Thailand (Phuket trip)

October 19, 2020

1. Phuket Weekend Market

Phuket Weekend Market highlights

The Phuket Weekend Night Market is roughly divided into 2 sections – covered and open. In the covered section, you'll find secondhand items with a huge selection of jeans, T-shirts, curios and souvenirs. It's worth noting that it can get pretty stuffy in this part of the market, particularly during the sweltering rainy season.

In the uncovered section, you'll find stall after stall selling fluffy toys, mobile phones, all sorts of electronics, DVDs and CDs, shoes, bags, jewelry and fashion accessories, watches, more clothes and almost everything else but the kitchen sink.

At the western end of the market is the food section. Here, you can gorge on delicious boiled buttered corn on the cob, spicy sausages, grilled chicken, fishcakes, exotic fruit and even deep-fried insects. There are even a few small restaurants where you can sit down to a full meal, often involving seafood. And, of course, you can wash your snack down with an ice-cold beer.

Location: 7 Wirat Hong Yok Rd, Phuket Town, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand

Open: Saturday–Sunday from 4pm to 11pm

Koh Sirey, located on the east side of Phuket Town, is more like a small cape than an island. Most of the 20-sq-km island is free of construction and you can enjoy a pleasant drive along its leafy eastside coastal road, which is lined with rubber plantations.

You can find an abalone farm that hosts a restaurant overlooking Phuket's east coast islands and Sapam Bay. Koh Sirey also has sea gipsies and golden Buddhas. By the main bridge, there's a tiny recreation park near a mangrove swamp where you can see locals feeding wild monkeys in the evenings.

2. Golden Buddhas on Koh Sirey

There are several places along the way for you to pull over and stroll down to the beach. Koh Sirey’s beaches are a little scruffy, with rough shingled sand and rustic charm. Life moves at a much slower pace here and it's hard to imagine that the buzz of Patong is only 30 minutes away.

Wat Sirey is an unusual Buddhist temple on the island. It's ringed by what look like elevated rooms, housing golden Buddha images, each with a ladder lending access for maintenance purposes.

The wat has a clockwise 1-way system around it. On the other side are steps leading up to the temple, from where you can enjoy a vantage point overlooking Phuket and Sirey.

Location: Rassada, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand

The small museum in the lobby of the Thavorn Hotel in Phuket City is both eclectic and eccentric. An assortment of artefacts and photos gathered by the Chinese-Thai family who run the Thavorn Group are displayed erratically in a rather dim and dingy setting.

In addition to an extensive collection of photos of old Phuket and Thai royalty, there are traditional Chinese wedding hats, tin mining equipment, toy trains, opium smoking beds and pillows, and movie posters. Stepping into this place (which costs a small fee) really does feel like entering another era.

Location: Thavorn Hotel, 74 Rassada Rd, Talat Yai, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand

Open: Daily from 8 am to 5 pm