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I accessed Phuket Islands from Bangkok as I visited both destinations on my week-long excursion. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are other airports with direct flights. Currently there are no direct flights from Jakarta to Phuket. As of November 2023, expect to pay at least $325 for a round trip from Jakarta, transiting in Singapore.
Phuket is a Thai version of Bali with beaches, watersports, and Thai culture. Phuket checks all the boxes for those seeking a tropical island vacation.
Many travelers choose the raucous beach town of Patong. The town is situated on a nice beach and is filled with nightclubs and activities. I stayed at Karon Beach, which is much quieter and has far fewer attractions. There are lots of other beach resort towns to choose from on Phuket. You can also choose to stay in the quaint colonial city of Phuket in the center of the island, but you will have no access to the beach.
There’s a great deal of unethical treatment of elephants in Southeast Asia. The most common culprits are the small businesses that offer elephant rides to tourists. In order to train and control riding elephants their owners use physical violence against them and keep them in chains. I happened to pass by one of these dreadful places on Phuket. Notice the elephant below, its legs in chains, as it waited for customers to ride it. This poor elephant was clearly in distress, moaning and tugging at its chains, and you can even see the anguish in her face.
The Green Elephant Sanctuary (GES) was the elephant attraction I visited. They buy elephants from sketchy tourist traps who want to get rid of their elephants. They also rescue elephants from other kinds of businesses. One elephant they acquired worked in a logging camp for 30 years. Any time she didn’t comply with her work orders, she was beaten by her owners with hammers. The GES rescued her from this horror and is now taking care of her. She still fears humans, and the only person she lets near her is her personalized handler who feeds her and tends to her needs. She still isn’t comfortable around people, but now she is safely away from her torture.
GES also provides vet care to elephants in the community whose owners cannot afford treatment for their animals. Visitors to GES do not get rides; instead, the animals are free and unchained, and receive ethical and humane treatment. During our visit we got to feed the elephants a snack, give them a mud spa treatment that soothes and cools their skin, wash them off in the bathing pool, and finally scrub them in the gigantic elephant shower.
You can see that the elephants are happy and well-treated. And it’s a joy for tourists like me to have a positive, ethical encounter with these noble creatures. I think the pictures will speak for themselves.
The Big Buddha is located near the southern tip of Phuket island. It is 45 meters tall and sits on the top of a hill with a stunning view of the south shore of the island. It is very contemporary, having only been completed less than two decades ago.
Chalong Temple is the main Buddhist temple on Phuket. It has distinctive architecture and is worth a brief visit.
Phuket is Thailand’s largest island and Phuket city dates back to at least 1800. The old town of Phuket city is an amazing neighborhood built in a quaint and distinctive Sino-Portuguese architectural style, constructed from around the end of the 1800s to the beginning of the 20th Century. Most of the old buildings now house delightful shops and businesses. It’s worth a special trip, perhaps on your way from your hotel back to the airport which is situated nearby.
These islands are situated to the northeast of Phuket. I took a large, fast speedboat that could hold 25 on a tour through the islands, especially to see “James Bond” Island—read more about that tourist place below. I was perhaps most fascinated by Ko Panyi, the 250-year-old village on stilts, housing a community of Muslim mariners. Our tour also stopped for a couple of hours at Khai Gai Island, which is a small outpost dedicated to relaxing on hammocks, drinking Mai Tais, snorkeling, and beach sports.
I simply wanted to take a boat cruise around the beautiful Phang Nga Islands. But the tour desk at my hotel was breathlessly selling me on the idea that as part of the trip I’d be stopping at James Bond Island. “Fine,” I said, just wanting to see one of the most beautiful parts of the archipelago whether 007 had been there or not.
How did this secluded inlet become world famous? Here’s a view of “James Bond Island” when Roger Moore and company arrived in 1974 to film a two-minute scene in The Man with the Golden Gun.
This Bond movie was incredibly popular and I vaguely remember seeing it as a kid, I think a few years later on tv. And of course, where there’s money to be made then people will try to make it. And now, the small island, which used to have its own name our guide told us, and which I have forgotten, is now one the major attractions of the Phuket area. And this is what that obscure inlet looks like now.
There are several concessions run by somber women wearing Hijab. What they witness every day surely must be alarming, tourists frolicking about in bikinis and speedos, but one must make a living after all.
If you work really hard you can actually capture a nice photo, with James Bond Island not betraying its current identity.
However, when touring this inlet, it’s virtually impossible to avoid tourists flaunting their faux Bond poses, though Golden Gun was filmed long before most of these posers were born. Is the idea of being in close proximity with cinematic fame, no matter how distant, such an allure that it becomes irresistible?
Our tour leader even packed a toy golden gun that he brought on our excursion, so that we could pose as James Bond too. I suppose I have trouble imagining most people even vaguely resembling 007. In fact, it all seemed rather absurd at the time. (And, yes, I avoided my opportunity to pose with the toy gun.) But at least the island was beautiful.
