Markets in Phuket

Before coming to Thailand, I traveled quite a lot in Africa plus North, Central and South America. Aside from such things as diving, local tourist attractions, food, drink, beaches, mountains, festivals and enjoying the company of other travelers and locals, I always enjoyed finding local markets. I would go out of my way if I heard of an interesting market. A market is a great place to sample real local life, no matter where you are. The market is the center of the town or village, and despite the arrival of many big shopping centers in Phuket over the last 12 years, the local markets here are still busy. There may be big stores like Tesco Lotus, Makro, Big C, Supercheap and many minimart style shops like 7-11, but the market (Talad) is still the place to get fresh local produce, or a place to hang out and meet people. Phuket is a bigger place than most people realise and there are countless small local markets. I have blogged a number of interesting markets and plan to do more, since (for me) a market is an essential part of life in the local community. Here's some of Phuket's markets...

The Weekend Market

Probably the market that most tourists will visit is the weekend market just outside Phuket Town. Locals call it Talad Naka (since it's close to Naka Temple) or Talad Jatujak Phuket (after the huge Jatujak market in Bangkok - the market in Phuket is much smaller!). It's held on Saturday and Sunday starting in the mid afternoon, carrying on until about 11pm. Best time to go, a bit before sunset. It is quite big and once you are in the maze of stalls, easy to be not quite sure which way to go! Lots of food stalls selling all kind of snacks and drinks, lots of clothes, arts and crafts, DVD's/CD's, plants, pets, mobile phone accessories, and it's great for people watching.

• Phuket Weekend Market - More Information

Phuket Town Main Market

The main market in town is a very busy place! It reopened in 2010 in a new building on Ranong Road in the old town area. The old market was .... old. And smelly. I never went inside! But the new market is well worth a visit. The streets all around the market are also a market, it's a very busy area and is also where you can get local buses to destinations all around the island.

• Phuket Town Market - More Information

Kathu Fresh Market

Kathu is my area. The main market is big and seems to have got busier over the years even though the main Tesco store is only a few km away and Tesco even opened a mini store in the area. Kathu is the area between Patong and Phuket Town and is a mainly residential area but with quite a lot of history as the tin mining industry was centered here in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The market is on daily, all day. It's a fresh produce market with stalls selling fish, shrimp, meat, vegetables, chili paste, eggs, flowers, ready made meals and a lot more! Nice to visit early evening, get some food from one of the many food stalls and watch the world go by.

• Kathu Market - More Information

Karon Temple Market

A very easy to visit market if you stay near Karon beach ... the Karon temple market takes place in the temple grounds on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the late afternoon/evening. It's a mix of fresh produce, snacks and food, clothes and a few tourist-aimed stalls selling sunglasses or swimwear. It's the main local market in Karon. There's another market a couple of miles away in Kata on the back road away from the beach.

• Karon Temple Market - More Information

Phuket Town Indy Market

The Indy Market near the old section of Phuket town only started in 2010, meant as a place for kids/teenagers to hang out in a safe, smoke free environment. It's not huge, most of the stalls sell arty items and clothes and there's some food and drink stalls too. It is indeed very popular with the youngsters. There is often live music too. The Indy Market takes place on Thursday and Friday evenings (so does not clash with the Saturday/Sunday weekend market). Certainly worth a visit combined with dinner or drinks in Phuket Town. I've heard there is now a similar market on Wednesdays at a place called Boat Plaza, a new development just north of Phuket Town.

• Indy Market - More Information

Expo Market

We have used the Expo market quite a lot, bought shirts, pants, Thai souvenirs, computer games. It's an aircon indoor market, open every day near the center of Phuket Town. It's not been mentioned on the blog, but a good place for clothes.

Local Markets

Phuket covers an area of over 500 square km, and there are many local areas and small villages within Phuket, and all have some kind of market. Try looking for fresh seafood at Rawai beach, or check out the big Banzaan fresh market in Patong near the Jungceylon shopping mall - and there's another market in Patong on Nanai road (the back road). Oh and the touristy "OTOP" market. I drive past a small market in the Chalong area every day and there are regular local markets in the Bang Rong and Cherng Talay areas of Phuket. All over the island! Worth a look at any market for a taste of the real Phuket, to pick up some snacks or fruit and see something away from the organised tourist route.

