Restaurant at Cape Phromthep

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 online 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 of the steps, or you can climb as we did, to the top to get some views first, then follow the small road round to the restaurant.



We went for lunch and there were only a few tables occupied. I think at sunset it would be much busier and we will go again sometime for what would be a great sunset dinner.. and we have our table staked out already! Right here:



That table was far too hot for lunch, but some tables are more shaded, and we had a choice of almost all of them. We found a very shady spot with enough space for 6 people to sit. Service was quick and friendly and we soon had cold drinks served while waiting for lunch.



I had a beer with lunch... no surprise there! The bottle came with a glass that looked more like a small flower vase.. I'd normally just drink straight from the bottle (oh, how uncouth!) but had to try the smallest beer glass I'd ever used...



We very much enjoyed sitting in the shade enjoying the view, the fresh air and the sunshine (we'd had quite a lot of rain during the week before). A very happy lunch enjoyed by all. And the food was not expensive.. I like that. At a place like Phromthep, there is certainly the option of ripping people off for a small fortune to enjoy food with a view, but the price was OK (and OK by my standards is cheap by most people's!) I ordered the catfish salad (Yam Pla Duk Foo) which was good, maybe not the best ever but combined with the shaded table, the view, the tiny beer glass and the company of my family, great.



Success! After many years, we do admit to being set in our ways.. we like to eat somewhere that we know, somewhere we can be sure of good food. Nice to try a new restaurant and be happy... we do sometimes try restaurants that don't get mentioned on the blog and are quickly forgotten. Cape Phromthep restaurant will be revisited and can certainly be recommended. We'll be back for a sunset meal soon.

Cape Phromthep Restaurant - Location Map


View Restaurant at Cape Phromthep, Phuket in a larger map

Read More

Thanoon Seafood

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 Phang Nga side looking east where there's a small fishing community. More photos of the bridge to come later. Below - view of Thanoon Seafood restaurant from the bridge. There was only one table occupied when we arrived - it touts itself as a "sunset" restaurant and it may well be worth going again in the late afternoon on a sunny high season day!



There is seating under cover or out on the beach. It was a bit windy really to sit on the beach, a bit too exposed with the west wind blowing directing through the channel towards the bridge. Would not be an issue in high season when winds blow from the northeast. Anyway the kids decided they would take their own table, just outside on the grass in front of the beach...



We ordered plenty of food. Prices were not super cheap but not too bad.. a touch more than we normally like to pay, but would I am sure be considered cheap by most tourists. I think our bill including drinks was total 1500 Baht for 4 adults and 2 kids, although these days the kids eat pretty much adult size meals. In fact our daughter I sometimes call "2 plates", due to her tendency to ask for 2nd helpings!





Above - a couple of dishes from Thanoon Seafood. My favourite Thai salad, called Yam Gung Siap, made with crispy smoked prawns, and some prawn cakes (Tod Man Gung). There was plenty more food too. The kids table was well stocked and they ate everything!



Success! We found another nice quiet restaurant with an interesting view, away from the crowds. And despite the proximity of the bridge I did not notice any traffic noise. The kids and I took a little wander on the beach after lunch. You can walk up to the bridge. Don't think about swimming here though, currents can be strong in the channel between Phuket and the mainland.



Good to get out and find new places to eat sometimes. We have a little list of "safe" places - restaurants that we always enjoy, but sometimes we feel brave! We tried several new places during our holiday. Next few blog posts will also be restaurants. Thanoon Seafood, thumbs up, guess we'll go again one day for a sunset meal - it's a bit of a drive of course, being off Phuket - about 40km from our house. A good place to try if you're staying in the north of Phuket or if you have a rental car. I realise this blog does tend to show restaurants off the beaten track and not on main beaches so much - well that's the idea! I do try to show bits of Phuket that might not be well known. Want to see the real Phuket? Get out there and explore, it's a big island!

Update March 2013 : I had not been back to Thanoon Seafood for ages, but we stopped recently on a Speedboat Tour around Phuket and it was very nice, relaxed, lovely late afternoon sun .. some photos on Flickr.

Thanoon Seafood - Location Map


View Thanoon Seafood Restaurant in a larger map

Read More

Crossing the Bridge for Purification

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 ladies entered the shrine by different doorways.



Waiting patiently in the rain. Everyone was wearing white. I know that during the festival, many people wear white, but on a normal evening at the shrine during the preceding week, not everyone is in white. On this last night, to cross the bridge, you have to wear white. I had not found "the bridge" yet. It seemed difficult to get through the crowd and close to the shrine. I was not even sure if we (non pure) people would be allowed near. I imagined a bolt of lightning striking us down, away ye impure people!



