Things to do
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Big Buddha
Seated on the Nakkerd ridge between Chalong and Kata, the marble Buddha stands 45 metres high and is visible from much of southern Phuket. It was paid for by donation, and parts of its base are still unfinished. Shoulders and knees must be covered at the top. The road up is steep, narrow and slow in a rental car.
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Kata Beach
A kilometre of sand on the west coast, divided from smaller Kata Noi by a headland and looking out at the wooded islet of Ko Pu. Surf schools work the bay through the monsoon months, when swell reaches this side of the island, and the same swell makes swimming risky. Water is flat and clear again by the dry season.
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Patong Beach
Phuket's main resort bay runs for about three kilometres along the west coast, backed by a grid of hotels, massage shops and the bars of Bangla Road. Swimming is the thing that catches visitors out: from May to October the southwest monsoon drives strong rip currents, red flags go up along the sand, and drownings happen most years.
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Phang Nga Bay
A shallow bay between Phuket and Krabi studded with limestone towers, sea caves and mangrove channels, protected as a national park. Day boats leave from Phuket's eastern piers for Khao Phing Kan, the pinnacle used in a Bond film, and for the stilt village of Ko Panyi. Kayaks reach the hidden inner lagoons only around low tide, so tours run to the tide table.
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Phi Phi Islands
Six islands off Krabi, reached in under two hours by ferry or speedboat from Phuket. Phi Phi Don carries the hotels, the dive shops and the bars, while uninhabited Phi Phi Leh holds Maya Bay, the cove made famous by a film. Maya Bay shuts to visitors each August and September, boats land at the back of the island, and swimming in the cove is banned.
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Phuket Old Town
Two blocks of Sino-Portuguese shophouses in Talat Yai, built on tin money in the nineteenth century by Hokkien merchants and restored into cafes, museums and guesthouses. Thalang Road is the spine of it, with arcaded walkways deep enough to shelter from rain or sun. It closes to traffic on Sunday afternoons for a street market, which is when the old town is busiest.
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Promthep Cape
The southern tip of Phuket, a grass headland of casuarinas running out towards a scatter of rocks in the Andaman Sea, with a lighthouse and a shrine crowded with elephant figures. Sunset is what draws the coaches, and the car park fills well before it. Mornings are empty, and the light on the bay to the east is better.
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Wat Chalong
Phuket's principal Buddhist temple, tied to the monk Luang Pho Chaem, who kept the monastery open as a field hospital during the Chinese tin miners' revolt of 1876. A gilded pagoda holds a bone relic of the Buddha and repays the climb through its upper galleries. Worshippers whose prayers have been answered light strings of firecrackers in a brick kiln beside the hall.