Turkey: the ceramics factory

And so, after procrastinating for two days I bring you day 3 of our holiday in Turkey.

We got up unbelievably early in the morning to prepare for a 6.30am start (Turkey is two hours before UK so we effectively woke up at 3am our time). The first stop was at a roadside diner for a Turkish breakfast. Let me tell you, when your idea of heaven is a full English breakfast then hell can quickly come to resemble seven days of Turkish breakfasts. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country and therefore they serve no pork with their breakfasts. That means no bangers, no bacon and certainly no black pudding. In addition, the Turkish style of eating breakfast is very different to the English style of breakfast. The meal consists of slices of cheese, butter, olives, green pepper, cucumber, jam, honey and tomatoes. Every day we were served watery scrambled eggs and sometimes that was mixed with a Vienna-type sausage. To me, the point of travelling is to experience different cultures and cuisine but I have to be honest and say that I did begin to crave some bacon and eggs and while I tucked into the cold portions of the breakfasts all holiday, I was unable to stomach the scrambled egg after the second day. Suffice to say, I just had some bitter Turkish black tea with breakfast that day while Stephen tucked into a bit of everything.

By the way, there are Western restaurants and indeed hotels that you can go to that do serve pork but where's the fun in that?

We drove for about three hours out of Bodrum and towards Ephesus which is 3km south of Selçuk. When we were about 5 minutes away from Ephesus we stopped at a ceramics factory. Note to self: next time I go to a foreign country, I must take a notebook and write down all of the place names. The closest description I can give of this wonderful ceramics factory is that it is on the main road near Camlik which is just outside of Ephesus. (EDIT: I contacted the tour operator and got the details! Yay! They are ART Ceramics in Selçuk).

Turkey is famous for good quality ceramics but the factory we went to is especially good quality as all of the goods are fired twice.

 

You wouldn't believe how exquisite the finished pieces are. In any event, Stephen decided to spoil me and let me buy two 7" bowls which cost about £30 each. I've struggled to take a decent shot of my precious works of ceramic art (because of the glaze) but here goes:

Turkey: at the hotel and into Gümbet

The one thing you'll notice in Turkey if you vacation in the middle of summer is that it is hot and we chose to vacation in July! Therefore a mixture of heat, fatigue and steam resulted in us not taking any pictures on the second day of our vacation. In fact, I totally neglected to take any pictures of the pool area at all during our entire holiday!

Nevertheless, Tuesday was quite eventful.

The hotel had a hair and beauty salon and so Stephen and I went down on Tuesday morning for some treatments. I got a pedicure and a face mask. I was really happy with the pedicure as it was the first proper pedicure I have had in ages whereby they use a razor to remove dead skin from your heels. My feet were very happy afterwards that's for sure! The whole time my pedicure was being done, I wore a face mask made of completely natural products. It was blue and Stephen laughed at me for a short while until they slapped his on! It left my face feeling really smooth and detoxed - it was great. One thing you'll notice about some Turkish merchants (although many are the exact opposite) is that they are really pushy and won't discuss price with you when negotiating services. So, Stephen went down for a shave and landed up getting a face mask and hair cut. It was probably the best hair cut he has ever had though - I was watching the hairdresser and he made sure that every single hair was in the right place (or so it seemed). By the way - all of the staff in the salon and the spa were male, which I found interesting. The shave was done with a traditional cut-throat razor and the guy even went so far as to singe the hair off Stephen's ears!!! Add tot hat the face mask and by the end of the appointment, my normally clean-shaved and well-presented husband looked really, really neat (in more than one sense of the word)!!!

The only down-side of the appointment was that it cost YTL60 (that's Turkish Lira) and we'd already spent YTL60 on another Turkish-shopping experience (as mentioned above whereby you are pushed to buy things without being clear on how much they are costing) earlier that day when we bought flip flops for Stephen and beach towels. That meant that our holiday cash reserve of YTL120 (which is €60) was gone by the end of the first day! Being in an all-inclusive hotel we had figured we'd pay for tours by credit card and need very little other cash. Suffice to say, we were sorely mistaken.

We spent the rest of the day by the pool. These aren't my pictures, but they come from marketing sites for Grand Newport Hotel and I wanted to give you an idea of just how beautiful the pool area by the hotel is:

  

That is the Aegean Sea you can see in the background and our room was actually situated right under the line of pool chairs. There is a steep decline once you have walked through that arch and the rooms are all cut into that decline allowing the rooms some great views.

