April 19, 2026
If you have been following along, you know I really hoped to see an active
Octopus here, swimming through the water. What I didn't specify is what size the
Octopus
would be in that wish! Here in
Raja Ampat we have noticed that our dive masters and guides are really focused on the tinest creatures, in these huge oceans. They carrying writing boards to tell us what we are looking at, because we are talking things the size of a finger tip! So I did
technically get my dream of seeing an
Octopus in flight! Meet the rare and deadly (their sting can kill you in 3 minutes)
Blue Ringed Octopus! He is the small purple and yellow dotted piece cling to the corals below (on the bottom right). You would think just another coral - until you see him move in videos below. Enjoy!
He really is kinda fascinating - he changes colors between flying and landing to better blend with the corals he stops on - somtimes he is white body other times yellow. We watched him for several minutes and it's a good thing I didn't know about the poisonous venom until we were out of the water!
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.