British Ambassdaor Quinton Qayle was in Phuket recently. He spoke to a local English-language newspaper about safety in Phuket. There have been a number of attacks on foreigners recently, leading people to question how safe Phuket is.
We’ve been in Phuket a while. So, is Phuekt safe? Mr Quayle voiced his concern about the number of attacks on foreigners, particularly people being mugged late at night while out on motorbikes.
We have never been mugged. While it is true that there have been several attacks in Phuket in recent months, it’s no reason to put off a trip to the island. As with most cities in the world, it’s not advisable to travel around on motorbikes after dark in certain areas. A number of attacks have occurred in Rawai, but muggings are by no means centralized.
Common sense is key. Going out sampling the nightlife in Phuket and then riding home at night while drunk is not a smart move. Take care with the choices you make while in Phuket. Avoid unlit streets if you’re traveling by bike at night. Furthermore, keep your bags close. If you find yourself being confronted, just give over everything you have without protest. It’s not worth being shot or stabbed for the sake of a couple thousand baht and a cellphone.
We mentioned yesterday that it’s currently low season in Phuket, but the nightlife scene in Phuket is still alive and kicking. We want Phuket Vogue to be a Phuket nightlife guide for anyone coming to this great island, so every now and then we have a few tips for you.
Today, we’re going to sing the praises of clubbing in Phuket Town. Nightlife in Phuket Town is awesome. You can go to places such as Karon and Patong and have fun, sure, but nowhere on the island do you get as real a Thai experience than in Phuket Town clubs and bars.
The reason for this is that most of the clubs in Phuket Town follow the standard Thai pattern of live bands, a DJ to finish the night, bottles of whiskey and lots of dancing around tables. You go somewhere like Timber Hut on a Friday night and you’ll see exactly what we mean.
Timber Hut, while being one of the most popular, certainly isn’t the best club in Phuket Town. Rather than squeezing your way into Timber Hut, we recommend Oasis. It’s a bit quieter, so you have more room to check the place out, but it’s just as fun. The Thais really know how to party.
A few of you have noticed that we use Phuket Town and Phuket City interchangeably on this website. So what’s the deal with that? Why not stick with one and not the other? For years, the area was known as Phuket Town. In fact, most of the signs in Phuket still refer to the place as Phuket Town. Guidebooks and maps still mention Phuket Town and even some who live in Phuket still use Phuket Town.
However, in 2004, the area was elevated to city status (thesaban nakhon in Thai). What was once called Phuket Town all of a sudden became Phuket City. The transition between the two names still causes much confusion because the area has the feeling more of a town than a city.
The reason why you will find Phuket Town and Phuket City on this website is because people use both and therefore people search the Internet for both terms. If we were to only use one and not the other, we’d eliminate about half the people searching for the area through websites such as Google.
Sure, it would tidy the website up a bit, but we’d miss out on a lot of traffic.
We actually prefer to use the official term, Phuket City, but we still use Phuket Town here and there in an attempt to maximize the number of visitors to Phuket Vogue who may come here searching for Phuket Town nightlife or Phuket City restaurants.
The low season is really kicking in down here in Phuket. You can see the difference in the Phuket nightlife, particularly among the clubs and bars in Patong. Everything feels as if it is winding down. Phuket nightlife is usually buzzing with tourists and locals, but most of the tourists here at the moment are Asian. Even some of the long-time Phuket visitors are elsewhere, either on holiday or on business.
Phuket nightlife still has a lot to offer during low season. The bars in Patong stay open pretty much the whole year round. With fewer people trundling about the island, the nightlife scene in Phuket becomes a bit more civil, shall we say.
The downside of nightlife in Patong is that you come across far more undesirable people than in other places around the island. Come low season, a large percentage of those people are back in the real world, doing whatever it is they do, leaving the streets of Patong in peace.
We haven’t really been to Patong much in the past few months for the simple fact that it all becomes a bit dull during the peak of high season. Patong nightlife is still alive and kicking, just don’t spread the word too far or else all the louts will be back.
After a weekend in Bangkok, we are straight back to Phuket. It’s amazing to see the difference in the bars and clubs in Phuket as compared with Bangkok. The Phuket nightlife scene has a lot to offer, but it still has a long way to go before it can compete with the bigger cities.
One of the things that we’re always happy about in Phuket is the fact that there are so many great restaurants. Although there isn’t as much street food as in Bangkok, there is still more than enough to keep us happy.
We’ll be going back to Bangkok again this weekend. Don’t get us wrong, we love Phuket, but sometimes you need to go shopping or party in a big way that you can’t usually do on the island. But still, it is nice to be back in Phuket, where everything is so much more calm than in the capital.
So this will be our first post on the Phuket Vogue blog. This is where we’ll keep you up to date with goings on with the website and around Phuket. Phuket Vogue was established in May 2008 in an attempt to bring together some decent information about Phuket.
At the time of writing, Phuket is gearing up for the low season, which means we’re getting rained on more than we’d like, but this is the beginning of the quiet season, so it’s cool to be around when there are so many tourists on the island.
The rain in Phuket can be a real downer because it is so hard and so heavy. We’re lucky here that the rain only comes in bursts, so half the time we’re drenched, and the other half, we’re working on our tans.
So anyway, welcome to Phuket Vogue. Hopefully this is the beginning of something special.
Powered by WordPress | Blog (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
Phuket Vogue is a resource dedicated to bringing you up-to-date information about restaurants and nightlife in Phuket. This website is constantly expanding to bring you the most vogue clubs and eateries on the island. Whether you want to party in Patong or dine out in Phuket City, we have the info for you. We love Phuket. Privacy policy
