Last-minute, low budget travel to the Phuket
VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL
German | English
Update: In Thailand now everything runs normally after the peaceful coup d’etat on Oct 19th in Bangkok, especially the tourist infrastructure. -- The only place one sees military here on Phuket Island is at the departure gates of the airport where they are looking for members of the deposed regime trying to flee the country with suitcases full of money. Check phuketgazette.com for the latest info.
Since 1825, long before it became a tourist magnet, the people on the tropical island of Phuket on the Thai west coast observe a time-honoured tradition we call, for lack of a better moniker, Vegetarian Festival. It’s usually sometimes in October, depending on what date it falls according to the lunar calendar. Actually it’s much more than a huge veggie picnic, with a rich religious, ethnic and historic background. It’s a 10-day carnival, circus, pilgrimage, vegetarian feast, all rolled into one.
You can read all about it on about 71,000 sites when you do a web search (great pictures too).
Just let me mention that Phuket has won a lot of awards in the past including Best Island (Conde-Nast Travel) and Best Vegetarian Travel Destination (Vegetarian Magazine). After the awful tsunami disaster of 2004 things were quickly rebuilt and the island is actually the better for it: both the infrastructure and the general attitude of the locals towards visitors have improved.
In any case I have visited here often during the five years I was working in Bangkok and now have retired here. The vegetarian tradition being just one good reason, as the scenery, both marine and terrestrial, is spectacular, the people friendly, the ecosystem cleaner as one would expect in a tourist destination of this proportions and the low price level for everything. Tropical fruits one can buy at the roadsides for prices in the 30 to 80 cents range per kilogramme (~2.2 lbs) are practically unobtainable in the fresh, raw state overseas due to agricultural restrictions or because they do no travel well.
Just try this at home: buy mangosteen, the “Queen” of fruits, for under US$1.50 per kg (2.2 lbs), the much hyped beneficial fruit whose reconstituted, diluted and adulterated juice is peddled in USA and EU for prices between US$/Eu25-40 a quart (litre). –
Restaurants, hotels, street vendors, private homes conspire to ensure an all-vegetarian diet for the locals. There are three vegetarian restaurants side-by-side in downtown Phuket where satisfying dishes, freshly cooked to your order, while you watch, cost only 25 Baht (~70 US-cents) all year-round and it’s never a problem to order vegetarian style in any eatery, big or small, fancy or simple. The Thai cuisine offers plenty of veggie choices. They seem to be all on the menu during Vegetarian Festival.
Now I want to invite you to come join me here and enjoy clean air and water, great vegetarian food, nice accommodations in a boutique “mansion” (that’s what they call smaller but quite luxurious serviced condos here) without a bar full of juvenile drunks or a hotel restaurant expelling cremation (=barbeque) smells.
There
are only 34 studio apartments of about 45 square metres (485 sq
feet), none of them more than 6 metre (20 ft) from the sparkling free
form sun-warmed swimming pool
(about 25 x 5 mtr/75 x 15 ft, safe for children at the long
shallow end) with whirlpool (no artificial heat added).
Air conditioning is built in and individually adjustable by remote control (unlike in some so-called five-star places where one can’t turn it off). The big ceiling fans should suffice in October, a time the locals call the “cool” season because air and water temps will be around 80 deg F or 27 C.
And to keep
in touch there is free in-room high-speed DSL Internet (bring
your own laptop) and satellite-TV with ~45 free channels (at
least 7 of them with news, movies, and cartoons in English, also in
German, French and Italian).
To insure good sleep and cuddly companionship most rooms have king-size beds with padded headboard(s), large enough for <4 friends, with firm mattresses. A few rooms have two twin-size beds in them. Construction is of fire-proof and windstorm-proof cement, steel (even the roof structure) and ceramic tile. No ticky-tacky wood and cardboard construction here.
A clever and clean enclosed outdoor
kitchen area (that’s Thai style, award winning for Best Kitchen
even in the USA) is in the back (sink, tiled counters, cabinets).
