There are few places in the world quite as interesting as Phuket.  It is, of course, a spectacular place to go to get away from a busy world, where your worries and cares can melt away while you watch the dance of the ocean before you.  It’s also a place to get to know another culture, or maybe here it’s better to say, complex of cultures, because there are many that make up contemporary Phuket, and its rich and complex history is always a living thing, still very much in flux.  And for anyone with any ethnographic tendencies, it’s even more spectacular as a place to watch the cultures that form here in the space of a week, the temporary cultures with temporary identities, where visitors fall into patterns of behaving according to the needs of a group, or trying to meet the expectations of the locals.

It’s very possible here to not think about any of this, and most people come thinking that they won’t have to think at all, and it’s certainly not necessary.  Becoming one with the sand is a very lofty goal, and not everyone can get there.  It’s much easier when you’re reservations are with five star hotels.  Phuket can then reveal itself in an elegant face, offering the finest of luxury, relaxation, and hospitality.  All the lovely things that one would expect from a tropical paradise can start to come true.  And in your happiest moments here, you might hear the pop stylings of Swedish superstar Carola, come to lull you to sleep in gorgeous comfort.

She has been here before, and will no doubt be here again, as long as her career holds up, and it looks like there’s no end in sight for Carola Haggvist.  She got off to an early start in her music career, recording major hits when she was still a teenager.  Twenty-five years and many musical stylings later, she is still going strong, and is Sweden’s number one singer!  But it’s not all glamour roads for this singer and sometimes songwriter.  She gives back to the community when she has to, like when she sang here in a fundraiser for tsunami victims, and bringing some of her magic to the life on the island.

Related posts:

1. Cuisine in Phuket, Thailand
2. Phuket Today