Jamie's Phuket

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Phuket Old Town Festival 2012
2012-02-05 10:42:00
The end of January was a busy time for festivals and fairs in Phuket! We had the Chalong Temple Fair, also a food fair at Sapan Hin (the south end of Phuket Town ), it was Chinese New Year on the 23rd (welcome to the year of the Dragon!) AND from 28th - 30th January there was the Phuket Old Town Festival , 3 nights of street fair, food stalls, stage performances in the old part of Phuket Town along Thalang Road and in the Queen Sirikit Park next to the TAT office. There had been a one-night fair for the Chinese New Year on the 23rd at the Sanam Chai park on the north side of Phuket Town. We went along and I took some photos - see Chinese New Year in Phuket but much of the New Year celebrations were saved for the Old Town Festival although there were lots of lanterns on the 23rd....We headed into town on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th in the evening. A bit late on Saturday actually as there was a street procession with people dressed up in old style Chinese clothing .. and we missed tha...

Wat Khao Rang (Rang Hill Temple)
2012-01-22 16:40:00
OK so it's 2012 now and this Phuket Blog has been going since April 2006. I love temples, and have blogged more than 30 temples and shrines in the Phuket area. If you think temples are boring don't click here: Phuket Temple s and Shrines. There are a few "on the list" to be blogged more for the sake of completeness than anything else. But imagine a sunny morning, driving through Phuket Town with my wife .. kids have been dropped at school and we've dropped a broken laptop off for repairs. We're driving on familiar roads, heading north near the Vachira hospital. There is a little-used side road by the hospital that heads up to the top of Rang Hill . My wife asks - do you know the temple up this road?I must have driven this way before, but seem to have missed Rang Hill Temple (Wat Khao Rang). Hidden from view up that small side road by the hospital is something quite impressive! There's more than one Big Buddha in Phuket....OK, it's not as big as "The" Big Buddha, but it's very n...

Phuket Mini Golf at Bang Tao Beach
2012-01-15 15:31:00
It was on Christmas Day that we took a drive looking for the newly opened 'Adventure Mini Golf ' in the Bang Tao Beach area of Phuket. It only opened in November 2011, I had read about it somewhere online, sounded interesting. Phuket already has a very well known mini golf operation at the Dino Park, Kata Beach. We've been a couple of times. And many years ago there was a place called Pirate Mini Golf in Patong. It closed more than 10 years ago and yet is still mentioned on many websites! Well, being that is was Christmas, I figured the kids might enjoy some mini golf. I had imagined that this Adventure Mini Golf would be right by the beach with sea views and swaying palms .. of course that's daft - beach land is way too expensive! We drove up to Bang Tao from home, and we don't go this way too often. The mini golf is located on the quiet Bang Tao road at the south end of Bang Tao Beach near the Sunwing Resort. I think it has been years since I last drove on this road! Christmas...

The Phuket Blog - Best of 2011 (Part 2)
2012-01-08 15:08:00
Continuing swiftly on from the Best of the Phuket Blog Part 1 (January - June) .. here's the best bits from the second half of 2011. I enjoyed 2011 - we had some very nice days out, our kids are growing up and learning about life every day. We had holidays with my Mum and Dad here in September / October. And I've had no trouble finding new places to blog about, although I have also "reblogged" a few things that were originally on the Phuket blog back in 2006 or 2007, mainly to keep everything current, also to add new photos, as some of the older blog posts don't have great images. I am still using a Canon EOS 20D, which is quite old, and will most likely be upgraded this year. Bring on 2012!July 2011... A very good blogging month. Starting with a favourite little restaurant in Phuket called Kopitiam located on Thalang Road in the old town. They do good old style coffee (Kopi) and Chinese-Thai food like Hokkien noodles and the restaurant is full of old photos of Phuket. The Chines...

