Bliss on the Beach...

Back again...

2010-07-16T17:49:00.020+07:00

Without excuses or my usual self-flaggelation for neglecting this blog, let's get back into it: nothing too radical has changed at Baan Bophut since I last posted fortunately, but I'll attempt a catch-up.

Bad news first. Receptionist and Baan Bophut stalwart Mia, finally lost her husband Pee Lek to cancer after his protracted illness. Lucy and the staff that could be spared attended the funeral rights at a temple in Suratthani. We shared Mia and her young daughter's grief. Here's a snap taken when I last saw her at Christmas.

Big Joe, (AKA John Bell) larger than life Samui character and purveyor of the finest homemade pies, sausages and much else was killed in a road accident on the mainland when he ran off the road, returning home from Pattaya, after overnighting in Hua Hin. Joe is very sadly missed, as both a generous and open-hearted friend and supplier of the tastiest breakfast sausages on the island.

We have also lost the pups, only introduced in the last post. Foxy's nocturnal raids on a neighbour's chickens meant they couldn't stay at the hotel if they were to remain safe and unpunished. After the aggrieved villager turned up with a machete, threatening to do the dogs in, unable to keep them at home and in the absence of any offers from friends to take them as a pair, a heartbroken Lucy donated the innocent and dopy Bonzo with wily culprit Foxy, to a local temple. They should by now have completed their metamorphosis from being wholly secular beach dogs, and hopefully, developed some respect for other peoples' chickens. Immersed in the monastic life, they might even have become vegetarian.

Do you want to guess which one is which?

Christmas and New Year were both enjoyable, but unremarkable. We cooked our traditional Christmas lunch for (I think) 25 guests and friends including the pictured, Sara and two companions from Tenby on a 'round the world holiday of a lifetime. We were pleased to get the stress of the catering out of the way to enjoy ourselves.

Lucy took herself off to Australia for a friend's wedding in March and although the hotel didn't fall apart while she was away, her absence was noted. "The hotel dropped the ball..." one TripAdvisor reviewer was correct to note.

Like many of the other businesses in Bophut we closed for most of May, traditionally a hot and steamy month on Samui with, not surprisingly, even less visitors about than usual and took the opportunity of redoing the decking, servicing ACs and conducted some maintenance in the rooms.

Thailand's political ambivalence still polarises the nation and the protests have a direct bearing on the hotel's occupancy, but hey! What's new? The Asian tsunami of late 2004; the ongoing separatist insurrection along the southern border, the asian originated SARS, H5N1 (bird flu), H1N1 (pig flu) viruses and Icelandic ash, each have had a similarly adverse affect on Thailand's visitor numbers over the years and the hotel trade as a consequence.

Although there's not been a hint of civil unrest in Koh Samui throughout the most recent months of protests in Bangkok and elswhere in the north, the island has not been spared and our own August bookings look pretty gloomy. I suspect some of this though, can be attributed to the financial situation, the affects of which will linger for quite some time. But it's good to see the £ strengthening, which might entice more Brits to venture our way.

I've not been completely idle these past months, having been engaged in writing over thirty pages of new website blurb that includes a Samui and regional guide to the beaches and resorts; the neighbouring islands, transport, and introductions to Thailand's food and exotic fruits. I'm hoping we can go-live with the website before too long, but we still have some work to do with the photo/layout and Dom's not totally happy with the Wordpress theme we originally chose.

I'm motivated mainly out of boredom to restart this blog after such a shameful period of neglect, but also in no small part by a desire to discuss the latest TripAdvisor review we've received. We never respond to reviews on the TA website, either good or bad, and are frequently amused by the 'Management Response' our neighbours' use to excuse criticism while simultaneously questioning the integrity of any negative reviewer.

Thankfully, we've not had too many bad comments, and we try to rectify any points subject to genuine criticism. In the latest review, however, while still giving Baan Bophut a 'Very Good' rating of 4/5, the reviewer describes the hotel in their heading as "...a teeny bit soul-less" and continues "it was a tiny bit 'international' for us - we might have wanted a bit less sleek modernity and a bit more of a Thai feel".

Thai feel? I thought at first reading that they might have the wrong hotel. Upon considerable reflection, I felt I could forgive their apparent blindness to genuine Thai architecture and the various stone panels depicting temple dancers and mythological Thai deities that adorn the hotel's facade and restaurant (itself a traditional style 'sala'), and fail to notice the presence of thirteen Thai staff and a comprehensive, mainly Thai menu. But I am curious to learn that if Baan Bophut exhibits "sleek modernity", what kind of dives had they stayed at before?

Most wounding (to my soul) was the accusation that our little hotel was "soul-less", even a "teeny bit". I would much rather have been criticised for concealing elephant turds in their mini-bar or allowing the ritual drowning of protected wildlife in our pool. At least we could do something about that.

The monsoon finally arrives in Bophut...

2009-11-06T20:00:00.011+07:00

At least the strong winds and high tides bits have, according to Lucy. It rained hard last week overnight, and it's raining now, but the monsoon un-typically let up on the rain for three days, delivering only strong onshore winds and bright sunshine. The rough seas and high tides have dumped a load of beach sand onto the lawn area, which Jonny has been manfully trying to remove before the salt kills the grass - a strong possibility unless we get plenty of rain to dilute its affects.

We have only one guest and no bookings for a couple of weeks, so Lucy has sent most of the staff home while we paint the other guest rooms and conduct other bits of internal maintenance.

I know all this because as Lucy and I talked on Skype this morning, she simply walked around the lawn and beach with her MacBook showing me the damage through the lens of its built-in camera. At the same time she could see my reaction in Dubai recorded by my iMac's camera. Magic - and free!

The rough seas have also been responsible for breaking up Bophut's pier just down the street. The end third now separated from the shorter, strongest third, nearest the shore.

08/11/09: She's since sent me photos of the devastation. The pier is worse than I thought and it looks as if the village is taking a heck of a pounding. We are so lucky that Baan Bophut has a beach for the waves to crash against.

____________________________

The monsoon isn't the only thing to newly arrive at Baan Bophut. Despite promises to herself (& mum, Olwen) not to take-in another stray dog, after Blackhead disappeared, she's adopted two! Here they're pictured at 8 weeks old. They're now 10 weeks, all jabbed-up and seen to by the vet, and considerably bigger. Lucy tells me they're both gentle with an even temperament and not 'yappers'.

Bonzo and Foxy, different sizes, but both from the same litter, were too much to resist when Lucy learned that without a home, they would be going to Samui Dog Rescue to be put down.

Personally I'm delighted the hotel now has its own dog(s) again, instead of sharing (& feeding) the neighbours' - what's a beach hotel without a dog?

HM the King and royal household celebrate Loi Kratong...

2009-11-06T19:45:00.004+07:00

Quoting the Nation newspaper:

"Their Majesties the King and Queen last night floated their krathong in the river near Siriraj Hospital. Many royal members joined Their Majesties in celebrating the Loy Krathong festival.

After Their Majesties floated their krathongs, HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and his son, HRH Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, HRH Princess Chulabhorn Valayalaksana and HRH Princess Srirasmi, the Royal Consort of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, followed suit.

This was a rare event.

Hundreds of loyal subjects lined Siriraj Hospital's walkways to greet the Royal Family.

Since being admitted to hospital on September 19, His Majesty has appeared in public only twice, the first time on October 23.

Although His Majesty remained in a wheelchair last night, he smiled and waved to his people. After floating his krathong, he viewed a floating procession of decoratively lit boats along the Chao Phya River.

His Majesty also held a camera.

The Royal Household Bureau said His Majesty's health has been improving. More than 20 million people have signed get-well messages for him during his hospitalisation."

This has to be Suratthani's top destination...after Samui

2009-10-24T01:43:00.009+07:00

While I knew of Khao Sok National Park in mainland Suratthani I didn't know anything about the park until I started to search for a website that I could link for Suratthani attractions in the previous post.

I didn't know it has an area of 740 km.sq, nor did I imagine it to be the oldest virgin rainforest on the planet, older and more diverse even than the Amazon rainforest.

The richness of the tropical forest flora, the abundance of fresh water and the shelter of the mountains combine to provide an excellent habitat for many species of wildlife. Mammals that call the place home include, the Malayan Tapir, Asian Elephant, Tiger, Sambar and Barking Deer, Sun Bear, Guar, Banteng, Serow, Wild Boar, Pig Tailed Macaque, Langur, Sumatra Rhino, White Handed Gibbon, Squirrel, Munjak and Mouse Deer.

The forest is dense and dominated by tall emergent trees; the middle layer is a tangle of figs and woody climbers, whilst the understorey contains evergreens such as bamboo, rattan, ferns and palms, all fighting for light. It is also home to many varieties of orchid and for flora-spotting botonistas, the park is one of only a handful of locations in Thailand and Malaysia where grows the world's largest flower, the parasitic and stinky Rafflesia kerrii, with it's rotten-meat stench (to attract pollinating flies) and giant 50-90cm diameter red flowers.

Twitchers are well served with over 180 species of birds. Khao Sok is just about the only place in Thailand to see both Lesser and Grey-headed Fish Eagle. The Banded Pitta is a fabulously beautiful species which appears far more common in the park than anywhere else. Hornbills can be found with Great, Helmeted and White-crowned the most frequently seen.

Divers (tech), kayakers/canoeists, fishermen, climbers and cavers all seem to be well catered for.

It appears that Khao Sok National Park is one of the easiest national parks to get to in Thailand. It's frequently visited by tourists from the southern beach resorts and many places from Khao Lak, Krabi and Phuket run minibuses to the accommodation just outside the park. Samui based trippers must first take the ferry and bus to mainland Surattani. If you choose to drive, simply follow highway route number 401, which is also known as the Suratthani-Takuapa road. Turn right at the 109 kilometer stone and drive for another 2 km. or until you see the park’s headquarters.

From Suratthani take a minibus to Khao Sok or any bus to Takua Pa can also be taken; the buses will stop at Km 109 where people from various bungalow resorts at Khao Sok wait to collect visitors. From the main road to the accommodation is a few kilometres so it is best to take a ride with one of the bungalow operators. A visit here, from where I copied some photos, looks to be a worthy choice.

Nok Air cuts the costs of travel to mainland Suratthani...

2009-10-24T00:49:00.007+07:00

Photo source: Nok Air

Nok, no surprise given their livery, means 'bird' in Thai

From Sunday, Oct. 25, low-cost airline Nok air will start flying between Bangkok and Suratthani, Samui's mainland province . A promotional fare of Bt555 (US 16 GBP 10) one-way or Bt1,000 return, will operate for the first three months, after which it will double, but is still expected to be around $10-$12 cheaper each way than Air Asia, that also operate the route.

Sihaphan Choomsai Na Ayutthaya, the airline’s senior vice-president for public relations, said the new air route, aimed at increasing (cash strapped) tourist traffic to Samui and Koh Phangan, will have two roundtrip flights daily. The flight from Bangkok will depart from Nok Air's hub at Don Muang airport.

The route will be serviced by a Boeing 737-400 aircraft which can seat 168 passengers.

Suratthani Gov. Pracha Taerat said the new air route would provide tourists bound for Samui or Koh Phangan a chance to make a side trip to some of the province’s many other attractions.

Monthly roundup...

2009-10-23T23:30:00.007+07:00

Less than two weeks after Gary's 40th birthday bash that featured Dirty Vegas as previously posted, sadly his Bophut Hills Gecko venue burned to the ground. Gary was briefly hospitalised with smoke inhalation, but thankfully there were no other injuries. Gecko can and will be rebuilt. The overwhelming tragedy is the loss of Gary's tapes and digitised music representing twenty years of a life recording and DJ'ing. The fire is attributed to an electrical fault in an AC.

