Phuket

As the smoky season started in Chiang Mai, Brenda and I reluctantly hightailed it southbound to Thailand's largest island, Phuket. I say reluctantly because we are always saddened to leave Chiang Mai, where we feel so at home. Nonetheless, the air quality becomes so poor in the north that it's hazardous to one’s health, so we were pretty much obliged to depart.

Of course, most people flock to Phuket for the bright sunshine, the warm emerald-green water and the fine white sandy beaches. Others come for the shadier side of Thailand's nightlife, which is plentiful in the glitzy Patong area.

But Brenda and I just came to extend our time in Thailand in an area we could continue to run outside without inhaling any toxic air. On the downside, that nice clean air is also swelteringly hot and humid at this time of year. Daily temperatures range from 26° in the morning to 32° in the afternoon. Throw in the humidity and that feels like 31° to 39°! In order to continue our marathon training, we typically went out to run before sunup at 5:30 AM. On our last day here, for my longest run, I was pounding the pavement at 4:20 AM. As a result, we didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors in the daytime. Not that Phuket doesn't have a lot to offer aside from the beaches. One can go white water rafting, jungle trekking, scuba diving, bungee jumping, visit an elephant sanctuary or the Big Buddha located on a hilltop outside of town. Well…..we did none of those things. We were quite content to take in a couple of movies, do some shopping and spend a few hours on three of the beaches, where the sun is so strong, we both got a little burnt after sitting in the shade for two hours.

The thing we did the most here was eat out… A LOT. Brenda decided to give her personal chef a four-month break from his duties with only the odd bowl of guacamole or chai tea being requested.

We stayed near Phuket Town, about 10 kms from the beaches, but offering more amenities than the seaside. The old town's heritage buildings reflect the Sino-Portuguese heritage of the city, which is being considered as a Unesco site. Many of these buildings are painted in pretty pastel colours that bring to mind San Francisco's painted ladies.
In a nutshell, we found Phuket to be considerably more expensive than Chiang Mai, the temperature in March to be too uncomfortable to do anything outdoors and the general vibe to be a little too touristy for our tastes. On the other hand, the beaches are beautiful, there are plenty of vegetarian restaurants for us to eat at, some excellent produce markets to shop in and some decent night markets to browse. The condo we rented backed onto a large park equipped with a running track 4 kms long, which was very convenient for us.
All in all, it was a nice place to visit, but we wouldn’t want to live here.Read more