Chinese New Year

February seems to be a month of celebrations. First we had Valentine's Day and then we had Chinese New Year on the 18th of February.

Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days. Traditionally, businessman would choose a good day to reopen the office for business. However, since Viking Bar is a pub and caters for all customers all year round, it is impossible for us to close even a single day (unless required by the government of Thailand).

One of the traditions of Chinese New Year is for the owner to given 'ang pow' (known as red packet) to staffs. In a business like Viking Bar, it is also good for the owner to celebrate the joy of Chinese New Year with its customers. Normally, this is done by giving out oranges and 'ang pows'.

So, being Chinese myself, I decided to carry out this tradition this year. On the second day of Chinese New Year, customers were given 2 oranges and an 'ang pow'. In each 'ang pow' was a free drink that the customer can claim from us during that night. I hope the customers enjoyed it as much as I did in sharing my new year with them. Well, at least I knew that all the drinks were claimed...ha ha ha

On the last day of the new year we will be having fireworks. So, if you are around in Samui on March 4th, please do come and celebrate with us. Incidentally, 4th March is also the Full Moon Party day in Koh Phangan.

Gong Xi Fa Chai, Sin Nien Quai Lek, Wan See Ru Yee to all my Chinese readers.

Valentine Day

We celebrated Valentine Day with a difference this year.

On 14th of February, Viking Bar was decorated with roses and balloons. Each lady customer was given a rose on this romantic day. It must have been a great sight and I could see from the pictures that the ladies were very happy. I was also told that our kitchen was full of roses (as per picture above).

I, unfortunately, was stuck in Malaysia and was unable to celebrate Valentine Day with the customers in Viking Bar. So, guess I missed all the fun.

Happy belated Valentine's Day.

David has done it again!!!!

David of Denmark has topped the Men's Shot Competition. Last year, David did an impressive 9.x seconds. But he was overthrown by Federick of Sweden a few months later. Federick's time was 9.10 seconds.

Yesterday, David and three other friends had a go at it again. And this time, David made a record of 7.25 seconds whereas his friend, Kasper, made a record of 8.27 seconds. This makes them both in the first and second position currently and Federick is now moved to the third position.

So, our top two records are held by the Danish and the third place goes to Swedish.

For the girls, our two Thai ladies have been holding the record for almost a year now. No Swedish ladies have beaten the record so far. Mariann of Norway holds the third position currently.

Our shot competition is very popular with both the guys and gals. All the guys need to do is drink 11 different shots in 11 seconds and under. If they beat this record, the drinks are free. If not, they pay 1,100 baht for the drinks. As for the gals, they only need to drink 7 different shots in 7 seconds and the cost is only 700 baht if they do not make it. All participants gets a free Viking T-Shirt worth 350baht. By the way, all shots are 6cl.

The Current Peak in Koh Samui

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.

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!!!!

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.

Preparing to Usher in the New Year

Preparing for Christmas has been a very hectic time but I find that it was very rewarding as well. This year, Christmas Eve fell on Sunday. Unfortunately, Palla is off on Saturday and John had to work on Saturday afternoon and night. Since I needed a vehicle to purchase any last minute items, I had to take John to work on Saturday afternoon and then pick him up at 2am when the bar is closed.

I was up early on Saturday (about 9am) and started preparing the major cooking. Some preparation has been done over the last couple of days - like making the pastries...yucks, really do not like that as I do not make good pastries!!

Like last year, I stayed awake the whole night on Saturday, went to pick John at 2am and then continued to bake the pies and cook the rest of the stuff. By the time I finished, it was almost noon and I took a short nap - 1 hour nap!!.

Sunday night was good to us. We had many customers and the satisfaction on their faces after eating the meal makes me feel real good. I truly felt my time was well spent when I received the praises from the customers for the good food. Well, we ended up closing at 6am.

