This year's peak period starts extremely slow. With the New Year parties and Full Moon Party (on 3rd January) held in Koh Phangan, Koh Samui was relatively quiet for at least a week. Then there was a sudden boost of activities for a couple of days before everything died down again.
Suddenly the island resembles more like the low season instead of the peak season. At the same time, it seems the monsoon hit us late this year as it began to rain in mid January. Most of us puzzled at the apparent lack of people around. We know the tourists have not stopped coming to Thailand because we hear that Phuket was fully booked and in fact, over booked.
Yet, looking at Koh Samui, the number of visitors did not resemble the peak of 2006. Now that we we are nearing to the next Full Moon party in another 10 days or so, we suddenly see a surge of visitors that just popped up over the last few days. But the numbers are still way below that of the year 2006.
Well, guess all of us are still waiting for the peak to come.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
New addition to our family
We had a new addition to our family in December last year. She is very cute and sweet. Every time we wake up in the morning, she is crying because she is hungry. I have never heard anyone cry like her. She will not stop until she is fed. And she is always hungry. She eats like 4 times a day at least in the beginning. Luckily she is slowing down now - she eats about three times a day.
Oh, did I mention that she is a little cat? Yes, she is an orphan and appeared at our doorsteps in December last year. We were a little apprehensive about keeping her at first because of Ide (our dog). Ide has been with us since June 2005 and she has become quite possesive of us.
Like all single children, it is funny to see how Ide vies for attention each time we pick up Kitty (that's our kitten's name). But they are both now getting used to each other. At times, Ide still growls at Kitty, especially when she tries to be cheeky and puts her claws on Ide's nose. But on the odd occasions, we have caught both of them 'kissing' each other.
Kitty is growing very fast. She is now about 5 months old and is very playful. She tries to play hide and seek with me each time in the garden. She is also teething and likes to bite anything that is within her reach.
When it comes to dinner time, Ide always tries to eat Kitty's food before eating her own. If Ide is not watching, Kitty will eat Ide's food instead of hers. Oh yes, Ide is very good at eating fish. She can clean a fish out so well that it leaves only the bones. Even the head is clean. On the other hand, Kitty needs the meat of the fish to be removed from the bones before she eats it. Now, I am wondering which is the cat and which is the dog!!!!
Oh, did I mention that she is a little cat? Yes, she is an orphan and appeared at our doorsteps in December last year. We were a little apprehensive about keeping her at first because of Ide (our dog). Ide has been with us since June 2005 and she has become quite possesive of us.
Like all single children, it is funny to see how Ide vies for attention each time we pick up Kitty (that's our kitten's name). But they are both now getting used to each other. At times, Ide still growls at Kitty, especially when she tries to be cheeky and puts her claws on Ide's nose. But on the odd occasions, we have caught both of them 'kissing' each other.
Kitty is growing very fast. She is now about 5 months old and is very playful. She tries to play hide and seek with me each time in the garden. She is also teething and likes to bite anything that is within her reach.
When it comes to dinner time, Ide always tries to eat Kitty's food before eating her own. If Ide is not watching, Kitty will eat Ide's food instead of hers. Oh yes, Ide is very good at eating fish. She can clean a fish out so well that it leaves only the bones. Even the head is clean. On the other hand, Kitty needs the meat of the fish to be removed from the bones before she eats it. Now, I am wondering which is the cat and which is the dog!!!!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Happy New Year 2007 and recap on 2006
Dear Readers
We at Viking Bar would like to wish all of you a very happy, prosperous and healthy new year.
Time really flies and it is already my second new year that I am celebrating in Thailand. It seems like yesterday when I just made the decision to shift here with John.
Last year was a very exciting year for us. We kicked off January 1st 2006 very well and was so busy that we did not have much time to even breathe for about 3 months. From January to December, we saw what was the business like during the peak, high and low seasons.
Our customer profiles also change through the different periods. More Scandinavians come during the peak season as this is the winter season back home. But when it came to the high seasons, we saw more of the English and other European nationalities. We even had a few from Luxembourg. In between we had the Australians, Canadians and Americans. We also had customers from the middle east and South Africa. I think almost people from all continents was at the bar one time or another during the full year. Oh yes, we have very few Asians - maybe because very few Asians come to Koh Samui. After all, Samui is an island where you want to relax and do nothing for your holiday. This type of holiday style unfortunately does not suit many Asians who loves shopping, shopping, shopping and cannot just sit and do nothing at the beach....ha ha ha
Like the previous year, we made some improvements to the bar. We added a new 42" plasma LCD TV just before the world cup. We improved our store room, renovated the previous bedroom to be a office upstairs and added a staff toilet. We also separated the men's urinal from the ladies toilet, hence creating 'two' toilets so that queues need not be so long. Unfortunately, this meant that the ladies toilet is now much smaller than before. Well, guess we all need to make some sacrifices sometimes.
