You have a few choices when it comes to getting around Phuket. Believe it or not, a car might be your least likely way for a few reasons. One, it’s expensive, figure on at least $30.00 per day. Also, Thais drive on the left hand side of the road. There are limited parking spaces and the cost of fuel is expensive. So, we are doing what most locals and tourists do here, we rented a scooter. Its cheap, great on gas and never a problem finding parking spaces. We have seen families riding these scooters. They stand a small child at the handle bars, then Dad, Mom and possibly another child on the back end.
Now, when you need to carry food, packages or your family, a lot of Thais have a side car attached to their scooter. We have also seen them used as mobile food stands that serve up awesome, inexpensive Thai food! That’s for another blog .
The great thing about having a scooter is you can weave in and out of traffic. This is great especially in Patong along the beach road where traffic is crazy. It helps to have previously played the video game Frogger because it’s very similar. People on scooters just pull out in front of you and it’s expected that you watch out for them!
Up next are the popular modes of inexpensive transportation in Phuket: Tuk Tuks. They are small trucks that are converted to carry passangers in the back. They are less expensive than taking a traditional taxi. You can find them in abundance in Patong. A lot of tourists use them to get from their hotel to the beach or to bar hop.
We were on our scooter driving back from Patong to Kamala (playing Frogger along the beach road) and had to take a picture of this “blinged out” Tuk Tuk. It had neon lights everywhere and LOUD speakers blaring music.
What we haven’t tried yet, are the Long Boats. You can take these on day trips to other beaches and other islands like the Phi Phi islands. That’s where some Hollywood movies were filmed. Man With The Golden Gun was filmed in these islands and as matter of fact, one of the islands is named James Bond Island. The other movie was Beaches starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Again, after we make the trip, we’ll post another blog about it.