4D Phuket Thailand

Phuket, is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country’s largest island, and another 32 smaller islands off its coast. It lies off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. Phuket Island is connected to Phang Nga Province to the north by the Sarasin Bridge. The next nearest province is Krabi to the east, across Phang Nga Bay.

Phuket Province has an area of 222.4 square miles, somewhat less than Singapore, and is the second-smallest province in Thailand. The best time to visit Phuket is between November and April.

You can visit Temples like Wat Chalong, Phuket Big Buddha, Wat Phra Thong, Wat Srisoonthorn, Wat Mai Luang Pu Supha, and Wat Khao Rang. Phuket old town has a whole city view from Rang Hill Viewpoints or a sea view from Promthep Cap or Radar Hill.

Tours to several smaller surrounding islands include Phi Phi Island, Similan Islands, Coral Island, Racha Island, Phang Nga Bay, Krabi Bay, Koh Yao Islands, and James Bond Island.

We only had 4 days to visit Phuket, which was not enough. We start our journey immediately after the flight early in the morning. We visited Sarasin Bridge and had our seafood lunch near the river, our first nice meal in Phuket. We progressed over to Wat Phra Thong for their famous half-buried golden Buddha statue; it’s a pleasant place to visit. The main attraction is the Buddha who is said to be ‘untouchable’. Every person who has tried to dig it out has been reported to be cursed. Legend has it that a farmer boy who tied his buffalo to an object that looked like a post in an open field fell very ill. He died not long afterward, along with his buffalo. The boy’s father dreamt about this incident and went to check the post – it turned out to be the top part of a big buried Buddha. Many villagers came to help with digging it up but only managed to expose half of the statue; they simply couldn’t dig it up no matter how many times they tried. The idea to build a temple around this half-buried Buddha came when a monk on a pilgrimage spotted the holy image. We visited Baan Teelanka & The Garden Maze, Baan Teelanka is an upside-down house, I prefer the trick eye museum, however, the drunk house inside is fascinating. You can feel as if you are dizzy immediately when you step into the room. Garden Maze is a small maze, it is quite easy to complete. It is harder to go in reverse. Next, we go to Rang Hill Viewpoints to view the entire Phuket town, and Phromthep Cape to view the southern sea view of Phuket. Central Festival is the final destination, Phuket’s fully equipped one-stop shopping mall lying just outside of Phuket Town for shopping and dining.

We went to take the common route to James Bond Island. Arriving at Royal Phuket Marina pier early morning, we got drinks and pastries waiting for the speed boat for the departure to Phang-nga Bay. By 9:30 am, we arrived at Panak Island looking at the wonderful stalactites, caves, and lagoons. We enjoyed canoeing in the mangrove forest at Hong Island, then we visited Khao Phing-kan and Khao Taipu (James Bond Island), where a part of a James Bond movie was filmed. We had a buffet lunch at Panyi Island and visited the village on stilts after lunch. We then took the speed boat to Khai Island for snorkeling. This was my first snorkeling experience near the beach, it was very interesting and a great experience. We spent our night at Bangla Road Patong to feel the nightlife in Phuket.

We departed from the hotel around 8 am to Suwankuha temple (monkey cave), the journey took one and a half hours. Then we proceeded to Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary for my first white water rafting, a thrilling itinerary, followed by flying fox through the forest. There was a buffet lunch at Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary. After lunch, we went for elephant trekking to Tone Pariwat waterfall, and ATV rides in the jungle. It was very exciting and I personally like it very much. At Banzaan Fresh Market, we ordered lobster and fish for a seafood dinner, as lobsters are fairly cheap here. Then we spent the evening, shopping and getting a massage at Jungceylon shopping center, the biggest shopping center in Phuket Patong.

The Big Buddha of Phuket and Wat Chalong were the highlights in the morning, then we visited the Expo Fair wholesale central at Phuket town for shopping and crossed over to Uptown Restaurant for lunch. We drove around Phuket town after lunch and proceeded to the airport to complete our holiday in Phuket. One thing that disappointed me in Phuket was that most of the workers here ask for tips and name the amount to give.

I was surprised that Phuket has lots of foreign workers from Myanmar. I thought their labor cost was already so low and foreign labor was not necessary.