The Phuket Big Buddha

Work on the Big Buddha statue in Phuket has been going on for many years. The main Buddha image is 45 meters high and sits over 400m above sea level on a hilltop in the south of Phuket island. We head up there at least a few times per year, sometimes get some food at a little restaurant near the top of the hill, sometimes just to enjoy the views and to check on the progress of the construction. I realised recently that I had not blogged the Buddha for nearly 2 years. Last time the main statue was still covered in scaffolding. Now things look very different.



As you can see, the main image is covered in marble, though the whole of the base including giant lotus leaves still needs to be marbled. It's already an impressive sight... it was already impressive a couple of years ago! Work continues slowly, donations are still being collected. It's much busier than it used to be. There's a sizeable car park now, more food and drink sellers have sprung up.. I really hope it does not get too commercial.



As you arrive you'll find a huge bell hanging below the statue. You then walk through a temple area where souvenirs are for sale and there are many photo displays showing the building work over the years.



There are many donation boxes along the way - up to you! Over the years we have made many donations. You can still pay to have your name on a marble slab which will be used in the building. Somewhere in there, our names are to be found on marble and on bricks too. Having your name and the names of your loved ones as part of a Buddha statue is considered very good luck.

As you start to climb the steps, the way is lined with hundreds of bells. You can buy a bell and hang it here to ring in the wind on the hilltop. The sound of all these bells is somewhat magical.



Reaching the top of the steps you are right underneath the statue. It is very big. I can imagine that when the base is all marble the sight will be totally breathtaking.



Behind the Big Buddha is a smaller gold statue - I mean, not too small, about 12m high. This was completed several years ago. Impressive enough but dwarfed by the white marble Buddha!



We feel a close connection to the Big Buddha, having been up the mountain so many times, having seen the statue grow up from nothing.. the very first time we came up here there was little more than a pile of dirt! It's getting busier for sure, and I can see that, once finished, the Buddha will be on the itinerary of many tours. It's not just "our" Buddha any more... There's no entry fee at the moment, donations are voluntary. I hope it stays that way. But although you don't have to pay - please do leave a donation! The views will always be great - the view below is looking north along the hills.



The Big Buddha is well worth a visit. You can drive up by car or motorbike or tuk tuks will drive up here. The road is almost all paved now. It's about 6km to the top from the main road that runs between Phuket Town past Chalong Temple. The turn off is about 1km before you reach the Chalong traffic circle if you are coming from town. An easy drive from Kata or Karon beaches.



Finishing date? There is no date given for completion. There seems to be no rush. We visited last weekend and there were not many workers. But anyway, even incomplete the Buddha is one of our favourite spots... And finally a photo that I think shows a little of the scale of the Big Buddha.

Restaurant Tip: Lakeside

Yesterday we decided to try and find another new place to eat in Phuket. We used to live in the same street as Nueng about 6 years ago. She was running a restaurant called "Chili" a few years back, but now has a place called "Lakeside" - it's on the road between the Heroine's Monument and Bang Pae Waterfall in the north of Phuket, an area which seems like a different world compared to the main tourist beaches. Nueng says she gets very few tourists at her restaurant... not a big surprise - it's quite a drive from Patong or Karon beach, but if you want very very good local food, and a sample of the "real" Phuket away from the sun loungers, tailors and fast food joints, well, I can now 100% recommend the Lakeside restaurant.

It's a little more than 2km from the Heroine's monument along the road to Bang Pae, there are a couple of small signs to the left. Don't drive too fast or you'll miss it. The Lakeside restaurant is down a small side track. It looks like nothing fancy, but ...





You sit over the water. Chairs and tables are made of heavy wood. Do ask for Nueng ("Noong") and tell her Jamie recommended her place! Even though she is an old friend, I would not be raving unless the food was good. It is. The food is very good. While we waited for lunch, I took a few photos. The environment is very quiet, you can also do some fishing at the lake.



And then the food arrived. We ordered a good selection including a duck curry, pad gaprao with beef, tofu in tamarind sauce, phad thai..... it was all delicious. My first bite of the tofu was a taste sensation :) We found with her last restaurant that Nueng certainly knows how to cook some special food.





