It's a long hot season ...

Anyone wanting up to the moment Phuket weather updates - sorry for no posts for a while - have been on holiday, away from Phuket for 8 days, and just started the new school year - kids started yesterday, so we begin the 6am alarms again. I've been away from the dive shop since 29th April, will be back in the shop at Sunrise Divers Thailand Liveaboards starting Thursday.

If this blog is not updated for a while, no problem - check the links on the left side - webcams, satellite images, wind forecasts, sunset times, radar image.. but don't ask me what the weather will be like next week. The weather does what it wants. Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot. We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not! Actually not much chance of cold weather here in Phuket unless there is a dramatic climate shift. The current buzzword is

HOT

It's May 11th. The seasons start to change, west winds start to blow.. normally sometime from end of April to mid May. Can be later. I think I felt some westerly breezes yesterday - pretty sure, as the windows on our living room face west, so we get a nice bit of natural wind during the low season. Which is good, coz without it, on these endless hot days, the living room gets very warm. Every year in April I start to consider aircon in the whole house. Damn the cost! I want to be comfortable! But then, just as I decide to spend the cash, the west winds start, things cool down. Right now, it's still hot, I have 2 fans on, all windows and doors open, and the cat is sitting just inside the door enjoying the cool tiled floor.

A quick review of the last 10 days or so... it's been hot. Everywhere. We drove from Phuket to Khao Sok national park on the 29th and stayed a night in the Cliff and River resort. Nice. We will go there again. I will write more on "Jamie's Phuket" later. For now, a couple of photos:







We then spent about 5 days around Chumphon, which is where my wife's family lives. Having been there many times, it's like a second home. We made an effort on this holiday to do some family activities - and there was a lot of family around! We did a rafting trip on the river at a place called Phato, around 100km south of Chumphon. Another hot, hot day, but we could cool off by jumping off the rafts into the river.





Chumphon has a much slower pace of life than Phuket. If not for the kids school we might go and live there. We spent a few evenings at the beach, eating at beachside restaurants at Thung Wua Laen beach and Sairee beach - Chumphon town is not right by the sea - these 2 beaches are each around 20km from town. At Thung Wua Laen, not a huge amount has changed since I first went there in 2001. A couple more restaurants, a few guesthouses. Enjoyed playing pool at a little bar (Funkys Beach Bar) run by Pak and Pippa, a Thai/English couple. Very relaxing.

The inlaws house is a few km out of town in a new(ish) housing estate. Dad was smart and got a house on the edge of the estate, next to the canal and with a decent size garden too. The family all likes to do a bit of fishing. Our son joined in...



Another day, it was just too hot, so we piled into 2 cars, drove to a nearby river and cooled off. This is the time of year when finding a cooling swim is great! You can have several showers per day, but somehow, even a cold shower is not refreshing enough right now, the cold water is not cold enough!





Been back in Phuket since Friday. Did I mention that it's hot. Almost windless the last few days, though the wind forecasts are showing west winds, albeit very light winds. Still very little rain, a couple of light showers is all I've seen the last 4 days. The seasons don't tend to change with a bang, but you can expect a bit more wind and rain later in May. In low season, there is more weather to report, plus I tend to have a bit more time, so the blog is updated more often.