Phuket

Crossing the bridge you will see at left lots of sail boats and yachts on the misty horizon, this the Yacht Haven Marina, a private marina in Phuket and currently the only marina capable to handle super yachts. You know this nice white ships with the helicopter at the back. After a couple of kilometers before Phuket Airport at the right are some entrance roads to luxury beach hotels like JW Marriot. Black Canyon Golf Club Phuket Further south is a up market golf club the blue canyon golf & country club, they also offer apartments for sale and to rent. Yacht Haven Marina Phuket Panorama Yacht Haven Marina Aerial Picture                         Yacht Haven Marina Phuket Pier and yachts

The road to Phuket Airport is to the left at the next intersection with traffic lights.

Driving towards Phuket south leads to the circle around the Heroines’ Monument (of the two brave ladies who were leading the defense of Phuket against the invading Burmese army a couple of hundred years ago) a right turn leads to Laguna. Phuket Laguna is an attractive assembly of upper market hotels and villas, about 20 kilometers away from Phuket City and Patong Beach, its about 30km to the southern tip of Phuket at Cap Panwa. The route to Phuket City (via the bypass road) leads directly to the shopping malls strip on the west outskirts of the town centre.

The soft and hard coral banks off Phuket in the Andaman Sea are in good conditions, all with great colors, the elephant’s are marching - you can hire one to have a ride, but it became very expensive in the last 2 years- if you like to have a Phuket elephant ride you must negotiate very hard, this guys really try to pull your leg off. Hard Coral Bank Phuket Soft Corals Phuket Andaman Sea Anyway check if you already got this very special Phuket and vibration, because famous nightlife is rapidly materializing.

-Famous nightlife and excellent hotels for every size of wallet are available; the girls (and the ones who look like a girl but are not) are also trying to make you happy by pulling you money. The Phuket nightlife is another reason why many tourists visit Phuket each year on holiday.
Phuket island nightlife venues can be found in Patong Many tourists seem to keep coming back each year especially attracted by the vibrant nightlife and  bars of Phuket island. Most Phuket island nightlife venues can be found in Patong beach along the well known Bangla Road. A number of large clubs are located along	Phuket Nightlife Tiger Bar Phuket Nightlife Patong Music	Phuket Nightlife Shark Ba Phuket Nightlife Lady Boy	Phuket Nightlife Bangla Road Phuket Nightlife Girls

Bangla Road in Patong Beach Phuket including the very popular tiger disco and tiger bar and the seduction disco. Along Bangla road are plenty of small streets leading to hundreds of beer bars. Each beer bar has a number of beautiful Thai ladies working for them who are there to please the clients. -Tom yum seafood and other tasty Thai special dishes bring your taste buds to life. But not only that, there are also  German, Japanese, Austrian, Italian, French, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Korean and Arab restaurants etc., its a real international cuisine assembly. The restaurants offering foreign food are concentrated around the beach area of Patong and Karon plus in the new Phuket shopping malls along the bypass road just outside Phuket Town. Many of the restaurants are open air restaurants. Also Indian food is very popular, but there is a very low level of knowledge how to make Indian food in Phuket, it looks like many people try to make quick money on subjects they don't understand. Phuket Seafood

Naturally also the fast food industry sell their junk food on Phuket Island. Sometimes its not only junk food. At Phuket are many restaurants dedicated to noodle food either Thai style noodles, almost everywhere or Japanese noodle dishes, in some of the shopping malls and Chinese noodles of different styles in Phuket City and elsewhere. Some very new style Thai food is offered in restaurants like Black Canyon Coffee Shop, this is a franchise chain in Thailand. They have very good Thai style food made from new recipes but with typical Thai style. The little problem in this restaurants is, the dishes are very small, this might fit Thai people but for sure not foreigners. At the Phuket shopping malls are also

Thai Tom Yam Seafood Thai food tasty fish

Thai Sea Food Thai Street Food at Karon

self serving food courts at the uppermost floor. -The gated villa communities on Phuket with villas from 10 million baht upwards – are mushrooming, prime locations are already sold out and now villa projects on the islands on the south of Phuket and huge hotels and villa projects in the north of Phuket Island are under way. Around Mai Khao Beach just adjacent to the JW Marriot hotel is a huge construction project creating villas and apartments. Somehow  this construction frenzy is strange since Phuket is already quite saturated.

Mai Khao Beach

Many traveler come to Phuket island from a radius of up to five flight hours for a Phuket golf weekend, mostly Japanese and Chinese people. Many of them have their “golf apartment” at the golf course; there are many golf courses for every level of experience. The latest tourist influx to Phuket comes from Russia and parts of the former USSR who are now independent like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc.. In particular people from Russia have replaced western European tourists almost completely in certain parts of Phuket. Where one heard German language before, its Russian language now.

