Ton Sai Waterfall and Khao Phra Thaeo

Ton Sai waterfall is on the other side of the mountain from Bang Pae Waterfall in the North East of Phuket. It's easy to get to - just turn east at the main junction in the center of Thalang town and you drive about 5km through rubber plantations (see location on Google Earth). The two waterfalls have their source on the same mountain, Khao Phra Thaeo, which is Phuket's largest untouched area of forest and is officially designated as a National Park. Entry fee is 200 Baht, or free if you arrive after 3pm. We stopped for a look a couple of weeks ago after spending an afternoon at Layan Beach - I can't resist the lure of free entry!



We just went for a quick look at the waterfall, get a bit of jungle air (it's very jungly round here) and a little bit of exercise. There was a sign for a 2km nature trail, but I didn't think my kids would thank me for that. Apparently you can even hike over the mountain and join up with Bang Pae falls - not for the faint hearted I would say. The forest is said to be home to wild deer, monkeys, wild boar and even bears - I read that somewhere, but I somehow doubt the presence of bears... I have also read that the area was used during the filming of Good Morning Vietnam (which was mostly filmed in Thailand).





Like Bang Pae there were a fair few locals splashing in the water and playing on the rocks. Watch your footing - some steep rocky paths around the falls. Like all other waterfalls in Phuket, the cascade is not small, and yet not hugely impressive, although it might be after heavy rains. There are several little waterfalls and you can hike higher up the hill if you have enough energy. Yeh, it's quite nice but rather tiny if you have seen Iguassu, Victoria falls, Niagara...





My daughter enjoyed making a mask from giant fallen leaves...



Well worth stopping in for a half hour. If you come after 3pm. Worth coming to the Thalang area where you can also find several temples, the Thalang museum, and if you head round to Bang Pae to see the other waterfall and the Gibbon project, add on a seafood lunch at Bang Pae Seafood, well you've got the makings of a good day out away from the crowds.

LateStays.com - Last Minute Phuket Hotels

If you need a hotel booking in the next few weeks - LateStays.com is the place to look for Phuket, Thailand and many other destinations....

If you are visiting Phuket, you are going to need a place to stay. Be it hotel, guesthouse, resort or rented appartment, everyone needs a place to lay their hat. When I started this blog, I was intending to ignore hotels, but realised that they are rather important and maybe I could make some recommendations. So every now and then I add a recommended hotel to the blog along with some online booking links.

There are so many hotel booking websites, it's hard to know where to start. The main hotel site which features on this blog (Agoda) is now joined by another great site. I was emailed a couple of weeks ago by the company that owns Phuket.com about a partnership with their well known LateStays.com. The Late Stays website is all about late bookings. Need a hotel tomorrow, next week, 10 days from now... soon? This is the place to look. The website shows availability and lowest available prices for hundreds of Phuket Hotels. You can choose to view most popular hotels or look for availability by area. Very useful for peak periods such as Christmas and New Year, or Songkran.

The LateStays.com site covers much more than just Phuket. You can book hotels all over Thailand and in many other countries from Singapore to Scotland. Availability and prices are updated daily, so it's easy to see what you might be able to book. The site naturally tends towards mid price and higher end hotels, so it's not the place to look for low budget guesthouses (but you can see my review of Low Budget Places to stay in Phuket).

So, if you are coming to Phuket or anywhere else in Thailand, or anywhere covered by LateStays, and have not booked in advance, LateStays.com is the place to look. Happy Travels! See you soon!

LateStays.com - Top Links

• Phuket Hotels
• Bangkok Hotels
• Krabi Hotels
• Phang Nga - Khao Lak Hotels
• Chiang Mai Hotels
• Hotels all over Thailand
• Recommended Phuket Hotels on Jamie's Phuket

Karon Temple (Wat Suwan Khiri Khet)

Having worked for several years within walking distance of Karon Temple, you might think I'd have been for a look around before, but that was a few years ago before this blog got started. The blog needs feeding, and I find temples to be good eating. Phuket is full of temples, though many visitors here don't bother with them - after all, if you have stopped in Bangkok, chances are you've "done" temples already, but Phuket has some notable historical temples and every community has it's own. I find every temple has something different, and all have a certain peace about them.



Karon Temple is about half a kilometer from the beach along Patak Road. If your hotel is towards the north end of Karon Beach, the temple is easily within walking distance and certainly worth a few minutes of your time.

• Karon Temple - Location on Google Earth



It's quite an attractive temple and while I was there several monks were working around the grounds keeping their temple neat and tidy. The main building is guarded by 2 huge snakes whose bodies continue round the entire building. The doors and windows are engraved with scenes from the life of the Buddha. As I walked around, a couple of temple dogs came to visit.







Another building is guarded by rather bizarre blue monsters... these are called "Yak", supernatural beings that feature in old Buddhist texts. They scare off spirits and keep the Buddha images inside safe from harm. Inside is a distinctive black Buddha image along with a couple of rather Hindu looking images - a cow and a statue of Kali. The two religions are closely related - read more here: Buddhism and Hinduism.

 

Rather like Patong Temple, if you visit Karon Temple you can find a little oasis of peace just off the main road and close to the tourist zone. With temples like this so close to the hotels, there's no excuse not to visit!

• Karon Beach Hotels
• More Temples in Phuket

Fresh flowers on our Buddha Shelf

Just about every house in Thailand will have a "Buddha Shelf", a personal shrine where prayers can be said, a mini temple in your own front room. Everyone's shrine is different, featuring images that are important personally. Our Buddha shelf does not actually have a Buddha image on it - the central figure is a statue of King Rama V (King Chulalongkorn).



December 5th was the 80th Birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, an ideal day to clean our Buddha shelf, change the flowers and say a prayer. Some people change the flowers weekly, we tend to be a little less diligent.. the old flowers were not looking great...

 

King Rama V needs pink roses, which were his favourite flowers. You'll find flower shops all over Phuket, indeed all over Thailand... all selling flowers for Buddha..roses and garlands just for the thousands, maybe millions of Buddha shelves all over the country.

 

With the shelf clean, fresh flowers in place and a fresh glass of water, next step is to light the candles and incense and say a prayer.

 

The Buddha shelf is an important part of the home. Some houses have a shelf collection and many different Buddha images or statues of Kings. We do try to look after ours and it always looks great with new flowers and after a spring clean. The room looks brighter and fresher...

The Beach Bar is Back!

We first found "The Beach Bar" about a year ago and it quickly became a favourite place to eat, drink and just... chill. Finding a place to truly "chill" in Phuket is a bit tricky, but you can do it! The Beach Bar is a little restaurant on the east side of Chalong Bay, down Cape Panwa way. Just follow the signs to Novotel Panwa Resort and you'll find it. See (approximate) location on Google Earth



Panwa has long been a favourite area and last year I was very happy to find a place here right on the beach, with cheap tasty food, friendly people, great views, a safe beach for the kids to play... The Beach Bar. Sadly it was closed all low season and we wondered if it would open again, and then last week we took a drive to check. Hoorah!

 

 

It has actually moved about 20m closer to the Novotel, leaving some half-knocked-down walls next door. Yeh, not 100% pure paradise, but we like it and this is my blog! The family who run the place are very friendly, the food is tasty, beer is cold and the view across Chalong Bay is great, especially for sunsets. The Beach Bar is very much "the other Phuket" away from the crowded beaches and jet skis and tailors. Don't be surprised to see us here next weekend too...

 

More about the Cape Panwa area...

• Phuket Aquarium
• Novotel Panwa Resort
• Khao Kad Viewpoint
• The Beach Bar (part 1)

Loy Krathong 2007 in Phuket

After making our own krathong at home on Saturday (see Making a Krathong), there was plenty of time before the evening festivities got underway. We had not decided where to go and loy (float) our kratong... we normally head for the Bang Wad reservoir where hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the Kathu area go every year for Loy Kratong. The reservoir is the largest in Phuket with an 800m long dam and people gather there every evening for picnics by the water and jogging on the dam (see Bang Wad Reservoir). This year we thought about going somewhere different, like maybe Patong (thought again - sure to be a big party, but too crowded and parking a nightmare), or Karon (same as Patong and further from home too), or maybe Rawai beach (much quieter)...

While we chewed over the options for where to Loy our Krathong, we took a drive down to Cape Panwa to see if one of our favourite places had reopened.... YES! The Beach Bar, near the Novotel Panwa Resort is open again. We love it. On the beach, not expensive, friendly owners, very relaxed, we have spent many afternoons here before. Read more here: The Beach Bar is back!



We stayed until sunset and wished we had brought our kratong with us...

So after much indecision we went to Bang Wad Reservoir to float our kratong. It's a busy place on Loy Kratong night. If you want to see some real local colour, it's a good spot to be! We headed for the water and lit the candle and incense and let our kratong drift into the water.. a bit wonky, but afloat nonetheless...





Lots of kratongs were already floating and plenty more people were waiting to float theirs. Hope everyone gets good luck this year!





At the reservoir there's quite a party going on - lots of food stalls and drink stalls and hey! Draft Chang Beer for 90 Baht a liter - can't say no to that! We found a few friends and sat down for a drink and a few snacks...