The bill surprised me too. For 4 people, ordering 5 main dishes plus drinks, less than 500 Baht. We will be back soon.... I do realise that the restaurants recommended on this blog are often a little off the beaten track, but... sometimes you should take the road less traveled. See a bit more of Phuket. And anyway - this is my Phuket! We generally don't eat near the main beaches - the whole idea of this blog was to show something of the Phuket that exists away from the rows of beach chairs. Hope you can find it!

Restaurant Tip: Batik Seafood - Nai Yang Beach

My parents have been visiting, and last weekend we took a trip up to Nai Yang Beach where I had been recommended a restaurant. On the way we stopped off at the Thalang National Museum, which is worth a quick visit if you are heading to the north of the island. At Nai Yang Beach I went to look for Willy who runs a Kite Surfing shop on the beach - he'd recommended a restaurant called Octopus.. but it was closed, and Willy was not in the shop, so we wandered along the narrow road checking for other dining options.

Nai Yang is very quiet, there are fishermen coming and going - we watched a bucketload of squid being sorted out and we watched longtail boats coming in. Other fishermen (and women) waded out into the shallow water with fishing rods.



The traditional feel of Nai Yang is matched by the low key restaurants on the beach. Part of the beach is a National Park, so building is limited. We chose the very last restaurant along the dirt road, just before the treeline. It looked simple, the staff smiled, it was right on the beach and they had little shaded pagodas to sit in out of the midday sun. Reading this blog, you may see that I like small unpretentious restaurants, especially if they are on the beach and don't rip you off. So, I am happy to recommend Batik Seafood and I am sure we will go again.





I felt relaxed as soon as we sat down. The kids could play in the sand near our table, we could sit in the shade. The food prices looked reasonable - we ordered a bunch of different dishes which were all around 90 Baht. The kids ate chicken with garlic on rice, one of their favourites - must have been good as they both polished off the whole plate. I was pleased to note that, although the Thai food was a little more expensive than some other places we like, the drink prices were very reasonable - a bottle of beer for 40 Baht in a beachside restaurant - a bargain! The food was all very tasty - green curry, beef and garlic, chicken satay. And the staff were friendly - the owner came to check that we were all fine - that's the kind of thing that makes me want to return to a restaurant, if the owner is friendly and involved in running the place. I like the personal atmosphere of a small restaurant like this one.





After eating, we all played on the beach for a while, drawing pictures in the sand, looking for shells and hermit crabs. If you think Phuket is crowded and over touristy, well, do read more of this blog. Nai Yang Beach is a million miles from Patong. It's all Phuket. If you want it quiet, Nai Yang and other beaches in the north of the island are for you. Having found another friendly beachfront restaurant, we will be back at Batik Seafood soon for sure!

Phuket Gateway

I do believe the "Phuket Gateway" to be Phuket's least visited attraction. We stopped for a look on the way back into Phuket a couple of weeks ago and were the only visitors save for 1 other foreign guy. My parents stopped in yesterday and were the only visitors. My daughter has been there on a school field trip. Now, I am not suggesting you should get off the beach and drive right up to the north end of Phuket island, which can take an hour from the south, just to see this monument, but if you are passing, coming over the bridge from Phang Nga, it's worth a stop, you might even learn something about Phuket!



The Phuket Gateway was completed in 2007 on the occasion of King Bhumibol's 80th birthday. The idea was to create a dramatic and interesting sculpture to welcome tourists who arrive on Phuket by road. Only trouble is, not many people visit - most tourists arrive by air, and since the airport is south of the monument hardly anyone sees it. You might pass by on a tour to Phang Nga, but the tour bus will not be stopping there. Shame, because it really is a nice place to stop for a look.

The main feature is a series of 29 pillars. The number 29 is not an accident - the numbers represent the two heroines in the war with Burma in 1785, Thao Thep Krasattri and Thao Sri Sunthon and the ninth king of the Chakri Dynasty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.





Each pillar includes an engraved plaque, such as the one below, each one telling a little of the history and local culture of Phuket. See - you can learn things here! There's also a small tourist information center in one of the buildings behind the monument, as well as a little shop and a very small art gallery.



There are gardens around the monument, a nice spot for a picnic or a drink in the shade if you are exploring the north of Phuket. Also, you find a huge turtle shell surrounded by eggs. Turtles do come ashore in the north of Phuket to lay eggs. We attended a turtle release ceremony on Songkran day 2007 at nearby Mai Khao Beach.





