2013 Phuket Vegetarian Festival (Part 2)

So, as I was saying a few days ago in Part 1 of my Phuket vegetarian festival 2013 report... Due to a mix of rainy weather, tiredness (staying up until after 2am painting our living room 2 nights in a row) and general apathy, I was really not feeling any great excitement for the vegetarian festival this year. Hard to summon up the energy for an early morning at the shrine when it's drizzly and I had 4 hours sleep. So that changed on Friday 11th October when I was in Phuket Town for the big Jui Tui Shrine procession. I think it was all the firecrackers that woke me up! Now I was looking forward to an early morning at Kathu shrine on Saturday 12th October. Kathu is the area of Phuket where I live, between Phuket Town and Patong beach. It's a historical area and was the center of the tin mining industry in Phuket in the mid 19th century, maybe even the most important town in Phuket for a while before Phuket Town became important due to easy access to the sea via the wide Bang Yai canal (which is not wide any more!). The canal did reach as far as Kathu, but was smaller there, only navigable by small canoes. Kathu was where Chinese miners were camped sometime after 1825 when Chinese theater artists came to perform, got sick and cured themselves by sticking to a special vegetarian diet. And thus the festival was born.

Well, I wanted to be there earlier than 6am, but I am not a morning person! So, got there just after 6am. For Kathu, that's a bit late. The shrine was packed already, and many of the Ma Song were already pierced and ready to go. First guy I saw had candle piercings ...



Oh, and hooks through his ears too. Many other piercings were already done. Damn, I really do need to wake up 5am next year! They start early in Kathu, as the procession starts here and they walk all the way into town and back. From the shrine into town as far as Sapan Hin shrine is about 10km each way. On a hot sunny morning, do you want to walk 20km with this in your face?





(above) I was hoping for the eyes-rolled shot here .. and I hope that's not real ivory. Historical note - Phuket used to be a major port for the shipment of elephants to India. The province was full of wild elephants 200 years ago and the next province Phang Nga means "broken elephant tusk".



(above) Getting pierced. Some of the Ma Song were still getting their faces done after 6am. This guy we see often around Kathu and we always stop for a chat. I see him every year with different piercings. Here he in 2012, and 2010. In real life, he's a local policeman .. see here.

And then, time for the main procession to begin. Groups of young men gather to carry the statues of the gods. Many of the pierced Ma Song have already left. Drums sound inside the shrine, and blessings are given to those who will carry the gods ...



My friend Tim and I wondered who is actually in charge here.. no specific order seems to be given to start, but everyone knows their place. The noise, colour, faces and traditions of this festival never cease to amaze me. I am totally not sure if the Ma Song are for real. Are they possessed, in a trance, very good actors? The guy below I see every year. In normal life he looks like an average guy. On the day of the Kathu procession he appears from the shrine bent over like an old, old man.



The guy being held aloft seems to be the most important of the Ma Song in Kathu. He's carried through the streets, though I have seen him get off his perch a couple of times. He leads the procession of the gods out of the shrine.



And then follows a crazy 25 minutes when I take about 200 photos as the emperor god statues are carried through Kathu village through a constant barrage of firecrackers either thrown or held out on bamboo poles by the local residents of Kathu. Next time, aside from waking up earlier... earplugs and a facemask. Essential.









It's madness! And now they head off through the old village of Kathu towards Phuket Town. On this day I decided not to follow them. Maybe next year I'll do a 20km walk with the procession. That should be an experience. I bought myself a set of white trousers and shirt this year intending to use them on the crazy last night of the festival in town, but never went. Might be ideal for a long walk on the day of next years Kathu shrine procession. The festival next year looks like it will be from September 23rd - October 3rd. There is so much going on during the processions, so much energy, that the quiet moments are sometimes overlooked. Last photo for 2013 ... in Kathu village, a female Ma Song stops to bless a small child.



If you can tell me what that young boy is thinking .. I might better understand this festival. Until next year.