We had a fabulously relaxing first day of holiday by the pool. We don't really count being passed out in our room as the first day of our holiday! All we did was lounge under the pool umbrellas reading and take the occasional dip in the pool. I've always been a bit of a slow reader but I devoured four books on holiday: Shade's Children, The Wind Singer (Wind on Fire Trilogy), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia) and Raven's Gate (Power of Five). (Yes, those are children's books - all four of them - but I still consider it a reading victory).

We quickly took a trip into Gümbet as we had some time to spare. Gümbet is a lovely little resort town with loads and loads of restaurants and bars. There are also loads of shops with "genuine fake" goods in (if that appeals to you) with fake Prada, Gucci and other designer goods. Had I known that Prada handbags cost over £1,000 then I might have spent €30 on an excellent fake, but how was I to know? I did manage to get quite a nice bikini so that was good.

That evening,we went down to the Turkish bath and spa in the basement of the hotel. If our morning buying experiences were difficult, this was just the opposite. The nice proprietor took us around his baths to explain the treatment in full and how much we would be paying. In short, it was absolutely amazing. Once again, I didn't take any pictures of the baths but there is a picture on Bodrum Resorts:

The room appears to be all marble with the raised section in the middle and sinks all around the edge. There is under floor heating and so the room is almost as a hot as a sauna or steam room. The treatment started with you lying on the raised section and them dousing you alternatively with hot and cold water. Then you are giving a full body exfoliation with an exfoliation glove. They then mix a lavender treatment which is applied to your body with a cloth sack. The effect is that the sack fills with bubbles and the effect on your body is almost effervescent and gives you a feeling of slight buoyancy. The treatment continues with a full body massage and finally you are doused in more much needed cold water.

Well, given the day's activities, by the end of the massage we were absolutely relaxed and glowing from head to toe. We certainly slept well that night!

Arriving in Turkey

After a hectic and tiring weekend attending the O2 Wireless Festival 2008 it was finally time for our summer holiday to Turkey.

We booked through Teletext Holidays Online and got a fantastic deal for a week all-inclusive to the Grand Newport Hotel in Gumbet in Turkey.  For flights, seven nights accommodation, all meals and local drinks, all transfers plus an air-conditioned, sea facing balcony room, we paid about £750 for the two of us.  The hotel was four stars and the rooms were modern, clean and very comfortable.

On to the holiday then...

We got to the airport nice and early, which is to say we arrived at about 4.30pm when our flight was scheduled to leave at 10.30pm.  Well, you can never trust London motorways so we weren't taking any chances!  (I still have nightmares from spending 3 hours stuck on the M25 north when I picked my brother up from Liverpool in February).  We soon found out that the flight was delayed by one hour and so we settled down in the Frankie and Benny's for a yummy meal and airplane magazines for Stephen and Killer Sudoku books for me.

The flight left at 11.30pm and it was about four hours long which meant that we landed in Bodrum Airport about 5.30am (they are two hours ahead of English).  The flight was quite horrible and I didn't sleep at all despite having a seat by the door and hence lots of leg room. 

My first impression of Turkey was that it was really pretty and warm.  Unfortunately, it was a lot brighter than this picture shows and my poor sleep-deprived eyes could not take any decent photos.  Less than 45 minutes later, however, and we were in paradise.  This was the view from our balcony at about 7am on that first morning:

That is the Aegean Sea that you can see there.  It is very warm and very, very salty.

Mere moments after this photo was taken we passed out and only emerged at about 3pm that afternoon.

The Top 10 Hotels in Phuket

If you're planning a trip to Phuket, you are almost certainly going to need a place to stay unless you already bought a house or have friends living here. Phuket has a huge variety of accommodation available from backpackers dorms to 5 star (6 star?) luxury resorts. You'll find a growing page of recommended Phuket hotels on the blog already, and I try to add another hotel every month or so. The hotels on the recommendation page are ones I like because of their location, or because they've been recommended to me by others, or because they offer something different. But what are the BEST hotels in Phuket?

• Updated - the Top 10 on this page was compiled in 2008 - I have made a new Top 10 based on TripAdvisor rankings January 2011 - The Best Hotels in Phuket / Top 10 Hotels in Phuket 2011.

