A good way to experience
Phuket's Sino-Portuguese architecture is to
take a stroll around the old town.
A good place to start
is at the Central Post Office. Walk west along Thalang
Road, noting the Standard Chartered Bank building,
turn south along Yaowarat Road to Fountain Circle,
and then head west once more along Ranong Road, noting
in particular the fine Thai Airways building. Within
these traditional Sion-Portuguese houses, furnishings
and overall atmosphere tend to be more "Straits
Chinese" than European. After all, the Thai-Chinese
inhabitants remained essentially cultural representatives
of the Middle Kingdom, and this is still reflected
today. The furnishings and atmosphere within the thick
walls are precisely what the Chinese owners would
feel most comfortable with.
At the west end of Ranong
Road, turn north along Patiphat Road, then east along
historic Krabi Road to return Thalang Road. If you
have the energy, then head northeast to Damrong Road
where the Sala Phuket, or Government Offices are particularly
distinguished.
Just out of town, about
three kilometres along the Highway 402 by-pass to
Bang Khu, the 
Phuket
Butterfly Garden and Aquarium is well worth a
visit, particularly if you have children. The garden
is home to many thousands of butterfiles, as well
as to apond full of Chinese carp and a scorpion pit.
The nearby aqarium is an excellent place to see coral
and tropical fish without actually diving beneath
the waves. There's a wide range of colourful reef
dwelling smaller fish, as well as larger sharks and
moray eels. Located right in the heart of downtown
Phuket, southern Thailand's largest Crocodile Farm
also contains an aquarium with many species of strange
and colourful tropical fish taken from the waters
around the island. In addition to crocodiles, animals
on display include elephants, monkeys, reptiles and
birds.
Khao Rang or
"Rang Hill" also sometiems called Phuket
Hill, is a bluff rising to the northwest of Phuket
Town behind the Phuket Hill Palace Hotel. Best approached
by Khaw Sim Bu Road, the hill is crowned by a Public
Finess Park that provides fine views across the city
and jungle below, as well as out to sea. There are
three reasonable restaurants on the hill where it
is possible to enjoy a cold drink as the sun goes
down. On top of the hill stands a statue of Rasada
Korsimbi Na Ranong, Governor of Phuket between 1890
and 1909.
Just
to the north of Rawai, on the road to PHuket Town,
is the Phuket Shell Museum. This private collection
of seashells primarily from the waters off Phuket
and elsewhere in Thailand, also includes remarkable
examples of seashell from elsewhere in the world.
Drop by to see the world's largest golden pearl (140
karats), sections of sedimentary rock containing shell
fossils that represent some of the world's earliest
known life forms, and a gigantic shell weighing 250
kilograms. The displays are logically ordered and
well described in English as well as Thai.
The Gibbon Rehabilitation
Centre: Head northeast from the Heroines Monument
at Thalang along Route 4027 towards the east coast
of Bang Rong. After about 9 kilometres a well-signposted
road leads west towards Bang Pae Falls. Here is the
Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre, where gibbons
recovered from captivity (often stolen from their
mothers in infancy) are reintroduced to the wild.
A donation of 1,000 Baht or about US $25 is enough
to look after a gibbon for a year.
