Nice of you to look in Mike.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday
Kath x

Phuket hippyish? Not a label I would have put on it. Koh Samui perhaps given its hippyish origins. I go for small resorts which even Phuket has left, the larger ones like Paton, Karon, and Kata are too developed, so you get the inevitable bustle.

Hi Mike

We did Phuket for a couple of days while backpacking the islands about 5 years back. We too were based in Karon but found it VERY commercialised even then. Superb beach but seemed to be mass tourism. The next day we got a tuk tuk and the driver took us to a small bay approx 15miles north of Karon - beautiful.

Agree with Fiona to have more time in Bangkok....take in the Royal Palace and Wot Po - also try to get in a river boat trip...2 hours from the pier - we did ours very early in the morning.

We managed the river trip by public boat - that was fine. The sleeping Budha was magnificent. UNfortunately, the Grand P)alace was closed for the afternoon. I think some relative of the king/queen has recently died and the closure was linked to that.

We took a trip yesterday (Sat) to "James Bond Island". This is in an area north and est of the Isalnd of Phuket; reached in our case by a long-tail boat. These skim over the waves at about 20mph, driven by a diesel engine mounted on a pivoting axis with the "drive" transmitted to a prop. on the end of a 10foot long pole. As this is dipped in the water at the back of the boat the boat moves forward. TIP. Get a seat near the front to minimise spray.

Overall, the trip was well worth the 650 baht's (about 10 quid) and the stop at a floating village for an hour allowed us to grab some authentic and very fresh food. A large fish, snapper probably, deep fried in a chilli sauce. It was hot as hell but tastier than most foods I've had before. Again, inexpensive. No alcohol though, the village appears to be muslim. Even amid the floating shanty houses, most covered with corrugated roofs there's a resplendant, gold covered mosque. So, a Pepsi was a welcome shock to the system more accustomed to either grape or grain derivatives.

Weather's starting to improve as well. No rain today (so far) but the later afternoons have recently been unsettled.

Mike

Seem to be a little unlucky with the rain there Mike, we have visited the area numerous occassions this time of year never seen a drop.

Was the Grand Palace really closed - again unlucky, I get fed up with the number of times this has been said to me by Thai shopkeepers when in reality its open.

Thanks Mike for your on the spot reports.
The King's sister died recently, she was much loved so perhaps the Grand Palace really was closed to mark the occasion.
We missed the famous Patpong markets as we were told they are closed on Thursdays... yeah right!! I'm a little wiser to all that now.
I'm quite partial to Phuket but have only ever stayed in Kata and Patong. I did notice a big difference to Patong last year (was there just before the tsunami) It had grown like you wouldn't believe. I used to think the Holiday Inn was one the edge of things... but not any more. We are returning in October and all booked up
Last year we hired a car and drove around and off the island. We came across a wonderful little place called Nai Thon and fell in love it. I'd love to stay there a couple of nights.
Look forward to hearing about your travels.
Cheers Geri

Shhh! gerib NaiThons where I stop Quietest resort I've ever been to in Thailand. Nearly everything shut by 10pm

Hi Sunbear

Tranquil is the word for Nai Thon. Nice beach and just a few locals sitting around just chatting among themselves and no pressure from anyone to buy or hire a boat.
We parked in the main street and had lunch at a cafe... I think it had accommodation too. I'm kicking myself for not asking more about it or at least finding the name of it. Shall have to go in October and suss the place out again.
I took some photos... but try as I might I cannot get my head around how to post them

Cheers Geri

We stayed at Naithon buri a nice three star property. Huge pool and sunbeds on the beach. Nai Thons ok for a few days relax but its pricey to get anywhere for a little life, so once we got the chilling out of the way headed else where.