Jamie's Phuket - Best of the Blog 2011 (Part 1)
2012-01-04 14:44:00
Happy New Year! Yes it's 2012 or, as we say in Thailand, 2555. Both calendars are used here, with the Buddhist date being used for a lot of official business. By the end of 2012, I will have been in Thailand for 13 years, and in April this blog will be 6 years old. I am happy to say that even after doing this Phuket blog for so long, there were plenty of new experiences in 2011. I just want to repeat - this blog is not the usual tourist website talking about the golden sands, the swaying palms, the exotic seafood, the naughty nightlife ... the blog is still very much personal and based on things that I do with the family or alone. I very much enjoyed 2011, and rather hope that Mayan forecasts are incorrect. I'd like to enjoy all of 2012 too and plenty more of the 21st century!2011 started with January. We don't normally do too much in January - it's peak season, I am working a lot and the kids are in school. I wrote a Top 10 Phuket Hotels page which will need updating soon. We t...
More About: Blog , Part

Thai Hua Phuket History Museum
2011-12-30 14:51:00
Time for some more Phuket history and culture! I know we have nice beaches and lots of touristy things to do, but as a long time local resident, I have an interest in the local area, and I think that the long and interesting history of Phuket might surprise a few people! Phuket has several quiet good museums - the Thalang National Museum , the Phuket Tin Mining Museum, and Chinpracha House are all worth a visit. The Thai Hua Museum I have blogged before about 3 years ago when it was newly opened. There was not too much to see beyond an old classroom and some old school photos and books, but entry was free :)(above) Thai Hua Museum EntranceThe Thai Hua Museum has changed quite a bit in the last 3 years. There is an entry fee now (200 Baht) - but I think it's worth that. The museum now has many rooms full of displays and information about the history of Phuket. We visited again a couple of months ago, and we were impressed. There's been a lot of investment here and if you happen to b...
More About: History

The Kee Resort and Spa @ Patong Beach
2011-12-19 02:08:00
Patong Beach is of course Phuket's busiest tourist beach, and right at the center of everything is Soi Bangla, which has always been full of bars, girls, boys pretending to be girls ... and restaurants, shops and hotels. Patong is a bit too much for my taste, but a lot of people like it! If you go back 12 years, when I first came here, Soi Bangla was a little different, indeed the whole of Patong was different. There is now the Jungceylon shopping mall where once used to be a dirty market, and although Soi Bangla is still the nightlife center, things are changing. Many people would like to see a more family oriented Patong, less bars, less bar girls, and I guess more shops and cafes. It's a personal call whether you think Patong (or parts of Patong) is seedy, or maybe you think it's just a whole lot of fun. I tend to think of the Soi Bangla area as a fun party zone, actually anyone can hang out there, it's not full of old male tourists looking for girls, although some people lik...

Floating Restaurants at Coconut Island
2011-12-13 14:17:00
The east coast of Phuket is very much under-rated, far less touched by tourism than the sandy beaches on the west coast and far less visited by visitors. Quite a few of my favourite places and favourite restaurants are on the east side. If you head north from Phuket Town, on the main airport road there is a small side road heading to Laem Hin, a fishing community where you find the very popular Laem Hin Seafood restaurant. A new jetty was built at Laem Hin a few years ago to serve Coconut Island and allow larger boats to dock in the area. On Coconut Island (Koh Maphrao) you find a very nice resort called The Village. And in the water just off the island there are several floating restaurants. We've been before and somehow I have never blogged anything about these places. The day when we went recently was not such a perfect sunny day, guess we will go again soon with blue skies for better photos.There are several restaurants to choose from - Kruvit, Bang Mud and Kru Suwit. To reach ...
More About: Restaurants , Floating