(above) Mum, are we there yet? Not yet ... Patience is a virtue in any language or religion. You may see in the pictures, each person is holding a little package of what looks like some spring onions. I have read that this is wrapped in some paper with the persons name written on it. I need to ask someone the exact significance of this, but it's all to do with purity and carrying a bit of greenery into the shrine make sense.

Here's the front of the queue (almost). The last few yards, up the steps and into the shrine. It was quite a crush actually! But everyone was good natured. Lots of smiles. I'm not going to argue with the doubters and the cynics. The "Land of Smiles" may have been adopted as a tourism slogan, and you may well find some worn out smiles in the main tourist areas. But I think most people can sense when a smile is real. Smiles in the shrine were real.





But what is "The Bridge"? Well, I managed to sneak up some side stairs outside the shrine, though the entrance was gated, I gave my best "sorry, can I take a photo" smile and a big Wai to the old man who seemed to be guarding the entrance. From this viewpoint, and by leaning around a marble pillar, I could see this...



One of 2 ceremonial "bridges" set up inside the shrine. One for men, one for women, each one flanked by half a dozen Ma Song, the entranced devotees who are said to have the spirits of the gods inside them during the festival. The Ma Song bless and hand each person a piece of string symbolising good luck. The atmosphere in the shrine is smoky and noisy with drums being played in the background. Those crossing the bridge bow and pray. Dad (or grandad?) carries his boy over the bridge. Not sure the young boy appreciates it just yet. I am sure he will.



This evening in Kathu was very interesting, very enjoyable, there was a real sense of community and togetherness here, the people believe in their traditions and believe that crossing the bridge will give them luck. I saw a couple of foreigners crossing the bridge too. I am thinking next year that my wife and I will take the festival a little more seriously, no meat, no beers, make ourselves clean, and we'll cross the bridge too. In the grounds of the temple before we headed home we met a man who we'd talked to 10 days earlier at the opening ceremony. We'd also seen him striding out of the village just as we arrived on the 4th October, he was the lead Ma Song in the procession. He'd been pierced by a number of spikes, nothing too scary. And on this last night he showed his scars which would quickly heal up, but the memory remains and next year we'll see him again.



More stories from the 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival

• Piercings and Firecrackers October 4th


• Vegetarian Procession and World Photo Walk October 2nd


• Face Piercing at Sam Kong Shrine September 30th


• Procession for the Birth and Death Gods September 29th


• Opening Ceremonies September 26th

Read More

Vegetarian Festival - Piercings and Firecrackers

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 procession earlier in the week.

Most of the actual piercing had already been done. If you want to see people getting impaled, you have to get up early! We had seen plenty of piercing a few days earlier at Sam Kong Shrine. We did not have so much time here at Kathu for photos, the main procession was already getting ready to depart, though there is no set departure time - Ma Song with pierced faces were heading off in their own time. Kathu is one of the few shrines that has female Ma Song. There are many women in the Kathu procession, only a few are pierced though. This lady in pink was heading out of the shrine as we arrived.



Around the grounds outside the shrine, many pierced faces were to be seen. The more traditional piercings did seem to be making a comeback this year - simple skewers, knives and shiny metal rods. A few participants were still getting the piercing done. When you see something like this, it's hard to look away!



You can see this guy is pierced with multiple metal spikes each adorned with a head - these are the more traditional piercings. Nearby, a guy with slightly larger metal spikes through his face:



Arriving a little later made photography easier, and it was a bright sunny morning which helped a lot. Some of these photos were taking using a wide angle lens, others with a 50mm standard lens - the 50mm lens is very good for portraits and good for low light, as it has a maximum aperture of f1.8. With the wide angle you need to get in very close to the face, like this one:



A step up from skewers and metal spikes, this guy has gone for the swords. You'll notice hands in the photos wearing surgical gloves. It does seem a bit gory, but the assistants helping with the piercing do mostly wear gloves and there are piles of cotton wool and tissues to mop up "spills" - and I noticed that all the spikes and swords and whatever are cleaned with alcohol using a swab before the piercings take place.

Not everyone goes for the traditional style piercings. Some people moan that the festival has become a bit of a freakshow in recent years. The younger men especially seem to be vying with each other to get their photos taken. Festival photos can be found on websites and in newspapers round the world, and the photos chosen for armchair visitors tend to feature the more outlandish piercings. Spikes in the face, interesting... Gun in the face, bingo! You're in the paper, mate!



Or how about a couple of power drills? Good advertising for Bosch? Note - he did not drill the holes. The holes in the cheeks are made with sharpened spikes first, and the piercings inserted later. I am sure "drill head" made the paper too!



