Things to do (closed): December 2013

Sunday, 29 December 2013

Phuket Walking Street

The attraction of Phuket Old Town got one step more for us on Sunday!

"Thalang is a 350m-long commercial and cosmopolitan street which hosts a mix of Baba (Chinese migrants settled in Phuket at the beginning of the 20th century during the tin mining era), Thai Muslim and Indian shops. Phuket Walking Street allows visitors to discover some typical southern Thai culinary specialties as well as local handicraft and gift stalls. This weekly event (every Sunday from 16:00 – 22:00) is definitely family-oriented with the presence of toy stalls and a (free-of-charge) trampoline to entertain the little ones."

"The main entrance of Phuket Walking Street is on the eastern (Phuket Road) side of Thalang Road at which a superb wooden Chinese-style gate has been installed. The gate boasts a sign with LARDYAI written in three languages (Thai, Chinese, and English) and is a popular photo op. Thalang Road was one of the first Phuket Old Town streets along which electric cables were buried in 2012, in an effort to revive its vintage splendor. Thalang Road’s Baba house facades have even been further enhanced by the addition of colour-changing lighting effects – from blue to green to magenta - on many of the townhouses along the street, giving the place a ‘history meets technology’ feeling."

"Phuket Old Town has always been a commercial hub, and nowadays, Thalang Road still hosts many shops selling fabrics/tissues, tools, sports equipment, clothes, and traditional medicines (the oldest drugstore in Phuket is located here) between coffee shops, restaurants and bars; it is indeed an active and lively street, and a great place for a Thai-style weekend market."

Text is from Asia Web Direct

We visited the Walking Street - getting there at 4:30 seemed to be just right!

Check out our visit here :)

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Monday, 23 December 2013

Karon Beach

This is a beach that we have always enjoyed because of it's proximity to Dino Park Mini Golf Course and of course a Starbucks.

The sea front is very long and it will take a big effort to walk from one side to the other - if you are looking for a bit of exercise than this isn't a bad idea. I have posted here previously of the red flags which are posted but in November there are no red flags and the beach is really quite lovely.

Okay the beach does get busy at times but this is dependent on the busy hotels near to the beach - there are quite a few. Karon beach is also a destination for a great many tourists on motorbikes.

Lately there has been an increase in the number of people selling Flying Lanterns in the evening to any of the guests which are still on the beach.

We always enjoy visiting this area but we like to buy of the street stalls and they are not always there? You are able to buy food from the sellers on the beach but I do not know where they go to get the food because it is not prepare on the beach - but this is common to many beaches in Phuket.

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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Weekend Market - Clothes and Shoes

There are a great many number of places that can sell you clothes whilst you wander around the Weekend Market and there is an even great amount of places which you can buy shoes!

Muay Thai Boxing shorts - a common request

Not being a 'clothes person' I am not that keen on taking photographs of the clothes that are for sale. But I do notice a number of things -

note the Dr Beats Headphones

1) There is not a wide range of clothes in terms of their sizes

2) There is not a lot of choice of the labelled clothes - here Patong is the winner.

3) Many of the clothes are for the Thai people and may not be appealing to the Foreign Visitor.

4) WOW - some of the clothes, particularly dresses are extremely cheap!

There are a great deal of shoes for sale - more than I could imagine and they are extremely cheap. But this means that the quality is not the best - the shoes here will probably last as long as your holiday. Do not be surprised that when you keep them for a year and you use then again the glue has dried out and they fall apart almost immediately.

The number of different items for sale are enormous and I have blogged about this previously but on reflection I think that it may be easier to look at the types of thing for sale here. I have started a list.

Food at the Weekend Market

An overview

Eating Bugs!

Personal Beauty

Personal Aggression - Guns and

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The Weekend market opposite Wat Naka is open from 16:00 until 10:00 each Saturday and Sunday.

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Wat Puttamongkon OR Wat Mongol Nimit

I have walked past this temple any number of times – the two that stand out is when I have visited Hongsyok House as part of the Baba Wedding Ceremony and when I have nipped into Tiny Coffee for a coffee and cake (note: the App is worth having for discount).

This temple has one entrance on this side and there is another one around the corner – opposite Koffie Terrace and Soi Rommanee.

1) Entrance from Debuk Road.

This entrance could be missed because it is opposite a petrol station which always seems to be busy. The actual Wat is very close to the entrance and is (like many well kept Wats) a lovely thing to look at.

Before you enter into the actual temple I suggest that you take the time to look at the buildings surrounding it. I am not clear the function of the buildings but they are old and they are well kept.

There is a smaller building with a smaller Shrine in front of it.

Then there is the actual Temple itself.

I was lucky to visit here when there was a Monk ceremony but very often you will find that the building is closed. When I visited this day there was a ceremony, remembering to take my shoes off I crept in.

Even if the Wat is closed the doors can be beautiful.

I have read somewhere that the shiny glass material on the walls of the temple is special but I think I may have been mistaken?

Getting to the back of the temple I noticed that there was a selection of Pagodas at the very back - not just one but 6 or 7.

As I walked closer to them I noticed that there were printed notices in the branches of the trees and they really were quite profound. I have uploaded them all onto photobucket but if you intend to visit them don't look.

Turning away I noticed that there was a side road leading out of the temple.