Thailand Guide
Southern Thailand: the Andaman coast
Phuket
Thailand's largest island and a province in its own right, PHUKET (pronounced "Poo-ket") hosts some five million tourists a year. Thoughtless tourist developments have scarred much of the island, and the trend is upmarket, with very few budget possibilities, but many of the beaches are still strikingly handsome, resort facilities are second to none, and the offshore snorkelling and diving is exceptional.
Phuket's capital, Muang Phuket or Phuket town, is on the southeast coast, 42km south of the Sarasin Bridge causeway to the mainland. Though it's the most culturally stimulating place on Phuket, most visitors pass straight through the town on their way to the west coast, where three resorts corner the bulk of the trade: high-rise Ao Patong, the most developed and expensive, with an increasingly seedy nightlife; the slightly nicer, if unexceptional, Ao Karon; and adjacent Ao Kata, the smallest of the trio. If you're after a more peaceful spot, aim for the seventeen-kilometre-long national park beach of Hat Mai Khao, its slightly more developed neighbour Hat Nai Yang, or one of the smaller alternatives such as Hat Kamala. Most of the other west-coast beaches are dominated by upmarket hotels, specifically Hat Nai Harn, and Hat Surin
As with the rest of the Andaman coast, the sea around Phuket is at its least inviting during the monsoon, from June to October, when the west-coast beaches in particular become rough and windswept. At any time of year, beware the strong undertow and heed any red warning flags; in the first nine months of 2008 there were twenty fatalities in the water and over a hundred rescues by helpful bystanders: there is currently no official lifeguard service on the island. Some stretches of Phuket's coast were very badly damaged by the December 2004 tsunami, which caused significant loss of life and destroyed a lot of property. Reconstruction was swift, however, and a first-time visitor to the island is now unlikely to notice any major post-tsunami effect.
Activities
1 Action Holidays Phuket 
076 263575 
www.biketoursthailand.com Full- and half-day guided mountain-bike rides into Phuket's peaceful, scenic interior. Price: B2400, kids B2200
2 Andaman Hooker 076 282036 www.phuket.com/fishing/andaman.htm Day-trips and overnight deep-sea fishing charters.
3 John Gray's Sea Canoe 076 254505 www.johngray-seacanoe.com Sunset, one- and two-day sea-canoeing expeditions around the spectacular limestone karsts of Ao Phang Nga, or in Khao Sok National Park. Price: Around B3000–3500 per person per day
4 Mom Tri's Boathouse Cookery School Mom Tri's Boathouse hotel, Ao Kata Yai ( 076 330015 www.boathousephuket.com Famous weekend Thai cooking lessons, held every Saturday and Sunday at the highly rated hotel restaurant, The Boathouse Wine and Grill. Price: B2200 for one day, or B3500 for both days
5 Phuket Fantasea Fantasea entertainments complex, Hat Kamala076 385111 www.phuket-fantasea.com Opening time: Fri– Wed 9pmPrice: B1500 for adults and kids, incl transport; or B1900/1700 including the unexciting pre-show dinnerEnjoyable, hi-tech mega-spectacular whose 75-minute show features high-wire trapeze acts, acrobatics, pyrotechnics, illusionists, comedy and traditional dance – plus a depressing baby elephant circus.
6 Phuket Simon Cabaret Simon Theatre, south of Patong, on the road to Karon 076 342011 www.phuket-simoncabaret.com Opening time: Daily 7.30pm & 9.30pm Price: B700/500Famous cabaret extravaganza in which a troupe of outrageously flamboyant transvestites perform song-and-dance numbers. It's all very Hollywood – a little bit risqué but not at all sleazy – so the show is popular with tour groups and families.
7 Phuket Thai Cookery School East of Phuket town on Ko Siray 076 252354 www.phuket-thaicookeryschool.com Well-regarded school offering different daily classes in Thai cookery. Price: B1900 incl transfer from main beaches
8 Siam Safari 076 280116 www.siamsafari.com Award-winning, conservation-conscious company that runs Four-in-One tours featuring elephant rides at their hillside elephant camp, plus rubber tapping, buffalo-cart racing and a sail on a Burmese junk. From B2250, kids B1550.
Ngan Kin Jeh: the Vegetarian Festival
Opening time: For nine days every October or November
Address: Phuket Town
Website: www.phuketvegetarian.com
For nine days every October or November, at the start of the ninth lunar month, the streets of Phuket are enlivened by Ngan Kin Jeh – the Vegetarian Festival – which culminates in the unnerving spectacle of men and women parading about with steel rods through their cheeks and tongues. The festival marks the beginning of Taoist Lent, a month-long period of purification observed by devout Chinese all over Thailand, but celebrated most ostentatiously in Phuket, by devotees of the island's five Chinese temples. After six days' abstention from meat (hence the festival's name), alcohol and sex, the white-clad worshippers flock to their local temple, where drum rhythms help induce a trance state in which they become possessed by spirits. As proof of their new-found transcendence of the physical world they skewer themselves with any available sharp instrument – fishing rods and car wing-mirrors have done service in the past – before walking over red-hot coals or up ladders of swords as further testament to their otherworldliness. In the meantime there's singing and dancing and almost continuous firework displays, with the grandest festivities held at Wat Jui Tui on Thanon Ranong in Phuket town.
The ceremony dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when a travelling Chinese opera company turned up on the island to entertain emigrant Chinese working in the tin mines. They had been there almost a year when suddenly the whole troupe – together with a number of the miners – came down with a life-endangering fever. Realizing that they'd neglected their gods somewhat, the actors performed expiatory rites, which soon effected a cure for most of the sufferers. The festival has been held ever since, though the self-mortification rites are a later modification, possibly of Hindu origin.
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