Now, the time has come for the New Year preparation. This time around, I think I will do something slightly different. No more pies because they take too much of my time. More like hotpots, casseroles, roasts and salads. Certainly hope that the crowd would like it just as much.

To all you readers, John and I wish you Happy New Year and may the new year bring you health, happiness and wealth.

Cheers

Christmas Eve Party in Viking Bar, Koh Samui

The time of the year is here again. And yes, we will be celebrating Christmas with our customers.

Like last year, we will be having a free buffet but this time, the buffet will start at 11pm on Christmas Eve night. We intend to have Swedish Meatballs, Ham, Pies, Quiches and much more for the buffet.

On top of this, all customers will get a Lucky Draw ticket for every 100 baht alcoholic drinks order. We will have two draws, one at 1am and another at 3am. The prizes for the lucky draws includes the famous Viking T-Shirt worth 350 baht, Whisky, Rum and others. The winner has to be present in the bar to claim the prize when the ticket is drawn.

Last year, we had quite good fun. We even had a free dance performance from 4 lovely girls from Malaysia. See our pictures from our photo album in our web site, www.vikingbar.net.

As for me, well, guess it is time to start preparing the menu and making the pastry. One nice thing though - I have had at least 3 offers from customers wanting to help in the cooking. Gosh, am I lucky this time around!!!

If any of you readers have ideas for making the party more enjoyable, please do let me know.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Viking Bar Online Store

We have finally setup our own online store to allow all our friends and customers to purchase some nice souveniors as gifts for friends or just for yourself.

All our T-shirts except for value line has printing on both the front and back. The front is our logo and the back has the year and address. As this year is about to end, the T-Shirts we have now is in limited quantities only.

We also have caps and mugs for our online store. However these items are not available in our shop in Koh Samui, Thailand.

We intend to expand our online store with more products for customers and also with interesting designs from Koh Samui, Thailand. If you have any ideas of what you would like to purchase, do drop us a note if you cannot find it in the store. Our email is judy@vikingbar.net or john@vikingbar.net or you may also drop us a note from our contact page in our website, www.vikingbar.net.

We are very excited over this online store and definitely look forward to improving it with quality products and new designs over period of time.

One Day Visa Run

Finally, after 20 months in Koh Samui, I had a taste of what a one day visa run is like. I have heard about it many times from customers and even John but this is my first experience on 13th November 2006. Well, all I can say is that it is something I would never ever want to try again!!!!

I was picked up at 4.40am for the 6am ferry. John has booked me for the visa run with a company that has a nice big bus. Maybe I was never scheduled to ever do a one day visa run...whatever the reason, the company's big bus broke down weeks before and the replacement was a mini bus. A slightly bigger than normal mini bus (14 seater) but still a mini bus. There were 9 passengers althogether but of course, I was the smallest sized one. By the time I got off the ferry and went to the mini bus, the only 'best' seat was a single seater just before the door. Gosh, even for my size, the seat was small!!!!! and uncomfortable.

As per all that I have heard, well, the driver drove as if he was in the Grand Prix and by the time we reached the Perlis border, I think I almost died. I truly do not know how I survived the journey back. It was a harrowing experience and I think many times, I almost went to either hell or heaven. I chose the best method to ignore the crazy driving - sleep (or trying to sleep) throughout the whole journey.

Well, all I can say is that I was very happy to be back home by 6.30pm that day itself and I think it will be another long while before I venture for this one day visa run again. I salute those who does this on a monthly basis and for periods like 6 years!!!! I really do not know how John can take it but then again, he had the luxury of the big bus. Maybe the next time (if I ever gathered up enough courage to do it again...ha ha ha), I might be more lucky and will be able to experience the luxury of a big bus.

Loy Kratong in Thailand

Today is the full moon night of the 12th lunar month in Thailand. This is the day where Loy Kratong is celebrated. Loy Kratong is the one of the biggest festival celebrated in Thailand (second to Song Kran). It is a festival where people give thanks to the Goddess of the river.

