hiddenphuket.blogspot.ru

Untouched natural landscapes, ancient tropical forests, pristine beaches with coral reefs - all this primordial beauty of Thailand is being preserved for future generations in Sirinat National Park. The vast reserve, covering more than 90 square kilometers, shelters hundreds of species of animals, reptiles, birds, and plants, including rare and endangered species.

Two coral reefs create excellent conditions for exciting exotic diving. These untouched reefs have preserved a truly unique biosphere: soft and woody corals, living sea flowers - anemones, sprawling sea fans and, of course, countless tropical fish.

The national park was created in 1981: the government appreciated the purity of the water and beaches, the unique ecological setting, as well as the fact that the beaches of what is now the reserve were nesting grounds for sea turtles. It is for these giant animals, the contemporaries of dinosaurs, that thousands of tourists come here from November to February.

Originally the reserve was called Hat Nai Yang, but in 1992 it was renamed in honor of the 60th anniversary of Queen Sirikit, who is beloved in Thailand. Several cafes and restaurants with Thai and European cuisine operate in Sirinat Park, and you can also stay here for several days in a bungalow or rent a tent.

On the territory of the reserve there is the only water park in Phuket, 'Splash Jungle,' which is located on Mai Khao Beach. At the water park, adults and children will find 12 water slides of varying difficulty levels and other fun attractions.

goodbuyholidays.com

It is hard to describe in words everything that is included in the Fantasia Show. It is at once a theme park, circus performances, a dance show, a unique zoo, amusement rides, and many more bright and cheerful entertainments, as well as a delicious dinner in the local restaurant.

Immediately after entering, you will find yourself in a craftsmen's village, where artisans make traditional souvenirs out of leather, wood, and stone right in front of you and sell them on the spot.

Next, the park's alleys will lead you to a special zoo, where albino animals of many different species are gathered. For Thais, any white animal is considered a symbol of luck and prosperity, so whoever finds an albino will have fortune's favor in everything.

The amusement park impresses both adults and children: dozens of lively and energetic attractions will give you a huge dose of positive emotions.

Dinner at Fantasia Park impresses with its scale: tables are set in the largest banquet hall in Asia, which seats 4000 people. The buffet with a huge selection of Asian and European dishes will satisfy even the most capricious taste.

After dinner, the show begins - a colorful costumed performance based on the legend of Prince Kamala, who saved his beloved. It is a beautiful and somewhat naive fairy tale, but its staging is astonishing: a huge number of actors in bright national costumes, acrobats floating above the hall, enormous elephants performing complex tricks. Dance, music, and movement make the Fantasia Show international and understandable to everyone.

The show takes place in the magnificent 'Palace of the Elephants' - an exact copy of a stone palace from the Sukhothai era, decorated with 999 elephant statues.

Flickr, N30S

Bangla Road, which adjoins Patong Beach, can safely be called the center of nightlife in Phuket. After sunset, the local venues open their doors, the music comes on, vacationers stream in, and the fun begins.

Bangla Road is short - less than 400 meters - and lanes filled with entertainment venues branch off from it in all directions. Each side street has its own collection of bars and clubs, often themed. The result is a whole district devoted to club life, alcoholic drinks, and entertainment of varying degrees of legality. Bringing minors here is strongly not recommended.

Closer to midnight the street fills with thousands of tourists from all over the world wanting to relax and get their share of exotic pleasures. At your service are numerous clubs, bars, discos, restaurants, and simple snack bars. It is easy to lose track of time here and come to your senses only near dawn, not knowing where you are or with whom, often with an empty wallet and muddled memories.

In April, during the Thai New Year - Songkran - the street becomes an arena for street battles with water pistols and water guns.

phuket-fever.ru

The Jungceylon shopping center in Patong is located in the center of the beach town, next to Bangla Road. Its name - Jungceylon - was borrowed from the old name of Phuket Island.

The shopping center impresses with its scale and versatility. In addition to hundreds of shops, there is a modern 4D cinema, many cafes and restaurants, entertainment venues, and nightclubs. Even without making any purchases, you can spend time here comfortably and enjoyably.