__________________________

I forgot to follow-up on my pledge to name & shame or acclaim the contractor we used to finally sort-ot the hotel's WiFi package. I'm delighted to recommend the services of Matthew at Bluechip Wireless who have provided broadband WiFi throughout the hotel and beach. Bluechip also upgraded our reception computer and agreed to become our on-call IT department. Good job Matthew - thanks.

__________________________

And on the family front...

It's number one daughter Lucy's birthday today. When I called her this morning she was into a sausage roll and cup of tea at Big Joe's and later planned lunch at Ocean's 11 in Bangrak with Jonny. I hope she had a great day.

Self-snap: Lucy and Jonny today

It gives me huge pleasure to let those that don't yet know - number one son Dominic finally asked his Fiona to be our future number one daughter-in-law last weekend. We could not be more delighted with his choice.

HM the King makes his first public appearance today...

2009-10-23T22:03:00.007+07:00

HM the King has made his first public appearance since being admitted to Siriraj Hospital over a month ago, appearing in a wheelchair in the hospital's ground floor to pay homage to his late mother and King Rama V on the occassion of the Piya Maharaja Day, a public holiday.

Using their day-off to show their loyalty, many more well-wishers than usual visited the hospital, some wept with joy as His Majesty made his appearance to place garlands at the portraits of his late mother and King Rama V.

Photo source: The Nation

The monarch looked alert but frail as he was wheeled out to greet well-wishers in the public areas of the hospital. The appearance followed a tough week for the Thai people as rumours about his health caused panic selling and more than a little market manipulation at work in the stock market. The SET Index fell 7% over two days last week amid rumours originating from Hong Kong and Singapore which are now being investigated.

"His physical strength has increased. His sleep and food intake is normal," the Royal Household Bureau announced yesterday. It added that doctors would continue to give antibiotics and food supplements to His Majesty until the prescription schedule was completed.

The King showing early signs of recovery...

2009-10-02T13:21:00.008+07:00

(AP photo)

Thailand's 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej spent his 14th day in a Bangkok hospital today with what the palace obliquely called a second bout of low fever and inflammation in his lungs, that finally appears to be responding to treatment.

King Bhumibol, the world's longest-serving monarch, was admitted to Bangkok's Siriraj hospital on 19th Sept. for fever, fatigue and lack of appetite three days after a routine check-up. It is his longest hospital stay since October 2007. Since his admission, the palace has released almost daily updates on his condition without saying what is causing the symptoms.

After being hospitalised for four days, the king's temperature returned to normal, but the fever returned several days later, according to the palace. "His overall condition has improved and his medication can be reduced" the Royal Household Bureau said in its latest statement. The brief statement said that a medical team would continue to give the king a reduced number of antibiotics and nutrients intravenously as it has since his arrival, and continue with physical therapy.

Elephants and well-wishers take part in a Buddhist prayer for the health of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej outside Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok yesterday (Reuters photo)

The king is regarded by his people as a semi-divine source of unity and stability in a country beset by four years of political turmoil that has been marked by several changes in government and frequent mass street protests. Bhumibol is a constitutional king with no formal political role, but he has repeatedly brought calm in times of turbulence and is considered the country's moral authority and a unifying figure.

A mahout astride his elephant participates in prayers for the King outside the hospital (Reuters photo)

Thousands of well-wishers have crowded outside Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital and events have been organized around the country in honor of the king. The king's health is an extremely sensitive topic in Thailand because of concerns that the succession may not go smoothly. The heir apparent, his son, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, does not yet have the stature or moral authority of his father. He has reigned through a score of governments, democratic and dictatorial. In his six decades on the throne, he has taken an especially active role in rural development and is respected for his dedication to helping the country's poor.

Young well-wishers pray for the King's return to good health outside the hospital (Reuters photo)

Bhumibol is revered by most Thais, but in recent years the palace has come in for unprecedented, though usually discreet, criticism because of allegations that the king's advisers interfered in politics, including playing a part in inspiring a 2006 military coup that ousted a democratically elected government. Open discussion of the matter is barred by strict lese majeste laws that make criticism of the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

We join our staff and all loyal Thais in praying for the speedy recovery of the King

Six Chefs Six courses Charity Dinner

2009-10-01T02:05:00.005+07:00

I've just noticed this event posted on the radio station site. While not a new concept it's another innovation for Samui; a chance to dress-up and for a very worthy cause...

Six Chefs, Six Courses Charity Dinner

A musical mystery tour...

2009-09-30T21:38:00.007+07:00

Making it back home with the sun already warming her back this morning, Lucy has since been raving about Gary Gecko's fantastic 40th birthday party bash at his new venue in the Bophut Hills last night. And in absolute raptures over featured artists - Dirty Vegas, who also opted to spend their two nights on the island at Baan Bophut. By one of those weirdly, ever contracting degrees of separation their next gig is here in Dubai tomorrow night, in support of former Stone Roses frontman - Ian Brown - followed by Manchester, our family's birth city, on 3rd Oct.

Predictably, Lucy has been Facebooking her enthusiasm, urging friends in both cities to go hear the Grammy Award winning UK based band that exploded onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 2002 landing at number 7 on the billboard 200, and selling close to a million records worldwide. Kudos to Gary for snagging Dirty Vegas for his birthday party.

Twenty years a DJ with the last ten on Koh Samui, Gary is responsible, almost single-handedly, for pioneering the now thriving international dance scene bringing scores of the biggest names in the dance world to his famous Gecko beach venue. Recently squeezed off the beach by newly arrived big name hotel neighbours, Gary relocated his operation to the hills above Bophut where, it seems, the Gecko continues to party on. In between running the NEW Gecko Samui and touring the globe DJ’ing at the coolest venues from Ibiza to Japan, you’ll find Gary in the studio doing what he loves best.. making music!

And he now has another outlet for his creativity with the recent arrival of Radio One Samui where Gary has a regular spot on Tuesday evenings.

We had two fantastic weeks in August...

2009-09-04T19:18:00.017+07:00

After our Dubai friends Sam and Chucky put the date of their wedding at Baan Bophut back by a week, we were free to surprise the family by pitching up at my great niece Giada's combined christening and 1st birthday bash in Italy, which had clashed with the original date.

A rather more different call to prayer than we're used to

The celebration with Dom and Fi, my siblings and most of their partners and offspring by Lake Garda, extended to four days of outstanding food, wine and general merriment, amid great company and lovely weather, after the suffocating heat of Dubai. It was also the chance to load up with some fantastic local cheeses and salami for onward transport to Dubai and Koh Samui. We had just 26 hours at home in Dubai before taking-off again for BKK, and once again I was fortunate to be upgraded to Business class (both ways, it turned out).

The wedding at the hotel was our biggest yet, with 48 guests that had arrived from as far away as the UK, the US (actor/rapper Mos Def's dad no less) and New Zealand, together with a large Dubai contingent. The weather was relatively kind in that it didn't rain or, unusual for Samui weddings, have anyone worrying that it would. An onshore breeze picked-up in the afternoon to alleviate some of the affects of the heat and humidity on an otherwise clear, almost cloudless day.

This was the first time that I'd been at Baan Bophut to witness the preparations that go into the making of such a special occasion. There are a lot of moving parts to one of these event and I must say that I was so proud of Lucy and all our staff at the way they pitched-in and got things organized. The flowers were beautiful and the crisp linen on the chairs, each with a little posy of orchids on the back looked splendid.

After the ceremony, while guests headed for the bar (itself beautifully decorated), our staff wheeled-in the eight, large circular tables which they unobtrusively set for dinner, on this occasion a combined buffet and barbecue. The bride's choice, a combo of Thai, western and vegetarian options seemed to go down well and I was pleased to receive several compliments for my fabled, twice-cooked, oven baked ribs. Unused to praising food he hasn't cooked himself, Tik said they needed more pepper.

We met some wonderful people that we hope to stay in touch with, as well as many old friends and Sam's brothers and sisters that we've known and caught up with, on and off, for many years.

Unable to focus, I put the camera away before the fireworks, fire balloons and many guests sought a form of recovery in the pool. For interested family and guests an album of my photos of the day can be found here.

__________________________________

What else happened during my nine day stay...? Oh yeah, the reception computer crashed and it's having a new motherboard fitted, along with 10 times more memory than it originally started life with. And while we were at it, arranged to upgrade our Internet connection and WiFi coverage to all rooms from an additional all-weather router on the beach bar roof. Hopefully it should all be up and running early next week. Watch this space for either praise or scorn heaped on the contractor, to follow.

__________________________________

Finally, I watched some of our staff enjoy their twice monthly English lesson, on this occasion with a trainee from Island TEFL, here engaged in an observed teaching practice. Island TEFL is one of two such schools that use Baan Bophut as part of their TEFL teacher development. It's a win-win arrangement judging by the enthusiasm of both the student teacher and our staff who, Lucy tells me, really look forward to these lessons.

New crackdown on Samui drug users...

2009-08-13T21:06:00.007+07:00

As part of a new and welcome initiative to stamp-out drug use on the island, Koh Samui District Chief Sakchai Jorphalit has urged hotels and resorts to play their part by making sure their guests understand that drug using tourists are not welcome on the island, and has suggested that notices are posted in hotels' public areas.

Creating awareness of the crack-down comes as a small part of a much wider campaign to eliminate drug distribution and use on the island. Recently Mr. Sakchai launched the Post Box 188 project, an address that encourages anyone to anonymously grass (sorry) with any information that could be useful to the campaign and is a component of the newly launched 'Operation Center to Fight against Drug', which Sakchai manages. The center will initiate other projects and activities to encourage island residents and tourists to help root out the drug problem.

“Our Operation Center to Fight against Drug has just established the Post Box 188 so that residents and tourists on Koh Samui can send us letters, news, reports, suggestions, proposals related to drug usage on Koh Samui. It is another channel for us to receive information directly from people about sources of narcotic drugs,” Sakchai said. He went on to say "People can give information about drug users, drug dealers, drug makers and areas where drug trading takes place or where people use drugs, without revealing their identities".

He cited a police report claiming that as high as 80 per cent of drug users on the island are foreign tourists. This explains, he said, why the drug business on Samui remains lucrative.

In an unrelated report by the Samui Express newspaper, a couple were arrested recently at a vehicle checkpoint for transporting illegal drugs. Somkiat Noentaisong, 32, of Chumphon, threw a white box out the window of the van he was driving as he approached the police checkpoint near the Bangkok-Samui Hospital. The police, who became suspicious, stopped the van and retrieved the white box, which yielded 370 tablets of amphetamine (Yaba) and an undetermined amount of marijuana.

The police's suspicions may have been alerted by the fact that Somkiat’s van had flashing lights and a siren on the roof and was sporting a police logo. Police took Somkiat and his wife, 22-year-old Rattanakorn Kaewinthi into custody.

At the police station the pair confessed they had been hired to take the illegal drugs from Bangkok to Samui.

Police said that for making their van look like a police vehicle, the couple face five months in jail and/or a fine of Bt10,000, but it was not reported if they faced a penalty for ferrying the drugs.

Pilot killed as flight crashes on landing at Samui airport...

2009-08-04T17:59:00.013+07:00

BBC News website user, Japhy G, took this photo from the north end of the runway at Koh Samui airport

The pilot of a Bangkok Airways flight has been killed and seven passengers injured as it skidded off the runway while landing at Koh Samui.

