One of the most popular tourist areas on Phuket is Patong Beach on the central western coast.  This is where our friend Mark and Sharon Biddell, have a ministry for the prostitutes.  The sandy beaches on the western coast of the island have been heavily developed into tourist centers, with Patong, Karon and Kata being the most popular ones. Phuket is surrounded by 32 smaller islands.  There are several coral islands to the south of Phuket, the Similan Islands lie to the north west, and Phi Phi Islands to the south east. All the islands are suitable for diving.

Phuket is divided into 3 districts, which are further subdivided into 17 subdistricts and 103 villages.
The districts are: Mueang Phuket, Kathu, and Thalang.  Thachatchai is a small village on the north end of Phuket island in the Thalang district that was hard hit by the tsunami.  About two and a half years ago, Calvary Chapel Ban Khem started a church plant there. There are many new homes built by Habitat and the Mercy Ships.  The mission church has a core of about 20 people.  Mercy Ships raised funding to build a large community center that set vacant for a year. It is a huge two level building with two auditoriums, class rooms.  We have a Bible study in the village of Bo Dan on Thursdays and one across the street from our home on Fridays.  Very few people in our village speak any English at all. The community is very poor many are fishermen, they harvest jelly fish, shrimp, and squid and dry the squid on a large wire screens on the street. Some people work at the Marriot Resort which is just a few miles from us, some work in downtown Phuket about an hour away or in other neighboring villages. Also there is a very large police station and border patrol in our village, and one public school. There are a few small shops in our village and some people have motorcycle carts selling food, ice cream, soda, or snacks. There are about 30 churches in province/island of Phuket with a population of 1.6 million. The statistics overall in Thailand are the country in 95% Buddhist, 4% Moslem and less than 1% Christian, however in the South the percentage of Moslems is much higher. Thai Buddhism is mixed with animism, there is a great fear of spirits here. Many homes and businesses have spirit houses where they place food and drink for the spirits to try to appease them. There is a pretty good networking between the churches in Phuket especially for major events such as Christmas and Easter.

Notes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phuket_Province