Wednesday, 5th March

The weather in Karon Beach and Patong Beach is glorious today. No sign of rain and very hot. We took a Tuk-Tuk from Karon to Patong this morning, 300 bahts appears to be the price with all operators. There are far more shops and market areas in Patong than Karon and although I posted earlier about the commercialisation of the area generally, the other half felt today was ideal for souvenir shopping. We bought a few items, a watch for our son, couple of handbags for our daughter....all designer look-i-like-is of course, but very genuine looking.

There's a Carrefour supermarket in Patong (no Tesco thank goodness) and I was able to buy some cheese and French bread; sad I know, but after eating-out every night for about 10 nights it gets tiresome. So, with the bottle of French red this will make a welcome change eating in the room.

Karon Beach appears to be a noisy resort of late. I think it's the local Irish Bar, Angus O'Tooles that is responsible. With pounding rock music blaring out until almost 2am this morning I was not impressed. It appers to be a nightly occurence of late and is starting to get annoying. Our hotel is less than 600yards from this nightspot so be warned if you are intending visiting this resort and either dislike rock music or noise - is there a difference
Went to see Fantasea last night. A trip can bee booked with any number of local operators and if you have the buffet as well as the show it's 1900 bahts per adult. The buffet element is 400 bahts and that part is generally worth it. The quality of the food, the selection and the quantity is good. It could have been better explained as it was only afterwards that we found they had a sushi station (we like sushi), and roast duck, roast beef, noodle sections all of which escaped our attention until departing the food area.

The show itself was "cultural". This is my polite way of saying naff. OK, there were 17 elephants of varying sizes on the stage at one time, but a flock of hens tropping from one side to the other as part of the "countryside" influence of the Thai way of life was too much. Oh, the goats following the hens were funny though.

I wouldn't pay to visit Fantasea if I knew what it entailed - but we expected something like Cirque Soleil and that's perhaps unfair. If you have no preconceptions or experience of such such you might enjoy it. If you are familiar with the Disney/U.S. style of presentation you might find this a bit amateurish..........but this is only our opinion.

I'm stil inclined to give the Centara Hotel in Karon Beach a big thumbs-up. The position is pretty good (albeit too close to O'Tooles) and the peace and serenity of the place, the well-manicured grounds and gardens and the attentiveness to service and quality is excellent. The spa is well wortrh a visit. We enjoyed a 2 and a half-hour visit the other day; thjis included a foor massage, leg, arm, shoulder neck and head massage and a facial and for both my wife and I the cost of 45 quid was more than reasonable in my opinion. We've booked for Friday again.

We've experienced some good meals and some mediocre meals whilst in Karon Beach. I can single-out the "Two Chefs" restaurant as particularly good although in comparison, a little more expensive than most. "Pattaya" close by the Two Chefs is very inexpensive and extremely good - we intend to eat there again. Both are within 3-4 minutes walk of the Centara Hotel and the one and only traffic island in the centre of Karon Beach. If you walk towards Kata Beach from that island, no more than 300 yards, on the side opposite the beach there are a number of restaurants, one in particular seemed busy - we enjoyed the fried fish in chilli at that place. You'll see the place as they have lobsters and crabs, live, in tanks outside and the fish is both fresh and good value even though priced by weight. Sea Bass is about 500bahts a kg and a typical fish is about 700grams.

Sorry if this post is weighted on the hotel/food side but that's where our preferences lie and would hope some would-be travellers will gain benefit from the info.

Cheers, Mike & Viv

Hi Mike and Viv (Happy 50th Birthday by the way ) thanks for taking the time to come onto the forum and post your updates. Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.

So not found the Tesco Lotus then . Still who goes that far to go to Tesco, and as with Tesco here they are a bit disruptive of the local economy with they're out of town superstores.

Mike..there is a quieter side to Phuket just you have to hunt for it these days. I personally would avoid Patong and Karon and even Kata these days as during my initial visits it was nothing but a sleepy little village with water buffalo wondering around.

