Tales from the past.

#Phuket #phuketvillas

We have been travelling  to Phuket since 1988. Yes, it was very quiet then. Only one main road, Thepkasattri Road but not as you know it now. It was just wide enough for one car and a commercial vehicle to pass, not that we ever saw one.

Buying petrol was fun for our rented Suzuki Jeep....!! There were steel oil drums either suspended under a rattan roof or on the ground with a hand pump. It was fun but positively dangerous, with the dispensers often smoking while working.
 
You could count the main hotels on one and a half hands. The Pearl Village was a dream (now Indigo Pearl). That was our first impression of the island, where we now live. 

We have been travelling back periodically ever since, finally retiring here in 2011.

To keep us informed during the intervening period, we relied on the internet and a blog by Jamie Monk called Jamie's Phuket. A total inspiration to those who love and need to know about Phuket (see link Jamie's Phuket). So here we are, our love of the North East takes us back to 1988 and all things we loved about the island.

Just to show how the island has changed ( more than a little) here is a photograph from my collection, of Patong Beach taken in 1988.