The following Top 10 list is based on the Phuket hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com which is one of the biggest travel sites online, with reviews, forums, advice (and advertising, which is how they make their money). For each hotel below there are links for online reservations/rates and availability - I recommend Agoda.com if you want to book a hotel in Phuket. The review links below are also from Agoda.com - only people who have booked the hotels on Agoda can make a review, and if you take a look, you'll see honest reviews, good and bad, plus points and minus points - a very useful tool for checking for your ideal hotel.

Top 10 Phuket Hotels

1. JW Marriott Resort and Spa

The JW Mariott probably is unbeatable. If you want a quiet luxury getaway, then you can fly to Phuket and the resort is just 15 minutes from the airport on the uncrowded and as yet relatively undeveloped Mai Khao Beach. Words such as "paradise", "sanctuary" and "heaven" are not just words!

• JW Marriott on Agoda.com
• JW Marriott Reviews

2. Mom Tri's Villa Royale

The newer sister resort of Mom Tri's Boathouse, Villa Royale is one of the few hotels in Phuket that can be called secluded, while also being close to the main beaches. It's on the headland between Kata and Kata Noi, overlooking the ocean beach featuring beautifully designed luxury villas.

• Villa Royale on Agoda.com
• Villa Royale Reviews
• More about Mom Tri's Villa Royale on this blog

 

3. Sala Phuket

Sala Phuket is a new (very new... I am not sure I had heard of it before starting this top 10!) luxury villa resort on Mai Khao Beach - just opened in December 2007. The reviews say it all, things like "breathtaking", "blissful", "Sala Phuket is amazing!"... you get the general idea.

• Sala Phuket on Agoda.com
• Sala Phuket Reviews
• Sala Phuket - more information on Jamie's Phuket

4. Indigo Pearl

I wrote about Indigo Pearl already - it's a top class resort and has a very original look and feel with decor based on the old Phuket tin mining industry. It may not be to everyone's liking, but it's got class and it's not afraid to be different!

• Indigo Pearl on Agoda.com
• Indigo Pearl Reviews

 

5. Pacific Club Resort

Located on the hillside overlooking Karon Beach, Pacific Club's owner Eric is a chef and also owner of the Karon Cafe in the center of Karon. It's a small resort with a personal feel and great panoramic views. Well off the main road and yet only 10 minutes walk to Karon Beach. Ideal for those wanting seclusion, but still easy access to the main beach centers.

• Pacific Club on Agoda.com
• Pacific Club Reviews
• Pacific Club Resort review on Jamie's Phuket

6. Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree is part of the Laguna Resort complex at Bang Tao Beach. Nice. Very. It's listed in the 2008 Conde Nast Gold List of the best hotels in the world (so is JW Marriott). I rest my case.

• Banyan Tree on Agoda.com
• Banyan Tree Reviews

 

7. Cape Panwa Hotel

Another hotel already recommended on this blog, Cape Panwa Hotel seems to be a perennial favourite. I love the Panwa area, it's miles from the busy beaches, and this resort is the hideaway at the edge of Phuket. Patong is a different planet.

• Panwa Hotel on Agoda.com
• Panwa Hotel Reviews

8. Marina Phuket Resort

I was actually surprised to see Marina up in the top 10. I had always thought it was a slightly old mid price resort - but then I have not stayed there. It's right on the south end of Karon Beach, with deluxe villas overlooking the ocean, and Dino Park right next door!

• Marina Phuket on Agoda.com
• Marina Phuket Review on Jamie's Phuket
• Marina Phuket Reviews

 

9. Ayara Hilltops Resort and Spa (was Treetops Arasia)

Another luxury villa resort, this one with views from the hillside overlooking Surin Beach. There are only 48 villas, and I gotta say it looks like a fab place to stay. And if you stay here, splash out on the Rachavadee Suite.

• Ayara Hilltops on Agoda.com
• Ayara Hilltops Reviews

10. Andaman Seaview

Hey! Just down the road from where I work! Andaman Seaview is on Karon Beach, prices are decent (in fact, in low season a real steal). I think the main reason it creeps into the top 10 is value for money. Quality at a price you can't argue with. Andaman Seaview is not comparable to some of the others in this list, but it's much cheaper!

• Andaman Seaview on Agoda.com
• Andaman Seaview Reviews

 

Note: Marriott Phuket Beach Club is actually number 10, but it's a timeshare resort so I have discounted it for this page.