Phuket Golf

Phuket traffic is increasing exponentially since there is a shift going on among Thai people from north to the south of Thailand. In the north of Thailand plenty of people don't have a job and in the southern tourist regions lots of jobs are available,  infrastructure planning in Phuket is also not very sophisticated, it only goes with the idea, get quick money. Myriads of chaotic small motor scooter are all over Phuket Island this motor biker have absolute no driving education and don't care about anything leading to unbelievable accidents. Around 200.000 bad accidents are the result almost every year on Phuket Island and 80% are done by motor bike driver.

Phuket Traffic

Phuket has grown into a premier holiday destination in South East Asia and is one of the top travel destinations of Thailand. It probably has replaced Bali as the most popular holiday island in the region, in particular after the Bali bombings.

-What are Phuket islands attractions?

Probably the main attraction at Phuket Island are the beaches, nightlife, entertainment and good food on a international level for very moderate prices. Phuket can be a inexpensive vacation destination or a expensive one its up to you. Phuket hotels, beach resorts and guesthouses can be found in all price price ranges. For sure much cheaper as compared Europe or other popular vacation destinations. Dining and drinks in restaurants, bars, clubs etc. in Phuket is much less expensive then in countries the tourists from plus places like Singapore or Hong Kong who are even more expensive than many destinations in Europe US and elsewhere.

Shopping in Phuket got a big push upward since the Shopping Malls opened along the bypass road. There are several malls now in operation and new are popping up year by year. Going shopping in Phuket in the past was not very interesting since most of the shops offer the same stuff,  tailor made clothing and all this other textiles like t shirts etc. plus shows, handbags and dozens of other cheap goods. The latest opening is at Patong, its the Phuket Young Ceylon mall in Patong, actually there are not so many cheap items, its rather catering to the up market level.

Some Phuket History

Early records of Phuket history are from the beginning of the 11th century. The first inhabitants of what is now known as Phuket or Junk Ceylon as it was known during Portuguese and English colonial times were the sea gypsy’s, also known as Moken in Thailand and Salon in Myanmar or Burma. Sea gypsies seems to be a branch of the Negritos or Malay the indigenous inhabitants of South East Asia. An earlier mention of Junk Ceylon was in a book written in the year of 157 AD. The book was written by the Greek Claudius Ptolemy.

The Greek philosopher mentioned that if one was to travel to the Malay archipelagos, it needs to pass a island called Junk Ceylon. For Junk Ceylon a location between the latitudes of 6 N and 8 N was indicated which is  present day Phuket. It seems that the Junk Ceylon was popular by sea merchant since the naturally protected bays offered protection against the forces of nature. That means on the east side of Phuket island, as it was evident during the Tsunami, when all damages were done on the west coast of Phuket island.

During British colonial times Phuket was also known as Thalang, Thalang still exists in the northern mid region of Phuket. The Mon of southern Myanmar, mostly around the Gulf of Martaban were also also known as Thalangs, there are plenty of  connections between Thailand and Myanmar or Burma. In the 15th century Phuket became a leading tin mining ground and lots of Chinese people came in to work in the mines, got rich, built fabulous Villas and houses in Sino-Portuguese style, some of the most beautiful created villas are still visible at Phuket Town or Phuket City.

In 1785 troops from neighboring Burma tried to invade Phuket. Finally two Phuket women, the former governor’s widow, Chan, and her sister Muk organized to defend Phuket Island, the struggle with the Burmese lasted nearly a month.

When the supply of the Burmese troops were gone they had to withdraw. After the Kinging of Thailand bestowed upon them the noble titles of Thao Thep Krasattri and Thao Si Sunthon. The two sisters have their monument right in the middle of the round about at the Tha Ruea Intersection.

Phuket is becoming more and more the yachting hub of south east Asia.

Its  all time more or less summer with 25° and 32°C throughout the year. With a excellent sailing infrastructure Phuket is the ideal cruising base. With great panoramas in the limestone world of Phang Nga Bay top diving grounds around Phuket and Phi Phi Islands plus the Similan and Surin archipelago, Phuket has something for everyone. Myanmar’s or Burma's  unexplored Mergui Archipelago is easily accessible to the north, you must call at Ranong and Kawthaung to enter.

The Krabi and the Trang archipelago are to the south and further south are the Tarutao Islands in the Marine National Park just about 5 km from the Malaysian island of Langkawi.

Phuket has three international standard marinas, Yacht Haven Marina, Boat Lagoon Marina, Royal Phuket Marina, some more marinas are planned or under construction. Sailing holiday in Thailand climax in Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, attracts around 100 yachts and boats and is held in early December. Phang-Nga Bay Regatta, is at Chinese New Year, its the regatta with the most scenic background of any regatta in the world. Phuket Race Week starts in the windy month of July during the southwest monsoon.