Jungceylon is divided into four large thematic sectors. The first of them, Silang Boulevard, which you enter from the main entrance, is designed in a tropical style. It contains various brand boutiques, a Japanese restaurant, Thai fast-food outlets, sporting goods stores, and massage salons. It probably also has the largest selection of souvenirs in Phuket.

The second part of the complex is called the Port; it is dedicated to seafarers. At your service are a cosmic nightclub, a green park, and a pond. You will see the traditional ship of the island's discoverers and a laser-and-music show set against dancing fountains.

Chinese Phuket, the third part of the shopping center, is a concentration of restaurants. The cuisine here represents almost every country in the world. Each establishment is unique in its own way - there is a Russian menu, an Australian one, an Irish one, and many others.

In the fourth part, Phuket Square, you will find boutiques, the Robinson’s department store, a hypermarket, a cinema, bowling, and beauty salons.

Flickr, meganbabaganoush

The gigantic Buddha statue crowns Nakaked Mountain in the Chalong area. Its height is about 50 meters, and if you add the height of the mountain at 400 meters above sea level, you get an epic composition that can be seen almost from everywhere on Phuket Island.

At the foot of the statue, the Big Buddha Temple is being built, promising to become one of the most significant attractions of Phuket and all of Thailand. Construction, which began at the beginning of this century, has still not been finished, because the project was conceived on a grand scale both culturally and financially.

Money for the temple is being collected, as they say, from the whole world - donations come from ordinary Thais, tourists, local officials, and the royal family. You too can help with the construction by buying a small marble plaque for 100 baht and writing something good on it.

Nakaked Mountain is mentioned in many legends. One of them says that the mythical serpent Naga lived here, and another tells how Buddha himself once swam here and decided to meditate on the mountain's summit. As a result, light began to pour from the mountain, and the residents of the surrounding villages saw it.

There is a lot of interesting things on the complex grounds: a magical gong that sings when stroked, golden and marble sculptures dedicated to deities, and monks who bless visitors. You can enter the temple only in decent clothing, not beachwear or sportswear.

Flickr, Dawn in Phuket, Thailand

The Seashell Museum in Phuket (Phuket seashell museum) is a private museum located near the Rawai coast in the southern part of Phuket Island. The exhibition includes more than two thousand exhibits. Not only shells are displayed, but also fossils together with fragments of rock in which traces of ancient mollusks have been preserved. It was opened by the Pathamakantin brothers; for more than forty years of their lives they traveled the world and collected rare shell specimens for their collection. A souvenir shop is open in the museum. Thai legislation prohibits taking shells and products made from them out of the country, so the shop has a special section for processing the documents required when going through customs. The museum exhibition features a real golden-colored pearl weighing 140 carats.

Panoramio, Casanegro

Orchids and Thailand are perceived almost like synonymous words: it is hard to imagine one without the other. Although orchids are not the official national symbol of Thailand, these royal flowers can be seen everywhere. Their images are encountered at every turn, they are used as decorative ornaments, and luxurious bouquets of extraordinary beauty and elegance are made from them for parties and official ceremonies.

To see how orchids grow, you can visit the orchid farm in Phuket. Note that this is not a banal botanical garden, but a serious nursery where flowers are professionally grown for sale. On an area of 16 thousand square meters grows an innumerable multitude of orchids of many different species. Visitors are usually pleasantly shocked by the incredibly bright colors and shades that create a beautiful kaleidoscope of patterns in the orchid garden.

It is forbidden to export orchids from Thailand with roots and soil, so several clever ways were devised here to still sell flowers to tourists for 'export' - they are packed in special containers with gel or treated with a special composition that allows orchids to survive several weeks without soil.

Besides orchids, you can buy souvenirs here and try delicious passion fruit ice cream in the local cafe.

nakartemira.ru

The Botanical Garden of Phuket amazes with its unusual design and resembles classic botanical gardens very little, with their even rows of trees under which concise signs with the species name stick out. This park delights the eye not only with exotic rare plants, but also with the imagination of its creators.

Well-kept alleys are everywhere, along which you can see true works of art by gardeners - animal figures filigreed from hedges, arches of intertwined branches, and magnificent flowerbeds.

Among the flowers and shrubs are many statues and charming garden figurines, both traditional Thai and European. Children like best the large pond inhabited by bright red and gold koi carp, which can be fed with food sold on the shore.

The botanical garden is divided into zones by style - English and French, Balinese and Japanese gardens, an orchid garden and a cactus garden, a tropical rainforest zone with an artificial waterfall, and a rice field plot with a traditional Thai hut. In each themed garden the style is maintained perfectly: the Japanese garden is decorated with pagodas and red torii gates, and the English one has classical sculptures and fountains.

Separate groups of plants are collected into gardens by type: the garden of traditional medicinal herbs will introduce you to the ancient medicine of the peoples of Asia, and in the carnivorous plant garden you can learn how plants that feed on insects live. In addition to new knowledge about the plant world, you will get enormous aesthetic pleasure from visiting the botanical garden in Phuket!

Flickr, Brett Murphy

The zoo in Phuket is relatively small compared with other similar establishments in Southeast Asia; its area is about five hectares.

A decent collection of tropical animals, birds, and amphibians is gathered here. Almost all of them are representatives of Thai fauna, so in a couple of hours you can get a general idea of the animal world of Thailand.

The zoo's main inhabitants are elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, bears, leopards, and birds. The enclosures for the animals are spacious and comfortable, and some of the beasts roam freely around the park grounds. There is also a small aquarium with fish and an orchid garden.

The zoo is notable for the fact that performances involving various animals are held here on schedule. These shows somewhat resemble a traditional circus. The monkeys confidently ride bicycles, solve little problems, play basketball, and amuse the audience. During the extreme crocodile show, brave trainers play with the fierce predators and even put their heads directly into their toothy jaws.

The audience's favorite performance is the elephant show. The intelligent animals perform various tricks, acrobatic numbers, dance, paint, and play football. At the end of the show, visitors are allowed to feed the 'artists' bananas and take photos with them.

phuketgazette.net

A large and beautiful amusement park will bring lots of positive emotions to adults and children. Phuket Games Zone focuses on active games, or rather cheerful and reckless parodies of serious sports.

Football golf is almost like real golf, only with a soccer ball, and you have to play with your feet rather than a club. That is, from golf the game has retained only half of the name and the holes with flags, and from football - only the ball, legs, and running around. It turned out to be very fun and original, especially since the football-golf course consists of many obstacles, so you can't just whack the ball: to get the ball into the hole, you need the cool calculation and tactics of a golfer.

Frisbee golf is an even more unusual game. Here you have to hit the holes not with a ball but with a flying disc - a frisbee. The holes in this game are not pits in the ground but mysterious structures made of metal posts and chains. To complete the game, you need to throw the frisbee into 18 such basket-holes while moving across a special field with flags.

The most fun game in the Games Zone is zorbing. But this is not classic zorbing, when a person is stuffed into a large transparent ball and rolled down a hill or sent tumbling on the water. The game is called body zorbing; in it, only the person's body, roughly up to the knees, is placed inside an inflatable transparent ball. The result is a kind of ball on legs that runs around the lawn and shoves other such balls, falls, sways, and commits various other cheerful acts of mischief. The description sounds rather strange, but once you try it, you will be swept up in the fun of a zorbing battle, because you can fool around however you like and not get injured.

Flickr, pather_alexiy

At the Phuket Aquarium, the most unusual fish and other inhabitants of the sea depths await you. The underwater world of Phuket is presented in detail - corals, fish, and algae that live around the island - so if you plan to go diving, at the aquarium you can familiarize yourself with what you will see underwater. There are also many species of fish exotic for Thailand, gathered from different corners of the world.

The marine world presented in the aquarium is very diverse - squirrelfish and cowfish, lionfish and unicornfish, leopard stingrays and completely transparent glass catfish through whose bodies the spine can be seen. One of the aquarium's old-timers is a giant grouper, which has lived here for more than 25 years and has grown to a length of one and a half meters and several hundred kilograms. On Saturdays at 11 in the morning, you can watch a spine-chilling show at the aquarium in which scuba divers hand-feed huge sharks and formidable electric rays.