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The Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2013 (Part 1)

Well, the 2013 Phuket Vegetarian Festival finished a few days ago, and I have been spending a few evenings sorting out photos. I was more or less unaware of this festival until about 2005. Guess I was living in a box. When this blog started in 2006, that's when my family and I started to explore Phuket and the surrounding area a lot more and get a lot more involved in the local culture. And over the last 7 years, the vegetarian festival in particular has fascinated me. I've been at shrines before 6am, attended many street processions, watched firewalking and bladed ladder climbing, and every year do my best to (maybe not 100%) stick to the vegan diet and rules of the festival. For a good introduction to the festival and links to many previous blog posts see The Amazing Phuket Vegetarian Festival.

I would normally try to attend at least 3 - 4 events during the festival, get up early several times to be at shrines to watch face piercing .. last year I was at Sapam, Sam Kong and Kathu shrines around 6am, but this year I had trouble to summon up the enthusiasm of previous years. Seen too much? Or maybe it was the weather - we had wet days from the 4th to the 8th October. I did wake up early one morning, but heard the rain and went back to sleep. Also my wife and I had spent a few days painting our house, and worked into the early hours of the morning to get it done - slept at 2am on the 3rd and 3am on the 4th, so the idea of 5:30am alarms was not appealing! But finally the weather changed, so I hit the town before 7am on October 11th to watch the street procession from Jui Tui shrine, probably the biggest procession and featuring many female Ma Song with piercings too. It was a lovely sunny morning in town. Took me a while to get into the photography mood, but I figured out of 400 photos there had to be some good ones!







I started off trying to photograph individual faces with a 70-300mm zoom lens, but the Jui Tui procession is so crowded, at times the pierced Ma Song and helpers were bunched tightly together and barely able to squeeze through the crowds along the narrow old-town roads, it was hard to get a picture. At times you just have to sit back and take in the spectacle instead of looking at things through a viewfinder! This close to the action, a wide angle lens is useful .. I followed the procession a little way onto Thalang Road and parked myself near the old herb shop.



(above) It's not all face piercing! I wanted to try this year and get more pictures like this. A Ma Song tying a string to the wrist of a small child who is amazed at what's going on. The old traditions are passed on from generation to generation.



(above) A Ma Song giving blessings to some of the older members of the Bumrungwong family who run the herb shop, Kopitiam restaurant and Wilai restaurant on Thalang Road. I can only begin to imagine the changes these folks have seen in Phuket.



(above) Houses and businesses along the procession route each day will place shrines outside covered in fruit, cups of tea, incense, candles .. Ma Song may stop at any shrine to bless the house, and may drink some tea or take some fruit which as far as I can tell, they then give to people in the crowd. Sometimes the Ma Song go into the house or shop behind the shrine also.

This procession from Jui Tui seems to be never ending! Certainly took well over an hour for the parade of Ma Song to pass by. No way you can photograph or even see all of them, as they often pass by several at a time and it was very busy - lots of people like me happy to see the sun and taking the chance to see a procession. I can see other people's photos of the same procession, and they have photos of different faces. And there are a lot of faces to see ...







When the majority of the Ma Song have passed by, the rear of the procession is the noisy part ... groups of young men carry statues of the emperor gods through the streets and are subject to a barrage of firecrackers, either thrown on the ground, or onto the statue or held above them on a bamboo pole. This is my favourite part of the procession and I enjoy getting close up! Maybe a bit too close - I think next time a face mask and earplugs are needed, though I can say this .. If I had any slight apathy this year it was blown away by the firecrackers!





By 8:30am I was hot, sweating and covered in pieces of firecracker! Could not stay any longer, I had to dash home, shower and go open the dive shop .. and wished I had not been so lazy for the first 5 days of the festival! OK, next year I will be up for it again ... This really IS worth waking up early for. The Jui Tui procession was on October 11th, and I planned to wake up even earlier on the 12th to visit Kathu Shrine, see some face piercing taking place and watch the procession leave Kathu village ... had planned to add all that onto the same blog post, but it will follow soon in a 2nd blog post about the 2013 Phuket vegetarian festival. :)

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Food at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival

I actually was a vegetarian (except for fish, I couldn't have lived as a student without tinned tuna) for quite a few years in my teens until I was 24. We had "nut roast" in our house for Christmas (well, my Dad had meat!) and the smell of frying bacon in the morning in my student house at university made me feel sick. I think it started when I was 16 and went to India. Sometimes the meat dishes contained unidentifiable pieces of meat, so the vegetable dishes were safer .. and tasty! My vegetarianism stopped with a bang when I set off in February 1993 on a 6 month trans-Africa expedition with about 15 other people - an adventure trip run by a company called Exodus. First day - question .. any vegetarians in the group? Me. Just me. So I started on meat again and never looked back! I like meat. And I like beer. Both of which are not allowed if you want to stick to the special diet during the 9 day vegetarian festival. Actually only some people do it for 9 days. Many just do it for the last 3 days. And .. please note - if you are a tourist, visiting Phuket, you can eat what you want. Almost all restaurants are open as normal for steak, pizza, Thai food with meat, burgers, bacon and more bacon. It's only a part of the Phuket population who are involved in the vegetarian festival which has Chinese origins. I normally try to stick to the vegetarian diet for the whole festival. Might sneak a beer or two, but no meat for 9 days. So for lunch I have something like this ...



Actually around the main beach areas, it's not so easy to find vegetarian food (vegetarian in Thai = เจ pronounced "Jay") ... where I work in Karon I have to drive about 1km to find a restaurant doing this food, and there are half a dozen food stalls along the back road (Patak road) in the Kata and Karon beach area. Same in Patong, you can find places doing the vegetarian food on the back roads. The place I normally go for lunch is opposite Karon post office. Easy to spot the right kind of restaurant as they have yellow flags outside. The noodle dish in the photo above is called Yentafo, and normally comes with meat - this one is all tofu and "textured vegetable protein". The same restaurant also does meals with rice such as the fried rice and the phad kaprow below.





As you can see, the kaprow dish looks meaty, but it's only tofu. They can make just about any Thai dish with tofu instead of meat, though this kind of food is much harder to find outside the festival. You can normally find vegetarian food in Phuket, but sometimes you are limited to mixed veg or fried rice without meat! The vegetarian festival is way more than just the food of course, there are street processions, and there is weird face piercing and fire walking - have a look at Phuket Vegetarian Festival - My Favourite Time of Year. The food, I must point out, is actually vegan - no meat, no dairy, no eggs, not even a splash of fish sauce. There is also a rule that the special food can have no garlic or onions. So once per year I basically go vegan for about 9 days ... which leaves me hungry for bacon and beef at the end of the festival. Well, it can't hurt to change diet now and then!

So where can you find lots of good vegetarian food during the vegetarian festival? Well.... Phuket Town is the place to be. There are several big Chinese shrines in town and a large proportion of the population is Thai-Chinese. So many of the restaurants in town change menu during the festival and do only vegetarian food. Plus there are loads of street stalls doing different foods and snacks. Ranong Road between the market and Jui Tui shrine is closed to traffic and is lined with stalls - see below :





Biggest selling snack during the festival? Got to be spring rolls ("popia" in Thai). They normally cost about 10 Baht each, sometimes 3 for 20 Baht and normally sold with some sauce and some cucumber. I can eat these until I burst. So don't think of the vegetarian festival as a way to lose weight :)



(above) Spring rolls. I want some.

In Phuket Town, well you can find plenty of vegetarian food. I have a couple of favourite restaurants. On Thalang Road there is Kopitiam, which is open year round selling lots of great food (the Phuket style pork is lovely!) .. During the festival they do only vegetarian food and are not open in the night, only during the day.



