The Phuket Weather Blog

The post Christmas Weather in Phuket

You'll never guess. Go on, have a guess. Sunny and warm? Yes. Every day is a Christmas cracker, though we had a brief sudden and heavy downpour last night just as I was on the bike going over the mountain from Patong to Kathu. You have to be careful on that hill when it's wet. The water runs like a river across the tarmac and there are always a few cars that manage to stop on the steepest sections and find it too steep to get going again with wheels spinning on the wet road.

Christmas in Thailand is an odd affair. Some foreigners here try to do it very traditionally. We keep it low key but with lots of presents for the kids and I am not bothered about English Christmas dinner. Mind you, we went to a neighbour's for dinner last night and had turkey, roast potatoes, Christmas cake etc.. OK, so it tastes good!

New Year is more my scene. Just a few more days left of 2006.

I joined Flickr yesterday - the photo web site. I just added a few so far, which you can see here:

• www.flickr.com/photos/jamiemonk

As for the cricket...England were thumped again in the 4th test. Today should be the 4th day of the test, but it was all over in 3. Verdict? not really good enough. But, on a happy note, Monty has won "Beard of the Year".

• BBC Report - Monty is Beard of the Year 2006


Phuket Weather

The post Christmas Weather in Phuket

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Christmas Day in Phuket - Hot, Blue Skies.

I hope one day my kids can see some snow and have snowball fights...but not this year! Weather doesn't get any better than this. The sky has been clear and blue all day. Barely a wisp of cloud in sight, a lovely breeze blowing and it's Christmas! I am (personally) a bit of a humbug, but we have had lots of presents for the kids, and after taking a brunch at Leelawadee, we drove up Radar Hill, where we could really catch the wind, and the view over Patong Bay was great (see below) - it makes Patong look small and neat and indeed rather insignificant. We love the hills, and as usual we saw nobody else up there. Get up some hills when you are in Phuket!

View over Patong from Radar Hill, 25th December 2006


Phuket Weather

Christmas Day in Phuket - Hot, Blue Skies.

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Christmas Eve in Phuket

No snow, no cold, no sleighbells. Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Personally, for us it will be a great day. We have 2 kids and we have now finished wrapping presents for them. I look forward to seeing their faces in the morning. Our Christmas tree is about 10 inches high and sits on the dining table. I think next year we will upgrade to the 2 foot tree.

Weather today - warm, sunny, a bit hazy, winds less than during the week.

Here's a photo from Kata Beach, Phuket taken this evening...

Kata Beach Sunset 24th December 2006

I think we will go to the beach tomorrow. 2 years ago we were on Kamala Beach on Christmas day. My wife was 9 months pregnant. My daughter was playing with friends on the beach. At this time of year I give thanks that we were not on the beach on Boxing Day and give thanks that what happened did not happen on Christmas Day.

On Tuesday we may well go to Patong for the memorial service to remember what happened 2 years ago.

Merry Christmas.


Phuket Weather

Christmas Eve in Phuket

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


December in Phuket

Weather is still breezy and cool. Local shopowner was commenting to me last night about the cold ("Yen" in Thai). I find it funny. Cold is not something you associate with Phuket, but if the temperature drops to under 25°C it's chilly! People wearing jackets, wrapped up warm....well, it is (nearly) Christmas after all. We're out for a meal at Danang Seafood tonight, and then I have 2 full days of rest :)


Phuket Weather

December in Phuket

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Winds easing, weather warm.

The locals seem to think 24 degrees is cold. Most people are wearing jackets on their bikes in the mornings. Weather like this is great. Fresh mornings (if you can be arsed to get up and enjoy them), hot days cooled by the northeast winds and natural cooling around the house in the evening.

Wind blown palm and hills near Patong, 22nd December 2006


Phuket Weather

Winds easing, weather warm.

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Windy and Fresh

Lovely morning here in Phuket. Cool and fresh (if you can consider 25 degrees cool) with a fair old breeze blowing. The NE Monsoon has well and truly set in now. This time of year is a bit cooler and drier, and less humid too. Mind you, I went into the centre of Patong yesterday and it was hot and oppressive. Probably because its a bit of a concrete jungle, and you get the "Urban Heat Effect", plus the breeze is cut out by the buildings. Once you get out of the built up areas, it's cooler.

The NE Monsoon has a greater effect in the Gulf of Thailand. According to todays Bangkok Post, there are 4 meter waves and ferry services to Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngan have been cancelled. Also, there is a cold weather front moving down from China - temperature on top of Doi Inthanon (Chiang Mai) was minus 3°C!

Not going to be that cold in Phuket!

You can keep an eye on the weather in Phuket on the www - try the links on the right side of this page .. >>>>


Phuket Weather

Windy and Fresh

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Windy Days

We are now certainly into the Northwest Monsoon season. Over the last few days, the wind has been quite strong, and the temperature is a few degrees cooler (maximum only around 28-29 degrees C), just as you would expect in the bleak mid winter! I like this weather, with the heat reduced, humidity reduced and a bit of wind circulating round the house.

The wind does make for choppy seas, not great if you're out on a small boat and not used to it. Better buy some seasickness tablets... Dive boats have reported great diving with lots of big fish around. It's an El Niño year and the water is cooler, which is great for pelagic fish. But if you're going scuba diving soon, be ready for some waves. On rare occasions, speedboats cannot go out, especially to more distant sites like the Similan Islands. No problem for liveaboard boats.

There are a couple of good web sites for wind and wave predictions - have a look at:

• Wind Guru (link to Phuket page)
• Buoyweather (covers all of Thailand)

Christmas is a coming, the goose is getting fat. Do you hate sprouts? I do.

• Play the Sprouts game!


Phuket Weather

Windy Days

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Monday Monday

Lets' deal with the weather first - HOT and sunny. I wish I was at home relaxing in the garden sipping a cold coke. It's a lovely day here in Phuket, but there is one change that I noticed yesterday too. The east winds have finally started to blow, which cools things off a bit and makes for a few bumpy rides out at sea. It's been mostly calm the last 2 months, but now we are truly in the Northeast Monsoon season. Probably rather rough in the Gulf of Thailand.

OK, now the sports news...Anyone like Cricket? Not me, silly game.

Anyone feeling depressed by the surrender of the Ashes can cheer up by watching these recent toons on Weebl's Stuff:

• Hams  -  Email  -  Pastry

These are the people who thought up BadgerBadgerBadger.com... You do have to marvel at what goes on in some people's heads!


Phuket Weather

Monday Monday

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Sunday 17th December

A bit of everything today. I got my lie in (although the wife's mobile phone alarm went off at 6am so I had to wake up and smash the phone with a hammer) and woke to sunny skies. But by late morning, there were dark clouds all around. We took the kids for a tasty meal in the Tesco food court :) and then did the Sunday shopping, which we prefer to do on Saturday night so as not to waste Sunday, but last night had a kids Christmas party.

Anyway, the dark clouds did not really rain on us and late afternoon we took a drive to Koh Sirey (east of Phuket Town), as I wanted to see the temple there.

Weather was good...

Koh Sirey Temple and Blue Sky 17th December 2006

• More Photos of Koh Sirey Temple on Jamie's Phuket


Phuket Weather

Sunday 17th December

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


16th December Phuket Weather

A very unexciting day. Warm, a bit hazy, some blue sky, some cloud, a little rain. See the photo below looking over Patong. You can see the Patong Resort, the Paradise Hotel and the Andaman Beach Suites, which are the tallest buildings in Patong. Picture was taken from an appartment on Phisit Karani Road near Patong temple.

View over Patong, 16th December 2006

Was certainly warm enough. I took a ride to Karon Beach at lunchtime to visit Steve, owner of the Pineapple Guesthouse (and indeed the new Pineapple 2 Guesthouse). This will be featured shortly in my Phuket Hotel Recommendations. A good low budget place to stay in Phuket.

Here's hoping for a sunny Sunday. Boy do I need a lie in!

Now, what about the cricket? (Hides head in hands and pretends to be Danish or something...Crikket? No, we don't play in Denmark). Today, Adam Gilchrist scored the second fastest Test century in history. Are England crap, or what? And in reply, Strauss already out for a duck...When is the next Ashes series? Not until 2009...

• BBC Cricket Homepage


Phuket Weather

16th December Phuket Weather

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


It's not all weather, you know....

I do like to prattle on sometimes in this blog. Yes, it's sunny and hot in Phuket, but the cricket is on. The Ashes between England and Australia. Two matches down, two wins to the Aussies. The first was easy. The second should have been a draw, but somehow England managed a final day collapse. People have wondered if the right team was selected. Monty Panesar was not in the team, plus you had Harmy not bowling well at all, Freddy not at his best etc...

We only just noticed that it was on. I though it started tomorrow! And Monty has taken 3 wickets already! Not only that, but Harmy seems to have found his form. OK, let's fanatsise that England can come back and win the series from 2-0 down...

We need more of this:

Monty can fly. It's official. He is Superman.
Harmison after getting Ponting lbw for 2


Phuket Weather

It's not all weather, you know....

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Phuket in mid December

As expected, weather is hot. This is guaranteed. Also guaranteed, unless the El Niño effect is really screwed up, is that you will have no snow on your Christmas holiday in Phuket. Right now, the mornings are quite fresh - it's always worth getting up early once in a while, the day is HOT (I have just driven my bike to Phuket Town and feel like a porky scratching), you may get a thunderstorm or brief downpour in the afternoon or early evening and at night, unless you enjoy sweat, air conditioning is most welcome.

Tomorrow we are officially in "peak season", the mad rush from mid-December to mid-January. Fortunately, I am no longer working in central Patong, so manage to escape the madness! Just have the normal traffic to deal with - in the last 5 years it seems half the population of Phuket has bought a new car. Every other car is a Toyota Fortuner, or a big "Get the **** out of my way" Pick up truck, along with little trendy cars like the Jazz and the Yaris. Just about all the main roads have been made 4 lane since I have lived here, which certainly eases the problem, and there are only a couple of well known bottle necks. One of them is Patong! Next year, the main roads in Patong will be made one way as a test. Beach road only North and Main central road only South. We'll see what happens!


Phuket Weather

Phuket in mid December

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Back home

Sorry for the lack of updates. I was away in Malaysia, diving at Sipadan Island and staying at the Borneo Divers Mabul Resort, where I assure you the weather was hot!

Weather was hot in Mabul

While I was away, the weather in Phuket has been calm, mostly dry with a few showers, and pretty darn hot. The last couple of days have been hot and hazy, and we had a bit of thunder and rain last night. It's great diving weather, with flat seas making for easy sailing, though apparently the relative lack of wind was not good for the Phuket Kings Cup event last week.

It's good to be back in Phuket, though another week in Mabul would have been nice!

Meanwhile, on the 7th December, a tornado hit London! (see BBC News)


Phuket Weather

Back home

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog


Oh no. It's nearly Christmas.

My last Christmas in the UK was 1997. I associate Christmas with cold weather, with the BBC and with Traditional English Christmas food. It's not the same when you live in a tropical country. Temperature: 33 degrees Celsius....nah, it can't be Christmas. Also, this is Thailand. You see Christmas in the big shops and touristy places, but you don't see christmas lights in the windows, you don't feel the cold air, a frost in the morning, the jingle of sleigh bells...

The last couple of years we have made an effort for our daughter, now 5 years old. So we have put up a little tree, decorated it, wrapped presents etc..

Well, the weather in Phuket today was hot, as it was yesterday and the day before. It is high season, so one can expect warmth, sun, and the occasional thunderstorm, like the one that soaked me a few days ago.

This weather will probably continue for the next week. There will be no updates here before Sunday 10th, as I am going to Malaysia for some diving in Sipadan.

I wish everyone a happy week. Do your Christmas shopping now, do not leave it until the last minute!


Phuket Weather

Oh no. It's nearly Christmas.

More About Phuket : Jamie's Phuket Blog