Hotel Recommendation: The Chedi

The Chedi Hotel is just the right place for a bit of quiet seclusion. Not a cheap hotel, but the last minute prices can be much better. But, it has to be said, you get your money's worth. The Chedi has it's own private beach in between Surin and Bang Tao beaches. The scenery is beautiful along the coast here and you're off the main tourist beaches. Having said that, The Chedi is not too far from anywhere. About 20 minutes to the airport, about 25 to Patong if you want a bit of nightlife.

The Chedi provides one-bedroom and two-bedroom thatched cottages with private verandahs and sun decks. It's a very nice looking place. The New York Times review says "From the exotic lobby (with columns and lily pond) to sleek and handsome private bungalows, it is one of the most handsome properties on the island. It's quality with a big price tag, but this romantic getaway has it down to the details."

Actually, compared to it's nearest neighbour (Amanpuri Resort) The Chedi is quite reasonably priced! You can just about walk down to Surin beach from the hotel, where you can find more dining options, or eat at one of the 3 restaurants at the resort - they also apparently do beach BBQ's on Pansea Beach. Looks like paradise to me!

The Chedi - Booking & Reviews

• The Chedi Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• The Chedi Reviews at Agoda.com


The Chedi - Photos



 

 


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Phuket Food Festival

The Phuket Food Festival 2008 started on 19th March and runs until the 28th. It's an annual event organised by the Phuket Food Vendors Club and Phuket City Municipality. I managed to convince my family that it would be worthwhile having a look on Saturday evening, and I think we might go back again one evening this week for some cheap tasty food! The event is being held at Sapan Hin, in the south of Phuket City. Many local events are held there during the year. Sapan Hin is by the sea, has lots of open spaces, and also features sports facilities (we've been to see my wife's dad playing Takraw there!).

 



We arrived at the food festival in the late afternoon so I could snap some photos of the food stalls before dark. There's around 50 or 60 stalls selling everything from Phad Thai to BBQ Fresh Water Prawns, fried fish, Sai Ua (spicy northern sausages), Satay sticks and much more. We even found a stall selling coffee from Chumphon (my wife's home town).

This festival is well worth a look. The food is good and cheap, a great chance to sample many different dishes and get a bit of local life. I did see a handful of foreign faces on Saturday, but this is very much a local Phuket event, organised and run by locals for locals. It'll be on my calendar for next year for sure.

 





Need to wash down that food, never worry! There are several beer stalls selling draft Singha or Leo Beer, as well as stalls selling ice coffee, fresh juices and there was a Chinese tea stall also. I think you could come and eat here every night of the week!

 

 



The festival runs from late afternoon until about 11pm. After dark, the entertainment starts. There are bands playing, local schools doing song and dance acts. A big stage has been set up. There were some young girls doing dancing and singing which our 6 year old daughter wanted to watch and she thought was very beautiful. Some guys were warming up with guitars too, ready to rock the night away.









Hungry? Maybe see you there this week!

Phuket Weather

Most tourists and travelers coming to Phuket want to know the what weather will be like during their stay. Holiday planning revolves around the seasons, so most tourists come during the "high season" and come with an expectation of hot sunny days. Any sign of rain is treated with shock.. "But we came here for the sun!"

So, it was in 2006, just after starting this blog, that I started the Phuket Weather Blog, where I try to report every few days on the weather, add lots of photos, a bit of news, a bit of this and that... if you're coming to Phuket, the Phuket Weather Blog is well worth bookmarking! The photos on this page are taken from the weather blog entries over the last few years.



We don't have 4 seasons here. There's no spring, no autumn (or "fall" as some odd people call it), no freezing winters and the length of the day varies only by an hour throughout the year. The weather is pretty stable most of the time; we don't have hurricanes or cyclones. Since I came here in 1999 there's not been so much as a tropical storm - we don't get violent weather here. We get some sun, some rain, some wind, and the weather follows 2 general seasons.



So, what are the seasons in Phuket? Well, in layman's terms we can call them the "dry season" and "rainy season", but that's rather simplifying things. The proper names for our seasons are as follows:

• Northeast Monsoon season (approx. November - April)
• Southwest Monsoon season (approx. May - October)

It's the Southwest monsoon that brings the "wet" season. The word Monsoon relates to winds (derived from the Arabic word mausim meaning 'seasons', referring to seasonal winds experienced by sailors in the Arabian Sea so says Wikipedia), so during the Southwest monsoon season, the wind blows from the ... South West, yes. That means the winds are blowing across the Indian ocean bringing moisture and making for some big waves from time to time. It's the waves rather than the rain that make this the low season for diving, as we can't guarantee reaching the best dive sites such as the Similan Islands, which are 100km from Phuket. The waves can be quite big at the beaches too.



But, the rainy season often gets blown out of all proportion. People hear the word MONSOON and get scared, imagining 24 hour rain and floods. This is complete rubbish. Yes, there can be some heavy rain, yes there can be minor flooding, but as I said - Phuket does not get really bad weather. Most of the wet season is sunny. Many days are as hot and calm as the best high season days. In fact, the low season is a great time to visit Phuket! Read more here : Wet Season in Phuket.



The Southwest monsoon starts sometime in May, normally around mid-May. Can start in early May, can be later in May, but it's pretty predictable. The winds change and things get wetter. Often starts with a bang, but then settles down. July and August can be very nice months. September is normally quite wet, and then sometime in October (often after a final flourish of wetness) the winds change again.

The Northeast monsoon season features winds blowing from the North East - blowing across land bringing slightly cooler air (but it's still hot) and much less rain. Since Phuket's beaches are on the west coast, the waters are calm at this time of year, great for beach lovers! The season starts sometime in October, but the weather is most stable from November onwards - early season can still be a bit wet sometimes, every year is slightly different. Don't blame me if it rains. The nights can be cooler from November - February. We are just about in the Northern hemisphere, so this is actually winter. In the early morning, you often get really clear skies and temperatures can plummet as low as 24°C!





As you progress into March and April, things get hotter. These are the hottest months of the year, so the Songkran Festival on April 13th is a welcome relief. The period February - April is also (I think) the best time for scuba diving in Phuket. The winds have normally all but ceased by April, so days can be hot and windless, and anyone who says they don't like aircon is a liar!



The merry month of May arrives and the guessing game begins. When will the "Green Season" start again? The Green Season is a much nicer name than "Wet" season or "Low" season, don't you think? Phuket certainly looks much greener with a bit of rain and everyone starts praying for rain during the hottest months. Sometime in May the circle starts again. Another year passes. Another year over. A new one just begun.



For regular weather reports, weather links, forecasts, webcams, radar, satellite, wind forecasts, photos and much more, please do visit my Phuket Weather Blog!

• Jamie's Phuket Weather Blog
• Karon Beach Webcam
• Surin Beach Webcam
• Phuket Weather Radar
• Phuket Rainfall Averages

Hotel Recommendations: Indigo Pearl

The Indigo Pearl Hotel is something a bit special, which is what I look for when recommending hotels on Jamie's Phuket. I met the marketing manager a few months ago at a party and she was explaining to me how the decor and design is so special, with architecture inspired by Phuket's past, in particular the tin mining industry, which makes for some interesting decorations! The Indigo Pearl only opened last year, taking over the site of the old Pearl Village resort and creating something quite special. It's already established as one of the Top 10 hotels in Phuket.

I have mentioned before, that location is one of my main reasons for recommending hotels. If Indigo Pearl was in the middle of Patong Beach, I would not think so highly of it. But the Indigo Pearl is found on Nai Yang Beach near the airport (but you can't hear the planes) in the North of Phuket, seemingly a million miles from the more crowded tourist beaches further south.

The resort was designed by the Bangkok based architect Bill Bensley, whose philosophy on design is "the more odd, the better". He also says “We pride ourselves on our attention to every detail, from the architecture and gardens down to the napkin rings and signage". This reflects what the marketing manager told me - attention to detail is VERY important in a top class resort and I hate to say it, but... is often rather lacking in Thailand.

Indigo Pearl Resort - Booking & Reviews

• Indigo Pearl Resort Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Indigo Pearl Hotel reviews


Indigo Pearl Resort - Photos










• More Hotels in Phuket - Phuket Hotels at Agoda.com
• Last minute Phuket hotels - LateStays.com
• More Phuket Hotel Recommendations

Weekend Market

I'd like to add more markets to the blog in the near future. Markets are where you can sample real life, local life - it's all laid bare for everyone to see. I've always been a big fan of markets and despite all the modern shopping malls and supermarkets that have sprung up around Phuket (Tesco Lotus, Big C, Central, Makro and more) the local markets are as lively as ever. You'll find fresh markets in all areas of Phuket, some daily, some only on selected days. Well worth a look.





The weekend market is located just outside Phuket City off Chao Fa West road, near Naka Temple. Along the same road is also a fresh market (called the Talad Sot Mai - "New Fresh Market"). The weekend market is not really for buying fresh food, but there are plenty of snack stalls for buying fruits, sweets, corn, drinks, noodles and of course fried insects!

• Weekend Market Location on Google Earth





It's one of those "you can get anything here" markets - you'll find entire stalls selling nothing but remote controls or comic books or fluffy toys. There are also some random secondhand stalls where you're never quite sure what you'll find. Many stalls are selling clothes, new and secondhand. We visit this market every couple of months if we happen to be passing. Our last visit was a few weeks ago and we would have stayed longer but the rain started to threaten. I certainly recommend a look around if you want to see an interesting market.

 


The market starts up in the afternoon and carries on into the evening. Many people go in the evening and it does get quite busy. We tend to visit in the late afternoon as it's harder to keep an eye on the kid in the dark! you could more or less eat your dinner at the market by buying and sampling different snacks.