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Patong Phuket Island Phuket Beach Beaches

Patong Phuket, Phuket island.

Phuket is located

about 900 kilometers south of Bangkok and 600km north of the Thailand Malaysian border. There are several different count on kilometers since it is possible to travel in different ways. First are flights and second is to travel by bus or car via Chumphon and Ranong, The other possibility is to travel via Surat Thani and Phang Nga.

This is Thailand's largest island and often defined as the pearl of the Andaman Sea. Its natural resources in the past have been tin and trade between Europe and Asia. Today it means beaches, hotels, resorts, fun etc.. There are beaches with limestone and granite cliffs, pine trees and palm trees, some tropical forests and plenty of rubber plantations. Actually the tourists bring most of the money to the island and that's the reason why the island got an immense influx of people from other parts of Thailand in recent years which unfortunately resulted in covering the island with concrete and asphalt.

Located in a tropical zone just north of the equator on the west coast of southern Thailand in the Andaman Sea. The province covers an area of approximately 543 square kilometers. The islands length from north to south is about 50 kilometers and approximately 22 kilometers wide. Phang Nga Province is to the north and east plus Krabi to southeast; this includes the seaside and Phi Phi Islands between the island and Krabi Province.

To the west and north west is the Andaman Sea the place where plenty of great diving sites are located such as  the Similan Islands, the Surin Archipelago and behind Ranong the islands of Myanmar or Burma. The island is connected to Phang-Nga Province by the Sarasin Bridge.

There are two seasons the rainy season (May to October) and the dry season (November to April), actually this are floating parameters since it is easy to experience rain in lets say December and some dry days in September. Pulled together this part of south Thailand is a all year round holiday destination since even if there is some rain its usually only some hours and after

the sun come in and the blue sky is visible. If someone wants to be sure that there is absolutely no rain, this happens only between about February and April but is rather boring since some rain showers are the spices of the day. Average temperatures ranges between 23 C and 35 C.

The island is divided into 3 administrative counties namely Amphoe Muang which is more or less central and south, Amphoe Thalang which is the northern half of the island and Amphoe Kathu which is finally Patong the main tourist and beach spot. There are other such as Kata Beach, Karon Beach, Surin Beach, Kamala Beach plus plus.

- A top travel destinations

of the world and one of the reasons is Patong Phuket the second to none nightlife, beach, girls and fun destination on the planet, not only at the Andaman Sea. is easily  accessible by flights via Phuket airport, road, via the Sarasin bridge or sea.

A great beach is almost always close by and can be accessed without any problems. The main attractions are hotels, beaches, nightlife and the Andaman Sea with Phang Nga Bay, Similan Islands and southern Thailand.

Myriads of hotels, beach resorts, bungalows, apartments, housing estates etc. makes it easy to find the right accommodation. A new trend is luxury especially at Mai Khao Beach and Bangtao Beach which is Laguna.

Plenty of luxury hotels and luxury villa development offer a great  travel or holiday experience on the up market level. But there are enough cheap hotels everywhere on the island, in particular at Phuket City and Chalong.

New luxury hotels, homes rentals and villa developments offer the utmost privacy since usually there is also a wall around this type of villas

Phuket and Kata plus Karon Beach
Kata Beach plus Karon Beach
Patong Phuket Soi Crocodile
Patong Phuket Soi Crocodile
Phuket Sea
Sea this beaches are very similar to a Cambodia beach around Sihanoukville
Phuket Luxury Meridien Hotel and Resort at Karon Noi Beach
Luxury Meridien Hotel and Resort at Karon Noi Beach
Chalong Bay
Chalong Bay Phuket

and a private swimming pool in the garden, service is only a phone call away. Up market beach resorts offer luxurious retreats away from the crowd, stay in any of the luxury resorts and your vacation will bring you a unforgettable experience. Some island luxury and beach resorts provide vacation packages with added extras such as complimentary Phuket airport transfers, free buffet breakfast, Spa treatments and romantic candlelit dinners in a beach site setting, just the right ambience for honeymooner. Note that there are only a handful of hotels and beach resorts where you can walk from the hotel right to the beach and into the water without a road in between.

The yearly festival of lights

Thai style called Loi Kratong, this year its Loi Kratong 2010 and aside of have the "Kratongs" floating beautiful and exotic Loi Kratong 2010 Shows are performed all over Thailand here are some pictures of a very special Loi Kratong 2010 show at Pink Lady 2002 Cafe at Phuket Town with beautiful Thai Girls in colorful exotic costumes.

Coming to this exotic island also means, you enter fun county, beaches golf,  nightlife, bar's, restaurant's, all in the relaxed atmosphere of a southern Thailand  living with comfort and pace, no need for heating, ok needs air-condition to cool but I would say better to cool instead of heating.

