Food, Accommodation and Transportation in Phuket

Food
What can represent Thai food more than tom yam (or tom yum) and pad Thai (fried plat noodle in Thai style)? We had these typical Thai food during our stay in Phuket. Besides, we tried many other food e.g. mango and sticky rice with jackfruit, fried noodle, fried oyster with egg, beef noodle, BBQ chicken, fried rice with pineapple, Japanese food, and Western food. We would like to share our experience with food in Phuket, place by place.

First night at Phuket, we went to food court at third floor in Patong Promenade, opposite of Jung Ceylon main entrance at Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi. We ordered tom yam goong for extra portion of prawn in the dish, fried oyster with egg, and pad Thai, the rice-noodle as well. Frankly speaking, the food were quite expensive and the taste, not very good. For us, the taste of the tom yam was not strong enough. However, it might be good for those who couldn't  take very spicy food. The fried oyster with egg was disappointing, oysters were much smaller than what we had expected, while the pad Thai, well, the taste was acceptable but a bit too sticky. The price, 130 Bahts for tom yam goong, 110 Bahts for pad Thai, and 650 Bahts for the fried oyster with egg.

Second day, we took seafood tom yam at Chokun Seafood beside Rawai Beach. The tom yam was a bit too sour, but with unexpectedly big potion of squid and prawn. That was the second best tom yam in our whole Phuket trip. How about pad Thai? Much better with enough prawns and spring onion, and the rice-noodle didn't stick together too much. The price, 150 Bahts for tom yam and 80 Bahts for pad Thai.

Tom yam and pad Thai at Patong Promenade (upper row) and Rawai Beach (lower row), different taste and prices.

The Food Court at Patong Promenade (upper left). In fact, the whole area was full with eateries (upper right). Rawai Beach (lower left) could be seen from Chokun Seafood.

At night, we went to Shabu Shi at Jung Ceylon for buffet dinner. All right, it might sound crazy for us to take Japanese-Korean type food in Thailand, but the good comments were luring. The time limit was 1 hour 15 minutes per entry. About the choices, not very much but enough to keep us busy as we need to cook most of the food with a hot pot. The taste, to be frank, average compared to the same class of restaurants in Malaysia, but the price was reasonable (365 Bahts per person). By the way, the restaurant was very crowded and the queue was long at night. So, we need to go to the restaurant early, maybe before 7 pm to avoid the queue. Although it was fully air conditioned, it could be warm and a bit squeezy when the number of customers increased.

Shabu Shi at Jung Ceylon (upper left), with plates of food served through conveyor belt (upper right). Some of the food were raw (lower left) while some were ready to be eaten.

The morning before we departed to Phuket Old Town, we tried the Western breakfast at our hotel. Many reviewers gave their thumbs up, and we couldn't be more agree with them. The food was fresh and the coffee was nice. We tried two different sets of breakfast with the average price of 150 Bahts per set, the food worth the price.

Breakfast at Baan Paradise Hotel.

We took two meals in Phuket Old Town. One at Dibuk Restaurant, at Dibuk Road. The restaurant was bigger than it looked from the outside. It had a little garden inside with remarkable relaxing atmosphere. However, the waitress didn't understand English. We ordered our food by pointing here and there on the menu, but finally still ended up with getting the wrong food. Anyway, the green curry with "heart shape" rice was good to see, but the taste was not strong enough. The curry soup was not concentrated enough and the fried rice had nothing special too. The price, 150 Bahts for the green curry and rice, and 100 Bahts for the fried rice.

We took our afternoon break at Kanda Bakery Restaurant, attracted by the prices- 70 Bahts for tom yam and 40 Bahts for chicken and corn soup. That was the cheapest tom yam for our entire trip. The tom yam was a bit sour but still acceptable, which the chicken and corn soup was nice.

Meals at Phuket Old Town- green curry with rice (upper left), fried rice with chicken and vegetable (upper right), seafood tom yam (lower left), and chicken with corn soup.

Dibuk Restaurant, outside (upper left) and inside (upper right). Kanda Bakery Restaurant was not easy to be found (lower left). However, the Bank of Ayudhaya opposite of the restaurant was prominent.

That night, we went to the night market beside Banzaan Fresh Mart. Surprisingly, we found the best tom yam there. Served with vermicelli, the tom yam had a balance of hot and sour. Although lack in seafood, the taste was the one that we were looking for. We tried the pork rib rice noodle and BBQ chicken at the night market as well. The price, 80 Bahts for pork rib noodle, 100 Bahts for tom yam, and 70 Bahts for the BBQ chicken whole leg. The food again not cheap, but the place was full with people.

Pork rib rice noodle (upper left) and tom yam (upper right), bbq chicken (lower left) and local orange juice were some of the food that we tried in night market at Banzaan Fresh Mart, Patong. All of them were nice.

The night market was full with locals and tourists (upper left). The owners of the stalls served good tom yam (upper right) and pancake (lower right) were always busy. The pancake with coconut tasted good.

Last day in Phuket, we took our breakfast at Dang Restaurant, located at Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi near to Bangla Road, 3 minutes away from our hotel by foot,. We tried fried noodle with vegetable and noodle soup with beef. The fried noodle was nice, but the noodle soup with beef was a bit less tasty. Afternoon, we took our lunch at Banzaan Fresh Mart. There was a food court at the upper level of the fresh market. Several stalls offered cooking service, helping visitors to cook the seafood bought from the lower level, with charges, of course.

Banzaan Fresh Market with the lower level selling fresh vegetables and seafood, and the upper level offering service to cook them. For us, the price for seafood was not cheap.

Fried noodle at Dang Restaurant (upper left), pineapple fried rice (upper right), mango and sticky rice with jackfruit (lower left), and pancake were some other food that we tried. The mango and sticky rice with jackfruit that we bought from Big C were nice. The pancake, although praised by many, was totally not our favourite (tasted like third class roti canai pisang in our country). Big C was located in Jung Ceylon Mall, while pancake could be bought from the street beside Patong Beach, nearby Banana Walk.

Accommodation

Accommodation should not be a problem in Phuket. Hotels and guest houses were plenty. We found about 10 other guest houses on the same street of our hotel Baan Paradise, starting with the rate as low as 300 Bahts per night. Staying in Patong means we stay at the busiest part of Phuket.

The recommended area- a few streets away from Bangla Road, Jung Ceylon Mall, and Patong Beach. For us, we booked our room through Air Asia Room. The rate was the same compared to Agoda.com. Well, if you are the adventurous type, you can always do the booking for the first day and search for a cheaper and better one after that.

Back to Baan Paradise Hotel, the location, unbeatable. 10 minutes walk to Patong Beach, 5 minutes to Jung Ceylon Mall and Bangla Road, and 10 minutes to Banzaan Fresh Mart. How about amenities? Bathroom with hot water shower, room completed with tv, mini bar, air conditioner, plus room service, we couldn't complain about this small hotel. One great plus for us- high speed wifi in room. It would be perfect if complementary breakfast was given, and the staff, with more knowledge in tourism.

Baan Paradise Hotel from the outside. The motorbikes in front of the hotel were for rent (upper left). The lobby of the hotel (upper right), the room (lower left), and some of the amenities in the room.

Rooms for rent are everywhere.

Transportation

To travel around Phuket,  we had several choices- rent a bike, rent a car, carter a car with driver (taxi), bus, tuk-tuk, and of course, we could always depend on our feet. We didn't rent any tuk-tuk during our stay in Phuket. First, it was expensive, with non-standardized fare across the island. How cheap the fare could go was highly depending on your haggling skill. Well, we found that the fare were hard to be lower than 100 Bahts, even with the distance of less than 10 minutes walk. 

Phuketshuttle.com provided very good airport shuttle service. As far as we knew, meter taxi would charge extra 100 Bahts for whatsoever reason. So, the trip from airport to Patong for meter taxi would end up to be 650 - 750 Bahts. So, we preferred to book our limousine through Phuketshuttle.com. What we needed to do was looking for our name tag outside of the arrival hall (We can ask the airport's staff how and where to look the limousine too. Just tell them that we have our booking through the website).

