A Letter to Someone Visiting Phuket for the First Time

Dear first-time visitor,

You have chosen well. I do not know what brought you here specifically — a photograph, a friend’s recommendation, a general sense that Thailand was somewhere you should see before too much more time passed. Whatever it was, I am glad it worked.

I have been here for nearly 20 years. When people ask why I stayed, I give different answers depending on the day. The sea. The food. The light in the early morning. The fact that after two decades, the Andaman still manages to take me slightly by surprise. None of these answers are wrong; all of them are incomplete.

Here is what I want you to know before you arrive.

The island is different to what you expect

Not worse — different. The photographs that brought you here are accurate in what they show and incomplete in what they imply. The water is that colour. The limestone islands are that dramatic. Maya Bay exists and it looks like the film. But the island is also a real place where real people live, and the gap between the postcard version and the lived version is where the best experiences happen.

Find the gap. Eat in the market rather than the restaurant. Walk the street in Old Town that does not have a souvenir shop on it. Ask someone who lives here rather than consults TripAdvisor.

Get on the water

I say this to everyone and I mean it for everyone. Whatever else you do in Phuket, get on the Andaman Sea at least once. Preferably twice. Not because our boats are the only way to see it — though I am obviously going to recommend them — but because the island from the water is a different proposition to the island from the beach.

The crossing to Phi Phi in the early morning, when the wake trails behind you and the islands are still in the early light. The moment inside a hong when the cave closes behind the canoe and the world shrinks to the walls and the sky above and the still dark water. The sunset over the karst from Phang Nga Bay. These are not experiences I can describe adequately. They are reasons to come here.

Slow down more than you think you should

The instinct when you arrive somewhere extraordinary is to see as much of it as possible. I understand it. I had it myself, twenty years ago.

The better approach, which I discovered slowly and then understood completely, is to go deeper rather than wider. One beach you genuinely know is worth more than five you visited briefly. One day on the water where you had time to look at things is worth more than three rushed itineraries.

Phuket rewards patience. It takes a few days to find your rhythm here. Once you do, the island starts giving you things that the rushing visitor misses.

The people are the place

The Thai hospitality that you will encounter is not a performance for tourists. The warmth is real. The willingness to help a confused foreigner figure out the bus schedule or the menu or the temple etiquette comes from a genuine orientation toward welcome that has characterised this culture for longer than tourism has existed.

Meet it in kind. Learn hello and thank you in Thai and use them. Remove your shoes. Bow slightly. Do not raise your voice. Return the smile.

It will not be long enough

However long your trip is, you will leave with a list of things you did not get to. The restaurant someone mentioned on the last day. The beach you meant to find. The viewpoint at sunrise that you kept meaning to wake up for.

This is not a failure. This is the island doing its job. Phuket should leave you wanting to come back. It left me wanting to stay, which turned out to be the same thing.

Welcome. I hope I see you on the water.

— Captain Mark