The Bangkok Airways flight, carrying 72 people, hit an old and unmanned control tower amid reports of heavy rain.

The President of Bangkok Airways, held a press conference at 17h00 today concerning the accident of the airline’s flight PG 266 from Krabi which skidding off the runway and collided with an out of service, unmanned control tower during the flight’s attempted landing at Samui Airport.

The aircraft, an ATR-72 500 series, with 70 seats, carried 68 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants. Officials said the injured included the co-pilot, two Britons, an Italian and a Swiss national. The four tourists all suffered broken legs, while the co-pilot also had leg injuries, said the managing director of Bangkok Airways, Puttipong Prasartthong-Osoth. He said the other foreign passengers included nationals of Spain, France and Germany.

All passengers have been evacuated from the site with four seriously injured passengers sent to the Bangkok Samui Hospital, and two others with minor injuries delivered to the Thai Inter Hospital. The 62 other passengers have been transferred to hotels. Two flight attendants and a pilot were reportedly safe, while the other pilot died in the collision with the control tower.
An investigation team from the Department of Aviation has been despatched to the accident site at Samui Airport.

Several were treated for minor bruises or shock - including two other Britons - and were resting at local hotels before being transferred to Bangkok, officials said.

Samui Airport was temporarily shut down following the accident. The aircraft is to be removed on Wednesday morning, the runway inspected and cleared before the airport reopens to air traffic at 13hoo on Wednesday, 5th August.

We offer our condolences to the family of the dead pilot and our sympathy to the injured, also to the visitors whose holiday has been affected so traumatically.

Full Moon Party... Glastonbury meets Ibiza, every month...

2009-07-25T02:20:00.014+07:00

I've avoided all mention of Koh Pha Ngan's notorious FMP in the year since I've been writing this blog, simply because I've had no direct experience of it, nor a desire to acquire any. But I've seen my children, various younger relatives and innumerable hotel guests return from the event, wasted and daubed in florescent body paint, having lost their shoes or shirts or phone. I've heard their stories and seen their blurry photos to have a much better idea of what goes on than most of you reading this. I'm qualified.

What was popularized by backpacker visitors to the islands has since become a right of passage for many hedonist travelers to SE Asia and depending on the season, between 10,000 and 40,000 can attend the monthly FMP.

Koh Pha Ngan, the island silhouette visible across the bay from any of our rooms, has been hosting the FMP for over twenty years. In the late eighties it was a very different affair with small groups of dread-locked free spirits (that a decade earlier would have been called hippies), a guitar or two, cassette-player and a bonfire on Haad Rin beach. The ninety's saw the FMP grow and commercialize and in the past decade the introduction of professional, often international, DJs.

The event is a major, perhaps the principal source of income for Haad Rin's commercial community who, in recent years have attempted to exploit the concept with Black Moon and Half Moon parties for those sybarites that missed the boat (sorry).

The event kicks-off shortly after dusk, as the moon rises. Small tables are set out on the beach before the dance action starts and it gets too crowded for safety for a chance to watch the fire-twirlers and jugglers.

Drinks of choice are beer or buckets - vodka or Sangsom, a Thai rum, with Coke or Red Bull. After a couple of these, and in the swing of it, it's probably time for a bit of luminous body paint.

So adorned and sufficiently anesthetized, next, a wander up the beach to get one's brain fried by the wall of competing sound. Don't get me wrong. I like drinking, partying, beaches and being around young people. For me the awfulness of the FMP is the thought of the 15 or so competing sound stages belting out psy-trance, techno, hip-hop, drum/bass and house (whatever they all are) simultaneously. Each bar determined to be the loudest. Beaches in general offer very little in the way of acoustic properties, so the sound systems consist of large powerful walls of speakers which throw sound out towards the beach dancers, and fill me with horror as I imagine the cacophony.

The party ends, theoretically, with sunrise. But so many partygoers are still left on the beach awaiting a speedboat back to Samui the following morning, without a pair of sunglasses between them, a torpid, squinty-eyed version can still continue.

Party schedules for 2009 - 2010, tips, important do's and don'ts, ferry or speedboat details and much more information can be found here and here.

CNN poll rates Thailand best value for money, but is it safe?

2009-07-21T15:01:00.010+07:00

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) reports on CNN International's recently announced results of its Online Consumer Survey (OCS) on Travel and Tourism which reveals that Thailand was chosen as representing the best value for money for travellers in the Asia Pacific region. The survey conducted across CNN English websites had more than 5,000 respondents globally. Thailand came out as the best value in Asia-Pacific for respondents over China in second place and India in third.

The comprehensive survey also revealed that although times are tough, the recession hasn’t reduced people’s desire to travel. On the contrary, people are trading down, but not trading out, and not compromising their experience.

In 2008, Thailand welcomed a total of 14.5 million international visitors, of which 60 per cent were repeat visitors. According to the US Department of State, the crime threat in Bangkok remains lower than that in many American cities and violent crimes against foreigners are relatively rare, but when such crimes do happen they seem to generate an inordinate amount of negative press and we are frequently asked by friends, relatives and prospective hotel guests "Is Thailand safe?"

The overwhelming majority of these trips were safe and without any negative incident. However, foreign governments do urge their citizens to take responsibility for their own personal security while travelling overseas and use the same common sense and sound judgement when abroad as they would at home.

TATs recently published comprehensive - Personal Safety & Well-being FAQs is as complete a guide and source of safety, security and scam avoidance information for visitors as I've seen anywhere and hope that prospective vacationers to this beautiful country recognize its value and adopt TAT's suggestions.

Samui's infrastructure - finally some investment...

2009-07-07T22:02:00.006+07:00

Welcome news this week that Thailand’s Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of Bt 900 million (US$25.7 million) over three years to redevelop and upgrade Samui's infrastructure.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij and his deputy both visited Koh Samui recently to observe for themselves the perpetual round of repairs and reconstruction of the 70 kilometre ring road that circles the island. Most damage to Samui's roads is caused by the unimagined growth in vehicle traffic in recent years aggravated by frequent flooding and the accompanying soil run-off that fills the drains faster than they can be emptied.

photo credit

Deforestation associated with tourism related developments that themselves often obstruct or divert natural watercourses cause flooding after just a few hours of monsoonal downpour.

We've seen jet-skis used in waist deep water just up the road in Bangrak and many parts of the ring road can quickly become impassable by anything other than trucks. A day's heavy rain turns Chaweng into an open sewer.

Investment in Samui's infrastructure cannot arrive too soon.

Can't see the pics? Umm, me neither...

2009-06-16T21:38:00.004+07:00

I deleted an overcrowded Picasa album without realising that Picasa hosts the blog pics - doh! Working to restore from the top down. Bear with me...

A boost to Thai tourism? And an advert for Airbus...

2009-06-12T17:01:00.011+07:00

Along with many others dependent on the Thai tourism sector we have an expectation that tourist arrivals from the Middle East to Thailand will substantially increase following the launch of a daily A380 Emirates service from Dubai to Suvarnabhumi Airport on 1st June.

Emirates' A380 can carry 489 passengers and features luxurious facilities such as onboard shower spas, lounges, flat beds, massage-equipped private suites in first class and a new generation of intelligent seating and flat beds in business class. Other revolutionary features offered across all classes include mood-lighting to reduce jet lag and an award-winning, bespoke entertainment system featuring 1000-plus channels of on-demand entertainment.

The A380 is the world’s only twin-deck airliner that has 35 per cent more seats than its closest rival. It is the most environmentally-advanced commercial aircraft in the sky today, offering better fuel economy than most hybrid passenger cars. The A380 burns up to 20 per cent less fuel per seat than today's next largest aircraft, and is quieter, generating less than half the noise of other aircraft on takeoff.

Emirates currently operates 21 flights per week to Bangkok from Dubai, but such is the interest in experiencing a ride in the new A380, usually reserved for longhaul flights, from Dubai based expats and locals alike, there is genuine optimism that visitor numbers can increase in the coming months.

The giant aircraft were originally destined to serve the airline’s Dubai-New York route, but due to a huge fall in the number of passengers flying to and from US destinations, Emirates made the decision to redeploy the A380s to Bangkok and Toronto.

We need all the help we can get. Hotel occupancy rates on Koh Samui are expected to average 40-50% this year, a drop from 70-80% in previous years, mainly because of visitor concern about Thailand's political tensions and the world economic recession.

Seni Puwasetthawon, president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui, said visitors from the Middle East had great potential because of their high levels of spending, they travel in large groups, and they like Thailand's medical services.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects Middle East visitors to grow by 6.5 per cent to 500,000 this year from 470,000 in 2008. Mr Seni expected visitors from the Middle East to Koh Samui will double to 10,000 this year.

The association expects one million foreign visitors to Samui this year, down from 1.1 million in 2008, with revenue down by 30-40 per cent from 20 billion baht. Tell me about it.

Samui prepares for the pandemic - H1N1 detection at SIA

2009-06-12T15:16:00.016+07:00

Photo: Bangkok Post

Doing it's bit to thwart the spread of the H1N1 virus declared yesterday by WHO as a global pandemic, and as the foreign toll rises Samui International Airport has installed a thermal scanner to detect arriving passengers with a temperature of over 37 degrees Celsius.

Depending on other symptoms and their recent travel history, passengers will be sent to hospital for observation and treatment.

The scanner is identical to those installed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (pictured above) and will be a permanent feature of the facilities at Samui airport to make sure that, as far as practicable, all passengers coming in are free of infectious diseases that record elevated body temperature among their symptoms. It seems likely that visitors suffering with common colds or ordinary flu symptoms could get pulled-in and subjected to hospital confinement for a few days, but the inconvenience to the few is far outweighed by the benefit of reducing the potential for Swine Flu on the island.

Sirichai Charoenrat, senior director of Samui airport, has said, “We have no intention of causing panic among the passengers over the situation. We just want to make sure that this flu outbreak never spreads to Koh Samui.”

The Bangkok Post reports that the anti-viral medicine Oseltamivir, used to treat bird flu patients, was effective for people infected with the swine flu. The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation said it had a stockpile of 170,000 tablets of Oseltamivir which is enough to treat 17,000 patients.

In the case of an outbreak, the GPO could produce a million pills of Oseltamivir within four days.

Samui airport receives international direct flights from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. It's not known if similar precautions to limit the spread of H1N1 will be taken at the island's ferry ports.

I used to be a bit of a cheerleader for TripAdvisor...

2009-06-12T12:20:00.012+07:00

I still believe their repository of guest reviews the best thing that could have happened to independent travelers who can choose their accommodation and build an expectation based on the experience of previous guests. But I was disappointed when TripAdvisor localised Baan Bophut's ranking and irritated when they didn't answer my mails asking for an explanation. What possible benefit could an organization dedicated (I thought) to serving independent travelers gain from pushing us into a mashed-up backwater ranking? A little research revealed the answer to this artless fool.

TripAdvisor is now owned by and is little more than a marketing tool for the World's biggest online travel agency and our previous placing among the top end of Koh Samui's hotel ranking is now, with few exceptions, mainly populated by Expedia Inc's affiliate hotels.

TripAdvisor no longer make the claim to be independent - with good reason

It seems inevitable that our target guests, independent travelers that book their own flights and accommodation, will progressively surrender to the ease of simply clicking on TA's 'Check Rates!' button, rather than hunt-out a hotel's site and book for themselves.

Expedia Inc's stranglehold on user generated feedback increased last year with TA's acquisition of Virtual Tourist

So, what to do? Do we maintain our independence and accept that Baan Bophut's former prominence (and occupancy) will continue to diminish over time? Or do we join them; consent to pay Expedia's commission rate to restore our standing in their rankings and keep our little hotel in business?

