Dashcam: Driving in Phuket, Thailand

In April 2018, I had the chance to travel to Thailand. As someone who loves driving, it was inevitable that I’d end up renting a car to drive around. I was able to rent a Toyota Yaris 1.2L for a week and now I have dashcam footage of all of my driving in Phuket, Thailand.

Even though I was in Phuket for a week, I only drove long enough for one day only. I had to attend business meetings for the rest of the week so I didn’t get a chance to drive longer distances. I did drive around in the evening when going to places like Patong Beach from the hotel, and I have most of those drives recorded on my dashcam.

I have not sped up the videos to bring all those drives into five-minute footage. In fact, they are pretty much uncut. So I’ve included a link to YouTube for each video in case you want to keep watching it on another tab.

Quick Facts

Location: Phuket, Thailand
When: April 2018
Car: Toyota Yaris 1.2L Petrol
Total distance driven: 280 KM
Highlights: Big Buddha Phuket, Tiger Island, Patong Beach, Kamala Beach

Dashcam Footage of driving in Phuket

Let’s go ahead and list all the dashcam footages from Phuket, Thailand with a brief information about the drive followed by the full video. You will get to see what the roads look like and what it’s like to drive in the somewhat busy streets of Phuket, Thailand.

Phuket International Airport to Kamala

After landing in Phuket International Airport and going through the trouble of renting a car (I hadn’t booked in advance so there was a bit of difficulty getting a car), I drove off the airport. It wasn’t until I had already driven about 4 KM when I remembered that I had to put my dashcam on.

So we stopped at a gas station, filled up the car, got a free bottle of water for filling up the tank, and proceeded to park the car nearby and install the dashcam on the windshield.

That’s when the video starts. We began filming as we backed out of the parking and headed into the highway on our way toward the Hyatt Regency Phuket Resort located near Kamala Beach (but isn’t actually on the beach itself). Click here to watch on YouTube.

Driving in Patong Beach area

The next video shows driving from Kamala area to the iconic Patong Beach area. You’ll get to see the winding roads at dusk as we drive toward Patong Beach. You’ll also see the busy streets near Patong Beach. It’s an area where parking is reasonably difficult — even though there’s ample parking space — if you’re coming from a first world country. Click here to watch on YouTube.

Driving to Jungceylon shopping mall and back

Jungceylon is one of the largest if not the largest shopping mall in Phuket. If you visit Phuket, you’ll end up going to Jungceylon at least once. Not only is the mall full of things you can buy to take home with you, it’s also a lively place to hang out and eat.

The video will show the drive from Hyatt Regency Phuket to Jungceylon. On the video just below it, you’ll see the drive back from Jungceylon. Click to watch on YouTube (1, 2).

Driving to Ao Po Pier from Kamala

This next video shows an early morning drive to Ao Po Pier, a pretty place to take a look at in the early morning. The drive was smooth as you will see. It goes through some city streets right before they become busy later in the morning.

You’ll get to see part of the city in this drive and tons of mountainous winding roads as we reach the Ao Po pier area. There’s a fun scene where a cat, being the ruler of the kingdom they are, refuses to move from the middle of the street. See if you can find out where that is. 😉 Click here to watch on YouTube.

Driving back from Ao Po Pier to Kamala

This video is just the ‘coming back to hotel’ video. After arriving at Ao Po pier, we stayed there for about 20 minutes, took some pictures, talked about life, and then headed back home. Click here to watch on YouTube.

Driving to Big Buddha Phuket

If you’re going to be watching one video of all these, let it be this one. The drive to Big Buddha Phuket was an amazing experience. The car with the little 1.2L petrol engine struggled quite a lot to haul the five of us uphill. I’ve written all about it on the “Driving Toyota Yaris Hatchback in Thailand” post (to be published soon).

Here you can watch just how uphill and winding these roads were. Click here to watch on Youtube.

Driving to Tiger Kingdom

About 45-minute drive from Big Buddha Phuket, the Tiger Kingdom is a cool place to see some tigers. But what it’s more famous for is the ability to take pictures with a real tiger. You do have to pay a bit extra depending on the size of the tiger.

The drive was smooth for the most part with quite a bit of downhill driving as we were coming down from the Big Buddha Phuket. After entering the city limits, it’s mostly a smooth drive through some traffic until we take a left turn at the Tiger Kingdom’s parking. Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Driving to and from Kalim Beach in the morning

On the last day in Phuket, I took an early morning drive to Kalim Beach. While it’s not that great of a place if you want to take a swing at the ocean, it is a great place to hang out and enjoy the scenery. The drive led us through the usual windy roads with the 50 km/h speed limit.

You can watch the drive to Kalim Beach, parking the car, and then coming back to the hotel in the same video. Watch it on YouTube here.

Driving back to Phuket International Airport

On the way back to the airport, it was time to return the car at the rental desk. You’ll see the smooth drive toward the airport in the video below.

What you will not see is the 30 minutes or so spent at the traffic. I was worried that I wouldn’t make it to the airport on time. I later found out that the traffic was due to a red signal at the junction that enters into the highway. After entering the highway, it was a smooth 90 km/h drive to the airport in no time.

I realized that the Thai traffic keeps people waiting in the adjacent roads making sure the highway stays clear at all times. That may or may not be true, but that’s what I got from my experience driving in Phuket. Click to watch this video on YouTube.