Steve and Cathy's Blog

One of the many, many aspects of this cruise that we like is how carefully the itinerary is laid out. The variety of locales that we have visited thus far is quite significant, which is one of the numerous advantages of being on a small ship (Insignia is 30,277 gross tons with a 684 passenger capacity; Oasis of the Seas is 225,282 gross tons with a 5,400 passenger capacity).

Today we visit the island of Koh Samui, Thailand. This roughly circular island is 9.3 miles across with 2,083-foot Khao Pom peak in the central part of the island. Thailand has several world-famous resort islands. Although tourism now dominates their economy, Samui is not one of them. 47,000 people call this home. While there are indeed many resorts sprinkled throughout the island, the wonderful feeling we sensed is that it is a living, breathing community, and not just a collection of resorts, hotels and souvenir shops. There is still an agricultural sector that exports coconut (for oil) and rubber, the villages have markets and temples and even small car dealers. Within a couple of hours, we grow to be very intrigued by and comfortable on this island.

Despite the aforementioned relative small size of our ship, we still had to “tender” into the town of Nathon. Fortunately, we did not have to use our stuffy, sweltering, rocky/rolly lifeboats as tenders. Oceania had secured the services of two very nice boats for this purpose. We boarded one at 8:45 and in twenty-five minutes we were there.

Our excursion was named Thai Cooking Class (Van), and indeed our group boarded two 12-passenger vans. Our guides introduced themselves as Bob and Jan. The Thai guides very politely have given themselves Anglo names for us to use rather than their actual names, which are no doubt beautiful but very difficult for us westerners to twist our tongues around. Jan is assigned to our van. One of the first things she teaches us is to say Hello (So wed’ ih co) and Thank You (Ka pun’ ka) is the Thai language. This is a fun start to our day.

Jan gives us information about the island as we make the twenty-minute drive along the coast road to our first stop. Up until about thirty years ago, this island was very much removed from the mainland, with subsistence farming and fishing being the mainstays of the local economy. As mentioned above, tourism has changed all of that. All of this new development has not been met with universal approval from the inhabitants, but they have adjusted to their new economy.

She mentions that from April 13^th to 15th, Thailand will celebrate the New Year. She explains that there were some venerable old customs such as the sprinkling of holy water at family gatherings that have been updated by the younger generations of Thais. The celebration is much more raucous now, with the sprinkling of holy water morphing into joyous deluges of water using water guns.

When we stop, I have a couple of questions for her. For one thing, I see most signs to be in both Thai and English. She explains that this is an accommodation to the tourists, and that we are likely to see much less English in the rest of the country. I also ask her about why there is a need for a large traffic sign that reads “Please Remember To Drive On the Left” that I saw as we passed through one village. She explains that this too is for the tourists. Many North Americans come to Koh Samui on vacation and rent motorbikes. Apparently, they get out on the roads and forget that people drive on the left here, the result being some pretty bad accidents. I suspect that perhaps alcohol is related to this phenomenon.

We are now in a small village with a very interesting open-air market that features all of the various types of fish and crustaceans that are caught in the local waters by the fishermen, as well as local fruits and vegetables. The displays and the quality of what we see would be the envy of Whole Foods. Here are some pictures to give you some idea of why we say that:

It is a real working fishing village and a wonderful local market. We tour the market and spend a few minutes admiring the fishing boats and watching the local people preparing the food that is to be sold. Cathy mentions that, if we were ever to come back, we would try to rent a place where we could do our own cooking and frequent this market. What they have for sale is to die for. Really.

We then take a twenty-minute drive to the eastern side of the island to the Nora Beach Resort & Spa for our main activity of the day, our Thai cooking class. We pull into the parking lot and know right away that we are in for a very special three hours. The buildings are gorgeous, the scenery is gorgeous, the beach is gorgeous, the pool is huge and gorgeous. This is a really n-i-c-e place.

