Whatever your passion, the Passage Samui Resort’s peaceful location on the north west coast of Koh Samui can help you escape the stresses and strains of every day life.

The Passage Samui provides a welcome drink for all guests on check-in, this drink is a Thai traditional herbal tea known locally as Naam Gra-jiap.

For generations, the Thai people have cultivated this herb, known as Roselle in the west, and used it to make this tea which was believed to provide a host of benefits to the drinkers health.

Asian wellness drink

In other Asian countries, Roselle is used to help promote weight loss and to help with circulation problems. While some studies have been done in Asia, Roselle hasn’t been studied much in the west, the most recent research, done in Taiwan in 2007 showed a significant reduction in cholesterol for the 42 subjects who were given a daily dose.

Ribena-like taste – but better!

The drink itself has a pleasant, refreshing taste so it’s perfect for serving cold to our tired guests who have often travelled thousands of miles to reach our Koh Samui resort. Some say it’s a little like Ribena, the famous grape concentrate, but this drink made from a flower related to the Hibiscus, is rich in antioxidants and minerals especially vitamin C, beta carotene, vitamins B1, B2 and B6.

Roselle Tea with Fresh Roselle plant

Some of the benefits of Roselle Tea:

• Diuretic (helps you wee wee!)
• Helps reduce fevers
• Facilitates digestion
• Relieves colds
• Clears up blocked noses
• Reduces cholesterol
• Controls high blood pressure
• Promotes proper kidney function
• Improves skin tone

Roselle Producers

China and Thailand are the largest producers in the world and control much of the supply. Thailand has spent a lot of money on quality roselle production and their product is of superior quality, Chinese roselle is of a lower standard. The world’s best roselle comes from the Sudan, but the amount produced is low and poor processing hampers quality. Mexico, Egypt, Senegal, Tanzania, Mali and Jamaica all produce Roselle locally mainly for domestic markets.

References

Buy some dried Hibiscus to make your own!

http://www.teacuppa.com/Roselle-Tea.asp

Great recipes and photos for DIY – both fresh and dry – Great recipes and photos

http://thedeadcockroach.blogspot.com/2011/09/recipe-roselle-tea.html

The owner of the Passage, k.Tossapol and his wife

This charity helps local communities in the following areas:

1. Youth Education – Financial support for school supplies and helping to provide scholarship opportunities for underprivileged children.
2. Aid the Sick and Disadvantaged – Orphans, displaced persons and the elderly all over Thailand will be assisted with nutritional food, clothes and basic essentials. Medical treatment and counseling will also be provided where needed.
3. Religious Community – Contributing to the preservation of religious buildings and helping in the education of those who serve in a religious order and all kinds of religious activities.
4. Environmental Concern – Sponsoring volunteers to help villagers recycle their trash and educating society in ecologically sound policies

If you want to make a specific donation towards this fund, please drop your contribution at the Front Office and indicate clearly on the envelope that this is for the Tossawoss Charity Fund.

Our completed Krathong

The ancient festival of Loy Krathong is an important celebration in the Thai Buddhist calendar. It usually takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November, and this year it will be celebrated on November 28th.

Loy in Thai language means ‘to float,’ while the krathong is the lotus-shaped container which is filled with offerings to the water spirits which is believed to bring good luck on the person floating the krathong.

The candle on the raft is an act of veneration to Buddha. Floating away the raft is symbolic of letting go of all one’s anger and negative traits, so that one can start life anew with a more positive outlook. Some people cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft to reinforce this symbology of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Many Thai believe that floating a raft will bring good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha (Thai: พระแม่คงคา).

Originally, the krathong was made from banana leaves with the layers of the trunk of a banana tree as a base.  Modern krathongs are also sometimes made of bread or styrofoam. A bread krathong will disintegrate in a few a days and be eaten by fish and other animals – this is a good thing as it is biodegradable – just like the traditional krathongs made from banana leaves. Unfortunately the same can not be said for the styrofoam varieties – so please steer clear of those you may see being sold in the market.

The Passage Samui as an environmentally friendly resort urges all ‘Loy Kratongers’ to build their own Krathong in the traditional, time honored fashion to ensure our rivers and canals stay clean and healthy for our children.

This guide will show you how to make your Krathong in the traditional way – from banana leaves. It’s a lot of fun and will leave you with a deep sense of satisfaction when completed! Let’s make a krathong today!

Make a krathong: what you need.

What you need

Here’s the list of items that we’ll need to make our beautiful little raft.

• Banana leaf (Cut into 20 rectangles)
• Banana trunk cut horizontally so it is a circular shape (this forms the base of our raft)
• Thin gauge wire
• Marigolds or nice flower (6-8 pieces)
• Orchid flower (9-18 pieces)
• Cocktail sticks (for each flower)
• Incense Sticks (3 pieces)
• Candle
• Small Office Stapler
• Scissors

Overview:

1. Preparation
2. Build the Raft
3. Decorate the Raft

Ok, let’s begin our preparation!

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 1.

Staple 3 strips of banana leaf around the banana trunk to make a base as shown below:

Banana trunk base

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 2.

Insert cocktail sticks through the centre of all flowers to enable them to be attached to our raft later.

Orchids with cocktail stick

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 3.

Cut banana leaf into twenty strips that look like picture below:

Banana leaf cut (20 pieces)

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 4.

Now we will use these banana leaf strips to create 17 beautifully shaped mini leaves.
First fold the leaf as shown:

Banana Leaf Fold 1

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 5.

Next fold the other side together to make a point as shown:

Banana Leaf Fold 2

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 6.

Then fold the lower half around to make a curved leaf shape

Banana leaf fold 3

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 7.

Secure left half in place with a staple on the left side.

Banana leaf staple 1

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 8.

Secure right half in place with a staple on the right side.

Banana Leaf Staple 2

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 9.

Tidy up the excess with scissors

Tidy the excess around the bottom of the leaf

Make Krathong: Preparation Step 10.

The final leaf should look something like this:

Final leaf ready for decorating!

Now repeat the above steps from 4-10 until we have 17 leafs as shown above then your preparation is now complete and we are ready to build our raft.

Building the raft

Banana base plus leaves plus wire

Make Krathong: Build Raft Step 1.

Start attaching your leaves around the edges of the base to make a star shape. On one side of the base create a small basket as shown below:

Attach leaves to the base with wire

Make Krathong: Build Raft Step 2.

Start attaching your leaves around the edges of the base to make a star shape. On one side of the base create a small basket as shown below:

Building the raft

Make Krathong: Build Raft Step 3.

The finished raft should look something like this:

Completed basket

Now, our raft is complete, it’s time for the most fun part – decorating the raft!

Decorate The Raft

Make Krathong: Decorate the Raft – Step 1.

Start attaching orchids around the edge of the raft – above each pointed leaf as shown:

Attach flowers

Make Krathong: Decorate the Raft – Step 2.

Using the cocktail stick attached to the candle fix the candle in the centre of the base, add the incense sticks close to the candle and finally surround the two with marigold flowers, using the cocktail sticks to attach them.

Attach candle, incense sticks and marigolds inside the basket

Make Krathong: Decorate the Raft – Step 3.

If your tired, you could stop here – it’s quite pretty looking.

Almost completed Krathong

Make Krathong: Decorate the Raft – Step 4.

But we are not settling for ‘just good enough’ here at The Passage we want the ultimate krathong! So using the rest of your leaves to go around the edge of the base and add more flowers to leave you with the final krathong as shown in the photograph.

Our completed Krathong

Congratulations! You’ve made your first Krathong!

If you made it this far – congratulations – you’ve demonstrated great patience and hopefully made a thing of beauty! Now amaze your friends by showing them your handiwork… take a photograph and post it to your facebook (be sure to tag @THE PASSAGE SAMUI in the photo so we can see your awesome design)

If you enjoyed this guide, please share it with your friends or just leave us a comment below on how you did. We’d love to hear your feedback! The traditional Thai technique to make Kratongs is now yours to share and you too can float your krathong together with your stresses and strains down the river and look forward to a happier life!

Ready for Loy Krathong

We also found this helpful video that also shows you how to make a krathong in a slightly different style:

Our location is spectacular, our villas are stunning and our service is super-friendly. Our reviews online  on Tripadvisor and similiar websites reinforce this and we are delighted to hear all feedback from our guests.

But we aren’t always the right place for everyone! …and we believe there is always room for improvement!

So The Passage Samui Resort have taught ourselves to always keep an eye on the competition. There are so many quality romantic resorts in Thailand, so we can learn a lot by observing any new trends or innovative new services.

So in the hope that it may help some other internet surfers we found this useful article that may help other surfers seeking Thailand romantic resorts.

Click here to visit:

http://reservethaihotels.net/10-most-romantic-resorts-in-thailand/

Let us know in the comments below if you found it useful!

Stay at The Passage Samui Resort and we will donate 1 USD paid per room per night towards this charity that helps local communities in the following areas:

• Youth Education
• Aid the Sick and Disadvantaged
• Religious Community
• Environmental Concern

So book your Thailand Resort Escape today!

Q: Is that a dragon in your smallest swimming pool?

A: No it’s not a dragon, it’s actually a Naga – which is a commonly seen statue in Thailand culture. Read on to learn more…

Our owners are deeply buddhist and from time to time they request their Buddhist Master to visit our resort to provide advice on how to make sure the ‘Chi’ energies around our resort are positive for our guests and for all our staff.

For those uninitiated in Chinese culture, ‘chi’’ (qi or ch’i) is an active principle forming part of any living thing. ‘Chi’ is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Chi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. The literal translation of “chi” in Chinese is breath, air, or gas.

This Buddhist Master is very sensitive to Chi’ forces and on a recent visit he recommended that the small swimming pool in front of our lobby would be an excellent location for a statue of a Nāga.

Nāgas are considered nature spirits and have a strong association with waters—rivers, lakes, seas, and wells. They bring rain, and thus fertility and are generally regarded as guardians of treasure. It is believed that they bring good health, fertility and prosperity to their venerators.

The statue that we chose to erect within our swimming pool also includes a large turtle underneath the magnificent Naga statue. Turtles seem to possess an enviable and god-like resistance to aging, and so they came to symbolize longevity.

Turtles also remind us that the way to achieve true peace (enlightenment) is through the earth. We must see the connection to all things. Just as a turtle cannot separate itself from it’s shell neither can we separate ourselves from what we do to the earth. Mother Earth will care for us, protect us, and nurture us, as long as we do the same for her. For that to happen, we must slow down and heighten our sensibilities to our surroundings – think of the future and follow our resorts Eco-friendly policy: Reduce, Recycle, Return and ensure a healthy planet Earth for our children’s children.

So next time you visit The Passage and wonder why there is a statue in our smallest swimming pool – now you know and perhaps share an interesting story with your neighbour over a cocktail.

See you soon!

The Passage Samui and their sister company Thanawoods donated large amounts of woods and worked closely with the army to build rafts for those in need so they can be mobile during these difficult times.

Enough words – here’s some of the photograph’s taken during our relief work.

If you want to make a specific donation towards this fund, please drop your contribution at the Front Office and indicate clearly on the envelope that this is for the Tossawoss Charity Fund.

Why is this Bangkok taxi driver looking so confused?

Summer madness has been stepped up a notch in Bangkok, Thailand this June as both holidaymakers and Thai locals around the town were met with the amazing sight of a Porsche boxster in traditional Thai taxi livery (That’s a delightful combination of mustard yellow and dirty green).

Do enjoy this 5 minute break from reality and watch both the locals and tourists gawp at this amazing sight (thank to Lady Gaga for the sound track; not too many Porsches were “Born this way” that’s for sure.)

Enjoy the show and hope to see more Taxi craziness in Koh Samui soon!

Of course, the real story is it’s just business. In this case it was Samsung’s marketing team’s idea to create a viral campaign to generate awareness for their new Smartphone – The Samsung Galaxy S2.

Still this is real marketing value – happy people, incredible word of mouth and uncountable numbers of locals and farang sharing images of their Porsche taxi via social networks and the internet. I wish more marketing budget was spent on doing original, fun campaigns like this that really deliver a lot of happiness to society.

Viva Samsung!

Love at first sight...

April was a special month for romance at The Passage Samui. All our guests and staff enjoyed the Royal wedding on the BBC, then the very next day we had our very own beach wedding. Kristopher and Marion, our gorgeous guests from Austria tied the knot on Laem Yai beach surrounded with their closest friends and family.

The Passage team wish the happy couple a wonderful life together!

And special thanks to our amazing wedding organisers… Faraway weddings. Thanks to their ten years of experience of weddings in Thailand, everything ran smoothly without a hitch from the romantic sand ceremony, through the wedding banquet and the phenomenal firedancers!

If you would like an amazing Ko Samui wedding do drop us an email at weddings@thepassagesamui.com and we will get back to you with a competitive quotation within two working days.