Khao Lak Tsunami Memorials

It's been a long time since I mentioned the tsunami on the blog. Seems like a very long time ago. Our son was born 2 weeks after it happened, and he's passed his 8th birthday now. We do occasionally pause to think about what happened on December 26th 2004. Was certainly an emotional time for me, although we lost nothing and I personally did not know people who died. Actually, Phuket suffered a lot less than Khao Lak (or Phi Phi Island). The number of deaths in Phuket was less than 300. In the Khao Lak area along the coast, the official number was more than 4,000. This is mainly due to the topography of the land and the sea floor - very flat, so the wave could just keep going. In places, the tsunami reached over 1km inland. In other areas where the land rises away from the sea, the damage was a lot less. One of the worst hit areas was the fishing village of Baan Nam Khem which is north of the beaches, close to the larger town of Takua Pa. We've driven this way quite a few times in the last 8 years, on the way to visit places like Khao Sok National Park and the old town of Sri Takua Pa. And each time we passed through I thought about stopping at a tsunami memorial, but at the same time I really did not want to be guilty of "tsunami tourism". But on our recent holiday, since we were staying in Khao Lak, we decided to visit the memorials, pay our respects to those who died. Quite a sombre holiday activity, but after all these years, it was something I wanted to do.

We visited 2 different memorials on different days. The first was the Baan Nam Khem tsunami memorial park. Just to the west of the village, right by the beach. The park looks to be well kept. There's a small museum with lots of photos, and several small stalls selling food and drinks. The main memorial consists of 2 long walls. One is bare concrete and curved like a big wave. The opposite wall is covered in name plaques, some with photos, some with fresh flowers. A long wall full of people who are gone but not forgotten.



I let the kids walk at their own pace, reading names. They know about the tsunami of course, but visiting this memorial at Baan Nam Khem made them stop and think. We stopped by one plaque showing a photo of a young European boy, age 10. Seeing a face and knowing his age really hit home with the kids. "Did he die?" my son asked.



Another who died that day in Khao Lak was a young man called Bhumi Jensen. The tsunami affected a great many families who lost loved ones, and even the Thai royal family was not spared. Bhumi was the son of Princess Ubolratana, the eldest daughter of King Bhumibol. There is a small shrine to him at the memorial park, and also a large Buddha statue right by the sea.



A few days later, and only a short drive from our hotel, we visited another memorial site, one of the symbols of the tsunami, demonstrating just how powerful nature can be. Police patrol boat number 813 was anchored offshore from La Flora resort, on royal protection duty looking after Princess Ubolratana and her family. The force of the tsunami was very strong at this point. The hotel was heavily damaged, many people lost their lives and the 80 foot long police boat was carried over 1km inland by the tsunami. Nobody ever moved the boat. It was decided to leave it as a memorial, although over the years the site had started to get developed. Shophouses line the main road nearby. In 2012 work started on creating a memorial park around the boat with a museum. Work is still in progress.



As you can see, it's a big piece of metal. And (I just checked on Google Earth) it's 1.2km from the sea. When the museum is complete, I imagine we'll visit again. We liked our days in Khao Lak, very relaxing and the hotel prices in low season are very low (see Khao Lak Hotels), although Khao Lak in low season gets more rain than Phuket and if the wind blows strongly, the waves just about cover the whole beach.





For the moment, it's just the boat, a completed but empty building, a wide open park area and a museum under construction very slowly - just a few Burmese construction workers on the job. I imagine they know that quite a lot of Burmese died in the tsunami too - not in Burma, but in the Baan Nam Khem and Khao Lak area - many Burmese work on fishing boats or do building in Thailand.

I think the whole family was glad to visit these memorials. Kids learned something, we got to pay our respects or say a prayer in our own way. Everyone living in this area had their life shaken up by the tsunami, and especially here everyone hopes it will not happen again although, if it did, the loss of life would be a lot less. People know what to do now, and with warning systems in place, such a disaster just could not have the same effect again. Certainly I have no worries about being on the beach, what happened on December 26th 2004 was absolutely a freak of nature. Not to be forgotten, but not to be feared either.


