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 0 335

Articles from Jamie's Phuket

Hotel Recommendations: CC Blooms Hotel 2007-11-13 08:37:00 CC Blooms was just recommended to me yesterday by a customer who gave it a rave review - friendly staff, attention to detail, beautiful decor and "that something extra" that makes CC Blooms more than just another hotel. OK, it's not by the beach, but the location in the hills of Karon is just as nice.The name CC Blooms comes from Bette Midlers character in the movie "Beaches" (I must say I have never seen it, but might just try to find it at the local video shop now...). Beaches seems to be a very popular movie with gay people, and indeed CC Blooms is promoted as a gay, or "gay friendly" hotel. My customer said he had met the owner, a gay American man and maybe the "gayness" of the hotel gives it the unique style. Of course you don't have to be gay to stay here. Read the reviews on Trip Advisor (see link below) - the hotel is rated very highly by just about everyone.It's nice to hear of a different kind of place to stay in Phuket, just the kind of place that Jamie's Phuket is looki ...

Hotel Recommendations: Phuket Island View 2007-11-04 08:29:00 Karon Beach has many small scale resorts along the beachfront, along with a couple of big ones like the Hilton and the Thavorn Palm Beach Resort. For location, I can recommend them all! Just be aware, that apart from the Karon Beach Resort and the Ruam Thep Inn, none of the resorts have direct beach access - you have to cross the road first.The South end of the beach is a little quieter than the North end, and you are within about 10 minutes walk of Kata Beach too. There is decent snorkeling around the rocks and you can even do scuba diving off the beach there. You'll find several hotels near the Karon football stadium, and to me they are all "much of a muchness", except I got a recommendation from a customer this week who went to look for a hotel room on arrival and he stayed at the Phuket Island View. Main reason was the friendliness of the staff and the fact that they made him feel welcome and treated him as a valued guest rather than just a name in the register. Phuket Island View ...

Wat Ladthiwanaram 2007-11-01 09:46:00 Wat Ladthiwanaram can be found along Chao Fa Road between Phuket Town and Chalong, a little after the turn off to Phuket Zoo and before Land and Houses Park. It's a rather unique temple, with a small lake between the temple grounds and the road.I must have passed this temple hundreds of times, not knowing what lies beyond the entrance... Phuket has so many small local temples, any one of which is worth stopping to visit if you happen to be passing by. Or if you are a temple lover you can carefully map out a drive around Phuket taking in as many temples as possible! The hell with beaches and bars, if you want to see the real Phuket, try temples, markets and quiet back roads.Wat Ladthiwanaram is quite pretty. If you are anywhere in the area, stop for a look. • More Phuket Temples ...

Wat Manik 2007-10-28 09:08:00 I imagine Manik temple and the surrounding Manik area of Phuket is not on most visitors "must see" lists, but if you are passing this area near Cherng Talay, on the road between the Heroine's Monument and Surin Beach, you can find a very nice local temple and a very green and as yet relatively undeveloped area of Phuket. We took a drive around this area a few weeks ago - it's a habit of ours to follow back roads, plus I had read about a waterfall in the Manik area, so we tried to find it...We followed one dirt side road for several miles up into the hills. The road became narrow and twisty and steep. And we don't have a 4x4. The hillside was covered in rubber plantations and in the valley below was a small waterfall, though I guess not the one I had read about. The road suddenly ended and I had to make something like a 15 point turn to point the car back downhill!Oh well, no waterfall, but the surrounding scenery is lovely in this part of Phuket.Being a fan of temples, I wanted to s ...

Phuket Vegetarian Festival Photos 2007-10-19 09:40:00 I have to say, as a seasoned traveler, and 8 year resident of Phuket, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a real buzz. The street processions are so full of life, full of noise, full of people, full of magic... and what goes on in the temples at night is almost other worldly. There is something special going on here, this is no show, this is not make believe. This is very real.I would still like to see more next year, there is so much to experience during the festival. Over the last week I have been sticking to the Jae food (albeit washed down with a few beers), and I have been into Phuket Town on 2 mornings for the street processions. The processions start early, around 7 - 7:30am, nearly every morning during the festival. In the evenings at various shrines are such activities as fire walking and "bladed ladder climbing", but I never seem to have time to see all that. So... roll on 2008!I took more than 250 photos, so this blog post might get a bit long.... I will try to be selective. T ...

