Phuket: A short flight away from either Singapore or India is a fantastic place for a short and relatively inexpensive vacation.
Our trip was self planned and not through any travel agency. In my personal experience travel agencies tend to be expensive and so it is best to plan on your own. A vacation does not seem like a vacation if you do not plan it yourself!
Phuket needs at least 5 days of stay to do justice to this fantastic holiday destination.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival and relaxation in the hotel.
Day 2: Explore Phuket city and its sights and Phantasea.
Day 3: Scuba diving and Karon beach.
Day 4: Phang Nga day trip.
Day 5: Phi Phi islands and Maya bay.
Missed: Hong by night Kayaking tour. Otherwise practically nothing.
Best location to stay: Patong (Main town, great hotels and nightlife) or Karon beach (Great beach)
Patong wins since its better placed for attractions, markets and massage parlours!.
Day 1: We booked Jetstar airways to travel to Phuket from Singapore. Jetstar is a good and comfortable budget airline that flies direct to Phuket from Singapore. Check in at Changi airport was hassle free as usual. A quick lunch at the food court and we were ready to board our flight to Phuket!
Arrival in Phuket was hassle free and immigration was quick as well. Those who are eligible can apply for 'visa on arrival' at the counter.
After immigration, we went to the taxi counter inside the airport. We bought the taxi coupon, but once we were out of the airport, our problems started. The agents were trying to bundle different passengers in the same taxi although each had paid the fall fare of the taxi cab. We insisted that we had paid the full fare and would travel alone only. Finally, after about 20 minutes or so we managed to get a cab who agreed to take us to our hotel in Patong. There is another metered taxi counter just outside the airport and I believe this could be better off than going for the counters inside the airport.
Our hotel was the Nap Patong, bang in the middle of Patong, very close to the beach and a short walk to the bustling nightlife and restaurants. The hotel is new and chic with spacious rooms and provided a very convenient and quiet stay. The sea breeze in the hotel lobby was very refreshing! The room had large sit outs as well overlooking the pool.
Review of the Nap Patong:
The Nap Patong review
Day 2: started with a nice heavy breakfast at the hotel cafe. The breakfast is a good spread and provided us the right nutrients for the day ahead.
We booked a taxi through the hotel tour desk for a city tour after lunch. The booking was hassle free and the taxi arrived right on time at our hotel lobby.
We also booked the Phuket Phantasea tour for the evening and arranged for an 8 PM pickup.
1. Wat Chalong - Our first stop was the Wat Chalong. Wat Chalong is a magnificent temple complex about 30 minutes drive from the hotel. The sheer magnificence of the temple structure with the intricate carvings on the temple exterior left us spell bound to say the least. There were several structures within the temple complex and we made it a point to visit each and every one. We spent about an hour in this place and shopped for some souvenirs in the complex before heading out.
2. The Big Buddha - Our next stop was the Big Buddha. This is a giant Buddha statue perched on the top of a hill and is a short drive from the base of the hill. Women, have to be properly dressed here to enter the premises. However, they also provide Sarongs free of charge, if not appropriately dressed. One can return these sarongs when leaving the complex. A short climb from the parking lot will take you to the top right next to the Buddha statue. The Buddha statue is huge and looks towards the city. This hill is right next to the ocean, so you are treated to a magnificent view of the city and the Andaman sea. We spent about 30 minutes at this place and then moved on to our next stop - Phromthep Cape.
3. Phromthep Cape. - This place is bang on the southern edge of Phuket and is known for offering spectacular views especially of the sunset. However, it was still early afternoon when we got there. The views were indeed nice. A bunch of school kids seemed to follow us as we explored this place. One of them then actually pulled out a camera and tried to click a photo of us at close range. We didn't quite like it and asked the kids to stop. From here, we went went back up north towards Karon beach. The road snaked through the hills with the hills on one side and the sea on the other. This magnificent drive was a treat to the senses.
4. We then arrived on Karon beach which was bustling with activity under the warm December sun. We stopped at a nice beach restaurant and settled with some pizzas and the thai mango sticky rice for desserts. This beach is really nice. Its crowded, but not as crowded as Patong. The beach is nicer and quieter. We relaxed on the beach for a while and then went to the dive shop in Kara to book our Scuba dive for the next day. The drive back to the hotel was hassle free save for some traffic around the beach area in Patong. We reached the hotel at sunset, relaxed a bit and then around 8 PM, a minibus arrived at the hotel lobby to pick us up for the Phuket Phantasea experience.
5. Phantasea - phantasea is a sort of mini theme park having a mini zoo with the royal Bengal tiger on display and a few other animal exhibits. There are a few rides and curio shops, street shows and large buffet restaurants. The staff are dressed up in bright traditional Thai clothes. We had our buffet at the golden kinnaree restaurant. The food was okay. After this we and everybody else in phantasea walked towards the large elephant theatre for the phantasea elephant show. The theatre is a huge edifice an one needs to walk quite a bit towards the sitting area. Since we had booked the same day morning, we did not get the best seats, but not too bad anyway. As you walk towards the sitting area, you can take pictures with animals etc for a price. There was a baby tiger probably kept hungry so that people could queue up for a photo op with the baby tiger as they feed him a bottle of milk. Animal cruelty, to say the least! The extravaganza started a few minutes after everyone settled in this huge edifice of a theatre. Musicals, acrobats, elephants all treated us to a good feast for our eyes. The show ended with some elephant acrobatics which is what is shown in all phantasea billboards in Phuket. Thus our second day in Phuket ended.
To summarize, we covered all the main city attractions. Apart from these the visits to the gem factory, cashew factory etc are very commercialised and best avoided.
Day 3: was a big day for us. Big day, since we had planned out first ever scuba dive on this day. We booked a cab from the hotel after a nice and heavy breakfast at our hotel. The cab dropped us to Karon beach near our dive center. Our trainers had arrived and our training sessions lasted for about an hour. The trainer explained to us all the aspects of scuba diving, how to use the equipment as well as he sign language when underwater. Our diving suits looked like space suits. We trudged across the beach towards the sea and looked like some star Trekkers exploring some faraway planet. We literally walked into the sea until the depth was about 7 feet. Here, began all the practical aspects of our training. It was not so easy as we had thought it to be. After some struggle and loads of patience from our trainer, we were finally comfortable for our first short shore dive. The shore dive was brief. It was nice and we felt quite comfortable The instructor was always around to keep us safe. This dive lasted about 20 minutes. The dive had made us ravenously hungry and we immediately settled down for some Thai lunch in the restaurant adjacent to their dive shop. After lunch, it was time to take the long tail dive off a small island 'Koh Pu', about 15 minutes ride into the sea. So, we again donned our dive gear and walked towards to boat parked on the beach just kissing the waters of the Andaman sea. So, we - Me, Smita, our instructors Dragos and Nick and another instructor and a boatman pushed the boat into the sea and got off on it. Before getting on, we dumped all our dive gear inside the boat This was quite challenging as the gear is quite heavy and climbing onto this boat with half the gear on your body with waist high sea water isn't fun. Once everybody was on, the boatman revved up the motors and off we were to our next adventure - A boat dive to see corals off an island in the Andaman sea. We sped away from the mainland rather quickly and within a few minutes the mainland seemed far away. The boat was stopped near the rather small island of 'Koh Pu'. Koh Pu was too small to be inhabited by anyone and we and the instructors were the only sign of human life in every direction as far as our eyes could see. With our dive gear on, we sat on the edge of the boat, ready to take our "reverse dive" into the water. Our instructors went first, then it was me. As the instructor suggested, I held my head gear with my hand and the reverse dived into the water. I surfaced within seconds. Then Smita dived as well and surfaced quite quickly as well, although she did have trouble surfacing. Once we were comfortable, the instructors pressed the button that will deflate the dive suits and we would sink. And so we sank..and we sank for maybe a minute. It seemed like forever. we finally saw the sea bed and the most wonderful corals and fish our eyes would have ever seen. It was a feast for our eyes!. Colorful fish would swim in schools. All kinds of fish, transparent fish, colorful fish, weird fish,you name it. Some of them were hiding between corals. The experience lasted about an hour which seemed like only a few minutes. It was utter silence in those depths, 35 feet under the sea. All we could hear was ourselves breathe and nothing else. And when we finally surfaced, the feeling was very magical in that moment, out of this world! We floated on the water for a bit, trying to rake it what we had just experienced. It was then time to take a ride back to the beach.
Scuba dive company review
Once back, we returned our equipment and went across to a nearby beach shack to grab a quick snack and coffee. We then took a cab back home to our hotel. Evening was spent relaxing with dinner at Tantra hotel.
Day 4: was a full day outing at the Phang Nga. Phang Nga are large limestone rocks in the seas off Krabi province, a bit like Utah's Momument Valley. We started off the day with a bus that pick us up at 8:30 in the morning from the hotel lobby. The bus picked up a few other guests as well from hotels nearby as dropped us off to the Jetty. Here, our tour guides arrived with one of us spending he next few minutes boring us with his rather lopsided sense of humor. He tested our General Knowledge and as well scared some of the kids around with his stories. We got into the boat - A group of around 15 people and thus began our journey. A few minutes into the sea and the scenery is stunning. Phang Nga bay is literally Phuket's monument valley.
Towering limestone cliffs called 'Hongs' envelop the seas. The guides provided us life jackets as a safety measure as well as small water-proof 'Pouch Bags' to protect the camera from the water. The boat then docked at a certain point where tourists can then step into canoes. There was an english speaking canoeman with us and every every canoe. His accent was quite interesting though and I gather he picked it up after talking to people of different nationalities and varying accents.
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We then stepped in the canoe with our camera securely wrapped in the waterproof bag and then sat down with ou legs crossed. So then we began our memorable canoe trip exploring the hongs with close proximity. The hongs have caves beneath them. We explored some of these caves, taking in the absolutely breathtaking scenery around us. I promptly removed the camera from the pouch and started taking photos. At one stage, we had to lie flat on the canoe in order to enter a particular cave. The other end of the save opened into something like a lagoon with tall limestone cliffs all around us. What a sight that was! We then went around some of these hongs exploring a few of them. This was quite a memorable trip already.
We then headed back to the boat - our 'Mothership' where a delectable seafood buffet was lying in wait for us. Rice with seafood, chicken and veggies was provided. Water and soft drinks are provided as well as part of the price of the tour package, whereas beer is to be paid for separately.
After lunch, we headed off to the James Bond island. This particular island or 'Hong' was part of the Bond movie - 'The man with the golden gun'. The island is indeed quite nice, but they have made a mess of things here. There is a souvenir market there. There are a lot of people arriving on this small island at the same time and you really cannot enjoy this place much. So well, after some disappointment and taking a few pictures, we headed back to the place where the boat picked us up.
After this, we headed out to a Fisherman's village which we felt was a totally waste of time. They take you in a long tail boat from the 'Mothership' and it is very likely that you will get drenched. There were kids in the group with us and they certainly did not enjoy the long tail boat ride to Fisherman's village. The village itself is another commercial enterprise to cater to the shopping tourist and a total waste of time. It was very smelly and quite dirty as well. In fact, so much that we settled to a new warm coffee near the dock and did not explore the village at all. After a short and uneventful time here, we headed back to the mothership where the group split up into 2 parts depending on what package one had bought. One group was transferred to land to visit a temple and another group (us) were separated to explore more hongs by canoes. They took us to a hong where we got down on the small beach and waded through water to enter an interesting cave. The cave opened into another interesting place that was much like a large room with the limestone cliffs as walls. Interesting place, but that was all that had to do with it. We then rode back to the canoe and back to the mothership that took us back to the ferry.
Phang Nga tour review
Summary - The starting part of this trip was terrific. Fantastic scenery and exploring the hongs by sea canoes is a treat that isn't to be missed. The trip to fisherman's village is a total waste and should be scrapped. Other than that everything is good. Sea canoes, long tail boats may not be safe for elderly people and kids.
Day 5: This day was spent in Maya bay - the last 'must see' spot in Phuket. We had booked a day tour via a tour operator and at the outset let me tell you that the way the tour was organised was very disappointing although Phi Phi islands / May Bay itself is a fantastic place to spend the day.
Here is a trip advisor link with the review.
Phi Phi island tour review
Maya bay however is a gorgeous place and a suggestion would be to start as early as possible to reach before all the tour operators. Internet would be the best place to look for such agents and book the tour rather than through the hotel. However, booking the the day tour via local operators once after reaching Phuket is certainly lighter on the pocket.
This ended our trip and we headed back to the airport for a nice flight home. Phuket is indeed a fantastic place to spend time and 5 days would suffice. For a more relaxing trip throw in a day or two to chill out!
Our trip was self planned and not through any travel agency. In my personal experience travel agencies tend to be expensive and so it is best to plan on your own. A vacation does not seem like a vacation if you do not plan it yourself!
Phuket needs at least 5 days of stay to do justice to this fantastic holiday destination.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival and relaxation in the hotel.
Day 2: Explore Phuket city and its sights and Phantasea.
Day 3: Scuba diving and Karon beach.
Day 4: Phang Nga day trip.
Day 5: Phi Phi islands and Maya bay.
Missed: Hong by night Kayaking tour. Otherwise practically nothing.
Best location to stay: Patong (Main town, great hotels and nightlife) or Karon beach (Great beach)
Patong wins since its better placed for attractions, markets and massage parlours!.
Day 1: We booked Jetstar airways to travel to Phuket from Singapore. Jetstar is a good and comfortable budget airline that flies direct to Phuket from Singapore. Check in at Changi airport was hassle free as usual. A quick lunch at the food court and we were ready to board our flight to Phuket!
Arrival in Phuket was hassle free and immigration was quick as well. Those who are eligible can apply for 'visa on arrival' at the counter.
After immigration, we went to the taxi counter inside the airport. We bought the taxi coupon, but once we were out of the airport, our problems started. The agents were trying to bundle different passengers in the same taxi although each had paid the fall fare of the taxi cab. We insisted that we had paid the full fare and would travel alone only. Finally, after about 20 minutes or so we managed to get a cab who agreed to take us to our hotel in Patong. There is another metered taxi counter just outside the airport and I believe this could be better off than going for the counters inside the airport.
Our hotel was the Nap Patong, bang in the middle of Patong, very close to the beach and a short walk to the bustling nightlife and restaurants. The hotel is new and chic with spacious rooms and provided a very convenient and quiet stay. The sea breeze in the hotel lobby was very refreshing! The room had large sit outs as well overlooking the pool.
Review of the Nap Patong:
The Nap Patong review
1. Wat Chalong - Our first stop was the Wat Chalong. Wat Chalong is a magnificent temple complex about 30 minutes drive from the hotel. The sheer magnificence of the temple structure with the intricate carvings on the temple exterior left us spell bound to say the least. There were several structures within the temple complex and we made it a point to visit each and every one. We spent about an hour in this place and shopped for some souvenirs in the complex before heading out.
2. The Big Buddha - Our next stop was the Big Buddha. This is a giant Buddha statue perched on the top of a hill and is a short drive from the base of the hill. Women, have to be properly dressed here to enter the premises. However, they also provide Sarongs free of charge, if not appropriately dressed. One can return these sarongs when leaving the complex. A short climb from the parking lot will take you to the top right next to the Buddha statue. The Buddha statue is huge and looks towards the city. This hill is right next to the ocean, so you are treated to a magnificent view of the city and the Andaman sea. We spent about 30 minutes at this place and then moved on to our next stop - Phromthep Cape.
3. Phromthep Cape. - This place is bang on the southern edge of Phuket and is known for offering spectacular views especially of the sunset. However, it was still early afternoon when we got there. The views were indeed nice. A bunch of school kids seemed to follow us as we explored this place. One of them then actually pulled out a camera and tried to click a photo of us at close range. We didn't quite like it and asked the kids to stop. From here, we went went back up north towards Karon beach. The road snaked through the hills with the hills on one side and the sea on the other. This magnificent drive was a treat to the senses.
4. We then arrived on Karon beach which was bustling with activity under the warm December sun. We stopped at a nice beach restaurant and settled with some pizzas and the thai mango sticky rice for desserts. This beach is really nice. Its crowded, but not as crowded as Patong. The beach is nicer and quieter. We relaxed on the beach for a while and then went to the dive shop in Kara to book our Scuba dive for the next day. The drive back to the hotel was hassle free save for some traffic around the beach area in Patong. We reached the hotel at sunset, relaxed a bit and then around 8 PM, a minibus arrived at the hotel lobby to pick us up for the Phuket Phantasea experience.
5. Phantasea - phantasea is a sort of mini theme park having a mini zoo with the royal Bengal tiger on display and a few other animal exhibits. There are a few rides and curio shops, street shows and large buffet restaurants. The staff are dressed up in bright traditional Thai clothes. We had our buffet at the golden kinnaree restaurant. The food was okay. After this we and everybody else in phantasea walked towards the large elephant theatre for the phantasea elephant show. The theatre is a huge edifice an one needs to walk quite a bit towards the sitting area. Since we had booked the same day morning, we did not get the best seats, but not too bad anyway. As you walk towards the sitting area, you can take pictures with animals etc for a price. There was a baby tiger probably kept hungry so that people could queue up for a photo op with the baby tiger as they feed him a bottle of milk. Animal cruelty, to say the least! The extravaganza started a few minutes after everyone settled in this huge edifice of a theatre. Musicals, acrobats, elephants all treated us to a good feast for our eyes. The show ended with some elephant acrobatics which is what is shown in all phantasea billboards in Phuket. Thus our second day in Phuket ended.
To summarize, we covered all the main city attractions. Apart from these the visits to the gem factory, cashew factory etc are very commercialised and best avoided.
Day 3: was a big day for us. Big day, since we had planned out first ever scuba dive on this day. We booked a cab from the hotel after a nice and heavy breakfast at our hotel. The cab dropped us to Karon beach near our dive center. Our trainers had arrived and our training sessions lasted for about an hour. The trainer explained to us all the aspects of scuba diving, how to use the equipment as well as he sign language when underwater. Our diving suits looked like space suits. We trudged across the beach towards the sea and looked like some star Trekkers exploring some faraway planet. We literally walked into the sea until the depth was about 7 feet. Here, began all the practical aspects of our training. It was not so easy as we had thought it to be. After some struggle and loads of patience from our trainer, we were finally comfortable for our first short shore dive. The shore dive was brief. It was nice and we felt quite comfortable The instructor was always around to keep us safe. This dive lasted about 20 minutes. The dive had made us ravenously hungry and we immediately settled down for some Thai lunch in the restaurant adjacent to their dive shop. After lunch, it was time to take the long tail dive off a small island 'Koh Pu', about 15 minutes ride into the sea. So, we again donned our dive gear and walked towards to boat parked on the beach just kissing the waters of the Andaman sea. So, we - Me, Smita, our instructors Dragos and Nick and another instructor and a boatman pushed the boat into the sea and got off on it. Before getting on, we dumped all our dive gear inside the boat This was quite challenging as the gear is quite heavy and climbing onto this boat with half the gear on your body with waist high sea water isn't fun. Once everybody was on, the boatman revved up the motors and off we were to our next adventure - A boat dive to see corals off an island in the Andaman sea. We sped away from the mainland rather quickly and within a few minutes the mainland seemed far away. The boat was stopped near the rather small island of 'Koh Pu'. Koh Pu was too small to be inhabited by anyone and we and the instructors were the only sign of human life in every direction as far as our eyes could see. With our dive gear on, we sat on the edge of the boat, ready to take our "reverse dive" into the water. Our instructors went first, then it was me. As the instructor suggested, I held my head gear with my hand and the reverse dived into the water. I surfaced within seconds. Then Smita dived as well and surfaced quite quickly as well, although she did have trouble surfacing. Once we were comfortable, the instructors pressed the button that will deflate the dive suits and we would sink. And so we sank..and we sank for maybe a minute. It seemed like forever. we finally saw the sea bed and the most wonderful corals and fish our eyes would have ever seen. It was a feast for our eyes!. Colorful fish would swim in schools. All kinds of fish, transparent fish, colorful fish, weird fish,you name it. Some of them were hiding between corals. The experience lasted about an hour which seemed like only a few minutes. It was utter silence in those depths, 35 feet under the sea. All we could hear was ourselves breathe and nothing else. And when we finally surfaced, the feeling was very magical in that moment, out of this world! We floated on the water for a bit, trying to rake it what we had just experienced. It was then time to take a ride back to the beach.
Scuba dive company review
Once back, we returned our equipment and went across to a nearby beach shack to grab a quick snack and coffee. We then took a cab back home to our hotel. Evening was spent relaxing with dinner at Tantra hotel.
Day 4: was a full day outing at the Phang Nga. Phang Nga are large limestone rocks in the seas off Krabi province, a bit like Utah's Momument Valley. We started off the day with a bus that pick us up at 8:30 in the morning from the hotel lobby. The bus picked up a few other guests as well from hotels nearby as dropped us off to the Jetty. Here, our tour guides arrived with one of us spending he next few minutes boring us with his rather lopsided sense of humor. He tested our General Knowledge and as well scared some of the kids around with his stories. We got into the boat - A group of around 15 people and thus began our journey. A few minutes into the sea and the scenery is stunning. Phang Nga bay is literally Phuket's monument valley.
Towering limestone cliffs called 'Hongs' envelop the seas. The guides provided us life jackets as a safety measure as well as small water-proof 'Pouch Bags' to protect the camera from the water. The boat then docked at a certain point where tourists can then step into canoes. There was an english speaking canoeman with us and every every canoe. His accent was quite interesting though and I gather he picked it up after talking to people of different nationalities and varying accents.
We then stepped in the canoe with our camera securely wrapped in the waterproof bag and then sat down with ou legs crossed. So then we began our memorable canoe trip exploring the hongs with close proximity. The hongs have caves beneath them. We explored some of these caves, taking in the absolutely breathtaking scenery around us. I promptly removed the camera from the pouch and started taking photos. At one stage, we had to lie flat on the canoe in order to enter a particular cave. The other end of the save opened into something like a lagoon with tall limestone cliffs all around us. What a sight that was! We then went around some of these hongs exploring a few of them. This was quite a memorable trip already.
We then headed back to the boat - our 'Mothership' where a delectable seafood buffet was lying in wait for us. Rice with seafood, chicken and veggies was provided. Water and soft drinks are provided as well as part of the price of the tour package, whereas beer is to be paid for separately.
After lunch, we headed off to the James Bond island. This particular island or 'Hong' was part of the Bond movie - 'The man with the golden gun'. The island is indeed quite nice, but they have made a mess of things here. There is a souvenir market there. There are a lot of people arriving on this small island at the same time and you really cannot enjoy this place much. So well, after some disappointment and taking a few pictures, we headed back to the place where the boat picked us up.
After this, we headed out to a Fisherman's village which we felt was a totally waste of time. They take you in a long tail boat from the 'Mothership' and it is very likely that you will get drenched. There were kids in the group with us and they certainly did not enjoy the long tail boat ride to Fisherman's village. The village itself is another commercial enterprise to cater to the shopping tourist and a total waste of time. It was very smelly and quite dirty as well. In fact, so much that we settled to a new warm coffee near the dock and did not explore the village at all. After a short and uneventful time here, we headed back to the mothership where the group split up into 2 parts depending on what package one had bought. One group was transferred to land to visit a temple and another group (us) were separated to explore more hongs by canoes. They took us to a hong where we got down on the small beach and waded through water to enter an interesting cave. The cave opened into another interesting place that was much like a large room with the limestone cliffs as walls. Interesting place, but that was all that had to do with it. We then rode back to the canoe and back to the mothership that took us back to the ferry.
Phang Nga tour review
Summary - The starting part of this trip was terrific. Fantastic scenery and exploring the hongs by sea canoes is a treat that isn't to be missed. The trip to fisherman's village is a total waste and should be scrapped. Other than that everything is good. Sea canoes, long tail boats may not be safe for elderly people and kids.
Day 5: This day was spent in Maya bay - the last 'must see' spot in Phuket. We had booked a day tour via a tour operator and at the outset let me tell you that the way the tour was organised was very disappointing although Phi Phi islands / May Bay itself is a fantastic place to spend the day.
Here is a trip advisor link with the review.
Phi Phi island tour review
Maya bay however is a gorgeous place and a suggestion would be to start as early as possible to reach before all the tour operators. Internet would be the best place to look for such agents and book the tour rather than through the hotel. However, booking the the day tour via local operators once after reaching Phuket is certainly lighter on the pocket.
This ended our trip and we headed back to the airport for a nice flight home. Phuket is indeed a fantastic place to spend time and 5 days would suffice. For a more relaxing trip throw in a day or two to chill out!
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