Unlike TripAdvisor and many others in the travel industry, we're not ready to sacrifice our independence just yet.

A tardy announcement of sad news...

2009-06-03T22:29:00.015+07:00

Family and regular readers of this blog know how I loath to neglect its upkeep and they've become familiar with the way I look for vindication after a period of slackness, such as this, to sooth my remorse. No surprises then, when I tell you I've been busy. A couple of business trips (including my first to Moscow); overlapping visits from my brothers to our home in Dubai and a week later, from nephew Nick with a friend. All have robbed me of blog-posting time, and although they stand-up pretty well as legitimate excuses there's actually more to my negligence than simply failing to make the time to write.

It's over a month now since the hotel's much loved dog, Blackhead disappeared. After surviving a poisoning attempt in early March, Lucy's pretty certain the sicko succeeded this time. Blackhead wasn't really the hotel's dog; she adopted us. We were her hotel, and only one of several feeding stations she would visit throughout a typical day. Never the most active of animals, she would spend most of her days dozing on the decking or under a guest's sunlounger and at least some of her nights keeping Pee Mek, our watchman, company. Lucy had traveled to Chiang Mai on the day she disappeared and the staff, all of whom had been out searching for her, wouldn't tell Lucy until her return, rather than spoil her short break.

A favourite of family, staff and guests who appreciated her gentle ways, Blackhead is sorely missed. As Lucy has said - she was the only guest of the hotel that was guaranteed to greet her every morning when she arrived.

WARNING: A Bophut address is no guarantee of a Bophut Beach location...

2009-05-10T18:42:00.019+07:00

Baan Bophut (2nd Left) and the Fisherman's Village looking west

Tripadvisor's ranking based on guest reviews has just downgraded Baan Bophut's position from 10th of 271 hotels in Koh Samui to 3rd of 18 hotels in Bophut. We wouldn't have much cause for complaint if the other hotels listed were in Bophut Beach or the Fisherman's Village, but of the 18 listed, only four are, and one is 10km away.

Unfortunately, as well as being a lovely beach village devoid of girly bars, Bophut is a tambon, or postal district, and it covers much of the north and east of the island including Maenam, Bangrak, Big Buddah, a large slice of Chaweng and almost everything in between.

The endearing scruffiness of Bophut Beach road (Moo 1) belies its reputation for some of the finest eateries on the island

Tripadvisor's new listing policy has enabled some poorly reviewed hotels, that were previously buried way-down the former Koh Samui ranking, to morph overnight into Bophut locations with respectably low double-digit scores. Look closer and you'll note that ten of the eighteen listed have less than 20 reviews between them. Two are not even reviewed. Baan Bophut is not in good company here.

I don't know what's going on, and Tripadvisor has not replied to either of my e-mail attempts to find out. But prospective visitors should note that, not listed, are some great, mainly small, family-run hotels in Bophut Beach - the Fisherman's Village and their location can be verified by making sure they have a Moo 1 street address.

The extent of Bophut Beach - The Fisherman's Village from the pier, looking west

April family holiday update...

2009-05-02T13:06:00.023+07:00

The last to be seen of my Panama

We returned last week from a fantastic holiday in Koh Samui. The memsahib and me to our home in Dubai; son Dominic and his Fi to Edinburgh, via Dubai for a few days. My brother Nick was joined in Samui by his kids - Sam and Ruby, who now live in Australia. Nick arrives in Dubai shortly en route to his home (and partner) in France. Another nephew - (young) Nick, his girlfriend Helen and their friend Tweet, also contributed greatly to a wonderful family holiday.

Hotel Family Holt. L to R - Olwen, me (John), Fiona (Fi), Dom, Lucy & Jonny

Most memorable was the birthday cruise organized to celebrate the moveable feast that was my 60th birthday - two months after the event, which I had spent alone in Dubai. A boat trip around neighbouring Koh Pha Ngan had been arranged through Kenny at Sunseekers and we duly departed from Petcharat jetty in calm seas accompanied by fruit, beer and singer guitarist Mark James who, with Fi on violin, were to provide musical diversion.

First stop was the beautiful beach at Thong Nai Pan, where most had lunch. Approaching the bay at speed into a headwind caused the loss of my beloved Panama hat and the swim ashore for lunch and back, consumed all my diminishing stamina. It didn't help that, as I hadn't brought shorts, I undertook the swim fully clothed.

We stopped again at stunning and isolated Bottle Beach, before heading for a final stop on the southern side of the island, closer to Samui, to enjoy Mark And Fi's music while watching the sun go down. The weather, unfortunately, had it's own plans and we were hit by a squall that seemed to appear from nowhere, forcing the decision to head for home.

The strength of the gusting wind quickly intensified, before blowing over as swiftly as it had arrived

Finally back at Baan Bophut with glasses filled and the squall replaced by an orange sunset, we enjoyed a fantastic unplugged performance by our musicians. Olwen produced a surprise birthday treat, my Mum's recipe Christmas cake, unadorned, smuggled unbeknownst to me from Dubai.

Mark & Fi gave a fantastic, unamplified performance

Fireworks and fire-balloons from Tweet, and lots more beverages, completed an unforgettable belated birthday.

Dom & Fi toward the end of a beautiful day

Escape - Relax... and get out on the water

2009-05-02T12:10:00.029+07:00

Baan Bophut's abiding mantra encourages prospective guests to escape and relax. And while we continue to discourage those looking for action and adventure (including ping-pong and beach volleyball), I feel bound to inform you of the hotel's only surrender to the potential for physical activity and the opportunity to exercise.

Lucy snatches a paddle-break aboard one of Tik's 'Bismarcks'

Inspired by the popularity of Tik's kayak rental business and her own burgeoning enthusiasm for developing arm and upper-body strength, Lucy acquired a couple of solo kayaks to add to his fleet.

The same Thai kayak builder also makes, what they call Tri-Yaks, to accommodate three people and other larger kayaks designed for fishing. Both are future options for fleet enlargement if there is sufficient interest from guests.

Not yet available for rental are Lucy and Jonny's new 3.6m (11'6") Naish Stand-up Paddle Boards (SUP).

SUP is an increasingly popular surface watersport, with Hawaiian surfing origins, that benefits paddlers with a strong core workout. Importantly for almost waveless Samui, SUP is a form a surfing that allows one to go places without any need for waves to be present.

Jonny paddles back from breakfast in Big Buddah

Adopted by an increasing number of surfer dudes who appreciate the enhanced wave-spotting potential of being able to stand-up on a stationary board. SUPing offers surfers the ability to catch more waves, as well as providing a better view of incoming waves.

Lucy's 3.6m Naish SUP with Polynesian design and padded deck area

Chiang Mai Friends Part 1 - P Law

2009-04-07T08:39:00.018+07:00

In a quite corner of Chiang Mai, by the university, you can find Baan Phee Du, the home and workshop of artist Khun Lek, also known by his nickname – P Law.

P Law offers pottery lessons to the novice and the experienced alike, charging 300 THB (8.5 USD) an hour which includes clay and instruction (should you need it).

Spend a couple of hours there throwing shapes, then go back later in the week and work on your glaze. P Law will then fire it for you in one of his beautifully homemade kilns.

The house and garden (Baan Phee Du means 'Fierce Ghost House', much to his neighbours dismay) was also the home for a year to the girls from Sabai , Fiona & Miranda.

Baan Phee Du is an inspirational place, full of life and light. Vases, bowls and cups one could easily pay 100 dollars for in a gallery, lie about the place. Rejected by the master, flawed in unknown ways (they looked great to my untrained eye), beautiful and unique. Discarded but respected, each one a reminder to P Law of past experimentations.

Baan Phee Du is open daily from April to June, mornings only.
Check out P Law here. Tel: +66 (0) 53 401111 or +66 (0) 85 6143463

Put your money where your mouth is...Samui dentists

2009-03-24T23:21:00.015+07:00

Writing about the flossing monkeys of Lopburi and brief reference to my own dental hygiene, are a reminder that for me, my family and many of our hotel guests, a holiday in Koh Samui is not complete without a visit to the dentist.

Thai dentists are renowned as being some of the best in the World, with Bangkok increasingly celebrated as a full service destination for medical/dental tourism. I was astounded to learn that in 2006 1.32 million 'patient tourists' paid for an exotic Asian holiday with the saving on medical or dental treatments. In the same year, 1.2 million foreigners sought treatment in Thailand, with quality of care and cost cited as the principle reasons for their choice of destination.

Back to Samui and dentists: so uniformly good are the dentists and reasonable their prices that we've actually had our own medical tourists stay at Baan Bophut. Two guests, over the past two years, have vacationed in Samui just to receive extensive dental treatment locally at a fraction of the European cost. We may well have had more, but the two mentioned made no secret of why they chose Samui.

Samui's four major international hospitals each have dental departments, but there are numerous other excellent dental clinics to choose from, usually at lower cost. All conduct restorative or general dentistry from a basic inspection, clean and polish, routine fillings, extractions and root canal work, but several specialise in much more complex oral issues, including a broad spectrum of cosmetic treatments for the vain. I note that laser whitening is on offer at several dentists locally for around Bt 8000 (US$ 220), but this may come down as the recession bites (sorry).

Lucy, the memsahib, me and other family members each have our favourite dentist. My own first choice, Dr Tee at Dental Design, just 5 minutes from the hotel, is a gentle and considerate practitioner that I've used for years. Olwen's favourite is a lady dentist who's clinic is even closer to the hotel. Lucy, I think, favours yet another.

Here's a list of the hospitals that have dental departments and this, an incomplete listing of independent clinics, just those that have advertised in the Koh Samui Directory - there are many more.

Visitors can make their own appointments and prospective hotel guests can ask Mia on reception to book for them. Mia will also arrange for Pee Moo, the hotel's maintenance man/taxi driver to take you and pick you up when the clinic calls to say you're done.

Sticking with monkeys...

2009-03-24T19:12:00.010+07:00

Without wishing to turn this into a monkey blog, but having a soft spot for primates, a transitory (twice a day) interest in dental hygiene and a passing curiosity in what was happening in the above video, my research revealed information of modest enough value to post here.

______________________

According to a research paper published earlier this month, Long Tailed Macaque monkeys have been observed by Japanese scientists from Kyoto University teaching their young to clean between their teeth, by flossing. The monkeys that inhabit a Buddhist shrine in Lopburi, 150 km north of Bangkok, are known to pluck hair from the heads of visitors to use as floss. Worshipers consider the monkeys to be divine servants, the researchers said, which helps explain why some people tolerate the Macaques tugging out their hair.

I've never been a big flosser myself and while I've sometimes felt the inclination, the requisite material has never been conveniently to hand. It's never occurred to me until now that (unlike the monks that also inhabit the shrine) I've had a whole head-full of floss available to me all along and have usually made do with an improvised toothpick.

The research team from Kyoto University headed by primatologist Nobuo Masataka, distributed a wig-load of 20 cm long hairs throughout the shrine habitat and videotaped the primates engaged in using them as tools to clean between their teeth. Around 50 of the monkeys were observed pulling strands of hair back and forth between their teeth.

The Kyoto team focused their research on seven female adult Macaques, each with a one-year-old infant. When the mothers sat facing their young, each bout of flossing was noted to take around twice as long as usual, and the mothers paused and repeated the process about twice as often. Similarly exaggerated behaviour occurs when human mothers teach their children, noted Masataka, who went on to state: 'These findings suggest education is a very ancient trait in the primate lineage'. Without wishing to denigrate the good professor nor devalue his research, it rather sounds like a revalation of the unconcealed. How else do young animals learn stuff, except by watching someone else?

HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE (for pub quiz fans)

Dental floss is an ancient invention, researchers have found dental floss and toothpick grooves in the teeth of prehistoric humans. Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859), a New Orleans dentist is credited as being the inventor of modern dental floss (or maybe the term re-inventor would be more accurate). Parmly promoted teeth flossing with a piece of silk thread in 1815. In 1882, the Codman and Shurtleft Company of Randolph, Massachusetts started to mass-produce unwaxed silk floss for commercial home use. Johnson and Johnson Company of New Brunswick, New Jersey were the first to patent dental floss in 1898. Dr. Charles C. Bass developed nylon floss as a replacement for silk floss during WW II. Dr. Bass was responsible for making teeth flossing an important part of dental hygiene

Thanks www.funtrivia.com

Mistreated coconut money gaines revenge... kills owner

2009-03-17T22:12:00.011+07:00

A Samui born and trained coconut-harvesting monkey turned on its abusive master last week and killed him with a well directed coconut, kicked from the top of a 50m palm. It's reported that one of the nuts hit Luelit Janchoom who died from the resultant blow to the head, before reaching hospital.

Luelit is said to have beaten the monkey, named Brother Kwan, when he showed reluctance to climb a second high palm. Forced to climb by the thrashing and cleary bent-out-of-shape, Brother Kwan began forcefully kicking the ripe nuts from the crown of the tree instead of using the twisting motion that coconut monkeys are taught to detach the nuts from their tough stalks.

The incident took place in the mainland province of Nakhorn Si Thammarat where Luelit and Brother Kwan had been hired to harvest nuts by a coconut farmer. Each nut would earn the pair 2Bt and on average the monkey would harvest around 300 nut a day.

A monkey expert told the Samui Express, who reported the incident on 9th March, that a monkey is a special animal that respond well to kindness, but become furious if harsh treatment and words are used against them. I'm not sure that you have to be much of an expert to figure that out.

This coconut monkey makes ready to twist the stalks to remove the nuts. Angry and humiliated, Brother Kwan is reported to have kicked the nuts furiously sending them to the ground. It is tragic that Khun Luelit's head got in the way of one on its way down, but we have to hope that a lesson has been learned by others with abusive tendencies. We're optimistic that Brother Kwan is not punished for his action and goes on to work with a more humane handler.

National Thai Elephant Day... elephant and chips anyone?

2009-03-14T15:00:00.011+07:00

The event, held annually on the 13th March, would have escaped my awareness completely if I hadn't noticed a news report, announced today by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), that they intended to microchip some of the estimated 200 street elephants used to beg from sympathetic tourists.

I don't know why this text and that above is underlined, nor do I know how to get rid of it.

Hiding out with their mahouts during the day on rubbish-filled wasteland, illegal elephants are made to plod the still hot tarmac of the city's tourist districts from early evening, enduring the pollution and traffic of Bangkok's urban jungle until the early hours. Begging street elephants in Bangkok suffer a miserable and dangerous existence.

It has not always been so, elephants have been valued for their strength and intelligence for millennia. In recent decades their power has been replaced by machinery in construction and transportation, but it was Thailand's ban on logging in 1989 that simultaneously put thousands of elephants out of work.

From being a valuable, revenue earning asset for many rural families, the elephant became a financially exhausting burden. With no state support, begging on city streets was seen as the only option by many mahouts. The lucky few received a licence for their beasts to perform to tourists, but the majority of elephants in the city are unregistered and unregulated.

The problem has grown with the city's indifference and failure to penalise lawbreakers. The cost of the miniscule fines handed out to mahouts can be earned back within a few minutes begging, so the offending illegals are sneaked back into the city often only hours after they have been removed.

Todays BMA's announcement that illegal pachyderms will be surveyed, chipped and transgressors returned to rural areas - with the assistance of the army and the State Railway Authority - might reduce the problem, but urban elephants are big business. A source quoted by today's The Nation said elephants' owners earned a combined Bt10 million a year by having the beasts beg in the streets, while mahouts received hundreds of thousands of baht. The source believes both national and local politicians benefit from the elephant problem.

Here a smiley little Chiang Mai guy was too much to resist for Lucy and mum Olwen, who ignored our pleas not to encourage the begging trade. Disobedient women have done much to add to the growth of elephant begging.

A quick update... for family and friends of the hotel

2009-03-12T13:31:00.027+07:00

Lucy sent a couple of pics today of the new twin sun-loungers she's had made. Arranged with traditional Thai pyramid cushions and a small table in the middle, they'll do double duty as an agreeable spot to enjoy sundowners or a romantic supper on the beach. There's also evidence in the photos that Tik has got his kayak rental enterprise in operation.

In a January post I described how the beach had been dramatically altered by the tide, winds and raging torrent of the nearby monsoon-swollen stream. Contrast the views above, taken yesterday, of the beach fully restored by the action of the sea, with the one below from early January. "The sea may taketh, but thomtimes, the sea giveth back". Who said that? Doh! Me.

At about the same time in January, with the erection of a huge crane, I posted a warning that the site across the road was starting up again and with it, the potential for some unwelcome construction noise. No sooner had I formed the words than the site stopped and went back into hibernation. We have no authoritative information on when, or if, work will recommence.

For family and former guests, the news and some photo evidence that Blackhead has recovered from her near fatal poisoning. She was saved only by Lucy's quick response when the poor thing had dragged herself back to the hotel to die, in getting her to the vet pronto, Blackhead is seen here, playing like a pup with barman Tik, another faithful friend of the hotel.

I'm soooo looking forward to being in Samui for Songkran this time next month, especially as the occasion brings together the Hotel Family Holt and our partners for the first time in a couple of years. We've also got the bonus of my brother Nick; a good assortment of nephews and a niece, with their partners. Also a work friend and his wife from Dubai, all staying at the hotel at the same time. We'll have a blast and I can't wait to get on the end of Tik's attempts at a Siam Sunray while watching one of our spectacular sunsets.

photo credit: Chris Lyon - friend & multiple repeat guest

Thailand's sacred tattoos - sak yant - so much more than skin art...

2009-03-06T20:02:00.021+07:00

Do not confuse sak yant with the increasingly popular holiday compulsion among young people that, until quite recently, was the menacing fashion of heavy-metal rockers, bikers, criminals, love-lorn sailors, football hooligans and the social outcast. They share only skin and ink. Let's draw a line under it.

______________________________

I've written before about how animism or spirit worship predates the arrival of Buddhism and is interwoven into the cultural fabric of Thailand and its neighbours, Cambodia and Laos. In many respects, there is an even deeper belief in animism and its fundamental tenets: that there is no separation of the body from the soul; that all living things possess a soul and, (with the premise of reincarnation) each has an indestructible life force. So what has this to do with tats?

The belief system also maintains that material objects possess a soul and some have an influential engagement with one's own karma or fate. The best example of this in Western or Christian society would be the wearing of a lucky charm, a St Christopher or holy medal. In Thailand, amulets are worn as bracelets or on a chain about the neck to act as a talisman. Sacred tattoos, or sak yant, like amulets which have been blessed, are believed to carry powers of their own.

Photo: www.lightbox.ca

In Thai tradition, being tattooed by a monk is a deeply spiritual experience and was very common among men who believed that their tattoo would grant them strength and protection, not only from the spirit world, but from danger and in particular, harm from weapons. Sak Yant remains popular with soldiers, policemen and gangsters.

Only sacred monks can apply this work and today it is practiced in only a very few temples. The most famous remaining venue is Wat Bang Phra, 80km to the west of Bangkok. Sessions are held daily throughout the year, but the tattoo festival which starts today, is held every year in March and is special for adherents of the sak yant culture whose ultimate blessing is received in the form of a tattoo. Men who have received tattoos come to the festival each year to pay their respects to the monks and have their protection level topped-up. During the festival many devotees will enter a trance-like state, others appear to become possessed adopting the calls and characteristics of their animal tattoos, such as the monkey man, below.

Photo: Guardian

The monk tattooists pray over the image as they work, instilling the design with the tradition qualities associated with it. The tattoo of a tiger, for example, would be expected to protect the wearer from physical harm and lend the strength to defend those so adorned against evil. But the markings can include ancient symbols drawn from calligraphy and numerology and illustrations of animals and mythical characters are common. Notably, sak yant tattoos are religious, never decorative and the choice of design is often left to the monk practitioner.

Photo: www.lightbox.ca

Tattoos are still applied in the same way they have been for thousands of years. The monks create their images by hand using sharpened rods or bamboo to systematically puncture the skin thousands of times, depositing the ink below the skin's surface with each stroke.

With its acute pain, questionable hygiene practices and perhaps a weaker belief system among a younger generation, sak yant, after many centuries of tradition, is fast being replaced by needle-machines, sterile, high-tech studios and typical Western 'flash'.

It's ironic and a bit sad that as sak yat's popularity wains at home the style is in an upward trend in the US and Europe, with Angelina Jolie being, currently, its highest profile aficionado.

My 60th birthday today...

2009-02-28T18:07:00.014+07:00

I stopped counting birthdays a long time ago. At my age they're not something I'm particularly eager to commemorate. But with Olwen, me and the kids currently located on three separate continents, it's nice to be remembered by them, also to receive the very many greetings from friends, colleagues and assorted relations that have come my way via snailmail, phone, sms, e-mail and Facebook. Clearly, many people place much greater value on sixty years as a milestone than do I.

Brother Nick called me earlier to offer his and Frankie's greeting, with the admission that he never thought I'd make it to sixty. Forty years ago, if truth be known, neither did. Anyway, I did and if any of you read this - I thank you all for remembering that, which if left to me, I'd probably not bother to celebrate. X

I had a huge surprise from work where I was presented with a fantastic new camera lens and super-sized signed card by my boss and colleagues. With typical foresight, Olwen had hidden a present, a couple of Tommy Bahama shirts in a spare cupboard that she directed me to by phone this morning. They make me look svelte and dangerous (one of the buttons popping-off could take your eye out).

Lucy sent me her own dissonant video version of the traditional birthday song which made me laugh and want to hug her. And she had filmed Baan Bophut's rhythmically challenged kitchen and waiting staff performing the same piece accompanied by their own discordant clapping, which made me want to cry. How do they do that?

I've been invited out to dinner by a good friend tonight. She turned a deaf ear to my lame excuses, for which, more in the spirit of the day now, after writing this, I'm grateful and looking forward to. Nothing la-di-da, we've agreed to meet at the Boston Bar, one of the few places left in Dubai where I can still enjoy a cigar.

The Siam Sunray - Thai tourism's own economic rescue remedy...

2009-02-24T22:02:00.012+07:00

Turning to booze for inspiration, Thailand's tourism authority and its hotel association (THA) have launched a national cocktail to boost the country's visitor numbers, which have shown a steady decrease since the military coup of 2006. As one would expect, the closure and occupation of Bangkok's two airports that stranded 300,000 travelers for over a week late last year acted to hasten the decline.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) hopes to reverse the trend with its new national drink - the Siam Sunray - which it describe at its rollout last week as 'Thailand in a glass: the new punch in Thai tourism'. In its announcement launching the Siam Sunray TAT expressed the hope the new cocktail will help revitalise the allure of Thailand and become "a part of global cosmopolitan culture" - in the same way that, it claims, the Singapore Sling, Cuban Mojito, New York's Manhattan and, I may add, my own Doha leg-opener, have become.

