Welcome to April the 2010 version

Welcome to April the 2010 version

It's gonna be a good month, it's gonna be a good, good month (imagine the Black Eyed Peas tune to it).

April usually is the month with August where it becomes as good as it gets. April should be hot and great for diving with up to 30 meters visibility or better.

With Chakri Day on the 6th and Songkran on the 13th -15th or the Thai New Year it also hosts two big Buddhist celebration days.

Especially Songkran is something not to be missed if you haven't witnessed it yet! Especially in Chiang Mai, Khao San Road in Bangkok and in Pattaya it's a 3 day water throwing party.

Camille

1st April, 2010

Today's weather;

A near perfect blue sky is ruling over our part of Koh Samui and it looks like it's going to be a hot day! Current temp at 7am is 26.2C

The mango's in our garden are growing gaining weight

Yesterday started out very nicely but between 2.30 and 3.30 in the afternoon we had some serious rain which cooled things down a bit. Max temp reached 31.5C

Camille

Goodbye to March 2010

Goodbye to March 2010

This years March was nice. It started out really good with fantastic hot and sunny weather and towards the end we received some well needed rain. Typical tropical showers, just as Samui is nearing severe draught problems.
Overall a very good month, weather wise.
This in contrast to the 2008 version which saw a very wet early March and more in line with last years 2009 March.

Work wise I had some fantastic diving in Pattaya in early March, first I was teaching an Instructor level Wreck Specialty and than we went on a very exciting Wreck exploratory trip.
I also posted about vintage scuba diving adds which proved to be a very popular post and maybe one to check out!
This Pattaya trip was combined with a family holiday and we did some fun stuff in Pattaya itself but also went on to Bangkok's Dream World, an amusement park which the kids loved!

Food wise I went to a couple of usual suspects and all time faves here on Samui, like take away from the ebst Indian restaurant on the island; Haveli and how about some ass kicking Sateh at Dcheed 2?

On to a new topic that I would like to touch on at the end of each month, other blogs that I follow or like in any way.
First off, I started a new blog myself and it's in its infancy stage right now, it's a blog about Samui Holiday rental Villas. This one will grow over time with some real nice villas for rent, a great alternative if you're either travelling with a bigger party or your family.

Blogs I like are amongst others; Behind the Mango Juice, in which Martyn looks at various aspects of licing in Thailand. He's got a great post up about the Red shirts that are currently staging protests in Bangkok.
In Phuket there's Jamie's weather blog, always good to see how Phuket's fairing and I posted about his weather blog already almost a year ago.
Mike is having a look at various aspects of living in Thailand by means of his My Thai Friend blog based in Prachuap Khirikhan, worthwhile checking out.
Malcolm is retired in Thailand and loving it, check out his blog to get an insight in rural Thai live near Kanchanaburi.
A link to my home country the Netherlands is done by a female Indian expat who now lives in Rotterdam and blogs away about the Netherlands from her perspective in Orangesplaash.

Ok, that's it for this month, see you again in April, with the Thai New Year or Songkran festival coming on strong!

Camille

31st March, 2010

Today's weather;

It looks much nicer today and there's bits and pieces of blue sky in the air again. Current temp at 7am is 26.2C at this last day of March.

Yesterday started out dark and wet but that only lasted for about half an hour and afterwards it was clouded bu no rain any more during the rest of the day. Max temp reached 29.5C

Camille

30th March, 2010

Today's weather;

A dark sky is watering Samui down and it's real, hard rain and it feels good! Current temp at 7am is 26.7C

Yesterday saw a lovely and sunny (and very warm!) day. Max temp reached 32.8C and there was just a tiny bit of rain early in the morning.

Camille

Chew Chuen Dim Sum at Butterwoth

Chew Chuen Dim Sum (N5 24.364 E100 22.318) is the Biggest Chain Dim Sum outlet at Butterworth, and this outlet we visited was the first shop where the business started.The shop is located at Tingkat Bagan Baru 1 at Bagan, Butterworth and it has outdoor and indoor session. It always crowded with peoples in the morning until almost noon...

We chose the outdoor session to avoid heat that circular within...

The indoor area of Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The outdoor area of Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The reason I can understand why so many customers like to visit Chew Chuen is because they have many varieties! As you can see from the photos below...

Customers like to choose what they love to have...

Inside the cabinet

Beside the Dim Sum, you also can have some standard dishes or Congee (粥) from the shop.

Standard dishes from Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The Mobile Congee (粥) supply from Chew Chuen Dim Sum

When we walked over to order the Dim Sum, me & my brother just took the main plates like : 'Siu-mai' (燒賣), 'Ha-gau' (蝦餃), 'Char-Siu-bau' (叉燒包) and others...

Siu-mai (燒賣)

Har-gau (蝦餃)

Char-Siu-bau (叉燒包)

Turnip (Carrot) Cake (萝卜糕) My favorite and it's a must for me...

Beside the main Dim Sum, we also order some site dishes, like...(below)

Sweet Tofu Skin Roll (腐皮捲)

Taro dumpling (芋頭糕) (My dad used to buy this dumplings for my breakfast...)

Fried Turnip (Carrot) Cake

We also had some of the Fish-ball, Phoenix Talons (鳳爪), Egg Tart (蛋撻) and....
The Dim Sums somehow were good and tasty! But some of my friends told me about their Heavenly Perfect Dim Sum, I felt it's just over-rated...

The Damage was MYR37.00 for 4 adults and 1 child. It was a Reasonable price!
Of course you cannot compare the quality with the Ipoh Dim Sum, but if happen to be at Butterworth and you think like have a bite if the 'Siu-mai', don't mind visit The Chew Chuen Dim Sum.

Rated : 4/5

Location map of Chow Chuen Dim Sum at Butterworth

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29th March, 2010

Today's weather;

Cloudy and wet, it just rained a little bit. The rain is really good for Samui and will help the water ground levels around the island, especially with the hottest month of the year coming up in April. Current temp at 7am was 26C.

Yesterday saw plenty of rain during the morning and early afternoon but it dried up during the afternoon. Max temp reached 29.2C.

Camille

James Bond Island

A trip to Phang Nga Bay is part of many visitors holiday to the Phuket area. We've done several trips before, although we don't go with organised tours. In the past we have driven up to Phang Nga (just over an hour from our house) and hired a longtail boat from the jetty which is a few km west of the town. I blogged one of these trips in March 2007 : Phang Nga Bay. I do recommend people to try doing it this way, rather than signing up for a tour. Getting your own boat gives you more freedom, and a boat trip to James Bond Island could be combined with a visit to other attractions such as Suwan Kuha Temple, or a walk around Phang Nga town, which I have never done!

Well, we took another trip on 20th March, and wanted to try something different. Last year we found a restaurant that we liked - Samchong Seafood, which is nearly 20km closer to Phuket than the main Phang Nga Jetty, and I could see on Google Earth that the mangrove river where the restaurant is located led right out into Phang Nga Bay just a few km from James Bond Island. Only thing we were not sure about was whether or not we could hire a longtail boat from anywhere near the restaurant.

No worries! We sat down to eat and asked for a boat - sure, no problem, 1500 Baht for the boat. So we enjoyed lunch over the water and went to meet our boatman.



It was a gorgeous sunny day, typical for March in Phuket. We headed out along the mangrove river and I was pleased that this longtail had a new engine which purred rather than the normal deafening put-put-put. This was a Rolls Royce longtail. It was about 10km from the restaurant to James Bond Island, the first few km passing the mangroves and then out into the bay. I love this scenery. I'd love to have a boat and spend days cruising around. There are (based on my quick count on Google Earth!) over 50 islands in the bay. We saw some new scenery this time, as we were starting from a different base. I'll say it again - I love this scenery.





Our kids enjoyed the ride too. Last time we did this our son was maybe to small to remember. This time they both loved it. If people ask me about "things for kids to do" in Phuket.. I mean, yes you can try the new waterpark or play minigolf or use your hotel kids club.. but they'd be missing out. Our kids like this great scenery, rides on boats, it's an adventure!



After passing several spectacular islands and massive rocks rising from the sea, we approached the famous "James Bond Island". That's not it's real name of course, it's called Koh Khao Phing Kan or Ping Gan or however you wish to transliterate the Thai spelling. But thanks to Roger Moore and Christopher Lee and that little guy called Nick Nack, well the island got it's nickname, and really nobody calls it Ping Gan, which means leaning rock. It's Bond, James Bond...





