tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434Sun, 03 May 2026 22:08:33 +0000Jamie has been living in Phuket since 1999. The blog shows Phuket from the point of view of a local resident with a family. There are blog posts about things to do, restaurants, days out, hotel tips, festivals and more. There's much more to Phuket than just beaches! Jamie's Phuket started back in 2006 and was the first dedicated Phuket Blog!https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)Blogger566125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-5206348096477961751Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:34:00 +00002025-12-13T22:56:59.198+00:00Let's take a look at my Top 10 Phuket Hotels for 2026. This "best hotels" list on my blog is subjective, there is so much choice for accommodation in Phuket and your own personal choice may depend on many factors - search hotels easily on Agoda to find the best Phuket hotel for you. Take your time when looking for hotels - check the location on a map, remember Phuket is a big island, read hotel https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2022/08/top-10-phuket-hotels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-4759026904344539878Sun, 13 Jun 2021 10:55:00 +00002022-01-04T21:14:09.171+00:00Phuket island has been a port and a crossroads of the sea for many years, so it's no surprise that you find a mix of cultures and religions in Phuket. The island has quite a fascinating history. It's location near the Straits of Malacca led to Phuket being a port used by Indians, Arabs, Chinese and Europeans over the years, and this is reflected in the diversity here - now further diversified by https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2021/06/chinese-shrines-in-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-5219716738647020595Fri, 22 Jan 2021 13:57:00 +00002023-09-28T11:11:46.548+00:00Where to begin? How was 2020 for you? It's been a shitty year for many people. If you are one of those idiots who thinks Covid-19 is a hoax, or if you refuse to wear a mask in a shop, or if you are one of those who has been breaking social distancing rules and don't care because you think you are healthy, well you can go jump in the sea. As I write this, 12 days into 2021, I am waiting for a texthttps://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2021/01/2020-year-not-in-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-8332044725328527527Wed, 16 Dec 2020 05:00:00 +00002025-10-23T10:23:18.518+00:00The 2025 Phuket Vegetarian Festival (aka Nine Emperor Gods Festival) takes place from 20-30 October 2025. I will update this page to the 2026 schedule in the near future. The dates change every year, as it's based on the Chinese lunar calendar. In 2026 the festival will be a different date. It always has been my favourite Phuket event / festival and I always used to take too many photos! I sold https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2016/04/phuket-vegetarian-festival-schedule.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-5047234714292869944Sat, 07 Nov 2020 16:20:00 +00002021-08-09T18:22:21.305+00:00Yes, this is the Phuket Blog, but Krabi is very close to us ... We had a 2 night trip to Krabi back in April 2017 and I really wanted to visit Railay Beach. I'd been in Phuket since 1999 and somehow never really checked out Krabi until this year! Well, we never got to Railay in April, but we saw enough of the Krabi area to plan another trip, so we had another 2 night trip in Krabi in July 2017. https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2017/09/railay-beach-and-phra-nang-beach.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2935064370574636554Sun, 02 Aug 2020 22:09:00 +00002021-08-08T16:27:58.467+00:00Phad Thai is known as the "Thai National Dish" although let's be fair, it was declared as such by a military government in the 1930's .. based on commonly found fried noodles (Chinese style) but with that bit of Thai taste mixing sweet, sour, spicy together. Exact ingredients can vary and the taste can be anything from bland to spicy to a-bit-too-sweet. Every place you eat Phad Thai, it'll be https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/11/thai-street-food-phad-thai.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2105882169586866311Mon, 27 Jul 2020 11:36:00 +00002020-07-27T21:13:08.296+00:00Finally I have done this again! It was back in 2010 that I hiked up to the Phuket Big Buddha from Karon. A hike from nearly sea level up to nearly 400m above sea level. You can find the old blog post here. And since then I have always had the intention to do the hike again, but never found the right time, or just been too lazy. That blog page from 2010 is actually one of the most visited on https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2018/03/hiking-to-big-buddha-from-karon-beach.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-4990519692121389787Wed, 22 Jul 2020 10:14:00 +00002021-10-02T18:21:48.941+00:00 I saw this video a while ago and now found it on YouTube. A couple of minutes showing a drive along part of Patong beach road and turning into Bangla Road, way back in 1988, just before any huge mass tourism arrived. If you have been recently, the difference is plain to see! Patong looks pretty nice, laid back and quiet. Now it's maybe the busiest few kilometers of tourist beach in Thailand! https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2020/03/patong-beach-in-1988.