There were two types of taxis in Phuket- running on meter and without meter. We didn't use any metered taxi. We rented a taxi for 5 hours trip, with the fare of 120 Bahts. The service was good. Our experience, try not to get the service from the travel agents as their would mark up the price. What we did was, we planned our destinations, and then asked the taxi driver for the price for the whole trip. We didn't stop at any of the tourists traps. Instead, we spent most of our time visiting places like Wat Chalong, Big Buddha Temple, Rawai Beach, Phromthep Cape and Kata Viewpoint. We received valuable information by talking to the driver as well (mostly about local food and attractions).

Our half day trip taxi (upper left) with very polite and helpful driver. He insisted to open the back door for us. Our experience on bus trip was unforgettable. Just look at the "bus" (upper right) and you should know the reason. That was our first time getting into a truck which had been named a "bus". A small truck named "tuk-tuk" (lower left) was available all over the place. However, never hoop onto this thing before you know the fare. Motorbikes for rent could be found almost in every corner in Patong area. Well, you need to make sure your international licence is still valid before you ride away with this 250 Bahts-a-day motorbike. You might end up paying 2500 Bahts to the enforcers for riding without licence.

We discovered that some of the tuk-tuks had very powerful sound systems. Well, this might be useful to blast refuse-to-get-out customers away.

During our stay in Phuket, we found that the street was safe, people were polite and helpful, the place was clean, the scenery were good, but with the price was high for almost everything, everywhere. If you are planning for a nice quiet retreat or a long out-of-the-city vacation, you might want to stay away from Patong area. But if you wish to experience a busy beach-life vacation, then Patong might be a place for you. 

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]

Phuket Old Town

Phuket Town is referred as "Phuket" on the road signs, located at the eastern side of Phuket Island. Impressed by the tourism leaflets describing the historical and cultural richness of the place, we were decided to visit the old town within the boundary of Dibuk Road, Krabi Road - Thalang Road, Phang-Nga Road, Rasada Road, Yaowarat Road, and Rommanee Road.

We used the bus service from Patong to Phuket Town. The bus station at Patong was located at the southern end of Thawewong Road by the beach. We were lucky to catch the bus by just walking half way down the road (from our hotel). The bus was blue in colour with "Phuket-Patong" written on it. We waved to the driver, the bus stopped, and we hopped in. Seats were plenty at 10:30 am. We reached Phuket Town at 11:30 am. Our return trip from Phuket Town to Patong was much faster, in around 35 minutes.

 We were in a "conventional" bus on our trip to Phuket Town (upper left), but we returned using "extra-large" version of tuk-tuk bus (upper right and lower row). Can you imagine the 30 minutes journey uphill and downhill on that "bus"? Anyway, we survived, and the experience, unforgettable.

We went to Tourism Authority Centre of Thailand at the eastern side of Chalong Road to look for more information about the attractions around the town. Then, we walked through Rommanee Road into Dibuk Road, and headed to Phuket Restaurant & Cooking School after our lunch at Dibuk Road. The cooking school is the biggest colonial mansion in Phuket. It has another name- Blue Elephant Governor's Mansion. It was the residence for the Governor of Phuket. There were another two mansions nearby, which were owned by Chinese tycoons- one was abandoned and in bad condition, while another required entrance fee. Blue Elephant Mansion is big, but far from magnificent. The renovation killed all the nostalgic feel of that building. In fact, we could find many mansions with similar designs scattered across old towns in Malaysia.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand was air-conditioned, serving free coffee and drinking water (upper left). There is a park with golden dragon statue beside it (upper right). The old buildings can be seen around the area (lower left). The walkway in front of the shoplots, or "ngoh-kaa-kee" is identified as something unique among Phuket's architecture, but the walkway is very common design in Malaysia. Almost all shoplots in Malaysia are built with "ngoh-kaa-kee".

We couldn't find much information from the tourism information center in the old town. In the center, we found a few booklets on racks, photos with description hanging on the walls (upper left), a resting area with a well which contained water inside (upper right), a few model of the old buildings (lower left), a display of Chinese food, and of course, several other items, including a conference room (not shown in the photos).

 Rommanee Road was marked by this bright pinkish shop.

Rommanee Road was quiet during our visit.

This is the typical design of Chinese residence in Phuket Old Town- face of a dragon, with the windows resemble the eyes, upper windows resemble the eyebrows, while the door resemble the nose and the mouth.

Blue Elephant banners hung by the road (upper left) marking the location of the big mansion (upper right). Well, the "blue" actually described the inside rather than the outside (lower right). The cooking class was conducted by local chefs.

We bought three different seasoning pastes from the cooking school.

From Blue Elephant Mansion, we went to Phang-Nga Road through Krabi Road. We found that On On Hotel at Phang-Nga Road was quite attractive with  strong "old-Shanghai" design. That was the filming site for the movie "The Beach". We didn't watch the movie anyway. Along Phang-Nga, we took photo of the old clock tower (a landmark showed on many leaflets). Then, we reached The Trickeye Museum at the end of the road. The museum was an highlight in a few tourism leaflets. However, we turned back without entering the museum as the entrance was over-priced- 500 Bahts per person for the so-called 3D-drawings that we could see on internet? No way. On our way back to the bus station at Ranong Road, we took a rest at Kanda Bakery Restaurant along Rasada Road and enjoyed tom yam and chicken and corn soups (the cheapest in our Phuket trip).

On On Hotel.

Old vehicles around the old town.

Phuket Trickeye with eye catching sign painted on the wall. It looked outstanding among the old and dull buildings.

Bank of Ayudhaya was a prominent landmark in the old town.

The whole old town made us felt like a modern version of Ipoh Old Town, or a tiny version of George Town in Penang. Unlike some of the heritage old towns in Malaysia, Phuket Old Town was relatively quiet. Many shops were not operational anymore. Many of the buildings were either too heavily renovated, or too old to stand still. Tourism information was shallow, without much information on cultural and living heritage (or maybe we didn't search hard enough). A bit disappointed, but it was still a fruitful trip. At least, we had seen the connection between Phuket and Penang Island in our country.

More about our sharing on Phuket:

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]

Attractions in Phuket

Phuket Island has many attractions. Our second day on the island, we rented a taxi for a half day's island tour. Our first stop, the Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom is located in Kathu, some 10 minutes away by taxi from Patong. The normal taxi fee was 400 Bahts for a return trip. Luckily, we found a taxi driver who was willing to bring us with 250 Bahts for a return trip (almost 40% cheaper). Later we decided to let him brought us for a half day tour with 1200 Bahts. For your information, we didn't hoop into any tuk-tuk in Phuket as the fare always start jumping from 100 Bahts, even for a very short distance. Not worth it at all.

Tiger Kingdom could only be entered with a handsome fee. Tigers are categorized into four- very small (2 - 4 months) with 1000 Bahts per person per entry, small (5 - 10 months) with 900 Bahts, medium (11 - 15 months) with 800 Bahts, and big (16 - 36 months) with 800 Bahts. We took a package of medium + big with 1400 Bahts per person. Expensive, but close contact with tame tigers motivated us to pay for the tickets. The place offered once in our lifetime experience- petting, touching, grabbing the tail and hind-leg of tigers. Well, the tigers were behaved just like our pet cat. However, we were limited to stay in each enclosure only for 10 minutes.

The experience with small tigers was great. Tiger keepers in that enclosure continuously tried to keep the young tigers active and joke a lot. "Tiger, tiger, don't sleep, wake up, look here, smile to the camera..." the keeper who was responsible to bring us around keep talking to the tiger while busy taking photos for us. Can you ever imagine the situation where sleepy tiger tried its best to find a position for a good afternoon nap while we tried our best to keep it awaken?

However, the experience with the big tigers was not that pleasant. The keeper was relatively quiet. Most of the big tigers were sleeping, and the keeper failed to awaken these big cats, we couldn't do much except petting the sleeping tigers. Quite boring. After taking us to see three tigers (two was asleep while one looked very sleepy), he hurried us out of the enclosure. Then, we went to the very small tiger enclosure, and enjoyed our time watching smallest tigers playing with the keepers and the visitors (watching was free of charge).

Tiger Kingdom can be seen from the main road in between Patong and Phuket Town (upper left). The entrance to the ticketing counter (upper right) with prices list together with the sample photos (lower left). The insurance coverage was included in the entrance fee, well, at least some compensation would be given to those who couldn't come out in one piece.

The park was clean and tidy (upper left). One keeper taught us how to "take care" of the small tiger (upper right), while another dealt with a "play-dead" tiger (lower right). The smallest tigers were just like our cat, cute and full with curiosity.

Our photo with a small tiger, taken by a tiger keeper. By the way, a small tiger was much bigger than a big dog.

Tail grabbing.

Big tiger is huge! Best estimation, 200 - 300 kg. The big cat looked tame, but still quite scary. Luckily, these tigers enjoyed our petting very much.

The Tiger Kingdom is not big, with approximately 5 - 6 enclosures for tigers. During our visit, the place was clean, tidy, and free from the awful smell. The staff were friendly too. The visitor was covered by insurance with no extra charge. By the way, the tiger keepers were good photographers. They helped us a lot in taking great photos with tigers, without extra charge. So, it is unnecessary to hire extra photographer with 500 Bahts at the entrance of the park. We spent around one hour in the Tiger Kingdom.

Our next stop, Wat Chalong. Built in 1837, the temple was formerly named as Wat Chaiyathararam.  Wat Chalong is the most important and the biggest temple in Phuket. In 1876, the serving abbot Luang Phor Cham led the locals to defeat the rebelling Chinese miners, and then awarded by the King.

In our 40 minutes' stay, we found that the temple was heavily renovated. Everything looked new with vivid colours. A statue of Luang Phor Cham was found to sit together with the statues of Buddha. If we put the story of the brave abbot and the building stands for 150 years aside, nothing else was interesting there. We found that the food and drinks sold beside the temple were terribly over-priced (a can of Coke for 400 Bahts, and a cup of fruit juice for 700 Bahts). Our next stop, Big Buddha Temple.

 The main building of Wat Chalong.

Other temple complex surrounding Wat Chalong. The big temple at the middle lures many Chinese visitors. We were suprised by the number of Chinese visitors who came to pray there. Isn't it a temple of Chinese suppressing abbot?

 Luang Phor Cham beside Buddha statues.

The 45 meters tall Buddha statue sits at the top of the Nakkerd Hill between Kata and Chalong, and it can be seen far away from Wat Chalong. The 6 km hill road was steep and windy. We took around 30 minutes to reach the hill top from Wat Chalong. For us, the statue itself was not very attractive, but the 360 view on the top of the hill was breathtaking! We could see Phuket Town, Chalong Town and Kata Beach from there.

Statues at the entrance of the temple (upper left). The stairs lead to the higher level of the temple (upper right), with bells tied to the rails of sunshade (lower left). The "secret passage" to the viewing platform, which can be found at the higher level of the temple.

Ladies are required to wear sarung before entering the temple. Sarung is given in lending basis, with no fee required.

The big white statue can be seen from Wat Chalong (upper). A clear and nice photo can be taken from the lower level of the temple.

The site is divided into two levels. The lower level allows visitors to take photo with the statue. While the higher level which can be reached after we had beaten the stairs, offers far better view. There is a seclusive pathway to access to the great view of Kata Beach. Remember the lead- turn left at the end of the climbing stairs. During our visit, the construction was still ongoing and it was noisy. The food stalls at the lower level offered food and drinks at reasonable price.We stayed for 30 minutes to enjoy the view and the cooling breeze before we continued our journey to Rawai Beach for lunch. Then, we headed to Phromthep Cape.

Eastern view from the temple of Big Buddha, with Phuket Town and Wat Chalong can be seen far left. Please click on this photo to see larger panoramic view.

Southern view from the temple of Big Buddha, with Kata Beach can be seen on the right. Please click on this photo to see larger panoramic view.

 We took our lunch beside this beautiful beach.

Phromthep Cape is located at the southernmost tip of Phuket Island. From there, we can see endless Andaman Sea dotted with a few small islands. The cape is just 5 minutes away from Rawai Beach. We reached at the viewpoint around 2:45 pm. It was sunny and hot. The strong wind comforted us a little bit, but we didn't stay long over there, as the area was very much exposed. There is a lighthouse on the highest level of the viewpoint. Although some online sources noted that it was open to public, the entrance to the lighthouse was locked during our visit. 

 The square beside the viewing platform.

The lighthouse stands proudly at the highest level of the viewing platform. The statue beside the lighthouse is Prince Jumborn- the father of navy for Thailand. One of his successes was bringing a warship from Europe back to Thailand.

The southernmost tip of Phuket Island. We can see a couple taking their wedding photo at lower right. Please click on this photo to see larger panoramic view.

We reached our next station- Kata viewpoint around 3:30 pm. Kata Noi, Kata, and Karon can be seen from that viewpoint. The observatory tower at the viewpoint provides shelter to the visitors, and makes it more visitor friendly compared to Phromthep Cape viewpoint. The view, great, although a few overgrown trees blocked the mountain view. The second level of the viewpoint could be reached through the staircase.

 Road to Kata Viewpoint is windy.

Great view from Kata Viewpoint. Kata Noi beach (nearest), Kata beach, and Karon beach can be clearly seen from the point.

We reached our hotel in Patong around 4:15 pm. Rested and refueled with Japanese buffet dinner, we departed to Phuket Town (or some referred the place as Phuket Old Town) by bus the next morning. Follow us to Phuket Town now.

More about our experience in Phuket in:

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]

Phuket Free and Easy

Phuket is the modern name for Jung Ceylon and Thalang. It is the biggest island in Thailand, located southwest of the country in the Andaman Sea. Interestingly, a western source referred Jung Ceylon as badly pronounced "Tanjung Salang" in Malay, showing the close relation between the island and Peninsular of Malaysia, where Malay Language was widely spoken.

Phuket was a name in our list, but never a priority. We heard a lot about about the island- the beautiful beach, the nightlife, and of course, the disastrous tsunami. This time, we spent 5 days 4 nights on that island, and for the first time, we didn't set any particular itinerary before our departure- to make our trip as free and as easy as it could be.

First day, we reached Phuket International Airport around 5:30 pm local time. As commented by many travellers, the immigration was slow. It's true. We stuck at the counter for more than 30 minutes, with only around 5 - 6 persons in front of the queue. Lucky, the excellent service by Phuketshuttle.com eased our travel from the airport to our hotel in Patong. We booked a limousine service through the website 4 hours prior to our arrival, and found a sweet lady carrying a big tag with "WONG LS" awaiting for us at the exit of the arrival hall. The company prepared a receipt of our payment and an envelop filled with travel information and tourist map for us too. We were in a new comfortable Toyota Altis in less than 5 minutes later. The driver was fast and furious, but still, he took around 1 hour to bring us to Baan Paradise Hotel. With 750 Baht, the service worth the price.

The taxi and minibus stands are located just outside of the arrival hall (left). We were glad that the staff were very helpful. One of them told us to walk around and look for the tag showing our name. Well, we found it in next minute.

The first surprise we saw was the sexy-boy parade outside the hotel. It was 15 minutes after we reached the hotel. The guys wearing sexy lady-like costumes were parading around the street, advertising some sort of product and services provided at the sexy-boy street (which we found out it was just two blocks away from our hotel later). The next was the open pole dancing bars with dancing sexy ladies. We described it as "open" because the dance could be watched by anyone by Bangla Road. How about lady-boy? Well, we seen some of them at Bangla Road as well.

Sexy-boy parade on the street (upper left), lady-boys with exposed clothes at Bangla Road (upper right), the ladies prepare for the dance of the night (lower right), and the entrance of Bangla Road from the beach. Bangla Road was busy only at night.

The pole dancers in Tiger Live Band. The dance could be seen from the street.

First night, we visited Jung Ceylon Shopping Mall, Promenade Mall, Bangla Road, and took a night stroll along Patong Beach. The second day, we decided to have a day tour around the island. Since we decided not to drive by our own and tuk-tuk was not suitable for long journey, renting a car with driver was the only option that we had. After a few survey, we got a good offer from a taxi driver with 1200 Bahts for 5 hours' trip. The driver was polite and could speak in simple English.

Our first stop of the day, Tiger Kingdom. It was a place that we will never forget. The tigers there, ranged from the smallest, small, medium, and big, were tame. We could pet, scratch, and even hold their tails in special designed cages. All of this privileges came with a price- 1400 Bahts for 20 minutes (for our package). Then, we went to Chalong Wat, the Big Buddha Temple at the top of the hill, and Rawai Beach for nice Tomyam Kung lunch, before we continued our trip to Phromthep Cape, the viewpoint at Mueang District, and headed back to our hotel. The whole day trip took us around 6 hours, but the driver didn't demand for more (we gave him 100 Bahts tips after the trip). At night, we had our dinner at Shabu Shi, Jung Ceylon. Then, we strolled along Thawewong Road before we went back to our hotel.

 Tiger petting in Tiger Kingdom Phuket.

Jung Ceylon is a huge modern shopping complex in Patong (upper left). Patong Promenade Mall is new but quite empty during (upper right). Patong streets are full with tatoo service, pharmacies, currency exchange boothes (lower left), hotels, and eateries. The streets was safe during our visit.

Thawewong Road was busy at night, second to Bangla Road.

Third day, we spent the whole day at Phuket Town (or Phuket Old Town). We went there by bus. The journey took us around 1 hour (30 minutes on our way back), and with only 30 Bahts per person per trip. The old town was far less attractive as described in the tourism leaflets. It was more or less a down-scaled George Town in Penang. The street was quiet compared to Patong. Many shops were closed during our visit, but the food and souvenirs over there were expensive. We went back to Patong at 5:30 pm, exhausted and a bit disappointed. We delighted ourselves with the sunset at Patong Beach. At night, we took our dinner at the night market in front of Banzaan Fresh Market, where we found the best tom yam there.

 Old clock tower at Phuket Town.

Patong Beach around 5:30 pm. Many people were around with their cameras, awaiting the best moment of sunset.

Fourth day, heavy down pour trapped us in Jung Ceylon Mall. In fact, by putting ATV adventure, elephant ride, shooting game aside, our choices were limited. Well, we just strolled around the shopping mall, watched a movie, and took our lunch at Banzaan Fresh Market. The food at Banzaan Fresh Mart was not excellent but acceptable. The fresh market was not attractive for us, as we had seen much bigger fresh markets before. Dinner time, not willing to travel far, we decided to try the Japanese food beside our hotel. Well, the food was over-priced with disappointing quality.

 Banzaan Fresh Mart was located behind Jung Ceylon.

The last day at Phuket, we went to the airport early to catch Air Asia flight back to Malaysia. We would say that Phuket is definitely not a tourist paradise and it is far from being a shopping paradise. The whole island is a tourist trap. Can you imagine a simple tom yam kung meal by the road side of Patong (without air condition) can easily cost up to 150 Bahts? That price is comparable with a nice meal in Bangkok. We came back from Phuket almost empty handed, except a few fridge magnets and local made snacks. It was far different from our Bangkok tour last year, where we bought many clothes and even a travel bag with irresistible price. However, the experience in Tiger Kingdom was unforgettable, and at least, we have seen the places.

Next, we would share with you the attractions in Phuket.

More about our experience in Phuket in:

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]