The Historical Town of Dartford

Last Tuesday your intrepid Tourist decided to talk a walk in the pouring rain to explore the historical town of Dartford. 

Copperfields Arcade Dartford

I started off right in the centre of town by the Copperfields arcade.  It really was quite an unsuitable day for walking around with a camera!

Spital Street Methodist Church

This is the Spital Street Methodist Church.  It was built in 1844 at a cost of £2,500.

The Courthouse Pub

The Courthouse Pub lies across the street from Spital Street Methodist Church.  This building was first erected in 1850 as part of the  church but was converted into a Crown Court within ten years.  Fifteen years ago it became a pub.  The nearest Crown Court is now in Woolwich but Dartford still has a magistrates court and a county court.

The Royal Oak

According to the Dartford  Heritage Trail poster, "An inn has occupied this 17th century building since at least the early 1800s. The oak beams and brick fireplaces date from at least 1690 but it first appears as the Royal Oak on a map dated 1807".

Trust the English to ensure that no matter how lost you are, you’ll always find the nearest pub on a map.

If you click on the poster to the left, you can get a clearer idea of how the Royal Oak and the Congregational Church (below) looked over a hundred years ago.

I really love before and after photos and seeing historical sites through the ages!

Church Court

The old Congregational Church was converted into flats in December 2000.

Manor Gatehouse

Wow.  This building is seriously old!  This is the western gatehouse of what used to be King Henry VIII’s Dartford Manor House and it was built between 1541 and 1544.  Anne of Cleves was given the house in her divorce settlement and stayed there between 1553 and 1557.  [Sources: Dartford Archive and Dartford Tourism].  The building is now used as a venue and offices.  If you click on the above photo to enlarge it, you’ll see that the sig to the left reads: “Births, Death Marriages and Partnerships”.  Surely “hatch, match and dispatch” would be more succinct?

Railway Bridge

This is something I never saw in South Africa. Tiny little railway bridges drawn over the most impossibly narrow streets. It is probable that this was designed with only a horse and carriage in mind.

   

Finally, I decided to give you a taste of the types of houses to be found in Dartford.  First, we have Victorian terraced housing which is generally well over one hundred years old.  Next is the boring and unimaginative post war terraced housing and finally, there is a photo of our little lane.  Our houses are only about two years old which is why it is so impossible that there should be such a huge problem with the boiler.  (First the control panel went and then the engineer decided that something was wrong with the flue and so we won’t have central heating until they fix that!!)

Jamie's Phuket 2009 Best Bits - Part 2

Seems there was a lot said in 2009, so this blog summary for the last year has been split into 2 halves. This is Part 2, following on nicely from Part 1. The second half of any year begins with July. Here in Phuket, July is pretty quiet - we are in the "low season" although weather is often pretty nice actually. For more on the weather, please do look at and bookmark the Phuket Weather Blog. Thank you.

July - We started with a little restaurant that we often drive past but rarely stop at - if it has a name, I don't know.. something like "Good Food, Nice View" - great view actually from Cape Panwa across Chalong Bay.

 

Then one of our favourite low season haunts - Paradise Beach, a small stretch of sand just outside Patong. Too busy for me in high season, but nice in July. A little restaurant, safe beach for the kids and cold beers for the dads!

On July 18th I took part in the Phuket Photo Walk, part of a worldwide photo event for people to take photos of their home town. About 40 people showed up for the walk around Phuket Town.





August - I wrote about another local event - the Phuket Flower Fair. A huge variety of plants and flowers for sale, and prizes for the best orchids.



In the north of Phuket there is a Muslim community called Bang Rong - there is a small restaurant there floating in the mangroves. We have been many times and noticed they rent kayaks to explore the mangroves.. so we went kayaking :)



Later in the month I saw signs around our area of Phuket promoting a local festival. There seemed to be no promotion elsewhere and when I turned up for the opening evening I was the only foreigner present! A great little street procession with painted faces, I was very glad to have made the effort to go along...



In September, having been in contact with a mountain-walking, marathon-running American guy who lives in Phuket, I went along with him one morning with the aim of hiking up the highest hill in Phuket, well over 500m above sea level. A very hard hike, reaching the top at 542m with views over the ocean and across Phuket's hilly centre. I do intend to do some more hiking soon, starting with a trek up to the Big Buddha sometime in the coming weeks.



Now, I tend to concentrate on this blog on things to do, places to see, hotels, eating out.. it's not really a news blog, but sometimes I like to report on local stories. In September, Jet Skis were in the news for all the wrong reasons (they like to rip off tourists) and thanks to pressure by various people, newspapers, embassies and tourists, some agreements were finally reached on insuring jet skis. Will this end the problem? (big shrug)

Phuket has a real mix of culture. In September I blogged about the highly rated Mom Tri's Villa Royale hotel and it's restaurant Mom Tri's Kitchen.... in between, a visit to Luang Pu Supha temple, home to (yet to be ratified) the oldest man in the world, the Monk of the same name. I reckon he has lived all his years without stuffing his face full of profiteroles, and is highly respected for his continuous work for charity. Sometimes you have to take a step back and think about life from another angle.

Talking of stuffing my face...



I ate several times at The Coffee Pot on the back road in Kata, Phuket. Big breakfasts, good coffee, like it.

But for me, October is all about the Phuket vegetarian festival. My absolute favourite thing in Phuket. The festival lasts for 10 days. I stuck to the diet this year and even managed to drink no beers. Paid several visits to shrines in and around Phuket Town such as Kathu Shrine and had 2 fantastic mornings at Kathu Shrine and Jui Tui shrine watching the processions, pierced faces, entranced minds, I really recommend you see this!





Lots of Photos here: Phuket Vegetarian festival photos 2009

And then suddenly it's high season! Less time to blog, no holidays, less chance to get out and do things. If we've not been out doing things like we do in low season, I add more general information on the blog such as the Best places to book Phuket Hotels online. Did hotel review in November for the La Flora Resort in Patong Beach which opened in 2008. A bit of an oasis in the middle of the madness! Also visited Mai Khao Beach, right in the north of Phuket where you find the Seaside Cottages - cheap huts right by the beach, an extreme rarity in Phuket!





(above) contrasting accommodation - Avista resort and the Seaside Cottages

December already! I blogged the Phuket Post Office Museum, one of many small museums in Phuket. It's in the old town - an area full of history. The next blog posts were reviews of brand new hotels - the Avista Resort and the Ibis Resort both at Kata beach.

And then another great little street festival to round off the year - work has been going on in old Phuket for 6 months to rid Thalang Road of all overhead wires. This local life festival was partly to celebrate the completion of this work and to promote old Phuket town as a place to go for an evening - there are lots of small bars and cafes, a refreshing change from the main tourist beaches.





So... 2010 is here. I have many ideas for blog posts, and just need to find time! Won't be this weekend for sure... a friend's birthday party tonight and then tomorrow a little party at the beach for our son, 5 years old. 5 years gone so fast. And 10 years I have been here in Phuket. Here's to the next 10. Happy New Year.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 6: Winter Sun

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[Yes, yes, I'm aware I posted photos of the snow barely an hour ago but I so wanted to share this beautiful scene that I witnessed last week...]

Let it snow!

It’s not often that I’m happy to see snow but I am over the moon tonight!  I’ve been praying all afternoon for the snow to come because for once in my life, I actually have work that I can do from home tomorrow.  It is our financial year end and so I have loads of cross checking that I can do and I emailed all the spreadsheets to myself before I left work today.

Southeastern Railways were being their usual useless selves and had already told us early this afternoon that trains would only be running every half hour tomorrow.  Of course, they neglected to say whereabouts in the hour their ‘half hour’ would start and as trains are generally oversubscribed as it is, I didn’t rate my chances of actually getting on any trains tomorrow.  With the predicted “extreme weather” having arrived, it is doubtful whether they will run at all. 

Wonderful news then… it is a snow day tomorrow!

Best of Jamie's Phuket 2009 - Part 1

Wow. 2010 already. Anyone else feeling a bit shell shocked? I have been in Phuket just over 10 years now, arrived in November 1999. No plans to stay, just looking for work as a dive instructor. Fast forward 10 years, happily married, 2 children, lots of bills to pay (house, car, school).. is this not just like any normal life anywhere else? Not quite. I am very happy living in Phuket, although at times in the high season (that's now!) there is not much time for relaxation - running even a small dive shop needs fairly long work hours, 6 days a week. Family has to come first, so the poor Phuket blog does get neglected at times in the high season. I still try to update this blog about once per week, and the weather blog maybe a bit more often.

2009. Good Year. A quick look back at some of the more interesting places, restaurants, hotels and things to do that were on Jamie's Phuket last year...

January - as I said, it was just over 10 years ago that I got to Phuket, the main aim was to find work on a liveaboard dive boat - so I wrote something about that : Liveaboard Diving from Phuket. Photo below... me 9 years ago in the Similan Islands.



Next, a review of the luxury Sala Phuket resort, one of the best hotels you can find here. I try not to add too many hotel reviews on the blog, but occasionally, when we've not had time to really get out and do anything much, I'll add in a hotel... always looking for new or interesting hotels to review.

