Phuket and Beyond - August 2014

[Fozzy]

If you go on a boat trip you can ask to stop at monkey beach (there's more than one) this one is one of the little beaches that sits at the bottom of the main cliff that forms the back bone of the island, where all the speed boats are parked.

Quite sad and pathetic to be honest. Watching grown adults laugh hysterically as they hand monkeys cans of coke to drink from. It was hard to know who had evolved least looking at the tourists and the monkeys!

[Fozzy]

Restaurant Recommendations Cherng Telay area.

For great food on a budget then the Sunrise restaurant is fantastic, Thai & Western food. It's packed every night. Thai dishes start from 70 Baht!!







Peppers sports bar is a gtreat family pub with good food, live sport, pool table and weekly events such as quiz nights (if that's what floats your boat) It's Well run and reasonably priced.

[Fozzy]

If somebody told me they were in Phuket for just one night and asked me where they should eat, my answer would undoubtedly be The Siam Supper Club. It's my favoutite restaurant on the whole
island. They have live jazz music on certain nights of the week and the food is to die for. Pictures are shit but it's very dark in there.











Lobster Ravioli. The best meal I've had for a long time. Superb.

[Fozzy]

First time I've ever bothered to go up there and to be honest it will be the last. Not really much to see. Views aren't great. Might go half way up to use another one of the restaurants but that's
about it.

[Fozzy]

I could see Big Buddha from Coral Island, and now I'm looking at Coral Island from Big Buddah. Prefered it the other way round!

[Fozzy]

Stopped at one of the many restaurants on the way back down for a cup of tea. Don't think I picked the one with best view but it was pleasant enough.











Time to go as another storm rolls in.

[Fozzy]

Anybody who says that Phuket has nothing to offer has either never been to Phuket old Town or is a complete moron, simple as that. Great part of the city with shit loads of decent places to eat.

Not doing it any justice with these photos at all but here's a few examples of the lovely Sino Portugese shop houses.

[Fozzy]

[Fozzy]

A few shots of Ao Yon Beach down in the far south of the island.





Ao Yon is actually two seperate beaches and to be honest the better one you can just see around this corner but I didn't take any shots of it, my bad.



The Ship Inn and The Secret Cove. Two long standing restaurants on Ao Yon.

[Fozzy]

One of my favourite places on the island and by far the best view point by far IMO.

[Fozzy]

[Fozzy]

If you don't fancy the stairs there's a gentle sloping walk way. We always go up the steps and down the path.





Bumped in to this fella on the way down. The size of my fist!

[Fozzy]

A few shots of Rawai beach at low tide. A non swimming beach it's a nice place to watch the local fisherman go about their business and eat in one of the many seafood restaurants that run
along the beach road.

[Fozzy]

A very different looking Ya Nui beach. What was one of the most picture perfect postcard looking beaches on the island is now far less so. In fact it has lost pretty much all of its charm for me.
Over all I'm completely in favour of the beach clean ups and am happy with how the beaches now are. However, with one restaurant and one row of beach loungers this was one of the prettiest beaches
going. Now it pretty much looks just like any other. I guess the fact that it's low season didn't help either.












Where the restaurnat used to be.

[Fozzy]

[Fozzy]

A few shots of Nai Harn Beach.

[Fozzy]

The phuket aquarium is a fantastic little aquarium and extremely good value. Even with duel pricing I think it was something silly like 170 baht for 1 farang, 1 Thai and one kid. Been there about 6 times now and would happily pay three times that.

A few of the shots that came out but not in any way a good representation of the amount of different species they have.

A nice area is Cape Panwa, some nice views. Yet another storm was rolling by this day.

[Fozzy]

Right at the end is the main attraction. Some beautiful giant groupers. This things are huge!! The photos don't do their size justice.

[Fozzy]

A day trip over to Ko Rang Yai. Rang Island is a small island just past Coconut Island and about 15 minutes from Leam Hin pier. Probably my favourite day trip from Phuket.

There's a brand new pier at Leam Hin but I'm not sure what the arrangement is. The boats are still all ranked at the old one which is very old and almost crumbling in to the sea. Unless the new one is a private one for the big holiday estate on Coconut Island?

The very old and broken Leam HIn pier.

[Fozzy]

[Fozzy]

A strange thing to see. The floating restaurants with a half million pound boat parked up. My guess a Thai who doesn't want to pay the expensive marina fees.





To get to Rang Yai you pass right past Coconut Island. Never stopped there myself.









I love this house you pass on Coconut Island, it's not something you see very often. On Islands like this you normally get bodged up illegal tin huts fisherman have built, or Farang new builds.
This is a very typical basic but nice Thai style house on a nice little lawn. It's neither here nor there of what you normally get.

[Fozzy]

It's a good job we weren't overly worried about peace and quiet. The main restaurant on the island was hosting a joint 40th and 50th birthday bash for a group of about 50 Malaysians. They were
setting up as we got there. The guests turned up in about 6 speed boats an hour or so later.

[Fozzy]

Raining on Coconut Isand. Heading this way.






Told you!

[Fozzy]

Ko Rang is a smaller version of what Koh Phi Phi was like about 25 years ago. Two beaches seperated by a small strip of land.





There wasn't any bungallow accomodation at this time but there has been in the past and probably will be again. Talking to one of the staff he said something about there being a limit on th eamount of
people who can sleep on the island at night. NOt sure if this is a new thing or not and if perhaps there won't be accomodation ever again.



It's billed as a sports/activity Island but these claims don't really match up to what's actually on offer.








Bikes are available for hire and the misses got one for a couple of hours but there really is very little point. It takes about 4 minutes to reach the other beach and the path on the map that looks
like it goes right around the headland wasn't there at all. Overgrown or gone altogether, who knows.

[Fozzy]

The beach on the other side isn't much of a swimming beach but it's nice.






As the tide goes out yet another shower rolls in off the sea.