Phuket Things to Do Tips by earthboundfaerie

Watch Muay Thai matches at the Bangla Road Boxing Stadium. I don't think they have matches every night but you are bound to catch a muay thai match if not in this stadium, there'll be one at the Patong Boxing Stadium. They have trucks going around the beach road all day advertising fights so you won't miss them. There are other places to watch Muay Thai. There's even one place in an alley off Soi Bangla that stages matches and you can watch for free but you might have to order a drink or two but I doubt if the fights are real. But if I were you, I'd rather watch at Bangla Stadium and catch the real thing. Muay Thai is a lot more fun to watch since it's a little more "anything goes" than regular bozing making it a tad bit more violent. But what's so interesting to watch are the rituals the fighters perform before they begin and its also a trip to watch the band play to accompany the fight. They even had international fights when we watched. There're about 8 matches, 5 rounds each. You'd be lucky if you catch a knock-out! This is a great after dinner activity. We got our tickets for 700Baht after bargaining (started at 1100Baht). A bottle of Singha can be a little more expensive here so make sure you're filled up before you go. You can show up there after 10pm, this is when the more professional fighters start, but it's also fun to watch the younger boxers as they're also very good but young. Last match usually ends past midnight. It's great to watch muay thai live plus seeing the locals gamble and betting on the boxers is also an added bonus! It's a great way to see how the locals have fun as they oooh and aaaah with every punch and kick. :)

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Address: Above Margarita Bar on the end of Soi Bangla
Directions: Coming from the beach road, walk towards the end of Soi Bangla and look for the pink building above Margarita Bar on the very corner of Soi Bangla. It'll be on your right coming from the Beach Road!

Booked a 30-minute elephant trek with Siam Safari just for the experience of getting to ride on an elephant and got well more than we bargained for. Our morning started when after breakfast we were picked up by a real safari jeep and drove up to the hills of Phuket. That alone was an experience in itself as we got to enjoy beautiful views of the surrounding bays and sights from a safari jeep with the morning wind whipping at our faces. Upon getting there, you're asked to wait at a little shack where they posted a bunch of photos and articles about elephants being killed for their ivory and whatnot and how Siam Safari encourages preservation of these beautiful animals. There are also articles about the mahouts from the Karon tribe who take care of the elephants at Siam Safari. What I loved about this place is that they really take good care of the elephants unlike other elephant trek companies who hurt their elephants and treat them poorly. After a short wait, they group everybody and send you further into the hills and jungle. More than the 30-minute elephant trek that we booked, we also got magnificent views from where we trekked and got to see a mini-elephant show where they played football, danced, and painted. The trek through the jungle was amazing as we got to see great views of the surrounding bay, rubber trees being tapped, a bunch of other little mammals running around the jungle and giving our elephant a fright. Our mahout doesn't speak English since he's really from the Karon tribe and they live right there where you can see their houses by the trail but he was really nice and kept smiling at us. An elephant trek is simply a must when you're in Phuket! It was a great way to spend the morning for us. We were back at the hotel just in time for lunch and already we had a beautiful day. :)

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Website: www.siamsafari.com

My husband and i LOVE the beach! so you can just imagine our joy at being able to laze around on Patong. For 100Baht, you get two beach chairs and an umbrella and a guy taking care of your every single whim. You want a coconut juice? Just let him know and he'll buy one for you! If the sun has moved and your want your umbrella moved, too? Just call him and he'll be moving you into the shade in a second! We positioned ourselves on the middle of the beach right in front of our hotel (Baan Laimai). The guy in charge of the beach chairs here was quite friendly and told us a lot of tsunami stories. It wasn't as crowded as we expected it to be reading the reviews from here. There were a lot of people but trust me, the beach is big enough. It's also fun just to watch time go by as you see the same food vendors going bacj and forth, wathcing people parasail, and just people watching generally. We also went for a swim and although the water wasn't very clear, it was warm and nice and the water doesn't sting your eyes much. It was just great being able to lay there in that long, wide stretch of sand and frying all day. THAT is the life. :)

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Address: Patong Beach
Website: www.patongbeach.com

