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.

Wat Thepnimit

Wat Thepnimit (or Thep Nimit) is about 3km outside Phuket town on the road to Chalong (Chao Fa Road) in Tambon (sub district) Wichit. You can't see the temple from the road, though the entrance is quite obvious. The temple is behind Thepnimit School. When I visited yesterday morning, kids were arriving for school...



The temple was very quiet, as the local temples normally are. It's not a large temple, but as always I found some points of interest (if you like temples!). The main building was locked, as they often are - the local temples are not normally open 24-7.





Normally the temples have a kind of bell tower. Here the bell was in something like a pagoda, brightly painted with pictures of lotus flowers.

I had read on another website a story about a new chedi built at Wat Thepnimit about 3 years ago to house what is described as "Buddha’s relics". It seems many local people helped to build this new golden Chedi which is about 8 meters high and very golden indeed!



The Monks houses here looked very simple and there were cats and chickens running around all over the grounds.



You find "holy trees" all over Thailand with cloth tied around them and Buddha images placed among the roots. Here's one at Thepnimit temple:



Some of those cats I mentioned decided I was worth following. Maybe they are used to someone bringing them food. One cat would not sit still for a photo. If I moved back a meter to take a picture, it followed...



Then found a friend...



• Wat Thepnimit Location on Google Earth
• More Phuket Temples

HotelTravel.com - A Phuket Success Story

A few months ago, I had an email from HotelTravel.com asking about advertising or setting up partner links with this here Phuket blog. Which was nice. HotelTravel.com is a big banana on the internet, and I had been wondering if they had any affiliate program, as it's a top quality website and always seems to pop up in Google searches... they must be doing well, I thought.



The HotelTravel.com website is very easy to use, rates are low and there are live agents waiting to chat - and I mean there really ARE live agents.. I always thought that was a bit of a con, the live agent button, normally redirecting you to a call center in Bangalore or something, but I have seen the HotelTravel live agents! Rather than do everything by email, I printed out the partner agreement and visited their office which is right here in Phuket. Only when I saw the offices did I realise what a big company it is. This was impressive! It looked very modern and efficient, I was quite taken aback, as things in Thailand don't always look so sleek!

So I have busied myself adding some links to HotelTravel on my Recommended Phuket Hotel pages. You can also search for worldwide hotels using the HotelTravel.com search box at the top of this page. On the hotel pages on this blog you'll find several links to different hotel booking websites, making it easy to compare and find the best deals. Online is the way to book these days.

Now, what's this about a success story? Yes, HotelTravel.com is based in Phuket, and employs more than 200 people, but it's the story about how it started that makes us all wish we had our hands in a pie like this! There was an article in the Phuket Post newspaper recently about co founder Blair Speers and a genuine rags to riches story...

After a long holiday in Phuket, Mr Speers says "I arrived at the airport with 250 baht in my pocket. I bought a drink and then went to check in. There I realised that the airport tax was more than I had in my pocket. There was nothing for it. I had to beg or go back. I only just had enough to get a taxi back to the house!"

He started a school teaching English, but was cut short by the landlord suddenly tripling the rent on the building - and that's typical round here - the landlord sees you doing well and wants a slice of your fortune thank you.

He was then all but broke again, his girlfriend started doing laundry to make ends meet and his motorbike was repossessed. But you know, if you have faith, things turn around.. and he got a job with PlanetHoliday (now part of Agoda.com), but lost the job when he got sick. Bummer. Then, out of the blue an old friend (who had some money) got in touch, they chatted, and in March 2000, HotelTravel.com started with it's online Phuket Hotel Reservation service. The internet is a funny old thing. If you are just starting to get into it now, well, you might make a living. If you got in early enough, and worked hard, well done to you.

HotelTravel.com is now, as I say, a big cheese.

Poor me - I never had even a hotmail address until 1998! Spent all my time diving and backpacking, oh why didn't I start a hotel reservations website!?

• Phuket Hotels by HotelTravel.com
• Thailand Hotels at HotelTravel.com
• Phuket Post - Story of HotelTravel.com

Jamie's Phuket on Google Earth

(Updated March 2010) I have (when time allows) been adding placemarks on Google Earth showing where to find the hotels, restaurants, temples, beaches and hills that feature on Jamie's Phuket. I joined the "Google Earth Community" to be able to post on the Google Earth forum which creates a link to the places I have added.

So, if you browse this blog now you will notice that many pages have links to Google Earth - click on the link and what happens is this: If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, then it will open and you'll fly in to Phuket and see the placemarker. You may have a message on screen first asking "Do you wish to open or save this file?" - click Open.

