mytravelbugbite

So last time I wrote about my brilliant week at Phuketfit. As I mentioned then we had the opportunity to go and visit the local areas. One of these trips took us to the Big Buddha. This landmark is perched atop a mountain and can be seen from a long distance away. The statue is still under construction so some of the group bought tiles to sign to be put up on the walls and columns inside the temple. At the bottom of the monument are vendors selling all sorts of tourist fodder which I didn’t spend much time browsing, instead I went straight for the top. The positioning makes for great views of 2 coasts or would have done if the weather wasn’t as overcast as when we were there. It was fairly peaceful at the top with just the sounds of jingling prayer bells broken only by the shrieks of some tourists and occasionally the drone of some of the machinery building the Buddha. It may not be a major historical landmark but it was fun to visit nonetheless.

On the Saturday night a group of us went to a night market. These are popular throughout Asia and this one was large enough to have a good range of produce but not so big that it felt overwhelming. Unfortunately as we were all there on calorie controlled meal plans we had to abstain from spending too long in the food area and didn’t get to sample any of the street food but even just browsing the cheap knock off designer goods was enjoyable. What made the experience even more favourable was the fact the stall owners didn’t hound you to buy their goods- it was hassle free.

At Phuketfit, Sunday is a day of mainly rest so a couple of us got a taxi to Katathani beach. This is a fairly short stretch of sand between two headlands. We paid 50baht each to have a mat and sunshade and sat back to relax. It was quite busy but not to the point where we were squashed on top of one another.  Whilst we were there the sea was rough!! At one point I had a slight scare when I started to feel myself getting pulled out and got dunked under the surf a couple of times but we were pretty sensible and stayed close enough to the land so that there were no real difficulties, it just didn’t make for the pristine, peaceful holiday snaps you see posted back from Thailand.

On Sunday evening a small group of us ventured to the Thalang Road night market in Phuket Town. This is one of the famous sites of Phuket and is a street of stalls starting from souvenirs at one end to food stalls at the other end. Although the produce wasn’t as good as the night before, the setting was so much nicer. The street is lined by old colonial Portuguese buildings that are lit up in bright colours to create a really scenic atmosphere. It was busy with tourists and locals alike and I really enjoyed it.

Closer to home the small town of Rawai was just a short stroll away from Phuketfit. There are lots of little shops and bars along the shore front. The beach is not one that many people spent a lot of time lying on but it had plenty of boats and is a great place to organise a trip out on the water to one of the surrounding islands. The water here was calm and made for great pictures.

Although this wasn’t a touristy, sightseeing holiday I still really liked getting out to a few places to see the beautiful island of Phuket and it has whet my appetite to go back and explore Thailand in more detail in the future.

Have you been to Phuket? What are your favourite things to do in Phuket? Which are your favourite islands in Thailand to visit?