Hercules Beetle Fighting Festival (21-27 Sept)

Photo from Richard Barrow

When I first saw this I was reminded of being in the school playground with the other children - no gambling took place (that I knew of).


This is a festival where the male beetles fight for the privilege of the female beetle.


The festival was reintroduced to increase the numbers of this bug which was dying out - Chaingrai United (Thai Premier League) even adopted the bug as their emblem!

Phuket Honda Car Racing Fest

This was a transformation which had to be seen - what was normally a quiet area was suddenly Phuket Honda Car Racing Fest.


This area was now occupied with a race track and very noisy cars driving a circular race track.  There were a number of 'special cars' on the track but I could not see very much because there were so many people.

After my daughter was scared with the noisy cars we retreated to the fair and purchased some Thai snacks - delicious.

There was also a car show with lots of things to win 

- but I never found out how to win a red cap!

click here for location

5 places you should visit in Bangkok but tourists do not.

from Patravadi

1) The National Gallery

2) Patravadi Theatre

 - they are even on facebook!

3) Suan Luang Rama IX

photo from Arun Gallery

4) Arun Residences
 - now this does look beautiful

5) River City

This list is from a cape + kantary magazine.

And I have not visited any of these places...

Tim in Thailand (T.I.T)

View tim in Phuket in a larger map

After browsing through a number of websites for inspiration I found Phuket Photo Blog had used Google Maps to create a functional map.

 I found that creating this map was very interesting, do you have any comments?

thisis2tim@yahoo.co.uk

Chinese Mooncake Festival (12 Sept)

photo from Richard Barrow

The Chinese Mooncake Festival will be with us on Monday the 12th of September.

The Chinese bake these special cakes in respect of the Autumn moon.

There will be a number of Hotels and Shops in Phuket Town which will be selling them, last year I purchased my mooncakes from The Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town.

I am looking for the Angry Birds Mooncakes though...

King's Cup Elephant Polo (5 - 11 Sept)

picture courtesy of Richard's blog

It is time to play polo on the back of an elephant in Hua Hin 
- certainly something that I would like to see.


It is their tenth anniversary and they (not the elephants) are on facebook!


For more information please contact the Anantara site.  I am not sure why this has become so popular BUT they have raised money for charity so never mind.


Here is a pdf site for full information.
Good luck.

Pichit Boat Festival (3 - 4 Sept)

Okay I knew nothing about the Pichit Boat Festival until there was a box on the front page of the 
Bangkok Post - so I think that you should read about it from 
the Bangkok Post
or the TAT 
or here is Richard Barrow's link.