Phuket is a mixed bag for any traveller. I'd postponed visiting repeatedly. Put off by seedy tales of walking street and far too many tourists in baggy elephant pants.
No longer could I avoid it, given I was driving within 20 miles of Phuket on a recent trip. So we took the small detour onto Thailands largest island. And so my 12 hours on Phuket began.
As it is an island, connected to the mainland Thailand by one bridge there is logically only one road on and off the island. Needless to say this leads to the most monotonous traffic. Slow moving, 4 lanes, crawling endlessly on mundane non descriptive roads. There are a few tunnels to try and relieve the pressure the roads are under, but on the day we arrived it took 2 hours to get down to the bottom of the island.
Thailand always delivers a healthy dose of unusual, even when sitting in traffic. In the midst of an industrial area there was one clearing we saw. It had well kept grass and a token tree or two. To top it off we could see a bird trying to catch fish in the small body of water there. Sadly, this land is ear marked for development.
These vehicles were for sale, I guess who ever owned the land no longer needed them.
Our mission was to get to the Phromthep Cape, which is the most sourthern point on the island, next stop being Sri Lanka. It is famous for sunsets, and rightly so as you stand atop a cliff admiring the sunlight shimmering off the ocean waves. A perfect stop for day dreaming.
Not before more traffic.
Luckily I could stare at the restaurants nearby and dream of eating some delicious food (and going to the bathroom after 4 hours of driving!)
And chat to the idiot photographer in the car...
We arrived, 2 hours of driving on Phuket later, a total of 4 hours from Prachuap Khuiri Chuan, where we started the journey.
When you arrive there, find a parking space, ignore the throngs of tourists because you can get away from them pretty quickly. Most tourists are there to snap a few lazy photographs, get back in their vehicle and disappear. There is way more to do here than that!
A pretty typical photograph that a lazy tourist takes will look like this.
Here is a picture of a tourist :)
Ignore them, keep walking and go for the peninsula, hardly anyone makes this trip. It is a bit rough underfoot, but we managed in flip-flops no problem.
You will get rewarded with peace and quiet and stunning views. Don't forget to bring some water as it gets pretty toasty and sweaty after a while walking.
Here is the drone footage that we took while down there:
!steemitworldmap 7.759407 lat 98.303757 long Promthep Cape, Phuket d3scr
You can read more about the drone footage in yesterdays post.
I would absolutely recommend a stop in Phuket, you can easily avoid the Patong and walking street (if you want to). There is a great balance of nature and things to do and see. Incidentally we also had the most delicious som tam there.
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I would absolutely recommend