Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Still Sunny on Koh Samui............

Tuesday was another sunny and beautiful day today on Chaweng beach!

The view from my lounger, all blue sky!


Here's our day:

Relaxed on our loungers, got just a little sunburn.
Read our books
When we got too hot we dipped in the ocean or the pool.
We snoozed a bit, too:



Repeat about 6 times, and there's our day!

For lunch today we just popped across the street and had a quick bite at a tiny hole in the wall place.

We started with a delicious squid salad, it was the best we've had, the squid was melt-in-your-mouth tender and fresh.  The dressing is a very light rice wine vinegar base; sweet,  tart and just a little spicy.  Notice the pretty tomato "rose":



David had a panang curry with chicken.  They put very thinly sliced lemon grass on the top, and when you chew it, it just zings in your mouth!  I'm going to remember that trick for home cooking!



I had a veggie and pork stir fry, the veggies were done just right, still crisp.



After our quick bite to eat, we went back to the pool and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
We took a walk on the beach, and I found some pretty shells.

About 5pm we decided we'd had enough sun for one day, so we quickly showered and changed.  We walked up the street, and we were happy to see that our neighborhood street market was going strong.
We sat down for a couple of cold drinks, the usual beer for David and a mojito for me.  Happy hour mojitos are 50 baht--or less than $2.00 each.  The mint makes them a very refreshing hot weather drink, and I always eat those yummy leaves--so I'm sure it counts as a serving of healthy greens! I can rationalize anything!

While we sere enjoying our cold drinks, a sweet lady selling baskets came along.  She was very thorough in showing us each one, so of course, we're bringing one home with us.  We are so easy!

We walked through the market, it seemed to be mostly clothing tonight, so not too interesting to us.  We had a couple of snacks, of course a couple of squid-on-a-sticks were in order, and we also had a nice fresh vegetable roll.  We like them so much better than the fried ones.  This one was very good, and came with a h-o-t sauce!

There was a vendor selling fresh fruit, including many that we didn't recognize.  We had a fun conversation with her, trying to learn a bit about them.  She kindly gave us samples, and everything we tried was delicious.  These bright red, fuzzy pods are rambutans:
 They have a tough fuzzy outer skin, inside each pod are two creamy ivory colored fruits, each with a pit.  They are sweet-tart, kind of crisp, and delicious!  (I don't know what's up with his sourpuss look, he really was enjoying himself!!)

We also tried longkong, which grows on a tree in a grape-like cluster, and each is the size of a huge grape.  The tough tan outer layer is peeled away, inside is a soft jelly like fruit that is very sweet.


We left the market, and slowly walked up the street, enjoying the scene and looking at menus along the way.  Before we knew it, we were in Central Chaweng, the next beach up!  We'd walked quite a distance, and our feet were tired, so we sat down at a little sidewalk bar and had a cold drink--this time just a diet coke.  We relaxed and "people watched" for quite a awhile, then decided we'd look for a place for a quick supper.

This stretch of the beach road is very touristy, and we passed up most of the restaurants serving ribs, hamburgers etc.  We wandered down a side alley, and found a tiny place with about 4 tables,  much more to our liking.  David ordered a Thai beef salad, which came with pork instead of beef!  I had a very good kale and pork stir fry with rice.  Add a bottle of water and diet coke, and we are out a big $7.00!

By now we were feeling pretty tired from our big day of sun and relaxation, so we hitched a ride in a songthaew back to our hotel.

We are really enjoying our time on Koh Samui, now that the weather has improved.  We have two more days to lay in the sun and work on our tans, then we're off to Bangkok for four days before we fly home.
It's been a wonderful trip!

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful blue sky above your sunbrella...I noticed the bicycle beside David's panang curry dish!
    Talked to Pat Grover last night- they are back home-Kelley and her spent a night with your parents-
    played cards and hiked again!

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  2. Di
    I have so much enjoyed reading your blog everyday. We fly to Thailand and Koh Samui on Feb 22. Hope you tell the sun to stay around for us as well. Did either of you get any tummy upsets from eating the food. Looks like you tried everything! Hope you have a few more great days in Thailand and a good trip home. Linda

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    Replies
    1. Hello Linda,
      Yes, we have tried many different street foods, and no tummy issues. We do choose carefully, focusing on vendors who have the meat on ice, and cooked right in front of us, for the most part. Even the satay, we choose vendors who are grilling it right in front of us, same for that yummy squid. If it looks like it's been sitting around, we pass it by! We are very adventurous eaters, but I still haven't been able to make myself eat the fried insects, even though we see them at every market! Maybe you will try them for me???

      I'll be sure to tell Mr. Sun to stick around for you--it's heavenly here on Koh Samui when the weather is nice!

      Thanks for your nice comments, and I hope your holiday is as perfect as ours has been!

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  3. Well I finally got caught up on your blogs-- we went up to Vanc on Thurs to help Brenda and Eduardo move and didnt get home until Mon late afternoon. Sop glad that you are finally getting sunshine so you can relax and work on your tropical tans. The pics from the beach look beautiful and the food sounds and looks wonderful.
    lol, Dan and I have had days when we are travelling and want something different than the local foods---hamburger and fries or pizza are our fall back foods as well.
    Those fresh fruits looked interesting and sounded really good.
    Hope the sun continues to shine on you.

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  4. Love the salads with the tomato rose. How beautiful; I think this would even temp me to try the squid. Every day I pull up your blog it shows up differently.... some days the comments show, some days they don't. Several days I couldn't pull it up at all..... oh well. I went to see the new Apple computers.... I'm in love! Computer... Florida trip .... computer.... Florida trip? It's a hard decision. Looking forward to your Bangkok posts. Your pictures have been awesome.

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  5. I am so glad that the sun was out in full force again! What a lovely day. It was definately my speed. Sun, reading, a dip in the water...lunch and back for more. The fruits were very interesting Di....I liked reading about them. You just caught David in a funny pose...I know he was having a good time...cameras catch us at odd times. I went out to dinner with the girls from work tonight. A drink and salad...it was good...southwestern taco, chicken salad in a shell. Long island iced tea to accompany the salad. It's snowing lightly tonight..trees are beautiful..its a slow, peaceful, calm snow and will be gone in a day or two! Keep on relaxing...

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