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Koh Tachai Island - Day trip from Khao Lak

On our recent holiday we spent a total of 4 nights in Khao Lak, and we'll be going again next time the kids have some school holidays. It was very relaxing, much of the time was spent in the pool, or walking on the beach, or having breakfast, lunch, dinner and sunset beers! But we did have one day trip planned and booked in advance. Koh Tachai is a small island about 50km north of the Similan Islands, out in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand. We had heard that the speedboat tours left from Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing port and village north of Khao Lak, and from there it would be about 50km to Koh Tachai. I have been to Koh Tachai many times in the past for diving on liveaboard boats and have had some great dives there with manta rays at a dive site called Tachai Pinnacle, but I had never set foot on the island before! Over the last couple of years Tachai has been becoming a popular alternative to the Similan Islands, which get a lot more visitors. Thai tourists especially seemed to be heading to Tachai, I saw lots of lovely photos on Thai websites and also on Thai TV channels. I knew my friends at Easy Day Thailand could book us on the tour, so we signed up and were ready on a warm but hazy morning on April 25th. Minibus pick up was on time, but we headed south towards Thap Lamu port, not north to Ban Nam Khem. Looked like we'd be leaving from Thap Lamu which would mean a 70km speedboat trip. We had a wait of about 20 minutes before boarding the speedboat while the tour operator sorted out various groups heading to different islands. Coffee, tea and toast were provided (self service) and then we headed to the speedboat. Aside from our family of 6, all other customers on the trip were Thai.



We sped out of Thap Lamu, the sky cleared up a little, the sea was flat calm, looked like a perfect day coming up! I had been a little worried about my parents doing a long speedboat trip out in the sun all day, but with mirror-like seas and a bit of cloud cover, we all sat in the front of the speedboat while all the white skinned Bangkok Thai people hid in the shade :)



It was going to be quite a long ride, about 90 minutes to Koh Tachai. Would have been less from Ban Nam Khem, but departure point had been switched due to the tides - Thap Lamu is a deep water port used by dive boats, fishing boats and the Thai navy too. Well anyway, as the sun came out and the sea was so calm, a longer ride did not matter. My daughter enjoyed being right in the bow with the wind in her hair ...



Unfortunately ... things then went a bit pear shaped. Some dark clouds ahead. Surely just hazy skies? Maybe a light shower? We sped onward. Very dark clouds. Lightning. Are we going through that? Well, the sea was still calm. I sent the family "inside" and took a quick snapshot with the phone before the rain bucketed down...



Well, the next 30 minutes were very very wet. Everyone was soaked since the roof of the speedboat had a gap all the way around, and in came the rain. My poor dad was not feeling too healthy, and I was just cursing our luck! The speedboat carried on, sea was a little bouncy but there were no big waves, but at the same time, there seemed to be no let up in the rain and no brightening of the sky. We arrived at Koh Tachai in the rain, left all bags and cameras under cover on the boat, then off into the treeline to find some shelter. Must have carried on raining for another hour, time we would have spent snorkeling or walking on the beach, instead of hiding and drinking tea!

And then, as if by magic .. within minutes (so it seemed) the rain disappeared, the sky cleared and it was suddenly the perfect day! Everyone was stripping down to swimwear and hanging up clothes to dry in the trees. And then we could all see the attraction of Koh Tachai island! Our guide decided that the 'jungle walk' that should be part of the day would be cancelled to give everyone plenty of beach time after the rains. I went climbing back on the speedboat to look for everyone's bags and cameras which had been stored in a dry space when the rain started. And then the photo-shoot could begin!



Much of the next couple of hours was spent on the beach, playing in the water with the kids, doing a little snorkeling (but not much to see right by the beach, you have to swim out further) and taking photos. The tour operator provided drinks all day (juices, sodas, tea, coffee, drinking water) and snacks like nuts and biscuits. The actual lunch was a bit disappointing for me, though I think the rain meant that the staff had a hard time getting everything ready. Anyway, why waste time eating in the shade when you can jump!



The kids wanted nothing more than to swim, snorkel and play in the shallow waters by the beach. It certainly is very beautiful and you can't really get colours like this so close to Phuket, although Racha Yai island is pretty good. I just wished the weather had been like this ALL day, although considering that I got a pretty good sunburn anyway, maybe that was enough sun. The kids can normally be out all day without feeling the sun, though my daughter has fair skin which can get quite red, and it did on this day. For a couple of hours, kids were in their own private paradise!



