Looks like we had a false start to the low season. I think this happens every year. Around 5 days of wind and rain, then it all calms down again. The real low season will be here soon enough, but for now it's hot sunny weather in Phuket again.

Friday (24th) we did have some rain. I ventured out early to take photos of the Shrine of the Serene Light in Phuket old town.. but the serene light was missing, replaced by light rain. It only rained for half an hour, the rest of Friday was dry. The weekend was also warm and sunny, great weather for being here, I can't say it often enough - it's ALWAYS a good time to be here! But... as for tourist numbers, the high season is over. Very quiet in Karon Beach, and last weeks rainy weather may well have put off some last minute holidays. Well come now, it's sunny!

Today I should have driven up to Chumphon, but needed a day of rest. Hope my wife understands! I'll be driving up tomorrow for a few days on the east coast of Thailand. My wife says the last week has been great weather there. From home, I checked the webcam at Karon Beach - sea looked calm today and it has been a hot day, a scorcher indeed.

Next report from Chumphon! In the meantime, a couple of photos taken at home today...

Well, looks like the SouthWest Monsoon is kicking in a week or two early this year. Over the last few days we have had some quite strong westerly breezes, enough to stop speedboats heading out to the Similan Islands from Khao Lak, enough yesterday even to stop a few bigger liveaboard dive boats. I am checking the wind forecasts on Windguru several times per day. At the moment looks like winds and waves will decrease into next week. The BuoyWeather forecast agrees. So hopefully all the dive trips will run as normal after today. But for sure, the winds have well and truly changed.

No rain? Well, yesterday had some dark skies and patchy showers. Today has been very hot and sunny, but cooled by the sea breeze. One has to remember than the word "Monsoon" refers more to wind than rain. Here in Phuket we have 2 monsoons - the Southwest from May - October and the Northeast from November - April (approximately) - more details here: Phuket Weather Overview.

I took a walk on Karon Beach before lunch today. Hot weather, mostly blue skies, but big waves. The people in the photo below are not being too sensible. There can be rip currents on Karon Beach when you have waves like this. Every year there are a few tourists who drown around Phuket's beaches in the low season - splashing around in the waves can be fun, but take care.. or stick to the hotel pool!

This week has been a Songkran hangover. After a fun day on Monday, everyone faces up to a few realities. With Songkran and Easter both done and dusted (Easter Monday was the same day as Songkran), the tourist high season is just about over. The restaurant next to our dive shop packed everything up today. Most package tours stop on about April 15th, and we've only a few more weeks of the main dive season left. We do open year round, but the Similan Islands are more or less off limits from mid May until mid October.

Yep, Songkran was great - my photos of Monday's Water festival are here: Songkran in Patong April 13th 2009. It was a hot, hot day, although in the morning we thought it might be a wet Songkran.. well it was, but .. you know what I mean. My son dashed out to retrieve a toy from the garden...



Day after Songkran... kids tired out from all the fun... another HOT day.. I went to work, my wife reported that little boy woke up at midday! Oh to be 4 again!

Wednesday - a nice wet morning followed by "the heat". I drove to work in the rain...



And arrived in the rain. Scuba Diving? Damn, I needed dive gear to cross the road that morning! Of course, it was all sunny later on.



The last 2 days have been very hot. I should buy a thermometer for the garden so I can tell you how hot. Anyway, really hot. Yesterday was a sweaty day, starting with my morning run and ending with a nice little BBQ for my wifes birthday. A cold beer goes down very well after a hot day in Phuket.

And must take a nice sunny photo tomorrow! Weather is pretty darn good here right now, just those brief rains in the heat of the day. BUT... is the season changing? Windguru seems to be predicting quite strong west winds next week, which is a sure sign of change... Stay tuned.

And now, as it's April and a little rain is falling... I thought of a suitable song:

It's been a fun weekend in Phuket, with the Phuket Bike Week taking place from 10th - 12th April (see more here: Phuket Bike Week) and of course it's Songkran - the traditional Thai New Year. The official holiday dates are 12th - 15th April. The 13th (Monday) is the big day in Phuket, the day for fun and water throwing, a party on every street. The weather has almost behaved. Rain in the night on the 10th.. I reckon more than a few people got very wet at the free Carabao concert in Patong beach that night.

On Saturday I went down to Patong beach with my daughter to see what was going on for Bike Week. It was a hot sunny afternoon, very hot toasty weather.



The last couple of days have also been hot. For a while it looked to me like Songkran on 13th April might be a wash out - heavy rain for about 20 minutes in the morning.. but the sun broke through, the rain went away and we drove over to Patong beach in our pick up truck for a couple of fun hours throwing water - lots of photos on Jamie's Phuket - Songkran 2009 - Patong Beach Phuket.