Note 2: This Top 10 list was compiled in 2008 - I have made a new Top 10 based on TripAdvisor rankings in January 2011 - see The Best Hotels in Phuket.

Agree with the top 10? Stayed somewhere else that you thought was better? Do add a comment below. You'll notice that most of these are pricey resorts, 5 star, most are on more secluded beaches and many of them (like Sala Phuket or Indigo Pearl) are new resorts that have only been open a year or two. There are new luxury resorts opening every year. Phuket IS trying to push the luxury lifestyle, and it's often said that Thailand does luxury very well. If you're on a low budget, this list is not for you, but you can look here: Low Budget Phuket Accommodation. As for this list, I'd hate to disagree with the opinions of the reviewers, this certainly looks like a top 10 to me!

• Jamie's Phuket Hotel Recommendations
• Phuket Hotels online @ Agoda.com

Wat Sawang Arom (Rawai Temple)

Many things in life are easily missed if you keep to the main roads. You gotta take time to smell the roses. Take the road less travelled, explore the side streets. There really is no hurry. The temple at Rawai Beach is called Wat Sawang Arom. It's only about half a kilometer from the sea, but is off the main road that runs from Chalong to Rawai. You can't see the temple from the road, only the entrance...



• See location of this temple on Google Earth

Like many of these backroad temples, I have driven past on countless occasions, but never ventured inside. In the last couple of years, mainly due to this blog and my pledge to blog all Phuket temples (eventually), I have tried to find a few free minutes in life. It's always worth the effort, worth stopping for a while and visiting a small temple.

Wat Sawang Arom is not a large temple. It was built to serve the small local Rawai community, including the Wat Sawang Arom school which among it's students are sea gypsy children who were affected by the 2004 tsunami. As I walked around one morning, the school assembly was in progress. I could hear a cute voice doing a solo on the national anthem. The temple and school were quiet except that one voice.





I do love temple architecture. There is so much detail and colour in every temple, and each temple has something different. Great for photos!



Temple walls often feature the 8 spoked wheel known as the Dharma wheel. The eight spokes represent the noble eightfold path of Buddhism.



  



Inside the temple, aside from several Buddha images, the walls are covered with painted scenes showing the life of the Buddha.



• More Phuket Temples
• Rawai Beach

Event: Race for Life 2008

I did the Race for Life 2008 5km race today (that is about 3 miles). I did it with my colleagues and it was a lot of fun.

I caught the train to Charing Cross which is right by the National Gallery. I'm a bit of a fan of the London Underground and the Underground stations and thought this one was just too pretty to pass up. What you can see there is a map of the Trafalgar Square area which is where the National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery and South Africa House are located. 

The race took place in Regents Park in London. Regents Park is really exquisite and has a lovely botanical garden section with loads of beautiful different types of roses. The roses are all well labelled and easy to distinguish from each other. I was quite impressed and have definitely put Regents Park on my list for a proper visit. I'll need to get pictures of those roses anyway!

It's not a good picture at all, but I dedicated my run to Lesley's sister-in-law Lorraine who has lung cancer. (Lesley is my step-Mum). That pink sign on my back says: "I race for life for Lorraine". We thought the race was for breast cancer (on account of all the pink) or for women suffering from cancer but it turns out it was for Cancer Research UK. Naturally, I would have dedicated the race to my Dad who beat cancer in January 2006 had I known that. Trust Mandy to sign up for a 5km race and not know what it is for!

This is what the starting line looked like - the mood was electric! I had no idea there were thousands of women behind us too or I would have taken a picture of that!!!

The deer in Regents Park came out to support us. :0) There are elephants too and they are so pretty I thought I had to take a picture. This was just after the 1km mark.

That is me at the finish line. The walk was really easy and my time was 1 hour, 1 minute and 50 seconds. Once you get chatting it is a really easy walk to do and I was surprised how effortless and quick it was. I will definitely sign up for the next 5km race that comes along.

Hotel Recommendation: Phuket Airport Hotel

I seem to keep recommending people to book the Phuket Airport Hotel. I think the reason is because it offers something different, which is the kind of place I like! When you hear the words "Airport Hotel" it does conjour up images of a 500 room concrete block attached to the terminal.. but not this one.

Update July 2010 - see comments - Simon, the previous owner is no longer involved, it's run by Wan and family, maybe worth reading Trip Advisor reviews before booking, but hey, it's still a very convenient place to stay right by the airport.