Oh yes, in terms of drinks, we introduced a new cocktail called Hurricane after our holiday in New Orleans. This is a great drink and is very strong but tastes deceptively mild. We also introduced a new shot called Bluetooth, named after a famous Viking Warrior. As for snacks, we now have popcorn and bombay mix.
We also extended our bar hours to the early afternoon. Now, we are open from 1pm to 2am and happy hour is now from 1pm to 10.30pm. Our deals for happy hour is the best in this busy street of Soi Green Mango.
We have had some staff change as well. Palla, our youngest staff is still with us but she now works in the afternoon shift. We have new waitresses and bar tenders.
As for our web site, http://www.vikingbar.net/, we launched our online shop to sell some souvenirs for our readers, customers and visitors. We also launched our Viking Blog (what you are reading now) and hope to share our experiences with our readers.
The monsoon that was to appear in end November did not arrive. We were all prepared for the worst after experiencing the monsoon in the year 2005. But to our surprise, all we had was a couple of days (only a few hours each time) raining and sunshine all the way. Of course, there were continuous false alarm of thunderstorms and heavy rains but after the experience of 2005, everything seems very mild.
2006 was also the year of the military coup in Thailand. Again, the only effect visibly seen was the reduction of tourism. It was and still is very peaceful here (despite the recent bombings in Bangkok on New Year's eve).
Well, that's a quick recap of what happened last year.
Once again, happy new year to all of you out there.
We at Viking Bar would like to wish all of you a very happy, prosperous and healthy new year.
Time really flies and it is already my second new year that I am celebrating in Thailand. It seems like yesterday when I just made the decision to shift here with John.
Last year was a very exciting year for us. We kicked off January 1st 2006 very well and was so busy that we did not have much time to even breathe for about 3 months. From January to December, we saw what was the business like during the peak, high and low seasons.
Our customer profiles also change through the different periods. More Scandinavians come during the peak season as this is the winter season back home. But when it came to the high seasons, we saw more of the English and other European nationalities. We even had a few from Luxembourg. In between we had the Australians, Canadians and Americans. We also had customers from the middle east and South Africa. I think almost people from all continents was at the bar one time or another during the full year. Oh yes, we have very few Asians - maybe because very few Asians come to Koh Samui. After all, Samui is an island where you want to relax and do nothing for your holiday. This type of holiday style unfortunately does not suit many Asians who loves shopping, shopping, shopping and cannot just sit and do nothing at the beach....ha ha ha
Like the previous year, we made some improvements to the bar. We added a new 42" plasma LCD TV just before the world cup. We improved our store room, renovated the previous bedroom to be a office upstairs and added a staff toilet. We also separated the men's urinal from the ladies toilet, hence creating 'two' toilets so that queues need not be so long. Unfortunately, this meant that the ladies toilet is now much smaller than before. Well, guess we all need to make some sacrifices sometimes.
Oh yes, in terms of drinks, we introduced a new cocktail called Hurricane after our holiday in New Orleans. This is a great drink and is very strong but tastes deceptively mild. We also introduced a new shot called Bluetooth, named after a famous Viking Warrior. As for snacks, we now have popcorn and bombay mix.
We also extended our bar hours to the early afternoon. Now, we are open from 1pm to 2am and happy hour is now from 1pm to 10.30pm. Our deals for happy hour is the best in this busy street of Soi Green Mango.
We have had some staff change as well. Palla, our youngest staff is still with us but she now works in the afternoon shift. We have new waitresses and bar tenders.
As for our web site, http://www.vikingbar.net/, we launched our online shop to sell some souvenirs for our readers, customers and visitors. We also launched our Viking Blog (what you are reading now) and hope to share our experiences with our readers.
The monsoon that was to appear in end November did not arrive. We were all prepared for the worst after experiencing the monsoon in the year 2005. But to our surprise, all we had was a couple of days (only a few hours each time) raining and sunshine all the way. Of course, there were continuous false alarm of thunderstorms and heavy rains but after the experience of 2005, everything seems very mild.
2006 was also the year of the military coup in Thailand. Again, the only effect visibly seen was the reduction of tourism. It was and still is very peaceful here (despite the recent bombings in Bangkok on New Year's eve).
Well, that's a quick recap of what happened last year.
Once again, happy new year to all of you out there.
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