Trips to Samed Island

Recently I had a chance to travel to Samed Island Twice. The first time was during Christmas and the second time was during new year.

I have heard of Samed for long but never had chance to go there. It's not far from Pattaya, just about an hour away by car. It was my boyfriend's thought to go there. I looked online for the information on how to get there and where we could get a boat to the island.

There are many beaches on Samed but there is one that is close to the main pier and has many restaurants and even a few pubs on it. It's a big beach called Sai Kaew. My boyfriend called it White Sand beach.

We left Bangkok on Thursday and set the GPS to the pier I looked online. It took us about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the district where the piers to the island are. Once we turned to the road to the pier I was going to go to, there was a guy on a motorbike driving along my car and asked us if we wanted to go to Samed. He said he had a boat for us. We decided to drive after him to the pier.

We ended up at the pier of the municipality office. There was a car park with roof we could park while we were gone to the island. We paid about 80 baht per 3 nights (don't remember the exact rate). After that they took us to a table to arrange us a boat. The lady there asked us if we had a place to stay yet and we said no. She gave us a book with pictures of hotels on the island in it. We picked one for 2,000 baht. She said that price included breakfast but when we got there we found out that the breakfast was not included.

We got a boat for 3,000 baht for round trip. They gave us a ticket and on the day back we just called them one hour ahead and they came pick us up and they asked us for the ticket.

Once we got on the boat, 10 minutes later we were on the island.

We dragged our luggage to the hotel and we got a room which I didn't really like. The rooms there were not built great. One building contained 3 rooms and if you jump in one of the rooms people in the other rooms could hear and feel it. The wall was so thin. I could hear people next door snored clearly. The worse part is that there was the sand all over, on the floor, in bed, in the bathroom.

That night we walked out to the beach and walked along the beach. We sat and ate at a restaurant next to the biggest pub on the beach. I loved to sit there. They had seats by the beach close to the water. Around 8pm, a group of men was there to give us a fire show.

After the meal, we walked farther to another beach next to each other. It was quiet and pretty.

The next day we rented a scooter and drove around the island. If you plan to do so then you need to have a great skill of riding scooter. You will have to drive up and down the mountain on dirt road.

The spent the last day looking for a new and better place to stay for the next time we come back. We walked to the quiet beach we walked to the first night. There was a resort with separated houses up the hill. We got 2 rooms for 1,500 baht each, one for us and one for my boyfriend's niece who would be one the way for a visit soon.

After that we decided to leave one day earlier. We called to get the boat and an hour later we were on the way back to Bangkok.

About a week later we drove from Bangkok to Samed again. This time we had my boyfriend's niece and her boyfriend with us. We got there late on Dec 31th. We went to the same pier but different desk to get a boat with the same price. After that we took a boat to Tok's Little Hut where we made reservation last time we were there.

That night was new year eve. There were so many people on the island, so much different from a week ago. We walked to the same place we ate the first night we came during Christmas and it was hard to find available seats. The pub next to it was so crowded with people. We ordered food and had to wait for over an hour to get everything. There was a fire show just like the one we saw the first time we came.

After the meal we walked around for a bit to see the island celebrating the new year and then we walked back to our bungalow and rest.

Next morning we woke up and walked down to the beach. We sat at the restaurant and had breakfast and then walked around and saw many tents that people slept in at night. As I mentioned before that there were so many people there to celebrate the new year so all hotel got booked. We were lucky that we could find a nice place to stay during that time.

We walked from where we stayed to the beaches close to it. The first one which is next to us is called "Ao Phai". There was a very pretty restaurant at Ao Phai. They set up tables on the rock under the trees with candles on them. Sorry I couldn't get any good pictures of the restaurant. A few mores steps from there were a few restaurants. We sat there one and had some great seafood.

Next to Ao Phai is Ao Pudsa. There was a really nice resort there.

Ao Pudsa

From Ao Pudsa we walked to Ao Nuan. The way from Pudsa beach to Nuan Bay is kind of like a forest. We climbed up the rock ad walked to the trees and we got to a small private beach. After that we walked to where we stayed.

The next day we woke up early to take pictures of the sunrise.

Ao Pudsa

We left Samed that day and stopped by Pattaya and spent a couple nights there before we came back home in Bangkok.

Gung Chae Nampla (Shrimp in Spicy Sauce)

I can't find the picture I took so I will borrow this picture from the internet for awhile. I will replace it with mine once I take a new one.

I recently went to a restaurant and someone order this plate and a guy from the US who came with us loved it and asked me for the recipe. I never make it but I helped my mom preparing the dish many times. It's one of my favorite thai dish.

