Four Days in Phuket – simontalks.com

Took a short 4-day trip to the island of Phuket last week for work-and-holiday.

It was a great trip, with all food and lodging paid for, and with generous spending money from the management. We stayed along the Patong Beach, the most happening place on the island (in more ways than one…!)

Phuket is quite a large island, about the size of Singapore, seen below here approaching from air.

As with everywhere in Thailand, everyone is friendly and polite (well, mostly). Seen here is the welcoming committee at the Phuket Cultural Centre, waiting for the next load of tourists… They didn’t see me taking the photo. I take it it’s a tiring job.

Phuket has many attractions other than the beaches and island dive spots, and one of them is this Wat Chalong, the Golden temple. It houses one of the Buddha relics, a small piece of collarbone. Our tour guide said that common saying on the island was that “if you have not seen the golden temple, you have not been to Phuket.”

On to the beach.

There are lots of stalls and Western restaurants facing the beach strip, and the day i arrived was the first day of the Phuket Carnival, signalling the first day of the tourist peak season. Caught these two Adidas girls walking. At least i *think* they are girls.

Phuket has completely recovered from the tsunami, but according to locals, the number of tourists arriving these days is still only about 70% compared to the pre-tsunami days. But reminders of the catastrohe were still visible everywhere…