The small family-run hotel is just one minute drive from Phuket International Airport and Nai Yang beach. Even though it's so close to the airport, the hotel is peaceful and has a secluded feel - noise pollution is minimal, as it does not lie under the flight path. Wan and the staff work hard to make Phuket Airport Hotel something special. There are only ten beautifully decorated bungalows which all face the hotel’s small swimming pool. There is free wifi internet available too. Nai Yang beach is about a 15-minute walk from the hotel, though if you ask nicely someone might give you a ride down to the water...

The main reason most people stay here is the location. Got an early flight? Well, do remember that if you stay at Karon or Kata Beach, it can take an hour by taxi to reach the airport... stay at the Phuket Airport Hotel you can lie in! Or if you just want a small, quiet, friendly hotel, this might be ideal.

Phuket Airport Hotel - Booking & Reviews

• Phuket Airport Hotel - Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Phuket Airport Hotel - Reviews at Agoda.com


Phuket Airport Hotel - Photos








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

Get Social with Jamie's Phuket

Jamie's Phuket on Facebook

Now I admit to not being totally up to date with all the latest web crazes, there just seem to be so many social networking websites it's hard to keep up. I joined Facebook a while back and spent some time wondering "now what?". So I dug around, found some old friends and some current friends, played a few of the quizzes and games and then thought "and now?". Well, I reckon Facebook takes some time to grow on you, as new people join, you find friends of friends, join "groups", add photos, look at friends photos, add your thoughts to discussion boards. It's huge and I guess you could happily while away the hours and wonder where the day has gone.

So you can find me on Facebook here: Jamie on Facebook

Now I have made a "Jamie's Phuket Group" on Facebook for friends and people who read my blogs and like them. Anyone with a Facebook account can join the group, add photos, start discussions, leave posts on the "wall", chat about Phuket... you can ask questions and I will try to answer, or maybe another member will know the answer. It's just getting started... Hope to see you there:

• Jamie's Phuket Facebook Group


Twitter - Microblogging

Twitter is an odd kind of place. You can post your thoughts, what you are doing now, you can update every minute of every day... I tend to update every day or two, especially trying to mention the weather so it compliments my Phuket Weather blog, which gets updated every few days.

If you join Twitter you can choose to follow people, which means you can login and see what they have posted. You can see my latest Twitters on the left side of the page (somewhere). Again, I am at a stage where I am thinking "and?", but it's easier than updating a blog if you have just a few words to write. Like I just wrote "It's a bit of a wet morning in Phuket" - and that does not qualify as a blog post, but Twitter is just perfect for a one liner.

• Follow me on Twitter


Social Bookmarking

Yes, you can still use your Internet Explorer (or indeed Firefox) Favourites, but these days there are way more interesting ways to bookmark your favourite webpages, and even share them with other people. I registered for del.icio.us a couple of years ago, and now you can do things like Digg an article or StumbleUpon all kinds of things. It's commonplace for websites to have social bookmark buttons at the bottom of each page, and you can see the same on my blogs too.

So please by all means, share some of Jamie's Phuket or the Phuket Weather Blog - you can add to Facebook, del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon or hey you can even just press Ctrl+D to add to your computers favourites. At least I hope you will think of this blog as a favourite! :)

Nikitas Bar, Rawai Beach

If you're looking for a place in Phuket where you can relax with a cold beer and sit right by the sea away from hawkers and bar girls, well you better get out of Patong! Somehow, Rawai beach has remained pretty quiet, although it is certainly busier than when I first went 8 years ago. A few more restaurants along the beach road, quite a lot more real estate developments along the road from Chalong, all promising a sea view. It's a popular area for living, less so for hotels, mainly because Rawai is not really a swimming beach - it's too rocky and very shallow at low tide. Very beautiful area, but not a prime holiday resort location. Good! Let it stay that way!



It must have been about 8 years ago that I first had a drink at Nikitas Bar. This place is a Phuket legend... been on the beach in Rawai for over 15 years, and is still small, friendly and most importantly does not rip you off for a beer just because you are sitting by the sea! My wife and I used to head for Rawai often, a couple of times per month, for drinks or lunch. We don't go so much these days as we live a bit far away - I can't really justify a 30 minute drive each way just for a cold Beer Lao. But we do like Nikitas. You'll find it near the east end of the beach just after the road turns to the right when coming from Chalong. It's a rare find in Phuket these days to have a small, quiet bar on the beach.



