We had a recent trip and we decide to off the island to Sarasin Bridge - not far from the airport. You would normally go over the bridge if you were travelling to Khao Lak and / or visiting Elephants. For us we were at the airport and it is only 10 minutes North.
As we drove past places we have visited (Splash Jungle and Sirinart National Park) I was taken with how big this expanse was.
The bridge contains a road for cars and a walkway adjacent to it if one wanted to walk across - there is a story to go with this (see below)...
Sarasin Bridge
In 1970, the Sarasin Bridge was built to help connect Phuket Island to the mainland of Thailand. This enabled the tremendous expansion of trading between both areas and many merchants moved to Phuket and flourished together with the island’s prosperity. A true Phuket love story is written about Gew, a pretty Teachers’ Training College student and a local bus driver, Dam. Gew often took the route bus driven by Dam to her college and they enjoyed chatting with each other while on the bus.
Eventually, both Gew and Dam fell in love. But something always happens: Gew’s father was a rich businessman and strongly opposed their love and marriage. In desperation, Gew and Dam decided to bind themselves together in everlasting love so that no one could ever separate them. On the night of 22 February 1973, Gew and Dam tied themselves together with a large rock and jumped off the Sarasin Bridge to manifest their love. When their bodies were found, they were still bound together by one piece of Thai loin cloth. To this day, it is believed that all lovers can make a wish together when they are crossing the Sarasin Bridge. However, in order to have your wish come true, you need to hold your breath from one end of the bridge to the other end.
The only recognition to this story that we found these tied to some railings.
The bridge was maintained and this was a pleasure - walking along it was not easy - it was in the boiling sun. There were fishing vessels tied up underneath the road - swallows and other seabirds were in abundance. Looking at the small fish in the waters it was clear why there were so many.
It was worth walking into the middle to look at the beautiful view - you may want to visit Wat วัดท่าฉัตรไชย พระอุปคุต. We did.
There were restaurants at each end of the bridge (Thanoon Seafood and another) a review to come here timinphuket-restaurants.
At the Phuket end of the bridge were small carts selling drinks and gifts.
At the other end was a big market which seemed to sell dried fish mainly (more later).