(above) Vegetarian noodles at Kopitiam in Phuket Town

And one other place that we just discovered last year, and have been to all during the year for non-vegetarian food, and again this year for vegetarian food - a little restaurant called Naowarat near the market. They have about 20 different dishes ready made or you can order. Not sure anyone speaks English there though. Owned by an old (ish) lady who seems to know everyone in town and it's a popular place though it only has about 6 tables! Servings are 30 Baht each .. so it's cheap too! Here's a typical table of food :



And here's a selection of what they sell ...



On that table you have something to really set your taste buds alight, and it's all vegetarian!

If we don't head to Phuket Town for some evening food, we just drive a few minutes to Kathu shrine. During the festival we can hear the shrine from our house when they set off firecrackers or have entertainment in the evenings. It's our local Chinese shrine :) Well, Kathu village is normally pretty quiet and even for much of the festival it's quiet. There are a few food stalls and one place close to the shrine that does Hokkien noodles. The most popular stall does fresh spring rolls (not fried), called "popia sot" in Thai.



(above) Making fresh spring rolls in Kathu village.

We also sometimes drive a tiny bit further to Sam Kong shrine which is on the north side of Phuket Town. The road near the shrine is packed with food stalls. I try every year to stick to the diet for the whole festival, at least in terms of the food. One or two other rules may get broken! Right now I am dreaming of a bacon burger and a pint of Guinness! I mean, this food is OK for a week, but, apologies to vegetarians, I do like meat! Next blog post will feature some photos from shrines and processions during the Phuket vegetarian festival 2013 - watch out, might be some scary pictures!

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Thalang Road - Heart of Old Phuket Town

If you read this blog often or have dug deep into the hundreds of pages, it should be apparent that I like Phuket Town, especially the old part of town, which tends to be called 'Old Phuket Town' by most people. It's just a few streets really, though older buildings do exist in outlying areas. If you go back about 100 years the town of Phuket was much smaller. What we call the old town was built in the late 19th century and early 20th century when Phuket was already an important tin mining area. Phuket Town became the main town due to the easy access to the sea at Sapan Hin, and in those early days the Bang Yai canal which still runs through town was an important waterway. When I first came to Phuket in 1999, I would say the old town was somewhat forgotten. It's only in the last 10 years than some "old town pride" has been restored, streets have been renovated, overhead wires removed, lots of little cafes and bars have opened, and they mix with the old shops such as hardware stores, herb shops, fabric shops, printers and old noodle shops to create the unique mix of old and new that is 'Old Phuket Town'. Right in the middle is Thalang Road which is certainly my favourite street in Phuket!

Thalang Road has been mentioned on the blog many times, so this page is meant to tie everything together and show what Thalang Road has to offer. So let's take a walk .... starting on the east side, to the east of the junction with Thep Kasatri Road there's the south side of the Queen Sirikit Park, the Tourism Authority of Thailand office and the dragon statue - old Chinese legend says that Phuket island is a sea dragon called Hai Leng Ong, risen from the waters.



Walking west you cross the Bang Yai canal just before the road junction. It's a bit of a smelly canal these days, but I have read that the old town authorities are trying to clean it up. We took a ride in an olde style boat in 2012 during the old town festival ...



The main part of Thalang Road starts after the junction with Thep Kasatri Road. With a few exceptions this stretch of road, about 400 meters long, has remained very much "old style" with just a few newer buildings and with many old family businesses that have been open since the road was built. Plus a few new cafes and restaurants which for the most part retain the old shopfronts.



The intricate carving above is found on the 2nd floor of a building on Thalang Road close to the junction with Thep Kasatri road. The ground floor is a fabric shop. As you enter this part of Thalang Road you can see shops, homes and various businesses. Just about 20m along the street on the south side is a cafe called Since 1892 which opened in 2012. It's small and arty and everything inside is for sale - furniture, clothes and coffee and cakes!



Keep walking west ... this part of Thalang road has many Muslim shops, including (just a few doors from Since 1892) a couple of Roti shops selling Muslim food - Roti (pancakes) with curry. I have been a few times to Abdul's Roti Shop - delicious!



There are lost of Muslim fabric shops along this part of the road as well as a bicycle shop and several homes. With "old town pride" being rekindled in recent years, many of the shophouses have been renovated or repainted, I especially love the 2nd floor shutters.





(above) Muslim fabric shops and the 2nd floor shutters of a building that seems to have been there since 1889 - I took that picture just yesterday (17th July 2013) ... I tend to take photos every time we walk along Thalang Road!

Just after the line of fabric shops on the south side of the road is a bar/restaurant called Route 68 which we like. They have live music at weekends, normally just gentle jazz or blues. Good place for a few drinks. Old Town has quite a lot of small bars and pubs, good for a night out.



And opposite Route 68 is a narrow road that heads north from Thalang Road and joins up with Dibuk Road. This narrow street is called Soi Romanee, and many years ago it was (so they say) lined with brothels frequented by tin miners. Nowadays it's quiet, there are a couple of small cafes and guesthouses, and it's very pretty and colourful. We used to hang out sometimes at a place called Glastnost Cafe but I have not seen the owner for ages - he's a lawyer and I think working in Bangkok all the time now.



(above) Soi Romanee

Let's keep walking west from Soi Romanee - there are quite a few real businesses here on Thalang Road, mixing with the newer cafes and shops. There are a couple of old printers, several hardware stores and some old style general stores....





The variety of business along here is great. Keep walking past the Hum Wan hardware store which has been in the same family since .. forever (and look up above the store front, WoW!) - then you see right next to each other is the Christian Assembly and the Hai Lam Chinese Shrine. Phuket is a melting pot and if you delve into the history of Phuket you can see why. In town you have Buddhist temples, Chinese shrines, a Catholic church, a Sikh Gurdwara and a Hindu shrine too!



Just after the Chinese shrine (photo above) is the China Inn cafe, and then a row of family businesses - first is the Kopitiam restaurant at which we are regulars (hey, I am the mayor on Foursquare!), and next door is the old herb shop called Nguan Choon Tong, selling old Chinese herbal remedies and run by the same family since 1917. And after that is Wilai restaurant also run by the same family and a very nice family they are too!





(above) The herb shop and Kopitiam on Thalang Road

Wilai restaurant has a little secret too - passing through the restaurant, walking past the kitchens, down a narrow passage and you are now in the Shrine of Serene Light which has it's entrance on the next road to the south (Phang Nga Road). I did ask if the shrine was something to do with their family, but it's not ... I think the building housing the Wilai restaurant was maybe owned by different people when the shrine was built in 1889.

And we're pretty much at the end of Thalang Road. There is a lot more here than has been mentioned. This is the heart of old Phuket Town. A few meters after Kopitiam you reach the junction with Yaowarat road. If you carry on, Thalang Road becomes Krabi road and there's a lot to see along the next few hundred meters including the Thai Hua Museum and the Chinpracha House.

Thalang Road is not too busy, though due to the one way street pattern in Phuket Town it can get quite a bit of traffic in the day time. Evenings are quieter and anyway the best time for visiting a cafe. I'd suggest heading to old town late afternoon, walking around a while, finding a place for a drink, finding a place for dinner, then maybe another drink. Sunday is a bad day as many places are closed. Middle of the day is normally going to be too hot. This is my favourite area in Phuket and I am glad to see the old town being renovated and promoted. Many of the places mentioned above like Kopitiam, Route 68, Since 1892 .. they only opened in the last few years. Old Town is changing, but I hope it does not become too kitsch! Right now with a mix of cafes, bars, restaurants, old businesses, shrines .. it's perfect!



(above) Thalang Road at festival time - taken during a local festival - the street is not normally this busy!

Thalang Road - Location Map


View Thalang Road, old Phuket Town in a larger map

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