Thailand - Phuket

This was my favorite place of all, the beautiful beach was steps from the hotel and close to restaurants and shopping.  We were able to schedule tours to ride the elephants, go shooting at the gun range, island hop to gorgeous beaches and wander around town feeling perfectly safe and welcome.  Of all the things there were to do though, my favorite was of course the water, I love the beach and this is what I came here for. There was a bit of a riot and police shooting right before we got there, but it didn’t affect our visit at all.  There was so little violence in Thailand that as a female tourists travelling outside of a group we felt safe wherever we went.

One thing to note is that we went to Thailand by purchasing the trip with a Groupon, it was Air and Land and we opted to book our own activities. The cost for 11 days was $1100 through Gate1 travel and the only thing I would do differently would be reverse the stay. I would have like to spend more time in Phuket and less in Bangkok, as scheduled we only got 3 days in Phuket. I would have like to use this as a stepping off point for Laos or Cambodia too since we were already in Asia, but this was the first trip I took that required a passport, so I didn’t know a whole lot about how it felt to take 26 hours to get to the destination. I would have done it a little differently had I known more.

View from the rooftop deck.

Our trip to Thailand started with a Groupon, we opted to schedule our own tours outside of the group tours offered at a higher price because so many of the tours were to Temples. We wanted to see some, but not so many. One thing that was included was air travel between destinations and transfer from airport to hotels and even with this, sometimes mistakes happen. We were delivered to a Novotel Hotel, but not the one that had reservations for us across from the beach. We as a group of 10 tried to get the Hotel staff to help us out, but ended up getting a cab with a couple from San Francisco to take us to the correct Novotel Hotel. In their defense, by the end of the trip we were reimbursed for the taxi and issued a profuse apology and other than that, all things Gate1 were wonderful. I do want to point out that the hotels were far superior to what I would have booked on our own, I’m more about a local experience and less about western comforts but this was a great experience and I would travel with them again.

Still unsure if I’m morally opposed to this.

Last evening on Patong Beach, I don’t want to go home.

One of the small island beaches we visited, the famous Kho Phi Phi that was shown in the film The Beach, a beautiful, but crowded destination at the time. They have since closed down visits to the beach to allow the coral and ecosystem to recover from so much tourism, I’m so glad we got there before the closure.

Monkey in a tree as we were anchored off shore for snorkeling.

Beautiful, clear water, on a calm beach.

Majestic cliffs over the water.

Residual damage from storms that swept through Thailand October 2014, 1 year before our visit.

More damage of abandoned residences right across the road from the beach front.