's kept in humid colder climate, it'll slowly desintegrate.

Thanks Mole.

Well i guess it's a bad idea to buy one if it just disintegrate in the climate i normally live in.

And now it's back to packing suitcase.

Plane takes off in 5 hours

This thread still hasen't given me a good answer what to do if beeing arrested.

In fact it just got me more confused to what is the most reasonable thing to do.

So hopefully i never get into a situation like this.

I used to dive and snorkel with a non prescription mask and found it an amazing change with the prescription lenses. My sight is similar to yours (-4.0 in one eye and -4.5 in the other) and I could see a lot of detail with the lenses that I had largely missed before.

Sounds like you should buy it there. Probably more variety available and as you say you will be able to use it other places anyway. When you buy the mask get them to give you the plain lenses they replace in case you want to sell it or give it to someone in the future who does not need the prescription lenses.

Bought a pair yesterday and also got the spare plain lenses with me, just for the same purpose you suggest.

So now maybe i can see what i'm videofilming under water instead of having to wait and see on the PC what i shot

Thanks.

Thought about buying a set on Samui, but as you says the choice of masks may be a bit limited.

Found a mask here that i really like, which is about the equivalent of 5,000 bath for mask and lenses fitted.

Maybe i should just go ahead and buy it here.

Can always use it on another vacation to Samui.

May i ask if you snorkled with a mask without prescription lens before and how much the experience was improved after trying it with prescription mask so you could see like normal under water.

Just a wild guess, but what about the shop that makes the big predator statues maded from scrap metal.

I assume they must be used to do a lot of welding and who knows.

Maybe they could and would do it?

Arrive on Monday and haven't been on Samui in March before, but when i look at the recent videos on youtube it looks like it's still a bit windy with quite some waves at Chaweng/Lamai.

I assume that's not so good for snorkling.

Reason why i ask is because i have a normal set i bought 2 seasons ago which functions ok, but i maybe

want to visit a diveshop in Copenhagen tomorrow and buy a mask with prescription glasses in it (or what is it called, Lenses in glass for shortsighted).

I'm about -4 on both eyes so i guess it would improve the experience when snorkling with a mask with lenses built into it.

But dont' want to spend a whole lot of money for it, if the conditions for snorkling is not so good in March.

Normally we just swim out and relax with some very casual snorkling near Chaweng/matlang,

but have also been to Koh Tao and Koh tan for snorkling and probably want to do that again this time.

Thanks.

And now i will enjoy another Irish Coffee here in the cold north.

Cheers.

Would be nice if there were someone in the middle who could bring both sides together.

One who was free of corruption and would do the best for all Thai citizens no matter where they came from or how rich or poor they were.

But i guess that is even a dream in most western countries if not all.

Ok that's it.

Just saw this on youtube today.

I'm not going to Lamai

Good work by the police.

I hope tthose two thieves reap what they sow.

Seems like those maps can't be used as a "safeguide" anymore after yesterdays blast outside Big C.

Danish tourist injured in yesterdays blast outside Big C.

He only suffered very minor injuries on the back of hís leg.

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/udland/2014-02-23-dansk-turist-i-bangkok-jeg-s%C3%A5-dr%C3%A6bt-dreng-lige-i-%C3%B8jnene

It's in Danish so try to describe the most important.

He left Big C and went outside to what he thought looked like a normal market place full of stalls and bought a pair of sunglasses.

Nothing around there reminded him of some sort of protest or rally site.

Looked just like another normal marketplace.

He was just one tourist amongst a lot of other tourists.

He was about 5 meters away from the blast.

At first he thought it was some sort of loud firecracker, but when turning around and he saw bodies on the ground and people started to panic and run, he did the same thing himself and ran.

He didn't noticed he was bleeding until a thai pointed at his leg.

Lucky for him it was just a very minor injury.

And as he says.

If it could happen there it could happen anywhere.

I'm not so sure anymore that i feel like ending my vacation with 4 days in Bangkok late March as planned.

I love Bangkok and would love to return, but right now i just don't know.

Thoughts go to the killed, their families and all the wounded people on both sides in this mess...

Ok i must say that was some pretty amazing control he had over that drone, especially flying in between the trees.

What else did i learn from that video.

I can see they did paint the basketball field and other stuff near the lake.

The festival center looks like it has trouble reaching it's original opening day march 1.

There was no walking street that day near monkey bay bar.

They torn down several buildings the last year in Chaweng.

They didn't get rid of those green ugly rubber thingies out in the water on Chaweng beach.

They got rid of the funny monkey statues near chaweng lake.

He got quite close to the powerlines/trees down near the Duke.

He spooked a couple of buffaloes.

Cool thanks.

Now just to find out if our tickets are cheap fare and restricted

Paid 19,000 bath from Bangkok/Samui and back again for 2 persons.

Says economy fare basis Y.

Trying to navigate through their website, but it's a bit confusing.

Hope it's ok to post a question in this thread instead of opening up another thread, and didn't think it would suit in the rant thread

What are peoples experience with rescheduling allready bought tickets?

I think the codes on our ticket is Y, but not sure what that means.

Are the planes normally full returning to Bangkok in mid march and is it possible to reschedule allready bought tickets with offcourse some sort of extra fee.

We're coming down to Samui from march 3-19 and then to Bangkok march 19-23.

But watching the daily and saddening newsbulletins from Bangkok makes us wonder if it's not better to just stay on Samui and fly straight home from Bangkok instead.

And now it's back to bed.

Both having the flu big time for 4 days, but atleast we got it now instead in a week

And looks like the weather report is nice.....