Trip to Phuket
Recently I visited Phuket during my X’mas and New Year Holidays in End-December 2014 and I must admit that it has become my favorite tourist destination i have ever been 🙂
As our trip is recent and we really enjoyed our stay there I thought to share our thought here 😉
- We Traveled as : Couple ( Me and my Wife )
- Travelling To : Phuket , Thailand
- Travelling from : Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
- Travelling for : Vacation , Holiday , Relax
We started our journey from KL on 28th December 2014. Took a taxi from our apartment to KL Sentral and took a Bus from Kl Sentral to KLIA2 (took around 1 hour) , to take Air-Asia flight AK-822 to Phuket at 8:20 PM . Flight was delayed for 1 hour 10 minutes and took 1 hour 20 minutes air journey to reach Phuket International Airport in Thailand . Our Flight departed at 10:00 PM (Thanks to 3 persons who checked-in but didnt turn up to fly on a already late flight ) and we reached Phuket at 10:20 PM (Thailand time )
We were eligible to get VOA so we filled the VOA form , attached our passport size photos on the form and got a visa . It is best to take passport size photos with you in case you are planning to get VOA for Thailand else you will have to go to their photo service for which you need to queue and obviously will have to pay some fees . Visa fees is 1000 Baht . Good thing was when we got VOA we didn’t have to stay in the long queue at immigration , we had a separate queue which was empty 🙂 . At the airport just after immigration we got free sim card , lady at the counter told us to recharge it at any 7/11 or Family Mart with 150 Bahts to get unlimited Internet for 3 days .
We booked our Hotel near by Patong Beach which is almost 24 Km from Airport . We took a taxi to go from Airport to Blue Sky Patong Hotel . It was a prepaid Taxi for 800 Baht . Another alternative was bus whose rent was 180 Baht per person however we took prepaid taxi from counter outside the Airport . Lady gave us receipt and asked us to wait for taxi . Our taxi driver wanted to earn extra money , we were 2 and he managed to find one more guy who was going to Patong area . He asked him to sit on front seat and us on back seat . Taxi was booked just for us but he asked us to share . In short he saved his one round and earned 800 Baht s for free 🙂 Anyways we were in good mood and Taxi Driver didn’t know good English so we decided to enjoy the moment . Luckily the person who shared the taxi which us was a good friendly person. He was from Scotland and was coming to Phuket for 4th time ( every year in December ) and he did briefed us about the area .
So far so good . Taxi took around 1 hour and we reached Hotel at around 12 Midnight . We booked our Hotel via Agoda and we got this four star hotel almost double its rate because it was new year time 🙁 . We paid around 9200 Bahts for 3 nights stay at Blue sky Patong Hotel . Hotel was around 1 Km from Bangla Road and Patong Beach which are main attractions of this area . it was easy to walk from Hotel to Bangla road but still i would say that it was a little far . Hotel was Ok but If i will go again to Phuket i will surely wont stay there because I don’t think it was value for money .While booking i informed Hotel that we are honey-mooner s so they did try to do their best .
Honey-moon decoration at Hotel
They have a window view from the hotel but i didn’t like it that much
Road side view from Hotel
Road side view from hotel
Bad thing s about the Hotel :
- Don’t provide tea
- Don’t provide Coffee
- Don’t provide tooth brush or paste which is usually provided by a a 4 star hotel .
- Hot water wasn’t available 1st day , anyways their engineer tried really hard to fix it , but he wasn’t successful 🙂
- Breakfast wasn’t that great
- Most of the staff didn’t know Good English .
- If you call Hotel’s restaurant from room , they either wont pick up phone or will tell you to call them later in a very bad tone . Probably busy or may be they don’t want to speak english 😀
Good things about Hotel :
- They provide beach Towels .
