Tesco Lotus

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Tesco Lotus is just on the outskirts of Phuket Town.

Tesco is an International name and Lotus is it's partner in Thailand. The shop itself has the standard Supermarket items from fresh food to nappies to crisps to felt tip pens.

Tesco Lotus stores currently operate in 5 formats: Extra, Hypermarket, Department Store, Talad and Express. Extra, Hypermarket and Department store formats have an extensive fresh food, ambient food and grocery offer as well as a non-food offer including electrical appliances, apparel, toys, stationery and household goods. Talad is a "supermarket format" selling mainly groceries and Express is a convenience "mini-supermarket" format. Many of the products on the shelf are Tesco house brand products.

The bigger stores are often set in Malls and have food courts and many other shops and stalls available as well as a large car park. Tesco Lotus also offers a range of retail and financial services including bill payment, personal loans (Tesco Premier), a Tesco Visa credit card and as Tesco General Insurance Broker, a range of insurance products.

text is from - wiki

Outside of the shop are a plethora of small coffee shops and fast food outlets (KFC McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Black Canyon, S'n'P, Subway, Swensen's and a lot more.

On the side of the shops are a number of telephone shops, Homeworks and smaller stalls, really quite a number of places.

Then you can choose to go upstairs - upstairs there is a young children's 'soft room' and some simple arcade games to play. There is also a place where you are able to have your nails painted in a number of different ways - Jemma chose to have butterflies on her nails but that was before she went to school and she has not asked since. 

Adjacent to this a Traditional Thai 'food court' restaurant - well worth a visit if you are willing to have a try at some of the local foods - i have always chosen a simple fried rice up here whilst Jemma was playing in the 'soft room'.

They do not accept the Tesco Loyalty Card - sorry.


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Find the Sunset - Cape Phromthep and more

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This may seem quite easy but it not aways is - the most popular place to watch the Sunset is usually recognised as Sunset Viewpoint. 

Cape Phromthep Sunset (this is Jamies photograph) - used with permission

Cape Phromthep is at the Southern most point of Phuket Island and it is wise to get there possibly an hour before the sunsets. This is because there may well be a coach of people also trying to see the sunset and you don't want to miss the Sunset because you were stuck in a traffic jam.

A way to find what time the sunset is is to use an App - my choice for an App which shares the information is Sunset Countdown.

There are a number of other places to visit - here is my selection.

The Sunset Trip with John Gray Sea Canoe

Cape Panwa Promenade

The Beach Bar

The Beach Bar

The Beach Bar is an excellent location that I have found to take photographs of the Sunset - if I was more organised I would try to take pictures of the sunset with Big Buddha in the background but not yet.

Wat Laem Phromthep

A place to go is the Buddhist Wat next to Cape Phromthep - Wat Laem Phromthep - quiet and serene (because all the tourists are next door)!

Then there is 'After Beach Bar' - a good place for a sunset and the restaurant is pretty good - when I wrote this I had not written a review yet but the review will be here - here's Jamie's review.

Wat Phra Thong (History)

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This text is directly from a post on the walls of Wat Phra Thong.

The history of Wat Phrathong and Luang Pho Phra Phut was never written before just the old people telling the younger ones later and later.

In frormer times the area of this holy monastery was only the rich land field where the villager used for raising cows and buffaloes. The next day a young boy took his buffalo to this field. Usually he was able to tie his buffalo's rope with burhes in that area, but now he could not. He had to walk around and around to look for something to tie his buffalo's rope. Then he walked to the bank of the river and saw a stage piece of stone covering with mud. So he tied the rope with this stone and returned home. 

At home he suddenly got sick and died later the morning. His parents and neighbours were so surprise. He was burried that day. His father went to the field to his buffalo and again he was so surprised the second time. His buffalo was already dead. 

He returned and at night he dreamed that the cause of his son and buffalo's death because his son had tied the rope with the head of the GOLDEN BUDDHA image. 

The next day the villagers went to see the strange muddy stone. They all washed the mud out and saw that this was the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. They all prayed respectfully.

They reported this exciting news to the Governor of Thalang. The Governor ordered his men to dig up the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. But they all failed in digging. They tried very hard but there many strange things occurred during the digging. 

For instance the one who dug would be assaulted by wasps, hornets and bees. The one who prayed wouldn't get any harm. 

The governor ordered his men to build the big building covering the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. Thai people called "PHRA PHUT" meaning the buddha image coming up from the ground. PHRA PHUT is only the head of the golden Buddha image just about one foot from the ground.

Chinese people called "PHOO PHUK" which they all believed that this Golden Image came from China. The Chinese and the Thai people in neighbouring town came to make worship during the Chinese New Year's day in February every year.

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Jui Tui Chinese Shrine and it's figurines

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Guang Gong

A fascinating thing to do is to look carefully at all of the figurines!

Le Loh Chia

This is the Spirit which leads the Phuket Vegetarian Festival.

Tsai Shen Yeh (God of Wealth)

One of the most powerful and popular Chinese Gods of Wealth is Tsai Shen Yeh who is frequently depicted wearing a dragon robe and sitting on a tiger.He also known at times as Lu Hsing the Star God of Wealth.

He carries a gold ingot and a sword. After he returned from a forest after studying the Tao, he was seen riding a black tiger in all directions and carrying a sword to ward off evil influences.

He is not meant to be worshipped but is there to symbolise money and wealth an attracts the same into the house. This is why he should be gold in colour (as the statue shown is) as like attracts like.

(text from Mercury Treasures)

Cheng Huang - the Town God

This is the God who looks after the Town or is referred to as the 'Religious Magistrate'.

Sun Wukong or The Monkey King

A favourite of many (including the media) because of his troublesome outcomes.

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