The Phuket Gateway is certainly well intentioned, and is well cared for, but there seem to be more staff than visitors! The local community is aware of the lack of visitors and last September there was meant to be some kind of choice made by the locals in that area of Phuket - what to do with the Gateway? Well, so far nothing has changed - it's still a nice monument and worth a stop if you are passing.

Phuket Halal Expo

Many visitors to Phuket probably don't realise that over a quarter of Phuket's population is Muslim. I think there is an assumption that everyone is Buddhist, so I can imagine tourists being surprised by the large number of mosques dotted around the island - you'll pass several between the airport and the southern beaches. There are some huge mosques, the largest being at Cherng Talay (I do plan to "blog" it sometime), near Bang Tao and Surin Beaches. Officially, Thailand is a Buddhist country, but many parts of the south have large Muslim populations. There has been violence for many years in the 3 provinces bordering Malaysia, but in Phuket I am happy to say that everyone lives together happily regardless of religion. I have a favourite street in old Phuket Town where you can find a Chinese shrine, a mosque and a Catholic church more or less right next to each other. A couple of our favourite restaurants are Muslim owned, serve no pork dishes and one of them has a big sign outside saying "no alcohol". One also assumes the food is halal.

Halal food is that which is permitted by Islamic law, and in particular with regards to meat, the animals must have been killed in the correct way. In a broader sense the word Halal also extends to permissible behaviour, clothing and manners. Not something that non Muslims normally think about... and if you do think about it, you might wonder if Halal food is permitted for non Muslims, or if it might be a bit "strange"... The Phuket Halal Expo was the place to find out.

 

The Expo ran from April 30th - May 3rd at Sapan Hin, a large public recreation area in the south of Phuket town where festivals and concerts are often held. There was also a Halal conference at the Hilton resort at Karon Beach. The idea is to make Phuket a regional hub for Halal food and business. We went to Sapan Hin on May 2nd to look around all the stalls selling arts and crafts, food, drinks, clothing and more. Live music was planned for later in the evening, though we mainly went to sample the food!

Walking around with my daughter, she spied some lovely little decorative fish.. Check the photo below - believe it or not, made from a plastic drinking yoghurt pot. Not sure what it had to do with Halal, except it was a Muslim lady making the fish!



We then stopped at a stall selling pineapple biscuits, made in Malaysia - of course Thailand's neighbour is a largely Muslim country and there were several stalls here from Malaysia. There are close ties with Phuket and we get a lot of Malaysian tourists here. So, to help trade between Phuket and Malaysia we bought some biscuits :)



Around some of the stalls were old style traditional woven huts, I suppose some kind of "how we used to live" display.



After a look around the stalls, we headed to the tastier section of the exhibition - the food! There must have been a hundred different food stalls and there was plenty of open air seating and lots of people. I found the stallholders very friendly, happy to have a camera pointed their way. This guy is selling Pa Tong Ko, one of my favourite snacks...






And this little girl, being told to smile by her mum. They are selling Phad Thai...



And here's some delicious grilled chicken.. seriously you can't consider a KFC compared to this!





I was very happy snacking away - an event like this is simply the best way to sample local food. We sat down for quite a while as it got dark and munched through chicken, fresh spring rolls, noodles.. no need for a big dinner after all that. The event had a very happy atmosphere, a great advert for Phuket's Muslim community. Smiles everywhere...



Now, after all that food... need a drink. No beer obviously... How about some ice cold Mecca Cola? Yes, you heard it. Mecca Cola is being made in Phuket. I have not seen it in any big stores yet, they are just starting with the marketing, so I was told. Anyway, I can vouch for it - dare I say better than Coca Cola?



On the way out I was offered sampled of a halal soya milk. Another very friendly guy, and check out his cool dude kid in the shades. Soya milk is very common in Thailand, I often drink some in the morning.



Another guy was making fresh tea, throw the leaves in a strainer, pour through hot water, add milk, bingo. He was quite a character. I normally don't impose too much on people and take portraits, but I like this picture. And the tea was good too.



There is in fact another Halal festival in Phuket called "Halal Food, Hilal Town" which is normally in July - I don't see confirmed dates for this year yet. These kinds of events really show local colour and if you like to discover local food, "mingle with the people" and find the real Phuket, you have to get off the beach and look out for little festivals like this.