Thursday, February 09, 2012

Phuket City

My favourite part of Phuket Island was Phuket City, its far from being a tourist hub like Patong Beach - in fact as you can see from the photos it was pretty quiet and charming.

I spent a whole day here checking out old temples, old buildings, a museum and art galleries - I even went to a couple of second hand book shops.

I felt like the people in Phuket City were a lot nicer than in Patong Beach - perhaps they are less jaded by noisy tourists? Everything was also a lot cheaper here - I hired a taxi to drive me about like a fancy lady. The car itself was pretty old, but the driver was lovely and he agree to drive me all over the city for 40 Thai Baht - that's about $2 NZ.

Here's a few photos of some of the amazing things that I saw in Phuket City - it really is the best part of Phuket Island for a history geek like me!

One of the first places I visited was the "Shrine of Serene Light" which is an old Taoist Temple (dating back to 1889) - they were undertaking some conservation work when I visited, but it didn't interrupt my visit to the temple too much.






Next stop was Phuket Thai Hua Museum, which is set in a beautiful old Chinese school and celebrates the Chinese heritage of Phuket. I really enjoyed this place - just look at all of the beautiful old school photos, my favourite has to be the kids dancing around dressed as rabbits - it put a big smile on my face.









Next up was another temple, this time a Buddhist temple which included a giant gold Buddha. I am unsure of the name of this temple, it wasn't in my guidebook, but it was one my friendly taxi driver suggested we should go to - its so pretty and calm at this temple.









Here's temple number three for the day, again I don't know what it's called but my taxi driver took me there and told me it was really beautiful - he was right. I loved the words of wisdom on the trees (I think the fact some of the English is a bit off makes them so much better) and the sleepy temple cat.















I thought I'd finish off the post with some sights of what I saw around Phuket City in general and of course a photo of what I ate!













8 comments:

Vix said...

I've never been to Thailand and you're really doing a great job of selling it to me.
Love that picture of you with the fan, the kitty cat and the lime green Beetle.
Keep those trip photos coming! x

alicia said...

so much gold! i love all the fun lanterns and such - so jealous of your trip! <3

cb said...

i want to go to phuket! it looks so amazing! the temples are just so awesome and i didn't see one person! i love the sayings in the tree, the one about the bamboo is really beautiful and so true. what an amazing adventure you went on! so so jealous!
xo,
cb

Magical Daydream said...

(I think something went wrong with my previous comment) I loved seeing your Thailand pictures, it reminded me of my time there. Isn't it amazing how many temples and buddha statues there are all around?

Krista said...

You are making me want to visit Thailand. The temples are gorgeous! I also like the street art in a few of the pictures. The kitty cat one is also super sweet. I wanna be strong and travel alone like you dangit, keep inspiring me dear!

Julia said...

Lot's and lot's of wonderful shots.

We didn't go to Phuket when we went so I'm saving this post for when we do, thanks for sharing xo

his_girl_friday said...

How exciting! I want to go there so bad!

Helga said...

Gawdm, these are great pix,honey!!!
Curry!!! EEEEK! I love Thailand! I could easily spend months at a time there!XXX