But the most outstanding feature of the island are the beaches, particularly those on the south and west side. Undulant surf washes in as though orchestrated by Neptune himself, on a public-relations binge. Patong Beach, smack on the west side of the island, is the acme. It's a gentle curve of sand maybe two miles long, anchored at the points by rocky headlands, and sheltered by high hills from the onshore breeze. Pairs of beach chairs under brightly-colored umbrellas are laid out, twenty feet apart, exactly halfway between the strip of vegetation at the top of the beach and the surf line.
All consumer goods are freely available at bargain prices.
Restaurants run from gourmet establishments with European-trained chefs to mobile food booths serving rice and barbecue. Bars and clubs are shoe horned in to every available crevice, all featuring loud rock and roll and pretty women whose job is to keep you from feeling lonely. Indeed, Sex in Paradise is the basic theme of Phuket. Hordes of repressed Japanese, brash Aussies, frost-struck Eurotrash, and otiose Americans swarm here from October to March, fleeing the icy grime of the Northern hemisphere. Patong can handle them.