INTRODUCTION I must start this review by saying that I stayed in Phuket in October 2003 before the tsunami hit. So, it may not be the tropical paradise that it was when I was there. However, I'm sure much of the information below will still be of great use to those planning to go to this region. Me and my best friend Nathan had worked in an orphanage for a month (see previous review), then had travelled to Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos for the month following and we were well and truly ready for a break. We had met some students in Bangkok who told us the greatest place in the world was Phuket. Not having been there ourselves we couldn't really argue with their opinion, so we decided to check it out.
ACCOMMODATION I'd recommend that no one prebook accommodation in Thailand. When you go to the tour operators to book your trips they'll try and get you to book hotels as well. Now, their packages will seem very cheap to the westerners mind, but don't be fooled - 10 pounds a night is not cheap, 5 pounds a night is not even that cheap. I would strongly urge everyone to do what myself and my friend did, that is, walk up and down the streets with the hotels on, go into every one you pass and ask "how much for a month?" when they give you the outrageous price, you say, "Well, hotel 'Y' offered us a month for 'X' amount" and they say "OK, well my lowest price is 'X'", then you go to the next hotel and do the same. After about 4 hours of hotel hopping (sounds like a long time, but well worth it in the end!) we ended up paying 25 pounds each for 31 days. And for that we got a double bed each, a TV (we had to beg the owner for this), an en-suite bathroom with cold shower and a maid that tidied up our room everyday! All in all a complete bargain!
PATONG BEACH Our hotel was a 5-minute walk from Patong beach that we went to practically everyday of our stay. It's a really nice beach, no litter, very beautiful, but very crowded. Patong is a party town; there are lots of bars, clubs, brothels, strip bars, restaurants and westerners! *** Eating *** Eating out can be very cheap. The Restaurants (more like cafés) by the waterfront seemed to offer the best quality food for the cheapest price. They all had pictures of the dishes and English descriptions, with every kind of food you could imagine. Chinese and Italian food was great; we ate a lot of pizza! *** Shopping *** Like everywhere in Thailand, nothing has a price tag, and the price given on request is basically a joke! The key to bartering is being friendly. Thai people are lovely and they really enjoy speaking to westerners, nothing knocks the price down more than a big smile and a joke or two! *** Night Life *** As I said before Patong is a party town; when the sun goes down, the partying begins. Neither me or my friend are big drinkers, so most of what was on offer had little appeal to us. But it was very exciting just walking about the town at night and seeing some of the sights. Do not go to the beach in the evening (except to see the exceptional sunsets!) because the mosquitoes come out in force and you will get eaten alive! One word of advice on mosquitoes; we found that if we were drinking lots of fizzy drinks and sugary sweets they loved to suck our blood, but when we were drinking water they tended to stay away.
THINGS I'D RECOMMEND *** Mopeds *** One of the top things I'd recommend is hiring a moped! It costs about 2 or 3 pounds a day and petrol is also cheap. I had no driving licence and was never asked to produce one - you just hand over your passport and off you go. We hired a mo-ped about 10 times in our stay - there are lots of open roads on the island and as far as I remember no speed limits were enforced, those little small engined machines can easily get up to 75 miles an hour, great for exploring. We never had any maps; we just went! Very exciting! *** Snorkelling *** This is an absolute must; go to a sports shop (there is one in Phuket Town Centre) and buy yourself a snorkel and mask. I can't tell you hours of fun we had with these. Once we had bought them we went snorkelling every day. The water is very clear and there are lots of crabs and fish in the gloriously warm water.
DANGER! One day we went down to the beach to do a couple of hours of snorkelling, however, it was really, really windy and all the bottom of the sea bed was churned up and you couldn't see anything. Nathan was shouting to me to come back to shore and watch the waves, they were getting scary! I swam to a round flat rock and the sea was rapidly getting insanely choppy. I could see where Nathan was standing, but I couldn't swim back to him and the waves had started to break over me. Nathan was shouting at me telling me that a huge wave was coming. I kind of wedged myself under a cravice in the rock and braced for the first of many 10 foot waves. Masses of water came flying over my head, up my nose, in my mouth, it spun me around, and I hung on as hard as I could. For about 30 seconds my whole life was an abundance of water. No breath was left in my lungs, no clear thoughts, just complete fear. Eventually the water subsided and I was completely drained, then Nathan shouts, "there's another one and it's even bigger!!" Without a second to recover I had to immediately jam myself back into the hole, and again the wave came crashing on top of me. Complete panic! This carried on for another 3 times, each time the water subsided; my fear never subsided an inch. Then Nathan shouts, "This is by far the biggest one yet." Quickly I got back into position and prepared for the onslaught. The wave came powerfully over the top of me, but there was a huge wash that came in from the side, my grip just couldn't contend with the literally tons of water piling against my body. The waves took me away, I probably went about 3 metres, to the very edge of the boulder, any more and I would have been in some serious trouble! After this big wave there seemed to be a slight calm and I swam as hard as I could back to safety. My legs and arms were shaking and I had zero energy in my whole body. I couldn't move for about 30 minutes. In the evening we went out for dinner and had a good laugh at this adventure! Even though it was 1 and a half years ago, I remember the way I felt so clearly! I guess my advice would be, don't swim in the sea on windy days!
TRIPS Near the end of our stay we started going on some of the tourist tours! First was a snorkelling trip to Phi Phi Island, which ranks somewhere in the top ten of my all time greatest experiences. When we got to the Island we were blown away by the beach; it was perfect white sand and the sea was transparent to the very bottom. Me and Nathan swam out about 50 metres (until we got scared!) and we could still see the bottom! We took a boat a mile off shore and they threw us overboard with snorkels attached to our heads. The sheer number of species was amazing. It was a coral reef with about a million fish of every shape and size. When I was swimming back to the boat, a woman threw bread in the water nearby, and several thousand fish came out of nowhere to get the food - swimming into my head and everything. It was great. A few days later we went to see James Bond Island (so called because they filmed "The man with the golden gun" there) and it was truly a wondrous sight. A small island crammed full of natural beauty. We went to a fishermans village on the shore and the whole village was on poles that were anchored in the water - quite a sight!
FINAL THOUGHT Looking back on our stay in Phuket I have one regret; we were always so concerned with our budget that we perhaps missed out on some amazing experiences. The trips were quite expensive (in Thailand terms) so we only went on the two trips, but there were so many more we should have gone on - deep sea diving, sea fishing, elephant tracking etc. I'd recommend Phuket to everyone, but if you have a family, don't stay at Patong beach! The sheer number of prostitutes would make this a strange place for a child. Overall, a magical experience that I'll remember forever.
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