Wat Chalong

Wat Chalong tickets and tours: which one to book

Wat Chalong is free to enter and there is no ticket to buy, so online bookings are really transport and a guide for an island tour that includes it. Visitors on their own simply arrive by taxi, scooter or a hotel car and walk in. The tours available follow a familiar Phuket pattern. The most common is a half-day sightseeing loop from the west coast beach towns that combines Wat Chalong with the Big Buddha on the hill above Chalong and a viewpoint such as Karon or Promthep Cape, sometimes adding a cashew or gem showroom. A second kind is a city tour that pairs the temple with Phuket Old Town, with its Sino-Portuguese shophouses, shrines and cafes.

There are private guided versions of both, and day trips from Krabi that cross to Phuket for the main sights. These tours include an air-conditioned minivan or car with hotel pick-up and an English-speaking driver or guide; meals and drinks are extra. Shopping stops on cheaper tours can take up a surprising amount of time, so check the itinerary. For the temple alone, a taxi from Patong or Kata is easy to arrange and lets you stay as long as you like, and a private half-day tour is the best value if you want the Big Buddha, the temple and the Old Town in one outing.

Visiting Wat Chalong: what to see and how to behave

Wat Chalong, officially Wat Chaiyathararam, is the largest and most revered of Phuket's Buddhist temples. It is closely tied to two monks, Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang, who in 1876 helped the people of Chalong resist an uprising by Chinese tin miners and treated the wounded with herbal medicine. Their memory is the reason many Thais come here, and both are honoured with gilded statues in the main hall, where worshippers press squares of gold leaf onto the figures and leave flowers and incense. The temple grounds are spacious and busy. The main ordination and prayer halls show classic southern Thai temple architecture, with layered roofs, gilded gables and murals. The highlight is the tall Grand Pagoda, said to enshrine a fragment of the Buddha's bone;

climb to the upper floors to see its painted walls and ceilings, display cases of Buddha images, and the small balcony with a view over the trees. Near the halls, notice the brick structure where devotees set off strings of firecrackers to give thanks when a wish has been granted, so do not be startled by the sudden bursts of noise. Etiquette is that of any working Thai temple. Cover shoulders and knees, take shoes off before entering any building, do not point your feet towards Buddha images or monks, and women should not touch monks or hand things to them directly. Photography is generally allowed, but be discreet around people praying. The temple lies on the bypass road about 8 km south-west of Phuket Town, around 20 to 30 minutes by car from Patong, Kata or Karon.

Wat Chalong: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple grounds are open daily from early morning until about 5 pm. The best time is early morning, when local people bring offerings, the monks are about and the tour vans have not yet arrived; tours tend to come in waves from late morning to mid-afternoon. The late afternoon is cooler and quieter again. The driest months in Phuket are November to April, which is also the peak season for visitors; from May to October the south-west monsoon brings short, heavy downpours, but temples are perfectly visitable between showers.

The temple holds a large fair each year around Chinese New Year, with food stalls, entertainment and crowds of local visitors, and Buddhist holidays such as Visakha Bucha and Makha Bucha bring evening candlelit processions around the halls. These are rewarding times to visit if you do not mind the crowds. Allow about an hour. Wat Chalong combines naturally with the Big Buddha, a short drive up Nakkerd Hill, and with an afternoon in Phuket Old Town.