Soi Romanee

This guide to Soi Romanee in Phuket Town follows the lane's disputed name back to Phuket's tin-mining boom, when Chinese laborers off shift filled the brothels, opium dens and gambling houses behind these Sino-Portuguese shophouses. It traces two rival stories for where the name came from, and what happened to the lane once the mines closed and the trade moved elsewhere. Walk its length slowly and look at what these restored facades were painted over.