We don't have Tesco Lotus in Australia so I make a bee line for it and stock up with t-shirts for the grandkids. I also buy gaily coloured artificial dangly things that the tut tut drivers have in their vehicles. We have a hut in the corner of our garden which is painted red and yellow with lots of these prayer flowers hanging from it... we love it and spend a lot of time there (with a drink or two) planning our trips.

Mike... if your still in Phuket I hear the new Jungceylon shopping centre in Patong is a super place to shop. There is a basement food court that is wonderful and well worth a try and unbelievably cheap too. I'm looking forward to trying it out myself in October.

Sunbear... the Naithon Buri looks very nice and reasonably priced too and gets good reviews. We have already booked our hotel and I'm reluctant to change our booking as the Holiday Inn have actually given us the room number we have asked for, so I don't want to muck them around.

Langkawi has water buffaloes just wandering around. We'd gone to a restaurant slightly off the main road and my husband wanted to walk back to the hotel... as I wasn't wearing suitable walking shoes I wasn't happy... anyway, I stormed off in search of a taxi and walked into some water buffaloes, first thought was "who the hell put them there" (or words to that effect) but then realised it was a magic moment.

gerib, you're correct about the Jungceylon shopping centre. We did find it, it was wonderful. The food court in the basement was a little quiet when we were first there, approx. midday. I guess it gets busier during the later part of the day. Carrefour have a reasonable sized supermarket in the centre and we stocked-up on some simple items like bread, cheese and ham. When we ate the stuff later that eveing, hoping for a quiet night in (watching a movie on the in-house channel) the cheese was not too brill, the ham fine and the "french" bread, whilst fresh, not at all french style.

However, we'de walked up the road from Karon towards Phuket Town and approx. 400 yards from our hotel there's a Buddhist temple that is enjoying a festival this week. This is where the loud noise emanates every evening....so apologies to Angus O'Tooles Irish Pub. The noise is loud and runs till at least 1:45 am but we must be getting used to it as I was asleep by midnight last night.

The festival was worth visiting in the early evcening as therer are loads of food stalls selling all sorts. I tried some fried squid on a stick, dipped in a plastic bag into which I selected a ladle-full of medilum spiced chilli sauce. The duck, b-b-q'd, was tasty as hell, but I skipped the foot. The portion appeared to be a quarter of a duck and for 90 bahts was embarrasingly cheap. The two sqewars (sic!) of squid was only 16 bahts.

These kind of places appear more intersting to me than some of the brasher shops.

Final shopping trip today (so she promised) and we bought a small porcelain oil warmer/burner. You place some aromatic oli in the top bowl and place a t-lite candle below. The heat causes the oil to give-off a pleasant smell.

Might not be able to post again before our return on Sat but will aim to post a review in relvant section over the next week or so.

Regards to you all,

Mike & Viv

Back home, unfortunately, after a long journey from hotel to home lasting a total of almost 36 hours.

I was very impressed with Bangkok airport - more so than Dubai with respect to food outlets and choice of shops/general style of the building. However, the cuty-free at Dubai appears to be much cheaper than Bangkok - we'd been told as much - so bought cigarettes and spirits at Dubai. There's a distinct lack of seating space at Dubai and with about 7 hours lay-over waiting for our Emirates connection to Manchester it was not a comfortable stay. Emirates offer a complimentary meal if you have a connection wait of 4 hours of more and I can only praise the quality and choice of food available for the breakfast that starts serving at 6am. There was a queue for this facility but better to stand in a queue than wander aimlessly around trying to find seating.

Bit miffed when we headed towards our gate as we passed a number of reclining type seats which looked as though you could easily relax and fall asleep in them. Out towards gates 10 and upwards if you're passing through the area soon.

