March in Phuket

Welcome to March! Yeh, I'm 9 days late. Life has seemed rather hectic lately. Busy at work, busy at home, suffering a mini mid-life crisis as I passed my 43rd birthday on March 4th. Kids had their end of year school tests just over a week ago and are now on holiday for 2 months. I am jealous! Coming up to the end of the school year we spent weekends at home, kids had music lessons, swimming lessons, and we did not venture out much at all. I lost some blogging impetus in the last few weeks. Sometimes life is a bit of a blur, I guess we all get that sometimes, right? So, for followers of the Phuket weather blog, sorry for not updating since February 21st! I think that's probably the longest time between updates since the blog started in 2006. Won't happen again, but if it does... there are ways to check the weather any time ... check the webcams :

1. Karon Beach webcam
2. Surin Beach webcam

Also, please do follow me on Twitter (@JamieMonk) - even if not blogging, I find time to Tweet almost every day and normally mention the weather.

The last 9 days of February were HOT and almost dry - just 8mm rain recorded in 9 days. February overall was actually wet compared to normal, with 86mm total, although 82mm of that fell in just 3 days, so you get an idea that the month was still almost all dry. It's the driest month, so any heavy rain is a bit of a surprise, or a bonus if you are a tree :)

Did manage a trip to the beach one evening in February, on Saturday 25th .... It was a very very pleasant evening ...



The shadows were long, the beer cold and the company (my wife and kids) the best.



The moon was smiling too. Plus, the planet Venus was visible not far from the moon. Jupiter was also in the sky (higher and out of shot)...



Now it's March. The months of March and April are the "hot season" in Thailand, which is why most schools have holidays at this time (not International schools, they stick to Euro or American holidays). It certainly can feel hot! With all the heat, there's a fair chance of afternoon or evening rain accompanied by thunder. Normally the days are sunny, it's a very good time to be in Phuket. March has started rather wet actually, we've had some bursts of rain most days, and a couple of days ago (8th March) is was wet / grey pretty much all day. Yesterday started grey, got nicer. Today is sunny. Hurrah!

Last weekend, with the kids school finished, we took an exploratory drive, off Phuket, over the bridge into Phang Nga province. There's lots to see in that area, many things I have blogged before like Phang Nga Bay and Suwan Kuha Temple. This time, we headed to Phang Nga town, some things from this trip will be blogged soon. We liked the Sa Nang Manora forest park (see waterfall below) and lunch was had at Tha Sai Seafood, with a great river view...





Right, it's a sunny Saturday, midday and lunchtime. I'm off to Phuket Town for a wander about in the sun. Cheers!