We last went a couple of months ago, got a friend to look after the kids for a few hours, so my wife and I could have a rare moment of peace and romance :) Candles light the tables, the waves gently caress the shore, I kid you not. We plan to go again next week - my in laws are visiting and we do like to dump the kids on them at least once every time they come! Oh, and they do food too, not just drinks. I totally recommend a visit to Rawai beach and while you're there, do have at least a drink at Nikitas.

• More about Rawai Beach
• Nikitas Bar website
• Real Estate - Buying a House in Phuket

Phuket News - Where to find it...

I try to keep up and post some of the latest Phuket news stories on my Phuket News page, along with some not-to-be-forgotten old news stories. There's not normally any "big" news in Phuket, but if you want to get a feel for what goes on, it's worth checking the news before you travel, and not just the weather forecast!

There are a number of local newspapers and magazines in Phuket, mostly they are just dressed up advertising, especially with regards to restaurant "reviews" and property news. If you want real news, there's really only one choice.

The Phuket Gazette has been around since 1993, when Phuket tourism was still (relatively) in it's infancy. I've been reading it (mostly online) since I came here in 1999. Sometimes the news is thin on the ground, sometimes there are 3 articles per day. The Gazette has more than just news - there's an extensive classified section, a job section, "issues and answers" and the "queer news" too. The news is mostly local, often reporting on crime, local politics, environmental news and tourism issues. The print version of the paper has some extra articles. It's not a bad read and only costs 20 Baht.. or is it 25..? Not sure, I am on the computer every day, so I use the online version.

The other print paper is the Phuket Post, but it's more of a magazine masquerading as a paper. Not really much headline news there. Plenty of column inches for property and eating out, certainly plenty of information about Phuket, and they even reprinted a blog article of mine about Songkran. Not too cutting edge, but they do have some interesting stuff, worth a read for sure.

Phuket News Online

If anything big happens in Phuket, you'll probably find it on the BBC or CNN well before the Phuket Gazette gets it's gears in motion. If I want to make sure I have not missed something, I tend to use Google News, which searches just about any news source you can mention. A search for "Phuket" right now gives results ranging from "Sail World, Australia" to the "Jerusalem Post, Israel".. mind you, it's not all cutting edge news. I see the Google News search tells me "Kimi Raikkonen invests in Phuket Beachfront Villa"...

Recently, the Phuket Wan website has impressed me, and seems to have more new stories and is faster to report than the Gazette

The national newspapers will also report on news that has a bearing on Phuket. Let's not forget that Phuket is not some Utopian holiday isle.. it's a province of Thailand, so some national news updates might be worth reading now and then... You can try the Bangkok Post or The Nation. There are a couple of Thai language websites such as Manager Online that probably have even more news... but you will have to learn Thai first!

Forums and Chat Rooms - there are some very active forums, of which Thai Visa would be the best for news and discussion. You may also catch something on the Lonely Planet Thailand forum, or the Trip Advisor Phuket forum.

Latest Weather News - Best place to look for weather reports and links to weather forecasts, radar, satellite images, webcams and more - my Phuket Weather blog.

So, there you go. If you're coming to Phuket, or just love Phuket and want to know what's going on, there are plenty of news sources. Mostly the news is pretty local and won't affect visitors, but if anything really big happens you'll find it here on Jamie's Phuket and probably on TV too!

Table of Contents

Festival: O2 Wireless Festival 2008

With our tickets in hand months and months ago, we've spent a long time waiting for this day to arrive and today it was finally here.

We set off for Hyde Park in central London for the 2008 O2 Wireless Festival headlined by Fatboy Slim.

  

Stephen, Mandy and Chris on the train to Hyde Park.

Stephen holding his ticket.

It was quite a cross country dash, but we made it to Hyde Park just after 2.15pm and so just in time to see the last couple of minutes of The Whip.  It seems strange that I hadn't heard of this band until one week ago but it just goes to show how much can change in a week.  The Whip are an exceptionally talented indie electronic band and they have just released their first album, X Marks Destination.  If you like The Faint then you'll like The Whip.  Their show was really live and these guys are really energetic and confident on stage.  They kicked the day off in excellent festival style.  I imagine that I'll have to buy their album now because they are that good.

