4 years after the Tsunami

I don't really know what to write, but want to write something. What happened on December 26th 2004 was something quite unimaginable, off the scale, almost impossible to believe (unless you were right there). I did not see the tsunami, my family was safe at home, all we saw were the after effects, and most of what we saw was on the TV... even though you might think we were right here in the middle of it all.



The photo above shows Kamala temple, at Kamala Beach Phuket as the tsunami hit. Kamala was one of the worst hit areas of Phuket. We'd been there on the 25th with friends, having a drink at the beach, kids playing around. My wife was 9 months pregnant... our son was born 11th January. A lot of "what if's" were in my head for a long while after the tsunami. When I see this photo it reminds me that we are very lucky. 4 years later I don't dwell on the "what might have happened", but am very happy to have my family. As I write this, my boy (nearly 4 now) and my girl, now age 7, are racing round the living room on their Christmas presents - a couple of scooters. It's well past their bed time, but for today, I don't want to tell them "Go to Bed!" - I am happy to watch them having fun.

4 years seems like a long time, but also but a blink of the eye. Hard to believe my boy is nearly 4 years old. He doesn't know anything about the tsunami. My daughter has some idea.. I tried to explain a bit today about what happened and she was very relieved to be alive. This year, 4 years on, the tsunami seems like a surreal dream. In Phuket you certainly can't see any physical effects. Khao Lak (last time I went there) looked very neat and tidy. I want to take another visit soon. Phi Phi also is all cleaned up and new.. in fact some of the clean up was very very quick...

I was (and am) working at Karon Beach, Phuket. On December 26th 2004.. things looked like this...





And a few days later...



Actually, Karon Beach was not hit hard in comparison to other places. And since it was what I saw first, I kind of thought, or hoped that things were not too bad. We got news from Phi Phi and Khao Lak later, and news from Aceh, Sri Lanka... many places. I took a walk along Patong beach next day...



More photos of Karon and other beaches after the tsunami.. and you can get some idea of the rapid clean up here : Phuket after the tsunami.

4 years. A lot happens in 4 years. On December 31st 2004 we had no party, we lit some candles in the garden. I have to say it was a very very sad time. Replaced by happiness on January 11th 2005 when our son was born. At this time the future's so bright I gotta wear shades. Kids are still riding around the living room on scooters. Bless 'em.

There have been some interesting stories in the news about the tsunami recently. One talks about coral regrowth in damaged areas.. another hints at tsunami recurrence times of about 600 years based on studies of soil layers in affected areas.

I think this will be the last time I try to write anything about the tsunami. People keep asking about it. Today I have told the same story to customers several times. I don't want to be rude, but OK, it was 4 years ago now. Yes I was here. No I was not directly affected. We saw nothing really nasty. I did for a while feel guilty about being so close to it all, and yet not losing anything or anyone myself. Time now to get on with life.

Previous ramblings about the tsunami:

• Living through the tsunami I
• Living through the tsunami II
• Life after the tsunami

Just 2 weeks until my son's 4th birthday. And just a few days until New Year.. and we will party this year!

Oh, a final note.. I saw just a few days ago, just before the 4th anniversary, that Oxfam had announced the end of it's tsunami relief program. There is a locally based charity still involved with long term relief, though they also have nothing now to do with "tsunami relief". I somehow feel attached to it, as the 4Kali charity was set up by the family of a girl called Kali who died on December 26th 2004. She and her family were originally booked by me on a dive trip, but had to cancel due to their son suffering a bad accident where he broke his neck. The family came to Thailand anyway for their holiday. The local director of the charity was a neighbour of ours too.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and I hope to see you in Phuket soon

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past. Bring on 2009.

Jamie's Phuket 2008

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High Season Weather in Phuket

Finally a couple of weeks ago we saw the last hurrah of the "rainy season" in Phuket. There are no exact dates on the seasons, and the terms "wet" and "dry" are far too black and white. The low season has plenty of good weather and indeed I do recommend visiting Phuket in the off season - see here : Low Season in Phuket - A Great Time to Visit! - Sure there can be wet days and some bouncy seas and the beach is not always swimmable, but it's nice anyway! Sometime in October or early November the season changes.. which is to say the wind changes, from prevailing southwesterlies to northeasterlies. There can be weeks of unsettled weather before we get to where we are now - perfect weather!

