Monday, October 03, 2011
Recent days in Thailand.
Sorry, blog readers - it has been days.
Busy days!
And its hard to monopolise the computer when lots of people want time too - 6 of us for one computer!
So, I have got up early this morning - Monday morning. Everybody else is still sleeping.
We should have been going away to today to Khao Sok National Park, on the mainland. But a weather site pointed out that we would be lashed by the tail of a tropical typhoon, heading for Vietnam.
Certainly, this morning, already there has been much wind and heavy rain.
Later Jamie measured the overnight rain....9.3cms!!!
Talking of weather.....
http://phuket-weather.blogspot.com/
Jamie's weather blog says it all and has pictures, too of our recent days here.
Much of the last week has been devoted to the vegetarian festival - which is not a food fair! It is about cleansing and fresh starts.
But on Wednesday we did some exploring.
We went to the north of the island where there is a bridge, The Sarasin Bridge, joining Phuket to the mainland.
There is a new dual carriageway bridge now and the old one has been paved and is an attraction for people to walk across.
Forgive me, if pictures take a while to load....I am not using my familiar systems here and I haven't reduced any in size, or cropped them in any way.
We had lunch by a beach by the side of the bridge and then went for coffee at the 360 degree viewpoint.
Busy days!
And its hard to monopolise the computer when lots of people want time too - 6 of us for one computer!
So, I have got up early this morning - Monday morning. Everybody else is still sleeping.
We should have been going away to today to Khao Sok National Park, on the mainland. But a weather site pointed out that we would be lashed by the tail of a tropical typhoon, heading for Vietnam.
Certainly, this morning, already there has been much wind and heavy rain.
Later Jamie measured the overnight rain....9.3cms!!!
Talking of weather.....
http://phuket-weather.blogspot.com/
Jamie's weather blog says it all and has pictures, too of our recent days here.
Much of the last week has been devoted to the vegetarian festival - which is not a food fair! It is about cleansing and fresh starts.
But on Wednesday we did some exploring.
We went to the north of the island where there is a bridge, The Sarasin Bridge, joining Phuket to the mainland.
There is a new dual carriageway bridge now and the old one has been paved and is an attraction for people to walk across.
Forgive me, if pictures take a while to load....I am not using my familiar systems here and I haven't reduced any in size, or cropped them in any way.
We had lunch by a beach by the side of the bridge and then went for coffee at the 360 degree viewpoint.
In the evening we had our first taste of noisy processions - in Kathu village.
The Chinese gods are paraded through the village; there was colour, joy, smoke and NOISE!
Nothing gruesome at this parade.
The next morning, Jamie, Bill and I were up before 6 o'clock to go to Sam Kong shrine on the outskirts of Phuket Town.
Each shrine is the focus and start point for a procession throughout the festival.
The early start meant that we were there before people had their cheeks pierced, whilst in a trance.
This truly is a picture from my camera, with my eye on the subject.
I had thought before I arrived that I would hide in the background and not watch anything. But the atmosphere gets to you and holding a camera empowers you!
Mind you the atmosphere really did get to me - no food, tiredness, noise, smoke and all that was going on caused me to feel faint and smelling salts were administered.....and not only to me.
Pity that other person's camera strap dangled down in my photo.
Later, Bill and I went for a walk on Karon beach, whilst Jamie put in a few hours at the office.
This shows a low season sea. It looks like fun doesn't it? But at Karon, in particular, there are strong currents and red flags are flying and warning signs in Thai and English.
This doesn't stop people venturing out and sadly every year there are drownings at Karon beach.
But for us, all was peaceful.
Saturday was an at home day. A new sofa was delivered here - so the family only ventured out for new cushions.
Yesterday was the International Photo Walk day. This year it coincided with one of the big festival processions in Phuket Town.
Jamie went off on his own.
It was nosiy, smoky, gruesome, reverential and joyful all at the same time.
Later we walked in the old town to get some breakfast - we knew it was breakfast because our tasty fried rice was topped with a sprinkling of cornflakes!
We had met up with Anthony, who we had first met the previous day at Sam Kong. He was originally from Newcastle.
It was time to go to the cafe of a very smart hotel to meet up with other photographers.
There will be a group photo in the Phuket Gazette this week.
And maybe I will submit a few pictures too. Jamie will, for sure.
But submitted pictures will certainly be cropped first.
We are hoping now to go to Khao Sok on Wednesdsay.
Hope people at home are enjoying better weather than we are having here! I gather you are having those glorious autumn days I dreamed of.
Labels: thailand
