Phuket Old Town

Phuket Town’s old quarter is two-storey Sino-Portuguese shophouses in sherbet colours along Thalang, Dibuk, Phang Nga, Yaowarat and Krabi roads, with Soi Romanee, once the brothel street, running between them. It was built by Hokkien Chinese tin money in the late nineteenth century, and it is the only part of the island where the architecture tells you where you are.

The walking street, with the caveat it deserves. Thalang Road closes to traffic for Lard Yai, the walking street market, which every source describes as a Sunday evening. Phuket City Municipality does publish pages about it, including one announcing an extra day, and its website returns 403 or a 404 to every automated request we made, so we cannot confirm the current schedule from the body that sets it. If your visit depends on it, check locally on the day.

What there is to do here that is not eating. Several of the mansions and shophouses are museums with their own admission charges, which we have not verified and are not quoting. The Thai Hua Museum, the Peranakan house museums and a handful of galleries are all within a few streets of each other. Coffee is taken seriously.

Getting here is the part people underestimate. The old town is on the other side of the island from Patong, Kata and Karon, and a taxi each way costs more than most people expect. Combine it with something else on the east side rather than treating it as an evening out from the beach.

What we have not done. Been. This listing is the record on OpenStreetMap plus what a municipality would tell us if its website would talk to us.