Phuket, has seen many changes in its history and the tourist boom is only the latest development in a story that goes back hundreds of years.

Today's visitor to Phuket will see many restaurants, and some old houses, named Junkceylon or Jonkcelaon. This was the name given to the island by the 16th and 17th century pirates who haunted its waters, hiding in the caves and coves along the coast. It’s present name, Phuket, derives from the Malay word Bukit which means hill (thought to derive from the island’s mountainous terrain).

Phuket and Tin Mining

Despite the pirates, traders flocked to its shores for what the island had in plenty, tin, one of the ancient world’s most prized commodities. Tin is fairly easy to extract, especially when the veins of tin are close to the surface as they were in Phuket, there were other commodities that attracted traders to the island, rare corals from the surrounding seas and edible birds’s nests (a delicacy to Chinese gourmets and still collected on the island).

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