Walking to Phuket over Sarasin Bridge
2011-12-06 14:43:00
Phuket is an island, surrounded by water, true. Yes, we should say "Koh Phuket" and many holiday brochures and websites will make a lot of this "island" idea. An island is exotic, romantic, a place where magic happens, palm trees sway and smiling people serve you cocktails made of coconuts. Yes, Phuket is really an island, but only just. It's less than 500 meters from the very north of Phuket across to Phang Nga province. We're not really cut off by the sea here! Well, not at all. If you ignore the international airport, Phuket is connected to the mainland of Thailand by a bridge. Or 2. Well, actually there are 3 bridges now. The first was built in 1967 and called "Sarasin Bridge", named after a now-forgotten politician. Before that, there was the ferry .. photo below (showing an old photo on the wall of the Kopitiam cafe in Phuket Town) shows the ferry and no bridge!The first bridge was enough for 1970's traffic with little tourism yet hitting Phuket. A second bridge was built n...
More About: Walking

Local Life at Rawai Beach
2011-11-29 01:04:00
Last month, on the final day of my parents holidays, we took a little drive to the south end of Phuket island, carefully watching the weather as the low season delivered up a day of sunshine and showers. We got to Rawai beach in bright sunshine, had not really planned to stop there, but there were dark clouds to the west, so we figured why not take a little walk around Rawai. The beach here is not a swimming beach, it's very rocky and shallow. Rawai is good for food - most of the beach road is lined with small restaurants - and from Rawai you can get a speedboat or longtail boat to nearby islands such as Koh Bon, Coral Island, Racha Yai island. We did a trip last year from Rawai to explore the small island of Koh Kaew Yai which lies off the tip of Cape Phromthep and is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists - there is a big Buddha statue on the island and a giant "Buddha footprint". Legend says that Buddha stepped onto the island before coming to the mainland of Phuket, where he first...
More About: Life , Beach , Local

Kin Dee Restaurant - Local Food in the Jungle!
2011-11-20 10:26:00
During my recent holidays in October 2011 when my parents visited from the UK, we had the chance to try quite a few new restaurants that had been "on my list". On the day we visited Kin Dee, the weather was not so nice, one of those low season days that has no sun. The rain seemed rather patchy, we figured that if we just drove north we might find a rain-free area! So we had no particular plan for where to eat.. just drive and see where we end up. The east coast seemed rather wet just north of Phuket Town so we headed further and drove through heavy rain with kids moaning about hunger in the back of the car ... we though to head over the bridge into Phang Nga and eat at Samchong Seafood which is a favourite of ours. But as we reached the far north of Phuket I remembered Kin Dee, although could not remember exactly where to find it! We kept eyes open for a sign .... and finally just before the Tha Chat Chai police checkpoint we saw "KIN DEE LOCAL FOOD" - did a u-turn just before the ...
More About: Food , Restaurant , Local , Jungle

Ya Nui Beach
2011-11-13 01:44:00
Ya Nui beach seems to have remained pretty much unchanged since I first saw it more than 10 years ago. Quiet, undeveloped, easily missed if you don't know where it is - squeezed into a small bay in between Nai Harn beach and Phromthep Cape. Ya Nui is a different side of Phuket compared to the main beaches. Ya Nui has no big hotels or shops, not much at all except one small restaurant and a few shacks which serve as little groovy bars. There are some nearby bungalows, invisible from the beach itself and if you were to stay in this area, would be best to have your own transport. The view below shows Ya Nui beach, photo taken from the viewpoint just to the north where you find the big wind turbine. Nice views from up there!I don't remember the last time I stopped at Ya Nui beach. Never seems to be enough time to visit old hangouts. We used to like it. We have good memories from many years ago. A photo of our daughter when she was about 3, pretending to play drum on a wooden stall at ...
More About: Beach

