PHUKET: Phuket's Governor Maitree Intrusud flew out yesterday on a six-day trip to France, Spain and Italy to look at deep sea ports. Travelling with him is the Chief of Phuket's Marine Office 5, Phuripat Theerakulpisut.

Perhaps on their Mediterranean journey the Phuket pair will catch a taxi or two as well.

Here's hoping they take the opportunity to compare the fares and service in Europe with the hell on wheels here, on the so-called international holiday island of Phuket.

Transport on land and water was the focus of a particularly long week on Phuket, with the governor himself finally interceding but unable to solve the growing tangle over Phuket's taxis and tuk-tuks.

Plenty have failed before him. Gripped by local chieftans at the wheel, with fares designed to give the drivers, not the paying passengers, the easiest of rides, Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk system is a massive mess.

Indeed, ''massive'' was the adjective of the week. A massive blackout across 14 provinces - the worst since Thailand's entire power system failed in 1978 - plunged all of Phuket into darkness.

But then, a cynic might say, Phuket's public transport has always been free from any sign of light, even at the end of the long-awaited Patong Tunnel.

Amid Phuket's darkest hours, one outcast group of illegal taxi drivers even camped outside the Governor's Mansion this week, hoping for help. But the governor failed to emerge, torch in hand.

A little while later, another group of taxi drivers protested and blocked traffic at Phuket International Airport, Phuket's most important piece of infrastructure.

Airport managements are supposed to ensure the free flow of passengers, especially paying tourists. But nothing comes free - or flows the way it should - for the vast majority at Phuket airport.

There are simply too many taxis on Phuket and the fares they demand from passengers are among the highest in the world. (Governor Maitree and Khun Phuripat, please check that.)

Airports of Thailand ''manages'' the airport in its own peculiar way, screwing large rents from the taxi drivers at the same time as it denies having to take any responsibility for the taxi mess.

During Phuket's blackest week for a while, it emerged that tuk-tuk drivers in Kata-Karon had decided to close down a couple of tour counter operators.

By flexing their muscles, the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers of Phuket have taken control of their own workplace. They set their own working conditions and regulate their own rewards.

The drivers we met this week outside the Governor's Mansion happen to be among those excluded from the ''approved'' Phuket taxi and tuk-tuk driver's own preferred form of transport - the Phuket gravy train.

The chances of a massive gravy train derailment are growing more likely with every passing day.

If Phuket's amazing expanding tourist economy slows or falls off-track, the social consequences of having an army of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers suddenly unemployed are grim.

These people are used to getting what they want. When the gravy train stops, as it inevitably must, sooner or later, what will happen?

Phuket's powers-that-be must avoid that kind of total darkness, at all costs. Let sanity prevail, please. Give Phuket the sensible, practical public transport system it needs, now.

Switch on the lights.