- Have a in room safe – but i expect that from any good hotel
- Booked Airport taxi which came on time
- It was looking beautiful when they decorated it at new year on 31st December 2014
New year decoration for hotel
We decided to take a walk on 28th Night itself as we were little hungry and we wanted to have a look at the Beach and Bangla road which is more awake at Night time . It took us 10 minutes to walk and reach Bangla road . The Road was really really full of people and have all kinds of bars , music , alcohol you can ever imagine . Road is almost 100-200 meter long and at the end of road is Patong beach where we could still see some people. There were some beach side bars as well .
As we were little hungry so we went to a bar and asked for some food but unluckily all the bars in Phuket serves only drinks at night (Kitchen is closed ). They pointed us to McDonalds and KFC on Bangla road for food . We had some food ,some fruits and reached home to get some sleep as it was already 3 am .
Day 2 – Monday 29th December 2014
As we woke up on 29th at 10 am we rushed to see the breakfast at Top floor of our Hotel , but it wasn’t great as it looked like leftover and there was no one eating there . We walked a little and found a 7-11 shop nearby so we can buy tooth brush, tooth paste, soap, shampoo etc ( Hotel don’t provide this kind of stuff remember :P) . You will find 7-11 and Family mart shops every 50-100 meter Open 24/7 . On the way back to Hotel ,we found a fruit shop and bought some fruits before brunch .
Fruits in Patong
There are a lot of shops which offer to rent bike , you will find them almost everywhere . Bikes are of 125 cc Honda Yamaha etc and depending on their power and age their rates vary . We took 125 cc Honda for 300 Bahts per day , only catch is the bike owner will keep your passport with him, but in our case he returned the passport without any hassle on returning of bike .
Renting a bike was really helpful as then it becomes 3-4 minutes ride to Bangla road or Patong Beach . We went to Karon Beach and even Big Bhudda Hill top which is around 30 km . Driving on hill was great experience another good thing about bike is parking is free everywhere in Patong and you will find a parking almost at any point you visit .
We went to an Indian restaurant names Tandoor whose food was really great ,actually it was better than my expectation . Indian milk tea was almost same as we drink it at our homes . Well ! I believe having great food on a trip makes 40% of our trip successful 🙂 There are 5 Tandoor restaurants in Patong Area in Phuket and all of them have same Menu and same food taste . We also tried to Badshah restaurant once which was comparatively very near to our Hotel but their staff was really rude 🙁 . I will really wont recommend this restaurant to anyone .
After Lunch we went to Patong Beach and it was just awesome . Crowd was great and almost everyone was lying down with their mats or towels on the sand. You can rent a mat for 100 bahts per day and can buy same Mat for 200 bahts per day. We Purchased that Mat as we were going to stay there for 3 days and we had plan to come to beach at night as well and i admit it was a good decision to buy it .
Patong Beach
Good things about the Patong Beach :
- You can relax with no one bothering you .
- Nice Sun
- Very clear water
- Very Clean No dirt .
- Vendors will come to you to serve chilled beer , water , food , Coconut water and even ice cream.
- You can buy clothes , T-shirts, bikinis , water sports stuff, Towel etc from the shops very near to beach
- You can get food from the road side of beach
- There’s nothing i didn’t like about the beach 😛
Patong Beach
Patong Beach
We stayed at beach for few hours and later in evening thought of going to Simon Cabaret show however the travel agent told that show is at 6 pm , 7 45 pm and 9 pm every day and it was already 8 30 pm and very few seats were left so we booked show for next day at 6:00 PM so we can get good seats. You can find so many travel shops in Phuket almost every 50 meters there will be tourist information and if you buy tickets from them they give you some discount . We got 2 tickets for 1100 Bahts which if purchased from counter is 800 per ticket ( VIP seats ) .
After our dinner we went to beach again and we enjoyed long walk on it , however after few hours we went to Bangla road again and had some nice time before calling it a day .