A full-size refrigerator you fill yourself from the market around the corner is inside. No mini-bar scam.
An open veranda is in front, great to sit in and enjoy the sea breezes.
Furniture: hanging wardrobe, wooden wall unit with sideboard, colour TV, with remote control , chair, and suitcase stand, bed(s), 2 nightstands with lamps, mirror, overhead lights, ceiling fan, kitchen cabinets, ceramic tiled counter spaces, stainless steel sink, clothes drying lines.
All units have bathrooms with warm/cold-water showers, wash basins and sit-down toilets featuring the Thai bidet style bottom showers, which to the cognoscenti can eliminate the wasteful, unhygienic, eco-hostile use of toilet paper—and are lot of fun to use…).
Wellness, Spas, Thai massage: A nice spa and hair salon popular with locals and expats alike is just 50 metres (180 ft) away, about 10 others within about 10 minute ride. I also know several local Thai massage practitioners who will gladly come to your room for Thai Nuad assisted Yoga massage, Ayurveda Oil Massages or herbal body scrubs for about 300-400 Baht (~US$11-14) per session. These can last one or two hours depending on the practitioner’s habits. Similar but not necessarily better treatments would cost US$70 to 250 back home or in those fancy tourist-trap spas all over the tropics (very little of which goes to the practitioners).
We also have two shaded outdoor areas by
the pool where you can indulge in this sensuous, healthful pampering
while being gently cooled by overhead fans.
How much does it cost? This is not a packaged tour, no booking or pre-payment required, unless you must be absolute sure of confirmed accommodation. To secure confirmed reservations and airport “meet and greet” pick-up use https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130
to deposit 25% of the total booking cost. Balance will be collected in Thai Baht (THB), Euro or US$ upon arrival. Moneybookers take all major credit/debit cards, cash deposits or transfers to UK banks, even debit via mobile phone.
Just fly in (best and usually cheapest and most convenient connections are not via Bangkok but via Singapore on Singapore Air all the way to Phuket/HKT, also via Kuala Lumpur) unless you fly in non-stop from EU or AUS. October is lowest of low season, so fares should be cheap from anywhere in the world (I’ve seen Eu 622 RT from EU from Air India).
If you then take the Airport Bus (THB 52) from the upper level of the small local airport I’ll pick you up personally at the downtown bus terminal if you arrive before dark and called me on my mobile phone: 083 176 3920 from the baggage area.
Otherwise take a cab from the bus terminal (100 to 300 Baht depending on your haggling skills).
The rooms may be shared by up to 4 people and cost only 1000 Baht/room/night (~US$27), no additional charges except phone use [local calls: 10 Baht (27 cents), overseas calls can get very expensive, so set up Skype or ICH accounts on your notebooks before you leave home. DSL in-room Internet is free].
Fancy restaurant meals, vegetarian or not, rarely run more than ~$5.-, but small hole-in-wall places or the world-famous Thai roadside food vendors charge only about 15 to 40 Baht per generous dish and will cook fresh to your orders. Don’t miss Papaya Pok-Pok, fresh, raw papaya salad with peanuts, garlic, brown sugar or honey, cabbage, string beans and red hot chilli peppers (or without if you order `mye pet`= not spicy).
For dessert try banana and potato slices fried in a coconut batter (15 Baht).
Of course all other of the world’s fine cuisines are represented on Phuket, at prices usually lower than in their originating countries. After all most global hotel and restaurant chains have dependences here.
There’s a German-Thai restaurant just around the corner from us. Try their German “Bauernfruehstueck” (farmers’ breakfast) if you’re lacto-oval, a huge omelette with fresh potatoes, onions, and cheese (two people can satisfy a big hunger for 130 Baht), their cheese and veggie baguette or their veggie cheeseburger (70 Baht ea). A German bakery with crusty brown breads, oven-fresh French baguettes and croissants, special German cakes (incl Black Forest Cherry Torte) and very edible lunch pizzas (40-80 baht) is just 500 metre (~1/4 mile) down the road. . Almost next door is a French and a Belgian restaurant. On the way you’ll pass several road-side fruit and vegetable stands and cheap eateries.
