Phuket (Thailand Part 4 of 4)
Jump to Thailand Part 1
Island Life
The beaches are what Thailand is known for, and there is a reason for it. We chose Phuket (pronounced ‘poo-ket’ I swear) based on its popularity and ease of access. Since we would only be spending a few days at the beach we wanted to make sure we maximized our beach time. After reading several reviews of various beaches I decided that Bangtoa Beach would be best suited for our personalities and what we would want to do. I ‘splurged’ more than usual on our lodging, and we stayed at the Andaman Bangtoa Bay Resort. The resort was located right on the beach at the southernmost tip of Bangtoa Beach – so it was pretty amazing. The only complaint I had was that again, taxi drivers had trouble finding it because it’s listed as a restaurant first. Maybe Andrew should be the one selecting lodging from now on…
I am bringing this up now only because every time I read it in my journal it makes me chuckle. Our 2 hour flight from Chiang Mai to Phuket was uneventful, except that I was stuck next to a man with the WORST smelling feet. I spent the entire flight freezing (because I couldn’t stand the thought of turning the air vent off) and huddling as close to Andrew as I could just trying to breath. Somehow the smell stopped at me because Anderw apparently had no idea, and spent the flight wondering why I was being so ‘cuddly’. PSA – don’t take your shoes off if your feet smell. Please.
After settling into our hotel, we decided to change into our swimsuits and walk along the never ending Bangtoa Beach (seriously it went on for what felt like forever with a length of 6km/4miles!) It didn’t take long for us to come across a jet ski rental, and it being something Andrew had never done we just had to take advantage. The guy told us we could ride wherever we want, we just couldn’t go past that island as he pointed to this tiny spec of land way in the distance. Challenge accepted. We hopped on the jet ski and made a bee line for the island. Determined as we were, it was just too far away to make it in the allotted hour, but we still had a lot of fun.
After showering and changing we decided it was about time to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. We didn’t have to go far to get to Palm Seaside. It had fun fancy cocktails and amazing food. The layout was super cool as well – the center was a raised fountain with booths cut into the side, so it was almost like you were in the water. We opted for a regular chair under cover though because there was a storm brewing and while they did have piña coladas, we were not wanting to get caught in the rain. That night was the only bit of rain we experienced on our entire trip.
Day 13 - Phang Nga Bay (Thursday March 8)
After seeing all the pictures on Pinterest I just knew we had to check out Phang Nga Bay. Rather than rent a boring normal boat, I decided we would take a tour on a traditional Junk Boat! (Although the sails were essentially down the whole time – they put them up about halfway through for a photo op.) We toured with the June Bahtra full day trip. It was nice to have the whole day essentially already planned for us. They even picked us up from our hotel. Although apparently I accidentally somehow got us on a French speaking boat. The tour guide started going over everything and we, as well as the two other non french speakers, had this look of panic cross over our faces. After the guide gave his spiel in french I stumbled my way through a mixture of french and thai words to tell him I have no idea what he just spent 10 minutes saying. Luckily the guide also spoke English, so he was able to repeat everything for us. The main attraction of the tour was to go see “Jame’s Bond Island” or more correctly Khao Ping Kan. If you’ve ever seen Man with the Golden Gun, you’ll recognize it. While the area was full of tourists, it was still really cool to see. Part of the tour also included this super awkward over hyped trip through a floating village. Koh Panyi is basically a poor small fishing island, where there were a bunch of shops set up for people like us, being dragged through there on these Phang Nga tours. I say it was awkward because we essentially walked across the island/network of built up piers, which included around/past people’s houses. There were people just doing normal people things in their home like rocking a baby to sleep and here we were ogling over them – some people were even taking pictures! To top it off this is one of those places affected by humanity’s negligence towards the environment. It was so sad to see the water filled with trash – and you know this wasn’t only litter from the locals. We did buy some postcards from one of the shops as a show of good faith, but I was happy to be off the island. Once we were back on the boat they fed us lunch, and gave us a chance to go swimming. Overall I really enjoyed the tour and am glad we did it.
We ended our day with another trek along Bangtoa Beach followed by dinner at The Black Cat where we treated ourselves to cocktails, curries, and french fries. Because even in Asia, sometimes you just want french fries.
Day 14 - Relaxation (Friday March 9)
Friday was our last day on Phuket and it was the perfect day of relaxation. We decided we would spend the day recharging – we slept in, ate breakfast, read our books on the beach, and treated ourselves to more fresh fruit shakes. We opted not to get massages because while they were still super cheap compared to the US, they were like 5x the prices we had been paying back in Chiang Mai so it just felt like a rip off.
That afternoon we decided to try our hands at stand up paddle boards (SUP) so we rented them for 2 hours and took off into the ocean. It was a little windier that day than it had been any other day so while we had no trouble going out, it took a lot of effort paddling our way back to shore. After we finished the rental guy said we did really well for our first time, and he already had our money so he wouldn’t just say that!
For dinner we went out for Indian food at the Siam Mumbai– this was after all the closest we’ve ever been to India. It was a half indian half thai restaurant, and I swear the waiter got really excited that we were ordering Indian food instead of Thai food. I guess they don’t sell much Indian food being in such a touristy location. We weren’t disappointed with the food, and unlike all the thai food I had been eating, the milder spice level was closer to my liking.
Day 15 - Our Last Day (Saturday March 10)
So before heading home, we had one last day in Bangkok. We caught a flight in the morning, and our original plan was to leave our luggage in lockers at the airport. But Andrew booked our flight from Phuket to the wrong airport. In fact the airports were across the city from each other. So plan B was to stick our bags in some public lockers and check out the Chatachuck Market. We had been looking forward to giving Bangkok a chance to redeem itself after our first trip, but sadly it did not work out that way – I guess some things just aren’t meant to be. The first set of lockers were broken, and the second set completely full. Since we weren’t about to walk through the world’s largest outdoor market with our luggage we decided it just wasn’t going to happen. We went to the next train station with lockers, dropped our stuff off, grabbed some ramen in the train station for lunch and made our way to a coffee shop for coffee and wifi so we could figure out what to do next. As we struggled to decide what to do for the next 5 hours (everything was either too far away, or just didn’t sound appealing) we eventually settled on going to the movies. I know it sounds lame – but it was actually really cool. The theater was inside a 6 story mall with giant atriums – it felt more like a cruise ship than a mall. We went and saw Red Sparrow (so it was in english, but had thai subtitles for the locals). Before the movie started they played the Thai National Anthem. Everyone in the theater had to stand up for it – so that was a pretty neat piece of culture we got to experience. (Also the dubbed previews for various shows were fun to watch – even when we had no idea what they were advertising). After the movie we just went straight to the airport, and that concludes our Thailand Adventure.
We had our second layover in Seoul – and I must say if you have the chance – that airport is amazing – it felt like the future. Because of that airport alone, South Korea has been added to my travel bucket list. They had toilets with bidets and heated seats, amazing sound dampening acoustics, a culture center, a nap zone, a virtual gym, and even virtual reality activities! (all free).
Logistics
Below is our budget showing how much money we spent on the trip. We didn’t get the extra money we had to pay on the flight fiasco from the way over there included in it, and I should mention we did have some money in our HSA account, so the shot price shown wasn’t ALL out of pocket. But those vaccine prices came as a HUGE surprise to us so I wanted to share the full price. We were probably overly cautious and didn’t need them all, especially since neither of us came home with a single mosquito bite, but we figured we’d rather be safe than sorry because they are some pretty nasty diseases. (The vaccines we got were Japanese Encephalitis, Malaria, and Cholera, none of which were covered by our insurance) So if you are planning an exotic trip – don’t forget to include the vaccine prices in your budget! Excluding the vaccines, a trip to Thailand costs about the same as a trip to Disney World!
PS in case you are wondering, Fluffy is our pet bird who is surprisingly high maintenance and basically a little diva because we love him.
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