Traffic is very heavy tonight especially at the areas like Chaweng Lake, Big Buddha and Nathon. Lot of people go to these places to let off the little lotus boats into the waters. Some believes that if the flame in the boat does not go off when it travels out to the waters, then your wish would come true. You can read more about it from http://www.thaiembassy.jp/culture-eng/loykratong/index.htm.

Since today is the full moon day, it is also full cleaning day for us at the bar. We have a monthly ritual where we take everything out of the bar and do a thorough spring cleaning. This unfortunately also means that we are closed in the afternoon for about 2 to 3 hours. It is hard work trying to remove chewing gum that customers leave under tables, chairs and counter top. At times like this, I fully understand why the Singapore government bans chewing gum in the country.

Yard of Ale

Mid this year John brought back a Yard of Ale glass as a new addition for our customers. We thought this would be a good compliment to our shot competition.

The Yard would take 5 bottles of beer and the challenge is to drink it all down without stopping. Last week, we finally had a Swedish customer who wanted to take the challenge. Actually this was our thought when he ordered a Yard of Chang beer. But in actual fact, all he wanted was to drink from the Yard because it is different!!! He and his friends had a go each on experiencing how it was like to drink from Yard - it takes technique to drink it down without causing too much bubbles. In fact, even filling the Yard was a technique itself.

And each time they were holding the Yard and passing it around, our hearts was pumping very fast. Why? Very simple - the Yard costs us over 4,000 baht and it is our only one. So, if they break it...well...it would be the end of the Yard and no one has actually dared to take up the challenge of setting a record yet!!!! And in the end, these guys ended up filling the yard 7 times!!!. We are now looking at obtaining half yard of ale glasses - in plastic.

Working 13 hours !!!

Last week was a real test of our endurance. Our main staff on afternoon duty, Palla, had to go with her boyfriend to Penang for his first time application of a tourist visa. The trip to Penang for this application takes in total 4 days. She left on Wednesday and was scheduled to return on Saturday evening.

At the same time, our evening supervisor who is also our cashier took 8 days off from Sunday, 1st October to Sunday, 8th October. The unplanned leave she took threw us off guard and suddenly from Wednesday to Saturday, John and I were stuck with having to work day and evening.

We had only one jeep between the two of us and while John was scheduled to work days and myself the evenings, we had to be awake for the total duration of the working works. I had to take him to work for our opening at 1pm and he had to return to fetch me back from work when I finish at 2am.

The positive effect of this hair raising event is that we know we are capable of handling the situation. But it is certainly an event that we would not want repeated. Our normal day off is Sunday and due to the lack of cashiers for that whole week, we had no day off for the last two weeks. We were truly very happy when Palla came back on Sunday for the day shift and we could then concentrate on the night shift. Hopefully, this weekend will be uneventful and we can have our well deserved rest.

Yesterday we also had the tap for Chang draught beer installed. So, now we have another added item to our vast menu. Preparing for the installation was another event altogether. When we discussed with the supplier for the installation of the draught beer, nothing was mentioned about compressors and cylinders. Couple of days before the installation of the tap, the Chang technician came and said that we had to prepare a space for the compressor.

He gave the measurements to John and suddenly it looked like we might not have sufficient space for the compressor behind the bar. After some juggling around with space, John had to go to the bar at 9am one morning to cut off a section of the bar preparation area. He had to go early because he had to complete the job before the afternoon shift starts. Luckily he managed to get it in time and now we can offer draught beer to our customers.

Is it safe to visit Thailand and Malaysia

Strange how certain events can change the perspective of anyone. Just a couple of weeks ago, a coup was declared in Thailand. While most of the world's opinion is that it is wrong, this coup is truly one of the most peaceful coup one can ever see.

There was no bloodshed, no arrests or any violence. On this beautiful island of Koh Samui, business is as usual everywhere. It is just as if nothing has happened so far.

