SATUN, SOUTHERN THAILAND TRIP 19 - 21.07.09

This marks the first trip for us; a family of three, since our return from Malaysia during the May 2009 Harvest Festival in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Baby Apsie and me tagged along hubby to a 700 years old fisherman village called Kampung Che Bilang in Satun a Muslim-majority province in southern Thailand and experienced harmonious life among the Muslims, Buddhists and others.

The wonderful story of how the village came to its name is both memorable and heart-warming. The story goes -

One day a pirate from the high seas landed in a fisherman's village along the Andaman seas and saw a lady with her virgin beautiful daughter. He decided to make the virgin his own so he kidnapped both ladies and smuggled them to his ship. His act was found out by the matriarch of the ladies family who had came from the far away land called Java. He rushed to the shore and called out to the retreating boat to give back his wife and virgin daughter!

The pirate just laughed, certain that the father can't do much on land. The matriarch called again and shouted that if his demands are not met, he will pull the boat back to shore and rescue his family. The pirates laughed again and true to his word, the matriarch pulled at the boat anchor rope stranding it to shore.

Full of awe the pirate said,'Cek adalah orang yang terbilang' and gave back the father his wife and daugther before escaping back to sea. And so the village is called 'Cheebilang' after its strongest occupant.

This is my version of the story - facts may defer;p

HAVE A VERY MERRY XMAS!!!

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Don Hoi Lot & Amphawa Floating Market Trip 6.09.08

Though I am 8 months pregnant, I was still game enough go for a day trip to Don Hoi Lot (Gulf of Thailand) and Amphawa Floating market. We had lunch at one of the restaurant near the sea and feasted on a buffet of exotic seafood which we couldn't get in Bangkok. There was the dinosour crabfish, yabbies, curry crab, fresh steam fish, Ota-ota (fish dumpling), hot tom yum goong and of course my favorite crab with grass noodles in the hotpot.

Afterwards, we wandered around the fish market that sales bulk dried seafood like fish stick, dried squid and shrimp which my sister bought to bring home and share with family back in Singapore.

We continued our journey to Amphawa Market and there's just so many people. Hubby Philip went to check out the resort around the area while we walked from one end to another enjoying the sights of locals buying local produce and fresh food. We tasted thai dessert which is similar to Leong Fun back home but with a dash of palm toddy and syrup.

Mione had fun with her stick ice cream and was reluctant to share it mum wherelse Mummy Uaa and Daddy Wee Lee was busy capturing Mione's antic through their digital camera lenses. You can see a collection of the photos in the slide show above.

Enjoy now.