Emirates flights were excellent in most respects. Choice of entertainment on their 777 range is phenominal. About 400-500 channels offering games, movies, t.v. favourites and music. They also have a forward and a downward camera so you can make sure the pilot lands connectly
My only (minor) complaint - they insist on serving the main meal BEFORE they have served drinks including wine. When I asked for a wine with my meal they said they would be serving drinks later. I sent the hot meal back to be kept warm until they could bring me a red, Viv a white wine. Other passengers had similar views. That said, the food quality was probably the best I've had on any airline and we always had a choice of the two offerings - later served passengers MAY have had a restricted choice but we were lucky on all four sectors.

Bangkok to Phuket, we flew with Bangkok Airlines. The downside was a 20kg limit for checked baggage which then restricted us for the main international sectors when Emirates offered 32 kg. However, with the dress codes in Thailand we'd not taken long trousers, jackets and posh stuff and as I now know you can get very cheap laundry rates in Thailand there should never be an issue with weight. Bangkok airlines provided us with a lounge area near the departure gate on the way down to Phuket and we had complimentary tea/coffee etc, small snacks, internet access and newspapers (no brit. titles though). Likewise, on the return same facilities whilt waiting for the flight from Phuket to Bangkok.

I mentioned laundy earlier. Within 200 yards of our hotel in Karon Beach we had at least 4 laundries. We picked one that appeared best, left them with about 11 items and collected them next day. They charge by the KG for a simple wash and dry and the 11 t-shirts etc cost of 80 bahts - about £1.40

Just before our departure home we took a further 11 items for a full wash, dry and iron. This cost 200 bahts but the shirts were perfectly pressed, wrapped in cling film and fitted a treat into the suitcase taking less room than dirty clothes would otherwise have.

Taken overall - we enjoyed the holiday but would probably not return to Phuket again. Other locations in Thailand described to us by people we met around the pool would like as not entice us either. Bangkok would be an ideal stop-over if travelling futher onwards - say Australia, but I'd perhaps choose an alternate such as Singapore in preference simply to see some new place.

If, like us, you are more familiar with Florida, the US generally, the Caribbean and perhaps cruises you might want to think hard about choosing Thailand. It really was a culture shock for us.

La Korn kra

Mike

But Mike the culture shock is part of the fun of the holiday. . I remember the first time I went to Bangkok I was a little shocked (and I'd lived in the Far East) but you soon chill into the Thai way of doing things. Perhaps Karon was not the best resort for you, the Laguna complex on Bang Tao for example reminds me a lot of Florida with its golf courses and lagoons and large hotel complexes so may have been better suited.

Glad to hear you arrived home safely despite your 36 hour trip. Had a bit of a 'flash back' when you sent your meals back to be kept warm. My little grandson still recalls when I did the same in a pub restaurant... of course he beats up his story with my Lancashire accent for maximum effect.
I know how you feel in regard to a culture shock... it happened to me in Bali in the early 90's and I said I'd never go back unless I won a free trip. We leave next week our 8th trip (Plus 2 in Malaysia and 5 in Thailand) I think Thailand and Phuket are far more advanced in infrastructure than Bali. There are still times I shake my head at things I see in South East Asia... but not always in a bad way but certainly in amazement.
Obviously SEA is our closest neighbour and our cheapest option for us coming from east coast Australia. I dream of going to the Caribbean but for us the cost is prohibitive.
I loved reading about your time whilst in Phuket... perhaps, like us you may change your mind and return. I can't help but think had you stayed at our hotel (Busakorn Wing of the Holiday Inn) you may have a slightly different view of Phuket.
Cheers Geri

I loved reading about your time whilst in Phuket... perhaps, like us you may change your mind and return. I can't help but think had you stayed at our hotel (Busakorn Wing of the Holiday Inn) you may have a slightly different view of Phuket.

I think Mike was fairly happy with his hotel. To be honest if your not taken with Karon your not going to go much for the Patong area either. I have to be honest and would say I would not stay at either. Much too developed for my liking and not in a good way.

Perhaps you're right Sunbear... my impression of Pattaya didn't alter despite me loving the Rabbit resort. How soon I forgot
Geri