Enough piercings for this year! There are more photos on Flickr of the morning at Kathu Shrine. This year I have tried to show more than just the pierced faces. The festival has a big religious element to it. In every procession, teams of men carry statues of the gods through the streets. The people lining the streets are ready with firecrackers, the noise, the smoke, the Ma Song blessing the village, it's all designed to cleanse and bring good luck. As the gods started to leave the shrine, I ran up the street a little way. When you are right in the middle of this, the experience is complete - the firecracker smoke at some points made photos impossible, visibility was zero, and you have to be careful not to inhale too much smoke. A face mask is recommended.





I'll get a new camera sometime before next year, I want to get some HD video, especially of the procession walking through a constant barrage of firecrackers. The photos can't quite capture the sound - if you are trying (like me) to take a photo in the middle of the procession, it's LOUD! Ear protection is a good idea, as well as a mask for the smoke... and don't be too shocked to get a minor burn here and there too!





The procession was heading out through Kathu village and was all gone by just after 7am. We heard more firecrackers a few hours later, this would be the procession coming back into the village. Some of the Ma Song walk both ways - including the winding route around town, that would be over 15km of walking on a hot morning.. although despite the early morning sun, the rains came later that morning. The "unpiercing" is something I have not yet seen.. next year... There's one more blog entry to make from the 2011 festival. The photos above were taken on 4th October. The last night of the festival was the 5th. In Kathu village, they hold a ceremony called "Bridge Crossing for Purification", and that will be the next blog entry - guaranteed no piercings or blood in that one! :)

Read More

Vegetarian Procession and World Photo Walk 2nd October

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 Worldwide 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 on this blog from Sam Kong shrine shows a lot of the piercings. This year I have already tried to show more of the festival - the opening pole raising ceremony and an evening procession in Kathu village have been blogged with hardly any blood in sight! And for this photowalk day I also decided to try and look more at the tradition and the respect shown by the local people to those in the processions. In other words, more photos of the people watching rather than the pierced faces.



This lady was sitting outside her house on Thalang road in the old town. I spotted her from across the road and a Thai photographer was already hard at work on her.. so I joined in. Sometimes older folks don't really like being photographed, but she was very gracious and did not mind a couple of lenses in her face as the procession passed. She will have seen a lot of changes in Phuket. There won't have been too many foreigners about when she was a kid, but I felt from her that the vegetarian festival means something very real. This is not a sideshow or event for tourism.

Not all of the Ma Song have pierced faces. The guy below was half walking, half running along the street waving his flag to scare off evil spirits and stopping at some of the small shrines set up outside houses and shops. He took a drink at this shrine. Sometimes the Ma Song will take a piece of fruit from a shrine which will be given to people along the procession route or placed on another household shrine. One of the Ma Song handed me a whole bunch of bananas! Having no place to put them I left them at the house I was standing next to.



Having woken early with no breakfast and after a while walking in the hot early morning sun, I was ready for breakfast. On Thalang road there are quite a few small restaurants, and a favourite of mine is the Kopitiam restaurant where they always have good food, and during the vegetarian festival were doing some very tasty dishes. We ate in there several times during the festival week! Around 8am I ordered Hokkien Mee - a very local style noodle dish.



The Kopitiam restaurant is a family run place. The same family owns the herbal medicine shop next door and the Wilai restaurant next door to that! Very nice people, there are several generations of family living here, which is the typical Thai way. The old folks are looked after by the young folks. There are always a few of the older generation around Kopitiam, some of whom are well into their 90's!



From my seat in the restaurant I had a ringside view of the Ma Song who stopped to bless Kopitiam and the family at their temporary shrine. There are more festival photos taken by the family on the Kopitiam Facebook Page.



Hmmm, no bloody pierced faces yet? I'll be sure to put that right in the next blog post which will be about the Kathu Shrine procession which took place on 4th October. Meanwhile, here are a couple of characters from the 2nd October procession. Sometimes you don't know where to look in these processions, there is so much going on, and if you have never seen it before, it certainly is overwhelming.





The noise, the firecrackers, the strange faces, the smoke from the incense, the white clothes, the rituals... not just overwhelming for first timers .. I tried to snap some pictures of kids watching from the sidelines who were maybe not 100% enjoying the morning :) But they are learning. They are learning about the festival from their families, learning the traditions and the history. The vegetarian festival is alive and well and is being handed down to the next generation.



The photo above is the one I decided to upload as my "entry" to the Worldwide Photo Walk competition. Her face says a lot! I know that the vegetarian festival may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, this IS Phuket. Not the beaches and 5 star resorts and bars and nightlife and elephant rides and snorkeling, but this is the real old Phuket that can be hard to find.

