Abduls Roti Shop in Old Phuket Town

I've been meaning to blog about this place for some time, and there's a lot more on the "things to blog when I have time" list. Abdul's roti shop is a bit of a Phuket legend, located on Thalang Road in the old town and it's been there, I don't know, forever I suppose. The eastern end of Thalang Road just to the west of the junction with Phuket Road has lots of Muslim shops, mostly selling fabrics and clothes - there are at least half a dozen of the fabric shops - see photo below. There are also 2 restaurants which sell roti with curry, and if you ask me this is a "must eat" if you are in town. The 2 restaurants are only a couple of doors from each other. I've eaten at Abdul's several times before. The photo below was taken in January this year during the Old Town Festival.





Thalang Road for me is the heart of the "real" Phuket. Lots of history, lots of old shops and family businesses, and plenty of pride shown by the local people. I am glad to see more of the old town getting restored, especially with the removal of overhead cables... and just today (19th August) I saw that another section of town is cable-free. I also love the mix of people, culture and religion in Phuket, in Phuket Town and if you want to see this all on the same street, have a look at Thalang Road. On one small road are Thai-Chinese people, Muslim people, a small Chinese shrine, a Christian Assembly... I hate to get all "flower power" but here everyone seems to get along just fine no matter what they believe, no matter what they wear or what they look like. I have mentioned it before, but to repeat - many visitors to Phuket don't know that Phuket is about 30% Muslim. The belief is that Thailand is a Buddhist country. I like the mixture. And without the Muslims, we'd not have the roti shops! I tend to think about food before religion...

So, with the Phuket blog in mind, I was in Phuket Town on Saturday (August 18th) aiming for some roti for breakfast. The idea was to try both of the roti shops, but the other was closed, only Abdul's was open (though there was no sign of Abdul himself). A sign on the wall says Roti made by Abdul 74 Years Old 7th Generation. You can get Roti with chicken, beef or fish. Don't ask for pork. Or a beer! I asked for roti with masaman chicken curry.





The roti are cooked at the front of the shop right by the street, a lump of dough is bashed, flattened, folded, flattened again, shown no mercy and put on an oiled hotplate. And then when it's slightly crispy, it's slapped about to break it up, ready to eat...





My bowl of Masaman curry with a leg of chicken came first ... and a wait of a few minutes for a freshly cooked roti. Anyone disagree? This looks GOOD!





I am not sure how one is "supposed" to eat this. Is there a traditional technique? I spooned up curry and pieces of tender chicken onto the roti. Very tasty, fairly spicy. I could have eaten another one, this is good eating! I feel an addiction coming on. Going to be back here on my next day off! As with many little shops and restaurants in Thailand you get the feeling you're in someone's house ... that's because you are! Family come and go, grandma comes out to say hello, I often see into shops after closing time, and the restaurant is now the living room. Just behind my table a young boy was watching TV ...



The roti with curry was good, but I also wanted some dessert - a nice plain roti with condensed milk. Same kind of roti you get with the curry but this one is sweet!



Roti with curry plus the sweet roti and 2 iced coffees. 105 Baht. Did I hear someone say "Phuket is expensive"? Phuket can be expensive if you want. I just saw a post from someone on Facebook showing a frankly very ordinary burger at the very plush "Joe's Downstairs" restaurant in Patong. Price for the burger with some equally ordinary looking fries : 705 Baht. Unreal. Phuket is like that. You can spend as much as you want, please don't complain that Phuket is expensive. Not the real Phuket. After eating, back on Thalang Road I noticed that the roti shop is right next door to a fabric shop. Thalang Road is a gem, hope it remains that way.



Abdul's Roti Shop - Thalang Road - Location Map


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Kathu Street Culture Festival 2012

The 4th annual Kathu street festival was held on August 4th - 6th 2012. A great little local event that has grown considerably since the first time it was held in 2009. Kathu is an older area of Phuket with many older Chinese-Thai residents who are quite proud of their history and are doing plenty to preserve their heritage and educate locals and tourists about the "real" Phuket that exists away from the beaches. This is also the main aim of this blog, so I love festivals like this one, and I am happy to say that I did see a few more tourist faces in the streets this year. It was promoted in the local news, there were roadside signs up all around the area, and I kept mentioning the festival on my Facebook page and on Twitter.