Ingredients:

• cabbage
• shrimp
• 4 spoons of lime juice
• sliced garlic
• chopped chili (as much as you like)
• 3 spoons of fish sauce
• mint leaves
• sliced bitter melon (if you like)

1. slice cabbage into small pieces and place it on a dish
2. clean and peal the shrimp and place it on top of the cabbage
3. mix lime juice, fish sauce and chili together and pour it on top of the shrimp
4. if you like cooked shrimp you can let it sit till the shrimp turns red for a bit
5. serve with sliced garlic, mint leaves and sliced bitter melon

What is "Rama"?

I believe most travelers in Bangkok have heard of the word "Rama" such as "Rama 4", "Rama 9" or etc.

So what is "Rama"?
Rama or Phra Ram is the name of a character in an epic, Ramayana. Rama is the 7th avatar of Vishnu, the supreme god in Hinduism.

"The kings in the current Chakri dynasty of Thailand are often referred to as Rama followed by Roman ordinal in English translation. The name Rama was adopted from the name of the Hindu god Rama, a reincarnation of Vishnu." -- from wikipedia

For the current dynasty, Chakri Dynasty, that has ruled Thailand since the founding of Rattanakosin era in 1782 now has had 9 kings.

• Buddha Yodfa Chulalok the Great (Rama I)
(1782-1809)
• Buddha Loetla Nabhalai (Rama II)
(1809-1824)
• Jessadabodindra (Rama III)
(1824-1851)
• Mongkut (Rama IV)
(1851-1868)
• Chulalongkorn the Great (Rama V)
(1868-1910)
• Vajiravudh (Rama VI)
(1910-1925)
• Prajadhipok (Rama VII)
(1925-1935)
• Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII)
(1935-1946)
• Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great (Rama IX)
(1946-present)

Where can you find the word "Rama"?

1. Roads in Bangkok

• Rama I or Phra Ram 1
• Rama II or Phra Ram 2
• Rama III or Phra Ram 3
• Rama IV or Phra Ram 4
• Rama V or Phra Ram 5
• Rama VI or Phra Ram 6
• Rama IX or Phra Ram 9

2. Bridges in Bangkok

• Rama III Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 3
• Rama IV Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 4
• Rama V Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 5
• Rama VI Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 6
• Rama VII Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 7
• Rama VIII Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 8
• Rama IX Bridge or Saphan Phra Ram 9

Rama III Bridge

Rama IV Bridge

Rama VIII Bridge

Rama IX Bridge


all the photos on this post is from wikipedia

Isan Spicy Sauce for Grilled or Deep Fried Meat

Ingredients:

• lime
• fish sauce
• chili powder
• sugar

Adjust the amount of the ingredients as you like.

Last weekend I had a chance to learn how to make Isan spicy sauce or Nam Jim Pet or Nam Jim Jaew unexpectedly. That morning we walked around Pattaya beach and shopping area to search for grilled chicken. At first we walked to a small street next to Central Mall where we got some good grilled chicken with sticky rice and spicy sauce last time. Unluckily, it was sold out!

After we had searched for it for a while, we found a small stand on the road at Pattaya beach that had some grilled chicken. She had only small pieces of chicken but it was fine for us. We got 6 pieces of it and then I told the lady at the stand to get us 2 bags of sticky rice and Nam Jim Pet. She asked me if sweet sauce was ok but I insisted on having spicy one.

She was busy making some papaya salad for the other customers so she told me I could get the spicy sauce but I had to make it myself and she would told me what to do. She gave me a small plastic bag and told me to pour some fish sauce in it and then add some chili powder and lime and a little of sugar and mix all those ingredients together by shaking the bag.

After that we had that sauce with our chicken and sticky rice and it was great!

Spicy Seafood Salad

Are you drooling after looking at the picture above?? I am!!

I just had a chance to try making that for the first time the other night from one of the recipes I got online and I adapted it for a bit.

This dish is called "Seafood Spicy Salad" or "Yum Talay".

You can add or remove something as you like.

Ingredients:

• cabbage
• scallion
• onion
• celery
• tomatoes
• squid
• shrimp
• glass noodles

That was all that I used for my dish. You can remove glass noodles if you don't like it and you can also add some other things like pork ball, sausage or minced pork if you like.

Now it's time to get the first bowl done!

• put the glass noodles in the water for a bit and then cut it to make it shorter and then boil it (you can read the instruction on how to cook glass noodles on the bag)
• chop all the vegetables in pieces (sorry I don't have any picture to show how to chop them)
• boil the chopped cabbage
• boil squid and cut it in pieces
• boil shrimp
• put all the ingredients above in one bowl and let it sit for a bit cause we have an important thing to do

Now it's time to make the sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 spoons of lime
• 3 spoons of fish sauce
• 1 spoon of crushed chili or you can chop it in pieces
• 1/2 - 1 spoon of sugar

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl together and then pour it in the bowl that we have already prepared meat and vegetables. Mix it together and taste it. You can add boiled water if you think the taste is too strong.