Phuket is ground zero for the tourist industry of the Thai islands. It’s the largest island in Thailand and it has pristine beaches, a strong party scene in some places, and a nicely preserved core of buildings in Phuket Old Town. It’s also the launching pad for tours of the incredibly beautiful surrounding limestone karst islands.
I also used it as a base to go on a four day liveaboard dive boat in the Similan Islands as documented on this post: https://theperennialpilgrim.com/the-underwater-abundance-of-the-similan-islands
Canoeing Around Phang Nga Bay
I spent a day on a canoe tour exploring the caves and karsts of the wonderfully scenic Phang Nga Bay. It was easily my favorite activity I did while based in Phuket.
There were a couple of places where we’d canoe through some scenic, and at times pretty dark, caves and come out into a huge bowl of limestone cliffs surrounding a large body of water only accessible through these caves.
One of these private cliff enclosed lakes were home to a small troop of monkees. They provided some nice entertainment.
In this video a mother swims from the tree to the rocks with her tiny baby wrapped under her stomach.
In the late afternoon we made kratongs with the help of the crew. These were a series of flowers embedded into a bouyant piece of banana tree. During the full moon of November the Thais will float these out into the water as part of one of their annual celebrations. For us, we went into a dark cave after the sun went down and let these float for a few minutes before retrieving them.
After this little ceremony our guides turned off their headlamps and we started stirring the water with our hands. It triggered the bioluminescent plankton and created a small water light show for us. If you splashed the water against the cave walls the glowing plankton would stick against the rocks for a few seconds. Unfortunately, our cameras and GoPros couldn’t capture this.
Looking back over our guide’s shoulder to our main ship.
Visiting Kata Beach
There are a score of postcard perfect beaches scattered around edges of Phuket. Kata Beach was one of them. I had two US friends staying there for a night as part of one of the visa runs they do every 90 days while living in Vietnam. So I rented a scooter and rode over there from my hotel in Phuket Town.
There was a really small shore swell at high tide and there were a number of kids taking surfing lessons on foam boards while we were having lunch at a restaurant by the beach. Hence the surf shop by the beach.
And, of course, if there’s any type of surf, there’s going to be surf clothing stores, like this Billabong store on Kata’s main road.
Another nice day with Garrett and Megan. I met them while I was living in Playa del Carmen. We had two Thanksgivings together in Playa, hung out a few times when we were all in Peru, and then I celebrated this past Christmas with them in Siagon. We actually didn’t even realize we were both in Phuket until I texted them a couple of days before we met up.
The Charms of Phuket Town
In the 18th century Phuket was known for having a robust tin mining business. Scores of Chinese came over from Penang, Malaysia to manage the operations and work the mines. They easily intermixed and even intermarried with the native Thais. My hotel was run by a really nice Thai family of Chinese descent. Phuket Old Town became a very wealthy place and had some wonderful buildings built based a sort of Sino-Portuguese architectural syle. These buildings have been well preserved and the area has a wonderful charm to it.
Below is a pleasent looking office building with my hotel behind it.
Wat Mongkhon Nimit is the main Buddhist temple in town. Unfortunately, its interior was closed when I visited it.
Sangtham Shrine is the primary Chinese temple in Old Town.
Scores of young people were taking pictures against this backdrop everytime I walked by.
Every Sunday night a couple of blocks are closed off to vehicles and a robust night market takes place.
The Thai Hua Musuem is the primary musuem in town. It’s based in a former school for Chinese children and it has an eclectic assortment of exhibits on the history of the city.
The primary focus of the musuem is the history of tin mining in Phuket.
I stayed in a very comfortable hotel while I was there.
