After lots of planning and preparation we made our bookings for Phuket and this was my tour experience:
Day 1:
Our flight arrived in Bangkok at 6:15 AM, and that is where our marathon for Visa On Arrival started. We didn't think it would be that hard to get the Visa on Arrival, the transit time was very less as we had to catch up with the connecting flight to Phuket, which would be flying at 8:45 AM. The Bankok airport was huge and we were cursing ourselves that why didn't we got the visa beforehand from the Embassy, but what happened has happened and our walking to Visa On Arrival counter was going on and on and on. I remember we walked for a 1 Kilometer from the Arrival gate. When we finally reached the counter, we see that there was a quite a bit of queue, and we had no other option to take the Express Lane queue which was empty, and we had to pay extra 200 Bahts for that and we did so. We took the Visa and again started to go for Transit counter which was another ~800 meters from the Visa On Arrival counter. When we reached there we went through the customary process of security checks and finally boarded the flight, and the flight was delayed by 10 minutes after we boarded, as few more passengers were yet to come, I thought it must be due to Visa queue. So whosoever consider a visa on arrival in Bangkok, must make sure that you have enough time for your next flight, otherwise consider applying for the visa from the Embassy from your home country. The flight journey was for 1 hour 15 minutes, we arrived in Phuket at 9:20 AM, collected our baggage and went to Car Rental counter which we have booked earlier through online, we were 6 people so we booked a SUV and the representative said it would take time, may be around ~3-4 hours, so in the meanwhile they allotted us another car to go to the hotel. I must say we really had a tough time in communicating with the people in Thailand, we had to speak clearly/slowly every word, without using any dictionary words. We took a new 3G activated SIM card and found our way to hotel - Palmery Resort & SPA in Kata (we used Apple Maps to know route and we ended up on top of the hill, we switched to Google Maps). We reached the hotel, checked-in to the rooms, the hotel was awesome, especially the pool view from the room balcony. We took rest for hour or so, had lunch in the nearby restaurant, and Veggies be cautions about what you order, the ingredients in the dishes you have to clearly mention that you don't need egg, no fish, no meat etc otherwise they would bring you a fried rice with egg in it or veg fried rice without egg and fish oil as sauce, so please be aware of it. After the lunch, we went on to find out the tour prices to Phi-Phi islands, Phang Nga bay etc. Found that in June - October period the prices will drop by 50-60%, in the peak periods December to February the tour agencies won't discount a single baht, lucky that we didn't book island tours online. As our tour was in September, the tour prices were between 1000-1400 bahts. After finding out the basic information on tour prices, we received our SUV from the car agency and went to visit Karon View Point which is by the way was spectacular, took few snaps, went to visit Big Buddha - massive statue of Buddha on top of hill and by the way we had a great view of Big Buddha from our hotel room. we took few snaps there and we left to Patong to have a look of Bangla Street (giggles), though the activity was not started by the time we reached there. We booked tour to Phi-Phi islands from "Phuket New Generation (PNT)" tour agency for 1300 Bahts in a Speed Boat which can carry up to 30 - 40 people. We googled for Indian restaurants in our vicinity, went there and ordered the dishes, and of course the cost was very high (twice, thrice the base price in India). We reached the hotel and took a nice nap.