I've been raving about Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip for several months now and was pleased as punch when Chris got me their new album Angles for my birthday.  These guys are brilliant and I really, really like their lyrics.  I'm not usually into hip hop, which this band are, but I just can't resist the charms of a band that says "Radiohead - just a band".  A show like this is hard to judge because much of their music is sampled and accompanied by live lyrics.   Nevertheless, it was great to see them in the flesh and to see their dynamic up on stage and all in all they were pretty enjoyable and I got to dance around and sing at the top of my lungs.

We had a bit of lunch after that and then I watched one or two songs from Cut Copy.  The guy has got a great voice but I definitely needed a bit of a rest after the first two bands.

I have this silly little habit where I categorise all my music into genres so I can navigate my collection easier on my iPod.  Well, Allmusic.com got this one spectacularly wrong because Sam Sparro is as indie electronic as Marilyn Manson is gospel.  In fact, I've been fighting the whole week against liking this artist because I was unsure whether he was perhaps too mainstream for my liking. 

Silly notions of music snobbery aside, Sam Sparro is the best surprise I have had in years.  It is easy to see how talented he is just by listening to his music but it took the live show to blow my mind.  He was phenomenal and it was one of the biggest mistakes of the festival to put a man with this much talent in a small tent off the main stage.  Well, he almost blew the top off that tent and the tent was packed to capacity.  He seemed honestly surprised at the reception he received and seemed to really appreciate it.  I guess that's the last time any festival is going to put this man in a small tent.  Expect big things from him in the future.

The best part of his set (yes, he deserves three paragraphs) was him covering Black Box “Ride On Time” and Crystal Waters “Gypsy Woman (La da dee da da da)”.  It was just so ad lib and so... entertaining.  Brilliant show.

Unfortunately, the next couple of hours turned a possible 10/10 festival experience to only a 7/10 one.  First, I waited about 45 minutes to go to the portaloos.  I'll give them credit in that the facilities remained spotless right through the event but the organisation was horrid and you just can't ignore the calls of nature.  I emerged after 45 minutes and managed to catch the last remaining refrains of “Weird Science” by Does It Offend You, Yeah?  I'm really disappointed by not seeing this band. 

We decided to get some drinks and to check out the main stage.  Then we went back to the ridiculously small tent to catch some MSTRKRFT and to grab a spot for Underworld.  Well, we weren't the only one with that idea and over an hour before Underworld was to begin, the tent was full to capacity and the organiser had closed the gate thereby disallowing any further access to the tent.  Actually, we missed seeing Underworld.  I think I'm going to have to give the festival a 6/10.  How on earth do you make not one but two mistakes of putting massive acts like Sam Sparro and Underworld in tiny little tents when it is obvious that they should be main stage acts?

Moving on swiftly, we did catch Deadmau5 who puts on a very cute techno DJ set.  Chris wasn't too impressed but then he never has liked Deadmau5.  I reckon I would seek out this guy if he was ever doing a DJ set at another festival or something - he wasn't too bad at all (if you like banging techno) - but I wouldn't buy his stuff.

 

Eventually the man himself came on.  For Deadmau5, we had a spot right at the front near the stage (on account of not being able to get into the Underworld tent).  However, the Absolutely Smashed people around us got a bit too much for us and we moved right out for Fatboy Slim's set.  We were pretty exhausted by then and we tried to dance a bit but he just wasn't as good as he was when we saw him at the Colab in Centurion in South Africa.  He rocked my socks off at the previous gig!!!  In the end, we decided to go and we took a leisurely stroll towards the exits stopping for hot dogs and pancakes and wondered why we hadn't just spent the entire day on these super-comfortable sofa-type things by the food area.

As we were leaving, Fatboy Slim played “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream vs The Hoxtons.  I remembered when he played that at Colab and I was blown away that he was pretty much playing an entire Cream song at a dance gig!  All in all it was a good day with great memories.  While we were disappointed in some respects, the are always going to be situations like today where you just can't predict the popularity of a rapidly rising star (no excuse for not realising the pulling power of Underworld though).  Spending 45 minutes in line for the toilet is never going to go down well and that certainly could have been better marshalled but as I mentioned before, those facilities were spotless by the end of the evening and you really can't fault them on that.

All in all I'll give the day 8/10 then because I just know I'll be singing Sam Sparro all week.