Jemma's choice at the moment are the pink boots!!
But this is my favourite photo - but the boots - where are they?
A Hospital in Phuket
Well I had to tell you about allll of the facilities on Phuket island.
In the early hours of Wednesday the 23rd I asked my wife to take me to the Phuket International Hospital.
The support and service I received there was impeccable - surpassable by none!
Not a place that I wanted to be taken to but I am glad that I was taken there.
Teeth Braces - a fashion statement?
I am getting old.........
On one of my excursions out with my family we went to a Weekend Market in Phuket Town.
This market is only open on Saturday and Sunday evenings from about four o'clock and it is near to the Central Festival. Take the left turn (South from Central Festival) before Prompan supermarket - a good place for fresh Ciabatta bread and cheap alcohol - near Wat Naka.
This is predominantly a market for Thai people and it does not have the array of items that one would find in the street market in Patong - if you want that sort of stuff then you won't find it here.
This is a wonderful market and an amazing array of different things to see - we always buy some clothes for our daughter Jemma and she has a play on the train.
As we were allowing (encouraging) our daughter to choose some hair grips and girly bits I noticed a strange item - a piece of wire with a number of coloured flowers on it. I innocently asked Chuen (my wife) what on earth they were - they looked 'cute' and she told me that they were braces to put on your teeth and cost ten baht.
I was shocked - a fashion accessory?
As a child I was scared that I was going to have to wear braces. Ridiculous!
Later I made a silly comment on twitter and imagine my shock when I read the Bangkok Post - someone had died from having them fitted!
On Saturday there was another article published about Beauty Shops and Clinics and markets undertaking cosmetic operations!
This is Thailand - but is this the rest of the world?
Cheers - a drink with a dog?
Not quite what you think - well it is exactly what you think.
At Cape Panwa Russell has picked a spot where his guests can watch
the sun go down and hide from the rain.
Say hello - sunsetbarphuket@yahoo.com
Bright red turtles - can you eat them?
During this period their ancestor’s spirits revisit their homes - Por Tong (the God of the Devils) opens the gates to the spirit world for this. They believe that these spirits will stay on the earth for one month and we give gifts and offerings for their stay.
A prominent feature of this celebration was the number of red turtle shaped cakes – Ang Koo.
The tiny shrine was hidden down a back street - we had to ask the driver Mardchahood to come to find it for us – it was amazing. We were welcomed like old friends into the shrine and we met two lovely Thai / Chinese people who told us what to do.
We took the turtle into the shrine and purchased 18 joss sticks and 4 candles all carefully wrapped together with paper.
We lit 2 candles at the front of the shrine from a perpetual flame.
We lit the joss sticks and placed 3 of them at the front of the shrine.
We paid our respects to the Buddah before entering, on our knees and bowing 3 times.
We lit the joss sticks, placed 3 of them at the front and entered the shrine.
We were led to a very small corridor behind the shrine where we were in a tiny corridor with tiny ornate Chinese figures – similar to those at the Chinese Temple that I had previously visited with the guest. In here there were 5 places to put 3 joss sticks in. We moved carefully through here and back to the front.
We were then led to a small ceremonial stove outside where we undid the roll of papers The papers were held together with a smaller bit of tissue paper and I can find no information as to why it is like this. Watch this space.
We lit the tissue paper from a perpetual flame and threw it into the oven.
One by one we then lit the pieces of paper from the flame in the oven – this was to create a flame to tell the spirits that we have honored them!
We were then told to stay because there was some Thai Dancing in a few minutes – we waited 2 minutes and the there was some Thai dancing – this was a truly amazing and wonderful experience for us all.
Don't try this at home
I try to tell everybody to be careful on motorbikes, you can be fined for not wearing a helmet - only the driver.
I tell everybody that it might not be a good idea to rent a car - on 3 roads in Patong you drive on the right?!!
What do I do?
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