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-4630695922464655453Fri, 26 Jun 2020 16:37:00 +00002021-08-08T16:20:36.291+00:00After living in Phuket for so many years I am not sure why it took us so long to start exploring the Krabi area. I think maybe it's the distance .. a bit too far for a day trip really, but when we have a longer holiday we have tended to head further from Phuket to places like Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Kanchanaburi ... Last year we finally decided to try Krabi and booked a 2 night https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2018/11/exploring-krabi-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-675942946022847623Mon, 11 May 2020 20:52:00 +00002020-05-11T20:53:19.218+00:00This is a Thai hip-hop song called 'Welcome to the South' by a group called Southside who are from (or some of the members are from) Phuket. Now, Phuket is well and truly in the south of Thailand geographically and politically. The 'South' starts a bit south of Bangkok - when you drive south into Chumphon province there is a 'Welcome to the South' sign above the road :) Southern Thai people have https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2020/05/welcome-to-south-thai-hip-hop-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2278336271134675489Sat, 25 Apr 2020 13:00:00 +00002021-07-31T15:45:39.520+00:00Want to dive in Phuket or the Similan Islands? You should contact Sunrise Divers! I came to Phuket in 1999, not with any plan to stay forever, get married and raise a family, but simply to find work as a scuba diving instructor and "give Thailand a try" with a vague plan to move on to other SE Asian countries and try them as well. I had done my divemaster course back in 1996 in Utila (Honduras) https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2011/03/diving-phuket-with-sunrise-divers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2174268462357287770Mon, 30 Mar 2020 19:14:00 +00002022-04-24T13:58:59.437+00:00I remember reading a few years ago that the Travel Channel had done an episode of 'Bizarre Foods' in Phuket .. forgot about that until today and found it online and watched for the first time. The host is quite right - to find the best Phuket food, get off the tourist beaches! There's a couple of things on here that I have not eaten - really must go and try sea cicadas sometime, but really I am https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2020/03/bizarre-foods-in-phuket-travel-channel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-8618934671588712558Mon, 10 Feb 2020 18:06:00 +00002021-07-17T12:26:23.045+00:00 A tune from 2013 - Snoop Lion (not Dogg at this time as he'd converted to Rastafarianism after a trip to Jamaica in 2012) featuring Rita Ora. They stayed in Phuket to shoot this video, I know Rita Ora's make up artist! Is that my biggest claim to fame? Well, I did meet Rowan Atkinson in Guatemala once while he filmed a Barclaycard commercial! Nice video, this is Phuket! They stayed at the https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2020/02/snoop-lion-torn-apart-ft-rita-ora-video.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-8493582826088341556Sun, 12 Jan 2020 19:21:00 +00002021-10-17T15:47:57.459+00:00Back in 1999, I arrived in Phuket for the first time by bus from Bangkok and had my eye on the On On Hotel, as recommended by my good old Lonely Planet guide. The On On hotel had recently been used as part of the filming of "The Beach" starring Leo. The On On doubled as a cheap Bangkok backpackers hotel. It looked great, lots of character, an old building, apparently the oldest (or one of the https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2020/01/the-memory-at-on-on-hotel-in-old-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2398919888092391325Sat, 28 Dec 2019 18:01:00 +00002021-12-04T19:24:25.732+00:00The year 2019 has been a big change. If you follow me (and please do) on Twitter or Instagram you will have seen that my family and I are no longer in Phuket. I did not make the decision lightly, I suppose it's been rolling around in my mind for years now. I arrived in Phuket in November 1999, built a new life, got married, had 2 kids, bought a house and was absolutely sure that I'd be living in https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/12/2019-very-different-year.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2280927790733263691Thu, 05 Dec 2019 20:02:00 +00002019-12-05T20:02:22.362+00:00A great little video that shows the road still under construction between Patong and Karon beaches in Phuket, back in 1988 (11 years before I arrived in Phuket!) Before that I guess you had to reach Karon by boat only? Nonetheless, you can see quite a few beach chairs and people on Karon Beach already way back then. The lake which has been contained in a man-made lagoon is still 100% natural in https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/12/video-patong-to-karon-beach-in-1988.