A Blog about the Daily Life on the Tropical Island of Koh Samui
 |
A few Words about Me
 My name is: Olle
I am living in: Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, Suratthani, Thailand
I am originally from: Stockholm, the capital of Sweden
I am doing for Kohsamui.org: Writing a blog about my life on a tropical island
How about my life here: Please read my blog below, my friends |
I am Sitting Comfortably
Text by Olle - Living on Lamai Beach - Friday, September 4, 2009
Today was a cloudy day, the long-awaited day with a somewhat cold weather and not so hot as usual. Sometimes it is nice to have a few such days. In the morning the rain hung in the air so Nui did not open the cafe. Instead we planned to go and look for a computer table in a couple of places after I had been to the gym. Today I took the bike, but when I saw that it was overcast I thought for a while whether I would dare jogging but I did not. Now the power begins to come back in the body, and I longing to feel on top again.
Before we took off looking for a table Nui's mom phoned, she did not have good news. One of Nui's childhood friends had, only a few days ago, been thoroughly beaten up. He works as a guard right next to where he is living and just next to the area there are many buildings in progress. Builders who come from Burma had been drinking and one of the guys would go somewhere wearing only some small underwear. Nui's friend told him to go and get dressed and also the police would not appreciate the outfit. The guy started to argue a bit and went back. A few minutes later a large number of workers storms into his house ripping away the communication radio and he is well-beaten. Some other people who live in the area come to rescue. The thing is that there are a total of five Thai guys against up to nearly ten times as many workers who also have knives, rakes and bats as weapons and handing out several stabs in the head and other body parts. One of Nui's best friends brother was one of those who came to the rescue and he had had time to get a large knife with him which he managed to stab and cut a number of workers so much that they eventually fled. Unfortunately, this old friend is so badly hurt that the he is now in hospital and cannot talk, the doctors do not know if he will be able to walk again. He has had bleedings in the head and the doctors made sure that the blood came out and eased the pressure. Many Thai believe the Burmese people in Thailand are evil criminals and I have many friends who accuse them directly when something has happened. However, one must retain their sense and realize that one cannot blame all to be bad apples.
After we talked a bit here at home we went looking for a desk and we found one that we liked a lot. We got it for a great price so I really wonder if the lady where thinking right because the price was lower than what she refused to accept when I proposed a deal. Recently the delivery came to the house and I am now sitting far more comfortable in the new office chair and a proper desk. It was good that Nui said that she thought we better fix a real workspace. In Thailand you can never get complete satisfied and the chair I now sit on are lowering down itself automatically after a few seconds. In other words, the air is leaking out that normally will keep the chair in the higher position. Must see if I can fix it myself. The poor guys who put it together fought for half an hour before it was completed. The range of furniture varies a bit in the stores, although most retailers have fairly similar models. The prices vary widely and at Winner, prices are almost the double for the exact same product that others also sell. It often pays off to look around. The thing is that once I start looking at furniture I am so keen to arrange a real home and I feel that I need to get things going so that we can make us that home that we want. On the way home from the furniture-searching, we passed a caravan of elephants who were also on the way home. One of my favorite animals with no doubt. It is truly nice that you can see such lovely animals on a daily basis.
Tomorrow it is Saturday and it is time to play tennis again. It will be a lot of fun and I yearn almost like a child the day before Christmas Eve. Just hope it does not rain so that we have to reschedule.
I Was Naive
Text by Olle - Living on Lamai Beach - Thursday, September 3, 2009
I managed to get out of the bed this morning even though my eyes were barely open. I ate my porridge and jogging off to the gym. It was a bit cloudy which was good. However, it was harder than I had guessed, even though it was only 1.5 kilometer. I did my session and it was very hot today even though the sun was not shining that much. The fans at the gym spun mostly for show, one might think, and I really missed not having an air condition to stand in front of to cool down.
When I finished the exercises, I was completely exhausted and soaked with sweat even though I only did two smaller muscles today. I slowly began to jog back home and even though I was hot and tired, it would be we able to make it. For every hundred meters, I felt how tired I actually was and it felt like I was boiling inside. Now the sun had come up and really did a good job making my jogging even more hard. I struggled on and ran slower and slower but I would bloody well make it. After about one kilometer, I felt that I was really about to collapse even with the low speed and in the end I had to give up. Giving up is one of the worst things I know, if I have decided something that is the way it is. I refused to stop so I continued walking and felt I was about to throw up and in that moment I wished that I was in Sweden during a chilly autumn. A cool breath would have been wonderful but now it was like breathe in a sauna. Almost embarrassing that I was so extremely exhausted. When I got home I lay flat on the porch, and although I was quite angry with myself somewhere inside of me I could not help but laugh about that I thought I was going to manage this. To jog to the gym is one thing but to jog home, after destroying the muscles in the gym for an hour, in the sunshine in extreme heat is another matter. I have to start working up some stamina before this will work so tomorrow I think I rather take the bike if I do not have the time to walk back home.
