My Thailand Trip

Thailand
Visited: Dec 2008
Places visited: Phuket, Phi-Phi, Pattaya

Suggested Itinerary:
* Visit Thailand if you wanna see nature, beaches, snorkeling, diving, etc.
* Skip Bangkok and Pattaya. Go directly to Phuket.
* Book your own hotel thru internet. I stayed at Royal Paradise Hotel, Phuket. Was very good.
* Make your plans after landing in Phuket, dont go thru the travel agent. It might sound fuzzy to make plans after you've landed, but this would work out best for you.

There are so many things to do in and around Phuket, you'll know what you want to do after going thru all that Phuket has to offer.

Day 1: Arrive at Phuket city. Check into hotel and sleep for some hours. Evening walk around Phuket city and finalize trip for next 2-3 days. Recommended is the 2-day, 1-night trip to Phi-Phi and Krabi, with overnigt stay at Phi-Phi. You have to bargain for the prices, dont go by whats on the brochures.
Once you've finalized the trip, spend some time at Patong Beach. I found it a joy to jog here. Night, go to your hotel via Bangla Road.

Day 2, 3: Take the Phi-Phi, Krabi tour. You can do your fill of Snorkeling, swimming in the sea, etc. If you wanna do diving, scuba diving, take an appropos trip. Phi-Phi is bang in the middle of the ocean, you travel by boat for ~2 hours into the ocean to reach Phi-Phi. Boat ride is very pleasant!

Day 4: You will be dead tired by now. Take it easy and take a customized Phuket City Tour. There are couple of good places near Phuket City. 2-3 places offering good views of a cape, beaches and a view-point. There's a snake show which was good. Rest of the city tour is crap and commercialized for tourists. Hang out at Patong beach or Bangla Road. Visit the A-Go-Go bar on Bangla Road, was good.

Day 5: ciao Thailand!



The place: Exotic place, laid-back beaches. Easy on your wallet! Land of smiles, very respectful & humble people.
Ocean, ocean all around, and bang out of nowhere stands huge cropping of rocks (islands). You can see this funda all over Thailand. It is blessed with plethora of islands.
Rains for 10 months a year, one of the greenest places I've seen. May and Decemeber are the off-rain months.
Famous for Massages. Google for it, this is not that kinda blog!

Food: Various cuisines available. Mainly sea-food. Many Indian restaurants. Do try out Thai Veggie food.

Currency: Baht

Visa: Available on arrival. But get it done before so as to skip the visa queue at Bangkok airport.

Bangkok: Big airport, reminded me of Hong Kong Airport, looked very similar
Pattaya: Give Pattaya a skip if you want nature stuff.
I suppose Bangkok-Pattaya would be the cheapest package. If cost is not the deciding criteria, skip this place. Very commercialized for vacationers.
Coral Island: They take you to do a 10-15 min Para-Gliding for ~20$. Was good, never tried it before! Take the water-dip, not as scary as it sounds.
Under-sea walk: Skipped. Seemed like a rip-off for ~1000 Baht
Coral Island Beach: A nice, small beach. You can spend 30 mins-1 hour on the waterfront. Lots of small bits of coral splattered on the land\water, hence the name of this island.
Alcazar Show: I Skipped. Transvestite show. Very popular with angrezis.
Nong Nooch Village: Was okay-okay. You can spend half a day if you have the time. Tis a botanical garden, nature village, and coupe of native Thailand cultural shows.

Phuket: Phuket is a small town\city, you’ve to fly from Pattaya to Phuket. ~ 2 hours flight.
Things to do in Phuket:
Patong Beach: I stayed near Patong beach, was a nice beach though a lil commercialized. But you can get lot of info here. Its also a central place in Phuket. Every place is walkable within Phuket City.
Bang La road is a famous, happening, partying place. Spend few hours on a leisure evening here. Navrang Mahal, a desi restaurant serves good food.

Tips:
Lots of 7-11 stores, buy water and other stuff from here. Much cheaper.
Take good slippers! Slippers have a better use-case on most of the days. Wear joggers on the day of walking around Phuket city.
Swimming trunks, swimming cap, coolers, sun-block must! Towels, I took from the hotel I stayed. Snorkeling masks are provided by agents wherever you go (phi-phi).