Thailand: Walk through time gone by

The Big Buddha presides over Phuket. Photo / Getty Images

Helen van Berkel takes to the streets of Phuket.

Some days, paddling in Patong's blood-warm seas and snoozing under its soporific sun just don't satisfy. There are plenty of things to do in Phuket's bustling beach town that will leave you feeling a little more cultured and grown-up.

Where today you see streets lined with stalls selling sunglasses and T-shirts boasting rude and/or commercial slogans, traders and sailors once strode when Patong was a stopover on the shipping routes between China and India through to the Malay peninsula.

And long before bloated Westerners in Speedos discovered this Andaman Sea bolthole and turned it into a hedonistic paradise, Patong was best known for its tin mines.

Workers from Singapore, Penang and China brought their own cuisine, customs and architecture that can still be seen in Phuket Old Town.

The Phra Phitak Chin Pracha, better known as the Blue Elephant, is a stately mansion of round-arched windows and shady verandas set in a casually lush, green garden well back from the road. It's an architectural style known hereabouts as an "angmor lao", which translates directly to "the house of the red-hairs", referring to the original European owners who showed their own importance by building these monumental houses. Around the corner on Dibuk Rd, lived the mine workers in narrow two-storey row houses. Only about a decade ago these homes were dilapidated and derelict, before someone realised the value of the Sino-Portuguese architecture as a tourist drawcard. Most have been beautifully restored and presented in a range of pastel colours. Apparently the Crown Princess of Thailand was gifted a house in this street. She wasn't in when we passed by.

Nor did she have any mail in the letterbox.

Line up for a blessing from the monks. Photo / Getty Images

Romanee Rd once was, according to our guide, the "fun" street, then clarified: "where men visit". The red-light district then. There was no sign of any such activity going on in the "shop houses" that line the narrow street. The original owners ran little businesses from the spacious, shaded front rooms and lived upstairs. Some are still shops, others have been converted into cute accommodation.

It's a fascinating walk through history and I'd recommend calling in to the tourist information centre on Thalang Rd for a brochure and a map.

Inside the centre is an old-style water well used by the early householders a century or so ago. Sample food from the street vendors and stores as you wander and inhale the scents of ginger, chilli and coriander, and the overtones of durian and fish sauce. An energetic man tempted most of us with an "authentic" durian icecream sold as a block on a stick.

It's about as close as I would get to the fruit renowned for its vile stench — and its taste is much, much better than its odour.

Multi-coloured Sino-Portuguese facades in Phuket Old Town. Photo / Getty Images

Sated with food and history, go find some religion at Wat Chalong, probably the most important Buddhist temple in these parts. Here you discover the dark side to the airbrushed version of relationships between locals and mine workers. Wat Chalong's claim to fame is the monk Luang Pho Chaem who, when faced with rioting Chinese tin workers in the 1800s, told the locals he intended to stay and inspired others to do so too. The temple also offered refuge to Americans being hunted by the Japanese during World War II to help build the railway that would cross the River Kwai. The steep-roofed temples are a cool sanctuary from the damp summer heat and a climb to the roof offers great views across the temple complex. At random intervals, a blast of firecrackers goes off in what looks like a dovecote in the temple yard. This is how thanks are given by those who have had their wishes granted. Quite a few were granted on our visit apparently.

Overlooking this is 45m-high Big Buddha, on top of a 6km winding hill road just out of Phuket. It's worth weaving between suicidal tourists on motorbikes and ATVs just to see the views of southern Phuket and Patong Beach and marvel at one man's homage to the great teacher. Loudspeakers blast Buddhist chants across the hilltop as you explore and put a few baht on Buddha's footprint and handprint.

Walk inside the structure for more statues and line up for a blessing from the monks.

CHECKLIST

Getting there
Phra Phitak Chin Pracha

Online
smartandaman.com/