Today I went looking for a desk / computer table. My current computer table is a large TV box and my office chair is the bed. It would probably be more comfortable with a real desk even though I am not the complaining type so perhaps it might be good. Before I decide I want to check in one or two more stores but otherwise this store had a desk that both I and Nui liked. The biggest problem to work like this is when it comes to producing music. To have the equipment on the bed does not make it that smooth, so then I need to get things up on a table, and it look better as well. Now when I started thinking about it I feel even more that it would be quite so nice.
When we closed the cafe we went to buy food, I had eaten everything already. We went to Big C because the chicken seems to be more fresh there. Outside Bangkok Hospital along the ring road the work with the road was in full action. It is moving forward and it will be interesting to see if there is only the draining system they fix or if they even make the road wider. At the moment they placing big square blocks that are hollow, like a tunnel, underneath the edge of the road.
At Big C it was quiet as usual even though they played loud music from a stereo and I felt I would really like to have a large set of speakers again. I have not been able to crank the volume up so much I feel the base in my chest for too long and it would probably not be appreciated if I had a big system here at home so we simply have to purchase a piece of land and set up a house so I can play loud music.
Outside Big C in the parking lot it was a night market. Not so many people but a few, they were looking at all the things. I did not look so close but there were some clothes, jewelry and many other things too. It really is a big difference between Tesco and Big C, the atmosphere really not the same and I guess we will not go to Big C that often when the new Tesco open soon in Lamai.
Just Another Day
Text by Olle - Living on Lamai Beach - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
 
Today I did not go to the gym. I had already done the entire upper body in two days so I have to rest the muscles to get the best result. Tomorrow I will do session number three and then I have done the whole body, my first time in a long time. Later on I will break it down so that I can exercise about five days a week, but it is nice to go through the body rather fast the first times.
I slept like a little baby all night and today I have eaten about three times as much as before. Nui opened the cafe in the morning and I of coursed helped her. When everything was in place I went to buy coffee cups at Macro because they were almost finished. When I was at Macro, they sell a lot of big packs, I took the opportunity to see what they had on the tuna front. They had 4 packs and the price was only slightly lower than the price in the other stores. Then I saw that they had 1.8 kilos cans and I thought they might have a good price on those. However when I checked the price I realized that these big cans were more expensive per 100g to buy then the small ones which I think was a little funny. Even if I had a business where I used a lot of tuna I would stick to the small cans, it is not so hard to open a few cans and then always have access to a "fresh" product. Tuna gets brown very quickly. But such examples, there are plenty of even in Sweden if one only begins to look around.
Then I went home and the day was spent with a lot of time in front of your computer completing some tasks.
In late afternoon I went to Nui and sat down and got myself an iced coffee while I watched the traffic passing by. I have seen how people have been working with a shop diagonally across the street for some time and I have been a bit curious about what shop it will be and today I saw that there will be a gold shop. Gold shops is something that are seen everywhere. Thai gold is very clean more than 96% if I remember correctly and it gives a very yellow color, which I personally do not think is that beautiful. I guess I like to 18k better.
While I sat there and sipping my coffee, I saw a lady who parked across the road, I continued to look back and forward and saw a man driving his bike in high speed but I noticed that he was sitting in a strange position but I realized that for some reason, he braked hard, almost so that the rear wheel actually left the ground for a while and I saw the lady who parked a few seconds before was standing in the middle of the road picking up something she dropped, totally unconcerned that there actually was a busy road she was standing in. The man braked as hard as he could and when he was just inches from crashing in to the lady, she stood up and took a step aside and escapes by an inch without noticing anything at all. Another gentleman on the opposite side of the street from her, right next to me, saw everything too and he laughs and tells the lady what had just happened while I was rather a little chocked.
While sitting at the coffee I also saw a really nice scooter. A guy inside the internet shop had a really old Honda, which must have been around for quite some time. It seemed, despite the age, to be in better shape than many other bikes, so I guess they handled it with care and managed to keep it in a good condition.
Now, my stomach just started to talk again so it is time to go into the kitchen and prepare a portion of chicken and rice, then I think I will not get much more done today but as most other days watch some TV and possibly also eat some dragon fruit.
Car On Fire
Text by Olle - Living on Lamai Beach - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Today I woke up at 9, the alarm clock was beeping. That might not seem so early but our day and night rhythm has been a little bit different with kind of late nights. I had decided to go to the gym and when I make a decision I stick with it. I climbed out of the bed on sleepy legs and made me a bowl of porridge. Yesterday I was thinking about jogging to the gym but I did not know what time they opened and then the rain hung in the air so I took the bike. On top of that I had pretty decent headache.
I started directly with a triceps and chest workout, and as usual high tempo. Had already before I went home from the gym yesterday got aching muscles and today they were as usual even more sore.
It began to rain for short periods when I was in the gym and the wind made the air a bit more fresh when it passed through the open room and took some heat away.
