Phuket City

HOME    CONTACT
Bangtao-Beach
Chalong-Beach
Friendship-Beach
Kamala-Beach
Karon-Beach
Kata-Beach
Laem Sing Beach
Laguna
Mai-Khao-Beach
Nai-Harn-Beach
Nai-Thon-Beach
Nai-Yang-Beach
Nightlife
Pansea Beach
Patong-Beach
Phang-Nga-Bay
Phi Phi
Phuket-City
Rawai-Beach
Sarasin-Bridge
Surin-Beach
Tattoo Art
Yacht-Haven-
          Marina

Yao-Yai-Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Phuket Town....

Phuket City, beach City, hotels in Phuket, Phuket accommodation, in Phuket city, Phuket city hotel, royal Phuket city hotel, Metropole hotel, pearl hotel, Phuket.


- Phuket city has a couple of big hotels, the biggest are the Royal Phuket city hotel, Metropole hotel and the Tavorn Hotel.

plus the Pearl Hotel right in the city center with the biggest Thai massage parlor on Phuket Island, its that kind of massage parlor where you can have a look for the girls first, they sit behind a huge window. Almost all Phuket City hotels are located in the city center and usually are priced lower than the Patong hotels or other hotel and beach resorts on the west coast of the island. Also right in the city center is the Pearl hotel, this Phuket hotel has a excellent Chinese restaurant at the top floor with a great panorama view over the city.

It is very easy to get around in Phuket City since the place is not so big, ask for a Phuket city map at the hotel desk. Close to the hotels and along the main roads are several small tour agents selling all kind of tour around Phuket Island and into the Phang Nga Bay, very popular is a so called James Bond Island tour to visit the small island in the Phang Nga Bay where "The Man with the Golden Colt" was partially made.

If you are interested in places where they made the movie go to the Rassada Pier in the morning and make a trip to Phi Phi Don, that's the place they did the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo di Caprio. The city center is just the right place for shopping for exotic items including handicraft and art works such as paintings, Buddha Statues and other sculptures. In the city center are lots of typical Thai shops selling antiques and Thai made items. Of course they also all this fake goods.

On the west side of Phuket City is the modern shopping. In the last few years several huge shopping malls where built. Its along the four lane bypass road and almost every 3 month another huge building is popping out from the red earth.

During the Phuket disaster or Tsunami there was no damage on this side of 

the island all damages were on the west side and Phuket City is on the east side of the island. A Phuket Town tour is a good idea during day and night. Several old huge villas are still visible, they have been renovated since the Phuket tin mine frenzy. This Phuket villa look real great in the Sino - Portuguese style.

Practically all of this old Sino - Portuguese style villas in Phuket have been built by rich Chinese who made a fortune with tin production and trading.

Along the main roads are several Phuket guesthouse and the well known On-On Hotel where they did some shooting of the "The Beach" movie, but the hotel itself is real rotten.

There are plenty of other Phuket hotels but the real interesting is

Phuket Villa
Phuket Villa
Phuket Hotel
Phuket Royal City Hotel

to get some insight into Phuket city history and do shopping. The biggest Phuket English newspaper, called Phuket Gazette is also produced in Phuket City.

Phuket Patong is a ride between 30 minutes and one hour, don't use the notorious Tuk Tuk, they will cheat you by any means, this Tuk Tuk stuff is a mafia like gang who are after the tourist considering them as their pray. Since years this mafia group block any attempts for creating a good public transport service on Phuket Island to get the tourist into their Tuk Tuk and milk them.

Have a look for our gallery of beautiful Phuket photos. This Phuket pictures are a good blend to get a visual idea of Phuket City.

Patong city on the other side of the island is somehow different. At Patong everything is dedicated to tourists by any means. Phuket is probably the island with the biggest
accommodation density in the whole world, they beat even Singapore. Almost all good beaches are on the west coast of the island with all kind of bungalow, cottages, hotels, beach resorts and other accommodations.


In Phuket City most of the cheap apartments
can be found, prices are from about Baht 4000,- upwards. The cheap apartments only have a fan, air-conditioned apartments start at around Baht 7000,- per month.

