Before heading off to pastures new for two or three months, it’s useful to have a general idea of the cost of living in your chosen destination. Assuming you are not going to eat out every night – the local food may be delicious but sometimes there’s no substitute for home cooking – that general idea will include the cost of food, drink and other household goods.
Phuket is fairly cosmopolitan with many of the conveniences foreigners take for granted in their home countries, including supermarkets. It boasts a number of Tescos (called Tesco Lotus in Phuket), Waitrose in the form of Tops supermarket in Central Festival, Carrefour in JungCeylon in Patong and Villa Market, of which there is a new one about to open in Chalong.
Of course, you wouldn’t be getting a true feel for the place if you relied totally on supermarkets for your shopping, but they are convenient, and in Phuket the prices aren’t bad. If you really want to go local, there are loads of food markets around where you will find some, but not all, of the goods listed below, and often considerably cheaper. However, short of trawling the entire island for the best value, we thought that a general idea could at least be gained from a list of supermarket prices.
The table below is compiled from the prices in the Tops (Waitrose) supermarket in Central Festival. The only exceptions are the vegetable & salad items, which were from the hydroponic salad outlet described below (the supermarket prices are in fact comparable), and the rice, which was from Sakura, our local corner store…
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David Phuket, Useful Stuff
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| Maya Bay |
The Phi Phi islands – Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh – are two dramatic limestone islands forming part of a larger group of islands in the Andaman Sea some 25 miles southeast of Phuket Island. They both have sheer cliffs of weathered rock jutting straight out of the sea, with a large number of rocky overhangs resulting from the constant attrition of the sea on the lower parts of the rock walls. Interspersed along the shore are several beaches, some stunningly beautiful.
The islands gained popularity as a tourist attraction following the filming of the the movie ‘The Beach’ there in 2000. The result has sadly been a huge increase in the numbers of boats arriving daily throughout the high season to do the tourist rounds. The journey from Phuket takes over two hours on a regular boat and around one hour in a speedboat; one hour of constant, spine-jarring bumps when the tide is high. However, it’s worth the battering if your boat operator is smart enough to leave Phuket early and stay ahead of the crowds, although they can’t be totally avoided.
Phi Phi Leh
Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh is normally the first destination, a bay that apparently featured in the movie. A quick walk along the sand to soak up the views of the amazing cliff formations is then followed by a chug in your boat to the mouth of the bay where the snorkeling in the crystal-clear water is fabulous. The water is literally teeming with fish of all colours…
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David Phuket
Table Mountain dominates Cape Town. Table Mountain is Cape Town. Without the mountain, it’s unlikely the city would ever have developed.
At 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level at its highest point, it’s not exactly small and its dramatic setting makes it seem huge. Apparently it can be seen from 125 miles out to sea.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula and its large plateau includes the peninsula’s highest point. Together with the range of hills stretching 50km down the peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, the whole peninsula has been, for hundreds of years, a pretty dramatic corner to turn for sailors heading east into the Indian Ocean, or from there back into the Atlantic and north to Europe.
For the adventurous, there are many trails you can use to climb the mountain. Looking down from the vantage point of the easy way up – the cable car – the trails look fairly precipitous and are clearly not something to be embarked upon lightly…
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David Cape Town
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| Kalk Bay |
For our time in South Africa we rented an apartment in Kalk Bay, one of the string of small towns running along the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula and looking out onto False Bay. This is a huge bay some 32km across and a great place for whale spotting in the latter part of the year.
Being all of 50 metres from the shore where most of the time the waves come crashing in, the apartment more than satisfied our desire to be by the sea. We just ignored the rather noisy main road and railway line in between.
Kalk Bay town is a sweet little place with a colonnaded main street of art, antique, clothing and bric-a-brac shops together with numerous coffee shops and restaurants. It has a great, retro, laid-back atmosphere and is full of great, retro, laid-back people. Its bohemian reputation is particularly noticeable among the ladies of the town, some of whom seem to follow the dress code of shutting their eyes and reaching into the dressing-up box every morning.
There is a substantial harbour formed by two large sea walls that not only protect a small fishing fleet, but also attract large numbers of anglers and on-lookers. Five restaurants on the harbour walls add to the attractiveness of the place, as do regular visitors Rosie the seal and her friends who perform for anyone kind enough to throw them fish…
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David Cape Town