My memories of Phuket go back to about 1985 when I had first had the privilege of living and working there for about a year. In those days Phuket was a sleepy tin mining town and the only real industry on the island was the tin smelter, but a clever chap had discovered a way to make a fortune from the residue of the tin mining industry which contained a little known, but much in demand, mineral called tantalum. I went up there to help set up a smelter for this stuff and thus got my first taste of Phuket.