This year there was still some rain (mostly in the evening) in late November and into December even, but the last 2 weeks has been almost entirely dry, sunny and blue-skied. I think that smiling moon on December 1st marked the change into real high season weather.

A few Phuket photos from the last 2 weeks...







It was back in May 2006, just after starting this Phuket blog, that the Phuket Weather Blog was born, now 2 ½ years old - if you want to know about the weather in Phuket, that's the place to go for weather reports, photos and lots of weather links.

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Wat Mongkhon Nimit (Phuket Town)

I keep heading back to Phuket Town to explore different areas. I find the town fascinating - you can get a totally different perspective on Phuket by walking around the town. This is where real life goes on. It's completely different to the main tourist beaches. I recommend everyone spend a few hours wandering around the old town, check out some markets, temples, small restaurants, old Chinese shops and maybe you can get a taste of Thailand that is not available on the beach.

Today I took my 3 year old son for a walk around, I wanted to visit Wat Mongkhon Nimit (sometimes called Phutta Mongkhon Nimit) and promised the boy to buy him some new shoes in town later. The temple is just on the north edge of the "old town". If you walk up Soi Rommani from Thalang Road, you can see the temple, which is on Dibuk Road.


(above) View along Soi Rommani towards Wat Mongkhon Nimit

Turn left and you reach the entrance to the temple...



The main temple was locked today.. guess that means I have to go back to look inside another day. Just inside the entrance is a school and the HQ for the Phuket Buddhist Association and also the Phuket Old Town Foundation.





The temple grounds are large, including some impressive Chedis...



There were proverbs and I guess what you might call "Buddhist life advice" written on signs attached to trees around the temple...



A couple of other photos around the temple...





As with many of the local temples in Phuket, certainly worth a few minutes of your time if you happen to be looking around the town. Phuket is full of temples - I am trying to blog them all - see Phuket Temples - many tourists end up at Chalong temple (largest in Phuket) but I reckon most of the smaller temples don't see too many foreign visitors.

My boy certainly enjoyed his visit.. and we did go and buy him some new shoes.




More blog posts on Phuket Town...

• Old Phuket Town
• Exploring Phuket Town

More temples...

• Phuket Temples

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Amari Coral Beach Resort - Patong Beach Phuket

Amari Coral Beach Resort is rated as the Number 1 hotel in Patong Beach on TripAdvisor, which means it should be in my Top 10 Phuket Hotels list.. except I cut Patong from the list - sorry, Patong! Well, the thing is, and I keep trying to tell people this - Patong is not Phuket, or at least not typical of Phuket.

Patong Beach does not feature a great deal on this blog. That's because on the whole I don't like Patong, and rarely go there. Sure, you can find some great restaurants, and there are some stand out hotels which are already listed in my Recommended Phuket Hotels. The Amari Coral Beach Resort certainly merits a recommendation, and I was reminded of it recently when an old friend came to Phuket and we went to meet her at her hotel - the Amari.

As we wandered along the pathways looking for my friend's room, and headed past the seaview bar and a restaurant or two, down to the pool by the beach (a little bit of beach that nobody else can get to except hotel guests), I got that "Wow, I'd like to stay here" feeling. Everyone looked to relaxed, so comfortable, so unhassled. I guess the secret is that the Amari is not really on Patong Beach, it's "just off" Patong, so you can easily head into town for .. well, whatever you need, and then go back to the hotel to relax. And if the Amari is not relaxing enough, carry on over the headland a few km and you reach one of our favourite little places - Paradise Beach... See, I am not a fan of Patong but there are a few nice bits near Patong!

Amari Coral Beach Resort - Booking & Reviews

• Amari Coral Beach Resort - Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Amari Coral Beach Resort - Reviews at Agoda.com
• Suggested Patong Beach Hotels

Amari Coral Beach Resort - Photos

 

 

Phuket Hotels - More Information - Online Booking

• More of Jamie's Phuket Hotel Suggestions
• Top 10 Phuket Hotels
• Phuket Hotels - Book Online at Agoda.com
• Thailand Hotel Booking at Agoda.com

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Kuay Jap Noodles - A new restaurant in Phuket Town

Last weekend, after a little drive around Sirey Island to the east of Phuket town - where I finally got to see the reclining Buddha (the other times I have been there the temple had been closed) - we were heading home and I had half a mind to cook some pasta, but we passed a new looking noodle shop which looked interesting. Most noodle shops look the same, rather basic and cheap with plastic chairs and questionable hygiene (don't look too close - a good motto for Thailand!).



