Phuket and a day exploring Phang Nga Bay

We took the ferry from Ao Nang to Phuket. It left late in the afternoon, took about two hours and arrived in Phuket at 5:30pm. Phuket was not our first choice of destinations in Thailand. We had really wanted to get to Ko Samui,  Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Lanta, etc., but  due to our time constraints,  the fact that airplane tickets out of Phuket were much cheaper than from other places, and we didn’t end up with enough time to take the train/ferry, we decided on Phuket. We’d heard some really great things and some not so great things. But it’s a beautiful Thai island, albeit a huge one, so we were still excited to spend time on the beach and take in the amazing scenery. 

Our first impression was total chaos. We rode in a van from the ferry to Karon through, or near, Phuket Town during rush hour, and everything seemed to move very fast, except for the traffic, which moved incredibly slowly. Motorcycles and scooters are everywhere in Phuket, more so even than what we witnessed in Bangkok or Ao Nang. We saw a baby elephant in the back of a pickup truck. Not a sight we see every day at home. It took us a second to realize that it was, in fact, an elephant in the back of the truck. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture. It took about an hour to get to our hotel in Karon. We chose Karon mainly because we read the beach was amazing and that it was quieter and less crazy than Patong. 

The view of Karon from our hotel balcony

We wandered around and found a good place for dinner the first night near our hotel. We spent the entire second day on Karon’s beautiful beach. Since we were still in Thailand in April, it was still unbearably hot. The beach has beach chairs with umbrellas that line the entire length of the beach. An umbrella was necessary with the sun beating down on the sand, as were shoes unless in the water because I think the hot sand might have seared the skin off the bottom of our feet if we’d have tried it barefoot. We knew it cost money to rent the chairs but didn’t know who or how to pay for them. We walked up to a set of chairs and put our stuff down and immediately there was a young guy there to take our money. It wasn’t very much, maybe a dollar or two for the day and again, totally necessary. We lounged on the beach all day only leaving for a quick lunch break. Being in the shade of the umbrella made it possible to read our books for 20 minutes at a time before taking solace in the water. The water off of Karon Beach was much cooler than it had been in Railay. It was actually refreshing. The waves were mild, consistent and relaxing. It was like sitting in a giant wave pool except it was the ocean, and we had the amazing coast of Thailand as our view. (I have read other blog posts/articles about the dangerous rip tides than can be present at Karon Beach, making it very dangerous for swimming. The one day we were on the beach, there were yellow flags and just being cautious and not swimming far out was enough to be safe, though following all flag warnings is a must.) It was the best beach day for us in Thailand and made the entire trip to Phuket worth it. 

Karon Beach is very long and spacious, and it never felt crowded.

Sunset on Karon Beach

 

Big Buddha from Karon Beach

That night we took a cab to Patong. The cabs and tuk-tuks are very expensive in Phuket, unlike the rest of the Thailand where they are incredibly cheap. They call it the “taxi mafia,” and because of this organized group of drivers, metered rides are almost nonexistent, especially if you don’t speak Thai. The rates are pretty pricey. We did not want to pay the roundtrip cost to go to Patong but we felt like going to Phuket and not getting a glance of Patong was like going to Vegas and not seeing the strip. So we paid the money (can’t remember exactly how much it was, maybe $15 one way? And it’s only a 10 minute ride) and spent a few hours taking in the Patong nightlife. It is as crazy as I expected it to be. I would never want to stay in Patong, it’s dirtier and much louder than Karon, but if partying is the main reason for the visit to Phuket, Patong is the place to stay. 

A glimpse of Patong nightlife

We enjoyed staying in Karon and loved our hotel there as well.

The next day we did an all day tour to Phang Nga Bay. The Tour included a pick up from the hotel and then it was about an hour drive to the place where the boats are docked. The group tour (there were about 15-20 people for each of two boats) included visits to a number of islands in the bay. We stopped at Panak Island, toured the Ice Cream Cave, and visited Hong Island. We were able to stop and get off the boat a few times including the visit to James Bond Island and Khao Ping Kan. It was very beautiful, but there were hoards of people trying to walk both directions on the very narrow trail around the island, so this was by far my least favorite stop. We canoed at Talu Island. Each canoe had a guide, which was nice since he knew exactly where he was going and we were able to focus on taking pictures. Our guide was extremely bossy and made us take a million cheesy posed pictures such as putting our hands together to make a heart and making us pretend to do the canoeing. Although nice, he was very insistent and clearly fishing for a big tip and could not understand that not all couples would love his picture poses. We did most of what he told us to do just to appease him and tipped him well anyway. At least it makes for a good story. We had lunch at the floating Panyee Island. It is incredibly picturesque there. At the end of the day, we had an hour to relax at Lawa Island. It was a long and mercilessly hot day, but we enjoyed the tour and would recommend it as a way to explore Phang-Nga Bay, which really was gorgeous. Since we’d wanted to see many more of the Andaman coast islands than we were able to, this outing gave us a chance to explore a little, and that made the tour more than worth it. 

Lawa Island was peaceful, private and, since I’m running out of words to describe the landscape, simply beautiful.

The area where the villagers live in Koh Panyee is held above the sea by stilts.

Phang-Nga Bay was gorgeous from every viewpoint.

The next day, we took a taxi to the airport (1200 Baht), which took an hour from Karon, and flew on Tiger Airways to Singapore. The world is full of so many amazing places that we’ve not yet been, but hopefully we can get back to Thailand to be able to explore the many islands we missed and take a trip to Chiang Mai, which we heard was a little cooler, calmer and more scenic than Bangkok. We’re looking forward to our next visit!