Chinpracha House in Phuket Town
2011-11-04 01:41:00
Phuket Town is full of gems. Much as I love looking at beaches and seaviews, over the years it's the culture and history of Phuket which has fascinated me more. I guess most visitors don't realise that Phuket has a history, and think of Phuket as just a holiday island that didn't have much going on until tourism arrived 30 or so years ago. I also never thought about it for the first few years I was living here, mainly because I was too busy diving. Nowadays, I admit that I'd rather go for a walk in old Phuket Town than on the beach. Always something new to find and it's a great area for photography. There are loads of old buildings - much of the old town was built about 100 years ago in the days before tourism when Phuket was making it's money from the huge tin mining industry. The mining attracted workers and traders from China - many Chinese moved to Phuket during the 19th century and some of them got rich from mining. Many of the "big" families in Phuket trace their family ...
More About: House

Restaurant at Cape Phromthep
2011-10-31 14:02:00
So, hopefully most people know where Cape Phromthep is? Right at the south tip of Phuket on the west side, touted by many guidebooks and websites as the place to watch the sunset. We have been many times in the past for the sunset, for nice views, and I finally hiked down the path to the end of the cape earlier this year - first time I had done that after living here for more than 10 years! There is also a restaurant here. I had not really paid it any attention before, but saw a review here that caught my eye. Looked like a great view and (important!) the review did note that the restaurant is not too expensive! So it was added to the "things to do on holiday" list. The restaurant has been there for years, I guess for 10 years or more.. but again, something new for us after all this time!Cape Phromthep has a big car park, from which you climb some steps up to a big open area with views, a shrine, a lighthouse and firedancers at sunset! The entrance to the restaurant is to the right ...
More About: Restaurant

Thanoon Seafood
2011-10-25 03:11:00
We had some holidays around the end of September and early October. It was the kids school holiday and also my parents were over from the UK. The weather during that period was less than great. A bit too much rain and we tended to limit ourselves to quick half day shower-dodging excursions around Phuket. We got lucky on September 29th - pretty much a rain-free day. I had a few things on my "to do" list (or better to say "to blog" list) - including several restaurants that had been recommended by friends. Thanoon Seafood is not in Phuket, but it's very close! Just drive over the Sarasin bridge that connects Phuket with Phang Nga province (the mainland) and the restaurant is on the beach just on the Phang Nga side less than 100m from the bridge. Sarasin bridge has recently been rebuilt, and the old road bridge is now a pedestrian bridge where you can enjoy a walk and a view. We parked in Phang Nga, and then walked to Phuket and back before lunch.Above - view under the bridge on the P...

Crossing the Bridge for Purification
2011-10-19 15:34:00
OK, one more post about the Phuket vegetarian festival ... On the very last evening of the festival, October 5th, we all headed into Kathu village again. We'd just been there on the morning of the 4th to witness faces pierced by swords, guns, skewers and long metal rods and a procession through a million firecrackers. The noise and the bizarre rituals are part of the festival, but there's a lot more to it, a very deep tradition and history which I am sure can't be fully understood unless you are really part of it. We are just observers. The evening of the 5th, with a light rain falling showed what the vegetarian festival means here. It seemed like the whole population was there, queuing round the streets of Kathu village waiting to get into the shrine and cross the bridge for purification.The photo above shows the ladies queue. I'd not been to see this ceremony before and it too a while to realise the was also a men's queue which was on the other side of the shrine. The men and...

Vegetarian Festival - Piercings and Firecrackers
2011-10-15 04:33:00
Yes, more vegetarian festival (and apologies for scary photos)! There is so much to see during the 10 day festival, and this year I had my parents visiting - they'd never been here for the vegetarian festival before, and wanted to see as much as possible! On the morning of October 4th, Kathu Shrine was the place to be. We arrived about 6:30am... a bit late actually as the lead elements of the procession were already starting to leave the shrine for the walk into Phuket Town - about 8km away. Reminder for next year: get there at 6am. The shrine is only a few minutes drive from our house. During the festival we can hear music and firecrackers coming from the shrine every night - as the crow flies the shrine is only 1km away. I like to visit Kathu shrine rather than the big ones in Phuket Town. Kathu is very much for the local people and after a few visits people will recognise you, it's a friendly place. We'd already been for the opening ceremonies and for an evening street process...
More About: Vegetarian , Festival