"Successful signature drinks are one way to fast track holiday destinations on to the world tourism map, and can contribute some added identity to the local food and beverage scene in the hospitality and tourism industry," slurred the TAT spokesperson.

Although I like to imagine a special TAT committee stumbling serendipitously upon the cocktail concept and the Sunray recipe while drowning their misery at falling tourist numbers in a backstreet bar somewhere, the recipe was created by Surasakdi Pantaisong. He was the winner of the 2008 Bar Tender Championship hosted by the TAT and THA at Siam Paragon in September 2008.

If you want to try this at home rather than wait until you can try Tik's version, here's the official recipe.

Siam Sunray recipe
Ingredients:

	30-40 ml. of Smirnoff vodka
	30 ml. of coconut liqueur
	15 ml. of syrup
	¼ cm. of Thai chilli pepper
	3 slices of young ginger
	1 Kaffir lime leaf
	3 slivers of lemon grass
	3 drops of lime juice
	Soda water

Preparation:

	Crush the small Thai chilli pepper, young ginger, Kaffir lime leaf, and lemon grass together in a shaker to bring out the aroma and flavour of the Thai herbs.
	Add syrup, lime juice and Smirnoff and shake well.
	Strain into a glass with ice; top up with soda water; garnish with chilli, lemon grass and a slice of lime.

Kathoey - ladyboys: Thailand's third gender...

2009-02-05T00:41:00.021+07:00

Kathoey, a Thai word of Khmer origin, refers to a male to female transgender person or effeminate, cross-dressing gay. Nearly all katoeys dress as women and many that can afford it will undergo hormone treatment and surgical procedures such as genital reassignment, Adam’s apple reductions and breast implants to cultivate their feminine appearance. Kathoeys are (very) often indistinguishable from women and there are numerous tales of the unsuspecting westerner who hooks up with a kathoey in the mistaken belief that their glamorous companion is female.

Frequently attracted to the entertainment, restaurant, retail and fashion trades, popular work for kathoeys includes traditionally feminine occupations in cabarets and bar shows, hair & beauty salons, and fashion houses - or as prostitutes, although not all. An attractive, if occasionally stubbly, ladyboy works in the plumbing department of our local hardware store.

Kathoeys are usually extremely glamorous and wear stunning outfits. Many Thai singers, models and movie stars are kathoeys. There are several national beauty contests for kathoey, and the winners are often posted side-by-side with winners of female beauty pageants.

Tanyarat Jirapatpakorn was crowned Miss International Queen 2007 at the transsexual beauty pageant in Pattaya, here flanked by the runners up from Philippines (L) and Brazil (R)

Nong Toom is probably the best-known kathoey in Thailand. She is a former Muay Thai champion and has also worked as a model and actress. As a young boy, she was aware of her gender-identity and at the age of 16 was already dressing as a woman and taking hormones. After a short period as a Buddhist monk, she started to train as a boxer, and eventually joined a boxing camp in Chonburi. Her goal was to make enough money to support her poor parents and to pay for a sex-change operation. After retiring from the professional ring, Nong Toom underwent gender reassignment surgery and her life was portrayed in the 2003 film 'Beautiful Boxer'.

After a night out in Chaweng, with perhaps a visit to Christy's Cabaret , it might seem that Thailand has more than its fair share of ladyboys, but this is not the case. Thailand is the most open society in Asia, and with its ready acceptance of all ways of life, sexual lifestyles that may stray from the orthodox formula are not hidden from view as in most other countries. The elemental Buddhist principal, that of tolerance, also plays its part in the acceptance and visibility of kathoeys in Thai society. Many devotees believe that being born with such ambiguous sexuality is a result of bad karma and the outcome of wrongdoing in a former life for which they are now expiating their sins. It follows that kathoeys are due pity rather than censure; acceptance rather than dismissal from normal social intercourse.

Legal recognition of Kathoeys' status in society is not so charitable and they suffer considerable discrimination. Even after gender reassignment Kathoeys are not allowed to describe themselves as female and their passport, among other important documents, must show their birth gender. Should they fall foul of the law, kathoeys' lives become doubly difficult as they will be sent to an all male prison. Some families, too, appear to have an ambiguous attitude about having transgender offspring, often disowning them.

Official acceptance is glacially slow, but a government funded education authority has permitted a high school in rural north eastern Thailand to set the ball rolling by building a toilet for kathoeys. The Kampang School in Isarn recently conducted a survey among their students which revealed that nearly 260 students considered themselves kathoeys. Accordingly, the school decided to create a unisex toilet for their student-ladies of the third gender.

Songkran - What's that all about?

2009-01-24T14:21:00.018+07:00

My thoughts turn to our next visit to Baan Bophut which, this year as last, will coincide with Songkran, the buddhist Thai New Year and the most important festival in the Thai calendar. It's also the most fun.

Much of the religious significance has been lost, but the occasion is still used by Thais to pay respect to elders by washing away their sins with a small amount of scented water poured on to the hands and head and symbolises a start to the new year with a clean slate.

The word Songkran originates from the sanskrit, meaning to move or pass and marks the period when the sun is moving between the zodiacal signs: from Pisces - the twelfth sign, to Aries - the first. This usually occurs between 13th - 15th April in the western calendar.

Follow this link if you are interested in the origin and history of the festival, which is also celebrated in Laos, Burma, Cambodia.

The first day of Songkran is an important day to do good deeds. People visit the temples and give alms to the monks. On the second day of the festival Thai people carry sand to the temples to build a small pagoda as part of a merit making ritual. This is called Phra chedi sai and the small sand piles represent the return of the temple dust which worshipers take with them when they leave a temple. People also place flowers or flags on these sand pagodas to enhance their anticipated good luck in the coming year.

The temples themselves traditionally move their holiest of Buddha statues to an outside pavillion for the people to sprinkle water on to purify it. You’ll also see people driving through the streets with Buddha statues in pickup trucks so they can be purified by the people.

Other than these last remnants of tradition, the event has gone mainstream with people of all ages; locals and farangs, lining the streets, or aboard cruising pickups, armed with buckets, hoses and super-soaker squirt guns to dowse all passers by - with a special eye towards foreign tourists.

Double retribution for Mark

I don't know when rice flour and coloured powders became legitimate ammunition - perhaps during a water shortage, but these now are much in evidence, so in addition to becoming soaked, these days, you're also likely to be powdered.

A few things to remember: It's all in good fun; keep your phone, wallet, camera in a taped-up polythene bag, and keep your mouth closed - you don't know where the water has come from, but it's unlikely to have been bottled.

The '7 dangerous days' of the Songkran festival period is traditionally the week with the highest carnage on Thailand's roads. Last year almost 400 people perished in traffic accidents during the period, 85 per cent involved motorcycles.

You can't stay dry, but you can stay safe.

Not good news for the neighbourhood, but not as bad as it could be...

2009-01-23T13:53:00.006+07:00

As one development (and source of noise) completes next door, another starts across the road. I should say, re-starts, because the site has been idle since casting the foundations and basement car park concrete, for over a year. Whilst we're pleased that Spikey Pete and his partners have found the necessary finance to complete their resort development, I'm not happy about the potential for noise and disturbance the construction will bring.

The project, a mixed-use, low-rise development of serviced apartments, a hotel and retail units, is due for completion in October 2009. Working hours are said to be from 08h00 to 17h00 Monday to Saturday.

With the building site located across the road, the potential for disturbance to the hotel's usual somnolent atmosphere is much less than when the buildings either side were constructed and every hammer-blow would be funneled along all three guest room floors. Fortunately, the main access to the site is at the far end of the development on the main road to Bangrak/Big Buddha, limiting the traffic noise and dust reaching the hotel.

We no longer have any road facing rooms, having converted these in to store rooms, which is a blessing, so we're much better off than our friends at B 1 Villa, Carpe Diem and Cocooning, who are now in the thick of it.

In the longer term, the completed development will be good (I tell myself) for the small hotels, like ours, at the eastern end of the Fisherman's Village, that can offer choices of restaurants and bars to the increased number of visitors that may choose to stay down our end of an evening.

A belated and rambling New Year update...

2009-01-19T22:13:00.022+07:00

I've finally uploaded all the Christmas and New Year photos and have an hour to call my own, so a shortish, belated update on our recent visit.

Christmas Day and lunch was spent with Lucy and Jonny at their lovely house with guests Mark and Tan. Used to bigger facilities, cooking and keeping warm all the components of our traditional lunch in Lucy's galley style kitchen was much, much harder than cooking for the 25-30 guests and friends we've catered for at the hotel in past years. But well worth the effort and ... we all felt better after a lie down.

Lucy's goddaughter - Maisie - came over to open-up her presents, and morphed into a mischievous looking imp the instant she pulled on her new angel outfit.

______________________________________________________

As previously posted, the weather was atrocious for the rest of our stay and I really felt sorry for our guests, but Brits and Canadians are a hardy bunch and they would shuttle in and out of their rooms several times a day to catch whatever weak rays would appear, and in spite of the

chilly onshore wind. When it was too overcast or even during rain, two stalwarts - Brit Colin and Canadian Al would invariably join me on 'beach watch', the mesmerizing and wholly pointless occupation of observing and trying to second guess what the sea would next do to the beach.

______________________________________________________

Concerned at what the high winds might do to our coconut palms or, more properly, what our coconuts might do to our guests, we used a few hours break in the weather to have the nuts and over-abundant fronds cut back. We normally need this treatment three times a year to ensure the safety of unsuspecting visitors, and now seemed like an opportune time.

In a previous post, I described how trained monkeys are often used to twist-off ripe nuts at harvest time. One of our guests already in possession of this information and anxious to share his knowledge asked, as we watched the old boy that had just finished his romping free-climb to the crown of a 25m palm, start to hack away at the heaviest fronds, why a human was doing this work. I took some small satisfaction in reminding him of the first rule of coconut men everywhere - you don't give a machete to a monkey.

_______________________________________________________

New Year's was lovely. The wind dropped and the drizzle stopped long enough for our staff to enjoy their 'Secret Santa' gift giving to each other and a beer or two with the seldom indulged northern Thai delicacy of fried duck tongues (yummy!)

_____________________________________________________________

The evening stayed calm and balmy, and so did we. I'd made pea and ham soup - tongue shrivelingly salty, but it disappeared down the necks of many of the guests who decided our bar was as good a location as any to watch the village's firework displays. And so we remained for really, quite a special night with some wonderful guests.

Viv, Jonny, Olwen, Colin, Brit/Greek artist and Paxos shopkeeper Hartley, Tik, who finally left at 03h30 and Canadian Cathy, who's husband Al, was doubtless beach watching.

Lovely people Viv and Colin - absent, son Garrulous Greg

______________________________________________________________

And finally, to update recent posts...

The palm was rescued and, since this pic was taken, relocated to replace the old stump - foreground; camouflaged with plants.

The villa next door was finished, so no more noise... from that direction.

The beach is almost back to normal, the sun has come out and today, Baan Bophut has a full house.

Congratulations to Lucy on finally getting her Thai motorbike driving licence, after 5 years on the island.

Healing hands - Khun Sa-ard Sarayan...

2009-01-10T19:45:00.009+07:00

Leaving UK for Dubai the day after she had her wrist cast removed denied Olwen much needed physio for her wrist and, more important to her mobility, her right leg/ankle and fractured heal. Having recommended his medicinal massage service for guests over the years and seen the wonders he can work after a few treatments, we took her to visit Sa-ard at his modest treatment room in Bangrak.

After her initial treatment Sa-ard claimed he could have Olwen walking unaided within a week and although only for short distances and in some pain, she did.

