10 Things to Do in Phuket When it Rains

Jungceylon in Patong is where you can melt those rainy day worries away and go shopping. Antiques, clothing, fabrics, homeware, souvenirs and more are all to be found the giant mall complex just behind Bangla Road. There's also a movie theatre, bowling, shell museum, 4D movie theatre, game arcade and even fish spas. Once you've worked up an appetite, the range of restaurants around the complex is extraordinary.

Central Phuket is an air-conditioned, fully equipped 1-stop shopping mall just outside of Phuket Town. Rightly regarded as the shopping hub of the island, Central plays host to over 120 outlets. It's literally possible to spend a full day here – shopping, catching the latest movies, and dining out at the range of international restaurants that offer everything from French cuisine to Japanese to local Thai outlets.

Phuket Trickeye Museum is an interactive 3D art gallery offering amazing photo opportunities and great fun for the whole family. Located at the corner of Montri and Phang Nga roads in a large, 2-storey building that used to be Phuket Island’s unique movie theatre until 2002, Phuket Trickeye Museum features a gallery of about 100 scenes painted using trompe-l’oeil techniques.

Located on the Bypass Road on the northern outskirts of Phuket Town, Baan Teelanka features no less than 3 exciting attractions/activities to entertain the whole family. Baan Teelanka itself is a 3-storey house built leaning on its roof. It's adorned with a maze-shaped garden in its backyard (not so great for rainy days, obviously). The Chamber of Secrets is the third activity that you can enjoy here, with 2 rooms from which you'd have to escape from by finding clues and solving puzzles to open the doors.

Learn more about Phuket's colourful and interesting past by exploring the Thalang National Museum, the Tin Mining Museum, or the old Sino-Portuguese colonial-era mansions in Phuket Town. These are each great and inexpensive days out for the family and ones you're not likely to forget for a long time.

Learn how to cook Thai food and impress your friends and family. Thai cuisine is a unique blend of tastes and textures that has developed over hundreds of years. The beautiful part is that you can learn to prepare it in a single class!

Go shopping with the chef, prepare the ingredients under their supervision, enjoy your own cooked meal and get a certificate – it's that simple. A number of resorts offer indoor programmes for adults and kids as well as fruit-carving classes.

Phuket Aquarium is a fascinating place to explore. Learn more about the colourful and vivid marine life in the seas around the island. Walk through the aquarium's see-through tunnel and get close up and personal with hundreds of brightly coloured and striking fish. It's a dry and comfortable way to learn about marine life – and there's no chance of getting seasick, either!

Phuket Simon Cabaret is a theatre offering an evening of live music, dance and comedic performances by a troupe of transgender entertainers. Founded in 1991, it’s a spectacular display of colour, originality and fun, with a single show combining a wide range of musicals from cultures around the world.

When you walk into the theatre in Patong, you’ll come across saxophone music, plush seats, and dimmed lights. Extravagant costumes, makeup and impressive sets take you from Egypt to Latin America and from China to Thailand in a single evening.