There were already some street stalls set up a couple of days in advance, and by the 4th, there were stalls running for about 1km along the road through Kathu Village, and the weather was looking very good too (this low season has had a lot of hot sunny weather). On the first evening of last year's festival, the street parade was delayed by heavy rain. It was also delayed this year. Supposed to start at 5:30pm, but nothing was happening ... maybe I had the date wrong? But I was sure the main parade was on the first evening... Finally around 6:15pm the parade appeared. I had not quite got the message that the processio started outside the village, unlike the last few years when it all started in the village. Again the procession was full of colour and smiles.







There were no amazing Chinese opera style costumes like the last few years.. Shame, they were my favourites! But a great deal of variety of costume and featuring a cross section of Phuket's people. Phuket has a big mix of ethnic Malays, Chinese-Thai and a sprinkling of sea gypsies, plus a growing foreign population with lots of workers living in Phuket who are originally from other areas of Thailand. There is also a big mix of Buddhism, Islam and Chinese beliefs here.





(above) A local Kathu resident watches the festival from outside his house.

If you visit a local festival like this, no need to worry about dinner. The streets are lined with stalls and most of them are selling food. As soon as I started walking after the procession, I found mango with sticky rice, and this was next to a stall selling spicy Sai-Ua sausages which are a north Thai specialty.







We went along again on the second evening (5th August) mostly to eat, but there were also quite a lot of stalls selling arts and crafts, and my wife stocked up on bargains like some very nice candlesticks at 50 Baht each and some wooden dolphins which she said cost only 10 Baht each. Not sure what we'll do with them! Aside from the stalls and the food, there were several places in the village with historical information, mock ups of old houses and displays of old photos. Kathu has plenty of history, a lot more can be found at the nearby Tin Mining Museum.

The hot weather was a blessing, no rain fell during the festival, and muic continued on several stages into the night. We could hear it from our house. We did not stay out late ourselves, just until around 8pm each evening. The streets were decorated with lanterns ...



And I found a way to cool down ...





(above) One of several stages around the village with music and dancing. There was plenty going on during the 3 night festival and the streets were full of people. Kathu village is normally very very quiet, only wakes up for festivals. It'll be busy again during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which is from 14 - 24 October. The Chinese shrine in Kathu is one of the centers for that festival, which is my favourite event in Phuket! Looking forward to it! And before that, there's another interesting festival, called the Por Tor Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, which is on from 31st August to 6th September 2012. And this is the stuff that makes up the beating heart of Phuket.

Map of the Kathu area


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A Beautiful Day at Koh Yao Noi

Koh Yao Noi island is found in Phang Nga Bay to the Northeast of Phuket, home to a Muslim population of maybe 4,000 people, with the main source of income being fishing, prawn and shell farms, and rubber. The large scale tourism of Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi is not (yet) to be found on Koh Yao Noi. There are a couple of expensive resorts such as Paradise Koh Yao, and a number of smaller bungalow operations, but the island is still mostly rural. We first went in 2006 on a day trip, but I did not go again until doing a cycling tour in 2010. Then in April 2011 we did a family trip, getting the ferry over and hiring mopeds for the day. Was such a great day out that we decided to do it again! So on July 28th 2012, we drove up to Bang Rong (near Bang Pae Waterfall) to get the boat. Bang Rong is a Muslim village on the NE coast of Phuket, and from here there are boats to Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai. There are speedboats (200 Baht each way per person) or you can get a big longtail boat (see photos later) 120 Baht each way. When we arrived at the pier, the next boat set to depart was a speedboat. Kids - no charge, by the way. We had a wait of about 30 minutes before departure, there is some kind of boat going a couple of times per hour.



