While the war was raging some of the local people took refuge at a place then called Kra Ph-nga *(Malay for river mount of Pu-nga) protected on all sides by mountains. After the razing of Thalang, it was the government's view that Thailand's hold on the area had weakened, and that a new town should be established in its stead. Thus the citizenry left in the Thalang area was instructed to move to Kra Pu-nga and register themselves as being resident there. There is still a villages in what is today Takuatung District called Thalang founded by those immigrants from Phuket. The new city was put under the administration of the government in Nakorn Sri Thammarat.
During the reign of Rama III, the central government thought to strengthen the southwest coastal town that were prey to successive Burmese attacks by appointing a governor for the province who reported directly ot Bangkok. Praya Borirak Puton (Sang Na Nakorn) thereby became first governor of Phang-nga in 1840. In the same year, Takuatung was reduced in status and became merely a district of Phang-nga.