Phuket,Thailand
So we booked our flight to Phuket mid trip, I kinda wish we did it sooner because I believe we could of saved at least 100, but the flights were super trip if you think about it, only 160 bucks for each person to fly across the country. When looking at the site when booking the flights it completely throws you off as an American because everything is in Thai baht, so it said our flights were 4,960$ Baht. Haha crazy right?
So off we go from Chiang Mai to Phuket. The flight was only 3.5 hours long. When we arrived it was late at night and as soon as we walked off the flight it just a short walk to your bags and out the door of the Airport. Then boom, taxi companies are in your face like paparazzi trying to get you to buy a cab with their company, we literally could barely walk through. Jeremy asked a few guys how much and they were all pretty much the same, and EXTREMELY expensive compared to the other two areas of Thailand we were. Chiang Mai cabs were MAX 150 Baht, in Phuket they were saying it would cost us minimum 800 baht per person! We had no choice so we did it... now you're probably thinking dang Cena you are so cheap, but believe me when you get use to paying 1 dollar for a cab you don't want to pay 25 dollars for one.
We take the cab, which is actually a big scary van that they shoved a load of people in. Jeremy and I were scared and the guy was going extremely fast, AGAIN, whats up with these taxi drivers. Did I mention there is NEVER any seat belts in these cabs. Two random stops and a couple curvy mountains later we arrive at our hotel in Patong beach, Phuket. So many people told us to stay in Patong because it had a lot of nightlife and was touristy. It was definitely that, but i think Jeremy and I were wanting something a little more peaceful and beachy for the end of our trip. We were a bit disappointed in our place automatically and here are the reasons why:
- they lied and said our hotel was next to the beach
-the lady walked us to our room and it had three locks on the door and told us its important to lock all three so nobody breaks in, um ok?
-our room wasn't clean, I wont go into detail.
The room was aweful. It didn't help that I was uncomfortable and couldn't wait to book a different room and Jeremy had an event going on at home, he wasn't there for and was having anxiety about all night and didn't get any sleep. Next morning we woke up and booked a new hotel in Cape Panwa, Phuket.
It was a long drive to Cape Panwa. Its almost at the tip of Phuket which is pretty much the tip of Thailand. The room wasn't that expensive, it was as nice at our first hotel in Bangkok. It sat right on the beach. We were treated like King and Queen, our room was huge! We stayed at By the Sea Hotel.
When we first got there we went to the back of the hotel and there was the swimming pool and a restaurant that was literally on the beach, just walk over three steps and boom your on the beach. There were a few beach chairs and a couple feet away there was the water.
We left and went into the city the first day because the city of Phuket was about 40 minutes from where our hotel was, there was nothing really around us just a few more hotels and about 4 restaurants. We got dropped off at the Phuket Mall, well this mall should be called the mall of desserts, because literally every couple stores there was some kind of dessert you could buy, which is heaven to me! We did a little bit of shopping for desserts and then headed back to the hotel. When we got back we went down to the beach and something was different, the tide went so far out, it looked crazy! so we took a few cool pictures of it.
The mall of desserts ^^
That night we walked the beach and explored to see our options for what was around us. We noticed there were a ton of designs in the sand, they were super cool but we were curious as to how they got there. Eventually we saw these things popping down in holes and moving all over the sand that were CRABS! and they were the same color of the sand or clear? SCARY! I hate creepy crawlers. They were everywhere, all different sizes we even saw HUGE ones that were as big as the ones we eat.
To be honest we didn't do much but be lazy and eat while we were there, we got massages and mostly laid by the beach relaxing, Cape Panwa is very quiet and we really liked that.
One of the Nights we were walking the beach when the tide was down and heard a crackling noise in the muddy sand where the water use to be. Jeremy and I tried throwing rocks in the mud to see if we saw anything move, we looked super close but couldn't see much and possibly because it was getting dark. We ended up walking down the beach to a restaurant and stopping to eat. When we were there we saw someone out there with a bucket and a flashlight looking for something, so we asked one of the workers what the man was looking for and the man told us prawns. The restaurant we were at had a large portion of prawns on their menu. I guess when the tide gets low the little shrimp get caught in the sand and thats where they catch them. Nothing like a fresh meal!!
Haha
The restaurants on the beach at night
Cutest little boy who decided to come play phone games with jeremy while he got a massage.
Every night we ate at all the different restaurants on the beach including our hotels which was really nice. Since they were all outside we got eaten alive by all the mosquitos. Before going to Thailand I read about bringing repellant because of the mosquitos being so bad there and people can catch things there from them. Well we really had no problem with the bugs till Phuket, Jeremy and I were both so over the bugs, crabs and mosquito bites by our last day.
We were in Phuket for 4 days, on our last day there we booked a tour to the James Bond Island. The tour included seeing monkey caves, a long tail boat ride through Phang Nga Bay, where we ate lunch then headed to James Bond Island, after the island we then transferred onto these canoe rafts where we explored caves. To get into some of the caves we had to lay down flat in our raft to enter through. it was pretty crazy. One of the caves I got scared because my face was so close and there were worms crawling on them. When I laid back if I were to look up while going under the cave I was sick but if I looked forward it wasn't as scary, but actually really cool. There were guys actually paddling the raft for us which we totally didn't expect, we thought we would have to do it ourselves, which we kind of wanted to. A few of the guys around us were saying how beautiful I was and that I looked like a Thai woman. Jeremy got a little jealous, if you ask him he will tell you all the things they were saying to me. I actually got that several times in Thailand, that I looked like I was Thai, I even had a woman talk to me in Thai while I was there because she didn't think I was a tourist. So if I adopt a baby from there some day then he/she and I might end up looking pretty similar :)
Pretty much every day in Phuket it was gloomy but still hot and it rained a little each day, we got pretty lucky it didn't rain our whole tour till the very end on the boat ride back, it poured down on us pretty hard.
Phuket was definitely beautiful. A little bit more pricey, which was okay, we just didn't expect it. We said if we ever go back or to another country with Islands and beach we would stay at an all inclusive place like we did for our honeymoon.
Jeremy and I feel extremely thankful and lucky we were able to take a trip half way across the world to Thailand, we have such busy lives and work our butts off all year long so we can enjoy such a nice vacation like this. It was definitely an adventure. Everyone has asked us where our favorite place was there and we would both tell you Chiang Mai in a second. We will definitely go back and we would love to live there someday. The vibe is so different there, everyone is so peaceful and nice. Not to mention it didnt seem touristy at all even though we did the most tourist things there. We really love to travel, it opens our eyes up to all the things we have and take advantage of, it makes us appreciate things and people. When I was in thailand I realized its not as easy for other people in different countries to travel like we are able to. It would take someone who lives in Thailand a lifetime to be able to save to come to America. We are so thankful to have met all the people we did and learn about the Thai culture. This will definitely be one of my all time favorite trips! Im so happy I have my husband by my side on vacations like these because not only is he a blast but we are both pretty dang adventurous!
Some things I don't think I've mentioned yet :
*** There is a picture of Thailand's King and sometimes Queen on every major street corner and in front of most businesses.
*** On our last tour we had lunch and they said it was authentic Thai food, but Jeremy and I had been in thailand long enough to know that it was definitely not authentic thai food, it was kind of a disappointment.
*** On our tour we met a couple from South Africa, Italy and Pakinstan. What a mix right?
***By the time we reached Phuket our hotels were always offering continental breakfast and had the option of regular american coffee or thai coffee, Jeremy and I would always choose Thai coffee. In fact I'm missing thai coffee badly.
***I would say the best thing we ate in Thailand would have to be Pad Thai. We had it more than 3 times.
Thanks for reading all my long blogs about our time in Thailand!! Hopefully this is helpful information for anyone who wants to travel there someday!
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