Places to visit and things to do in Phuket – Part 1
Phuket is an island in the south of Thailand and is famous for its beaches and water activities especially among Europeans.
I had a chance to visit it for a couple of days and some of the attractions I made footprints are:
Kata View Point
From this location, you can have a view of Kata Noi, Kata beach and Karon beach.
View Kata View Point in a larger map
Elephant Trekking
Elephant Trekking can be fun and exciting, rates are based on the duration of 30 minutes ride, 1 hour or more.
If you think it’s easy to ride an elephant like this with seats tied to eat securely, think again. Even when it moves slowly, the seat might sway from left to right and on steep grounds, it’s even more fun when the elephant slipped a bit!
Phuket Sea Shell Museum
Well, this place is kind of boring but if you have time to kill, you will get to see some extra ordinary huge shells and shells of different shapes, sizes and colours that you might not have seen before.
Monkey Show in Monkey School
This 30 minute show is expensive in my opinion, with some monkeys demonstrating skills such as catching a ball, riding a bicycle, working on numbers etc.
Check out this video for a short clip of the show.
The Phuket town is a mix of old and new development with more modern buildings and tourist spots by the beaches.
Mc Donalds are available in a few places in Phuket.
We were brought to the places above by a taxi driver who we picked up from the taxi stand beside the airport and offered to be our tour guide for half the day. He has a special name, which is Bandit, but he is a polite person, not a bandit at all.
However, he bought us to a Phuket Bay Restaurant (photo below), for lunch when I requested tom yam!
It was a seafood restaurant by the seaside, I hope you can imagine that, those that allow you to choose your lobsters, shrimps and crabs.
I guess the staff were a bit excited at first, until we sat down and ordered pad thai, tom yam soup and fried rice only. 🙂
In my opinion, prices of food and stuff in Phuket are a bit exorbitant, except those by the roadside. We were able to had decently priced hawker stuff by the beach in Patong near our hotel.
Phuket Pearl Factory
This is actually a small pearl shop that sells pearls that are farmed in the vicinity of Sapham Bay, on the west coast of Phuket Island in Thailand.
Entrance is free and a guide will briefly go through the pearl types and products. It’s a pearl shopping location.
Wat Chalong / Chalong Temple
Chalong temple is the largest temple in Phuket and it has a wide compound with a arched entrance.
The photos below doesn’t do justice.
Pra Jomthaibaramee (above) is not yet completed but notices say that construction will be completed soon. The atmosphere inside is quiet but bright and sunny. There are many different postures of Buddha images around the hall on the first floor.
View from Pra Jomthaibaramee.
Buddha images inside Pra Jomthaibaramee.
Artificial bronze statues of Luang Poh Cham , Luang Poh Chung and Luang Poh Kluam
Learn more about Chalong Temple here.
Phuket Fantasea
Photo from http://blog.tourismthailand.org/EugeneTang/?p=809
Located on Kamala Beach, just 9 km from Patong, Phuket FantaSea : The Utimate Cultural Theme Park offers a one-of-a-kind experience of culture and fun that no visitor to Phuket should miss! Created at a cost of over 3500 million THB, the result is a stunning 140 -acre theme park, pack with a multitude of activities and entertainment.
The magnificent Palace of the Elephants (above) is a state-of-the-art theater with wonderful acoustics and seating 3,000 persons. This is where the cultural show is performed, no camera or any digital recording devices are allowed in.
The Golden Kinnaree Buffet Restaurant is the place for visitors to enjoy a feast of Royal Thai dishes and delicacies from popular international cuisine right before the show.
Phuket Fantasea is a not-to-be-missed item in the list of places to visit in Phuket.
I booked the Phuket Fantasea show online from Hotels2Thailand website and it includes the buffet dinner and round trip transportation! The transportation actually comes from FantaSea van transfer service and pick up passengers from hotels in the area of Patong and Kata.
For more information about the show, go here. More pictures here.
Expect many elephants, tiger cubs and fun!
Updated: Checkout the Places to visit and things to do in Phuket – Part 2 (the second and last part of my Phuket trip).