Tag Archive | ko samui

Selecting the Best Asian Vacation Rentals Here

Jan11

Thailand is a tropical paradise, where you encounter unique blends of beautiful flora, fauna and fine sand beaches and enjoy a warm climate. You need to stay more than a couple of days to enjoy the beauty of this place. You can opt for villas in Thailand where tourists head year after year. This type of lodging has become popular as people enjoy coming to Thailand.

The villas in Thailand are available as resort villas or stand-alone units. You can find an entire support staff when you pick a stand-alone type. They include cleaning, maintenance, cooking and laundry. They will also serve as your tour guide and take you on a tour of the island. Resort villas are normally superior accommodations and generally similar to each other.

There are numerous famous beaches and islands in Southern Thailand.  For tourists, who wish to explore and understand the culture of the island, Koh Samui villa rentals are the best Asian vacation rentals here.

Koh Samui is renowned for the festivals of buffalo fighting. The bull’s charge at each other, wearing branches and leaves woven around their horns, head on, watched by millions of spectators. The bull that succeeds in chasing away the opponent is the winner.  Plan a vacation to this wonderful island if you are interested in watching this sport.

The other attractions that you can visit are Ang Thong National Park where you can take tour boats that are government approved to explore the natural beauty of the 42 islands that lie here. Take a trip to the Na Muanag waterfalls and the rock formations of Hin Yai and Hin Ta which look mysteriously beautiful in its natural beauty.

Visit the sacred temples and statues such as the Buddha Footprints, Big Buddha Shrine, Secret Buddha or Magic Garden and the Laem Sor Pagoda. Enjoy looking at the crocodiles, monkeys, butterflies and snakes in various shows and animal farms.

Mixed martial arts can be viewed at Muay Thai Boxing stadiums twice weekly and extra matches are played during the peak season. Watch the crowds roar with excitements as trained professionals entertain them with their fights.

The advantage of staying at the Koh Samui villa rentals is that you will be able to access all these attractions on foot. You save on commuting expenses and can use this for checking out the various activities of the island or you can take souvenirs back home for your friends and family.

With a few clicks you can operate the internet to rent out Thailand villas easily. Browse through the wide selection offered on the different islands.  Use the images and specifics that will help to narrow the search. Choose an accommodation that suits your budget and you can affect great savings if you plan your trip during off-season.

Learning to cook in Thailand

Oct24

cooking schoolEditor’s Note: My friend Lilly is writing this because I am too busy and she loves the idea of blogging!

There is the joke that when a man suffers a midlife crisis he buys a sports car. Following my divorce I decided to go ahead and indulge my own near midlife crisis by packing it all up and traveling. Inspired by something I read in book club about traveling women, I figured why not? If they could do something different, I could too. (In fact if enough women start expressing their midlife crisis via travel maybe we can develop our own cultural stereotype).

However, being a middle-aged, American woman and not a young free-spirit backpacker type I knew I would need some structure in my daily life. I did a lot of reading and a lot of research before deciding on Thailand as my destination. It was far away, would be a fairly drastic culture change but wouldn’t be too far off the beaten path. Since I am a city person I figured I would start in Bangkok, the capital and most famous city in the country. I was a little overly ambitious and via the web I signed up for cooking classes, language classes and Thai boxing classes before I even boarded the plane. I even prebooked all my hotels. Normally, I am not so nuerotic and I just book the first few nights but I was so excited by the trip, that I booked my whole trip right away. I need it. I spent four nights in Bangkok and then three nights in Phuket. I finish my trip with a beautiful Ko Samui hotel right now the beach. I was amazed at how cheap the hotels were. In fact everything from the hotel to the cooking class was really affordable!

Upon arrival I found that I had underestimated just how exhausting adjusting to normal life in a foreign country would be. I struggled through two days of Thai boxing before giving that up. I stayed in my language classes longer but was by no means a star pupil. However, my cooking classes became my real love and obsession.

There are now over 40 different cooking schools in Bangkok. Most of them are reputable but do your research before choosing one. Most schools teach in English but dishes, styles and prices vary. I chose a school with an informal environment that was near where I was staying and ended up loving it. Probably due to my Southern childhood some of my favorite dishes included fried chicken in Pandan leaves and deep-fried fish cakes with seasonings. My best friend laughed when she heard wondering why I had to go all the way to Thailand just to deep-fry chicken and fish. To my credit I also learned to both prepare and enjoy hot n’ sour prawn soup and coconut rice with mangoes. At first I was fairly wary of the prawns and had my doubts about mango as a desert but grew to love both of these dishes.

One great thing about learning to cook in another country is that it forces you to learn to shop in another country. I didn’t just hop in the car and go to Wal-Mart like I would at home. In order to prepare these dishes with fresh ingredients I had to learn to figure out the world unto itself that is the Thai market. Thai markets for the uninitiated are a truly amazing experience. My first time there I experienced sensory overload from the overwhelming number of stalls, colors, smells and people. But after a month of cooking school, I was weaving my way to my favorite produce stall right along with the locals.

My trip was a success; it certainly broke me out of my routine and helped me build my confidence. It wasn’t specifically where I went or what I learned but just the act of doing something- that was important for me.