Loi Kratong 2010 Show Girls
Phuket Loi Kratong 2011 Show Girls
Loi Kratong 2010
Loi Kratong 2010

If you come by car via Bangkok Phuket or Krabi or from the airport, with the bus or whatever , you will come into the island via highway 402 and over the Sarasin Bridge, heading south.

Crossing the Sarasin bridge onto Phuket island you will see at left lots of sail boats and yachts on the misty horizon to the east, this the Yacht Haven Marina, a private marina 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 the Airport at the right are some entrance roads to luxury beach hotels at Mai Khao Beach like JW Marriot.
Black Canyon Golf Club Phuket
Blue Canyon Golf Club

Yacht Haven Marina Phuket Panorama
Yacht Haven Marina Phuket
Yacht Haven Marina Aerial PictureYacht Haven Marina Phuket Pier and yachts
Yacht Haven Marina Aerial Picture                         Yacht Haven Marina pier and yachts

Further south is golf, the blue canyon golf & country club, they also offer apartments for sale and to rent. The road to the airport is to the right at the next intersection with traffic lights.

Driving towards south leads to the circle around the Heroines’ Monument (of the two brave ladies who were leading the defense 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 the city and Patong Beach, its about 30km to the southern tip at Cap Panwa. The route to the city (via the bypass road) leads directly to a shopping malls strip on the west outskirts of the town centre.

The soft and hard coral banks off the island in the Andaman Sea are still in good conditions, all with great colors. 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 elephant ride you must negotiate very hard, this guys really try to pull your leg off.

Hard Coral Bank Phuket diving
Hard Coral Bank

Soft Corals Phuket diving
Soft Corals

Andaman Sea Phuket diving
Andaman Sea

Anyway check if you already got this very special vibration, because famous nightlife is rapidly materializing.


Phuket hotels
are plenty and a famous nightlife is waiting. Hotels, resorts, beach bungalows, apartments and other accommodation are available for every size of wallet, nightlife is another reason why many tourists come each year on holiday.
Phuket island nightlife venues can be found in Patong
Phuket Patong

Many tourists seem to keep coming back each year especially attracted by the vibrant nightlife and 

bars. Most nightlife venues can be found in Patong beach along the well known Bangla Road. A number of large clubs and bars are located there including the very popular tiger disco, Soi

Phuket Nightlife Tiger Bar
Tiger Nightlife Bar
Phuket Nightlife Patong Music
Patong Phuket Nightlife Pat

Phuket Nightlife Shark Bar
Nightlife Shark Bar
Phuket Nightlife Lady Boy
Patong Phuket Nightlife Lady Boy

Phuket Nightlife Bangla Road
Nightlife Bangla Road
Phuket Nightlife Girls
Nightlife Girls

Crocodile with the Ladyboy stage, Soi Eric, Soi Seadragon and more Soi plus bars and discos.

Along Patong Bangla road are plenty of small streets leading to hundreds of beer bars. Each beer bar has a number of beautiful Thai ladies working there who are there to please the clients. Thai girls (and the ones who look like a girl but are not called ladyboys) are also trying to make you happy by pulling you money. Be especially vigilant when ladyboys are around, wallets disappear with lightning speed.

Phuket Ladyboys
Patong Phuket Ladyboy
Phuket restaurants

offer seafood and other tasty Thai special dishes. Not only Thai food is available, there are also  German, Japanese, Austrian, Italian, French, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Arab restaurants etc., its a real international cuisine assembly. Restaurants offering foreign food are concentrated around the beach area of Patong and Karon plus in the new shopping malls along the bypass road just outside the town.

Many 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, it looks like many people try to make quick money on subjects they don't understand. There are certain Thai food franchising at the shopping malls such as "Black Canyon", "MK restaurants" etc. actually MK Restaurants became a sole Suki restaurant chain where you can order sukiyaki  with different kind of Thai food. A good idea is to visit one of the beach restaurants at Chalong Bay such as Kan Eng on the road coming from town and to the left before the Chalong Circle, there is a great beach restaurant ambiance with all the yachts and

Phuket Seafood
Seafood

catamarans, sailing boats etc. in front . The little problem with Kan Eng is they don't listen what you order and the food stands at the kitchen output usually very long time since there is nobody to bring the stuff from the kitchen to the tables, but organizing something in Thailand is rather miraculous.