There are about fifteen of us, plus our two guides. We are brought to an open pavilion area specially set aside for these cooking classes, with big round tables at which we will eat and long tables at which we will prepare the food. First we are offered fruit juice, and delicious Thai beer.   They also pass out a package of goodies for each of us, which includes 1) the list of ingredients and instructions for preparing the three dishes we will be taught to make, 2) a genuine chef’s hat and 3) an apron, all of which we can keep as reminders of our visit.

We are then summoned to the cooking area, where our guide Bob introduces the star of the show, sous chef Paula. Very quickly she establishes that this is a real cooking class and not just some tourist activity. She is a serious chef – fun and cheerful but all business. Bob is both her assistant and also gives much of the instruction. His English was a bit easier to understand. The plan is this: Paula and Bob will introduce the ingredients for a dish, and we can take notes on our paperwork. Then Paula will demonstrate the dish, and then we will prepare it. And eat it! One at a time. First up is a crab and pork mixture, with lots of spicy condiments, stuffed in a crab shell, then deep fried. We even fry our own shells, with advice from Bob on timing and positions (“Shell side up! Otherwise crab fall out!”) Both he and Paula were very firm with us. Especially Paula; “No! No! Not like that! Did you not see I show you? Now do again!” Next two dishes are chicken soup cooked in coconut milk and water, also lots of spices like fresh ginger, lemongrass and galangal leaves, served in a young coconut so you can scrape the coconut meat out with each spoonful of soup, then pad thai with shrimp. We would make a dish, then eat it. While we were eating, the staff would set up our mise en place for the next dish. Each condiment had its own dish with a little spoon. Paula would say “One spoon each one.” They really made it easy for us. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! The place was gorgeous, the food was delicious and we were with one of our new friends, Pat Watt from Toronto.

Below left is sous chef Paula.  Below right is one of her assistants.

When our cooking class/lunch is complete, we fulfill another wish: to swim in the ocean in Thailand. Our excursion description suggested we might have time, and we do have a half hour before we are scheduled to leave the resort. So Cathy and I and Pat Watt and Sam DeLong find our way to the beach and bob about in the warm ocean water. What a pleasure.

Well, it’s finally time to leave this luxury, and we head to one more stop, the Big Buddha. There are twenty temples on Koh Samui, but our guide Jan tells us that this is the most popular, and indeed we can see why. Here’s a brief description from Wikipedia: “Wat Phra Yai, known in English as the Big Buddha Temple, is a Buddhist temple on Ko Phan (also spelled Koh Fan or Koh Faan), a small island offshore from the northeastern area of Ko Samui, Thailand, connected to that island by a short causeway 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) north of Samui International Airport. As its name indicates, it is home to a giant, 12-metre-high (39-foot) gold-painted Buddha statue. Since being built in 1972, it has become one of Ko Samui’s main tourist attractions and a major landmark.^”

Jan tells us that local people used to practice meditation at this temple, but since the airport added so many flights to accommodate the tourist business, meditation has become very difficult. Not two minutes later, a Boeing 737, flying at around 500 feet, cruises right over us heading for a landing. A perfect demonstration of what she’s talking about.

Cathy does some browsing at the shops and Steve climbs the stairs to take photos of The Big Buddha and the very scenic views available from up there. And I get a chance to take a picture of Jan (which is the photo at the beginning of this post. Cathy and I have really become attracted to this very sweet, delightful young lady, to the extent that Cathy is suggesting we take her back to the U.S. and have Margaret hire her as a nanny for her kids. They would love her.

It’s time to return to Nathon to tender back to Insignia. When we arrive at the dock, we say good-bye to our new friend with a hug and an invitation to visit us. Sigh.

There is already a long line of people waiting to get on the tender that is pulling up. In fact, the tender fills up and we have to wait about twenty minutes for ours. It gives us a chance to chat with Sam DeLong, the Enrichment Lecturer that gives talks on photography (especially all the features in the iPhone). He shows us 1) how to use Airdrop, 2) how to use the Slo-Mo function and 3) how to use the Time-Lapse feature. This guy was born to teach. He has such a pleasant, non-intimidating manner about him. The ship made a very good move having him on board.

We do board the tender and are taken back to the ship. In fact, we are the last passengers to return, and the ship is underway very shortly. Tomorrow we arrive in Bangkok.