Cha-am, South Thailand - September 2009

Apsara’s Blog: "Cha-am, South Thailand"
A charming place, Cha-am is. We travelled 2 hours by road towards north west coast of the Gulf of Thailand. Our stay started at Sabaya Jungle Resort which is 10 min walk away from Cha-am beach bustling street for 1 night and continued to Alila, Cha-am for another 2 nights stay.

Khun Duangrit Bunnag's work hit us like a wonderful cool breeze. It was an atheistic experience, stimulating our senses and opening our eyes to what architecture can do to a piece of land. A wonderful experience indeed.

A FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN BANGKAPI, BANGKOK

Apsara’s Blog

On my baby blog I wrote about this wonderfully authentic restaurant called Kratip Restaurant in Bangkapi Mall, Bangkok. At first it feels so strange to have those working there treating you like friends instead of patrons but after awhile of their warm reception, especially to my little one, I decided it was the best eating place it became our fave. local hangout (other than Mothercare, Thonglor and etc;p). The atmosphere is so like you are in your fave. pub where everybody knows each other.

You can be sure to be served with wonderfully brashly flavoured Isaan cuisine with performing local artistes singing Thai oldies & current songs. My favorite is the serpent head fish in coconut sour soup (Tom ka plaa).

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