Vegetarian Procession and World Photo Walk 2nd October
2011-10-10 13:37:00
On Sunday October 2nd, I was in Phuket Town nice and early (about 7:30am) with Mum and Dad for 2 reasons... Of course, the vegetarian festival was on from 26th September - 6th October, and on the morning of the 2nd was one of the big street processions from the Bang Neow shrine in Phuket Town - I was in town last year for the procession from this shrine and got lots of good photos - see Bang Neow Shrine Vegetarian Procession 2010. Also, October 2nd was the date of the World wide Photo Walk, something which I have done in 2010 and 2009. Groups of photographers all over the world take a walk in their home towns all on the same day - more info at the Worldwide Photo Walk website.The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is (I think) somewhat misunderstood. The images that come out of the festival are normally those of pierced faces. And for sure that's what I have concentrated on for the last couple of years. The blood and the shock value is certainly a real part of the festival and the last post...

Face Piercing at Sam Kong Shrine
2011-10-06 11:38:00
WARNING - Graphic content, blood and pierced faces. May not be everyone's cup of tea :)Every morning for a week during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival there are big street processions in Phuket Town, plus a few local processions near the shrines themselves. I always try to see at least a couple of the big processions. The main crowds are around old Phuket Town, which makes for a big spectacle especially with all the firecrackers, but I also like to get to some shrines before they start walking. Several reasons for this... Photos - it's easier to take a photo when someone is sitting down, harder during a procession when they are moving and there are crowds. Also, on a sunny day, they start early and it's not so hot.. plus if I am working that day, I can get to the shrine and easily get to work on time. Mum and Dad were visiting from England - this would be their first taste of the face piercing. We were at Sam Kong shrine (in the north side of Phuket Town) not long after 6am on Sep...
More About: Shrine , Face

Street procession for the Birth and Death Gods
2011-10-02 18:44:00
On the 3rd night of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, our local shrine in Kathu village has a small street procession around the village which the schedules tell me is for "Propitiation of the Birth -Death Gods". The last few years I have heard long bursts of firecrackers on this 3rd night, and last year had a quick look to see what was going on. This year, I took the camera! Luckily we arrived early. My schedules said the procession would be 7:30pm, but as we parked the car down a side street just after 7pm, the sound of firecrackers started and we raced out to the main street (not a very busy road) as the procession started to pass.This year during the vegetarian festival I am trying to concentrate a bit less on the blood and pierced faces, though there will be more photos of that later... last years photos (see Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2010 on Flickr) had a good mix. The strange piercings are hard to ignore, but that was not a problem on this warm evening in Kathu - the statues of...
More About: Street , Procession

Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2011 - Part 1
2011-09-29 03:48:00
The 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival is on now. The event started 26th September in the evening and continues until 6th October. See : Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2011 Schedule for more details. A few days into the festival now, and the street processions have started. I have not been to watch one of these early morning processions yet this year, might do that tomorrow, and will certainly be in town on Sunday 2nd October for the procession from Bang Nieow Shrine in Phuket Town. My parents are visiting from England and they want to see various aspects of the festival, though we also want to do other things in and around Phuket. The weather has not been to kind. Quite a lot of rain on the 26th and 27th for the first couple of festival days. And yet, the rain has a habit of easing off if you are brave enough to get out there. On September 26th we all went to Kathu Shrine (our local - about 2km from our house) for the opening ceremonies of the vegetarian festival.At 5pm the Go Teng pole i...
More About: Part