Some tourists compare the Phuket Aquarium with world-famous aquariums and reproach it for its small size. But it should be taken into account that the Phuket Aquarium is an addition to the Biological Center for Marine Research, whose main task is the rescue and study of sea turtles. These beautiful animals were almost exterminated in pursuit of their valuable shells and delicacy meat. To prevent the species from disappearing, a center was created that also deals with turtle breeding. The baby turtles bred here are released into the sea on Thai New Year in April, and thousands of people come to see this spectacle.

mumuka.me, Katya Knysheva

There are many wild monkeys in Thailand, that's a fact. You can see them everywhere - in zoos, forests, and parks. To get a good look at these 'cute' animals, you can visit the so-called 'Monkey Hangout,' which is located on the outskirts of Phuket Town.

This is a mangrove grove where a special platform was built for visitors to observe the monkeys in their natural habitat. A small body of water separates the grove from the platform, and the platform itself is decorated with monkey statues in various poses, with gilding and patterns - not masterpieces, but quite cute.

Near the Monkey Hangout you can buy bananas or other fruity treats inexpensively and feed the animals. The monkeys have lived here for a long time and are not afraid of people, because they probably see them as an inexhaustible source of food. When feeding time comes, they, being collective and social creatures, come in groups.

Feeding monkeys by hand is not recommended, because they may bite: despite their apparent peacefulness, they still remain wild and therefore unpredictable animals.

It is better to come here toward evening, when the heat subsides and the monkeys come out of the shade of the mangrove trees and bushes to have a snack and at the same time stare at curious tourists.

plus.google.com, Алекс Никитин

The Butterfly and Insect Park has been operating in Phuket since 1990 and is simultaneously an entomological research center. All species of butterflies in the park, and there are more than 40 of them, are bred by scientists on the park grounds.

Here you can see all stages in the life of these beautiful and delicate creatures - from chrysalis to fragile beauty with astonishing patterns on its wings.

The park staff advise coming here early, ideally at opening time: then you will be able to see butterflies emerging from their cocoons and rushing to the feeders. Feeders with pieces of fruit and fruit juices are placed everywhere, and if you stand calmly near them, the butterflies will land on your hands and even on your head.

There is a beautiful legend about butterflies - if you gently catch a butterfly in your palm and whisper your wish to it, and then release it into the wild, the wish will certainly come true. A butterfly makes no sounds, so it can pass your wish only to the Great Spirit, who will surely grant it in gratitude for your having released his beautiful and defenseless creature.

The park where the butterflies live is an orchid garden with patches of real jungle, quiet alleys, and a pond with colorful fish. So not only the park's inhabitants impress with their beauty, but also their place of residence.

It will also be interesting to visit the local silk museum, where you will learn where this refined fabric comes from. The process of raising silkworms, archaic tools and modern technologies for silk production, and the features of processing and dyeing are presented in the museum exhibition.

amazingphuketisland.com

One of the largest and most popular shopping venues in Phuket is located right at the entrance to the island's capital. This is the Central Festival shopping complex - a modern multi-story building where you can make a wide variety of purchases in comfort.

In the complex you will find a huge selection of goods from both renowned foreign and little-known local brands, and goods from local manufacturers, which are not as heavily promoted as their competitors, often do not lag behind them in quality and almost always win on price.

The grocery supermarket occupies most of the first floor; here you can buy both local delicacies and European food if you have started to miss your home cuisine. You can also have a snack here in the restaurant area. Do not miss the chance to visit stores with exclusive cosmetics and jewelry, as well as outlets offering real Thai silk.

On the second floor of the shopping complex there are departments where you can buy souvenirs, electronics, and goods for women. The banking center is also located here, where you will find representatives of almost all major banks.

On the third floor there is a sporting goods store and a zone of boutiques offering goods for men. If you have a good command of English or Thai, you can visit the 7-screen cinema, which is located here as well.

The fourth floor is occupied by beauty salons, massage rooms, and other wellness and cosmetology establishments. There are also shops with children's goods and toys here.

Navigation in the shopping complex is very convenient; there is plenty of space here, and an atmosphere of coziness and friendliness prevails.