For example, if you are looking at some of the restaurants on this blog and like the look of Kan Eang Seafood, and want to know where it is, just click on the link that says "See location on Google Earth", and you'll see this:



If you fancy an evening walk at Bang Wad Reservoir, click the link on that page that says "View Bang Wad reservoir on Google Earth" - and Google Earth will take you there...



I have added over 80 placemarks so far. There are plenty more to add - if you have a favourite post on the blog and are not sure of the location of the place, do let me know and I will add an Earth placemark. Will get more added anyway as time goes by.

I hope you enjoy surfing some of the pages on Jamie's Phuket and zooming into Phuket with Google Earth! If you don't have Google Earth on your computer - Get it!

• Download Google Earth
• Google Earth Community (Forum)
• My Google Earth Community Post List (you must be a member to view)

Guesthouses and Hostels - Phuket for Backpackers

It's fair to say that Phuket is more of an "upmarket" destination compared to backpackers hangouts like Koh Pha Ngan or Koh Tao. I am sorry to say you can't find little bamboo bungalows on the beach for 150 Baht a night in Phuket, and you don't have much in the way of backpacker oriented bars and nightlife. Over the years, Phuket has moved more into the luxury market, with many 4 - 5 star resorts around the island, and I have seen huge changes in infrastructure in the 9 years that I have been here. Not just hotels, but marinas, luxury condos, many housing developments, shopping centers such as Jungceylon and Central Festival... The list goes on and on...

Not all of this is for tourists of course, in fact most of it benefits the local people and foreign residents more than tourists. Many foreigners have decided that Phuket is a great place to live (see Buying a House in Phuket for more information), and the money coming into Phuket has made plenty of local people wealthy - a look at the roads full of new cars will confirm that... But I don't want to get sidetracked into a discussion on the economy of Phuket!



Phuket is for Everyone!

With all these resorts, fancy cars, luxury villas and so on, is there room for backpackers in Phuket any more? Well, please remember that Phuket is a big island, so naturally the answer is a resounding YES. It may not be No.1 on the list of backpacker must-sees, indeed many young travelers will just pass through on the way to Phi Phi or Ao Nang, but I would hope after reading a bit of this blog, you might realise that Phuket is a rich, diverse island with many beautiful areas. Well worth a few days of your time!

Backpackers Hostels in Phuket

There is a bit of a misconception that Phuket Town is the only place to stay if you want low budget, and indeed you do have hostels there for around 200 Baht/night, and I do like Phuket Town, so won't try to put you off - see more here: A Walk Around Old Phuket Town. But surely you want to come to Phuket and stay near the beach, right? This is where the rumour mill starts... the beaches are full of 5 star resorts, there's no cheap places to stay, no local restaurants... Not true at all! I wrote a blog article about the cheap places to stay some time ago:

• Cheap Places to stay in Phuket

 

And now, especially because it's low season, things have gotten even cheaper. The Pineapple Guesthouse at Karon Beach now has a backpackers dorm, low season price just 180 Baht per night. There are also twin fan rooms from 300 Baht, or aircon from 500 Baht. Distance to the beach: less than 5 minutes walk. In the same area the Boost Guesthouse has a dorm and rooms for the same price, and there are a few more which have similarly priced rooms such as Thip House, Robin House and Kangaroo Guesthouse. I know these places well as they're a stones throw from Sunrise Divers dive center (see location on Google Earth). Oh, Pineapple has free wifi internet for guests too.

• Pineapple Guesthouse Review on Jamie's Phuket
• Pineapple Guesthouse Web Site
• Pineapple Guesthouse - Online Booking

What about eating? Well, Phuket is not just a tourist island, as I hope I have made clear, so long as you get off the beach, and onto the back roads where the locals live and eat, you'll find endless noodle stalls, street food stalls and small restaurants. I rarely spend more than about 70 Baht on my lunch unless I go for a big English Breakfast at the Pineapple Cafe (attached to the guesthouse). Here's a few blog posts on the food close to where I work and close to the aforementioned guesthouses:

• Mama Noi
• Phad Thai
• A working lunch
• Fruit Stalls

 

What about getting around Phuket? Well, this is the tricky one for a low budget traveler. There are cheap local buses, only 25 Baht to Phuket Town from Karon Beach for example, BUT no buses between the beaches. So you are kind of at the mercy of the tuk tuks. Normal fare from Karon to Patong (next beach, about 8km) is 300 Baht. Take a few of those per day and your budget is screwed.