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Wat Manee Sri Mahathat (วัดมณีศรีมหาธาตุ)

Another post from the land beyond the island of Phuket, the "mainland" which of course can be reached by car, over the bridge. This I like about Phuket .. it is geologically an island, it is a separate province of Thailand, but there's a bridge so you don't need to rely on ferries or flights. We like to drive over to Phang Nga province, and we've had quite a few trips in the last year exploring in that direction. This post is about a temple called Wat Manee Sri Mahathat, which we have driven past many times and finally stopped to visit one day last year. Anyone who has driven from Phuket to Phang Nga or Krabi (same road) may have noticed this temple...





It's kind of unmissable with the huge black statue of a monk right by the main road. I've watched this temple being built - construction started about 10 years ago and was finished about 2 years ago, something like that. We have driven up and down that road many times, watching the temple grow. It's one of those places that we always say "we'll stop on the way back" or "we'll stop next time", so I was glad to finally pay a visit. The big statue is a well known monk - his name is Por Than Klai, famous in south Thailand, it was said that he could predict the future and he was a favorite monk of the King. He died in 1970.



Quite an impressive statue. When we stopped there were just a few visitors. Aside from the big statue, there is a beautiful main temple building ("bot") - certainly looks freshly built!



On the day we stopped here, we were actually en route to another temple called Wat Bang Riang, which is past Phang Nga Town. Between Wat Manee Sri Mahathat and Phang Nga is another temple well worth visiting - Wat Suwan Kuha, built into a cave. Plenty to see around here! Making a day trip out of this can also include the Sanang Manora Forest Park, and maybe lunch at Tha Sai Seafood.



Our kids were with us too of course. When people ask me "what can we do with kids in Phuket?" I say this .. do whatever you want, but keep it a bit fun or make sure they learn something. And now and then do something "for the kids". Visit a temple, why not? If you are from England, Sweden, South Africa, Canada .. whatever, your kids I guess will not have seen a Buddhist temple before. So it will be something new and interesting. Lighting some incense and rubbing gold leaf on a statue - do it!



Another building is airconditioned and contains wax statues of several monks. My wife is saying prayers below in front of an image of Luang Pu Thuat (หลวงปู่ทวด) who lived several hundred years ago and is revered throughout Thailand. After one visit here, my wife wants to come with her family sometime.



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Rang Hill (Khao Rang) in Phuket Town

Rang Hill (Khao Rang) is found on the north side of Phuket Town and is a popular gathering place for locals in the evenings or at weekends and quite a lot of tours take a quick drive up here too. There are 3 different roads up to the top from the south and east sides of the hill (check the map at the end of the page). The main route starts on Mae Luan road next to the Rang Hill Dental Clinic (which we use!). There's a big sign at the corner saying "Khao Rang". The road is shady and well kept. You pass a restaurant called Phuket View on the way up - must try it one day! And finally reach a parking area with a little park in the center at the top of the hill. It is walkable, though a hot walk of about a mile from the bottom. It's not one of Phuket's highest hills, the top is about 140m above sea level, compared to nearby Monkey Hill about 270m high (the one with all the aerials on top) and Phuket's high point is well over 500m above sea level.



(above) View from Rang Hill looking Southwest to Chalong - and you can just see the hill with the Big Buddha on the far right of the photo. From the main viewpoint you can't see much of Phuket Town which is mostly to the Southeast of the hill. But the view to the west and south is nice with all the hills. Not a spectacular view, but pleasant, and since there's a carpark and place to eat, people come.



You'll often see couples sitting together quietly enjoying each other's company and the fresh air and trying to ignore the minibus full of Aussies who just arrived.





(above) A couple and (maybe) some Aussies enjoy the view at Rang Hill

One of the other routes up the hill starts at a small turning just south of the Vachira Hospital, and passes a hard-to-find temple, called (yes) Wat Khao Rang. I'd never seen this temple until January 2012, it had somehow eluded me and is well worth a visit. A 3rd route starts on a side road near the Bangkok Phuket Hospital, passing the Dairy Hut restaurant and the Royal Spa.



(above) Big Buddha at Wat Khao Rang

There's a well known restaurant (Tunk Ka Cafe) on the top, which is a real Phuket legend, it's been there since before the days of tourism. Easy enough to find, bit of a walk downhill on some steps made from old railway sleepers which must have come from some distance away as there's no railways in Phuket! They do great iced coffee and have a menu of local food, not that expensive and great view from there too. Nice in the evening with the lights spread out below.