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-2849450463350398444Thu, 28 Nov 2019 21:35:00 +00002020-03-08T10:17:56.152+00:001993 sounds pretty recent, right? Phuket tourism was already fairly well developed, but I think there must have been a lot of changes in the 1990s. I came to Phuket in 1999 and lived the first year in Patong. It was already pretty busy, but some areas that are full of hotels and businesses now were pretty quiet in 1999. And now I see this video from 1993, wow, 6 years before I came and there werehttps://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/11/patong-beach-in-1993.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-4513710648396440360Mon, 25 Nov 2019 12:02:00 +00002023-03-25T16:42:41.798+00:00If you follow me on social media (Twitter or Instagram) you may have seen that, after nearly 20 years in Phuket, I headed back to the UK mid 2019. Reasons? School/education for my kids, a new challenge, a new life, being close to family in the UK ... we plan to stay for quite a few years, maybe forever. Our house was for sale in Phuket. Now sold. We are also selling our house in Chumphon (my https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/05/our-house-for-sale-in-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-1400186263148940914Sat, 12 Oct 2019 15:22:00 +00002021-08-16T16:48:34.475+00:00Back in 1999 when I first arrived in Thailand, Phuket airport was considerably smaller and quieter than it is now. Although Phuket was already a very popular tourist destination, and had been steadily growing since the 1980s, the airport had way less flights and way less arrivals and departures compared to now. I'm not quite sure where the figures come from, but the Wikipedia page on Phuket https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2018/06/phuket-airport.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-944460431841295218Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:44:00 +00002021-11-18T13:20:20.855+00:00I've not had too many run-ins with snakes in the many years I've been living in Phuket. Never seen a really huge one except at Phuket Zoo.. oh and I have seen banded sea snakes many times while diving in the Similan Islands - they are really venomous but totally ignore divers. Snakes are a fact of life here. Our house is close to a big tree-covered hill, not in the middle of town, so we do expecthttps://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/10/snakes-in-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-9163519994420498206Tue, 06 Aug 2019 20:49:00 +00002019-12-10T20:50:07.036+00:00A very nice video by Art Thomya, featuring Phuket's very own Kritchaya (Chaya) Na Takuathung, exploring some local foods and local Phuket restaurants. I have eaten at a few of these places, and others I hope to try someday! The emphasis here is on very local food that might be hard to get elsewhere in Thailand. Enjoy! https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/08/7-great-local-restaurants-in-phuket.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-5662544883951518354Sun, 14 Jul 2019 09:05:00 +00002021-12-19T10:47:07.617+00:00When this blog first started back in 2006, a large part of the idea was to show that there is a lot more to Phuket than beaches, hotels and nightlife. A lot more. In my 19 years living in Phuket, beach days were rare, and nightlife was normally limited to a few beers or maybe watching some live football or having parties with friends. The main nightlife areas in Patong beach or at one of the https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/07/10-things-to-do-in-phuket-town.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-3959974595563981587Fri, 17 May 2019 00:55:00 +00002021-06-13T19:21:12.350+00:00There are lots of great views around the Phuket area (see Hills and Viewpoints for more). We have a mix of hills and ocean here (the name "Phuket" comes from the Malay word Bukit which means Hill), and if you climb a hill you can get some great sea views. The highest hills in Phuket are over 500m above sea level, but just a few kilometres from the sea. I do like finding new viewpoints, and https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2016/05/samet-nangshe-viewpoint-wow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-571238823056001747Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:47:00 +00002019-04-23T16:47:58.399+00:00I think this blog has made it clear we're not a rich expat family dining at 5 star restaurants. Sure we can splash out a bit now and then, but in any case, I am really not into restaurants that serve food based on it's artistic impression - a few slender vegetables balanced on a fish fillet with dribbles and drips of sauce as decoration. No thanks. I want a plate of food. Good, simple, tasty foodhttps://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2019/04/cheap-eats-gomen-restaurant-in-kathu.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25174434.post-8167867327038797890Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:23:00 +00002026-02-15T10:29:50.528+00:00The popular Songkran festival is one of those "love it or hate it" events. It can be viewed as fun, but some people like to complain about it getting a bit silly and losing its traditional roots. Songkran is the Thai New Year festival and is celebrated in Thailand and also in neighbouring Laos, some parts of China and Cambodia. The Thai New Year and Thai calendar were in use until 1888 in https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2011/04/songkran-photos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk)