Phuket, Thailand

Tap into this post to read about some of our sightseeing, fun facts, travel tips and many pictures of our time in Phuket, Thailand.  We encourage you to get out and see the world if you are able, and if not, we will bring it to you through our posts.  We hope you enjoy!

The national flag of Thailand has a simple design with much symbolism.  The red stripes symbolize the blood of life, the white stripes represent purity of the Buddhist faith, and the double-wide blue stripe represents the monarchy.  The blue and white stripes were added to the flag during World War I to express Thailand’s solidarity with the Allied Forces–USA, UK, Russia, France–all of whose flags were red, white, and blue.

Phuket all and go to Thailand!! (that’s poo-KET)

Nina and I decided it was time to go tropical again and booked a week in Thailand at a beautiful resort in the Laguna area of Phuket Island.  It was an easy 6+ hour flight from Dubai and relatively quick process through border control/immigration.  After about a half hour transfer from the airport we arrived at the beautiful Dusit Thani Laguna resort.  It was the beginning of the rainy season and the Andaman Sea was quite rough–red flag, no swimming.  No worries, they have a gorgeous pool area.  During our week-long stay, we toured all over Phuket Island including visiting beautiful temples, wildlife reserves, an excursion to James Bond Island and a sea gypsy village, the FantaSea show, and great shopping in Patong.  We also made time to soak up some Thai sun beside this gorgeous pool!

Excursion to James Bond Island (Ko Khao Phing Kan) and Sea Gypsy Village

We booked a fabulous private excursion to the island where ‘Man With the Golden Gun’ was filmed, known as James Bond Island in the Phang Nga Bay.  Nina and I, along with our favorite travel companion couple, were whisked away on a private boat out into the Andaman Sea through a maze of oddly shaped islands known as karst topography.  Karst topography is a geological formation created when natural weathering erodes limestone or other soft rock and creates karst towers or islets with steep cliffs from the eroded bedrock.  The crew took our boat underneath some of the karst formations and gave us some facts on how the karst topography was formed.

We also visited a sea gypsy village built almost entirely on stilts and pilings in the Phang Nga Bay near James Bond Island.  We had a lovely lunch and some time to wander through the village and see how the gypsies lived, even visiting the school.

Wat Chalong Temple and the Big Buddha

We had heard of the beautiful Buddhist temples of Thailand and spent a half day or so visiting Wat Chalong (wat is Thai for temple) and the ‘Big Buddha’ monument.  Wat Chalong is the largest of Phuket’s Buddhist temples and most visited.

Travel Tips

—  Phuket’s international airport is located at the north end of the island, so when booking your hotel make sure you know how far away the airport is as transportation to the south end of the island would take well over an hour

—  Patong Beach is a vibrant, buzzing town with great shopping along Bangla Road and is notoriously wild at night with many bars and nightclubs; beware of ‘lady boys’ unless you are into that sort of thing

—  The outdoor markets along Bangla Road are great and you will find high quality knockoffs; do not pay the first price quoted as everything is negotiable, sometimes as much as 50% of the first quote

—  We really enjoyed the FantaSea show in Patong; we bought the combined dinner-and-show tickets and our advice is to skip the dinner

Facts & Figures

—  Phuket is a southern province of Thailand and is actually comprised of the larger Phuket Island and 32 neighboring smaller islands

—  On 26-Dec-2004 Phuket was hit by the ‘Boxing Day Tsunami’, was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean, which killed some 1200 people on the island and heavily damaged the Patong Beach area; today there is little visible evidence of the damage as recovery efforts have been quite successful

—  Powerlines around Patong and other areas are noticeably in disarray, apparently some residuals from the 2004 tsunami damage; we were told there is a project underway to clean up the unsightly mess with new power poles and lines; we observed evidence of some progress

—  Currency used in Thailand is the baht (฿)

If you are a world trekker like us and want to become more ‘worldly’, then you will want to try our books below.  Thanks to the former British Empire and current Commonwealth, the English language is widely spoken across the world, however it is spoken quite differently depending on where you are traveling.  We believe the books below are essential to worldly trekkers and think you will find them both fun and informative.  The books include a dictionary of everyday words and phrases, traditional cuisine, some history and culture, and other handy information.

Simply click on the book covers below to find out more:

Psalm 98:7 – New Living Translation (NLT)

       7  Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the earth and all living things join in.

Thank you for visiting!  Cheers!