Naiharn Temple
2011-09-22 16:11:00
Phuket is big enough that after living here for more than 10 years there are still unexplored corners. Naiharn beach is right in the south of the island and actually I don't reckon I'd been down this way for maybe a couple of years. It's not "our" part of the island, as we live in Kathu near Phuket Town. My wife and I when we first met would often come to Naiharn and Rawai beaches, stopping off at the viewpoint between Kata and Naiharn or carrying on to Phromthep Cape. So much nice scenery in this part of Phuket and yet still so very quiet compared to the main beach areas. The road from Kata to Naiharn twists and turns until it finally drops down into the trees passing by quite a lot of recent development in the area. Lots of restaurants and bars and small hotels. The Naiharn area is popular with expats who like the quiet side of life. It's certainly much busier than 10 years ago but in some areas still feels like an English village! It's very neat and tidy and there is no ugly...
More About: Temple

Holiday Inn Resort at Mai Khao Beach
2011-09-16 02:35:00
Hot off the press! Everyone's heard of Holiday Inn of course, the brand is all over the world, and there has been a Holiday Inn in Phuket since time began in what used to be the quiet end of Patong when I first arrived here.. nowadays there is no quiet end of Patong! The Holiday Inn in Patong always gets a lot of good reviews, it's a big resort and despite being in big, bad Patong, once you are in the resort you're away from the crowds. It does tend to be a family hotel and it will suit people who like to be in the middle of the busiest beach in Phuket.The new 246 room Holiday Inn Resort at Mai Khao Beach is rather different. Mai Khao beach is the very antithesis of Patong. One can say it's more crowded now than 10 years ago when JW Marriott was the only big resort on the whole 10km of beach. If you felt like it, and maybe I'll do it one day, you could walk from one end of the beach to the other and it would take you a couple of hours at least. That's lots of beach. So even th...

Karon Temple Market
2011-09-10 10:51:00
The local market is always a good place to get a slice of local life, and you can find markets all over Phuket. Already on this blog you can find information about the well known Weekend Market , and also the big Kathu market. I do realise that most visitors to Phuket won't be putting "visit to a local market" top of their list, but there is one market in Phuket that's very easy to visit, especially if your hotel is near the north end of Karon Beach! There is a market in the grounds of Karon temple every Tuesday and Saturday and rather surprisingly considering that I like markets and work in Karon .. I had never stopped at the market until last week. It starts in the afternoon and goes on into the night. I went just after work, a bit before sunset.It was not that busy .. well, it's low season and I think more people go to the market after dark. I parked 20m down the road and the first thing I saw was this sign (above) at the "Nok Noi" roadside restaurant. There are lots of small r...
More About: Temple

Phuket Waterfalls
2011-09-03 03:45:00
Where to start ... Waterfalls - I like waterfalls. I once detoured across half of South America by bus and train to get from La Paz (Bolivia) to the absolutely incredible Iguazu falls which are on the border between Brazil and Argentina and not far from Paraguay either. Niagara falls are maybe the most visited in the world. I've been there too, and it's quite nice, that little boat ride on the Maid of the Mist. I tell you what - you can't do a boat ride at Iguazu! Certainly not when I was there in wet season. An unbelievable torrent of chocolate brown water was shooting from the jungle. One of the most amazing places I have ever been and well worth the ride on the "Train of Death" to get there. (above) Iguazu falls - not in Phuket. Sorry for the non-Phuket photo. But I really do like waterfalls. The waterfalls in Phuket seem to be mentioned in just about every guidebook and website (and blog), and if you like nature and like to get away from the majority of tourists who like ...

Phuket Museums
2011-08-27 11:52:00
What? There are museums in Phuket? Surely Phuket is a beach resort island.. what could possibly be worth putting in a museum? Well, guess what... Phuket has a long and interesting history. Tourism really only started about 25 years ago and of course now tourism has a massive influence on Phuket and tourism is the most important source of income to Phuket. Thousands of people live in Phuket because of tourism. Thai people come from all over the country to find work here, and of course many foreigners too (like me!) come here to work or retire. There have been large changes even in the 11 years that I have been here - mostly in terms of infrastructure and the availability of such delights as shopping malls and huge DIY/Home Decor stores. The old history and culture can be a little hard to find under the new layers of modernity, but it's there. Phuket is a big island and there are large areas of quiet farmland covered in rubber plantations or pineapple groves or shrimp farms. You can...
More About: Museums

