Koh Phi Phi

People often ask me what it's like in Phuket. I receive numerous emails from habitancy mulling the idea of bright to the island.

Phuket

Different habitancy come to Phuket with dissimilar expectations and dissimilar ideas. When I came to Phuket, I had a fair idea of what the place was like. Phuket is a large island. There are more than 10 main beaches and just as many islands dotted nearby the coast. For this reason, you can find whatever it is you're seeing for in Phuket.

If you want unspoiled beachfront, then head to Mai Khao Beach or Yanui Beach. If you want rowdy nightlife then go to Patong Beach. For surfing you ought to check out Kata Beach. There are even a few splashes of Sino-Portugese culture in Phuket Town.

I live on the outskirts of Phuket Town. I have easy passage to decent restaurants, shops, beaches, everything really. While I don't plan to stay in Phuket forever, I am glad to have lived on the island and for real seen it for its good and its bad side.

I'd propose to whatever to spend a bit of time in Phuket to for real see what the place is about.

However, after spending the best part of a year in Phuket, there's something about the island that just hasn't clicked with me.

After Bangkok and Pattaya, Phuket is the destination within Thailand that attracts the most expats. habitancy come to Phuket in crusade of beaches, romance, work, whatever. It isn't the aesthetics of Phuket that bugs me - there are enough gorgeous Phuket beaches and islands to keep whatever happy; it's the lack of operation that can be a bit of a downer.

Coming from Bangkok down to Phuket, there are stark differences that I haven't been able to get over, no matter how hard I try and convince myself that I'm happy in Phuket. For a start, the collective scene sucks. You just don't have the same mix of like-minded habitancy as you do in Bangkok.

Then there's Phuket nightlife. I'm not necessarily referring to just clubs and bars, but to everything that goes on once the sun sets. In Phuket, you can't stray out at 2 am and find habitancy all over the place. You can't even travel nearby the island after dark for fear of being mugged if you're on a bike or being ripped off if you're riding in a tuk-tuk.

One year in Phuket has left me sure that the island is not a place I want to determine on. However, my idea of paradise is, of course, not the same as the next person's, which is why many habitancy come to Phuket and never leave.