 
Today I also got a call from the bank and they confirmed that they had done several mistakes and told me that they would now sort out the whole thing at their expense. A short time after that a postman was outside the house and told me I had a packet at the office that I could go pick up and I understood that it must be the music gear that arrived. It is quite heavy so there was no way they could deliver that with all the other mail he had at the bike. No need to wait, better go get it right away so we went off to pick it up. As we approach the main road, right behind the temple there was a lot of smoke and it smelled like someone was burning rubber and I said that there really are no limits what people threw on the fire here. I have already seen people burning tires so it would not be that strange, but when we got to the road and were waiting for a gap in the traffic, then a young monk, and another guy came running at full speed out on the road right in front of the cars and them ran into the Family Mart, I thought someone had done something bad and now were in trouble but seconds later they ran out again, each with a fire extinguisher and ran into the temple area. There stood a car on fire with lots of smoke all around and it looked as it came from the trunk and at times flames came from under the car, a bit worrying with the gasoline tank. After a few minutes three firefighters came on a normal scooter with the indicator lights blinking in blue and red, a funny sight. They had an additional fire extinguisher and gave the car another burst, minutes later came the real fire truck. What caused the fire I do not know but the poor fellow who owned the car was probably less happy. I thought of bringing the camera but I did not so took some pictures with my cell phone.
The afternoon has been spent on eating, my hunger becomes huge when I exercise and I will probably sleep well tonight. I also had time to put all the music equipment together and run a test to verify that everything worked as normal and it seemed work just fine, so maybe I will make some music in the near future as well.
The rest of this evening I will spend in front of the TV without working or doing anything else, it can wait until tomorrow.
A Great weekend.
Text by Olle - Living on Lamai Beach - Monday, August 31, 2009
 
The weekend was a great weekend.
Saturday started with a little work at home and at 16 I went playing tennis with Anders on the roof of the IT Complex here in Lamai. The day had been a bit hazy, but had a lot of sunshine and this afternoon the clouds had accumulated, which was perfect when running around on top of a roof. The view up there is nothing to complain about and you have the view over the Lamai beach and the rest of the area. We were a bit worried that it would rain, parts of the sky was quite black and came slowly toward us from the west just as we would start playing. It was maybe 5 to 10 drops that fell and that was it. The clouds flew by and the weather got clear above us and the sun began to shine again. So it was very hot but extremely fun to play. I have never played tennis on a real court, but only playing around with a tennis racquet occasionally as a child.
We played an hour and it will be fun to play again for sure.
Last Sunday I was invited by Yenit on some festivities down at Beach Republic a really sweet place. We were there already at 12 noon. We talked a lot and ate and drank for over 10 hours. Just perfect!
There is a nice lounge style feeling to everything and the whole place feel open. It absolutely swarmed with staff which did a good job of keeping the guests happy. Outside the room was nicely decorated pool area for the guests who wanted to go swimming or tanning in the sun. Although some people come just to eat or drink, as we did, they are also a hotel and I believe the facilities they offer are top class.
The food consisted of a buffet with a variety of dishes, everything from fresh vegetable dishes to meat and pasta. We went a numerous times to get food and there was no problem to be satisfied and full.
I would describe the style as really hip, even if the clientele was both young and old. A DJ played everything from chill-out music to more groovy house tunes at the perfect volume so that you could easily talk but still sit and listen to the music if you wanted. Sometimes they have event and takes in well known DJs and the place gets full. Both tourists and also a lot of domestic people mainly from the upper class gather to enjoy a nice evening. It was a very nice day and evening that did not end too late.
And today a new week begun. A bit cloudy day and we thought about go buying a new motorbike to get the plans with the sidecar going. I discovered that my Swedish bank made a big mistake when I last week made a telephone transfer to my Thai bank account. They had transferred the right amount, but took the sum in bath instead of the Swedish kronor, which is a big difference. When I phoned up and said what was wrong I also noticed that the exchange rate I have been promised was not what I got so two kind of big issues. This second issue was due to the reason that they instead of exchange the currencies in Sweden they had first transferred the money in Swedish kronor and exchanged everything in Thailand, which also meant that I got the rate which was 2 days after the transfer date, and that was much lower. I was of course quite angry and they said they would listen to the conversations we had last week because everything was recorded. Unfortunately they didn't get back to me as promised. However, I hope they call me tomorrow and that they will make everything corrects without me having to pay for their mistakes. Instead we had to change our plans for the day and we went shopping for grocery.
Now in the evening, I got tired that I have not gone to the gym in a long time so I went and bought me a membership to a gym close by and did my first workout. My power did not last that long but that is just the way it is when you get back the first times. It felt great.
Previous weeks: Week 36 | Week 35 | Week 34 | Week 33
More: 2010
|
|
|
Tip of the top » This blog about the daily life in Koh Samui is updated several times a week. Please come back regularly
KohSamui.org has been online since February 1999 and has had more than 5 million unique visitors.