Sightseeing and culture:
Phuket Town is where all the Vegetarian Festival activities will be. It has some interesting Portuguese-Chinese colonial architecture. – The ferries to famous Phi-Phi Island leave here (250-400 Baht). Leonardo DiCaprio filmed here (The Beach), but don’t let that movie skew your ideas about Thai people and culture. Pay a bit more and you can cross all the way to Krabi on the mainland. Some Hollywood TV series is being shot there right now.
Wat Chalong, the biggest and most spectacular Buddhist Temple of the island is just a brisk walk or bike ride away from our mansion. Thousands of Asian Buddhists come here on pilgrimages. A Thai kickboxing training camp is nearby. Quite a few westerners train here. -- Another smaller temple is one is just kitty-corner across the street from us. Feed the carp in the big pond.
The closest beach and the Chalong Pier yacht harbour are about 1 km away by cheap (15-20 THB) local transportation. If you want the best and most scenic beaches, Nai Harn, Kata and Karon are a 10-20 min ride away (rent a scooter for 200 Baht (~US$5.60) a day or share a rental car with your companion(s) for about 600-700 Baht (US$16-21)
Chalong Pier is about 1.5 km away and the starting point for trips to the off-islands and diving tours. There even is an old sailing ship set up as a Spa-Boat: get a massage or soak in the whirlpool while cruising. -- Want low-budget? Share a traditional long-tail boat for about 500 to 1000 Baht for 4-6 passengers. -- This is the official port of entry for foreign yachts and there are hundreds of them in the anchorage, some of them offering cost sharing crew “berths” for day or overnight cruises.
Like Zoos? We have one about 2 km (1.3 mi) away, just like the recommended Phuket Aquarium.
Baan Chang (Elephant Hall) is nearby, where you can trek through the jungle on a pachyderm’s back. Up in the hills there are several other places where the official animal of the Kingdom is put to work in the tourist trade. Don’t fret, these domesticated elephants are pampered and spoiled like pets. Otherwise they would have no work and could not earn their keep, dooming them and their mahouts to starvation. – Didn’t you read the true story of the Phuket elephant who saved a little Brit girl’s (Amber Mason, 8 yo) life by carrying her to high ground just seconds before the tsunami hit? Now the beast gets a monthly pension from the grateful parents.
Shopping is plentiful in the neighbourhood, but the best deals are gotten away from the tourist areas, in the markets of downtown Phuket. Here the locals take revenge for centuries of “ferang” (foreign) exploitation by offering fake Western brands at ridiculously low prices, also music, video and software CD/DVDs. I saw the latest edition of office and xp professional offered on CD-Rom including installation on your laptop for 300 baht, various CAD, image processing and Desktop publishing software too, end even cheaper. Nowadays they hide this stuff under the table, but just ask for it, even in fancy malls, and out it comes. – One can still get a fake Swiss brand name watch for under Eu/$20. It looks and works just like the original.
Many spas, beauty supply and drug stores sell original Thai herbal cosmetica, massage oils and folk remedies. Don’t leave without lavender oil and world-famous Tiger Balm.
Lectures in Thai cooking, fruit/vegetable carving, massage, Yoga, folk dance ect can be arranged at the mansion or attended in established schools.
Confirmed, secure reservations and guaranteed airport pick-up by 25% deposit via CC, bank transfer or mobile phone debit:
https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130
Contact: fkkguide “at” yahoo.com (replace “at” with @ !)
VoIP phone: ++1 760 230 0391 (1-3 cents/min, free if you have ICH)
Mobile phone: ++ 66 (8) 3 176 3920
URL: http://geocities.com/fewocal
One Thai Baht THB = ~25 $-cents =~20 €-cents
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Festival vegetarien
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