But all this cheap places are usually quite rotten and noisy. At Phuket town and elsewhere on the island you can rent cars and small motorbikes with 120cc for about Baht 150,- per day and cars starting at about Baht 600,- per day. The best source for a motorbike and a car is Pure Car Rental at Phuket City, they have good cars  and bikes, are at the lower end of the price range and very important, they wont cheat you. 

Phuket City is also a good place to get some new glasses for about half the price they charge you in Europe or US. You could have a look in one of the shopping centers first buy sunglasses with a frame you like, about Baht 150,- and bring this frame with you to the optician at Phuket City and have them fix the glasses into, they are fully equipped to do the right measurements. A excellent optician at  Ratsada Rd. in downtown Phuket is Washington optical, they are very reliable and wont cheat you. Since there are 2 Washington optical just beside each other, take the one with the more modern front, they are also ok for shopping watches.

In the last few years Phuket City become a center for the health tourism in Thailand, only Bangkok and Pattaya are bigger. They do any health care plus dental and cosmetic or plastic surgery. There is also one of the top clinic in the world for conversion from male to female and vice versa. The best hospital is the International Hospital in Phuket City, they also do dental, in any case it be useful if you have some kind of problems to plan a trip to Phuket and have it fixed. The prices in Thailand are much lower and even including the airfare for travel and the Phuket hotel it will still be much cheaper to have it done in Phuket or elsewhere in Thailand.

- Phuket has, beside of sun, sea, beach and great scenery another face, you can see and explore this in Phuket City.

Phuket's known history started more or less in the beginning of the 11th century, the first people at what is now known as Phuket were the sea gypsies or today's Moken in Thai language and Salon in Myanmar or Burma, they are the same. They also have been named Negrito's. It could be that they are the indigenous people of South East Asia.

Since there are no written records of the Phuket history before about the 15 century history of the indigenous people of the South East Asia is known only via legends from the older to next generation, some of this legends you can find here.

The first known name of Phuket was Junk Ceylon, this name was written on Portuguese sea navigation maps. One earlier trace of Junk Ceylon is in a book written in 157 AD. by Greek Claudius Ptolemy. He stated that on traveling to the Malay peninsula, a island with the name Junk Ceylon will be on the way. The geographical coordinates of Junk Ceylon was given as between the latitudes of 6 N and 8 N which is also the position of today Phuket. Junk Ceylon with its sheltered bays offered a excellent resting and restocking facility plus protection against bad weather.

Phuket become also known as Thalang which is the area between airport and Phuket City of today. The Mon people from southern Myanmar around Bago and Thaton were also known as Thalangs, actually there was a continuous interaction over time due to the proximity.

In 1785 troops from neighboring Burma or today Myanmar tried to invade Phuket. Two Phuket ladies had the courage to stand up and defend the Island in the name of the King of Thailand.

The former governor's widow, Chan, and her sister Muk organized the defense which lasted nearly a month. Since the Burmese troops run out of supplies they had to withdraw.

The king of Thailand granted titles of Thao Thep Krasattri and Thao Si Sunthontitel to the sisters. At present day the two sisters are honored by their statue which stands at the Tha Ruea circle one can see it on the way from Phuket Airport to Phuket City.

Traders, from Europe, China, India and elsewhere choose Phuket as residence since the geographic location was a ideal place for trading between Europe and Asia. Between the period of 1681 and 1685 Phuket was administered by the French missionary Renee Charbonneau.

Phuket 2 Sister Heroines Monument
Phuket 2 Sister Heroines Monument


Phuket City, Phuket City, beach City, hotels in Phuket, Phuket accommodation, Phuket City, Phuket city, in Phuket city, in Phuket City, Phuket city hotel, royal Phuket city hotel, metropole hotel, pearl hotel, tavern hotel, Phuket, Phuket accommodation, Phuket Asia, Phuket Bangkok, Phuket bay, Phuket.

Chinese Temple Phuket Town
Chinese Temple Phuket City

Phuket Chinese Temple
Phuket City Chinese Temple

During the 15th century Phuket Island was a leading tin mining place. Tin mining was the domain of Chinese immigrants.

One of the legacies of the Chinese of that time are the few marvelous villas in Phuket City in a splendid Sino - Portuguese architecture.  

A mixture of Chinese and Portuguese Style elements. Portuguese adventure where the first European arriving in Phuket, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and gave architectural influence to the area.

