About Phuket.

Phuket Island has a long recorded history dating back to A.D. 1025.  Records indicate that the island's present-day name derives in meaning from the Tamil "manikram," or Crystal Mountain. For most recent history Phuket Island was known as "Junk Ceylon," which, with variations, is the name found on many old maps. The name is thought to have its roots in Ptolemy's Geographia, written by the Alexandrian geographer in the Third century A.D. He mentioned that in making a trip from Suwannapum to the Malay Peninsula it was necessary to pass the cape of Jang Si Land.

Phuket was a way station on the route between India and China where seafarers stopped to shelter. The island appears to have been part of the Shivite empire (called in Thai the Tam Porn ling) that established itself on the Malay Peninsula during the first Millenium A.D. Later, as Muang Takua-Talang, it was part of the Srivichai and Siri Tahm empires. Governed as the eleventh in a constellation of twelve cities, Phuket's emblem, was the dog.

During the Sukothai Period Phuket was associated with Takua Pah in what is now Phang-nga Province, another area with vast tin reserves. The Dutch established a trading post during the Ayuthaya Period in the 16th Century. The island's northern and central regions then were governed by the Thais, and the southern and western parts were given over to the tin trade, a concession in the hands of foreigners.
After Ayuthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767 there was a short interregnum in Thailand, ended by King Taksin, who drove out the Burmese and re-unified the country, the Burmese, however, were anxious to return to the offensive. They outfitted a fleet to raid the southern provinces, and carry off the populations to slavery in Burma. This led to Phuket's most memorable historic battle led by the two heroines, Kunying Jan, wife of Phuket's recently deceased governor, and her sister Mook. 
 

After a month's siege the Burmese were forced to depart on13 March, 1785.  Kunying Jan and her sister were credited with the successful defense. In recognition King Rama I bestowed upon kunying Jan the honorific Thao Thep Kasatri, a title of nobility usually reserved for royalty, by which she is still know today.  Here during the Nineteenth Century Chinese immigrants arrived in such numbers to work the tin mines that the ethnic character of the island's interior became predominantly Chinese, while the coastal settlements remained populated chiefly by Muslim fishermen.

In Rama V's reign, Phuket became the administrative center of a group of tin mining provinces called Monton Phuket, and in 1933, with the change in government from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system, the island was established as a province by itself.

Geography 
About 70% of Phuket is mountainous; a western range runs from north to south from which smaller branches derive. The highest peak is Mai Tao Sip Song, or Twelve Canes, at 529 meters, which lies within the boundaries of Tambon Patong, Kathu District.  It has recently been capped by a radar station which has a beautiful public access road to within meters of the station.  The remaining 30% of the island, mainly in the center and south, consists of low plains. There are numerous streams including the Klong Bang Yai, Klong Ta Jin, Klong Ta Rua, and Klong Bang Rohng, none of which are large. 
 
Climate
Phuket's weather conditions are dominated by monsoon winds that blow year round. It is therefore always warm and humid. There are two distinct seasons, rainy and dry. The rainy season begins in May and lasts till October, during which the monsoon blows from the southwest, The dry season is from November through April, when the monsoon comes from the northeast. Highest average temperatures, at 33.4 degrees Celsius, prevail during March.Lowest averages occur in January, when nightly lows dip to 22 degrees Celsius. '