National Flag of the Kingdom of Thailand
by xuessium
Information extracted from Flags Of The World:
The flag is called the Trairanga, meaning Tricolour.
The story goes that during the 1916 flood the king of Siam (the old name for Thailand) saw the national flag - red with a white elephant - hanging upside down. A new flag was adopted that could not be hung upside down. Initially it was a red field with two white bands, but it was claimed that on 28th September 1917, the middle stripe was changed to blue to show solidarity with the Allies during the First World War.
Although not an official interpretation of the Thai flag, the prevailing view is that the central blue stripe represents the monarchy, the two white stripes the Therevada Buddhist religion, and the outer red stripes represent the land or the nation.
Wat Chalong Temple
by Tina-Perth
As a follow-up to the spirit ceremony, after I had taken the medicine prescribed for me by Grandfather and the Spirit, I was to give thanks and an offering at Wat Chalong.
When you are an outsider, your first experience with Spirit is facilitated by someone else on your behalf, after this point you may address Spirit yourself, which is what I did at Wat Chalong. The following is an brief overview of the procedure of making an offering.
I went to Wat Chalong with my friend Nuch who was making offerings as it was her birthday. We bought Lotus Lillies, incense and offering baskets which came with an envelope for a monetary gift.
We removed our shoes and entered the temple then placed the lillies in vases at the altar. We returned to the mat, bowing and touching the ground with our palms in front of the candleholder and incense pot. We each lit two red candles and placed them into the holder along with three incense sticks. We bowed three times, touching the ground with our open palms each time. After this we moved to the side of the altar where a monk was awaiting us. We knelt before him, bowing again and handed him our offerings. He began chanting then handed us a small chalice which had a jug of water resting in it. Nuch and I held the small jug together and slowly poured the water into the chalice whilst the monk chanted over us. When the water was all poured out we took the chalice outside and poured the water on a tree. We returned inside and once again knelt in front of the monk. He then flicked us with water and finished the ceremony.
An interesting experience and my first time participating in a Buddhist ritual. I'm really glad I had the opportunity.
Patong Beach
by shane_02
This is the view of Patong beach. It's not the most cleanest or most beautiful of all beaches but has been polluted by the throngs of foreign and local tourists who frequented the site.
Patong beach is also the home for most sea sports activities such as wakeboarding, para-sailing, jet skiing, kite flying, etc......
All major clothes brands - but cheaper!
by tashka about Robinson
Robinson is the main department store in Phuket Town, where you can buy anything you need.
Clothes are of good quality with major international brands available, but prices are lower than, say, in Europe.
Additionally there are local clothes brands on sale, and the quality is high. I bought heaps of very nice T-shirts and tops for myself at very low prices. And Thai lingerie is good and cheap! (Ladies will understand me)
There is also a very good supermarket in Robinson and KFC.
All major credit cards are accepted.
The shop is open daily from 10:30 to 22:00. Thai silk, cotton casual clothes and ALL KINDS OF CLOTHES.
Beer Bars
by beccyandjohn about Bangla Road
Beer Bars usually have a few stools around a bar. You can have a beer and play games popular games include connect four, dice games and “hit the nail with the hammer" this was my favourite games but it wasnt easy.
You take it in turns to it the nail once with the small side of the hammer, the first one to hit the nail all the way in won, i was lucky if i hit it at all. John seemed a bit better then me but only becasue he waited untill i looked away and then used the large side of the hammer, checky!!
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Box Jellyfish in Thailand
Look its a waterfall thing!
so relaxing
Phuket MuayThai Training Camp
