Sun, Thunder, Number 8 and the family

It's family time here in the Monk household. On Friday, my dear parents arrived from the UK. Friday had been a dry day in Phuket with some sunshine, but as evening approached dark clouds gathered and as we drove to the airport at about 6pm, there was suddenly heavy rain, black clouds almost touching the ground and I was worried their flight would be delayed or worse (remember what happened on 16th September 2007). But as we approached the airport I could see brighter skies to the west and the rain had stopped by the time they landed.

Phuket gave my folks a big welcome with a big ol' thunderstorm on Friday night over our house, but Saturday was a sunny day. I was busy at work ferrying students back and forth to the training pool. We had Rescue Diver and Open Water Diver courses going on. They will all be diving at Racha Yai island today, lucky people.

After work yesterday I drove up Buddha Mountain to meet the family for a sunset dinner at the little Nakkerd Seaview restaurant. No fancy food here... just simple tasty Thai dishes - we've been here a lot, but their prices are creeping up now as more tourists are visiting the Buddha.

Number 8

The number 8 is considered the luckiest of numbers in Chinese astrology - the Beijing Olympics started at 8pm on the 8th day of the 8th month in 2008. So is there some luck coming my way? I drove right up to the Buddha statue yesterday evening before meeting everyone at the restaurant which is half a km down the hill. At the top of the hill, as I parked the car, the odometer hit exactly 8000km.

Some views at the Big Buddha - views from here are great. The 45m high Buddha statue itself is almost ready, but the base and surrounding area are not complete, lots of work to do. We have been coming up this hill for years. First time we came up here work had not even started, must have been about 7 years ago. It could easily take another couple of years to 100% finish the project.



(above) The Big Buddha statue - the statue faces east - if you want a nice photo with the sun in the Buddha's face, you need to be there in the morning. I have blogged the building of the Buddha several times, but it's come a long way in the lst year, so needs blogging again :)