Friday, 30 December 2016 to Thursday, 5 January 2017
Today Patrick took us on a magical mystery tour… not to be confused with the Beatle’s tour of the same name. We met at his home in the morning from there we rode down the ring road, through Chaweng and Chaweng Noi, through Lamai, and a kilometre or two past the Lamai Makro we turned right and headed up into the mountains. We were riding along, minding our own business when I suddenly saw Oi’s feet ever so gracefully glide over and past Patrick’s ears. I was rather surprised at her athletic ability but then saw the motive for this act…

In the middle of the road there was a fluorescent glow-in-the-dark bright green snake… Agitated by Patrick, it was now writhing all over the road. It was on its way from right to left before it met Patrick, then it saw me coming and decided to make a u-turn. But in my attempt to avoid him I was already veering in that direction so it changed tack yet again, back in a westerly direction, still writhing as it went on its way. I’m sure it would have poeped (crapped) its pants if it had one on, I contemplated as it disappeared into the underbrush.

The snake was thin and long, stretched out it would probably have been one and a half metres and if you really stretched hard enough it would probably have made two metres. I later checked on the internet and identified our nemesis as an oriental whip snake which comes in a variety of colours, the one we saw was especially beautiful.

Out first stop was at the Tanim Magic Garden… and magic it was! It truly felt like one was transported into this magical fantasy world with nature playing its part in it all. The gardens were apparently created by Nim Thongsuk, an old Samui fruit farmer, who began erecting statues and little Buddhist temples on the family’s land back in 1976, spanning both sides of the little river that runs through it. There are statues of all shapes and sizes arranged across both sides of the river with little pathways that lead up to and around them. The statues are ever present and sometimes found in the most unexpected places; you really have to take your time to see it all. Magical.

The magical part of the tour was done, now it was time for the mystery. We rode up and down roads and pathways which I would never find again and stopped at a rather unique collection of ponds. Arranged around these were larger than life statues of the 12 astrological star signs, rather weird, rather wonderful. It all made sense, in a sense, but there was this one large statue at the head of these ponds with the imprint of a rabbit upon what could be a sunflower, which made no sense. Could it have something to do with the rabbit which is the fourth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac signs? We had no idea what to make of that, so if you have any ideas, please share.

We then moved 50 metres or so further up to a quarter completed derelict building. This building seemed to want to be a restaurant on the first floor and living quarters on the second, with wonderful views down the mountain and to the sea far below. What a wonderful spot for both a restaurant and a home.

We then moved another 50 meters or so up and came upon, for lack of a better name, the crab house. There is a house, looking like a crab, obviously, overlooking a type of a heart shaped pool and other pools and pathways and such below, this would probably have been a water park come playground for visitors here. I am sure if this development ever gets completed, people will come.  What was all this, who built it, for what purpose and why was it never completed? Mystery.

With our magical mystery tour completed Patrick lead us down a road that we knew had to be there but could never find, a road from the mountain directly down to Nathon. It was a wonderful trip down and down and around the mountain, wonderful views all around.

Arriving in Nathon we got comfortable at the Lucky Restaurant which is situated directly across the road from the ocean. In the distance there were a number of ferries ferrying and a passenger liner lining up passengers to flood Samui with a host of tourists. Steve, the owner of the Lucky restaurant seemed rather pleased with all the attention his restaurant was receiving from both expats and the tourists from the passenger liner, his place was abuzz. He lamented the fact that the island had been less busy than last year but he was thankful that business had now picked up; it seemed like it may still be a bumper year.

Patrick and I had the fish and chips and one must remember to order it made with red snapper. It came with freshly cut and fried chunky chips and a sizeable green salad and also, very English like, with a slice of bread and butter. And as Patrick promised, it was the best on Samui. Oi had a seafood soup of some sort and Adri the pork mince with kale, rice and an egg. Lunch was truly great all around and was made even better with the view across the sweeping ocean beyond.

We left Nathon and landed back at Patrick’s house where we were presented with a very pleasant surprise. Oi gave us a beach mat, not just any beach mat, but one that her mother had made herself. It is woven from straw/reed/bamboo of some sorts and smells awesome, just like those straw hats and mats that one buys in the rural parts of SA. The smell also took me back to the Kruger National Park, to those thatched huts in the rest camps. Anyways, this is an item that Adri and I have forever wanted to buy but never did, we never expected to get it as a personal gift though, what a pleasant surprise!

We were booked into our current apartment until 16 January 2017 and have been contemplating where to go from here. Initially we had anticipated staying on in Thailand until we leave for France in mid March but things took a different turn this afternoon. We had talked about many options over the last month or so which finally culminated in a choice of going to either Turkey, Serbia and/or Montenegro. The latter two countries we had never been to although we had been to Turkey on a few occasions before. My first choice was Turkey as they have mild winters but then again we thought it would be great to experience a full blown European winter for a change.

This afternoon Adri was doing further research on these destinations when she suddenly exclaimed “We’re going to Belgrade, it looks awesome!” Okay, so we’re going to Serbia for a full blown mid European winter. I have to admit right here though that I am not a fan of winter and have always aspired to be in a position to not experience winter unless it is done by design. I have now managed to miss two winters and it seems like the next one will be by design, so all good.

But if we’re going to Serbia, we might as well spend some time in Montenegro which lies just to the west. I have always wanted to go to Montenegro and a few years back even bought the Bradt travel guide to Montenegro and read it from cover to cover. So if all works out according to plan we will spend one month in Serbia, one month in Montenegro and then move on to France mid March 2017.

Adri started to look for accommodation and I for reasonably priced flights. I normally use skyscanner.com as a base and then also go directly to airlines’ web sites that I know fly to our chosen destination. Lately I have been using Google Flights as well which is actually another good tool to have in your toolbox. It was on Google Flights that I found a flight to Belgrade on a specific day for almost half the price as other days and other airlines. With this in mind I tried other options but this one remained the best value for a one stop flight. I decided to monitor this price over the next 24 hours and then complete the booking.

One loses track of time when you’re having fun so it was already deep dark when we made our way to the Fisherman’s Village Friday night street market. Tonight it was much more lively than two weeks ago, the tourists had obviously now arrived in their droves. But first things first, we ordered ourselves cocktails, Adri the John Collins and me the Mai Thai, to celebrate and seal the deal on going to Serbia and Montenegro. We will surely miss Thailand and the weather in general, but maybe it would be nice to have a change in weather?

Saturday morning we continued our research on accommodation options in Belgrade via Airbnb and found around 15 available apartments that seemed fit for our purpose. We continued to eliminate some in order to get to a more manageable number so that we could make an informed decision. By the end of the day we were down to six.

I continued monitoring our chosen flight and the price was thankfully still the same as yesterday so I went ahead and booked that as well. When I completed the credit card detail it was not accepted, neither rhyme nor reason given. I tried another credit card which ended in the same situation. I received an email from the airline confirming the situation but it gave no solution other than to contact their helpdesk. They did however also confirm that they would hold the reservation at the quoted price for 24 hours. After holding on for 35 minutes the call was finally answered by their helpdesk but then I got cut off. Grrr… We had better things to do.

There was more than a constant drizzle drizzling outside but it was new year’s eve so we ventured out to Chaweng for something to eat. We had arranged to meet some people on the Choeng Mon beach for midnight where we were last year but by the time we arrived there at around 10:30 the wind was blowing a hooley, the rain had started gusting through the beach area, it was a completely miserable situation, we decided to rather go home.

So Adri and I saw the new-year in, sitting on our patio with a glass of red wine in hand, watching the rain which had by now intensified. Normally at midnight there are amazing fireworks to be seen across the island, tonight it was a bit of a damp squib. We heard some fireworks go off but did not see anything because of the low misty cloud cover, the only thing we saw were grey clouds taking on a tinge of green or purple or pink whenever an attempt at fireworks was made. Be as it may, we had a wonderful relaxing new year’s eve.

Lying in bed this morning I received my first cup of coffee for the new year, bliss. The weather has been so unpredictable, it’s just insane. While lying there, the sun was shining brightly and the next moment or two later the rain came gushing down, petered out to a drizzle with the sun shining once again on us. This pattern repeated itself over and over again during the course of the day, rather frustratingly as we could do no any beach planning. You just don’t know what you’re gonna get once you climb aboard your bike.

It was midmorning when I attempted once again to do the credit card payment for our flights to Belgrade, not surprisingly, with the same frustrating result. Both cards were once again rejected. I called the helpdesk once again and this time held on for only about 15 minutes when an operator came on the line and within five minutes we completed the payment with that same card that was rejected previously. Anyways, we were now the proud owners of air tickets from Bangkok, via Dubai, directly on to the Nikola Tesla International Airport in Belgrade.

Now that we had the Belgrade tickets in pocket with exact dates and times I went ahead and booked our tickets from Samui to Bangkok with Airasia which always goes super smooth, have never had a problem with these guys.

After gym and a late breakfast we continued sifting through the apartments we had identified via Airbnb and reduced the six to three and then Adri made the final choice. She selected a one bedroom apartment right in the middle of old town Belgrade; it looks like a really lovely spot. I requested to book the apartment and by early evening the deed was done. And that’s when it hit us… We’re going to Belgrade!

To celebrate, I had a big Singha out on the patio, Adri joined me with a huge glass of red wine. While sitting there I inadvertently placed my Iphone on top of my Ipad on top of the table, no doubt to take a swig from my Singha. When I picked up the Ipad to continue surfing I heard a sickening twang followed by a dull thud as my iphone went flying through the balcony’s steel railing and landed somewhere in the garden a storey or so far below. Man, was that dof (dim) or what?!

It was already dark and Adri rather reluctantly let me take her iphone to use its flashlight as a reconnaissance tool to search for my reconnaissance tool. I reached the area of interest below and started my investigation. I looked up towards the balcony and the glass table from where the phone had been launched from, calculated the velocity of the launch and calculated in my mind’s eye the arc and  trajectory of the phone and determined that it must have landed somewhere in the large flower bed next to the tennis court.  I shone the light under the underbrush and would you believe, it was right here, exactly where I had predicted, and in perfect health! Now we had even more to celebrate.

Monday morning we woke up to a miserably cloudy and windy morning, the only thing we could do was go to the gym, which was not a bad thing mind you. While we were in the gym the inevitable rain came down relentlessly, never ceasing for a moment. By the time we had finished our exercise the rain was still doing its thing. We could wait it out or walk back to our apartment in the rain, it was a no-brainer, this rain would continue for another few hours, and I could not stand another five minutes of exercise, I was bushed. We took off our shoes and socks to keep them from getting a drowsing and braved the elements outside, no harm done.

We had a Thai breakfast this morning consisting of fried rice with chilies and garlic with frankfurter discs with an egg, pretty good.

I started blogging and just before 13:00 it seemed like the rain would peter out and just at that thought a new deluge came down… we were housebound…  and would be for a while.

The monsoon rain arrived late on Samui this year. Normally, like last year, the rains would abate by early to mid December, and then you might find showers from time to time but never lasting long. As the rain petered out today the wind picked up yet again, howling through the skeletons of the apartment buildings around us sounding like a pack of wolves on the prowl. The last five days the wind had been doing that hooley thing with cloud cover that threatened rain constantly, although it did not always deliver, but that would change soon. I really do feel sorry for people that had come to Samui for their holidays expecting to spend beautiful sunny days on the beach, it’s just not happening this year.

I woke up with a bang on Tuesday morning, literally. There was heavy thunder in the air and that last lightning strike seemed to have banged right into our patio, it sounded like it in any case. And then the rain came down, relentlessly.

I continued blogging this morning and was highly frustrated when I needed to upload the pictures to WordPress… I could not, it would not. Was it the new version of WordPress that I had just installed? Or one of the plugin upgrades that I installed? Or was it the network which had been a tad patchy of late? I googled the issue and came upon a horde of similar complaints. Some came with solutions, some just complained but all in all it did not help me much. I tried deactivating and reactivating some plugins, rebooted the laptop a number of times but nothing seemed to make a difference. I logged off and onto the network a few times and eventually managed to get all the pictures uploaded in small batches. I put my frustrations down to the patchy network.

To make matters worse, each condo block in the complex has its own water tank with a pump that activates when water is used. Now that is fine, but Sunday night this thing kept activating throughout the night, every 20 seconds, on and on it went. At 2:30 Monday morning I went down to reception to see whether they could do something about it. Of course they could not but they would sort it out in the morning. And of course they did not.

So throughout Monday night this background noise continued and this morning I sent an email in this regard to the manager which replied almost immediately and confirmed that it would be sorted out. And it was, for a day or two, and then it started all over again.

I published the blog by early afternoon and after a late breakfast, and before cabin fever could engulf us we left the cabin and rode into Chaweng and up the hill to the Chaweng modern Villas where we stayed last December. David was no longer there, he had gone back home for another opportunity that knocked and it was quite strange not to hear his friendly voice of “Hoe gaan dit ou perd?” (How are you, you old horse).  Man, this place is not the same without him but we did meet up with Pierre who was still there, still as hardworking and rushing around as always to get things done. Good guy… he must be, he’s French! And the pool that David started having built last year had now been completed and looks a million dollars, great job.

After walking around the complex reminiscing, we left and rode south on the ring road and just past Chaweng we turned into The Beach Bar Samui which Andre had told us about. What a wonderful spot this was, one could very easily spend the day lounging at the pub with its wonderful beach just beyond. When we ordered drinks we enquired about their wifi and were told “Wifi not working, has been on and off the past month”. Wow, if their wifi had not been working for a month there is no way their beers would be cold. We reluctantly upped and left and stopped at Crystal Bay, a beautiful bay located just before one enters the greater Lamai area.

We ended up at the Thongtakia Bar where we had been previously, a truly lovely little place right on the beach under plentiful palms. Dark clouds were forming in the east and approaching fast. The staff got busy lowering the plastic covers for the protection of their patrons from the imminent rain.

As I sat myself down on a chair under the palm trees, my feet digging into the sea-sand, I was quickly ushered inside to the by now enclosed pub with a warning that the rain would be there within five minutes. Within five minutes the first wave of torrential rain came gushing down and a few minutes later the wind picked up, sending plastic tables and chairs tumbling around outside in the sand, and then the rain came down with even more intent. By this time all five tables and 16 chairs inside were fully occupied by French and Germans, and two South Africans.

While I was on my second Chang Adri had just finished her fresh coconut, now devoid of liquid, she had it chopped in half to get to its brilliantly white flesh. As she peeled the flesh from that body with a spoon about a quarter of it came my way which I had with my Chang. Now you may consider beer and coconut flesh strange bedfellows, but strangely enough they somehow go together.

We left after the rain had subsided and on our way home we stopped off at the Black Duck Pub for supper. They still have different food specials there every night and tonight’s just happened to be beef burger with chips as well as a spicy seafood spaghetti, which we ended up ordering. Both were delicious, the beer was just north of freezing, as always, the establishment was almost too cold… life was cool!

Wednesday morning we woke up to rain and then it went away, but it never went far. By 10:00 it had rained three times so we were housebound once again. At least with this rain I was almost forced to catch up with the blog, so I used the time wisely, but only from time to time of course.

It started raining for the fifth time early afternoon with high winds gushing through the complex, sending loose lying stuff flying. It was around 15:00 when we received a message from Thea advising that the rain forecast for tomorrow was 115mm. Should the rain let up during the day we needed to stock up on provisions, we might we housebound for a couple of days still.

With a 30 minute lull in the rain we took the opportunity to stock up on some foodstuffs from the Family Mart next door and no sooner were we back in the apartment and the rain started up yet again. On our way back we walked past reception where Book was on duty. He parted with some of that book knowledge and predicted that it will be raining like this for the next five days at least. Checking on the web later I’m afraid he was probably right. We spent the day indoors, relaxing reading, blogging, it was rather cool.

It rained most of the night and when we woke up Thursday morning it was still raining, sometimes harder, sometimes softer, but never soft, it never stopped. When we arrived on Samui both Thea and Patrick commented that we brought the rain with us and there seemed to be some truth to that. No sooner had we arrived and it started raining. Most days the rain were interspersed with plenty of sunshine and beach weather, but the last few days we had forgotten what the sun looked like, if there was indeed still one out there. The rain had been relentless.

Our unit gets a thorough cleaning every Thursday at 10:00 during which time we either sit outside on the patio or go for a walk, today we could do neither so we watched as the dirt disappeared.

It was around 12:00 when we received a message from Thea saying they were leaving the office to go home before the roads are closed; apparently the real rain will be arriving by 13:00. Wow!

It was 13:00 and the rain came down, wave upon wave upon wave, letting up for a few minutes and then returning with a stepped up aggravated vengeance, ever increasing. It was 13:05 when the wind took a turn for the worse and the rain came down in a deluge, the white mists of rain obscuring our vision to the palm trees 60 metres away and for fleeting moments even they disappeared.

Not surprisingly, a song simply called Rain Rain Rain from the early 70’s, crept into my mind. Although the song probably deals with emotional rain, this physical rain was starting to get me emotionally. This song was by an SA band called Gentle People, not to be confused with the UK band called The Gentle People, who had a hit with it in SA in 1971 where it reached Number 3 on the hit parade. The lyrics contain the chorus of “Rain, Rain, Rain… uh oh oh oh oh… rain, rain rain” Need I say more… take a listen to it below.

While searching for the above song my search took me down many unintended paths and I met up with a number of old favourite songs by SA artists which I have included below.

My Daddy Was A Rock ‘N Roll Man – Johnny Gibson

Let Me Into Your Life – Flood

Feel So Strong, by Steve Kekana And PJ Powers With Hotline

And a sexy song I always thought was way ahead of its time, I Like… by John Ireland

Needless to say, we were once again housebound with nowhere to go, so we accepted our prison term and made the best of it by starting to binge watch Netflix. Way cool…

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