Phuket – festivals galore!
Luring thousands of visitors every year, the Phuket Island in Thailand boasts a tropical monsoon climate. With irresistible scenic beauty, unforgettable hospitality and excellent cuisine it makes a lovely holiday destination. Its monsoon climate ensures warm weather throughout the year with ample showers.
The best time to visit Phuket, and its busiest time, would be from late October until early April. The weather during this time is quite mild – it’s less humid with a cool breeze due to the north-east monsoon, and the beach conditions are ideal for diving and sailing. Average temperature during this time is 24 to 32 degrees Celsius.
During September and October Phuket experiences the wettest season but its also a great time to visit in order to avoid the crowds and also to get good discounted rates for lodging, as there is plenty of beautiful sunny periods between the heavy rains – typical monsoon!
Phuket features exotic festivals and events spread out through the year. Most are rather bizarre but certainly full of fun and entertainment. Some of the events lined up for the year 2010 are:
Chinese New Year, February 14th 2010 – Vibrant celebrations and ear splitting firecrackers are in store to cheer the Year of the Dog in. Visitors can experience local customs, colourful processions and great shopping bargains as the Chinese community in Phuket prepares for their most important festival of the year. Old Sino, the Portuguese quarter of Phuket also lights up with lively Dragon Procession and other forms of entertainment. Being very popular for its cuisine, this season highlights the popular traditional fare.
April 13th – 15th, 2010 – enjoy the Songkran Festival when the Thailand celebrates its traditional Thai New Year. Very much an outdoor festival, it features plenty of boisterous water throwing. The age-old tradition of sprinkling water on the hand to wish good luck has, in the recent years, been transformed to an exciting festival involving a lot of water throwing, by bucketfuls, at each other
Enjoy the colouful Phuket Vegetarian Festival during late September and early October. Usually held over a period of nine days this celebrates the Chinese community’s belief of abstaining from meat, during the ninth lunar month, for better health and peace of mind. The festival involves a range of street entertainment, parades and lots of sacred rituals. Chinese shrines and temples feature aesthetic displays of self-mortification rituals performed by devotees.
The night of November 21st boasts one of the most beautiful and mystical festivals, the Loy Kratong Festival. Believed to have originated in Sukhothai about 800 years ago, the festival involves thousands of lights floating on every expanse of water. A festival adored by children, it is believed to bring good fortune for those who partake in it.
Of course there is much more happening in Phuket every year, throughout the year, be it festivals or seasonal events and they suit all visitors of all ages. And even if it’s a short stay where there is no ‘festival’ as such, there is always the exotic beauty of Phuket Island and delectable Thai cuisine to indulge in.
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