Jamie's Phuket A guide to the real Phuket Thailand by a local resident. Jamie has lived in Phuket since 1999. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 10 369

Articles from Jamie's Phuket

Chalong Temple Fair 2008-02-10 03:16:00 The annual fair at Chalong temple has been taking place this week and will finish in a couple of days. A great place to sample a bit of local life, the Chalong Temple fair has been part of the Phuket calendar since 1954 featuring fairground rides, clothes and handicrafts, furniture, flowers, fruit stalls, toy stalls, snack stalls, lots of food, and live "Look Thoong" (Thai country music) in the evenings. It all takes place in the temple grounds at Wat Chalong, which is Phuket's largest temple.We visited yesterday, just for a quick look around. With 2 kids you have to consider their needs, and wandering round in the heat is not kid-friendly. Luckily there are plenty of drinks for sale all around the fair. Also lots of toy stalls for the kids - "oh, pleeeeease daddy". We found a Spiderman outfit for our son, which he wore proudly for the rest of the day. Markets and temples are great places for people watching and for getting a flavour of the real Phuket away from the tourist beach ...

Restaurant Tips: The Ninth Floor (Patong) 2008-02-04 08:16:00 The Ninth Floor is not the kind of restaurant we would normally visit, but last week we had a company meal and decided a fancy dinner was in order. We got a babysitter for the kids and were able to enjoy fine dining with views over the "lights of Patong"... Worth getting dressed up for! It's called the highest open air restaurant in Phuket, well kind of - there are huge ceiling high sliding windows that create an open air atmosphere.OK, so here's a reason to visit Patong. The Ninth Floor was quite a treat, and we might just go back sometime soon! This is a lovely little restaurant, with top service, an extensive menu, a huge wine list, oh... and (I only found out when I got there, as it was not on the menu) they sell HofBrau beer - 190 Baht per bottle and worth every satang. I had several... and one for luck.The food was great. I had an Australian Tenderloin Au Poivre, and I have to say the next day my taste buds were craving more of the same. Going back to Phad Thai was hard work. A ...

Naka Temple (Wat Naka) 2008-01-31 03:35:00 Yes, another temple... Wat Naka (also called Wat Nakaram) is probably not one of Phuket's best known temples, and in fact even for the people of Phuket it's more of a landmark used when giving directions. It's found on a very useful "shortcut" road linking Chao Fa road west to Chao Fa road east, close to Phuket Town. Everyone knows where it is, but when I visited a couple of days ago I got the feeling that the temple was a bit neglected, an old temple on a new road.Just over the road is a weekend market where you can buy clothes, food, secondhand goods. We go sometimes and it will be blogged soon! Further along the road to Phuket town is the new fresh market (Talad Sot Mai) just before you turn left onto Chao Fa road and into the centre of town. With the markets, the temple and a whole bunch of small shops along Chao Fa road, it's an interesting area for a walk, and I might just be back there in the next few days. Around the walls are photos of local people who have died. Some ...

Kata Temple (Wat Kittisangkaram) 2008-01-24 08:28:00 Finally, after many years I decided to take a good look at Kata Temple. Just behind the temple is a place called Kata Big Rock, where you can find a pool used by scuba diving companies for dive training. I must have been there 50 times at least, driving through the main entrance to Kata Temple, but never actually taking time to look at the temple itself. I must have driven past the temple 500 times. Kata Temple is located on the back road (called "Patak Road") about 1km from Kata Beach as the sparrow flies, further by road. It seems not many tourists come here, and I can hardly locate any information about the temple on the web, but Kata Temple is easy enough to find - just follow the back road around Kata and Karon and look for the sign and the obvious temple entrance.The main temple grounds have recently been rebuilt so much of the temple looks brand new. Lots of freshly painted walls here, and still some work going on - I saw some workers painting while I visited. There is a school ...

English Food in Phuket 2008-01-20 02:10:00 If you take a look at the Phuket restaurants section of Jamie's Phuket, you'll see that I mostly enjoy eating Thai food - salads, seafood, noodles, curries and so on. Thai food is great, Thai food is fantastic, Thai food is one of the things that makes living in Thailand so enjoyable, but somewhere deep down I think I have an "English food" gene that occasionaly craves an English breakfast, some bangers and mash, baked potatoes, cheese and Branston pickle sandwiches (with thick crusty bread). This gene is mostly inactive, but I sometimes get cravings. I went through a Branston craving a couple of years ago. Any family member or friend visiting Phuket was asked to bring more Branston. I recently had a pickled onion craving too. And I must say a packet of chocolate Hob Nobs would be most welcome any time. Thanks to the web site Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down for reminding me of Hob Nobs. Oh and Fig Rolls, mmmmm. Damn, can someone send me some Fig Rolls? Wish I hadn't thought about tha ...