(above) Food stalls at the reservoir, Loy Kratong night.

As well as floating kratongs, it's also common to float large paper lanterns into the night sky - this is far more common in Chiang Mai, but is spreading! At the dam you can buy a lantern for 100 Baht - its a big paper bag with a wire frame and a "solid fuel booster". We decided to buy one and launch it at home. More personal.

You have to hold the lantern until the fuel heats the air inside the lantern enough to lift it.. then let go and make a wish. We watched our lantern float high into the clear night sky. I told our kids it had gone to join the stars. We watched until the last flicker of light had gone.

 

Happy Loy Krathong - see you again in 2008!

Loy Kratong - 24th November 2007 - Making the Kratong

Loy Kratong is on a different day each year, falling on the Full Moon of the 12th lunar month, which is normally sometime in November. Last year was November 5th, this year November 24th. Loy Kratong is celebrated all over Thailand with particularly large ceremonies in Bangkok, Sukothai and Ayutthaya. Here in Phuket, festivities are quite extensive at the main beaches such as Patong and Karon, and anywhere else you find water - which is everywhere, being that Phuket is an island. We normally go and float our kratong at Bang Wad Reservoir, which is the largest reservoir in Phuket and is not far from our home in the Kathu area of Phuket. The word "Loy" means Float, and the Kratong is what you set afloat - read on...



Making Our Kratong

Of course there are stalls all over the place selling ready made kratongs, but we decided to DIY this year, ending up with a kratong that just about floated without tipping over! To make a kratong you will need - cut slices of banana stem to make the base, banana leaves to decorate, flowers, incense sticks, candles and pins to hold it all together! And voila - you have a kratong...

  

The banana leaves are cut and folded to shape and pinned to the base... My wife did all the hard work - she had never made one before - I mean, you can buy them everywhere very cheaply ... She made a special double decker kratong. I think it turned out beautifully!

  

Add some flowers, and it's ready... Our family kratong! Into the kratong we also add small cuttings of hair and nails from family members which will float out into the water with the kratong. Now we just need to float it! I'll update the blog with some more photos sometime soon...

 

Layan Beach

Layan Beach is not at all well known, so if you want to find one of the quietest and most beautiful beaches in Phuket, try to find Layan Beach. Hard enough to find it on a map! We first found Layan in January on a rather grey day while driving around the back roads in the North of Phuket. You have a choice of small roads to reach Layan Beach. Last weekend we drove through the Laguna Resort complex, the road turning from good, to bad, to "oh-my-god-i-wish-we-had-a-4wd". The last 100m took about 5 minutes. OK, that's the back route in, you can also go via Naithon, or via Thalang, following a long twisty road through the villages. OK, enough directions. Go find it, or check the location on Google Earth

Seek and ye shall find paradise. Or at least a very peaceful, picture postcard beach. Layan Beach, just North of Bang Tao Beach, has two halves. The southern part is simply stunning if you like blue seas and white sand. The land is privately owned, well cared for and kept simple. We were there at the weekend for lunch in the high season and I counted about 12 other visitors and I reckon half of them were local residents. You'll find a small restaurant, a small collection of beach chairs, palm trees and the sound of waves gently lapping the shore. Too good to be true?







The restaurant has basic Thai food, sea food.. not super cheap, but hey - look at the location. I guess we are used to local prices, so 80 Baht for fried rice seems expensive! It was tasty food, though and if you are coming for a holiday, lunch for a pound or 2 dollars is not going to break the bank! Next to the restaurant is "Beer Conner" :)



Just behind the beach, you have a mix of local life and modern development. This stretch of coast is being invaded by a large amount of villas, sea view apartments, hillside condos...and yet you also find scenes like this...



A little further North, Layan Beach is split by a small island and sand bar, creating a semi enclosed lagoon and a natural paradise. A sign at the edge of the beach says this area is to be made a National Park.. although I read recently in the Phuket Gazette that a marina might be planned for this location. It's a beautiful spot. I'd like to walk out along the sand spit to the island, but not with the little kids - it's quite a hike on a hot day.





You'd hardly know it, but there are 2 small, quite exclusive, very nice looking resorts in this section of Layan Beach. They blend in with the scenery, offering beachside or hillside bungalows. If you like a bit of seclusion, the Bundarika Resort or the Layan Beach Resort might be for you.

• Bundarika Resort
• Layan Beach Resort



Layan Beach is perfect for me and the family as a little getaway for a couple of hours - we like the small scale, the little restaurant, the fact that the beach is clean and hard to find. How we never found it until this year is beyond me.... Well, I guess we are not on holiday so can't be out exploring every day, but it's pleasing that after 8 years here Phuket still manages to surprise me.