Best option is to rent a moped, normal price around 200 - 250 Baht per day. Riding mopeds is another issue to discuss properly at a later date. I'll say this - if you have never ridden a motorbike before, Phuket is not the place to try. I ride almost every day, I have had a couple of minor scrapes. Keep your eyes open, keep left, don't drive fast, don't ride around quiet roads late at night, and always wear a helmet. If you have your own transport you can explore Phuket at your leisure without spending a fortune.

Phuket Hostels - Online Booking



In summary... Phuket is a great place to visit. Being a low budget traveler is not a problem. You have dorms, cheap rooms, good local food, it's just that Phuket is not a trendy backpacker hangout, so if you want to party with young folks, Koh Pha Ngan is the place, but if you are a bit more independent and don't feel the need to have the safety of the herd, give Phuket a go, at least for a few days!

Restaurant Tips: Farang

Farang – such a simple word that can be used in so many different situations. You would have thought that naming a Phuket restaurant Farang would be a recipe for disaster, but thankfully Farang restaurant is a welcome breath of fresh air for Phuket's restaurant scene.

There are actually two Farang restaurants in Phuket. The first is in Cherng Talay (an area in the north of Phuket near Bang Tao beach popular with expats); the second is next to Index Living Mall on the bypass road (just outside Phuket Town). Both have identical menus. The only difference between the two restaurants is that the vibe at the Cherng Talay branch is a little more chilled without the headache of the bypass road nearby.



The food at Farang restaurant is fantastic. The menu features simple fusion dishes executed to perfection. Choose from a range of pasta dishes, pizzas, salads and Thai dishes, all coming in at about 100 to 200 baht.

It's the little touches that make Farang stand out. The care taken in the presentation of the food adds to the whole dining experience. It's almost a paradox, because the dishes usually fly out of the kitchen within minutes of ordering. The pasta dishes are particularly good, with none of the ketchup-as-sauce antics you find at other restaurants that charge the same kind of price. Also worth trying is the beef tenderloin, which has a tenderness to it.

Another surprise at Farang is that the house wine is actually drinkable. Cheap wine and good food – what could be better? There isn't really anything to fault Farang restaurant for. It's cheap and cheerful and makes no bones about trying to be something it's not.

Both restaurants are closed on Mondays. Call 086-9463142 for details.

This post was guest blogged by Matt from Phuket Vogue - a new Phuket website about dining and nightlife. Matt also writes a well known Thailand blog - The Lost Boy.

Jamie adds... We have driven past the Farang restaurant next to Index about 300 times, and we know an American lady who makes cakes for them - we sometimes buy cheesecake from her - absolutely fantastic - so I guess we have an idea of the quality of the dessert menu at Farang! One of these days we must go and sample the food, as it's been recommended to me by several people, not just Matt.

• More Phuket Restaurants at Phuket Vogue
• More Phuket Restaurants on Jamie's Phuket

Photo above is from a Japanese blog I found which (I guess...it's in Japanese) recommends Farang restaurant - see the link and more photos here: Farang Restaurant Review. I'll be sure to add some photos of my own when/if we eat there!

Hotel Recommendation: Karon Princess

You can find a number of smaller mid price resorts along Karon Beach, as well as big resorts such as Hilton Arcadia. Karon even has backpackers rooms (which will be covered on this blog shortly). I'd say that the mid range hotels are all pretty decent, but the Karon Princess gets good reviews on TripAdvisor, and I just noticed that for the low season (May - October) you can stay for just 950 Baht per night! Check the late booking prices! High season rates are more like 4,000 Baht per night. This is not unusual - the low season is a great time to visit Phuket! But it rains all the time, I hear you cry... Not true. Weather is normally very nice - check these links:

• Phuket Weather Blog
• Wet Season Weather in Phuket

Karon Princess is on the beach road, close to the area called "Karon Center" where you have a good selection of restaurants and bars - see location on Google Earth. Karon is pretty quiet, certainly when compared to Patong, which is about 8km north. In the low season, Karon is very quiet, despite the bargain hotel prices - I can't promise you'll have 3km of beach to yourself, but come now and you can certainly avoid the crowds.

The resort has 86 rooms, some with seaview, some with "garden view", but in any case just a minute to the beach. The "deluxe" rooms are slightly larger and have internet access too. There is also 1 suite, low season rate about 2000 Baht per night. There's a pool and kids pool, a sunset restaurant and bar, and a spa too where they do massage, aromatherapy and body scrubs among other things. Karon Princess is a bargain right now and not a bad price even in peak season. On the beach, good location (I like Karon beach), all the facilities you need, easy to recommend!

Karon Princess - Booking & Reviews

• Karon Princess Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Karon Princess Reviews at Agoda.com


Karon Princess - Photos

  

  


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