Phad Thai 2008-01-15 09:01:00 Phad Thai is a very common Thai dish made from noodles, egg, chili, tofu, normally some shrimp, maybe some chicken, plus onion, fish sauce, nuts, lime... ingredients can vary. You can order Phad Thai in 10 different places and get 10 different tasting meals depending on the amount and variety of sauces added, the size and type of noodles used, type of meat added and so on... Phad Thai can be bland sometimes or it can be spicy, it can be dry or saucy. You get a lot of variety out of one dish! If bought from a street stall or roadside restaurant you're normally only going to be paying 20 - 30 Baht for your lunch - it's a cheap dish to make and thus a popular lunch all over Thailand, nearly as popular as Noodle Soup.Close to where I work in Karon Beach, on the back road near the Baan Karon hotel, there's one of the most popular little lunchtime restaurants I have ever seen in Phuket. Every day workers in the local area flock here for lunch, and the most popular dish is Phad Thai. The r ...

The Best of Jamie's Phuket 2007 2008-01-05 07:55:00 Happy New Year to everyone. Thanks for reading Jamie's Phuket. This blog started in April 2006, and is still getting bigger. The idea? To show the "real" Phuket as opposed to the more popular tourist attractions. This is my Phuket, I tend to write about the places we go as a family, and places that interest me. Thanks for people who have written emails or sent donations, I hope that during 2008 this blog can continue to grow - plenty more temples to blog - sorry if you don't like temples... I do and this is my blog. Among other things, I want to write more about Phuket Town, get some photos from Chinese New Year festivities and I have said to my wife that we need to try some new restaurants as we have become rather middle aged and keep going to the same places.The Best of Jamie's Phuket 2007January was when we found The Beach Bar, a small local restaurant on the beach at Cape Panwa. We have been back many times in the last 12 months. Also in January, I had a look at Patong temple, a ...

Ton Sai Waterfall and Khao Phra Thaeo 2007-12-26 07:59:00 Ton Sai waterfall is on the other side of the mountain from Bang Pae Waterfall in the North East of Phuket. It's easy to get to - just turn east at the main junction in the center of Thalang town and you drive about 5km through rubber plantations. The two waterfalls have their source on the same mountain, Khao Phra Thaeo, which is Phuket's largest untouched area of forest and is officially designated as a National Park. Entry fee is 200 Baht, or free if you arrive after 3pm. We stopped for a look a couple of weeks ago after spending an afternoon at Layan Beach - I can't resist the lure of free entry!We just went for a quick look at the waterfall, get a bit of jungle air (it's very jungly round here) and a little bit of exercise. There was a sign for a 2km nature trail, but I didn't think my kids would thank me for that. Apparently you can even hike over the mountain and join up with Bang Pae falls - not for the faint hearted I would say. The forest is said to be home to wild deer, ...

LateStays.com - Last Minute Phuket Hotels 2007-12-18 19:00:00 If you need a hotel booking in the next few weeks - LateStays.com is the place to look for Phuket, Thailand and many other destinations....If you are visiting Phuket, you are going to need a place to stay. Be it hotel, guesthouse, resort or rented appartment, everyone needs a place to lay their hat. When I started this blog, I was intending to ignore hotels, but realised that they are rather important and maybe I could make some recommendations. So every now and then I add a recommended hotel to the blog along with some booking links:• My Recommended Phuket HotelsThere are so many hotel booking websites, its hard to know where to start. The two sites which feature on this blog (Agoda and R24), are now joined by a third. I was emailed a couple of weeks ago by the company that owns Phuket.com about a partnership with their well known LateStays.com. The Late Stays website is all about late bookings. Need a hotel tomorrow, next week, soon? This is the place to look. The website shows ...

Karon Temple (Wat Suwan Khiri Khet) 2007-12-15 08:43:00 Having worked for several years within walking distance of Karon Temple, you might think I'd have been for a look around before, but that was a few years ago before this blog got started. The blog needs feeding, and I find temples to be good eating. Phuket is full of temples, though many visitors here don't bother with them - after all, if you have stopped in Bangkok, chances are you've "done" temples already, but Phuket has some notable historical temples and every community has it's own. I find every temple has something different, and all have a certain peace about them.Karon Temple is about half a kilometer from the beach along Patak Road. If your hotel is towards the north end of Karon Beach, the temple is easily within walking distance and certainly worth a few minutes of your time.It's quite an attractive temple and while I was there several monks were working around the grounds keeping their temple neat and tidy. The main building is guarded by 2 huge snakes whose bodies c ...

