Thailand’s largest island, Phuket, draws millions of travelers each year with its huge beach resorts and party atmosphere. After two weeks on much smaller islands, we went to Phuket for more prosaic reasons: to do laundry, stock up on toiletries, and visit the immigration office to get our Thai visas extended. For convenience, we stayed not at one of the beaches but in historic old Phuket town, which for centuries was an important trading stop on the way to the Straits of Malacca, linking tin- and rubber-producing Phuket to Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. Phuket town feels very much like a miniature Penang: the same picturesque old Chinese shop houses, trendy modern cafes, and long-established eateries (we even found one selling Melissa’s favorite breakfast, Malaysian-style roti canai).
