Sunday, June 07, 2009

 

Morning in Phuket City. May 13th.

On our first Wednesday we explored the old part of Phuket City.
This is quite a large sprawling town, full of traffic. It is the working town of the island. It is not exactly tourist territory for it is on the east side of the island and has no beach - just a thriving port.
The old part was first settled by the Chinese who mined for tin and became wealthy.
The City Association values its heritage and the older parts will be preserved and whilst we were in Thailand we learned that the overhead cables will be put underground starting about now.
We have explored before, but there is always something new to see and new experiences to be had.

This posting combines some of our photos and also some of Jamie's blog postings which give a lot more detail.
Firstly I will show you some street scenes. Some are as we saw them on a dull morning and other pictures are our photographs of pictures we saw in the museum.


Lovely art nouveau tiles abound below the window frames.


Whenever I am in a town I look up - the details of buildings are often missed.
These are the windows above the shop fronts.


Shop fronts are often open - with just a steel blind that is pulled down at night. More sophisticated shops have windows and window displays.






I was pleased to see this new cul de sac incorporates ideas from the old style.


Tucked away in these old streets the Chinese Shrine of Serene Light can be found.
For more pictures and a fuller explanation see this page of Jamie's blog.
https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2009/04/shrine-of-serene-light.html



We walked down a narrow alley way and found the shrine between the houses and shop buildings.




Later we walked around the Buddhist Temple.

There are more pictures on Jamie's blog.
https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2008/12/wat-mongkhon-nimit-phuket-town.html







These are not huge bells. They are places in which fire crackers are lit. Buddhist ceremonies include loud strings of banging exploding fire crackers.

We also visited the museum.
It is housed in what used to be the Chinese school of Phuket.
Jamie has many pictures of the time he went there with Jessica.




Anybody interested in education should enlarge this by clicking on it and then read the guiding principles of education.
And below are two examples of Chinese books on display.





Tomorrow we will stay in Phuket City for some lunch and a look at the shops and then some afternoon tea in a jazz cafe.

Morning in Phuket City. May 13th.
posted by Grandma P on Sunday, June 07, 2009