There's a newer restaurant at the top too - Khao Rang Breeze. More expensive, I have not eaten there, I prefer funky to fancy and so does my wallet. They do have a great toilet there ....



(above) sign for the toilet at Khao Rang Breeze



This statue is in the park at Rang Hill. His name is Ratsada Korsimbi Na Ranong, and he was governor of Phuket around the turn of the 20th century. He did a lot to advance Phuket, especially modernizing the tin mining industry, building the Bang Yai canal through Phuket Town, and bringing the rubber industry into Phuket on a large scale. That's today's history lesson. With tin and rubber, Phuket was already quite a wealthy place before any tourists came here.



That's my wife and kids enjoying the view just around sunset from Rang Hill. We've been up here countless times and while you get more spectacular views from the Big Buddha or from Phromthep Cape, Rang Hill is a nice place to stop if exploring around Phuket Town, which I often do!

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Dairy Hut Seafood Restaurant, Phang Nga

Happy New Year 2013 (or 2556 here in Thailand, we're way ahead)! This is the first blog post of 2013, and it's a restaurant we tried on January 1st. From our house near Phuket Town we can normally drive over the Sarasin bridge in about 45 minutes and over the bridge is Phang Nga province which we are exploring more and more in the last couple of years. I need to make a new blog post about Phang Nga linking to all the posts on the blog that involve a trip over the bridge. On January 1st we headed out for a new year lunch, and Dairy Hut Seafood was the target. We'd seen it opened sometime last year, a new branch of the Dairy Hut restaurant in Phuket Town, which is one of our regular places.

From the bridge, its about 40 minutes to Phang Nga Town and there are places to visit on the way such as Wat Suwan Kuha, a temple built in a cave, and Wat Manee Sri Mahathat, which is right by the road, featuring a huge black statue of a monk - I'll blog about this temple soon. Just before Phang Nga town, there's a junction - the road goes straight to town and right towards Krabi, and this is also the way to Surat Thani and the east coast of Thailand. Less than 1km down this road is a PTT gasoline station on the right, and 2km later on the left is Dairy Hut Seafood. Easy to spot.



It certainly looks like a newly opened restaurant - all very clean, freshly painted and with carefully tended grounds. And of course on January 1st it was quite full. A lot of cars parked and I was worried we'd not get a table! But it's bigger than it looks, and there's lots of outdoor (shaded) seating. Great location. Near the road, but it's not noisy, right next to a jungly mountain and a lake, and here's the view on the other side of the road...



I liked the place right away, and I am sure we'll eat there again. Seating was comfortable, and we had a lake view from our table. The menu is big, and it would be easy to over-order! We ended up spending about 900 Baht for 4 people (yeh, 2 of the people are kids, but I tell you our kids eat a lot!). Price will depend what you order of course, as you can get lobster and big prawns or mantis shrimp, these cost more and are priced per kilo. We ordered half a dozen dishes and by the end we were stuffed, the food was not finished and we asked for a doggy bag!

The view from our table. Cheers! Happy New Year!



So, what did we eat? First, I ordered 'Yam Pla Duk Foo' which is fried catfish salad, and a favourite dish of mine. I often head straight for the Thai Spicy Salad section of the menu. I like Yam Tua Pu (wingbean salad), Yam Gung Seab (dried shrimp salad), Yam Ta Krai (lemongrass salad) and more. The plate of Pla Duk Foo here was big. It comes with a mango salad with cashews and chili. Delicious!





I'm hungry just looking at that. Also had a fried fish dish, my daughter had some spaghetti carbonara, we also had some chicken with garlic and a big beef and vegetable hotplate. Everything was tasty though the spaghetti looked more like noodles and my daughter said they do it better at Dairy Hut in Phuket.





This restaurant is certainly aimed at Thai people who want a nice, but not expensive, meal out. You can tell a lot by looking at the other guests, and the licence plates on the cars in the car park .. a lot were from Phuket. I did see 2 other non-Thai customers, both I guess were foreign residents like me, eating out with the family. Now of course a restaurant like this is not a place you're likely to visit for lunch if you stay in Kata beach. It would be a 2 hour drive, and you'd not want to get a taxi for a ride like that, would cost more than the food. If you stayed in the north of Phuket, or rented a car and went exploring in Phang Nga, a great place to stop and eat for sure, or try Tha Sai Seafood, a bit further away from Phuket, or Samchong Seafood, a bit closer. All in Phang Nga. Just over the bridge from Phuket island ...

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