Phuket Town

Tucked into the south-east corner of Phuket, close to the island’s main deep-water harbours but away from its beaches, the capital of Phuket province has a population of about 70,000. It is a well-tended, low-rise town, encircled by forest-covered hills, where the smell of the sea hangs on the damp tropical breeze.

While it has no sites of special interest, the so-called "Old Town", especially the two streets of Thalang and Deebuk, is one of the best preserved areas of traditional Chinese row-houses in Thailand. Like the elaborate Chinese temples that can be found dotted about the town, they were built by the many Hainanese and Fukienese who emigrated here in the 19th century to work in the tin mining business. Many of them have now been lovingly restored and house contemporary art galleries and restaurants as well as longstanding Chinese family businesses. Often built around a cool central light-well, their doors and windows are usually archetypically Chinese but European touches fashionable at the time, such as Ionic columns and Italianate floor-tiles, pop up here and there. On the fringes of this area and beyond, you can also see a few larger ‘Sino-Portuguese’ mansions, surrounded by extensive gardens. Commissioned by Chinese who had made their fortunes in tin, they were constructed mostly, in fact, by Italian architects but modeled on older Portuguese mansions in Singapore and Malaysia. One or two of these are occasionally opened to the public.

Further out, a ride or walk up Khao Rang will reward you with a panoramic view of the whole town and beyond, taking in the harbours, the beach at Rawai and its offshore islands and the mountains that close off the popular western beaches. You can wander a few paths cut through the forest up here or enjoy exceptional cooking (at a price) in the hilltop Tungka Café, which is especially popular at night when the lights of the town are strung out below.

Walking the central streets, it can seem at first that every second business is either a travel agency or an internet café. Given the extraordinary number of opticians, you might also be tempted to wonder if myopia is unusually prevalent in the island. In fact, the town’s shopping facilities are quite diverse for its size. In the centre, on Tilok Uthit 1 Road just beyond the clock-tower roundabout, a large branch of Robinson’s department store has outlets for most major brand names while the Ocean Shopping Centre almost next door has a wide range of cheaper clothing stalls. Both of these have supermarkets on their ground floors (TOPS in the Robinson’s building is the better of the two). On the north-western edge of the town, near the junction for Patong, you can find three large and lavish shopping complexes within a short distance of each other: Central Festival, Big C and Tesco Lotus. One of the town’s two bus routes will take you here from the centre or they can be reached by motorbike taxi for about 50 baht. All of them are new buildings and Central Festival, in particular, is attractively designed with an outdoor art exhibition on the balcony walkway surrounding its outer courtyard. For a different type of shopping experience, try the main market just beyond the fountain roundabout (at the intersection of Ratsada and Yaowarat Roads), which is also the terminus for public transport to and from the beaches. Even if you’re not hungry or are not sure what to buy, its food and spice stalls are a feast for the eye. There are also a lot of cheap clothes and souvenirs here too and these can also be found in the small night market that opens late in the day along Tilok Uthit 2 Road, near the Tavorn Grand Plaza Hotel. There’s an excellent second-hand bookshop on Phang Nga Road, near the On On Hotel and opposite the Kasikorn Bank, two or three minutes’ walk from ECC. Other bookshops around town and in the Central Festival building stock English-language newspapers and magazines and a small range of novels and books about Asia supplied by the Asia Books chain in Bangkok. Though it’s unlikely that you’ll be thinking of buying any original artworks while you’re doing your CELTA course, Phuket is home to many painters and Phuket Town is well-known for its many private art galleries. These can be enjoyable to take a look at even if you’re not planning to take any of the paintings home.