Get a Thai massage or a foot massage by the beach. The women offering the massages often have their own set-ups by the road where there's shade but I requested one of them to give me a foot massage right where I was since I wanted to sunbathe and she obliged rather grudgingly because the whole time, she kept asking me to adjust the umbrella so she could be under the shade, too. I felt bad for her so I moved my chair just so she can stay under the umbrella. I actually wouldn't recommend the foot massage if you're gonna shell out 250Baht. For a hundred Baht more, you can get a Thai massage but you have to go to their setup by the road. I actually didn't like my massage because her pressure wasn't strong enough but to each his own. Also, for the same price, you can actually get a massage at the air-conditioned massage parlors on the Beach Road already so you might want to just spend your 350Baht on that instead. But for a unique experience, have atleast a thirty-minute long foot massage by the beach just for the experience.

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Directions: right on Patong Beach, just ask the boys who provides the beach chairs to get you a masseuse

At night, you can walk along the Beach Road and you would've already seen 70% of what you can shop for in Phuket, maybe not for as cheap as you might get it in the inner night markets in Patong but for really dirt cheap nonetheless! Aside from shopping, it's just such an experience to walk along a road with the sea in sight & with the sea wind blowing at you & experiencing the locals & tourists intermingling on the Beach Road. It's pretty exciting to watch local vendors chase after customers just to make them buy their wares.There's also the constant roaming truck with Muay Thai fighters parading on it that goes around the Patong about 100 times a night. "Tonight!... Biggest Match... Muay Thai Boxing!!! You go to Thailand... You go watch Muay Thai!" cues the Muay Thai music afterwards. It is pretty entertaining! There is just an air of such laid-back fun while walking along the Beach Road at night. During the day, there's also a myriad of things to see. Again, locals trying to sell tourists all kinds of things and following poor foreigners around bugging them to book a tour or have a suit made. But more than that, there's the endless floor of blue "Patong Beach" tiles that line the road and a still a list of more little discoveries that you don't really see at home. Fresh fruit vendors, people in Karon tribe costume selling their wares, tsunami evacuation route signs, fabulous art in small shops, all the colorful tuktuks, the locals, the Western commercial establishments like Starbucks or McDonalds that look just a little bit out of place.. or just something as simple as phone booths with things written on it that you don't understand. Go for it and you'll be surprised at how much you can discover! :D Plus it's the best way to get to see Patong and kind of have an idea of where you'll be getting that Thai massage tomorrow, or where you'll be eating your next dinner as you see all of the places you can visit and how much everybody offers their services: canvassing on Patong Beach. :)

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Address: Beach Road, Patong
Directions: Just walk along Patong whichever way you fancy
Website: www.patong-beach.com
Other Contact: www.beachpatong.com

If your hotel has its own pool, lucky you! If your hotel has a beautiful pool, even luckier you! :) Besides having another beautiful place to lounge around in and swim in and to chill, the pool is also the best place to get to know your new neighbours for the remaining days of your stay. As was our case, we had a beautiful pool in Baan Laimai and the water was always warm and refreshing that we just had to end our every day on Patong with a quick dip (sometimes a little longer than quick) in the pool before heading in to change and shower for our night's activities on Patong. We met a lot of the other tourists who were staying at Baan Laimai, met a few Thai visitors to Phuket and everybody was just really nice and it just made our stay so much more meaningful getting to know people from different countries in one setting. :)

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Address: Baan Laimai Spa and Resort, Beach Road, Patong
Directions: in the middle of Patong Beach

There is just so much to see here! The minute you're picked up, you are already somewhat struck by the colorful costume worn by the driver.So much color & art & so many things that you want to take photos of just so you can remember every little detail about this place forever. Taking pictures & taking in every detail they put in into the resort aesthetics was what I spent most of our free time on. We were picked up at 5, got there at 6 so we had plenty of time to walk around the park before dinner. From the entrance, you are already greeted by people in bright, colorful traditional Thai costumes that guide you to everything. That & the golden elephants on the columns & the magnificent epic art on the ceiling is what you'll see first, and this isn't even inside the park yet. Inside, there're statues of water spirits & other mythical Thai characters, not to mention an elephant made entirely of Pepsi cans. Trust me, you'll want your camera fully charged for this place. If taking pictures doesn't interest you, there's still plenty to keep you busy here. The band welcomes you in Festival Village when you walk in as well as other little side performances like the bartender &her bottle flinging tricks. You can also shop or window shop to your heart's content as there are many themed shops here as well as little stalls that sell little Thai trinkets for souvenirs. If shopping & sightseeing isn't your cup of tea, there's also Hanuman's Lair. All lit in black light, everything glows in the dark including the cutest blowfishes & the most adorable sharks! After gawking at everything, take a chance at the carnival games they offer here where you can win big stuffed animals. If this still isn't fun for you, there's a few cafes here where you can just chill & have a few quite expensive cocktails before dinner. There's something for everyone here! :)