OK, not quite private, there were about 6 speedboats there on the same day, but as with most tourist locations, if you walk a couple of hundred meters you lose 90% of the people who just plonk their lazy behinds down on the first available patch of sand. The beach on the east side of Tachai is about 700m long, plenty of room to spread out. Tommy the guide called it 'Paradise Island', which I guess is the tourist name or the name his employers tell him to use! There are plenty of paradise islands around these parts! Koh Tachai has no development save for a ranger station, some toilets, a couple of covered areas with a concrete floor and some thatched bamboo gazebos. Hope it stays that way.



Days like these are more for the kids than the adults! I am happy that our kids love the outdoors, swimming, boat trips, and don't complain too much when we do other things like visit temples. On this same trip (to be blogged) we visited a couple of tsunami memorials and I think the kids learned something from that. But the day at Koh Tachai was certainly more fun! Here's the boy, mask in hand, skipping his way through the shallows...



A word about our guide on the trip, Tommy - nice guy, very friendly. We met him the next week on our return to Khao Lak, on the beach with his family and we stopped for a chat. If you are on this tour, leave him a tip! When it was time to get back on the speedboat he wandered up and down the beach to find everyone, ukelele in hand ...



Took a while to get off the beach, as the tide was low. Everyone had to get onto a national park flat bottomed boat to transfer to the speedboat. For a moment I was worried that we were heading straight back to port, and with the rain we'd really only had a couple of hours of beach time, surely we could not be leaving already? No ... we headed along the east coast of the island for some snorkeling. The kids and I joined most of the Thai folks from Bangkok and Tommy for about 20 minutes, and there was some good fish life on this part of the island. My son was quite proud of the distance we swam during this snorkeling session. The kids love the water, I guess I'll have to be taking them diving soon!

How much did you enjoy the day, son?



In the end a very good day out. With the rain, and then the sun, everyone was cream crackered by the end of the day. It is actually possible to do the trip if you stay in Phuket, but that means a pick up at about 6am. Certainly this is a better option if you stay in Khao Lak. Now, until last month I did not really care for Khao Lak, but I can see now why people like it. If you have a 2 week Phuket trip, then a few days in Khao Lak is a good idea, but the day trips to Koh Tachai and the Similan Islands only operate in high season November - April.

• Contact Easy Day Thailand to book trips to Koh Tachai, Similan Islands and just about anything else.
• More Information about Khao Lak
• Khao Lak Hotels at Agoda.com
• Phuket Hotels at Agoda.com

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Ton Prai Waterfall near Khao Lak

We've all just had a little holiday, and life is now settling back to normal with work and school and blogging! While on holiday I took plenty of photos and posted updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but couldn't face a whole blog post and was trying to keep off the computer as much as possible and spend more time with the family. Mum and Dad were here from England, kids had school holidays and I had a couple of weeks away from the dive shop. Much of the time was quite relaxed, nothing too strenuous. We did 2 separate trips to Khao Lak and I will write more about Khao Lak sometime soon. We'd not been to stay there before, and we liked it. Khao Lak is less than 2 hours drive from our house, about 100km north. On the way home from the second trip, we stopped off at Ton Prai waterfall, which is about about 30km south of Nanthong beach in Khao Lak where we stayed, or 30km north of Sarasin bridge which joins Phuket island to the mainland. It's then another 6km down a small side road which gets narrower and more jungly as you approach the hills. It was clearly signposted, easy to find. We had stopped last year one time, but on a rainy day and we did not fancy a walk in the jungle! This time the sky was blue with some fluffy cotton wool clouds floating around. We stopped at the entrance / visitors center where you have to pay an entry fee, currently 100 Baht for a tourist, cheaper for Thai people. My wife negotiated a group price for 6 of us :)



There are some clean toilets at the entrance. Nowhere to buy a drink, though .. we should have stopped at a 7-11 or local store to get a few bottles of water along the way. Hot day, walking in the jungle, need drinks! There's a sign at the visitors center explaining that it's a 650m walk to reach Ton Prai waterfall. There's another sign too ... Conserve nature. Do not leave anything here. Good. And then a wonderful mis-spelling or mistranslation ... Accept your Footprint. Should say "Except" but actually turns into a Buddhist concept. Accept your footprint. I like it!



The walk to the waterfall was quite easy, the path is well made, up and downhill sections mostly have steps rather than rough ground, not too many loose stones, it was no bother for my parents who are not as young as they used to be :) The walk is very jungly and I do like a bit of jungle in small doses, though prefer sweeping views. Big rainforest trees with buttress roots are a favourite of mine. The roots are mostly above ground because rainforest soil has most of it's nutrients near the surface, and buttress roots are there to soak up all the goodness!



And here's Mum and Dad enjoying a jungle walk!



Now, there are quite a lot of waterfalls in and around Phuket (see Waterfalls in Phuket), and most are pretty small. The main attraction is the jungle ambience, and maybe a chance to jump in and cool off! I had heard that Ton Prai was worth a visit, and .. yes, it is! Even though we visited at the end of a very dry season, there was still plenty of water. Here's the first sight of Ton Prai at the end of the path ...



Yeh, it's not huge, but I like the water tumbling down the rocks. I guess after some rain it would look better. There's a shallow pool under the falls - often falls have deep pools but since the water is not falling vertically, it's not created a deep pool. My boy was straight in to check it out!



Is it cold? Well, let's say it's "refreshing"! And even a little jungle walk can make you sweat a little. So I jumped in too for a splash with the kids. It was easy enough to go and sit right under the waterfall. Would that be possible in rainy season? Not sure. Here's me enjoying a free shower ...



We're thinking of a little trip to Khao Lak sometime in the low season, so will check out Ton Prai again, as well as a return visit to Sri Phang Nga national park north of Khao Lak which features several waterfalls, including Tamnang which is quite impressive. Ton Prai deserves another look, and is easy enough to visit on the way to Khao Lak or on the way home.

Here's some more of that jungle :)



Next few blog posts will also feature the Khao Lak area. We took a speedboat day trip to Koh Tachai island, we visited a couple of tsunami memorials and really enjoyed a couple of easy relaxing days staying at a small resort by the sea. With low season prices, hotels in Khao Lak are a bargain for half the year! Only trouble is that Khao Lak gets very quiet and a lot of things close up. We'll see later this year!


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Morning Exercise at Bang Wad Reservoir

Bang Wad reservoir is Phuket's largest source of fresh water, a large artificial lake in the hills in the Kathu area of Phuket not far from Phuket Town and only a short drive from my house. The dam is about 800m long and there's a small road winding for a total of 6.5km around the reservoir. We've been coming up here for 10 years, normally just for a little walk, some fresh air and exercise, let the kids ride bikes along the dam, buy some food from the food stalls that are there on weekend evenings. We've driven around the reservoir a few times, it's a lovely jungly road, but until last month I'd never tried to walk or run around that road. With the coming of another birthday, I decided it's time to try and get more healthy. Too much time sitting at a computer and too many beers .. I am about 20kg, maybe 25kg, bigger than when I arrived in Phuket back in 1999. After a few days just walking up and down the dam, just walking a few km, I took the plunge and headed off around the reservoir on the 6.5km loop. Not running, just walking.



(above) This is the dam not long after sunrise. Best to start early or it's to hot, and I'll be late for work. In the mornings there are quite a few people exercising, walking or running or cycling around the road. There are more people in the early evening, but since I normally don't stop work at the dive shop until 6pm, the morning is when I am able to get there. And the reservoir really looks great in the morning light. It's a side of Phuket people maybe don't know exists. A big lake? Hills?



Sometimes I walk clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise (that's counter clockwise for Americans). I throw in some short bursts of running too, and got some new Reeboks just last week. The aim will be to actually be able to run 6.5km eventually. Doesn't sound like much of a challenge, but it's going to need some work. I signed up for an app called Strava to "track my progress". No rush, not aiming to be Phuket's biggest loser :)

The road twists and turns around the reservoir, there is very little vehicular traffic. On an average walk I see maybe a handful of mopeds, maybe 1 or 2 pick up trucks, and the cyclists, joggers and walkers.





At the moment it takes me around an hour to walk 6.5km around the reservoir. A bit faster if there is some jogging involved. Fastest time about 55 minutes. Sounds a bit slow, but from small acorns grow the mighty oak! And a 1 hour fast walk is a good way to burn fat, and sweat out a few poisons like the beers I am drinking as I write this now! Seems a shame to run, it's nice to walk and enjoy the jungle and some great views across the water in the early morning light ...



Yes, this beautiful scene is in Phuket! Remember that Phuket has some pretty big hills, up to about 1700 feet high. I've done a few hikes in the past, such as a little ramble up to the Big Buddha, and a much harder one up to the top of Phuket's highest hill. It's not just beaches here in Phuket, which was part of the point of starting this blog back in 2006 :)

There's a lot of little interesting things to see on the way round the road. There are little rubber plantations, quite a few small houses, and I've seen one area with pineapples growing too. If you're walking and not rushing too much, the details stand out. Roadside shrines and bananas. And jungle. Most of Phuket is green.







It's really nice there. A totally different side of Phuket, away from the tourism, beaches, nightlife. I'm very happy that Bang Wad reservoir is so close to our house! There are various places for people to walk or jog in Phuket, in different local areas. This is our area... It was the hope when starting this blog that a few people might want to visit some of the lesser known, and certainly less touristy parts of Phuket. So maybe see you 7am at the reservoir sometime!


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Koh Rang Yai

Koh Rang Yai is a small uninhabited island about 5km off the east coast of Phuket, featuring a kilometer of sandy beach on the west side with views back to the mainland. There is a restaurant, a little bar and I believe some bungalows, I'm going to have to go again to check, but I am sure that they have some simple bungalows for rent. The island is a little slice of paradise. Really. It's as close to unspoiled as you can get in this part of the world. The photo below was taken in March 2013 ...



To reach Koh Rang Yai, you can visit as part of a tour or take a longtail boat from Laem Hin jetty, next to Laem Hin Seafood (a favourite restaurant). On the way, you pass Koh Maphrao, a much bigger island which is basically full of coconut trees (Maphrao = coconut), has a fishing village and a resort called The Village which opened a few years ago. I'm tempted to book us in there for a night sometime soon!

We've been there a few times over the years, the first time in 2006 with our kids and my parents. The parents are back again this year and I think maybe we might just head to Koh Rang Yai again after a tasty lunch at Laem Hin! That first time I think we paid 800 Baht for the longtail boat, I guess it would be more now, but not too much more. I mean, there's not much there, ideal to chill on a lovely beach, but not much to do! I think the kids would love to go back and really it's a gorgeous place...



I am quite amazed that a huge resort has not been built there yet. Doesn't seem to have changed much over the years. The second time I visited was in 2010, a great day out on my birthday - the owner of Sunrise Divers bought a cool sporty speedboat to use as a charter boat and we headed to Koh Rang Yai to do some promotional photography with Helicam...



The photo above is by Helicam - the little helicopter with attached camera was being flown by Phil (one of the owners) chasing the speedboat - they'd never tried doing really low level stuff like this before. And that's Koh Rang Yai in the background! They got some great shots. In the back of the speedboat is me taking photos and Phil controlling the helicopter. The photographer is also in the speedboat - he gets a live image from the helicam and takes photos by remote control. Amazing stuff! Some of the photos I took can be found on the blog - see Speedboats and Helicam at Rang Yai Island. You can "park" a speedboat or longtail boat easily at the beach ...



Rang Yai was in my mind again recently - we did a speedboat tour right around Phuket Island a few weeks ago, a bit of an experimental tour by my friends at Easy Day Thailand. We did a full circumnavigation of Phuket, with several stops on the way, the first stop being at Koh Rang Yai and to be honest I think we would have been happy to stay there all day! The word "paradise" is overused, but anyway ....



Certainly fun for all the family. We stopped about 1 hour on the island. There is something about blue seas, white sand, palm trees, a cold beer that makes you want to stay a while. We'd stocked a few beers on ice in the speedboat. I saw that there is a bar there by the beach. I know that there is a small restaurant, but on that last visit in 2010 we found the restaurant to be somewhat overpriced, charging something like 200 Baht for a fried rice. If we go again soon, we're taking a picnic! Not sure what the bar charged for a beer, but sometimes any price is OK for a cold beer on a perfect day :)



Oh yeh, jump for joy! When we stopped on that trip, there were about 10 other boats and almost all the tourists from those boats had taken up position on the same 100 meter stretch of sand or in the shade of the trees behind the beach. If you walk 100m, you get a perfect beach to yourself. Same goes in many tourist areas. 90% of tourists in the same 10% of space. Take the road less traveled! I mean, just by heading to Koh Rang Yai you lose 99% of the tourists who are happily sitting on Patong beach or one of the other main beaches. And then walk 100m and you lose 90% of the remaining 1%. Get it? Hope so.



Inland from the beach, aside from the previously mentioned bungalows (I think), restaurant and bar, there's a shop, and then some trails through the coconut trees. You can rent a bicycle and ride around or just take a walk as we did. Yeh, not much to see, but sometimes that's great. Palm trees, nature, sand, sea, the hot tropical air. That'll do!



(above) Bike hire on Rang Yai island



Not a bad little place! I think we'll be back again soon. The east coast of Phuket has a lot of small islands. It sounds kind of obvious but the best way to see Phuket island is by boat!

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Shrine of the Serene Light

Phuket Town is full of history, full of interest. I still keep stumbling upon new places... I wish there was more time to explore and less time in the office! I thought I knew the old town pretty well, but then back in 2009 I read about this shrine on the "Phuket Town Treasure Map" (a great map for exploring old town, it's made by a company called Serendipity Designs which has an office on Soi Romanee). A shrine that I did not know about? It seems I must have walked past the entrance many times, but in 2009 the entrance to the shrine was an alleyway about 4 feet wide marked by a pillar with Chinese writing (see photo here.) Felt like I was making a real discovery! The shrine itself was a bit crumbly and I was the only visitor. A couple of years ago, renovation started on the shrine, and the entrance has been widened and beautified. The renovation took ages and it only reopened officially in February 2013. So, this is an updated, re written blog post about the Shrine of the Serene Light with new 2013 photos!



(above) Entrance to the shrine on Phang Nga road

The shrine, also called Sang Tham Shrine, is built among the houses in the old town. It was built in 1889 by a local Hokkien Chinese family. The late 19th century was a boom time for Phuket, with money pouring in from the tin mining industry. Chinese families became very important here around that time. The old town is full of Chinese influence - check the shops, the shrines, the people. If you see the Google map at the bottom of the page, you can see the shrine is really in the middle of a block or houses and shops, hidden away. There's actually a "secret" passage at the back of the shrine that leads through the kitchen of a restaurant on the next street (Thalang Road). I've walked through a couple of time. Down the alleyway from Phang Nga road is the main entrance to the shrine...



Certainly looks a lot better than it used to. And on the day I visited last month there were a few other visitors including a Chinese-Thai man from Bangkok paying his respects. A reminder to everyone about being respectful ...



Externally, the shrine is very bright and colourful especially now that it's been fixed up and repainted. Inside the shrine, things are different. Everything is kept tidy by a live-in caretaker, but inside there has been no rebuilding or repainting.



The walls are covered in murals showing old stories - the walls look old. Were they originally this colour, or is that due to over 120 years of smoke from burning incense? I am happy to see that nobody has tried to restore these old walls. The local people here have a healthy respect for tradition and history. If you walk into the shrine, with the incense that always burns, there's a huge array of statues of Chinese gods.



The photo below I took from behind a row of statues looking back out the entrance of the shrine ...



It's quite a magical place and well worth looking for. I always urge people to go take a walk around town, visit a shrine, maybe the Thai Hua museum or the Chinpracha House, get some lunch at Kopitiam or try some Roti with curry. And stop by the old Chinese herb shop on Thalang Road, join the locals for a late afternoon walk at Sapan Hin park..... Phuket Town is where it's at!


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Phuket Town Central Market

I'd been meaning to explore the big central market in Phuket for a long time. I do like markets - it's where you see real local life, or at least one side of local life. The main market is on Ranong road in the older section of Phuket Town, and when I first came to Phuket in 1999, I walked around the town since the first few nights in Phuket were spent in town. The central market back then was an old building, not sure when it was built, but could be close to 100 years ago. I never went inside. The smell was off-putting. This was an old, old, place with old, old smells. Thankfully, the old central market was finally demolished about 5 years ago, and a new one built which finally opened in 2010. There are of course local markets all over Phuket Island, but the main market is still in Phuket Town.

You can't park on the road near the market, it's full of stalls and small shops and local buses and things being loaded and unloaded. I parked on Krabi road near the Thai Hua Museum, and just west of the museum is a very handy alleyway that cuts through 2 blocks direct to the market...



And it's a busy little alleyway! I hung around for 10 minutes to take a few photos. Big pick up trucks were squeezing through, heading out from the market, with only a few inches to spare on each side. These streets were not built with a Toyota Hilux in mind! Phuket Town has a lot of little shortcuts, and this is one of the most useful.



Approaching the market down this narrow street, you first come to an outdoor market area. The streets around the main market building are full of colour, stalls selling fruits and vegetables. People were loading vehicles with baskets full of bananas, papayas, oranges, pineapples, coconuts ....



The streets in this area of course get a bit scruffy, but help is at hand. The market area keeps itself as tidy as possible. I saw several people hard at work inside and outside ...



The alley leads right to the entrance of the central market, though of course you can also get there along Ranong road. I had originally intended to get there earlier, but it was after 10am, and already hot with the sun high in the sky. It would be better to get there a bit earlier for photos and to avoid the heat. The street outside the market is a continually moving ballet.



So I wandered inside. The main entrance has several sets of stairs leading to 3 different levels. There are signs in English which is very helpful for non Thai speaking market enthusiasts. I like to find a place to watch people coming and going. Markets are great for people watching. The egg man arrived with a pick-up full of eggs, and he took repeated journeys between truck and market stall. Down all those steps. With all those eggs. It's all about balance.



Most of one floor seems to be all about meat of various kinds. Phuket of course has plenty of seafood available. Our family eats lots of fish. It would take a fair sized family to manage one of the fish on the stall below. Most local markets in Phuket also sell fish, prawns, squid and shellfish. The people of Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi areas have long been fishing folk. As a diver I wish they'd fish a bit less in some areas, but seafood is a traditional staple for locals and in demand from tourists so the fishing industry remains strong.



The fish and seafood stalls need ice. Fresh seafood is great. Old seafood is a disaster. I had to dodge out the way of the ice men several times. Buckets full of ice arriving to keep those fish cool....



Any market anywhere is a riot of colours, smells, people, and things you don't get "back home". Thai cooking is more about the herbs, spices and special blends of ingredients that can be added to vegetables, meat, maybe coconut milk, and wow! You get a wonderful variety of tastes. This stall below is selling a lot of things used in local Phuket cooking - dried chilies, dried shrimp, dried fish combined with the right spices can make all kind of dishes. The dried shrimp in particular is an oft-used ingredient in Phuket and Phang Nga.



And this shop (below) adds the spice - several different curry pastes for sale, the magic ingredient in Thai curries. People do sometimes make their own curry paste, but it's actually not that easy, and most people buy the curry pastes from a specialist in the local market...



And the market is also the place to pick up some vegetables and a smile ...



Outside the market on Ranong Road is where local buses are found, destination anywhere! It's a shame that Phuket does not have a comprehensive public transport system. You can get a bus from Phuket Town to all over the island (and from there, back again). But from Karon to Patong beach? From Patong to Surin Beach? No bus. Only taxis and tuk tuks. Well, I hope that will change. From the street outside the market you can head out all over Phuket ...



The bus above? Takes you to Sarasin, where you find the bridge to the mainland. The bus below? Heads off to the northeast coast to Bang Rong, where there's a great floating restaurant in the mangroves. The old central market in Phuket Town is still the center of Phuket for local people.



This is not at all a tourist market, this is the center of Phuket life, well it certainly was until 15 years ago. A traditional market with fresh produce has to compete with supermarkets, and Phuket has a lot of these now, mostly opened in the last 10 years, but the local markets seem as busy as ever, a great place to get a taste of the real Phuket.

Phuket Town Market - Location Map


View Phuket Town Central Market in a larger map

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