Well yes, normally. Here in Samui the dry season has a few wet bits and the wet season has some dry bits which makes it more of an all year round destination that some other places in Thailand who have more extremes. But the last few days have broken that rule. A couple of nights ago there was a rather large storm which created some chaos for the island, most unexpected in January. High winds and high seas and very heavy rain. It didn't affect us too much here in the hotel except for being confined to barracks for the best part of a day as the rain virtually never stopped. But down on the beach the wind was so strong it was hard to keep upright and on the West coast, Nathon, where the main port is, there were a few flooding problems and the sea wall broke in places.
The ferries from the mainland were stopped for most of the day, leaving a few people stranded here I guess, and I assume many of the revellers who had travelled over to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party the night before would have been similarly stuck.The rain stopped but the winds are still high a couple of days later and evidence of the storm is everywhere. The beaches are littered with a collection of seaweed and flotsam and jetsam. The main beach at Fisherman's village in front of the posh Hansar hotel is a real mess with the sand having been piled up into dune shapes. Massage beds from the beaches at Fisherman's and Mae Nam have been destroyed and are floating about in the sea. It's such a pity, people's livelihood's are affected, their small businesses blown into the sea. Little beach cafes at Fisherman's village are destroyed.
Thai, the head housekeeper here at the hotel was looking glum yesterday and she told me that as she lived near the sea, her house had some flooding and a lot of her things "were broken". She did say though that Surajit, the owner here has been very good to her, helping her out. Not sure to what extent she is being helped but she seemed very grateful. And all this rainfall is making the "sawimmng pool" tiles a delicate shade of "gareen" again, hope we're not back to square one on that one...
But on a more positive note there was an army of people on one of the beaches today cleaning up and putting all the debris and seaweed into big bags. Hopefully their understanding of this weather means the storm is well passed and the high season is about to re rear its head... can't come too soon for me, am sitting on my terrace wrapped in a sarong to keep warm!
But at least I'm not making front page news like the school kids in Bangkok who are shown all wrapped up in jackets and hoodies as the temperature "plunged to 16C".
