Rain, Sun and the Vegetarian Festival!

The weather always seems to change just when I update this weather blog! Last week I said "The weather this week has been mostly very good. Hardly any rain except for some afternoon showers here and there. Hoping this weather continues!" - that was on September 25th (Sunday). The Phuket Vegetarian Festival started on Monday 26th. The weather did not continue! Just as I started my holidays on the 26th, the rain came again. Well, started on the 25th in the night, more than 50mm of rain, then showers on the 26th. So, what to do on a rainy day? We visited the Phuket Tin Mining Museum, which is very good. The photo below was taken from the car on the way home...



And then in the afternoon was the opening ceremony of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. We went to Kathu shrine, our local - Kathu is between Patong Beach and Phuket Town. The weather? Well not perfect, it did rain, but we sheltered in the shrine and I took lots of photos.

Weather on 26th:



In the shrine:



More about the opening day of the festival on the Phuket Blog: Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2011, Part 1.

27th was wet and the 28th was also rather wet - and we visited yet another museum! The Thai Hua School Museum which has been expanded since my last visit and is well worth a look.



(above) at Thai Hua School Museum - my Mum is teaching my kids :)

And then on the 28th in the evening - a walk in Phuket Town along the market street to Jui Tui shrine. Lots of people, no rain, streets packed with vegetarian food stalls. Took lots of photos that should become a blog page ...



29th - weather getting better and a nice afternoon out walking across the new bridge between Phuket and Phang Nga, with lunch at Thanoon Seafood, which is a restaurant just over the bridge on the Phang Nga side. Here's me and my Dad on the bridge:



(above) Nice weather on the 29th September!

In the evening we were in Kathu village for a street procession from the shrine around the village to pay respects to the birth and death gods.



(above) in Kathu village 29th September. More photos here.

Early morning on the last morning of the month of September... I was at Sam Kong shrine in the north of Phuket Town not long after 6am for some vegetarian festival fun! If you can call this fun!



Sorry, should have warned you! Will make a blog page with lots of festival photos on Jamie's Phuket later. Weather was good and has been good the first couple of days of October too. And this morning (2nd October) was a good one! Hot and sunny - maybe too hot! I was in Phuket Town for a street procession, part of the Phuket vegetarian festival. The processions were on every day 28th September and end 5th October. Today's procession was around town from Bang Neow shrine. Hot morning.



But some rain has come again this evening and the forecast is not good for the next 2 days. We had planned a trip to Khao Sok tomorrow but will delay a couple of days. See what the weather decides to do.... hard to tell at this time of year - it helps to be a bit flexible! Let's see what happens! Anyway, rain or shine, we'll be happy!