Naturally also the fast food industry sell their food, sometimes its not only junk food. Many restaurants dedicated to noodle food either Thai style noodles, almost everywhere. Japanese noodle dishes in some of the shopping malls and Chinese noodles of different styles in the 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 and usually located in the shopping malls, such as Tesco-Lotus They have very good

Thai Tom Yam Seafood
Thai Tom Yam Seafood
Thai food tasty fish
Thai food tasty fish
Thai Sea Food
Thai Sea Food
Thai Street Food at Karon
Thai Street Food at Karon

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 shopping malls are also self service food courts at the uppermost floor, but with what? yes another not thought through problem. You cant buy the food for money, yes that's true, no yoke. They force you to go to the cashier buy some monopoly money and use this to pay the food you select at the stalls, so what's the little problem now (in Thai banha noi noi) if you don't have exactly the right amount of monopoly money it needs to go back to the cashier, cue again for the right one. After you finish eating there is usually some of this papers left and if you want to change this into real money again you cue in front of the cashier, Thai people like to cue and stand around, its miraculous why but it is, anyway there are several Thai festivals throughout the year such as Songkran or Water Festival and Loi Kratong or Festival of Lights to make people happy.

Phuket beach

life and nightlife. The luxury segment is mushrooming, prime locations are already sold out and villa projects everywhere. Huge hotels and villa projects in the north are under way too, but this is all quick money orientated, likely there is another fun, means festivals and fun such as Loi Kratong and Songkran.

Around Mai Khao Beach adjacent to the JW Marriot hotel villas and apartments are on sale mainly to foreigners, but the strange thing is no foreigner is allowed to own such things so guess what ?

They produce all kind of strange legal constructions which according to Thai law are illegal. That means for example you put in your Thai wife, girlfriend or whoever as nominee she will be officially the sole owner in the legal papers, it happen many times that a couple of month later she drop you and is the rightful owner of the property you bought, you have NO possibility to do anything against. The same is with some constructions using law firms as front up. They finally have the say and you are completely at their mercy, you have no right on the property bought with your money and this is no yoke whatever the real estate agent tries to tell you. Somehow this construction frenzy is strange since the island is already quite saturated with hotels and beach resorts.

Several beach resort constructions are continuously under way on islands in the Phang Nga Bay area just off the eastern coast. All this on this small private islands cater the luxury up market tourists, at least in terms of pricing. Many traveler come here from a radius of around five flight hours for a golf weekend. Golf is mostly with Japanese and Chinese people. Many of them have their “golf apartment” at a golf course; there are many golf courses for every level of experience.

The latest tourist influx 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. Where one heard German language before, its Russian language now.

Traffic is increasing exponentially since there is a shift going on among Thai people from the 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 is also not very sophisticated, it only goes with the idea, get quick money.

Myriads of chaotic small motor scooter are all over. this motor biker (99% of Thai nationality) 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 and 80% are done by motor bike driver.

The island has grown into a premier holiday destination in South East Asia and is one of

Mai Khao Beach
Mai Khao Beach
Loi Kratong 2010 Show
Loi Kratong 2010 Show
Phuket Island Resorts Chedi Hotel at Pansea Beach.jpg
Island Resorts Chedi Hotel at Pansea BeachPhuket Golf
GolfPhuket Traffic
Thailand Traffic

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 but this quickly changed after thousands of tourists was taken hostage by some mad rioters who occupied and blocked the Airport Bangkok, most of the travel goes via Bangkok.

Islands attractions?

Probably the main attraction are beaches, nightlife, entertainment and many people like Thai massage plus good food on a international level for very moderate prices. Living here can be a inexpensive or expensive, its up to you. 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. are is much less expensive then in countries the tourists like Singapore or Hong Kong which 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 huge shopping malls now in operation and new are popping up year by year. Going shopping 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 handbags and dozens of other cheap goods. One of the newer malls is the Jungceylon mall, actually there are not so many cheap items, its rather oriented to the up market level.

Phuket History

Early records are from the beginning of the 11th century. The first inhabitants of 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 the island, as it was evident during the Tsunami, when all damages were done on the west coast.

During British colonial times the place was also known as Thalang, Thalang still exists in the northern mid region. 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 the island 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 the town.

In 1785 troops from neighboring Burma tried to invaded the island. Finally two women, the former governor’s widow, Chan, and her sister Muk organized the defend, the struggle with the Burmese lasted nearly a month. When the supply of the Burmese troops were gone they had to withdraw. After the King 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.

Sailing and yachting
is booming. Its  all time more or less summer with 25° and 32°C throughout the year. With a excellent sailing infrastructure this is the ideal cruising base. With great panoramas in the limestone world of Phang Nga Bay top diving grounds around and Phi Phi

Islands plus the Similan and Surin archipelago, there is 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. There are three international standard marinas, Yacht Haven Marina, Boat Lagoon Marina, Royal Marina, some more marinas are planned or under construction.

Sailing holiday in Thailand climax in the King’s Cup Regatta, which 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. Race Week starts in the windy month of July during the southwest monsoon.

                               


Phuket beach, Phuket island, Phuket travel.
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