For its size, Phuket Town has a great variety of places to eat. In all but the most basic places, however, prices tend to be high, just as high indeed as in Bangkok. For those on a tight budget, noodle and khao man gai shops are as ubiquitous as anywhere in Thailand and the Muslim-owned roti and curry shops are also very cheap. Reasonably priced food stalls set up behind Robinson’s in the area known as Talaat Kaset from the middle of the day till late at night. This can be a good place to sample seafood in addition to the popular standards and most stalls have an English menu card giving you an idea of at least some of the dishes they can rustle up. As more expensive places tend to come and go in Phuket as elsewhere, it’s difficult to give a list of recommendations. Walk the central streets or ask the locals and in addition to upmarket Thai places (such as Le Café on the approach road to the Phuket Shopping Centre opposite ECC or the extensive Ta Yai by the canal on Soi Taling Chan), you'll find several Italian restaurants and at least one Indian and one Vietnamese. Of the Italian places, La Gaetana on Phuket Road near Robinson’s is worth seeking out if you can afford it, though it’s often full. The restaurants in the Old Town are worth splashing out on at least once during your stay, as much for their ambience as for their good quality food. The China Inn Café on Thalang Road, for example, offers Thai fusion cuisine in a delightful garden at the back of a Chinese row-house fitted out with period furnishings and photographs. If you like the distinctive food of Isaan (the north-east of Thailand), there are four long-established Isaan restaurants within a short distance of each other at the southern end of Mae Luan Road, not far from Khao Rang. Saep Bo is the biggest and most popular while Talung offers the option of atmospheric village-style dining on mats stretched out on the ground beneath its trees. At the beginning of the day, if you’re in need of a Western breakfast, you can pamper yourself in any of the big hotels while several restaurants near ECC along the stretch of Phuket Road between Ratsada Road and the clock-tower roundabout offer a cheaper alternative.

Good coffee is not too hard to find (try the Siam Bakery on Yaowarat Road near the fountain roundabout or Coffee Lovers on the ground floor of the Robinson’s building near the supermarket). For drinking in the evening, there are more bars than you might imagine from the generally sleepy atmosphere of the town, including several with live music. Check any of the websites providing tourist information about Phuket Town for a list (e.g. www.phuket-town.com) but before you make a special journey, bear in mind the list is unlikely to be up-to-date. Michael’s Bar on Takua Pa Road, a few minutes’ walk from ECC, has been recommended by trainees as a quiet and friendly place.

There are two cinemas in town, usually showing the same predictable selection of current Hollywood movies. The Grand Paradise is located in the Ocean Shopping Centre and the Coliseum in Central Festival. Check the details of films carefully as most showings are Thai-dubbed versions. However, there are usually two showings a day with the original English-language soundtrack.

The centre of the town is compact enough to explore on foot but if you want to venture out to the shopping centres on the edge of town, for example, or to Khao Rang, you’ll really need to use some kind of transport. There is, in fact, a rudimentary public bus service with two routes. Details of the routes and the frequency of buses can be found on www.phuket-town.com, for example. Taxis are everywhere but if you’re worried about your budget, they’re best avoided except in emergencies as they’re usually unmetered and the prices demanded by the drivers are extortionate. Motorbike taxis are even easier to find and very much more reasonably priced, though here as elsewhere in Thailand passengers are not provided with a helmet, so you take your life in your hands. If you want to get out of town to the beach at the weekend, small buses or sawng thaew, i.e. converted pick-up trucks with two rows of wooden seating, run to all the beaches from in front of the main market. These are cheap (20 – 25 baht) and frequent (about every 30 minutes). Taxis and motorbike taxis will also take you there but a taxi will ask about 300 baht for a one-way trip, a motorbike half this. However, these are your only option after 5 in the evening when all other transport stops. If you want to explore the island, the best way to do it is to hire your own transport. For those brave enough, motorbikes are available for rent for about 150 baht a day all over the place, including right next to ECC. Cars can also be rented, of course, but there are fewer places where you can do this.

Information about Phuket’s beaches can be found in many places. The scenery is attractive all along the coast and the standard of accommodation is generally high, but so are the prices! Briefly, Patong has the longest stretch of sand but it’s also the most built-up and potentially crowded of the resorts. Karon and Kata are a little quieter and Rawai is more Thai-orientated. At once the most beautiful and the quietest beach with anywhere to stay within easy reach of Phuket Town is probably Naiharn. If you have your own transport, the tiny, secluded beaches of Laem Sing and Paradise Beach (to the north and south of Patong respectively) are worth a visit, though if you come to the latter by motorbike, you may think it so-called not so much for its otherworldly beauty as for the high likelihood of your arriving in paradise itself somewhere along its winding and precipitous approach road!