Wat Sapam

Phuket is full of temples. If you haven't got your fill in Bangkok, it's worth checking out what Phuket has to offer. The biggest and most famous is Wat Chalong, and there are always lots of visitors there, but smaller local temples are usually overlooked by everyone except the locals, so these are the ones we like to visit.

We recently visited Wat Sapam, the local temple for Ban Sapam, a small fishing community on the east coast of Phuket, in Sapam Bay, just north of Laem Hin. We were heading for Laem Hin Seafood, and realised we had never visited this temple before. It was a pleasant surprise. The entry road into the temple is just off the main Phuket Town - Airport road and easy to miss. The temple is built on a small hill overlooking Sapam Bay, with the main temple at the highest point, the monks rooms on the hillside and the monks dining hall lower down. It's a beautiful location, and the temple and grounds are very well kept, with lots of plants and flowers.

• Wat Sapam location on Google Earth

Inside the main temple, you find a 10m gold Buddha, and some very colourful paintings around all 4 walls depicting scenes from the life of Buddha. Quite stunning actually. Highly recommended!