Same with restaurants - although we are getting a bit middle aged and tend to eat again and again at the same places, I try to get to new restaurants and sometimes we find good ones like the Uptown restaurant in Phuket Town, a big local favourite with a huge menu of different noodle dishes.

Also in January, I had a quick visit to the new Phuket 91.5FM radio station which over the year has established itself as probably the No.1 station for Phuket.

February - another new Phuket Town restaurant - Rimtang specialises in local dishes, and another hotel review - Boomerang Cottages in Kata, not on the beach, up on the hillside, and always gets good reviews it seems.

Later in February we headed out of Phuket into Phang Nga province just over the bridge and found a great restaurant called Sam Chong Seafood. Not far from there, the temple of Wat Suwan Kuha which is built into a cave.





March - a quick visit to a temple in Phuket Town - Wat Vichit Sangkaram - eventually I will try to blog all the temples in Phuket! I did a review of the new TravelFish Guide to Phuket, a review of the Agoda hotel booking website.

Found time to try the new Phuket Brewery just outside Phuket Town which has a microbrewery and live music with big name Thai stars performing almost every weekend. We also went to Cape Phromthep - not for the first time but amazingly the first time I had been there for the sunset.





April, come she will. Kamala Beach - I think kind of the forgotten beach of Phuket, still very quiet, it's just North of Patong, but about 500 times less crazy!



Phuket Town - for me, the best bit of Phuket, lots of hidden surprises, and a few were uncovered in April. First, yet another very popular restaurant with locals called Kaewjai, just a block from the bus terminal, been there for nearly 50 years and my wife and I have been back several times during the year. Then there was the Crocodile Farm... not for animal lovers and I read things about them keeping some animals illegally. Lots of crocodiles. And some tigers, and a few other animals.



Later in April I finally found the not-easy-to-find Shrine of the Serene Light, in the old part of town. Very beautiful old Chinese shrine.



But April of course is best known for Songkran - the traditional Thai New Year. This year on April 13th we loaded up our pick up truck with barrels of water, drove around Patong and the whole family had a fun time - photos here: Songkran 2009 in Patong.

And you also have Phuket Bike Week just before Songkran, I went to see some bikes this year down at Patong Beach and in the JungCeylon mall.





May - I enjoyed looking around the Phuket Halal Expo, held at Sapan Hin, a large recreation area in the south of Phuket Town. Lots of food and smiling faces - the event was to promote Phuket's large Muslim community.



I like to find simple and not (too) expensive restaurants on the beach - found one at Nai Yang Beach called Batik Seafood. Nai Yang is pretty quiet and there are many small restaurants. A few days later and we ate at another new restaurant called Lakeside, way off the beaten track and run by a former neighbour of ours.





The Big Buddha in Phuket.. still not finished.. indeed we were just there a couple of days ago and there is loads to do.. the main 45m high Buddha is all but ready, but the surrounding area needs a lot of work - photo below taken in May:



June - halfway through 2009 - and I think I better add a "Part 1" on the title and carry on with Part 2 in a couple of days... way too much to talk about on one blog post! We took a very interesting trip by longtail boat from Rawai Beach to Koh Kaew Yai, a small island just off the end of Cape Phromthep. Stories say that the Buddha visited here before landing in Phuket at Rawai.

And not long after we were at Sapan Hin again for the One Tambon One Product Fair - lots of food, drinks and crafts. There are regular events at Sapan Hin, always worth a visit.

 

To round out the month, a visit to Phuket Aquarium. We go quite often, entry fee is cheap and we like the Cape Panwa area of Phuket where the Aquarium is located. My kids always enjoy learning about the fish and other marine life from "Dad the Diver" :)



Jamie's Phuket 2009.. Part 2 here.

Happy New Year!

A Winter Retreat

We decided to get away from London for a couple of days and headed to the Hawkwell House Hotel in Oxford.  We left around 3pm on Christmas Eve and arrived to find chocolates, crackers and Santa hats waiting for us in our room.

I’d really been looking forward to spending Christmas in this hotel as it is so cosy and festive.

We spent a lot of time sitting by the fireplace just reading newspapers or books.

And we spent some time in the lounge too where I played with my camera and read while Ste watched football.

We stayed for three nights at a rate of £95 bed and breakfast per night plus Christmas dinner included.  It was nice not to have to worry about cooking on Christmas day but not so nice that the kitchen wasn’t open for room service for the whole weekend!!  We had to go into Oxford for some Nandos on the Saturday night.  Nandos will always be our first choice as they are a South African franchise!

On the morning we left, there was even some sunshine and so I got to take some lovely photos of the buildings and the ground.

We had a lovely and relaxing time away and it was just the kind of winter retreat that I had in mind.  Mostly, I was just glad to be healthy and happy during this visit as I had been so sick when we visited in 2008!