(above) On the speedboat to Koh Yao Noi

The speedboat takes just over 30 minutes, and stopped off first at a small jetty on the north of Koh Yao Yai, the larger island to the south of Koh Yao Noi. We've never been to Koh Yao Yai.. will have to go explore sometime! Arriving at Koh Yao Noi, we asked around for mopeds for rent - we needed 3 altogether, 2 for us and 1 for a friend who'd come with her 2 small kids. It may sound a bit cavalier or unsafe hiring mopeds and riding around with the kids, but Koh Yao Noi is so quiet, and there is very little traffic on the roads, and mostly we'd be pootling along no faster than 30km per hour. No rush at all. A guy gave us a lift into the main town and then organised 3 mopeds for us - 200 Baht rental per moped. We then stopped to fill them up with gasoline and put some air in the tyres before our ride around the island.





I love these bike repair places, always full of junk, nothing gets thrown away! Gasoline on Koh Yao Noi is quite a lot more expensive than the mainland, as everything has to be brought over by boat.

We'd not made a really early start to the day, got the boat over around 10:30am, so by the time we'd sorted out the mopeds, some stomachs were thinking of an early lunch. We knew already of places to eat on the east coast, but did not want to rush over there, and so we just stopped near the main town, which is not much more than a couple of hundred meters of shops and a little market. And a 7-11 of course!



We decided upon a small roadside local restaurant where some locals were already eating - always a good sign. It was certainly nothing fancy, but my eyes noticed some yummy looking Pad Ped Pla (spicy fried catfish). And they did a decent fried rice with prawns to go with it.







After lunch we rode over to the east coast. There are not many roads on the island, but we still managed a small wrong turn, following a road to "Laem Sai" which is the southeast corner of Koh Yao Noi, and I figured the road would carry on to the main east coast road. It didn't, but it was only a 10 minute detour. We were soon on the beautiful east coast and stopped to let the kids run around on the beach in front of the very nice looking Villaguna resort, which as I recall was being built last year when we scooted by. There are several small scale resorts on this east coast, but so far nothing big and ugly and I hope the Koh Yao Noi people can keep it that way.



And a little video of the same beach ...



As the east coast road heads North, it turns inland for about 2km and then back to the coast, where we found one of my favourite views. There's a sandy football pitch here just over the road from the small Suntisook Resort, consisting of some little bungalows with an attached restaurant. We downed several cold cokes here - it was a HOT day! The kids of course went off to explore and kick a ball around.





My daughter and I were riding a bit ahead of the others and we found some horses by the side of the road. We were able to give this little pony a stroke, but it ran off to Mum when the other 2 bikes arrived - too many people!



The scenery away from the beach is very green, but largely cultivated. We saw rice paddies, rubber plantations and coconut trees. Rubber is still an important product in south Thailand. Even in "touristy" Phuket there are huge areas of rubber trees. Indeed, Thailand is one of the world's leading producers of natural rubber.



And here's a small mosque on Koh Yao Noi. The population is almost all Muslim, as is much of Phang Nga, and about 30% of the population of Phuket too.



We were back at the main pier before 4pm, as we thought the last boat to Phuket was at 4, but we found later that the last boat was 4:40pm, which we'll remember for next time, giving us a bit more exploring time. There are some roads over on the west coast of the island that we've not yet taken. The 4pm boat was one of the big slow longtail boats. They have huge engines :



And actually not that slow. Took a bit more than 1 hour to get from Koh Yao Noi back to Bang Rong, and it's a 25km trip. There were only a few other passengers so we could spread out and enjoy the ride and the views in the afternoon sun. The little video below shows the view just after we left the jetty at Koh Yao Yai heading back to Phuket. A great day out for the family, and we'll do it again for sure! Next time maybe an overnight stay.

• Hotels on Koh Yao Noi @ Agoda.com

Here's a little video shot on the boat after leaving the Koh Yao Noi jetty on the way back.




Map of Koh Yao Noi


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Wat Kathu Temple

Kathu is "my" area of Phuket. We live in this area, which is between Patong and Phuket Town. Actually Patong is officially included in Kathu district, but .. Patong is a whole other world. Our Kathu is the more local area which you reach by heading over the hill from Patong towards Phuket Town. Some parts of Kathu are busy, some are quiet and large parts are residential. It's an interesting area to drive around on a scooter and see some actual local life not far from the main tourist beach. We visited Kathu temple (Wat Kathu) last week on a hot sunny day for our daughters birthday, to say a prayer.



Not the first time she's been here. The photo below was taken in 2007...



It's a quiet local temple, although it seems some tour minibuses pass this way, one arrived just as we were leaving and maybe there are one too many donation boxes! But the temple is very well looked after, the Monks here obviously take pride in their temple. The smaller local temples are often worth a visit.





I should point out - I'm not a Buddhist. The fact that my surname is "Monk" is a happy coincidence! We do visit temples for prayers now and then, I have no idea what exactly to do, other than follow by example, usually light some incense and put a flower somewhere and think happy thoughts related to health and happiness.

Kathu temple has quite a menagerie around the grounds. Must have been about 20 dogs, at least that number of cats, and plenty of chickens too. A foreign man was there feeding the dogs who obviously knew him and crowded around him. Cats are too cool to crowd around anyone, especially on a hot day ...







A very peaceful place. And just 10-15 minutes drive from the busiest place in Phuket - Patong! This visit was for a happy occasion. The last time I stopped at Kathu temple was for a funeral, RIP Ruedi.



Not too far from Kathu temple is Ket Ho temple, a bit closer to Phuket Town. There is also a Chinese shrine in Kathu village, only about 500m from the Buddhist temple. Kathu village shrine is one of the focal points of the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival.

Aside from the temples in Kathu, there is a large daily market in Kathu, just near the "Caltex" junction. You can also visit Kathu Waterfall or try the nearby Bungy Jump or Cableski. Oh and the Phuket Tin Mining Museum is only a couple of km away from the temple too.

There is a big festival coming up in Kathu next week - a cultural street show from 4th - 6th August. It's been running for the last 3 years - see a blog post about last year's event - Kathu Phuket Culture Festival. I keep telling people - Kathu is the heart of Phuket!

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Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Project

Up in the Northeast of Phuket in a heavily forested area is the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park and the Bang Pae waterfall. To get there, you head North on the airport road from Phuket Town and turn right at the Heroine's Monument, then drive around 10km - the entrance on the left side is easy to find... there's a map at the bottom of the page. We have been up this way many times, not just for the Gibbon Project and Bang Pae Waterfall which is found just past the Gibbon Project, but nearby is Bang Pae Seafood and also Bang Rong, where you find a floating restaurant and you can get a ferry to the island of Koh Yao Noi. There's a restaurant called Peang Prai just at the entrance gate to the waterfall.

As you drive up to the park entrance the roadside is lined with rubber trees as is much of this Northern area of Phuket. Rubber was once very important to the economy of Phuket and indeed it continues to be important. There are also fields of pineapples nearby, but once you hit the park entrance you are in the jungle, baby! At the entrance gate there is (normally) an entry fee to pay. Last time we visited there was nobody collecting entrance fees. It was mid afternoon, about 3:30pm. I have heard that after 4pm entry is always free, but can't 100% confirm this!



The Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP) is based here - this organisation aims to protect gibbons and their habitat through rehabilitation and education. It's a sad fact that gibbons are caught and kept as pets in Thailand and even hawked round the streets in Phuket to have photos taken with tourists. This is illegal. The project takes in gibbons who have been rescued, taken away from their "owners" by the police or that have been handed in by owners who no longer wish to look after them. They then go through a long rehabilitation before often being released back into the forests. Not all can be released. Below is a video (from July 2012) of a gibbon called Tam who has one hand and one foot missing due to mistreatment by his "owner". He can't be released.



The Gibbons that are being kept here can be seen in large cages like the one above. Some are close together so the gibbons can be social, some gibbons are paired together. There are information boards with lots of details about the gibbons and the work of the GRP.



Gibbons swing around and sing their distinctive song. Some sit quietly. They all have names and have quite different personalities. The information boards tell you more about the individuals. It's not a place you can spend hours, unless you are a particular gibbon fan I guess .. but the volunteers there are always happy to talk and answer questions.





If you are in Phuket (the worst place is Bangla Road in Patong) or anywhere else in Thailand and see a gibbon being taken round the streets for tourists to take photos, please take a photo and email it to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project - grp@gibbonproject.org - tell them where and when the photo was taken. You can also email the Natural Resources and Environment Crime Division at forest@royalthaipolice.go.th. Please note that the project gets none of the National Park entry fee (200 Baht for foreigners), so any donation you can make is appreciated. They have a small shop (photo above) selling gibbon related souvenirs. For more about the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project see the web site www.gibbonproject.org.

Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (and Bang Pae Waterfall) - Location Map


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Khao Sok - Fun and Relaxation

If you live in a city and have a stressful job, it's nice to have a "getaway", a favourite place to relax and recharge your batteries for a couple of days, somewhere quiet and beautiful, not far from home but seemingly in another world. It may seem odd, but even living in Phuket it's nice to have a place nearby that suits us as a getaway. Sure, Phuket is beautiful anyway, but we're very lucky to have Khao Sok National Park on our doorstep. Over the years, we have enjoyed a number of short trips to Khao Sok, not for the hiking, kayaking, rafting and other adventure activities that are offered by tour companies, but just to relax. We have stayed at the same resort - Cliff and River Jungle Resort - many times and until our last trip, we ignored all tours and just relaxed by the amazing pool with the cliff towering overhead, enjoyed the good food in the restaurant and enjoyed listening to nature. Even enjoyed heavy afternoon rain showers!

This latest trip in early May 2012 was different. We had planned to stop in Khao Sok on the way back to Phuket from Chumphon, but the weather was wet and windy, so we headed straight home. No point checking in with the rain hammering down. From the Cliff and River it's about a 3 hour drive to our house. Just 2 days later the weather cleared up, and it just so happened that some friends were heading to Khao Sok on the same day. We had plans for relaxation, but also wanted to stay a night at some floating bungalows on the Chiew Lan reservoir, and our friends wanted to try some river-based activities. We were going to be kind of guinea pigs for some new Khao Sok tours which are now being offered by my friends at Easy Day Thailand.

We started at the reservoir. Chiew Lan is a huge man-made lake created by the building of the Rajaprapha Dam, which was completed in 1982. Probably looked a mess when it was being built. Looks beautiful now. The boat dock where you can hire boats and pay your national park fees is a busy place. No real need to book in advance if you have your own transport. You can just turn up and get a boat out onto the lake.



The plan was to cruise the lake for an hour or so, check out some of the floating bungalows and splash about in the water. The scenery in the lake is quite similar to Phang Nga Bay, only here you have fresh water. It's nice to have your "own boat" rather than be on a big group tour which dashes around on it's own schedule. We had no fixed schedule, I don't like to rush. The day was hot and sunny, and Khao Sok was looking great...





We stopped at some of the floating bungalows where a late breakfast was being prepared for our group (eggs and toast). We weren't planning to stay that night, but this quick stop gave us a chance to check out the accommodation. It's basic - bare rooms with a mattress on the floor and a cold shower. It was late morning and sunny, and the rooms were already hot inside. I wondered how they'd be for sleeping. But - ignoring the basic nature of the rooms .. here's the view:



And after a bite to eat, the kids were soon having fun in the water. Once you jump in, you can see the attraction of these bungalows. They had some kayaks too. As it turned out, we never did stay at the floating bungalows as the weather only stayed good for 2 days, so that means .. we'll be back! Boat rides and bungalows can be booked through Easy Day Thailand.





Oh, and the kids weren't the only ones jumping in the water. It was a hot day, so I jumped in too. Lovely. We splashed about in the sun with these great views long enough that the bungalow staff suggested we had lunch there too! They cooked up curry and fried fish and rice, and a couple of beers magically appeared :)

The boat took us back to the jetty, it was about a 30 minute ride back and then about a 45 minute drive from the reservoir to reach the Cliff and River resort to the west. The weather stayed great so we could have a splash about in the pool, a couple of beers and dinner in the restaurant. If you stay at the Cliff and River, and want to "eat out" the nearest alternative would be about 10km away to the west at the main national park entrance where there are many small bungalows and small restaurants. But we happen to like the restaurant at Cliff and River! We'd all had an early start at 6am, driving up from Phuket, plenty of sun, and an early night after a couple more beers was very welcome!

I like to wake up early in Khao Sok. Why? Here's why ...



The air is fresh and cool, the mist hangs over the hills, the insects chirp, the birds are not angry and the gibbons call through the jungle. This is our getaway! The mists slowly clear revealing the 1000 foot cliff that towers over the resort. We filled up on breakfast, the usual "Thai-American" breakfast with coffee, toast, eggs, ham .. or you can ask for Khao Tom (rice soup). The day ahead was to be a day of fun on the river. We drove out mid morning to the west (up river) - the Khao Sok river starts in the hills and winds it's way east joining up with a river that exits from the lake/reservoir and finally hits the ocean at Surat Thani. The section of river that runs near the Cliff and River resort is mostly tranquil with a few very small rapids. We had met our guide Tee the night before. He works for Easy Day Thailand, and lives just a few km from the resort - a real local! We'd been to his house for a few drinks, a BBQ and karaoke. A very nice guy, speaks excellent English, and his daughter and mine became instant friends!

I'll add a few more photos of the day later. We started with a little downhill walk to the river and climbed aboard our canoes. A box of beer was brought along for the ride. After an hour or so, my wife and I had the hang of canoeing and had stopped blaming each other for heading in the wrong direction or drifting sideways into overhanging trees. Fun for all the family, and our group had lots of kids in it, som as young as a year old.



The river was mostly very tranquil, with just a few very very small "rapids". There are places in Phang Nga with some more serious water, but this is suitable for everyone.



We stopped a few times on the river to jump in and swim in the cool water, and there was one spot with a rope swing too which many people enjoyed trying, and a few even managed not to look like a donkey :)



Tee's friends had prepared a "jungle lunch" at a secret riverside location (he knows every inch of this area). Just our group by the river with a little BBQ. And from there it was tubing downstream all the way to the Cliff and River. Tubing is fun, relaxing (except when you drift into overhanging branches) - next time I think I need a dry bag and a waterproof camera, and maybe a couple of cold beers :) I'm a pretty large person, so my tube seemed to be slower than some other people as most of it was under water! But there was no rush, no rush at all.



(above) Tubing in Khao Sok - that's me and my wife right in the background. Our kids loved it, a great family day and finishing the tubing right back at the resort was ideal, just a quick walk up to our room! Wanna do this again! Our friends left back to Phuket that afternoon, but we stayed another night at the Cliff and River. The weather had been so great for 2 days. Lots of red sunny faces in the family! We thought about heading back to the lake next day for an overnight stay, but the next morning was a little wet ....



Boo! Raining again! Well, it is rainforest. This area on average gets 40 - 50% more rain than Phuket. I like rain in the jungle, but it would not have been such a nice boat ride. So we headed back home instead. This trip was in early May 2012, and Easy Day Thailand now have regular Khao Sok tours including the resort, lake trip, river activities and/or staying on the lake - ask them! I'm often reminded how lucky we are to live in Phuket. Having Khao Sok on our doorstep is one of the many reasons we are happy to call Phuket home!

• You can contact Easy Day Thailand for Khao Sok Tours
• Hotels in the Khao Sok Area

Khao Sok National Park Map


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