You'll notice no mention of what has been going on in Bangkok - if you want to know a LOT more about it - click on Bangkok Pundit - anyway, seems to be all over now. My view in a few words - give Abhisit a chance. There will be an election soon enough. But this time, everyone has to accept the result.

Now, I am not a professional meteorologist, not a weather nerd who records daily highs, rainfall and wind speed, but you have to agree that the sky is brilliant. The sky is always changing. Clouds are wonderful - I see a rabbit, I see a dragon, I see a train. I see the rain coming.

Seems like every day this week in Phuket has had the same weather. Clear mornings, clouds building and a brief thunderstorm or shower in the afternoon. Nothing new there. This is tropical living, this is tropical weather - look at all the trees, all the green - that's because we do get some rain here! Anyway, thankfully it has been a busy week in dive land, the days have flown by, divers have been happy divers, and tomorrow is Saturday already, my precious day off!

As I write, the rain is falling (10:30pm) - no rain all day until now.

Yesterdays sky... I had a little idea to "blog" the sky. Might try this again...


Sky at 10am...


Sky at 11am...


Sky at half past eleven...


Sky at about 2:30pm...

Yesterday the rain continued longer than normal. All afternoon, really. Today made up for it. No rain all day until the night time. Bad news if you are down at Patong Beach where Carabao are doing a concert for Phuket Bike Week. I fancy a look at the entertainment tomorrow when Job 2 Do are playing - a Thai reggae band. So I pray for a dry night! Today I headed to the JungCeylon mall in Patong for a look at some bikes... Will (maybe) blog something about bike week soon.

Looking forward to Saturday. Rain all you want tonight, I want a nice Saturday!

Despite all those silly forecasts telling you to expect rain and thunder and lightning.... it's hot and sunny here in Phuket. Very hot and sunny. So, yah boo to the BBC weather which says Sunday is "Heavy Rain Shower" and goes on to predict the same for the next few days too. Indeed, if I may be permitted another "weather forecasts for Phuket are all wrong" rant... Search Google for "Phuket Weather" and above the results (this blog No.3 at the moment), you get a "forecast":



So, Google predicts rain and storms for the next few days. Including today.

Today is HOT AND SUNNY. Do I have to say it again? Sure, there MIGHT be an isolated thunderstorm somewhere sometime, but all I have seen today is sun. Same yesterday, very very hot. This is the hot season in Phuket. It's hot, do you hear me, were you born on the sun? :)

Yesterday, after lunch at the Kaewjai restaurant in Phuket Town, we visited the crocodile farm, aka "Crocodile and Tiger World". I am not sure many people know about it. We were the only visitors. It will be blogged soon! Walking around in the heat was energy sapping. But damn, if there ain't a lot of crocs. We were there at feeding time. They also have some tigers (they were all sleeping), gibbons and a few other things like emu and ostrich.

Here are some crocs in the sun...





Ha ha.. as I was writing this blog about how hot and sunny it is.... guess what, it started raining. Looks like one of those isolated thunderstorms. Probably stop in 20 minutes. Have a nice day wherever you are!

Today is hot, there is no other word for it. I had a bizarre back and forth email communication with someone recently who found the heat at this time of year to be so miserable that it ruined his holiday, with 7-11 with their arctic aircon the only refuge. Today would be one of those days. I mean, it's hot here year round, but right now there's hardly any wind and during the middle of the day, and I will say it again, it's HOT here in Phuket. From midday to 3pm a siesta is advised!

There is rain too, with isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. I will emphasize the "isolated" aspect of the rain - on Monday (30th March), I had a Skype chat with my wife as follows.. She was at home near Phuket Town, I was at Karon Beach.

[3/30/2009 6:08:06 PM] Jamie Monk says: hard rain here
[3/30/2009 6:08:18 PM] Sunrise Divers says: oh dear!
[3/30/2009 6:08:19 PM] Jamie Monk says: no not really hard but very windy.
[3/30/2009 6:08:37 PM] Jamie Monk says: blow everything away.
[3/30/2009 6:08:46 PM] Sunrise Divers says: here its sunny, no wind
[3/30/2009 6:12:19 PM] Jamie Monk says: now very very hard rain and very very windy

As the crow flies, it's 10km from my house to Karon Beach, but the weather was totally different.

The last couple of nights have been the same - some localised hard rain, then clear skies and sunny mornings. As I write, our sunny day in Karon Beach looks like it's over... will rain again soon.

Best thing is to get up early. Yesterday I was out of the house by 7:30 and walking on Kamala Beach before 8am. I don't go to Kamala that often, but yesterday enjoyed the walk. The beach is about a mile long and it's so much quieter than the other "main beaches". More about the beach on my Phuket blog : Kamala Beach.

A couple of sunny morning photos from Kamala Beach: