Description Tour B (North of Phuket)

Itinerary
1. We will pick you up from your hotel at 11.30am, and drive to Sino-Portuguese
Houses and stop get some drink at Khao Rang See view in Phuket town .
2. Having Lunch at Dairy Hut .
3. Next stop is Prathong Temple.
4. Then on to Bang Pea Water fall & Gibbon Rehabilitation (Fee Entrance).
5. Next is Laemsingh Beach for Rest and swim in the sea.
6. Driving back to your hotel (Arrival time is 17.30) .

Old Phuket Town
Sino-Portuguese Houses

A must-do in Phuket is a walk in the old part of Phuket City, around Thalang, Dibuk and Krabi roads. The beautiful architecture along these roads will take you back the charm of a century ago. According to Pranee Sakulpitpatana, a lecturer at Phuket Rajabhat University and one of the island’s premier historians, the architecture is a reflection of European influence on the island. Europeans including the Portuguese and the British, had been interested in Phuket’s tin wealth since the 16th century. In the 18th century, much of the island’s tin mining was carried out by Hokkien Chinese who became the big players in building the old part of the city. In the early 20th century, under Governor Phraya Rassada Nupradit, major European mining companies were invited in, and the major public infrastructure such as roads and canals was built.

No one knows exactly when the first building in this style was constructed, but old photographs from the reign of King Rama V (1853-1910) show that it was already well established by then. Two styles of building in particular stand out: the shop-house (Sino-Portuguese style) and the big mansion (Sino-Colonial style).

Khao Rang, Phuket Town

A great view of Phuket Town, the southern part of the island, and some of the offshore islands, can be obtained by going to the top of Kao Rang Hill, on the city's northwest.

There are also several restaurants featuring spectacular. views of the city, a health park for exercise enthusiast, and a comfortable, expanse of grass for picnickers at the top with a bronze statue of Phraya Ratsada Nupradit the model Governor of Phuket during King Rama V's reign.

PRATHONG TEMPLE (Wat Prathong (Thalang Area))

Located north of Thalang and about 20 km from Phuket Town, Wat Phra Thong is the oldest temple on the island and was created when Thalang was still Phuket's capital. 

This shrine encloses a golden statue of Buddha that sprang up from beneath the earth long ago. The story is of a young boy who tied his buffalo to what he thought was a post It was in an area at that time given over to the raising of animals. After doing so, he fell down in agony and died. The father of the boy dreamed that the reason his son had died was for he sin of tying a filthy buffalo to a sacred object, that what the boy thought was a post was in reality the golden peak of the Buddha's conical cap.

He told his neighbors the dream and they all went out to dig up the statue but had no success. Later, at the time of Thao Thep Kasatri's heroic defense against the Burmese in 1785, the invaders tried to succeed where the villagers had failed their intention was to take the statue back to Burma.

Sacred objects and slaves were then the most sought after spoil for armies. Holy statues brought good luck to their possessors and the slaves were used for work and to populate places that lacked inhabitants a frequent problem for rulers in Southeast Asia who had a great deal of land but very few subjects. The Burmese, however, were unable to retrieve the golden Buddha despite several attempts. They were finally driven off by a swarm of angry hornets.

After this the villagers decided to protect their miraculous statue by covering the part that stuck up from the ground with a plaster cast of Buddha's head and shoulders' which is the way it is today. Located north of the traffic light on the outskirts of Thalang Town. A large sign shows the entrance.

Bang Pea Water fall & Gibbon Rehabilitation
Gibbon Rehabilitation project (http://www.gibbonproject.org)
Virtual tour preview : click here

You can visit our center and see some of the gibbons from the viewing platform. The Center open daily 9am to 4.30pm. We do not charge an entrance fee. 

We are around 20 km away from Phuket International Airport, from here you should follow the sign to the Heroines monument and turn left onto road 4027. 

Follow the road until you see the sign for Bang Pea Waterfall, where you turn left and drive for 1 km to the entrance of the park. You will have to pay an entrance fee to the National Park Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. Once inside the park a car park is provided.

Bang Pea Waterfall, Phuket, Thailand. It is about 9 km. east from the Heroines Monument.
Virtual tour preview : click here

Bang Pea Waterfall is in Talang district. Another beautiful waterfall in Phuket you can swim and take a good viewing during rainy season.

Laemsingh Beach

Little hand painted signs planted at the roadside between Surin and Kamala beach are the only markers for Laem Singh beach, and if you blink you'll miss it. This beautiful small bay is hidden from view, only revealing itself upon a 5-minute walk down a steep path. With glittering white sand in the centre and rocky outcroppings at either end, Laem Singh is favoured haunt for snorkelers and sunbather alike.

Would maybe qualify for being the most beautiful beach on Phuket, if tourists had not swamped it nowadays. It is a small bay with golden sand that is framed with huge rocks and lush tropical vegetation including picturesque coconut palms in the back. Access is only via a small and sometimes slippery path down from the road through the ”jungle”. This has the advantage that – once you are down - there is no road visible, just dramatic landscape, but at least in high season unfortunately also rows of sunchairs with tourists.
Even so, Laem Singh Beach is still worth a daytrip. Enjoy the scenery, have a snack in one of the local restaurants at the beach and don’t forget your snorkeling equipment. Especially along the rocks at the southern end of the beach there are quite a lot of colorful species of fish to see.