Phuket

Thailand doesn’t look big on the map, but its diversity is great. If you urgently need a few days or weeks of relaxation by the sea, Thailand is the place to go. There are quiet beach towns like Songkhla, developed tourist resorts such as Phuket or Ko Chang, party hubs like Pattaya or Ko Phangan, and activity centers – for example, Krabi. If you are after nature, go caving in Soppong, track down wild elephants in Khao Yai National Park, take a diving trip to Similan Islands, or visit Thi Lo Su, the largest waterfall in the country, remote and hard to access. Those of you with ethnographic interests can visit mountain villages north of Chiang Mai, where Hmong, Akha, Karen, and other tribes have preserved their traditional ways of living. For travelers searching more quirky experiences, Phuket hosts parades of Chinese mediums possessed by ancestral spirits for nine days every year, and in the center of Bangkok you can visit a shrine dedicated to a cobra, with a modern legend attached. If by chance you are pursuing a spiritual quest, try a vipassana course, get a magic tattoo that may grant you superpowers, or exchange ideas with young Thai artists in Ban Silapin. And when it comes to history, Thailand is a treasure house: it is the only country in Southeast Asia that has never been colonized, preserving its own outlook, customs and lifestyle.

Thailand

Phuket Province

Nine Emperor Gods Festival takes place in Phuket old town on the first nine days of the ninth Chinese month. Its dates vary in the Gregorian calendar, but usually it falls around October. The festival is extremely striking and exotic, with hundreds of spirit mediums competing in their efforts to mutilate themselves for the gods.

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Nine Emperor Gods Festival, Phuket

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Royal Phuket City Hotel

Phuket Old Town is probably the least visited spot on the island of Phuket. All the millions of tourists shuttling between their resorts and the sea seldom bother to check it out. But the old town center is worth it, with its Chinese shophouses, temples and kopitiam (traditional cafes).

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Phuket Old Town

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Nine Emperor Gods Festival, Phuket

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