Beautiful Phuket | Part 8 | Wat Chalong

During our vacation, we spent three days in Phuket. I’m going to split our time in Phuket into multiple parts to better cover the wide range of information about the places we visited, the modes of transportation, and prices.

In this eighth chapter, I’ll share about Wat Chalong.

Location and Entrance

In Thailand and Cambodia, "Wat" refers to a temple. Wat Chalong is known as the largest temple in Phuket. It is located about 47 km from Phuket International Airport. If you travel from Patong Beach, it is around 20 km (about 47 minutes by car). We visited Wat Chalong on our arrival day in Phuket, so we hired a cab from our travel agent for a city tour that included Wat Chalong. On the way, we both fell asleep as we hadn’t had enough rest during the flight. Because of that, we don’t remember much about the details of transportation.

To give a few details, Wat Chalong is located in Mueang Phuket District: Google Map. It’s very easy to find since it is one of the most famous travel destinations in Phuket.

Entrance to the temple is free, but you need to dress appropriately, avoiding sleeveless tops or short dresses. Also, keep in mind to remove your shoes before entering each temple building. We were there around 12 noon; it was very sunny and quite crowded at that time.

Sacred Buddha Relic

As Buddhists, this temple is a very sacred place because the dagoba houses a relic of the Buddha’s bone. Speaking about dagobas in Thailand, the architecture is completely different from that of dagobas in Sri Lanka.

_Dagoba

Compared to the hemispherical dome structures of Sri Lankan dagobas, the Thai ones are built with tall spire-like designs, richly decorated with vibrant colors, gold, mosaics, and carvings. They are very colorful, while in Sri Lanka, dagobas appear more calm and neutral.

Inside the dagoba, the walls are decorated with paintings, and there are plenty of large golden Buddha statues. The atmosphere inside felt very calming.

The temple area itself was quite large. Since we did not hire a tour guide, we didn’t fully understand the meaning of each area, but the architecture and glamorous nature of the structures deeply impressed us.

Sound Poojas

There was one special thing we don’t see in Sri Lanka, the sound poojas using firecrackers. There was an oven-like structure where people placed firecrackers and lit them to create loud sounds as offerings.

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Just like worshipping, you can also take a good number of pictures here. The glorious buildings provide beautiful backdrops for memorable shots.

We spent about 45 minutes here. At the same location, there were stalls selling souvenirs. We purchased a hat for our next day’s beach trip for 300 Baht.

Wat Chalong should definitely be on your list of must-visit places during your trip to Phuket.