Vegetarian Festival 11 - 19 October 2007-10-11 09:32:00 The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is here again. For 9 days, this is the time to purify body and soul by eating the right food and refraining from alcohol, sex and other naughty things. The origins of the festival go back to 1825 - anyone who thinks Phuket has no history is mistaken! Last year was the first time I really participated in the festival - I ate the food (and I tell you it does clean out your system), I visited shrines, and followed a street procession one morning. The processions are the highlight of the festival - have a look at last years photos - Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2006.Last night things went off with a bang here in Kathu. There was a firework display and at every participating shrine the "pole raising" ceremony took place (unfortunately I was at work, I would love to see this) - The poles join our world with the spiritual world, allowing the spirits to descend to the shrines. During the festival, the spirits enter the bodies of mediums who participate in the stree ...

Dino Park Mini Golf 2007-10-04 08:14:00 After a few wet days at the end of the low season, we had a sunny day yesterday so thought we had better do something for the kids. We normally avoid the really "touristy" places in Phuket, which is reflected in this blog, but I do accept that the kids don't always want to be driving around looking at temples or pretty views! Phuket has a whole host of tours and tourist attractions and there is plenty of information about these on other websites. Some of them are quite good, so I am assured! Well, yesterday we drove to Kata and took the kids for a round of golf. Well, mini golf actually. The Dino Park complex has a restaurant (I have eaten the Dino Burgers there - very big and tasty), a bar and the mini golf.The whole place is done with a prehistoric/dinosaur them with walls, chairs and floors made of "rocks" (concrete). It looks quite good too!The mini golf has 18 holes and is full of dinosaurs. It's 240 Baht for adults and 180 Baht for kids. No discount for locals so we were told. ...

Gibbon Rehabilitation Project and Bang Pae Waterfall 2007-09-23 02:43:00 Up in the Northeast of Phuket in a heavily forested area is the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park. To get there, head North on the airport road from Phuket Town and turn right at the Heroine's Monument, then drive around 10km - the entrance on the left side is easy to find. We have been up this way many times, not just for the Gibbon Project and the waterfall, but nearby is Bang Pae Seafood and also Bang Rong from where you can get a ferry to Koh Yao Noi.The Bang Pae waterfalls are not big, but popular with locals at the weekend and you get quite a few tourists up here too. The forest is thick and full of sounds from the chirping of insects to the song of the gibbons. At the entrance to the falls just as you turn off the main road there is an elephant trekking safari - the elephants looked happy and well fed. I swear they posed for photos too. If you want to try elephant trekking this might be a good spot.As you drive up to the park entrance the roadside is lined with rubber trees as is m ...

Karon Beach 2007-09-11 04:13:00 This blog has tended to steer clear of the main beaches, but since I work in Karon, I can make an exception! The 3 most developed beaches are Patong (super crowded, though does have a few nice bits nearby like Tri Trang and Paradise beach), Kata (quite relaxed, but most of the beach road is taken up with Club Med), and Karon, which is between the two and not bad at all. Let's talk about Karon Beach...Most websites will tell you the same thing - Karon is Phuket's "second most developed" beach, but is quite spread out with many resorts along the beach road, generally does not feel too crowded, it much cleaner and neater than Patong and the sand is squeaky - I thought this was rubbish, but the dry sand does squeak, it's true. The beach is long and open (if you want a curving bay, then try Kata or Naiharn). In some places there is shade, in other places the beach is hot - but of course you can find beach chairs everywhere in the high season. Karon Beach is more than 3km from end to end. ...

Buying a House in Phuket - Real Estate in Phuket 2007-09-02 03:41:00 I have been living in Phuket for nearly 8 years now, and after a couple of years renting several apartments and houses, then starting a family it was time to buy a house. We (my wife and I) already knew the areas we liked in Phuket and spent many days driving around looking at houses for sale and even went to a house auction for repossessed properties! Since we have a family, we had to compromise on location - a hillside villa is not idea when a toddler might decide to crawl off the balcony, and although we like the Rawai / Naiharn area, it's just a little remote. We were already living in the Kathu area which is close to town, close to hospitals, close to shopping and markets, close to golf courses (if you like golf) etc.. so that was where we ended up buying our house.Phuket is a great place to live. I don't write this blog for a living, I write it as a celebration of Phuket! We like living here and after 4 years in our own house we feel very comfortable. Phuket has a local life, g ...