Life in Phuket

Let's face it, I'm a city boy, born and bred in London. And I love London, let's face it, London is one of the most vibrant, one of the most cosmopolitan, one of the most outrageous, one of the most compelling cities in my universe. Bangkok, "The Big Mango", "The City of Angels" is also cosmopolitan, outrageous, compelling. But I'm a 'false' big city boy, I prefer the small cities, the Brightons, the Torremolinoses of this world and hey guess what?! Phuket, an island, joined to mainland Thailand by a bridge over a narrow strip of the Andaman Sea.


So here I am in Phuket, my current home, a place I am comfortable in and happy in. For example, this morning I left my villa with my partner Mayom and followed him to his place of work, The Westin Siray Bay Resort and Spa. To get there we passed by Robinsons, the main department store in the town centre, crossed the sea by bridge - yes Siray is an island but still considered an integral part of Phuket Island - passed the monkeys, drove close by the Sea Gypsy village until we reached a cape surrounded by turquoise sea. Before returning home I went to Central Festival, a shopping mall about two kilometres from home, parked the bike and went up to the fourth floor and stepped into "Cut and Curl" for a haircut. I was asked, which stylist I would like to cut my hair, the one I had on my previous visit wasn't there, so I said either of the other two male stylists they showed me. I was treated to a five minute head and shoulder massage, followed by a hair was, stretched out on a comfortable day bed. Then I was sat at one of the hair styling station and supplied with liquid refreshment, where following a consultation, my hair was cut to my precise requirements. This was followed by a quick rinse to rid any loose hair and a blow dry and final styling. All the for the princely sum of 400 baht, a little over £8. I had almost equal treatment to that in Torquay, six years ago for £25. Anyway, I've been digressing, the point is, I left the shopping mall only to step into clear blue sky and a mountain facing me, covered in lush green trees. The temperature, a comfortable 31 celsius.




I get around on my motorbike, an electric blue and silver Honda Wave 110 FI. Without it I would be marooned, public transport on the island is not a patch on Bangkok which has the best public transport service infrastructure I know outside London. There are buses here but they tend to finish early evening, taxis and tuk tuks are much more expensive. So nearly everyone on the island has a bike, a car or a truck to get around. I bought it ten days after I arrived to live in Phuket and after realising that getting motorbike taxis to get around were much more expensive than meter taxis in Bangkok. I considered hiring a bike but at 2,500 baht a month that would work out at 30,000 baht for one year. Then I looked at second-hand bikes but second-hand goods hold their price much better in Thailand than the UK and a three-year old Honda Wave with nearly 30,000 kilometres on the clock was going to cost me 32,000 baht and would come with just a three month warrantee. So I opted to buy new, my bike cost me 39,000 baht (roughly £800) with road tax, government third-party insurance and a five year warrantee. It's a comparatively dangerous mode of transport but it is the quickest, being able to slice through traffic jams, and I do wear a full-face helmet.


For my first three months in Phuket, I lived in a condominium at Supalai Resort on the outskirts of Phuket Town. It was not ideal but I had to find somewhere quickly when I moved from Bangkok. In fact, although the condo was only two years old, it was a dingy place that had serious problems with mould. On 1^st January, I happily moved into a lovely villa home, also on the outskirts of Phuket Town but also very centrally located to get anywhere on the south of this island, and only three kilometres and a little over five minutes from the school where I teach.



My villa is a single storey building, set on a private housing estate, is semi-detached but once through the gate, invisible from the neighbours I share a partition wall with. There is a front garden with "Bird of Paradise" plants flowering over two metres high. The patio has a ceramic tiled floor covered by the roof, protecting from the blazing sun and the monsoon rain that take turns to cover Phuket. Through the front door is a large living room, measuring 21feet by 18 feet, has windows to the front and rear, I have an L-shaped sofa, TV and dining table amongst the furniture. Off of the living room are two bedrooms and a bathroom, the kitchen is outside, covered by a sloping roof and enclosed by three walls. The main bedroom has a four set of winds two the front and side, a kingsize bed, large mirrored wardrobe, wicker armchair, chest of drawers and shelf units. A door on the right leads to the en-suite shower room. The second bedroom, with windows to the rear and side is not as large as the main but still spacious has a door directly leading to the bathroom and is ideal for any guest who may come and visit. I am happy with it. It is a very nice place to live.

A visitor

The school, which I will refer to only as Phuket TH (purely to avoid Google picking up this blog whenever a search is done on the school), has just over a thousand students from Anubahn (kindergarten), through Prathom (primary) and Mathayom (secondary school). It is a private school whose buildings and grounds are neatly laid out and well maintained, a stark contrast from the government school in Bangkok, where I worked previously. I teach the upper Mathayom students, the fifteen to eighteen year olds. Many of these students are from wealthy families and know they have a secure future, so by the time they reach their mid-teens a number become rather lazy at studying, often skipping class. However, there are still many good students and it is those who make my job worthwhile. The picture of me below was taken at the school sports day in November, playing a rhythm on the drums to the chorus of cheerers.