The Kuay Jap Champ Suphan noodle shop is in the Sam Kong area in the north of Phuket Town, just half a kilometer east of the Tesco Lotus store on the way into town. It has been open about 6 months they told us, somehow we'd not noticed before. Or maybe we were in the mood for Kuay Jap which is a kind of noodle soup made with rolled up thick noodles, crispy pork, "moo daeng" (roast red pork) and (unless you ask them NOT to include it) things like liver, heart, intestines, congealed blood.. aka "offal". If you are an ex vegetarian like me, some meaty things are still considered inedible - so if you don't want all the bits, just say "Mai Sai Kruang Nai".





This noodle shop makes an effort. The place has a little style, the tables are wood, not plastic, there are decorations, and it is clean! This is no local backstreet noodle stall, it's much nicer and yet.. it's still cheap. We paid 210 Baht for 4 dishes and 5 drinks. I had a delicious Kuay Jap with the Moo Grob ("crispy pork") and the Moo Daeng plus some egg; my wife had the full monty with all the bits, and our kids had Khao Moo Daeng - red pork on rice with a kind of sauce/gravy. Very tasty.





I do love a bit of moo grob! Crispy pork.. like porky scratchings/hog lumps in a soup. I think we will go again tomorrow!

Update 2011 - they have opened a 2nd branch in Kathu, opposite the entrance road to the Prince of Songkhla University, we have tried this one too - just as tasty.. and it's close to our house. Bonus!







(above) Kuay Jap Champsuphan noodle shop in Kathu near the Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) - it's just a couple of hundred meters from another favourite local restaurant of ours called The Big Chicken. It's much easier to find good local food when you are not in a tourist area!

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Phuket Thai Hua Museum

I have said it before and will say it again - I like Phuket Town, especially the old part of town which comprises a few blocks around Phang Nga Road, Thalang Road, Krabi Road and Dibuk Road. The narrow roads and turn of the century architecture combined with the old Chinese shops make a welcome break from the busier parts of town, and if you come from the tourist beaches it's like another world. Yes, you are in the real Phuket, which is what this blog tries to show!

The Phuket Thai Hua Museum is found on Krabi road, a block North and half a block west of the traffic circle near the market. Krabi road is pretty quiet, most of the buildings are of the "Sino-Portugese" style and life itself seems slightly old fashioned in this part of town.





The museum has been open a couple of years, and still has a museum-in-progress feeling. It has been used for art exhibitions too. The building dates back to 1934 when it was established as the Phuket Thai Hua School, a Thai-Chinese language school mostly for the families of local families of Chinese origin (there are many due to the arrival of many Chinese in the 19th century in the tin mining boom years). The Thai Hua School moved to a new larger home on the edge of town in the 1990's. We know people whose kids study there and the Chinese language is still part of the curriculum.





Inside the front gates, the car park is decorated with photos of the old school.



When my daughter and I arrived, there were loads of guys with fancy cameras all over the place. With my little Canon Powershot I felt quite inadequate! I asked a guy what was going on. Turns out to be a photo assignment for Canon. I looked closer, yep they all had Canon cameras. A model was posing for photos inside the museum. Well, even with a Powershot you can snap a nice photo!



My daughter and I then wandered around the rooms of the old school. Some still with old school desks, lots of photos on the walls of past students. I did feel a sense of history, and we even met a former student sitting in her old classroom. She told us she had been at the school in the 1970's, and her mother had been to the same school before her.





One room was full of old school books. The Chinese connection is clear! There was a wall full of little reading books ranging from Snoopy to what looked like "Why China is the best country in the world" type books! There were also old Chinese dictionaries and such. We did consider the Thai Hua school for our daughter some years ago, thinking Chinese would be a useful skill if they decide to take over the world, but in the end we opted for a school that teaches more in English.