Fresh flowers on our Buddha Shelf 2007-12-07 09:22:00 Just about every house in Thailand will have a "Buddha Shelf", a personal shrine where prayers can be said, a mini temple in your own front room. Everyone's shrine is different, featuring images that are important personally. Our Buddha shelf does not actually have a Buddha image on it - the central figure is a statue of King Rama V (King Chulalongkorn).December 5th was the 80th Birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, an ideal day to clean our Buddha shelf, change the flowers and say a prayer. Some people change the flowers weekly, we tend to be a little less diligent.. the old flowers were not looking great... King Rama V needs pink roses, which were his favourite flowers. You'll find flower shops all over Phuket, indeed all over Thailand... all selling flowers for Buddha..roses and garlands just for the thousands, maybe millions of Buddha shelves all over the country. With the shelf clean, fresh flowers in place and a fresh glass of water, next step is to light the candles a ...

The Beach Bar is Back! 2007-12-03 08:54:00 We first found "The Beach Bar" about a year ago and it quickly became a favourite place to eat, drink and just... chill. Finding a place to truly "chill" in Phuket is a bit tricky, but you can do it! The Beach Bar is a little restaurant on the east side of Chalong Bay, down Cape Panwa way. Just follow the signs to Novotel Panwa Resort and you'll find it.Panwa has long been a favourite area and last year I was very happy to find a place here right on the beach, with cheap tasty food, friendly people, great views, a safe beach for the kids to play... The Beach Bar. Sadly it was closed all low season and we wondered if it would open again, and then last week we took a drive to check. Hoorah!  It has actually moved about 20m closer to the Novotel, leaving some half-knocked-down walls next door. Yeh, not 100% pure paradise, but we like it and this is my blog! The family who run the place are very friendly, the food is tasty, beer is cold and the view across Chalong Bay is great, ...

Loy Krathong 2007 in Phuket 2007-11-27 06:40:00 After making our own krathong at home on Saturday (see Making a Krathong), there was plenty of time before the evening festivities got underway. We had not decided where to go and loy (float) our kratong... we normally head for the Bang Wad reservoir where hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the Kathu area go every year for Loy Kratong. The reservoir is the largest in Phuket with an 800m long dam and people gather there every evening for picnics by the water and jogging on the dam (see Bang Wad Reservoir). This year we thought about going somewhere different, like maybe Patong (thought again - sure to be a big party, but too crowded and parking a nightmare), or Karon (same as Patong and further from home too), or maybe Rawai beach (much quieter)...While we chewed over the options for where to Loy our Krathong, we took a drive down to Cape Panwa to see if one of our favourite places had reopened.... YES! The Beach Bar, near the Novotel Panwa Resort is open again. We love it. On the b ...

Loy Kratong - 24th November 2007 - Making the Kratong 2007-11-25 03:52:00 Loy Kratong is on a different day each year, falling on the Full Moon of the 12th lunar month, which is normally sometime in November. Last year was November 5th, this year November 24th. Loy Kratong is celebrated all over Thailand with particularly large ceremonies in Bangkok, Sukothai and Ayutthaya. Here in Phuket, festivities are quite extensive at the main beaches such as Patong and Karon, and anywhere else you find water - which is everywhere, being that Phuket is an island. We normally go and float our kratong at Bang Wad Reservoir, which is the largest reservoir in Phuket and is not far from our home in the Kathu area of Phuket. The word "Loy" means Float, and the Kratong is what you set afloat - read on...Making Our KratongOf course there are stalls all over the place selling ready made kratongs, but we decided to DIY this year, ending up with a kratong that just about floated without tipping over! To make a kratong you will need - cut slices of banana stem to make the base, ba ...

Layan Beach 2007-11-19 09:10:00 Layan Beach is not at all well known, so if you want to find one of the quietest and most beautiful beaches in Phuket, try to find Layan Beach. Hard enough to find it on a map! We first found Layan in January on a rather grey day while driving around the back roads in the North of Phuket. You have a choice of small roads to reach Layan Beach. Last weekend we drove through the Laguna Resort complex, the road turning from good, to bad, to "oh-my-god-i-wish-we-had-a-4wd". The last 100m took about 5 minutes. OK, that's the back route in, you can also go via Naithon, or via Thalang, following a long twisty road through the villages. OK, enough directions. Go find it.Seek and ye shall find paradise. Or at least a very peaceful, picture postcard beach. Layan Beach, just North of Bang Tao Beach, has two halves. The southern part is simply stunning if you like blue seas and white sand. The land is privately owned, well cared for and kept simple. We were there at the weekend for lunch in the hi ...