General Information
Phuket is the largest island in Thailand. At 540 square
kilometres, it's about the same size as Singapore. Just over an
hour by jet from Bangkok or Singapore, and with daily connections
to most major Asian airports, Phuket is ideally situated for a short
break or a relaxing vacation.
Business hours are generally from
9 am to 5 pm, weekdays, plus 9 am to 12 am on Saturdays, except
public holidays when hours may
vary widely. Banking hours are Monday to Friday 9.30 am to 3.30
pm. Currency exchange booths operate as retail outlets and are usually
open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Shops and stores also open from
10 or 11 am to 10 pm, everyday.
Currency is the Thai Baht. Currently,
(1999) around 37 baht to US$1 and floating between 35 to 40 for
most of 1998. Check out our handy Currency
Converter to find the value in your own currency.
Phone and Fax Service. International
direct dialing (IDD) is widely available. Dial 001 + country code
+ area code (less any leading zero) + phone number. Our Phuket
Directory pages have phone and fax numbers for most Phuket businesses.
There are also several Internet Cafes around the island and especially
in the more developed tourist locations.
Mail and Postal Services The post
offices are usually open from 8 am to 4.30 pm. The Thai post service
is usually reliable. Urgent or important items can be sent by EMS
services. This is faster and safer but the cost is higher. Private
couriers like DHL are also available in Phuket.
Cameras and Film Most popular
brands and types of film are widely available in Thailand and in
Phuket. Film processing is widely available and one-hour service
is common. Throw-away one-time cameras are widely available,
too.
Electricity is 220 Volts AC at
50 cycles. Several different plugs and sockets are in use, but two
pin flat (US type) or round (European type) are pretty universal.
Geography
 Detailed
maps of the island and
surrounding areas, are available here.
Some 8°N of the Equator, and well below the latitudes of destructive
tropical storms, Phuket's balmy tropical climate is tempered by
cool NE breezes from November to March, and by fresh on-shore winds
in summer months. Time is + 7 hours ahead of GMT, 1 hour behind
Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
 Phuket is the natural base for exploring the Andaman Sea.
The Andaman Sea, separated from the Bay of Bengal by the Andaman-Nicobar
Ridge, is part of the Indian Ocean. Thailand's Andaman coast extends
for 870 kilometres from the Surin Islands on the northern border
with Burma to Tarutao National Park on the southern border with
Malaysia. Hundreds of islands are accessible to small craft from
Phuket, many of them uninhabited, many of them forested and fringed
with spectacular coral reefs. You often won't find a footprint on
the beach. Check out our Sailing
section
Two distinctively different varieties of island are found in the
Andaman Sea, each of them scenically striking in its own way. Low-relief
granite intrusions, including the Surin and Similan islands, run
in series roughly parallel to the more dramatic limestone islands.
Island groups such as Koh Phi Phi have
been shaped by a variety of forces from a massive limestone platform
that was deposited 350 million to 450 million years ago.
 Phuket Island itself is mainly
granite, with low forested mountains and a series of fine white-sand
beaches, mostly on the west coast. Much of the forest has been cleared,
first for rubber plantations and then for tourism development. The
one remaining significant stand of virgin rainforest -- Khao Phra Thaeo Park -- is worth a visit.
Phang Nga and Krabi provinces, mainland and islands alike, display
the same dramatic limestone ("karst") geography of the
Phi Phi Islands. Khao Sok National Park, just to the north and east
off Phuket, has large areas of tropical forest, some of it still
remote enough to harbour wild tigers. Many Daytrips
are available
Population
The official census shows 231,206 people living in Phuket. Since
this figure only includes those registered as resident in Phuket
province and there is a significant (semi-permanent) work force
from other provinces of Thailand and as many as 35,000 visitors
at any one time, it is likely that a more realistic figure would
be much higher
Phuket Town, the main town, has over 60,000 inhabitants.
Patong Beach, the most developed of the west-coast beaches, has
evolved from a fishing village into a thriving little resort city
over the past 15 years or so.
Ethnic composition
- Thai
- Chinese
- Muslim (originally of Malay descent)
- Chao Le (sea nomads)
- European
- Indian and Arabic
Industry
* Tourism
In the past decade, this industry has become the biggest earner
for the area, and it continues to grow. One of the biggest issues
now is how to retain the benefits of tourism while sustaining the
natural attractions that brought the visitors here in the first
place.