As I say, the museum is still growing, but it's certainly worth a visit. Phuket has plenty of history and culture, but you are not going to find it in Patong Beach! The brochure I picked up says it's open every day except Monday. If you are in Phuket Town, have a look. If you are a backpacker and stay at the Old Town Hostel, no excuses, it's about 1 minute down the road!

(update 2010) - the museum has been renovated and there is more to see now, but there is also an entry fee of 200 Baht per person :)

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Loy Krathong 2013 - 17th November 2013

The date for Loy Krathong 2013 will be November 17th.

Loy Krathong is a very old festival which takes place on the full moon of the 12th lunar month (so the date is different every year). Loy Krathong is largely about giving thanks to the goddess of water, though may be based on an old Hindu festival. There are many links between Buddhism and Hinduism, being that the Buddha was born in India. The festival is not huge in Phuket compared to Chiang Mai for example, but nevertheless it seems that everyone does it!

Does what? Well, aside from a bit of a party, you have to "Loy" (float) your Krathong - a few years ago I wrote about Making a Krathong. There are also beauty contests and who-can-make-the-best-krathong contests. The story below is based on our Loy Krathong evening in 2008.

Despite the weather, we headed out in the evening to Bang Wad Reservoir which is only a few kilometers from our home. The reservoir is Phuket's largest fresh water supply, so a good place to give thanks. The evening has been wet. Yes, we had been "blessed" with plenty of water. Of course, everyone waited until the rain had stopped, so it was rather crowded and also muddy underfoot. We had several Krathongs to float - one made by my wife, one made by her sister and one made by my daughter at school. There were hundreds of Krathongs in the water and hundreds more people wanting to float away all their bad luck.





Near the water were some food stalls. We did not hang around. It was crowded and muddy... and getting late. I think next year we'll go somewhere quiet for Loy Krathong.





At the reservoir we bought some "kom fai". These are lanterns made of paper with a lump of solid fuel built into the base. Simple design. All you need to do is light the fuel, let the hot air rise and watch them go. People were doing it at the reservoir.





At home we found that lighting the fuel was not so easy with a bit of a breeze. One of the lanterns took off and then landed again in the garden next door.. then took off again and got stuck in their TV aerial. I thought the burning fuel would burn their TV cable, but the lantern blew off to safety in the end. We sent 4 lanterns off into the night sky to become stars (so I told the kids!)


(above) burning fuel heating the air in the Kom Fai


(above) Once the fuel really starts to burn, the air heats up and you can slowly release your lantern...

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Thai Street Food - Fruit Stalls

I seem to recall growing up in England that a pineapple was regarded as a valuable item... wow, tropical fruit! And things like mangos and papayas were just words. Even the humble banana was a special treat. Maybe my memories are hazy, but fruit in England meant apples and pears, plums and maybe peaches. Oranges were not uncommon, and there were always satsumas at Christmas time! There were raspberries in season, and we often went blackberry picking.

The words "tropical fruit" brought to mind jungles, far away places, unreachable lands. This was 30 years ago. Holidays to a place like Thailand were all but unheard of. A few brave backpackers maybe, when backpacking was still an adventure!



What is "Street food"? Well, I mean anything that is not a restaurant really - simple roadside stalls, sometimes with wheels or built onto the side of motorbikes. Temporary noodle joints that open in the evening outside shops that have closed for the day. Hawkers carrying baskets of snacks, grilled chicken by the roadside, motorbikes with kitchens as the sidecar.

And fruit stalls are everywhere, even in the main beach areas of Phuket. Mostly they are mobile. Honda Wave mopeds retrofitted with ice filled glass displays full of fruity goodness. On the photos on this page you can see watermelon, mango, papaya, pineapple, guava, canteloupe, coconuts, pomelo, rose apple... missing are things like mangosteen, durian, rambutan - all of which are pretty common.



Feeling fruity? A portion of whichever fruit you want is normally about 10 Baht. Great at breakfast time, or any time. I am a fan of rose apples (called cham-poo in Thai). I don't think I ever saw them before coming here. I also like a bit of papaya now and then. If you never had mangosteen before.. try it. If you never had durian before, you can feel thankful! Ah, go on, try it... try it all!

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