During the reign of King Rama V through towards the end of King Rama VI (1868 - 1925) Sino - Portuguese architecture gained the highest popularity.

During this period tin mining was at his peak and a rapid economic grow was on. Most of the tin miner were Chinese immigrant who had a prosperous business.

More interesting buildings of Phuket City are around Phang Nga, Yaowarat, Dibuk and Krabi road.

Sunrise Chalong Bay
Sunrise at Chalong Bay a short
distance south of Phuket City

Phuket City lost a lot of its bustling flair after some huge shopping malls came up on the western fringe of Phuket City and the malls are still rising one after the other. But in the evening Phuket


Phuket City bars and nightclubs
Phuket town nightclub show
Phuket City bars and nightclubs show

City still starts on afterburner with myriads of restaurants, bars and nightclubs plus sing - song and karaoke  places, called Cafe, plus some coyote go go bars and discos.

All this places in Phuket Town are mostly frequented by Thai, there are almost no foreigners around, some more on the Phuket Nightlife subject here.

Motor cycle ride to the beach
Motocyc or small motor bikes ride.

The air is still clean in Phuket City, its much better than in Penang but the traffic is increasing exponentially and the infrastructure planning in Phuket could be done somehow more sophisticated.

Phuket House Sino-Portuguese style
Phuket City House Sino-Portuguese style
Phuket Villa Sino-Portuguese
Phuket City Villa Sino-Portuguese architecture
Phuket Old House Teak Wood
Phuket City House Teak Wood architecture
Phuket Loi Kratong
Phuket City Loi Kratong Festival

Phuket Town Songkran or Water Festival
Phuket town selling souvenirs
Phuket Town selling souvenirs

Myriads of chaotic motocyc (Thaiglish for small motor cycles and scooter) are all over Phuket - not giving the others a millimeter of space and leading to unbelievable accidents.Phuket Town is not a beach City beside it borders the Andaman sea directly, there is a small harbor mainly for the ferries to Phi Phi Island. But Phuket Town has for sure all the features of a real Asian City.

The Phuket Tsunami had no impact at Phuket Town since the Tsunami banged into the west coast of Phuket Island, means Patong Beach, Karon Beach, Kata Beach etc. Phuket City is on the east side of Phuket Island.

You can find all kind of Phuket accommodation, Phuket bungalows, Phuket guest house, Phuket hotels in Phuket Town. Could be just the right place for your Phuket holidays on Phuket island, just enjoy Phuket nightlife it's great by any means.

Phuket Nightlife Girls
Phuket Nightlife Girls
Phuket town Orchid Red
Phuket Town Orchid Red
Phuket City Orchid Dark Red
Phuket Town Orchid Dark Red
Some orchid nurseries are at Phuket Island in particular around the Chalong and Rawai area.

Phuket is a genuine tropical city with all the positive and negative sides. Phuket Town is also the largest city in Phuket Province and you will find

Phuket Town Orchid Yellow
Phuket TownOrchid Yellow
Phuket Town Orchid Pink
 Orchid Pink

everything here what you need for your stay on Phuket Island, including the Thai Immigration office for extending visa, located close to Saphan Hin etc.

Some hotels at Phuket town offer massage parlors and Spas with pretty girls, ready to roll,  several big, modern hospitals and several clinics for plastic and cosmetic surgery.

One of the most popular activity in Phuket Town is...go shopping ! Plenty of small shops are in the city center, art galleries, antiques, fashion shops, excellent restaurants - many Chinese, travel agents and a lot of small roads with old fashioned houses.

The houses at Phuket Town along the road sometimes look a little bit rotten but this is the tropical style, everything clear ?

Naturally there are plenty of other shops for a real exotic shopping experience in Phuket Town.

Also several art galleries with paintings in very special styles and here there is real artist paintings, not like in Patong.

Phuket Town Chinese Antiques
Phuket Town Shopping for genuine Chinese Antique

Phuket Town Chinese Antiques and Furniture
Phuket Town Shopping for genuine Chinese Antique and Furniture

       

-The most fascinating, most strange, most masochistic etc. festival in Phuket City is the Vegetarian Festival.

Strange things start to happen every year on the first day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar - normally in late September or the beginning of October - the bizarre vegetarian festival is on celebrated in Phuket City, Trang, Krabi, Takua Pa, Satun and Ranong.

