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!
