Vegetarian Festival Blog

The last few days of the vegetarian festival include street processions in Phuket Town, fire walking and plenty more vegetarian food. It's actually good tucker, and I've had a week of eating this food. It's amazing what they can do with bean cakes and tofu! I've had great massaman curry, tom yum, spring rolls, priow wan (sweet and sour) and more. Outside of the festival it's harder to find this food, but right now around any of the main Chinese shrines, it's everywhere. There are even some stalls in Patong up Sai Nam Yen road near the junction with Nanai Road (the back road).

I think it shows that the people here take the festival seriously, as last night we ate at Chen Long Gung Kata, which on previous occasions has been completely full, but last night there must have been only a dozen tables occupied - I still managed to eat veggie there.

Here's a few photos of Sam Kong shrine on the north side of Phuket Town:

 





You may notice from the photos there are numbers around the shrine. If you want to pray properly you must pray at each number in the correct order.

And here's some food photos from around the Sam Kong area. The stalls are all along the road which is quite busy, being on the edge of Phuket Town and being close to the bypass road and the hospitals, so if you walk along here, watch for traffic. All the food is vegetarian, which in the Thai sense means pretty much vegan - no dairy, no eggs. Some of it looks meaty and even tastes meaty, but I assure you there is no flesh!