Thailand - Touring Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands

Everything started when by itinerary I was scheduled to spend three days in Phuket by work (I am a flight attendant from Qatar Airways) basically how I arrived to the country by was taking and amazing flight with the company from Doha, Qatar to Phuket, Thailand, it will take around 7 hours, where you can relax, watch movies, series and tv shows about the amazing destination you are going to visit and of course enjoy the amazing food, drinks and 5 start service you will have on board.

We arrived early morning but since I had everything planned since almost one month before I made a reservation of a tour from the website www.phukettoursdirect.com, there are tons of plans available to choose and the prices are pretty accessible.

As I was travelling alone and I want to enjoy my three days there as much as possible I decided to book prior my travel, since from  the nature of my work you never know with whom of your colleagues you will be travelling to and also if the want to travel and follow your plans.

I decided to book the tour “Hong by Starlight”, the price was $3950 THB (local currency around $130 USD dollars per person). 

I was staying close to the airport in an amazing hotel called Splash Beach Resort, this one have an amazing water park inside where also you can spend the day at.  Finally my tour was about to start... 

The pick up time was around 12:30 - 13:00 depending of the location of your hotel, I was the first one to be picked up, so I had the chance to watch through all the way how the live, the tropical nature and the road itself. You will be picked up in a van and you will be dropped around 13:30 at Ao Po  Pier, where you will find other travellers, that will join you through the journey.  If you are travelling alone as me, don’t worry about it, you will meet amazing solo travellers too.

After boarding the big twin-engine escort boat and had around 40 mins ride, where you will be able to enjoy a typical style Thai light lunch on board and be delighted with the stunning scenery of the ocean and the mountains of the islands, you will arrive to the first one.

Around 14:30 will be exploring 1-2  caves and hongs (lagoon). if you are a Solo traveller as me you will be boarding  next a kayak with and expert kayak driving and you, if you are travelling with your partner both of you will be boarding the kayak together. You will be able to touch the amazing water of the ocean and explore the caves the islands had to offer you. The nature was totally amazing I was completely impressed. You will feel you are in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by water trees and the ocean Itself. it’s going to be around one hours where you can you enjoy and even swim if you like to do it so. 

We return to the boat and when to the send island.

After that, the same instructor who was with you in the kayak will teach you how to make your own Kratong, a Thai tradition where you make a flower bucket to put inside the water in the middle of the ocean at night to pray, thank and ask for Buda‘s help and satisfaction.  We will be waiting for the sunset while watch the stunning view of the sun coming down. On the midtime also we will be surprised with a seafood Thai buffet on board and it will be decorated with our Kratongs!
 

The food was delicious, even there is option for vegetarians if there is anyone who requires it. At this point we will be at Phang Nga bay at sunset and there we will return to Hang island after dark to drop our bucket into the water by kayak.

This moment for me was the most healing and perfect time during the trip. It helped me to let go things that were make me feel sad and anxious through the past months and helped me to find with myself. I felt my soul was completely healed at this exactly moment. I left my worries and pain go with the Kratong into the water.

Now the time to go back to land was arrived. They will take you to the port gain and then drop you back to the hotel around 21:30 -22:00.

If you are in Phuket, this tour is a must you will have to have because you will have everything in just one day. if you don’t have much time as me in town you wont miss anything and if something is missing I will recommend what I did that was to spend the night in a different hotel and in the city itself after this Journey. 

Through the boat tour experience I meet two guys from the U.S that we’re staying in the Lub.d hostel in the downtown of Phuket so in order to enjoy night life in Phuket I decided to spend The night in the city even if I already had my hotel book on the resort close to the airport. 

Lub.d hostel is amazing is a pretty big and spacious place, where you will have the chance to meet people around the world. You can book a bunk or a room for yourself  for around $25.00 usd. The place totally worth it. You will have a pool in the social area where you can spend a good time in the afternoon-night listening music and talking with other solo travellers like we were. Also they have different games to play around the place and the bar is A good option to drink something before going out. They have an special alcohol drink that is huge and it will be good if you can share it with Someone else. 

The people in charge of the hotel will call of the guesses that are around 19-20:00 in the social area to hoping to take a huge picture and the to invite you to a free walking tour around downtown. Is pretty hilarious to see we manage to put everyone together to take the pic and to coordinate the tour.

After we leave the hotel, most of us drinking the huge beverage, we walk to a food street market located at Sawatdirak road where you will be able to enjoy a delicious meal for less that $3.00 usd. My recomendation is to have seafoo, but also you will find some others like chicken or some meet. Please Take the time to walk through tall the market to find the beat place to eat for you. I was amazed by the colours and the shapes of the food. I love it. 

After that you will be able to go to different clubs and also go to the beach and walk for a while. 

Next day I will joyed my day at the Patong beach. Thais is the main beach of Phuket city. It’s quite big and you will feel relaxed and also will be able to enjoy the view. If you want to spend all the afternoon there and stay till sunset, you will be amazed by the colors  reflected in the sky and the ocean. I stay there till night and watch the thousands of starts were the perfect way to end my trip to Phuket for my birthday and of course my long layover because of work.