We landed at a small beach where there used to be a jetty. Not sure where that's gone. The National Park staff have a desk under an overhanging rock where you get your tickets.. the whole bay is a national park but you only pay fees if you land here :)

Now, the main attraction of this island is the standing rock just offshore, which itself is sometimes called James Bond Island, but is actually called Koh Tapu, meaning nail island. You can't see it from where you land - have to clamber up and down some stone steps to get views of (perhaps) Thailand's most famous rock. When you look out over the water to "the rock", it's beautiful. Somehow, you can ignore the fact that you are sharing the island with several hundred other people. We tried to avoid peak time - we got the longtail from Samchong a little after 2pm, so were at James Bond Island around 2:45 and stayed for around 45 minutes. Still plenty of visitors at that time. Next time, now that we know the route, we'll go later. I want to get photos in the late afternoon light, and surely by 5pm it'll be too late for most of the day trippers? Nevertheless, as I say, if you look out to sea, your photos will be uncrowded... A few views of Koh Tapu:







It's a small island, a few little caves to clamber into (kids like), and of course if you are gazing at the rock (Koh Tapu) and turn around, you see a collection of stalls selling souvenirs and drinks and shells and ... as much as I wish that they were not there, I know they will remain.



What of the leaning rock? The real name for this island, nothing to do with movies, comes from the amazing rock formation here modelled by a visiting monk. The islands here are limestone and in this case a huge wedge of the rock has been split, creating this massive leaning slab which rests on it's other half, a real work of nature. This old monk kept his hand on the rock as if feeling the energy of the world. Or something.





We had hired the longtail for the afternoon, and there was time left to head about 4 miles further north of James Bond Island to Koh Panyee, the muslim village built next to a towering rock - this will be blogged next. Lots of photos. And we'll be back.



Nearby sights and attractions:

• Koh Panyee
• Suwan Kuha Temple in a cave
• Samchong Seafood Restaurant

28th March, 2010

Today's weather;

Overcast this morning but not as dark as yesterday. Current temp at 7am is 28.5C.

Yesterday saw dark clouds during the morning and early afternoon which rain and drizzle all the while, which was nice and well needed for Samui. The later afternoon saw brighter clouds move in and it remained dry for the rest of the day. Max temp reached 29.8C

Camille

27th March, 2010

Today's weather;

It started out as the average day as we're used to in the last couple of months with some clouds and plenty of blue, That was around 7am. Now around 8.30am there's a dark clouded sky and a bit of rain came down already. Current temp at 7am is 29.4C

Yesterday was once more hot, until 5pm, that's when the sky darkened and we had some rain, YES, rain! It was lovely. It cooled down a little bit and max temp reached 31.5C

Camille

G. Welesley Food Court (Kopitiam) at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

G. Welesley Food Court (N5 23.102 E100 23.567) is located at the junction of Lebuh Kurau 3 and Jalan Kurau, Chai Leng Park, Butterworth. (Always crowded during night time)
We love to come here (night time) because you can get all the Penang local delicacies in this food court. Only some of them have different taste from Penang, anyway...the foods at Penang Island also have different taste among each other...

G. Welesley Food Court at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

Everytime we visit here, we love to order many different foods on our table...there was no exception this time. Look what we got...Penang Assam Laksa (again!), Penang Char Kuey Teow (again!), Penang Curry Mee (again!), Baked Stingray (Ikan Bakar) and Pork Satay.
The photos below :-

Penang Assam Laksa

Penang Char Kuey Teow

Penang Curry Mee

Baked Fish (Ikan Bakar) 

Pork Satay

Overall we were satisfied with the foods, except...the Pork Satay is very poor, very difficult to chew! The Assam Laksa was marvellous! I felt it's even Better than the stall near by Penang Hill. Curry mee and Char Kuey Teow were above average. Price also reasonable! And it's definitely cheaper than Penang Island!

Foods of this food court, rated : 4/5

Location map of G. Welesley Food Court (Kopitiam) at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

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Driving in Thailand

Driving in Thailand

It can be a real challenge, especially if you're not used to Thai rules and more importantly, the unofficial rules that you just need to pick up on. A lot of these unofficial rules can come in very handy and there's a website where I found a lot of good info, so sit down and kick back and have a good read with sometimes a possible smile on your face but keep in mind, this is how it is out there;



Rules & Regulations

• Drive on the left side of the road
• The legal age for driving cars is 18
• The legal age for riding a motorcycle up to 110cc is 15; 18 is the legal age for riding a motorcycle over 110cc
• It is compulsory for a driver to have their driving licence and a copy of the vehicle registration document (Blue Book, Lem Tabian)
• Valid Thai or International Driving Licences are accepted
• Every vehicle must have a tax sticker, which has to be renewed annually at the local Department of Land Transport Office(DLT)
• Every vehicle must have at least third party compulsory motor insurance, which has to be renewed annually at the local Department of Land Transport Office (DLT)
• It is compulsory to wear a seat belt in the front seats of a car. Fines for not wearing a seatbelt can be paid at the local police station
• Blood-alcohol limit is 0.5 mg
• Speeding fines must be paid at the local police station
• Vehicles with red registration plates are not permitted to drive at night
• From 7 May 2008 a driver may only use a mobile cellular telephone with a handsfree system

Other things to take into account when driving in Thailand:

• Flashing of headlights by other vehicles is a warning signal meaning "get out of my way" and does not indicate "you may make your manoeuvre", as it does in some Western countries
• Drivers of larger vehicles may assume that smaller vehicles will give way
• Always check for motorbikes when opening car doors on the side of the road as they frequently travel up the inside space between the road and the pavement
• It is not obligatory for children's car seats to be used
• Anyone wishing to change the colour of their car must inform the DLT who will change the details in the registration book
• A frequently used method of warning road users of a breakdown in the road ahead is to cover the road with tree branches

Traffic signs

Traffic signs - warning and regulatory - are in Thai. They may have English translations below the Thai names.

Types of Road

Roads in Thailand range from multi-lane freeways around Bangkok to tiny lanes (soi's). Frequently-used roads in the provinces are often four lanes. 

There is continual investment in upgrading or building new roads throughout Thailand making road works commonplace although frequent heavy rains means they can deteriorate quickly. Road works are not always clearly marked or lit at night. Some road markings can be worn badly and care has to be taken.

Road signs may have English translations below the Thai names.

Motorcycles

There are more motorcycles than any other vehicle type on Thai roads. Only a very basic test is required before a motorbike licence is issued and there are many accidents involving motorbikes; the figures for motorcycle deaths in Thailand are extremely high.

• Motorcycles are required to have a tax sticker and 3rd party insurance
• It is compulsory for the rider to wear a helmet and have a motorbike licence

Car drivers in Thailand should be prepared for some or all of the following to occur when driving near motorbikes.

• Riding on the wrong side of the road
• Ignoring stop signs
• Riding with many passengers
• Cutting across the front of a car without looking
• Not indicating direction of turning
• Quickly riding across the front of oncoming traffic at lights

Drink Driving (DWI/DUI)

The legal blood-alcohol limit in Thailand is 0.5 grams of alcohol per litre of blood. However, for drivers that have held their licence for less than five years the limit is 0.2 grams per litre of blood. Drivers caught over the legal limit are heavily fined and may be imprisoned or required to do community service. The government is trying to reduce drink driving and breath testing stops are becoming more common.

On average 7.5 people are killed for every 10,000 vehicles on Thailand's roads, amounting to around 14,000 deaths annually in a typical year. National holidays are when drink driving is at its highest, with as many as 600 deaths during the three-day "Songkran" festival. Drivers should take extra care at these times.

Hope this was some useful information, be careful out there!

Camille

26th March, 2010

Today's weather;

There's a a blue sky shaping up and it looks like another very hot day. Current temp at 7am is 26.2C.
Today there's a freak wind storm expected late in the afternoon starting around 1pm with it's crescendo around 7pm.

Yesterday was once more very hot. Max temp reached 31.4C

Camille

Mobile drinks and naam kaeng sai

Mobile drinks and naam kaeng sai

If you have been to Thailand before, you know that food, at pretty much any given time of the day or night, is never really far away. A brand new player in this field are the 24 hour shops like 7-11 and Family Mart that pop up seemingly everywhere.

Today however, on a visit to the local Makro near Chaweng I noticed a more old style drink provider. This pick up trip has been modified and is now selling (soft) drinks and naam keang sai.

Naam kaeng sai is literally a frozen ice block from which ice is shaved off with a grater or rasp, which presents the naam kaeng, Thai for ice. The sai means with and the twist is just that, a very sweet syrup is added on top of the shaved ice and this is your naam kaeng sai. Cool and simple.

