Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I left Jakarta to fly to Phuket on Friday 1st June with Air Asia. Nick was arriving the next day, but no flight was available for me on the Sat.
I checked in a hotel near the airport, at the Nai Yang Beach Resort for the night. The beach is home to a few kiteboard schools, which seemed popular. Apart from that, it's pretty quiet, with a small strip of bars, restaurants and tailors. The resort is across the road from the beach, with nice spacious rooms and good size swimming pools. Unfortunately after a balmy morning, it rained for the rest of the day.
I picked up Nick that evening at the airport and we checked in at the Pacific Club Resort in Karon beach, south west of Phuket island. The hotel is about 10 mins walk from the beach, slightly on higher grounds with nice views, in particular from the rooftop swimming pool. It's quiet with good rooms, and an adequate restaurant as well.
Karon beach is a mixed bag, with some good restaurants and top end hotels (Movenpick hotel and Meridien), and some ping pong bars and other nightlife entertainments that Patong Beach is more famous for. The bay and beach in itself are lovely.
We spent most of the Sunday by the pool, under a cloudy weather, which misled us to believe we would not sunburn. How wrong were we. We welcomed the rain the next few days as we could not sustain more sun exposure, having burnt quite badly.
Unfortunately the rain lasted most of the week, at times torrential. Unlike normal monsoon rain where it would rain for a couple of hours a day only, it offered little respite. We opted to rent a car until our departure so that we could tour the island. We went to a couple of waterfalls in a national park (also home to the Gibbons Rehabilitation centre, unfortunately shut), and to see a couple of temples. The rest of the week was spent reading, eating, and going to the cinema a couple of times (to see MIB 3 - decent entertainment, and Prometheus, disappointingly boring).
Of course the last day (Sat 9th) was beautiful, just as we were nursing a really bad hangover, having been out in sleazy Patong until 4am.
I left Nick that night who was flying back to London, to make my way to Bangkok where I was due to meet someone from ZSL that Monday to go to Kanchanaburi. Our stay was extended as she had more meetings to attend, and I stayed in Bangkok until Wed 13 Jun.
I visited the main tourist attractions as follows.
On Sunday, I went to Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining buddha, the only landmark I remember visiting from my childhood. The Buddha is an impressive 43m long and 15m high.
I was told of one story of the reclining buddha during a subsequent night bike tour, which goes like this: a very large demon heard of Buddha and refused to acknowledge his wisdom. As he was very large (and much larger than Buddha), he was settled in his own idea that he was more powerful than a mere human. He met Buddha to confront him, and Buddha suggested that they played hide and seek. The demon was first to hide, and due to his size, Buddha was very quick in finding him. Then the demon had to find Buddha. After days spent looking for him, he acknowledged defeat and asked Buddha to reveal himself. Buddha was lying down above him all this time, looking down peacefully.
I however read further online that the reclining Buddha represents him at his death, when he knew death was coming and asked for a couch to be prepared for him, where he laid facing west, head on hand as he passed into Nirvana.
Enlightment welcome as to which (or another) explanation is correct.
I also visited the Royal Palace and the temple of the Emerald Buddha which is the most important temple in Thailand. The Buddha is actually made from a single block of Jade but initially thought to be Emerald.
Jim Thompson's house is also on the must do list, and offers an insight as to how wooden traditional Siam houses were built and organised, facing the River (main form of transport), and with some beautiful art and furnitures that he collected. He dedicated his life after WW2 when he settled in Bangkok to revitalise the Thai Silk industry.
China Town is a maze of authentic alleys, shops and food stalls. It apparently offers the best in town for chinese cuisine, but I felt a bit overwhelmed at the choice and the lack of knowledge of what was on offer...
The amulet market is also in the old town, and covering a vast area. I am not sure I can qualify it as a hobby, but from monks to businessmen armed with magnifying glasses, it is very lively and geared towards locals only.
I took a long tail boat trip in the Khlongs, the BKK venice if you'd like. It offers some insights as to how travel would have been made traditionally, and goes past houses on stilts and temples.
As I was staying in Sukhumvit (BTS Asok or MTR Sukhumvit), I went to visit the Kamthieng House Museum, par of the Siam Society just around the corner. It shows a traditional Lan Na house (indigenous community near Chiang Mai in the North) and explains rituals and lifestyle.
As mentioned, I stayed near Asok, on Sukhumvit Soi 19, at the Asok Montri hostel. Just off Soi 19, it offers quiet accomodation, in small dorms or private rooms. I opted for a single a/c room with shared bathroom, at 620 THB (£12.50) per night. Good value and excellent location. The area is well served by both the metro and the skytrain. Whilst restaurant choices are limited, it has many shopping malls which all contain a food hall (Terminal 21 and MBK are very good), where I could eat for less than £2. Excellent value for money. Street stalls are also generally very good, although may be more of a challenge to order!
I took a night bike ride through the old town with Grasshopper Adventures, from 6 to 10pm, which I can only recommend. Whilst the main temples are shut, all the grounds are opened at night, and we went from the Temple of Dawn (just across the river, the oldest from what I gathered) to the reclining buddha, with noone in sight apart from security guards. We were lucky that it was the anniversary of the burial of Buddha, and some temples were actually open with High Priests preaching in them, which we could watch. The highlight was however the flower market, which is abundant with flowers for religious offerings, or other events such as banquets and weddings. On that day many students were found buying flowers for their teachers for the start of term. 50 Roses are an incredible 30 BHT (60p, so just over 1p each!), and lotus flowers are so beautiful that it made me wonder why they are not more popular back home.
Wed 13 June, and I leave today with Belinda Stewart-Cox, from ZSL Thailand and the Elephant Conservation Network to Kanchanaburi. Belinda is the founder of ECN, and I will be working with them for the next few weeks.
- comments
Nick I should have just stayed, forget work!