Por Tor Festival (Hungry Ghost Festival)
2011-08-21 08:50:00
Phuket has a lot more culture and history than most people realise. This blog has featured many festivals, some are well known throughout Thailand like Songkran or Loy Kratong. And then you have the amazing Phuket Vegetarian Festival , which is celebrated in a few other areas but is centered in Phuket. The vegetarian festival is of Chinese origin. The population of Phuket is about 30% of Thai-Chinese ancestry. Many Chinese came to Phuket in the 19th and early 20th century to set up business or work in the booming tin mining industry, and Chinese beliefs came with them. The Por Tor festival is held during the 7th Chinese lunar month, so the exact date changes each year. I had never checked out this festival before so was glad of the chance to make a little tour in Phuket Town with Chaya from Phuket Heritage Trails to see some of the festival. We arranged a meeting on Wednesday evening (17th August) in town with several other local residents, bloggers and website owners. After a drink...
More About: Ghost

Sapan Hin Chinese Shrine
2011-08-13 05:47:00
Many times when I take a day off work we just have a very relaxing family day, we don't feel like taking a long drive or a "big day out". We might stay home, just go out for lunch... sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not a tourist - it's quite normal to chill out at home doing the garden and let the kids play games. Sure sometimes they are very happy to go out, like the trip we took to Splash Jungle recently, or the "adventure" day on mopeds at Koh Yao Noi island. Other days I try to combine relaxation with a chance to take some photos - the Phuket blog needs feeding! So a couple of weeks ago was a "home" day, but in the afternoon, we headed out for some fresh air and a walk. Destination: Sapan Hin, which is a large recreational area, largely built on reclaimed land in the south of Phuket Town, right by the sea. There are often festivals and fairs held here, and its always popular with locals to take a walk, go jogging, sit by the sea. At Sapan Hin there is a Chinese Sh...
More About: Shrine

Naiharn / Yanui Viewpoint
2011-08-07 10:02:00
Not quite sure if this viewpoint has an official name, but it's easy enough to find. Look for the big white wind turbine on the hill by the sea just south of Naiharn Beach. For sure I have been up here quite a few times before, but last week I realised that I had not been for a drive around the Naiharn area for ages. With the sun setting at around 6:45pm in August I decided to head down that way from my work at Karon Beach. Not a long drive, past Kata Beach and then on the coast road passing the After Beach Bar and the well known Karon Viewpoint after which the road drops inland heading towards Naiharn Beach. The roads here are small and there are lots of shortcuts that I don't know. It's easy to drive round in circles, though there are a few street signs. The area inland from Naiharn has become much more developed in the last 6 years. I mean, it's still quiet but there are a lot of new houses, bars, restaurants etc... When you get to Naiharn lagoon, you need to be on ths south ...

Phuket Tours - Easy Day Thailand
2011-07-30 09:53:00
When I started Jamie's Phuket Blog in 2006, part of the idea was to show that Phuket is more that you might realise. More than I realised too. And it took me years to figure this out! I was often reading comments like "Phuket is crowded and too touristy and has no local life" on travel forums.... and it became clear that the people writing these comments had not left the main beaches or had booked onto the cheapest possible tours with 50 other people in 1 longtail boat to James Bond Island... I started the blog to show that Phuket has much more to offer than just beaches, bars, cheap fake handbags.. I mean why travel so far just for that? If you are from Europe you can get a beach and sun in Spain or Greece. If you're coming to Thailand , come on - try to see the real Thailand!If you flick through the pages on this blog you'll find a huge mixture of things to do, some more touristy than others. Phuket does have some very good tourist attractions like Phuket Fantasea or Splash Jung...
More About: Tours