It's very popular with kids but in the current tropic temperatures that Samui is enduring, plenty of grown ups enjoy a cold bit of sweetened, shaved ice as well. It also seems that the vendor picked the right location at Makro's, namely next to the motorbike parking lot.

This old, beaten up pick up, is one of the great things about Thailand, which makes living so nice here. If you look around, there are plenty of similar vehicles like this, selling all kind of drinks and food. Most will be smaller and be either hand pushed or side mounted on a motorbike, some are bigger, there are pick up's out there that sell soup and who knows what, in much better shape than this one.

I like this one though, probably because it is battered up and it represents something that is slowly dying out.

Camille

25th March, 2010

Today's weather;

A very nice blue sky rules over Samui this morning. Current temp at 7am is 26C.

Yesterday saw a very hot day with a max temp of 32C. These maximum temperatures are taken in the shade and sometimes don't really express how hot it really was during the day time.

Camille

Penang Bazaar at Penang Road, Penang

Penang Bazaar (N5 25.120 E100 19.899) is located along Penang Road opposite the Mydin Supermarket (it was Cathay Cinema 35 years ago).

Penang Bazaar

When I was a kid, I always follow my parent having their shopping this Penang Bazaar in the late 70s. I can only remember my Mom keep on remind me :"Don't touch this, don't touch that...". Haha! Those day...
Correct me if I'm wrong, this was One of the popular shopping area during the time. Maybe similar to a hypermart today...My Mom love to come here and my Dad will do his shopping in the next building - The Chowrasta Wet Market...
Today, the shops (or stalls) in this building mostly (90%) are selling fabric. It is different from those day, there were many type of stalls around...

Shops in Penang Bazaar

I walk around this area, and slowly recall my childhood memories...the building was not equip with Air-Con, so you can imagine the temperature in there...But...I didn't feel the heat at all, because I was concentrate on the surrounding...trying hard to remember where did I lost my toy car, and finally...I saw the dirty drain! My car was drop into that drain! And it still dirty today...haha!

Chowrasta Wet Market, Penang

The wet market was closed in the evening, beside the fish and other stalls, there were also some stalls selling daily necessity and food...

I found this food stall really colourful!

Hanging around for about an hour, we finally step out of these two building. Surprised, this chestnut stall still around!

The chestnut seller

Look at the Penang Road, it totally changed! One of the famous cinema - Cathay Cinema, became Mydin Supermarket today...

Penang Road

This area was really given me a comfort feeling, that I wanna sit beside the road (or at the Bus Stand), relax and look around for couple of hour...I can't tell the reason why...too bad I didn't have the chance to do it that day...

The location map of Penang Bazaar

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24th March, 2010

Today's weather;

A near blue sky is ruling above our house in Plai Laem. Current temp at 7am is 28.3C.

Yesterday was very hot, a lot warmer than the max temp of 30.5C implies.

Camille

23rd March, 2010

Today's weather;

A nice blue sky has shaped up with some white fluffy clouds in it. Current temp at 7am is 29C.

Sunset over Bang Rak a few days ago

Yesterday saw plenty of sunshine and a very warm day. Max temp reached 31.5C

Camille

The Phuket Heroines Festival

I have seen mention of this festival for several years on various Phuket news websites, but never really thought about checking it out.. I figured it would be just another local fair, maybe not worth the 30 minute drive to Thalang. Wrong. The Heroines Festival is something much more than just a bunch of food and handicraft stalls, very much worth going (even if it was hard to find!) and the whole family enjoyed it. The festival was on from 5th - 20th March, with the big performance featuring hundreds of performers on the 13th, 14th and 15th. I think the dates are the same every year because March 13th marks an important date in the history of Phuket... In 1785, the Burmese invaded, but were beaten in the battle of Thalang.. the Phuket defenders were led by 2 sisters called Chan and Mook, the former being the widow of the governor who had died not long before. At that time, Thalang, the town in the middle of Phuket island, was the main town, and here the battle was fought, ending on March 13th. The 2 sisters were later honored by King Rama I, being given the names Thao Thep Krasatri and Thao Sri Sunthorn.

We decided to have a look at the festival on March 13th. I had seen in the Phuket Gazette that the festival takes place "near the Heroines Monument" - this monument is in the center of a traffic circle, showing the 2 sisters with swords drawn - pretty much every tourist visiting Phuket will pass this monument on the way from the airport to the south of Phuket. So, we drove to the monument. No sign of a festival. We asked a policeman. "Ah, no.. you have to drive up to Thalang Town", he said (another 6km north). At the traffic lights in Thalang we turned left. Again, no signs or directions to the festival. Little surprise that we saw just a few foreign faces that night! These local festivals are often hard to find - I went to one last year in my local village and didn't see any other non-Thai people! It was only at the entrance to the park where the Heroines Festival was taking place that it was obvious where to go - we entered, parked and headed towards the lights and crowds.

At the entrance to the fields where the festival was taking place, my son stopped to play drums. The road was lined with food and drink stalls of all kinds - we didn't stop, as we were a little late and I could hear that the main performance had started.





The main performance was just getting going with the characters being introduced, so we took a detour first around the many food stalls and craft stalls. There was also a smaller stage with performances going on - a musical / dancing group from Pattani (one of Thailand's southern provinces), and some mock Muay Thai fights and a fire breather...





The performance which was based on the story of the Heroines of Phuket (aka Heroines of Thalang) was getting going - the whole show was supposed to be about 1 ½ hours long which we figured might be too long for our kids so we wandered around some more of the stalls and found shadow puppets to play with, drums to bang and chicken with sticky rice to eat! A family was posing all dressed up in (mostly) old style costume accentuated by a sepia filter...



We then found a place to sit and watch the performance - there were seats set up, but all were taken already so we were kind of on the edge and the stage was a large area - parts of the show were just 10 meters from us, other parts out of sight! As the story was told by a narrator (in Thai.. no subtitles), actors played the roles of the locals and the Burmese. Dramatic music accompanied the performance. The music was familiar. Think Darth Vader. Think Superman. Yes, seems John Williams had written the score.. wonder if he knows about it?

The 2 photos below represent part of the heroine's history before the battle. I am not sure of their whole life stories, I have read that Chan was jailed at one point because her husband had been in debt. Any local historians reading this? Please do correct me! She then escaped and headed back to Thalang just as the Burmese were starting their invasion plans.





As the story continued and Darth Vader the Burmese approached. History says that the people of Phuket were warned of the approaching Burmese by a captain of the British East India company. Phuket had no large army but the sisters rallied the people and dressed women as men, made swords from wood and using all kinds of trickery fooled the Burmese into believing they faced a much larger force. The photos below show the "battle" taking place. We couldn't see everything from our position - next year we'll go early and put towels on seats to bag a good view :)







And the battle was won.. March 13th 1785... roll forward 225 years. Did someone say "Phuket is just bars and tourists"? There is a rich history here which is well worth celebrating. This festival, as I say, is largely unknown to tourists. I mean, even we had trouble finding it! I won't even mention the wrong turn we took after the festival.. we ended up driving off through the rubber plantations of Thalang rather than finding the main road again - it's quite rural in this part of Phuket..this is the real Phuket, the old Phuket.



Fireworks marked the end of the show, with the heroines being honored by the King and Phuket safe from harm. The huge set for the show included a mock-up of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The performance over, we had the chance to mingle with the stars of the show and take some photos. I caught sight of the Governor of Phuket, Mr Wichai Phraisa-ngop and his wife - ah yes, this festival is a big one. We shook hands and said "Pleased to meet you".. I should have slipped him a business card. He seems a good guy. Our governator is not afraid to take on the hard issues like jet ski rip offs and now he's having a go at sorting out the issue of public transport in Phuket. Well done, sir!



The stars of the show, Chan and Mook were happy to pose for photos. Our daughter has already learned something of their history at school. I think our son just thought their swords were cool.





Wow. I was very happy that we had made the effort. Kids enjoyed seeing something different - it did go on quite late, kids were sleeping in the car by the time we got home. For the purposes of this blog, a festival like this is gold! I started the blog in 2006, trying to show the "other" Phuket, off the beach, away from the tourist crowds. March is a great month to be in Phuket - weather is hot and sunny, it's out of peak season - and now, if planning for next year, remember the dates 13th to 15th March - the Phuket Heroines Festival.

More Phuket Festivals...

• Phuket Vegetarian Festival
• Phuket Halal Expo
• Loy Krathong
• Old Phuket Festival