Located on the beautiful Andaman Sea, Phuket Island is known for its crystal clear blue water, white sandy beaches, abundant juicy fruit and of course, its beautiful nickname, the Pearl of Thailand.

Each and every year, countless travelers from all over the world rush into Phuket Island to enjoy a better vacation. While islands like Fiji, Hawaii and Maldives are being overwhelmingly famous, Phuket Island finds its rightful place in the competitive global island traveling industry.

Phuket Island offers glimpses of the local life of Phuket islanders and is usually the first place for travelers to visit. However, what really attract people are the islets around the main island.

Phang-Nga Bay, which is 47 miles northeast of Phuket Island, is famous for the emerald green water, red forests, and most importantly, islets in fascinating shapes scattering the sea like stars.

There are many romantic things to do in Phang-Nga Bay. For example, you can stay in a hotel by the water, wake up early in the morning and enjoy the scenery that looks like a Chinese landscape painting in your own balcony. And it’s never wrong to follow others to take a long tail boat to explore the shiny green water, crocodile-shaped stones, mysterious caves and the well-known islands like James Bond Island (Ko Ping Kan) and Nail Island (Ko Tapu). After exploring nature in the sun, grabbing a fresh coconut drink is absolutely recommended.

As for the islets close to Phuket City, a personal favorite is Phi Phi Leh Island, which is 30 miles (48km) southeast of the city. Uninhabited as it is, Phi Phi Leh Island is actually formed by stony mountains capped with greenish foliage and most of its attraction spots are surrounded by steep limestone cliffs soaring out of the water.

Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh Island found fame through the 1999 movie “The Beach”, which brought the snow-white sandy beach as well as the bluish green water to the world. And undoubtedly, the figurative saying “walking on white pepper powder” helps boost the number of travelers as well.

On the southern tip of Phi Phi Leh Island lies Loh Somah Bay where you will find the most breathtakingly crystal blue water and yes, the best place for snorkeling and diving. If you happen to be a water phobic person, no problem, you can sit on the edge of a little boat, have a drink, enjoy the coral reefs which are 33 feet (10m) under the water and feed fish with bread slices.

Nevertheless if you still crave for more water sports or fish feeding, it might be time to leave Phi Phi Leh Island and head for Coral Island (Ko Hae).

On Coral Island, the most amazing thing is to walk undersea. Each undersea walker will wear a helmet filled with oxygen so that they will have no trouble breathing in the completely blue water world and bread slices will be delivered by undersea working staff to attract colorful fishes. Besides undersea walking, parasailing, waterskiing and scuba diving are all available on Coral Island.

There are hundreds of thousands of islets around Phuket Island. Some of them have huge beds of coral reefs right next to the beaches and some of them are composed of many other tiny islets as small as ink drops. And yet, all of them co-mingle their roots underground and they altogether form the Pearl of Thailand, the amazing Phuket Island.

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About the author

Jessica Chan