His treatment to improve her ability to walk focused on 'stretching' through massage, her calf muscle and Achilles tendon which had atrophied through lack of use.

Jonny and guest Gemma, a chronic back pain sufferer, both took advantage of Sa-ard's visits to the hotel, to seek relief.

Previous beneficiaries of Sa-ard's treatment include a guest who, as a victim of a stroke 18 months earlier couldn't touch his forhead with his right hand. After five weeks of massage and exercise our guest regained almost full movement of his previously paralized right side.

Coastal geomorphology at work... hey dude where's my beach!

2009-01-06T12:06:00.015+07:00

From before Christmas until we left Samui on 2nd January the weather was not good. Uniformly grey, overcast skys allowed only infrequent periods of weak sunshine to filter through. We had a couple of nights of bucketing rain and several days of that fine, heavy drizzle that wets you through before you know it. To make matters much worse, the whole meteorological ensemble was accompanied, on most days, by strong onshore winds, choppy seas and high tides.

If we had intermittent rain at sea level it must have been chucking it down at the top of Samui's mountain on what remains of its rainforest. I know this not because of my passing familiarity with the water-cycle, but because the volume and velocity of water in the stream (klong) that appears during every monsoon and usually exits to the sea close to our near neighbours at The Waterfront, decided this year to straighten out and carve itself an new anus through our beach.

Planted when the hotel opened four years ago, this palm required Tik's intervention to survive. We have to hope the bar's decking doesn't need the same treatment in the coming days.

Tik directs kitchen staff and guests to lash our threatened baby palm to our biggest

Saved for now, but survival not assured

Assuming a mass of around 2000kg/cubic metre for our wet-packed, beach sand I reckon that we lost at least 500 ton to the combined effects of the weather and tides over a ten day period. Baan Bophut's beach will, of course, return to its normal, gentle slope to the sea once the klong's velocity and pressure gradient reduce. And that requires the period of clear, post monsoon weather that Samui is about to enter.

A quick update for family, friends and Christmas guests...

2008-12-08T18:12:00.005+07:00

Lucy finally escapes Dubai and returns to Samui (via Kuala Lumpur and Phuket) on 10th Dec. She'll be back in the hotel on 11th, hopefully.

Olwen returns to Dubai from UK on 10th accompanied by my baby sister - Martina - who will look after her while I'm at work, until we too head for Samui on 17th. Martina returns to Manchester later on the same day.

Olwen is still wheelchair bound by breaks to her right wrist and heel, and our chef - Yok - is still incapacitated with her own fractured hip. With regret, we advise that we will be unable to produce our traditional Baan Bophut Christmas Lunch for hotel guests and Samui friends.

Muay Thai: Thailand's national sport, and a good night out in Samui...

2008-11-29T03:58:00.022+07:00

The history of Muay Thai - literally Thai Boxing - was lost when the Burmese army sacked and razed Ayuddhaya to the ground in 1767. The little we do know about Muay Thai's origin comes from the writings of the Burmese, Cambodian, early European visitors and some of the chronicles of the Lanna Kingdom - Chiangmai. What all sources agree on is that Muay Thai probably had its origins in China and began as a close combat battlefield skill, more deadly than the weapons it replaced. What is known is that Muay Thai was an essential part of Thai culture right from its dawn. It remains the national sport of Thailand and traditionally, the sport of Thailand's kings who've had great influence on its popularity and development over the centuries, being instrumental in moving it from the battlefield to the stadium ring.

Regardless of social position, many Thai people have practiced Muay Thai throughout their lives, if not as a combative skill, as a means of keeping supple and fit. It was part of the school curriculum until the 1920s and only withdrawn because it was thought that the injury rate was too high. Thais and countless foreigners the world over continued to practice Muay Thai in gyms, clubs and more recently - camps.

Muay Thai is now accepted as an official sport in Asian Games competition and, because of its increasing global popularity, there is pressure to have it included as an official Olympic sport.

In recent years Muay Thai has become extremely popular among many westerners, both men and women. Countless schools have sprouted-up throughout Thailand to meet the demand for those that desire authentic instruction and experience. Koh Samui has several of these Muay Thai 'camps' which provide enthusiasts the opportunity to combine a beach holiday with having the living daylights kicked out of them by skinny, long-limbed Thai kids.

Although recognizable as a form of boxing to westerners; bouts are fought in a square ring, with the protagonists having long ago replaced horse hair or rope bindings for familiar leather boxing gloves, any similarity ends there, as feet, knees, hands, elbows, and shoulders are all legal weapons. In addition to the fighting, there are numerous cultural aspects to a Muay Thai bout, including ritualistic dancing, ornamental head and armbands. And music, played somewhat tunelessly throughout each bout on a Pi Chawa, a kind of bagpipe, without the bag.

In ancient times, Siamese people believed in the power of incantations and protective amulets, the common belief was that everything was ruled and inhabited by unseen spirits. And that places were either blessed or cursed. Because of these beliefs, it was necessary to perform special rites before a fighter entered the ring, asking the spirits' permission to do so.

Even today, before entering the ring many fighters perform rituals. It is very much a matter of individual preference these days, with no prescribed rules. Some may kneel before the ring, others might pray with their khru muay (lit. boxing teacher) or perform a series of repetitive movements, such as touching the ring ropes 3 times and avoiding the bottom stair before taking the first step up to the ring.

Fighters always leap over the ropes into the ring, because the head is considered to be more important than the feet and therefore it has to stay always above the feet while entering the ring. Contestants will then go to the center and pay respect (panom muae wai) in all four directions to the spectators.

Nothing is as exciting for an aficionado than the roar of the crowd and the traditional music, played when fighters perform their 'Wai Khru', a respectful homage dance to their teachers. Bouts are of 5, three minute rounds with a two minute break between each round. Winners are determined by either by a KO or by points if the fight lasts all 5 rounds. Points are given for knock downs, take downs, blows (knee blows to the kidneys during a clinch are highly rated) and the execution of kicks. Kicks are more valued than punches. Typically a fighter who kicks more than their opponent will pile up more points.

Muay Thai is big business for the island. Koh Samui's Chaweng Stadium is the biggest in Thailand dedicated to the sport and is a regular venue for fights by the sport's champions and biggest names, as well as local grown talent. Fight nights are normally held on Tuesday's and Friday's, with occasional specials at the weekend, from 21h00 until midnight and include ten bouts, starting with youngsters of 8 - 10 years old. The last fights being the most anticipated by the alway raucous crowd. Fight nights offer the spectacle, decent seating, cold beer and cost about 500 Baht. There are also fights at Lamai on Wednesday's and Saturday's.

Muay Thai isn't for everyone, but from the many Baan Bophut guests that have attended a Chaweng fight night, I've only had reports of what a great experience it was. And I don't think our guests are any more brutish than normal.

WTF is that stink?: Durian - smelliest fruit on the planet...

2008-11-28T19:50:00.019+07:00

Son, Dominic's description of his durian eating experience, as "Like eating custard in a sewer", lacked the allure necessary for me to want to sample it for myself at that time. But many Thais (and foreigners) describe it in reverential terms as the 'King of Fruits' and eating it, a beautiful, not-to-be-missed experience, although not one easily described for those that haven't tried it. The texture of the aril - the fleshy pulp encasing the (normally five) large seeds - is likened to a slightly fibrous custard. The taste is unique; unquestionably so, as no two descriptions are exactly the same. Custard, almonds with a hint of garlic. Or perhaps: banana, papaya, vanilla, and rotting onions.

At least as many others are repelled (like me) by its malodorous pungency and grateful that it's banned in every hotel that cares about its guests and from all public transport, including airlines.

Durian does stir up strong emotions. One either likes it or hates it and there seems to be little in between. I find this polarisation intriguing enough to summon me to the table, so to speak, and I pledge to sample durian for myself, nose pinched, when next I have the opportunity. So, in the absence of any personal experience, I share with you, my research:

Durian belongs to the Bombacaceae family and is native of south and east Asia being grown in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, southern Philippines and other Asian countries. The durian tree grows to a towering 50 meters high and bears fruits after 4 or 5 years. The tree can live for centuries if not damaged by lightning, disease, soil erosion or human intervention eg. being chopped down. The fruit grow from 20 to 40 centimeters (average size is comparable to a football) and weigh from 1 to 8 kilograms upon maturity, which takes about 3 months after pollination of the flowers. There are hundreds of known cultivars of the durian, but the Durio zibethinus is the specie most widely cultivated and sold commercially. The fruit bearing season of durian is from May to October.

A fallen, ripe durian announces its presence to the world by a pungent aroma that spreads for a considerable distance. As I noted previously, the smell is so repugnant to humans that there are signs up througout South-East Asia prohibiting people from taking the fruit into hotel rooms or onto public transport.

There are several distinct durian aromas. The fresh, young durian has one smell, a ripe durian that has just cracked opens smells rather differently, and after that the stench of decomposition starts to dominate the durian’s aroma. Durian pulp has its own smell - though this is perhaps not so penetrating and intense. Both are rather thick, foetid, penetrating smells - that hint of moisture, decomposition, and, I'm told - somehow - of sex.

I was interested to learn the impression of a 19th century naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, after he ate his first durian in Borneo:

"A rich, butter-like custard highly flavored with almonds, but intermingled with wafts of flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, brown sherry and other incongruities. The more you eat of it, the less you feel inclined to stop."

That last line perhaps holds the key. Too frequently a first encounter with durian is in the form of a tiny bite. This small taste only serves as an introduction to an exotic flavour unlike any other one has ever experienced. If we're bold enough to continue until we've eaten an entire piece of fruit, our opinion may change as we becomes more acquainted and learn to discern the depth of its flavour.

I can imagine that encountering a durian for the first time is not unlike encountering Munster, that most smelliest of smelly French cheese. Its vomit-inducing odour a pretense, a mask which acts to fool the senses before tasting what is a delicate and most delightful character. Put another, less laborious way - thank goodness it doesn't taste as bad as it smells.

Getting around: a few options...

2008-11-18T22:50:00.028+07:00

No tuk-tuks on Koh Samui

A strong taxi operators' cartel (some would say mafia) have, so far, managed to prevent the introduction of tuk-tuks to the island. Given the noise and pollution we have seen they can create in Bangkok, I don't know that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it has reduced the options for non-driving drinkers and has certainly strengthened the grip that taxi operators enjoy on point-to-point fares. Samui's taxis display the familiar taxi meter sign on their roof, but drivers refuse to use a meter and consequently are able to charge the highest fares in Thailand. It's important that you agree a price for your journey with the driver, before you go.

For the witless and desperate, motorcycle taxies are also available. The riders are distinguished by yellow coloured tabards. As with four-wheeled taxis, negotiate a price before setting off. Top tip? Don't! If you must - focus Zen like concentration on being as low a centre of gravity as possible. Don't hold the rider around the waist. With hands behind your back, grip onto the bar at the back of the seat or press your open palms down flat on your thighs. Don't try to sit upright when the bike is turning or racing around a bend; mimic every leaning movement of the bike and rider. Good luck!

Samui's taxis don't turn-on their meters, although this is, supposedly, changing

Songthaews are the closest thing there is to public transport, a kind of shared taxi that acts as the Samui bus service. Usually maroon in colour, songthaews are covered pickup trucks with two long bench seats (song - two : thaew - row) facing each other in the back. Operating from early morning, songtheaws follow set, circular routes to and from most resort towns around Samui, their destinations advertised in English. There are no official stops. To pick one up between destinations simply flag it down and tell the driver where you want to go. Drivers will try to squeeze in as many passengers as possible, leaving latecomers to hang onto the steps at the back.