Phuket Town Vegetarian Festival needles in the head
Vegetarian Festival needles in the head
Phuket Vegetarian Festival swords in the head
Vegetarian Festival swords in the head
Phuket Vegetarian Festival plastic  through the cheeks
Vegetarian Festival plastic through the cheeks
Phuket Town Vegetarian Festival rod through the cheeks
Vegetarian Festival rod through the cheeks

The action is mainly around the city center and lasts from the first to the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.

Especially bizarre considering what kind of materials the devotees (called the soldier of god) push through their skin on different parts of the body- primarily around the mouth region, just have a look at the pictures here.

The vegetarian festival is celebrated for the first days of the month of Taoist Lent when devout Chinese don't eat meat. Celebrations are held in all Chinese temples in Phuket. Everyone who like can join the celebration.

No one really knows when all this started but some say it was during the reign of Thalang Governor Jerm in 1825. At that time many Chinese migrated to Phuket to work in the newly discovered tin mines and a Chinese drama group came with them. Some member of the group turned vegetarian in the hope to immunize themselves from malaria. At that time, the custom to pierce the body and face, walk barefoot over
 
Phuket Town vegetarian festival walk over glowing coal
Vegetarian festival walk over glowing coal

hot glowing coals, climbing knife-blade ladders, etc. Everyone can join the festival.

Some assume that this strange
custom has its origin in Malaysia. The rituals in Phuket City are very similar to the Hindu Festival of Thaipusam

Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Phuket vegetarian festival carrying the deity
Curing vegetarian festival carrying the ghosts
Phuket Town Vegetarian Festival
Vegetarian Festival a big toothpick in the mouth

Vegetarian festival
Phuket Town Vegetarian festival razor blade climb
Vegetarian festival razor blade climb
- Phuket City Pictures
Pretty Houses in Phuket
Pretty Houses in Phuket
Phuket Birthday Party
Phuket Birthday Party
Phuket Sea Food
Phuket Sea Food
Antique Bronze Sculpture
Antique Bronze Sculpture
Antique sitting Buddha Statue
Antique sitting Buddha Statue
   
Antique Chinese Coach Bronze
Antique Chinese Coach Bronze
     
Sino-Portuguese architecture
Sino-Portuguese architecture
Phuket Town Building
Phuket Town Building
 
Beauty Parlor
Beauty Parlor
Old Phuket Villa
Old Phuket Villa
Phuket Shop
Phuket Shop
 
Phuket Pizza
Phuket Pizza
Phuket Pizzeria
Phuket Pizzeria
Fashion Shop
Fashion Shop
Chinese Restaurant
Chinese Restaurant
Flower Shop
Flower Shop
Phuket old Villa
Phuket old Villa
 
Thai Orchid
Thai Orchid
Phuket Orchid Nursery
Phuket Orchid Nursery
Pink Orchid
Pink Orchid
Phuket Orchid
Phuket Orchid
Phuket Garden
Phuket Garden
Phuket Orchid Garden
Phuket Orchid Garden
Garden Flowers
Garden Flowers
Tropical Flowers at Phuket
Tropical Flowers at Phuket
Phuket Orchids
Phuket Orchids
Phuket Garden Flower
Phuket Garden Flower
Phuket tropical  flower
Phuket tropical flower
Phuket City Garden
Phuket City Garden
    Phuket People
Phuket People
Phuket Muslim People
Phuket Muslim People
Phuket Wedding
Phuket Wedding
Phuket Antiques Shop
Phuket Antiques Shop
   - Phuket City Vegetarian Festival
 
     

 - Phuket Food

Phuket Sea Food
Phuket Sea Food
Phuket Pork Food
Phuket Pork Food
Thai Fast Food
Thai Fast Food
The natural extension is to download our unique e-book on southern Thailand where you will find much more content and a lot of exiting full scale pictures.

You can have a look on the screen and if you like you can print all content on any desktop printer, ...more e-book

southern thailand e-bookNorthern & Western Thailand

                               
Phuket City
 


Beach City, hotels in Phuket, Phuket accommodation, in Phuket City, Phuket city hotel, royal Phuket city hotel, Metropole hotel Phuket, pearl hotel Phuket, Phuket.
Custom Search
© Copyright  beach-phuket.com All rights reserved.

                                          
Custom Search