The Hunt for a dry October

October has arrived. I have been having a little holiday over the last 10 days, mostly in Phuket, but we managed a 2 night trip to Khao Sok national park, staying at the Cliff and River Jungle Resort where we have stayed before and plan to stay again.

Weather... yep, guess I should update more often, but the last week with my parents here and kids on school holidays, I have preferred to actually live life than blog it! Hardly even looked at Facebook, and I have not even Tweeted since September 25th! But anyway .. if you want to know the latest weather, you can try the Karon Beach webcam, or the quite reliable Windguru weather forecast, or any of the useful links on the left side of the page.

My summary of the last week: Not Bad. A very English expression. We seem unable to say "Good". If someone asks "How was your trip?", the answer is "Not Bad". Or if asked "How are you today?", the English will answer "Not Bad". Hey, September and October should be the wettest months of the year, so anything better than "Wet and Horrible" is good for me!

I have been busy the last week with family. Mum and Dad were already here, and then cousin Simon arrived on Friday 25th. I guess I last saw cousin Simon in about 1998. We made sure he saw as much as possible in the 4 days he was here, and then on Wednesday 29th we dropped him at the airport and the rest of us drove to Khao Sok. No rest for the wicked! I will add some photos below soon showing the last week. Plenty of sun, I got a nice tan in the pool on Thursday :) Rain? Yes, lots of that in Khao Sok, although for the 3 days from 29th September - 1st October, my home rain gauge showed only 22mm.

A quick photo diary of the last week in and around Phuket ...

24th September, evening, walk around Kathu village. These guys were all sat in the shine, maybe discussing the vegetarian festival that starts on the 7th October ...



25th September, we visited the Big Buddha. Not been up for a while. It's getting more commercialised, but no entry fees (yet) and the views are as good as ever.



27th September, we headed up to Phang Nga Bay. Lunch at Samchong Seafood, then we hired a longtail boat to get to Koh Panyee and James Bond Island (Khao Ping Kan). We did a very similar trip in March but this time we planned to get to James Bond Island late afternoon. Trick worked. We got there around 4:30pm. We were the only visitors. Yeh, weather was a bit grey, but we avoided any rain despite the clouds and occasional thunder :)



• Phang Nga Bay Tour on Jamie's Phuket Blog

Tuesday 28th, a great tour in Old Phuket Town with 2 Phuket natives, Pu and Gan who have formed a company called Phuket Heritage Trails. Anyone wanting to know about the real Phuket... I suggest contacting them. I have written about the walk on my Phuket blog : Tour of Phuket Town. Weather on 28th - cloudy, a bit of sun, hot day actually ... especially when walking several miles around town.



And then we headed to Khao Sok for 2 nights at the Cliff and River Jungle Resort. The Khao Sok national park is east of Takua Pa, which is about 130km north of Phuket, and as mentioned before, has way more rain. Average in Phuket is 2500mm per year. In Takua Pa, you get 3500mm per year. Rain in Khao Sok is pure tropical. We arrived on Wednesday and it was still a bit sunny, slightly cloudy. Rained in the late afternoon. Thursday - started all misty and cloudy, cleared up for a few hours of amazing sun, pool time and sunburn. Then pissed down all afternoon!



(above) I could see this tree on the mountain from our balcony



(above) Bungalow at the resort, my daughter and friend on the balcony



(above) RAIN! A very rainy afternoon on September 30th, as you'd expect in the rainforest!

Oh, and finally: Some good news... The Beach Bar is open for high season! Our favourite place. Weather not perfect. We went this evening, rained on the way and the west wind was noticeable, but we stayed dry. Will go again tomorrow or the next day if weather looks better.

Welcome to October :)