I began my day with a visit to Rang Hill viewpoint and once I was done with that, I decided to walk down the hill.
But not before I bought a cold mango shake to cool off (it was very sunny!)
How I got down and walked to Old Town is in my vlog* (video blog), which you can watch at the end of this blog post. But it is possible to walk from Rang Hill viewpoint to Old Town in around 30 minutes.
Old Town is renowned for its distinct architecture
The Sino-Portuguese architecture is present in almost all the houses here, many of which have now been painted in a variety of colours
Phuket island used to have a rich history in tin-mining and many who came to work in the mines in the 18th century were from China, Malaysia and India. Then the Europeans came and the result of all these influences is what you see in Old Town’s architecture.
Although the buildings are not very big, many of them have now been converted to cafes, restaurants, shops and hostels
Much of the activity in Old Town is by Thalang Road
I had lunch at this restaurant. China Inn is an old house renovated and now primarily serves as a restaurant.
I had prata (parota) and massaman curry (which is usually chicken). I ended up packing up the rest of the curry and some more pratas for dinner back at the resort.
Old Town has a very artsy vibe now
So many come to Old Town for photoshoots
This is Soi Romanee (soi = street). This stretch used to be a red-light district catering to the many labourers that worked in the mines.
Soi Romanee’s pink houses now house hostels and other stores mostly catering to tourists.
The Old Town area isn’t very big and you can easily cover it under an hour
It was still too early to head back to the resort so I looked up my phone to check what else I could see around here
The Phuket Thai Hua museum is a fomer colonial-era home now turned into a museum showcasing the history of Chinese in Phuket and their past lifestyle
I don’t know what this building is but looks like it houses a branch of Kasikorn Bank
I saw this wall art and was curious what it led to
It is a Chinese temple called Sang Tham Shrine, or ‘Shrine of Serene Light’
Feeling I had seen enough of Old Town, I decided to leave.
I hailed a bike taxi using Grab and rode to Central Phuket mall
This is the newer Central Festival mall. The over bridge seen in the above photo connects visitors to Central Phuket, the older mall
I didn’t come to Central Festival to do any shopping. I just wanted to kill time, soak up some air conditioning and then freshen up in the restrooms at the mall. By the way, the toilets at Central Festival? Super fancy! 😀
By the time I got out of the mall, I saw that the skies were turning grey
I hired a bike taxi to take me back. I reached the resort’s transfer boat office and boarded the evening boat to the resort.
Errr… can the boats depart in such shallow waters?
This boat managed to!
Glorious sunset, isn’t it?
Quite a nice sight to end my day of sightseeing
I only had two nights in Phuket and one full day to go around. I’m glad it did not rain and I was able to get some photos and videos. Tomorrow, I would check out of the The Village, leave Coconut Island and then head to the airport for my next destination — Vietnam.