Day 3 – Monday 30th December 2014
Today after our breakfast we went directly to Karon Beach which is one of the best beaches of Phuket ,even better than Patong beach . It only have little less shops at road side but you will find coconut water , beer , food , mat and even umbrella , better sunshine , more clearer water and less crowd as compared to Patong .We rented an umbrella for 200 Bahts and after few hours started our bike for Big Bhudda . I must say the way to karon from Patong is very nice .You will see hills with very nice view .Its around 7 km and you can reach there in around 10-20 mins depending on the speed.
View while driving Patong to Karon Beach
Way from Karon to Big Bhudda is around 20 km i guess and its all hills , we found this really nice restaurant while driving to the hill . Waitor was really nice to us , Toilets were very clean . As i asked him he told big bhudda was only 2 km from here . We had limited time as we needed to reach back home to see Simon Cabarel show .
Big Bhudda
On the way back i noticed that my Hotel was 25 KM from Big Bhudda and it took 45 minutes to 1 hour . I think our GPS mis-guided us and took us back through a longer way as we came back via highway while coming it was a hilly way .
View from Big Bhudda
View from Big Bhudda
We were almost 30 minutes late to Simon Cabaret show , we reached thereat 6 30 but we were lucky as show was started just 5 mins ago .It was a nice show performed by by Lady-boys mostly. And yes they kissed some of the guests sitting in the first line 😛 (Tip : get a seat on line one if you wanna get one 😀 ) At the end of show they will line up and will ask you to come and click a photo with them for 100 Bahts or so 🙂 .
Lady Boys who performed at Simon Cabaret Show
Then we had our dinner and it was as yummy as always . We ordered Tomato Soup , Chana masala , Green Salad , Tandoori Roti , Masala papadum and Milk-tea.
Tomato Soup at Royal Tandoor Restaurant new Patong beach
Food at Royal Tandoor Restaurant new Patong beach
Again our night life experience was even better today . Best thing about Phuket is you have so much to do in Day and even more to do at Night so you will be really busy relaxing 🙂
Day -4 Last day at Phuket 31st December 2014
I don’t want to go back to KL . I am in love with Phuket . The time was really less and we enjoyed a lot . Its new year eve and our Hotel was being decorated
We check-out our hotel , returned the bike to get my passport back , booked taxi for airport at 5 PM , kept our extra luggage in Hotel and went again to Patong beach as our appetite for the beaches were not over yet . It was still as beautiful as always and made us fall in love with its beautiful sunshine view .
Patong beach at Day time
Patong beach at Day time
Last but not the least , Phuket offers the best massages and we didn’t missed it . You can get massages starting from 250 Bahts per hour .We went for 400 per hour one and it was quite a relaxing experience . Staff was very experienced , they knew what points to press .
Massage shop near Bangla road
In the end we had our food and reached our Hotel to see that Taxi is already waiting . We said bye to Phuket however the moments are still with us .
Some helpful tips :
- We took 20,000 bahts with us but could spent only 16,000 bahts in 3 days at peak season excluding Hotel and Flight Price so its comparatively quite cheap
- Rent a bike the very first day , there are options to get Tuk-tuk to go to any place you want but renting a bike is far far better option as tuk tuk will ask for 200 Bahts for any nearest to nearest destination and i ma sure you wont want to waste your time in bargaining .
- There are a lot of islands nearby like Phi Phi , James bond island , Freedom beach etc , We couldn’t explore that but do give it a try
- We went to watch Simon Cabaret but if you are interested there are more shows as well you can get all this information from tourist center in Phuket
- No Plan is best plan
Still want to know what to do in Phuket ?
- Patong Beach
- Bangla Road Nightlife
- Simon Cabaret Show
- Big Buddha
- Phuket FantaSea Show
- Boxing (Muay Thai)
- Spa/Massages
- Phang Nga Bay
- Karon Beach
- Kata Viewpoint
- Phi Phi island
- James bond island
- Freedom Beach
- Tiger Kingdom
- Karon Beach
- Bird park
- Elephant Trekking
- Bungee Jumping
- Jet Ski
- Water sports at beach
#phuket #phuketblog #3daystripphuket #Whattodoinphuket