Day time rates are vary between 30-50 baht per person depending on how far you are going. After 6pm the rate increases. Normally, after 9pm, songthaews morph into taxis and you will be expected to charter the whole vehicle. The price will depend on what deal you can strike with the driver, but will, anyway, be several hundred baht.

Songthaew: often the best option for group travel

Given the limited transport options it's not surprising that many visitors choose to rent a bike or car to get around. Unless you're an experienced biker the best option is to rent a car.

There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of small family-owned rental outfits on Samui, as well as most of the big name international car hire operators, such as Avis and Budget. Mobility in its most basic four-wheel and popular form, among visitors, is the Suzuki Jeep, costing from around Baht 700 (US$ 20)/day, depending on season. Bigger, safer, more comfortable options from Toyota and Honda are available at two or three times this price for those that don't mind spending more on their transport, than they do on their accommodation.

In theory, you should possess an international driving licence, but a lack of one has never denied me the dubious convenience of hiring one of these ubiquitous pieces of crap.

Bikes, typically 100 or 125cc Hondas or Suzuki are available everywhere for around Baht 125 - 175/day. Newer, fully automatic versions are offered for a bit more. But whatever the model, they share equally in lethality and the potential for self-harm by inexperienced riders.

Thailand has one of the World's worst road accident rates and Samui has the highest accident rate in Thailand. The island's poorly maintained, steep, sandy roads combine with a largely untrained biking population to result in most accidents being caused by motorcycles. And the majority of these involve foreign visitors.

Novice bikers seriously need to keep their wits about themselves to remain unscathed. The opportunities to sustain injuries on a motorcycle are not limited to traffic accidents. Most injuries are self-inflicted, with the notorious Samui Tattoo, a burn to the right calf from a hot exhaust pipe, caused as a result of de-mounting on the right side of the bike, the most common.

Unusually good advice from the Highway Department

If you still intend to take to the road, note that insurance doesn't exist for motorbikes on Samui and whomever was the cause of damage in an accident, it is always the foreigner who will pay. Similarly 'bargain' car hire deals are a risky proposition. Mainly it's the international rental operators that will include comprehensive coverage in their (more expensive) rates.

Remember to drive on the left, and bikers: you must wear a helmet or risk a fine of Baht 500.

Baan Bophut reception will show you what's on offer and try to get you the best deal, including collection and drop-off at the hotel.

Safe motoring

Traditional Massage - no happy endings with the real gig...

2008-11-11T15:35:00.011+07:00

I will never forget the face of a young guy, a guest at Baan Bophut, who earlier in the day had asked me sotto voce where he might find a good Thai massage close to the hotel. Later, he told me, sheepishly, the recognition that a Thai massage was something very different to the salacious event he had imagined, took fully two hours to register, so convinced was he that, at least, there would be 'a happy ending'.

Make no mistake. Traditional (or Ancient) Massage: nuat phaen boran, as the Thais know it, is a revered, integral part of local traditional medical techniques. It should not be otherwise confused.

Traditional Thai massage is based on Ayurveda and yoga, and it's believed came from India along with the expansion of Buddhism and Indian culture into Thailand some 2500 years ago. Some scholars speculate that through the trading relationships over a long period, the Chinese influences on Thai culture, also played a part in the development of Thai massage.

Traditional massage is still taught and practiced at many Buddhist temples and massage schools throughout the country, the most famous of all being the School of Medicinal Massage at Wat Pho in Bangkok.

Ancient tablets at Wat Pho depicting Sen and acupressure points

Thai massage is applied to a system somewhat analogous to Chinese medicine's energy meridians or 'sen'. One of the pillars of Traditional Chinese Medicine, meridians are invisible lines through the body that carry energy to every organ and system. Traditions teach that there are an infinite number of energetic connections throughout the body, arranged into lines of energetic influence. The Thais consider ten of these lines to be the largest channels from which all others branch, and it is these ten sen that are treated in Thai massage.

In a general treatment, all the sen are worked equally to cultivate and promote even energy flow. The more specific therapeutic use of the lines involves additional treatment on one or more sen. The nature of the illness or condition determines what sen are treated, as they are all associated with having specific effects on the physical, mental and emotional selves.

The massage recipient changes into loose, comfortable clothes and lies on a mat or firm mattress on the floor or raised platform on a Samui beach and is arranged into many yoga like positions during the course of the massage. In the northern style of Chiang Mai, there is a lot more muscle stretching movements, whereas the southern style includes more acupressure.

The massage practitioner, who may be male or female, leans on the recipient's body using hands and straight forearms locked at the elbow to apply firm rhythmic pressure. The massage generally follows the Sen lines on the body.

Not just the hands are used by the practitioner. Legs and feet can be used as a fulcrum or lever to hold or stretch the body or limbs of the recipient. In other styles, hands hold the body, while the feet do the massaging action to which there is a standard procedure and rhythm. A full massage session typically lasts two hours or more, and includes rhythmic pressing and stretching of the entire body; this may include pulling fingers, toes, ears, cracking the knuckles, walking on the recipient's back, and includes arching the recipient into the bhujangasana or cobra position. Oil is not used in traditional Thai Massage.

In Koh Samui a two hour massage might cost around baht 350 (US $10 currently) depending on location, or less for a quicker version (it could cost ten times more a posh spa or five star hotel).

Bargaining for that...uh bargain

2008-11-08T13:17:00.008+07:00

In the West, shops display the price alongside their goods and that's the price we must pay if we want the item. This Western retail model has been emulated by Thailand's department stores and shopping malls and many other established shops, such as pharmacies, convenience stores and supermarkets. On Thailand's streets and markets, however, it is a very different story.

No bargaining here

In Thai markets, you're often buying right from the owner of the goods or one of his immediate family; an entrepreneurial unit operating a rental stall. Bargaining is expected, and the merchant is eager to close a sale while still making money.

This bargaining process may intimidate first-time visitors, with perhaps, memories of haggling over prices with a used-car dealer and coming away feeling burned. Don't worry; it's very different in Thailand. Here's what to do.

First, decide if bargaining is appropriate here:

In an open-air market, with no prices posted, you bargain. In a department store with marked prices, you do not.

If you're dealing with the owner, it's appropriate to bargain. If you're dealing with a salaried sales assistant, it's probably not so appropriate to try and drive a hard bargain. He or she will have a permissible discount limit of 10 - 15 percent. But this may be enough to make the wares attractive enough that you want to buy, especially for low ticket items.

It should be worth everyone's while. Farangs (westerners) have been known to try to bargain over the price of a 10-baht (30-cent) bottle of water or 30-baht bowl of noodle soup. That’s bad form.

Once you've decided that you would like the item and determined that bargaining is expected, you need a sense of how much you can expect to drive down the price. You should also have an idea of how much you would be willing to pay. Make a counter-offer too low, and you look bad. Too high, and you'll pay more than you need to.

Typically, at an outdoor market you can expect to get the price down by 15-30 percent. However, if you’ve been pegged as a rich farang, a vendor might have raised the price by a factor of 2 or 3 times. Don’t buy the first thing you see. Look around. Get prices from a few merchants. You’ll soon get a sense of what’s reasonable. Only bargain for an item that you want. It's very bad form to wring major price concessions out of the vendor only to walk away.

Need sneakers? Go for it!

Some other tips:

You'll do better if you learn the Thai language for the numbers needed to name a price.

If you don't know Thai numbers, be alert to one potential confusion: The Thai-accented pronunciations of twenty and seventy — tsventy — are easily mistaken.

It's never appropriate to get overly emotional about bargaining, nor to insult the merchandise or seller. Smile, don't raise your voice. Be respectful.

Don’t let it become a point of pride to get the lowest possible price. This is business; perhaps it's a game to you; it's certainly not a war. Saving yourself a few bucks could make the difference as to whether the guy's family have just rice for supper, or something to go with it.

If you make an offer and the merchant accepts it, the unwritten rules require that you make the purchase at that price. Same as Ebay — but Thailand had the system first.

Don't bargain seriously if the final price is only of casual interest and you don't intend to buy the item.

Happy Shopping!

Thai language...basics

2008-11-08T01:44:00.015+07:00

You're unlikely to learn Thai before visiting Thailand, but a simple understanding of how the language works, and by learning a few easy phrases, will pay real dividends in enriching your travel experience.

When speaking in Thai, it's good practice to end your sentence with a word that (doesn’t translate easily or neatly) conveys politeness, much as 'sir' or 'ma’am' would in English. In Thailand, however, the word reflects the gender of the speaker rather than of the listener. Men end a sentence with khrap; women with kha. In the examples below, we’ve alternated between the two.

Ask someone in Thailand to help you with the correct pronunciation of the basic expressions below. You won't need to be perfect, however, as these phrases are so common and expected that you can mangle the pronunciation quite a bit and still be understood.

Sawadee khrap. Hello. Also good evening, goodbye, and even good-night

Kop Khun kha. Thank you

Mai Pen Rai khrap. It doesn't matter; It's OK, I'm cool about it, no problemo etc.

Mai auw kha. A polite refusal - I don't need/want

Arroy. Delicious!

Mai Phet khrap. Not spicy. But don't be in too much of a rush to make this request. Thai restaurants that cater to tourists tone down their dishes, anyway.

The Thai alphabet uses a script-like amalgamation of some 48 consonants and 32 vowels – more or less, depending on who’s counting. Different letters may be used to represent largely the same sounds. Worse, entirely too many Thai consonants look similar to readers of English.

There is no single, widely accepted formula for transliterating Thai into a Roman alphabet. Nor is one likely to appear soon.

Part of the problem is that English and Thai sounds aren’t really comparable. Take just one sound as an example: P. Hold a finger in front of your mouth and say 'Spain'. Now say 'pain'. You’ll probably notice more air coming out the second time. We use the same letter 'p' to represent both the more - and the less-aspirated sounds; the Thais distinguish between them. This is why the island in southern Thailand is variously spelled Phuket and Puket. The 'ph' (pronounced as an aspirated 'p', not as the 'f' sound of 'photograph') is sometimes used to represent this sound.

The unaspirated P, on the other hand, sounds almost like our letter B, and can be found transliterated as either B or P. Likewise, there’s a sound that can be represented by K or G; another that is between a T and D.

Consequently, items like street maps and road signs can be quite confusing for a Westerner visiting Thailand. If you’ve got two maps on which names have been transliterated into English, they may use different spellings. The same happens with proper names. The King's name is variously spelled Bhumibol and Phumiphon

Wait ... It gets worse. When you speak Thai, a single syllable can be spoken with any of five vocal pitches. Low, medium, high, rising, or falling pitches each have different meanings. The sentence mai mai mai mai, mai, often quoted in language books, means new wood doesn’t burn, does it? Each mai is spoken with a different intonation.

Since tone changes meaning, Thai speakers don’t raise their voice at the end of a question, as English speakers do. When necessary, a question word such as where, how much, or why, is inserted at the appropriate point in the sentence.

And one other thing: Thai offers ten ways to say 'you', depending on whether you’re speaking to a friend, a family member, someone higher or lower than you by age or standing on the social hierarchy, and so on.

So, is there any good news for someone wishing to learn Thai? Yes. The grammar is a lot simpler than for most European languages. Thai has none of that hard-to-remember masculine-feminine stuff for inanimate objects, no past or future tenses of verbs, not even plurals. The tonality is the trickiest part, and if you've got an aptitude for music, you'll have a better chance than most of mastering this language. Chok dee! Good luck!