While the borders to countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos was closed, the borders to Malaysia remains open. This reflects not only of the safety in Thailand but also of the safety in Malaysia. Many people continue to ply between Thailand and Malaysia via the Thai/Malaysia border without incidents.

So, if you are planning a visit here and would like to travel to Malaysia via road (for budget reasons), please do so. Malaysia is equally a beautiful country on its own. It is entirely different from Thailand and the vast change in culture and environment can be seen as you travel down south.

New Visa Rules For Staying in Thailand

In a crackdown for illegal workers, Thailand is now tightening the rules on "visas on arrival". In the past, visitors from about 57 countries can enter Thailand for 30 days without charge. However, it is found that many of these "visitors" are actually owners of businesses or workers in Thailand. What has happened is that most of these "visitors" participate in what is called a visa-run every 28 days.

The new rules that is coming in place from October 1st 2006 is to limit these "visas on arrival" to 90 days over any six month period. So, anyone who stays more than 90 days will have to be out of Thailand for a period of 90 days before they are allowed to enter. However, if you have a proper tourist visa (which can be obtained from your country or neighbouring countries over here), you will have a chance of staying more than 90 days.

Each tourist visa that is issued by Penang or Kuala Lumpur is currently for a period of 2 months. However, nothing has been mentioned as to whether a visitor can continue to apply for a tourist visa every 2 months. This is something that is still unknown and not discussed.

There are many opinions about this matter and especially on how it will affect the tourist business in Thailand. My personal opinion is that anyone who wishes to stay here and work here should be legal. This means the person should apply for the non-immigrant visa and work permit and hence, pay the taxes to the government. However, I have come across many "visitors" who stays in Samui because of health issues, wanting to be with their Thai girlfriend or simply because they like the island. These will be the ones who will be badly affected by the new ruling unless they are allowed to renew the tourist visa every 2 months.

Any comments?

Life in Viking Bar for the past 18 months

Time seems to pass by so quickly. It is already 18 months since we shifted to Koh Samui and took over the Viking Bar business.

When we started, both of us knew nothing about cocktails and alcoholic drinks. For me, it was a true experience in a new world all together - both in the business and also in the country. In all my life, I have hardly ever entered a bar/pub in Malaysia and my career was concentrated on software computing. Suddenly there I was venturing in the business of a pub in a new land.

Looking back, the experiences have been motivating and exciting. For the past 18 months, I have met so many different people from all walks of life and many different countries. It is particulary satisfying to see the same customers again after a few months or a year.

For our first Christmas and New Year, we served free food and had lucky draws for our customers. I still recall the difficult moments I faced with the menu for both the events. Since we have no kitchen in the pub, we had to provide food that is just easy to reheat with the microwave. We decided to offer the Swedish meatballs and pastries. To my horror, there was no pastry on sale at all on this island. Hence, I had to make all my pastries - from flaky pastry to the normal short crust pastry - from scratch. It was a hard task - trying to make 18 pastries for one event. Struggling with the water cuts and electrical cuts that was constant in this island, I ended up baking for about 30 hours without sleep just before Christmas. However, the result of seeing the happy faces on the customers truly makes up for the lack of sleep. This year, we will offer the same free dinner cum supper to all customers of Viking Bar for Christmas and New Year.

Today, Viking Bar is open from 1pm till 2am. We have also extended our menu to include coffee (expresso, cappuccino, latte), ice cream, shakes and popcorn. We are able to do so mainly because of the support of our customers.

We also have an extensive selection of Swedish and Norwegian music. Our customers are able to choose from our list and hear their favourite songs. Of course, there are times when we are overwhelmed with requests. In times like that, we play at least one song from each customer before rotating back to another choice of the same customer.

You can visit our website, www.vikingbar.net for more information about our pub. We have a good selection of photos of our customers since March 2005. Feel free to download any of the pictures.