Promthep Cape at sunset

Laem Promthep, Promthep Cape, is Phuket's southern tip: a long rocky headland running out into the Andaman, with the sun going down over open sea beyond it. It is where the day on the island traditionally ends, and everyone knows it — people arrive well before sunset and leave only once the sun has gone.

There are three honest ways to use it. Arrive early, with the photographer earlier still, and accept company in the frame. Turn your backs on the crowd: with the photographer standing between you and the viewing area, the picture is just the two of you, the sea and the sky, and everyone else stays behind the camera. Or take the sunset itself from Ya Nui or Nai Harn just below and come up to the cape afterwards, when most people have left and the sky still holds its colour. For a proposal it is the hardest place on Phuket to keep a secret.

On the cape stands a shrine ringed with elephant figures, left as thanks for wishes granted. It is a place of offering, not a prop: photograph it on its own and quietly, without posing in front of it. The walkway out along the headland is uneven rock — sandals that grip, not heels.