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Address: Kamala Beach
Directions: They usually offer hotel pick-up
Website: www.phuket-fantasea.com

If you have time for only one day tour, please take this one!! Booked our tour through Phuket-travel.com, comes with the Phuket Discovery Package but we upgraded ours from the tour by Expressboat to the tour by Speedboat and trust me, you will want to, too!! The extra money you'll be paying is well worth the difference of taking this tour by speedboat than by the big expressboat that will get you to the islands twice the amount of time it'll take you to get there when on a speedboat. Plus, i have heard a lot of horror stories of people getting sick on the expressboat but thankfully, I didn't see any of that with our speedboat. Also, I didn't see any of the expressboats dock into the smaller coves so I assume that they can only see from afar what people on the speedboat get to enjoy.

Going to the Boat Lagoon is about 45 minutes, upon getting here, you are greeted and asked to try on flippers for snorkelling. Don't lose this as you will have to pay a fee if you do, same goes for the masks they will give on the boat. After you have your flippers, you are asked to wait in the lobby where free instant tea and instant coffee is served.

At the Boat Lagoon, while everyone else were having their free coffee and tea at the lobby while waiting for the boat, we had an insider tip from one of the people staying there that we could go up to the rooftop and have a great view of the Marina from there so up we went and it was indeed a great spot to take photos of the many boats and yachts docked here. Beautiful on a clear sunny day!

There were about 20 of us on the speedboat. Try to get a seat in the front so you get first view of the destinations plus a healthy dose of seawater splash! We had a fantastic funny guide, Mr. Boi and given fresh fruits and softdrinks the whole time. Got to see Maya Bay (from The Beach), snorkelling near Bamboo Island, a glimpse of Viking Cave, Monkey Beach and Khai Nai.

This was definitely the best trip ever!!

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Website: www.phuket-travel.com

The breathtaking Maya Bay was our first stop on the tour. :) It took us about an hour to get here after leaving the Boat Lagoon through the mangroves but you never get bored on the trip because you see a lot of tiny islands and limestone formations jutting out of the sea everywhere from the boat. Not to mention that we were continuously entertained by the funny Mr. Boi with his little dances and stories. Plus we were offered softdrinks and fruits nonstop throughout the trip.

But back to Maya Bay: Yes, by now, I'm sure we all know that this is the famous beach from the film that Leonardo di Caprio made famous, The Beach. But more than that, you will want to see this beach for its breathtaking beauty. No words can describe just how it leaves you awestruck.

We had about 30 minutes here to swim and snorkel. It does get a bit crowded which is why you want to take the speedboat tour so you can get here before the crowd does. But as crowded as it is, you'll be too awestruck to care. We were happy to just be able to step on the sand, swim in the clearest waters and watch schools of fishes swim around us and just to gawk at all the beauty around us.

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Website: www.hiphiphi.com

In between Maya Bay and Monkey Beach, we were taken to this beautiful cove where all the speedboat tours were lined up, too. I think this was because this, too, was a major shooting spot for the film, The Beach. Mr. Boi, our guide, said that most of the scenic shots from the movie were shot in this cove alone. And it was pretty understandable too. It was just a small cove but it was packed with so much beauty. By now, you'd think you'd be sick of seeing limestone formations but surprisingly, you just never get bored with such beauty. The amazing limestone rock formations, lush greens mixed with the bluest, clearest waters plus the occasional local longtail boat is quite a sight. :) It's one of those places that make you feel so small and nature so grand. Be sure you have your video cameras and cameras ready for this small cove as you just go in, speedboat makes a turn and in a moment, youre out of the cove.

Also caught a glimpse of the Viking Cave where locals harvest birds' nests.

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