Hotel Pool View:
Hotel room:
Karon View Point:
Big Buddha:
Day 1:
Our flight arrived in Bangkok at 6:15 AM, and that is where our marathon for Visa On Arrival started. We didn't think it would be that hard to get the Visa on Arrival, the transit time was very less as we had to catch up with the connecting flight to Phuket, which would be flying at 8:45 AM. The Bankok airport was huge and we were cursing ourselves that why didn't we got the visa beforehand from the Embassy, but what happened has happened and our walking to Visa On Arrival counter was going on and on and on. I remember we walked for a 1 Kilometer from the Arrival gate. When we finally reached the counter, we see that there was a quite a bit of queue, and we had no other option to take the Express Lane queue which was empty, and we had to pay extra 200 Bahts for that and we did so. We took the Visa and again started to go for Transit counter which was another ~800 meters from the Visa On Arrival counter. When we reached there we went through the customary process of security checks and finally boarded the flight, and the flight was delayed by 10 minutes after we boarded, as few more passengers were yet to come, I thought it must be due to Visa queue. So whosoever consider a visa on arrival in Bangkok, must make sure that you have enough time for your next flight, otherwise consider applying for the visa from the Embassy from your home country. The flight journey was for 1 hour 15 minutes, we arrived in Phuket at 9:20 AM, collected our baggage and went to Car Rental counter which we have booked earlier through online, we were 6 people so we booked a SUV and the representative said it would take time, may be around ~3-4 hours, so in the meanwhile they allotted us another car to go to the hotel. I must say we really had a tough time in communicating with the people in Thailand, we had to speak clearly/slowly every word, without using any dictionary words. We took a new 3G activated SIM card and found our way to hotel - Palmery Resort & SPA in Kata (we used Apple Maps to know route and we ended up on top of the hill, we switched to Google Maps). We reached the hotel, checked-in to the rooms, the hotel was awesome, especially the pool view from the room balcony. We took rest for hour or so, had lunch in the nearby restaurant, and Veggies be cautions about what you order, the ingredients in the dishes you have to clearly mention that you don't need egg, no fish, no meat etc otherwise they would bring you a fried rice with egg in it or veg fried rice without egg and fish oil as sauce, so please be aware of it. After the lunch, we went on to find out the tour prices to Phi-Phi islands, Phang Nga bay etc. Found that in June - October period the prices will drop by 50-60%, in the peak periods December to February the tour agencies won't discount a single baht, lucky that we didn't book island tours online. As our tour was in September, the tour prices were between 1000-1400 bahts. After finding out the basic information on tour prices, we received our SUV from the car agency and went to visit Karon View Point which is by the way was spectacular, took few snaps, went to visit Big Buddha - massive statue of Buddha on top of hill and by the way we had a great view of Big Buddha from our hotel room. we took few snaps there and we left to Patong to have a look of Bangla Street (giggles), though the activity was not started by the time we reached there. We booked tour to Phi-Phi islands from "Phuket New Generation (PNT)" tour agency for 1300 Bahts in a Speed Boat which can carry up to 30 - 40 people. We googled for Indian restaurants in our vicinity, went there and ordered the dishes, and of course the cost was very high (twice, thrice the base price in India). We reached the hotel and took a nice nap.
Hotel Pool View:
Day 2: Phi - Phi Islands tour
We had to woke up in early at 6:30 AM to get ready, have breakfast and to board the tour agency car to reach the port area. we boarded the car at 7:45 AM and reached the port area by 9:00 AM, when we reached it was buzzed with lot of people. I took a coffee and the tour agency guy, Bobby, put stickers on our t-shirts. Bobby is fun, speaks good English and in good accent. We started our way to Phi-Phi islands by speed boat. I must say we had lot of fun with Bobby in our journey to islands. We visited Monkey Island, Khai Nui, Khai Nuk islands, I don't remember the island names correctly, but it was a visible treat, water was/is crystal clear, we could see the fishes and coral reeds. We did snorkeling in crystal clear water, I will remember those scenes for my entire life-time, I thoroughly enjoyed swimming with fins over there. We really had a nice time. We had lunch on island, veggies could not eat anything over there, even people who eat meat had tough time because the food was bland, no salt, not spicy etc. we ate what we could like noodles, steam rice etc. Took some snaps on island, did shopping and started for our final island visit, when we reached there the water was shallow enough to cause injuries, even in the shallow water we did snorkeling, I got few bruises to my wrist. I handed over my fins to my friend so that he could enjoy the swimming, he greatly relished the beauty of fishes and reeds. Be careful when you are snorkeling in shallow water without the fins you might get hurt by the stings of Sea Urchins or by the rocks. We finished with swimming and started back to Phuket. We headed back to our hotel in the transport arranged by the tour agency, it was 6 PM when we reached hotel. We swam again in hotel pool for more than hour. We went out at 8 PM for dinner to Indian restaurant and the bill cost us dearly and after this dinner I stopped going to Indian restaurant. Few of my friends went to Bangla street to do some shopping, live bands etc. My friend dropped me at the hotel and I stayed back at the hotel that day.
Bobby:
Lunch on Island:
Fishes:
Snorkeling:
Monkey Island:
Bobby:
Day 3:
I woke up at 9:30 AM in the morning and had breakfast, I initially planned to visit the cabaret shows in Phuket but my friends objected that it is not worth it. I told them about Tiger Kingdom, Flying Hanuman places, we got ready by 12 PM and started to Tiger Kingdom, we paid 800 Baht per head to stay with Big Tiger, the price can go up if you wish to stay with younger tiger. I must say it was the bravest thing I have ever done. I was the first to enter into the cage my heart beat stopped for a tick the moment I entered, I thought it would be easy but it was scary in the initial moments, especially when I was asked to place my hand on magnificent creature's belly, but as we stayed in the cage with other staff I felt safer and took many snaps, our hands and forehead sweaty, I think this was the bravest thing that we did in our tour other than jumping in the sea without life jackets and zip lining at Flying Hanuman It was life time experience and of course worth every penny. After that we rushed to Flying Hanuman place as we were told that it would be closed by 3 or 4 in the evening. Few of friends told that they didn't want to do it, only two of us went on to do the zip-lining. It was bit costly but I just wanted to experience everything in Phuket, there were three options for choosing the zip-lining activity. Both of us opted for 'C' program which includes 12-16 zip lines. It was worth it, especially in the jungle, there are short, long zip lines. It was a nice experience. After this we waited for the rest of the friends who went back to have lunch, the came back at 5 and we started back to hotel to freshen-up. We started again at 7 PM, booked Big Boat Phang Nga tour for 900 Bahts, went to Bangla Street for live band music, we sat in New York bar for most of the time, the live band was very good, good song selection and nice crowd. We stayed there till 1 AM and came back to hotel by 1.30AM.
Day 4: Phang Nga tour
we woke up at 7:15 AM and by the time the driver had reached the hotel lobby, we were having our breakfast we asked him to wait for few minutes, he rejected and seemed to be in a rush. We had no choice to board the cab, we didn't finish our breakfast, so people who go on tour should be on-time. Few other tourists boarded the cab and it took 1 hour journey to Ao por pier. I think we were second to reach the tour agency shop, and we waited for another 30 mins for another group to arrive. After they've arrived, all of us started to board the Big Boat, we were around 30-40 people in the boat, the journey included 3 islands (not the Muslim village - we missed it, it is an unique village where all the houses are built on a floating platform - may be next time ;-) ). We visited Hong Island, James bond Island, few naturally formed caves which included Bat cave and others. We did cannoning on few islands as the water suites for cannoning, no snorkeling on these waters just only swimming. It was evening when we reached James Bond Island (funny name isn't it. The island was named after the james bond movie - "Man with the Golden Gun") we were transferred to long tail boat to reach the island as the water was very shallow, we took lot of snaps over there, spent some time on the island and started over journey to Phuket, it took 1 hour 45 minutes to reach Ao Por pier, during the journey we passed our time by singing songs and by casual talk. We came back to hotel at 6 PM, freshen up, went out to find out about Water Rafting tour, we inquired about cost, the tour plan etc and made a good deal for 900 Bahts. We initially booked only for 3 people as 3 others wanted to explore the Phuket city, so we went on with our choices. Later one other joined us in total 4 people booked the tour. We spent the entire night in Bangla Street by spending most of the time in New York Bar by enjoying the Live Band. We came back to hotel at 2:30 AM and slept.
Cannoning:
we woke up at 7:15 AM and by the time the driver had reached the hotel lobby, we were having our breakfast we asked him to wait for few minutes, he rejected and seemed to be in a rush. We had no choice to board the cab, we didn't finish our breakfast, so people who go on tour should be on-time. Few other tourists boarded the cab and it took 1 hour journey to Ao por pier. I think we were second to reach the tour agency shop, and we waited for another 30 mins for another group to arrive. After they've arrived, all of us started to board the Big Boat, we were around 30-40 people in the boat, the journey included 3 islands (not the Muslim village - we missed it, it is an unique village where all the houses are built on a floating platform - may be next time ;-) ). We visited Hong Island, James bond Island, few naturally formed caves which included Bat cave and others. We did cannoning on few islands as the water suites for cannoning, no snorkeling on these waters just only swimming. It was evening when we reached James Bond Island (funny name isn't it. The island was named after the james bond movie - "Man with the Golden Gun") we were transferred to long tail boat to reach the island as the water was very shallow, we took lot of snaps over there, spent some time on the island and started over journey to Phuket, it took 1 hour 45 minutes to reach Ao Por pier, during the journey we passed our time by singing songs and by casual talk. We came back to hotel at 6 PM, freshen up, went out to find out about Water Rafting tour, we inquired about cost, the tour plan etc and made a good deal for 900 Bahts. We initially booked only for 3 people as 3 others wanted to explore the Phuket city, so we went on with our choices. Later one other joined us in total 4 people booked the tour. We spent the entire night in Bangla Street by spending most of the time in New York Bar by enjoying the Live Band. We came back to hotel at 2:30 AM and slept.
Cannoning:
Transfer to James Bond island by Long Tail boat:
Day 5: Water rafting, Waterfalls, elephant trekking, zip lining.
We woke at 7:30 AM, we were ready by 8 AM, but the cab didn't arrive. We called to the tour agency and found out that driver went to the wrong hotel and he went on without picking us up. The tour agency sent another cab for us, finally by 9 AM the cab has arrived, we 4 boarded the cab and started our journey. We had a tough time in communicating with this driver, he always say "elepant treking...elepant treking..elepant treking....twanthy meenuts". We had no choice except to remain silent. After 1 hour 30 mins of journey we reached Monkey Cave, to our surprise they asked us to pay the entry fee, it was only a cave and my friends didn't want to go inside and so we started again from there to reach the elephant trekking spot, that was the first time I ever touched an elephant. For first few moments I was afraid to touch it or go near the trunk of the elephant, but I dared to stand beside it and took snap of it. After a while many other elephants returned from the trek. My friend and I sat on a the elephant, it was not an easy task to sit on a wobbling seat. The elephants knew the way completely, the were doing trekking without mahouts. It was wonderful trekking experience, the whole trek was in a forest, the land was not flat. We had to hold to the ropes of the chair. The total trek was about 20-30 minutes. We reached back to the place where the elephants were tethered, we boarded the cab again and reached a hotel for our lunch, this time they did pay special attention to the veggies, they asked about our preference and they made the dishes. Although the food was very bland (in thailand they don't use salt in their dishes), we had to put enough salt in the noodles for a good taste. We were taken to waterfalls after we finished our lunch. It was fresh-water waterfalls, lots of fishes, we swam for about 30mins or so, spoke to other tourists over there, and started our journey to most awaited activity of the day - Water Rafting. We reached the starting point of the rafting, other tourists joined us. We were given a single raft for 4 of us, 2 other people were trained people who operated the raft. This was our first experience of water rafting. In the middle of rafting I jumped out of the raft without life jacket for swimming, and I knew I was in trouble, the water current was good enough to push you out. I immediately requested for life jacket, my friends thew me a jacket I put on it, then I came back on the raft and we continued our rafting, there were few spots were we thoroughly enjoyed it. If you can't hold on the support ropes on the raft you will have tough time on raft, you have to pay attention on when we are going to have an impact. The water rafting was 5 KM, they charged extra 400 Bahts for 2 KMs but we didn't take it. We came back to the place where we had our lunch. We did 250 meter zip-lining here. I did it twice to get good video and snaps ;-) and then we started back to our hotel, we reached hotel at 6 PM. We waited for other friends to join us. We went out for shopping, we did shopping, bought some leather purses, electronic equipments etc. we stayed in Bangla Street till 2:30 AM, we reached back to the hotel at 3 AM and we slept.
We woke at 7:30 AM, we were ready by 8 AM, but the cab didn't arrive. We called to the tour agency and found out that driver went to the wrong hotel and he went on without picking us up. The tour agency sent another cab for us, finally by 9 AM the cab has arrived, we 4 boarded the cab and started our journey. We had a tough time in communicating with this driver, he always say "elepant treking...elepant treking..elepant treking....twanthy meenuts". We had no choice except to remain silent. After 1 hour 30 mins of journey we reached Monkey Cave, to our surprise they asked us to pay the entry fee, it was only a cave and my friends didn't want to go inside and so we started again from there to reach the elephant trekking spot, that was the first time I ever touched an elephant. For first few moments I was afraid to touch it or go near the trunk of the elephant, but I dared to stand beside it and took snap of it. After a while many other elephants returned from the trek. My friend and I sat on a the elephant, it was not an easy task to sit on a wobbling seat. The elephants knew the way completely, the were doing trekking without mahouts. It was wonderful trekking experience, the whole trek was in a forest, the land was not flat. We had to hold to the ropes of the chair. The total trek was about 20-30 minutes. We reached back to the place where the elephants were tethered, we boarded the cab again and reached a hotel for our lunch, this time they did pay special attention to the veggies, they asked about our preference and they made the dishes. Although the food was very bland (in thailand they don't use salt in their dishes), we had to put enough salt in the noodles for a good taste. We were taken to waterfalls after we finished our lunch. It was fresh-water waterfalls, lots of fishes, we swam for about 30mins or so, spoke to other tourists over there, and started our journey to most awaited activity of the day - Water Rafting. We reached the starting point of the rafting, other tourists joined us. We were given a single raft for 4 of us, 2 other people were trained people who operated the raft. This was our first experience of water rafting. In the middle of rafting I jumped out of the raft without life jacket for swimming, and I knew I was in trouble, the water current was good enough to push you out. I immediately requested for life jacket, my friends thew me a jacket I put on it, then I came back on the raft and we continued our rafting, there were few spots were we thoroughly enjoyed it. If you can't hold on the support ropes on the raft you will have tough time on raft, you have to pay attention on when we are going to have an impact. The water rafting was 5 KM, they charged extra 400 Bahts for 2 KMs but we didn't take it. We came back to the place where we had our lunch. We did 250 meter zip-lining here. I did it twice to get good video and snaps ;-) and then we started back to our hotel, we reached hotel at 6 PM. We waited for other friends to join us. We went out for shopping, we did shopping, bought some leather purses, electronic equipments etc. we stayed in Bangla Street till 2:30 AM, we reached back to the hotel at 3 AM and we slept.
Monkey Cave:
Day 6: Back to home - Karon Beach, tight timeline, shopping, shopping, drive back to airport
We woke up at 9:30 AM, one of my friends searched for a good massage center (only massage no other extra activities) we found out about "Sweet Lemongrass Massage" center, I had best massage in my life, they knew the correct pressure points, they are certified masseurs. They charged 350 Bahts for 60 mins of Traditional Thai Massage + Oil Massage. Everyone of us really loved it. The tripadvisor rating really fits them. Few of my friends even did massage for 90 mins. After the massage we came back to hotel, we jumped in the pool, that's when the hotel crew arrived and reminded us about our checkout time, we spent 15 minutes in the pool, came out of it, packed everything and then we checkout of the hotel and went to Bangla street to finish off the pending shopping list. We arrived there at 2 PM and agreed that everyone would finish off with their shopping by 3 PM and meet at a common point, my friend and I shopped leather bags, t-shirts, phone power banks etc and reached the common point, few of my friends were still shopping or in the middle of lunch. Finally by 4:10 PM we gathered and started to airport which was 40 mins drive from Bangla street. We reached airport at 5 or 5:10 PM, we handed over the car to the car rental agency, and we checked-in our baggage. The flight to Bangkok was at 7 PM, we reached Bankok at 8:40 PM, we had our Hyderabad flight at 10 PM, we reached Hyderabad at 12 AM IST time, thus we ended our memorable tour :) :) :) :) This blog page is to inspire people to visit beautiful Phuket.
Karon Beach:
We woke up at 9:30 AM, one of my friends searched for a good massage center (only massage no other extra activities) we found out about "Sweet Lemongrass Massage" center, I had best massage in my life, they knew the correct pressure points, they are certified masseurs. They charged 350 Bahts for 60 mins of Traditional Thai Massage + Oil Massage. Everyone of us really loved it. The tripadvisor rating really fits them. Few of my friends even did massage for 90 mins. After the massage we came back to hotel, we jumped in the pool, that's when the hotel crew arrived and reminded us about our checkout time, we spent 15 minutes in the pool, came out of it, packed everything and then we checkout of the hotel and went to Bangla street to finish off the pending shopping list. We arrived there at 2 PM and agreed that everyone would finish off with their shopping by 3 PM and meet at a common point, my friend and I shopped leather bags, t-shirts, phone power banks etc and reached the common point, few of my friends were still shopping or in the middle of lunch. Finally by 4:10 PM we gathered and started to airport which was 40 mins drive from Bangla street. We reached airport at 5 or 5:10 PM, we handed over the car to the car rental agency, and we checked-in our baggage. The flight to Bangkok was at 7 PM, we reached Bankok at 8:40 PM, we had our Hyderabad flight at 10 PM, we reached Hyderabad at 12 AM IST time, thus we ended our memorable tour :) :) :) :) This blog page is to inspire people to visit beautiful Phuket.
Karon Beach:
