First day with my Nikon D5200
When buying anything new you get excited to use it. I was so excited because the next day was my day off and I couldn't wait to use my new camera. I didn't really know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do but I woke up real early with excitement, got ready and left as soon as I could. Just before I left I took a shot of these headless coconut trees from my back window.
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| Headless coconut trees |
Breakfast by the sea
First thing came to mind was to get breakfast. Where? another question I couldn't answer. As I live in Koh samui, which is a very small island in the south of Thailand one of the most convenient ways to get around is with a scooter. The area I live is called Choeng mon which is in the north east side of the island. I drove towards the west which goes through Bangrak. I thought to myself, since I live on an island the best way to start the day would be breakfast by the beach, so I drove along until I found a nice place to stop.
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| Breakfast at Secret Garden |
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Bungalows
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As I walked inside, the first thing I saw were their bungalows that are just steps from the beach and they have some beachfront ones as well.
I ordered a simple breakfast with some croissants, cheese, fruit and of course a latte! and while I was waiting I went to take some photos along the beach...
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Bangrak beach
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Looking inside
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| My croissants were a little burnt but how could I complain on a morning like this. |
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Breakfasts by the beach is a wonderful treat. Nothing beats the fresh weather in the morning and feeling the gentle breeze while looking out to the blue skies and sea.
Wandering
When I walked back to the street, I was looking at this utility pole. So many people in Koh samui complain about the power cuts and at times it does happen often. Most of the time it's the people who are used to living in cities that complain, no surprise there. Once, there was no power on the entire island for 3 full days. The only way to get power was going to the places that were run by generator. They did manage to provide power for a few hours and it rotated throughout the island. The blackout was because of an underground high-voltage cable that broke down which connects electricity from the mainland to the island and they needed to fly people in from Germany to fix it, so I heard. There was never really an official answer to what caused the blackout. The island was also running low on diesel as it was supplying all the generators. Times like this you realize how much our lives depend on electricity and it's a scary thought to think of life without it. Normally the blackouts happen when there are strong winds or heavy rains. Anyways I was looking at this crooked utility pole and the tangled wires thinking I'm amazed we even have power at all.
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| Tangled wires |
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Fishing boats near Bangrak pier
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| Low tides |
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Maenam beach
No headless coconut trees here!
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Maenam beach was really nice as well, the sand here wasn't as smooth as in Bangrak beach, a little more coarse and more of an orange colour than white but still a great beach to stop at. Walking back to my scooter, I passed a small bamboo stall in front of a clothes shop. An old lady was selling fruit. How could I not buy from her, she had such a lovely smile and was so pleasant. I ended up buying more mangosteen and bananas than I could eat, generous me.
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| Mangosteen and bananas |
Now that I have fruit, I needed a place to eat them. So I drove up further to somewhere that I could access the beach. I found a nice cement table on the sand. Perfect!
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| Sweet and tangy! |
After enjoying
my fruit (still half left) on the beach I continued to drive towards the west side of the island. While I was driving along the road I kept peeking through the gaps between houses and small buildings to see what the beaches were like and see what's worth stopping for. Then I saw an area where there was a very low tide thought i'll park my bike and check it out. It's amazing how far the tide can go in such a short period of time, I walked towards these rocks I saw in the far distance.
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| Low tide |
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| Looking back |
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| More fishing boats |
Observing the area I came across this weird creature. I have absolutely no idea what it is, never seen anything like it, not even a photo. All I know is it was creepy. I looked closer and it was alive! Thank god it was moving like a snail.
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| Creepy creatures |
North-eastern lunch
By the time I walked back to my bike I was getting hungry, time for lunch. I drove to Nathon which is where you can catch the ferries to the mainland (Surathani) It's a nice little town with shops, vendors, coffee shops and of course restaurants.
I love north-eastern Thai food, especially papaya salad. It is a dish that Thai people will miss after not eating for a while and they will crave for when going abroad. There isn't one Thai person I know who doesn't enjoy eating papaya salad probably because there is such a variety of different flavours and ingredients you can choose from. As I was alone I couldn't order much I only ordered one papaya salad but instead of using papaya i asked for raw mango. This changes the taste a bit and leans towards more of a sour flavour with a bit of sweetness, not too much to overwhelm the dish though. There are various styles of Papaya salads not just the simple papaya salad with carrots, dried shrimp, beans and peanuts but you can have some that include pickled mud fish (in Thai called Pla ra), clams, pickled lettuce, deep fried fish, crabs, fried eggs, cucumber, white noodles and the list goes on. But for me I love papaya salad with pickled mud fish and pickled crabs. I know some English menus in Thailand call pickled mud fish anchovies I think this is because it's the closest thing to this as they are preserved in salt and brine but i'm telling you these are not anchovies. Don't let these menus fool you. Pla ra is fermented fish, they use a variety of fish too not just mud fish (fresh water fish) and they are fermented with salt and rice bran from 3 months to a year in clay jars. Normally the strong smell is what puts people off but I always believe that there is no harm in trying something new. If you don't like it never have it again on the other hand if you don't try it you might not know what you're missing. People always have shocked expressions when I order pickled mud fish papaya salad because I look foreign and they never expect me to order this.
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| Chopping the mango |
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Pla ra
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| Mango salad and salted fried chicken |
Lipa noi beach
After an amazing lunch with a combination of flavours I decided to drive towards Lipa noi which is a nice quiet area on the east side of the island, many expats choose to live here. It's a bit further from the main central areas like Chaweng beach but you can get more for what you pay for especially when it comes to rent as renting is quite overpriced in Koh Samui. I drove through little streets until I found my way to a small path that led to the beach. First I saw a few houses that were abandoned, found out later from a local that it was because there were issues with the land ownership and no one could do anything on that piece of land. Which is quite a shame because it's beachfront property!
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| Pathway |
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| Abandoned beachfront house |
As I was enjoying my little walk along the beach I came across this other house that was being remodeled. I saw some people on the roof top. In the beginning I thought they were just admiring the view from the roof top. I saw later that they had a quad copter with them that they were controlling and one of the guys looking through some goggles. They must have been giving it a test. I was taking a few shots before they brought it very close to me. It was pretty cool to watch. They brought it so close to me I didn't know what to do. It was kind of a strange feeling when everyone was looking at me and the guy with the goggles was probably looking right at me through the quad copter so I took a photo of it then turned around and gave them a thumbs up, they smiled and waved at me before taking it back up. I was impressed with the mechanism and they controlled it flawlessly.
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| Quad copter |
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| Looking straight at me |
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| Remodeled house |
I found this beautiful hidden pond that was hidden behind some trees it was formed by a small stream coming from the sea it looked so peaceful and tranquil with all the lush in the background. Looking back I could see the stream and how it naturally shaped the sand into a curved stream. It's quite amazing how nature transforms itself.
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| Aged coconuts |
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| Baby coconut trees |
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| Hidden pond |
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| Curved stream |
On the way back
On my way back I stopped at a local noodle shop for my last meal of the day. This was in Bangrak beach, I had some noodles with fish dumplings and a tasty dipping sauce to go with it and of course ice-cream for dessert.
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| Ice-cream |
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| Fish dumplings with noodles |
I had a busy day. I enjoyed it mostly because I ended up in parts of the island that I haven't seen before. Sometimes not knowing where to go makes it more exciting because you don't know what you'll see or where you'll end up. This is a great way to find different subjects for photos. Most of my photos from this day were taken in auto modes as I was still learning how to use all the functions. The great thing is there are plenty of sites to learn and your always learning something new in photography. There are so many techniques
and interesting ways to take photos. A beautiful day on a sun-kissed island.