The procession on October 2nd was all but over by about 9:30am, and I headed to the very nice Cafe 154, part of the Royal Phuket City Hotel, where all the photo walk participants were due to meet. A chance to compare pictures, compare cameras, catch up with friends and have some very nice coffee. You can see more photos from this years photowalk on 2nd October on Tim's Blog, on Diane's website, on my Mum's blog (!) and on the Flickr Group for Phuket photographers. After a drink or two, we posed for a photo ...



More vegetarian festival coming soon! ... Meanwhile you can check my latest photos here: Jamie in Phuket on Flickr. And please do join the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page and follow me on Twitter!

Read More

Face Piercing at Sam Kong Shrine

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 September 30th. Yes, you do have to wake up early to see something special :)

The entranced Ma Song prepare themselves inside the shrine before they get pierced all around the grounds of the shrine. We arrived pretty early - no piercing was taking place, but suddenly within about 15 minutes, the Ma Song were all over the shrine and for a photographer it was hard to know where to look .. later on, looking at other people's photos there was lots of "Oh! I didn't see that!" - the photos below show rather graphically what goes on at these shrines in the early morning.





It's not that they don't feel pain, but I am told that the Ma Song do somehow entrance themselves to feel less pain. Actually the pain and suffering is a good thing. As they walk through the villages and Phuket Town, the Ma Song bless the local people, and their pain gives good luck to the people. Not everyone can be a Ma Song. Locals can't just turn up at the shrine and start cutting cheeks. They are carefully chosen and I imagine it must be quite an honour. At Sam Kong shrine, only men can be Ma Song. Some other shrines like Kathu and Jui Tui also have women.



Sam Kong also tries to be a bit more traditional with the piercings - encouraging the use of less elaborate items - in recent years it does seem that some Ma Song, especially the younger ones, try more and more crazy piercings, perhaps to feel more pain for the people, perhaps just to get their picture in the paper! The guy below is getting pierced with a more traditional spike...



The guy below is going more for the "look at me" style of piercing and will surely have more photographers snapping him than a guy with simple spikes through his cheeks. Sure, a garden spade, why not?





There is far more to the festival than the piercings of course, but most photographers (including me) tend to focus on the blood. It's hard not to look. The camera develops a life of it's own! But this year, as you may see from the pages about the opening ceremonies and the evening procession in Kathu, I am trying to show more of the traditional aspects of the festival... especially concentrating on Kathu as it's our local shrine. Sam Kong is also only a few km from our house. The area around Kathu and Sam Kong was where the festival began in the 19th century before Phuket Town was the administrative center of Phuket island. The traditions run very deep here.



As the pierced Ma Song left the shrine for the walk into Phuket Town, the statues of the gods were blessed. I think the picture above shows something of the respect shown to the gods. As a group of Ma Song bless a shrouded god image, everyone in the shrine crouched down to pray. We were in the shrine for about 1 hour. The last of the Ma Song and the gods being carried by young men left the shrine by about 7:15am. It's smoky, noisy and rather intense. A couple of foreign ladies had to go sit down. As I say, not for everyone, but still my favourite festival and .. this is the real Phuket. Tourists have been here about 30 years. The origins of the Phuket Vegetarian festival date back to 1825. Next blog page will concentrate on one of the big processions in town from Bang Neow shrine which took place on October 2nd.

Read More

Street procession for the Birth and Death Gods

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 the gods were carried through the old Kathu village and various Ma Song (the entranced spirit mediums) walked along the streets too.



The main focus of the procession - yes, firecrackers. I walked along with my Mum and Dad and found a house with stacks of bamboo poles hung with long lines of firecrackers ready to be dangled over the street at the god statues were carried past. This looks like a good place to stand! Mum and Dad had not experienced quite so many firecrackers before.





I love this! A bit hard to take a photo - it's dark and the firecrackers flash and bang, it's hard to see what you are looking at, and the smoke creates a .. well, a smokescreen at times that the camera can't see through. It's shoot and hope for photographers and then a bit of photoshop to enhance the image. Often looks better in black and white. I love being right there as the onlookers throw great big packets of fireworks into the street. I love to be right in the middle of it! This was just a small local procession. No tourists here (except me, Mum and Dad!) - we like heading into Kathu, as it's my local shrine, we know quite a few people, and it's always much quieter than the main Phuket Town shrines, but they do know how to set off firecrackers!





Next blog post will have some pierced faces .. we went to Sam Kong shrine early morning, just after 6am on September 30th for the start of their big procession including face piercing taking place right there in the shrine :)

Read More