Phuket now gets more than 3 million visitors every year, and this
number is growing. The area is a popular holiday destination for
both Asians and Westerners.
* Other industries
Rubber. First introduced from Malaya in 1903, the orderly
ranks of rubber trees soon came to define much of the local landscape.
Rubber plantations are still much in evidence, but soaring real
estate values and the boom in tourism has meant that land is being
turned to other uses.
Tin. This mineral has been mined on Phuket from time immemorial;
The demand for tin is down. Tin dredging in offshore waters has
been restrained in the past few years, moreover, by zoning regulations
designed to help protect the coral reefs and beaches of the west
coast. Old tin-mine workings on land, meanwhile, are being converted
from unsightly scars in the landscape to beautiful resort hotel
developments, yacht marinas, golf courses and bungee-jumping facilities.
Coconuts, pineapples, bananas, cashews, etc. Agriculture
of various sorts is still an important part of Phuket's economy,
but more and more farming land -- even rice paddies -- are being
given over to housing, roads, and other infrastructure.
Fishing. Fishing is still an important part of life for
the people living along the coast. But small-scale fisheries are
being hurt by modern trawling, some of it illegal. Large-scale fisheries,
meanwhile, are threatened with the depletion of commercial fish
stocks from over-fishing.
Climate
Temperatures. Year-round temperatures on Phuket vary between
21-34ºC. Water temperatures range from 26-28ºC, which means wetsuits
are not necessary to enjoy water sports. The northeast monsoon season,
roughly November till April, brings consistently sunny weather,
cool breezes and low humidity, with moderate seas.
The southwest monsoon, May till October, sees the rainiest and
most unpredictable weather along with frequent swells off the Indian
Ocean.
(Click here
for current weather forecasts)
Environment
On the island of Phuket and on the adjacent mainland, tropical
rainforests of various types provide excellent opportunities for
trekking. (See Sports & Recreation)
The fringing coral reefs of the area include some of the best in
the world, and sport diving has become a major Phuket-based recreational
industry. (See Watersports
and Diving.)
This region's coral reefs are home to 106 coral reef fish species
that have already been identified. At the same time more than 210
species of hard coral play their parts in building the reefs of
the Andaman Sea. We can add to this incredible fauna an undetermined
number of soft coral species plus tens of thousands of other marine
organisms, including crustaceans, echinoderms, and worms, each with
its own role in maintaining the coral reef ecosystem as a whole.
See our extensive diving section
These waters include more than 850 species of pelagic fish (open-water
as opposed to demersal, or those living near the bottom), many of
them of commercial value. The Andaman Sea is on the migration routes
of classic fighting fish such as the blue marlin. Other much-sought-after
trophy fish are black marlin (relatively scarce), sailfish, barracuda
and a variety of sharks, notably tigers and makos. Check out our
fishing pages.
Five species of sea turtle nest on islands in Thai waters -- leatherbacks,
green turtles, loggerheads, hawksbills, and Ridleys. All of these
are endangered species, and they are less frequently sighted every
year. Aside from more than 30 recorded species of sea snakes, the
only other marine reptile in the region is the brackish-water crocodile,
locally all but extinct, a species which inhabits mangrove swamps
and river estuaries along the southern peninsula.
Other marine life of note includes the mammals. At least two species
of dolphin are commonly found in Thai waters: the Indian porpoise
and the long-nosed dolphin. Whales are occasional visitors, as well.
The dugong, or "sea cow", is now all but extinct; and
the Thai Fisheries Department has declared it a protected species.
Conservationist note. All of the local marine habitats --
coral reef, mangrove swamp, and pelagic -- are currently suffering
pressures from a variety of sources, including commercial over-fishing,
inappropriate fishing methods, shrimp-farming, other forms of pollution,
and a number of tourism-related pressures.
Even the pelagic environment, perhaps the least vulnerable of these
habitats, has been so intensively fished since the introduction
of trawl-net fishing in 1962 that commercial fisheries are threatened
with being fished past their maximum sustainable yield.
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