Phuket Island, Thailand

Kata Beach
Kata Beach

In December, 1995, we (I'm Glenn, in case you didn't arrive via my home page) flew to Bangkok and then on to Phuket for the Christmas holidays. It was a truly wonderful trip - the weather was perfect, our accommodations were very nice, the diving and snorkeling were great, and the food was magnifique! We only rented a car one day, and other times we took day trips to Phangnga and Ko Phi Phi. A couple of times I took dive trips, and the rest of the vacation we spent hanging out on the beach.

I really didn't know too much about Phuket before I went - some co-workers told me that they had stayed at Kata Beach and that it was pretty nice. If you are thinking about going but don't know too much about it either, then this page is for you.

	Phuket is a beautiful island in southern Thailand. Even though it is an island, it is accessible by a bridge from the mainland. The island is scalloped with bays all down the coast, as you can see in this picture I took from a scenic overlook.
The particular bay we stayed on is called Kata Yai. Our hotel was up on a hill overlooking the bay, so we had this view from our room. Nice to wake up to. Here you are on the south end of the beach, looking north. I don't know if it looks far to you, but I can tell you it's a pretty healthy walk to the other end.
	Let me show where I took the above picture from. We stayed at Pop's Cottages, the hotel up there on the hill at the end of Kata Beach. It wasn't fun walking all the way up to our room at night, especially with a year-and-a-half old son, but once we got up there the view was the best around. It was the only hotel built up on a hill.
This close-up of Pop's give you a better idea of the climb. I'm an English teacher with no connection to the travel industry, so don't think this is an advertisement; I'm just telling you what I experienced. Pop's was an OK place. If you want to contact them, they're at 2/12 Moo 2 Patak Rd., Kata Beach, Amphur Muang, Phuket. Tel: 66-76-330181. Fax: 66-76-330794. A lot of phone numbers have changed in Thailand, so somebody let me know if these numbers need to be updated.
	There are a lot of nice restaurants on the south end of Kata Beach, just down below Pop's. This is one of the first you come to, so we took a lot of our meals here. I snapped this picture while sitting at my table waiting for my lunch. How can you not enjoy your meal with a view like this? I thought I was pretty lucky when two lovers wandered into the frame to complete the image, although when I look at the finished picture they're not that obvious.
My daughter Kelly had a lot of fun playing in the sand. Dad enjoyed hiding behind his sunglasses pretending not to be looking at the topless bathing beauties.
	It's always nice to have an island to look at from the beach, and Kata has Koh Puh. The Lonely Planet says you can swim out to it, but the locals told me that the currents are treacherous and lots of people have died trying. If you really want to visit it, the dive shops will take you out around it. I never felt the urge, though, as the snorkeling off Kata Beach was quite good. Try the south end.
One day we spent on the north end of the beach. Club Med is there, and I took this picture standing in front of it looking back at Pop's. The shadows were getting long and we were headed back for a shower and then dinner.
	Before we leave the north end of the beach, let me just say that the biggest shopping street we saw was on this end. It isn't really very close to Pop's; in fact we started walking but ended up taking a motorcycle taxi the rest of the way. I'm not saying that there are no shops on the south end, but if shopping is important to you, you may want to stay in this area. I just noticed that I'm wearing a pair of shorts I bought in one of these shops as I type this .