Sawadee Ka! 🙂
This is my entry for my recent trip to Thailand (2 months in the making!) It was end of March when I received a notification from Jetstar that they’ll be having a 3-day promotions to some certain destinations. I immediately checked on their website, and to my surprise, they do have! (minsan kasi paasa lang din, at first you’ll see it is cheaper than the regular fare but if you continue with the booking, you’ll end up almost the same price as the regular, just a $40-$60 cheaper) That time, I saw their lowest base fare ever. Just S$2.72 for a one way base fare. I seriously freaked out that time that I chatted my friends here if they wanted to go for some vacation (lol we just came from Maldives last Feb which caused us a leg, literally. :P) We were choosing between Bali, Bangkok or Phuket, but most available dates have only few seats left (and we’re 5pax btw). Good thing, after almost an hour of searching (I was currently in the office that time :P) I found a perfect flight that suited all our schedules! And the ticket just cost S$70.00!! Yeah you read it right, just S$70.00! Around Php 2,500.00 for a round trip ticket? who would have second thought of this? It was my cheapest ticket ever! Before, I thought my S$140.00 RT ticket to Vietnam was the cheapest I could get, and now I have this high standard when you say cheap ticket. haha!
So to cut the long story short, a month prior to our trip, we started to search for some good quality hotels that are somehow cheaper than the normal. We came across 2 hotels we found in AirBnB. One is a 2 storey villa with 3 rooms, 3 bathrooms and a kitchen for THB 7500.00/2 nights (sorry I forgot the name of the place and the link in AirBnB) And the other one is Baan Laimai Beach Resort for THB 6,240.00/night (for 4 rooms)
Fast forward to the day of our departure —–> We were totally not prepared for this trip, we haven’t had our money changed to thai baht as we were all busy working 😛 There are money changer inside Changi Airport but we were not sure if the rate is higher than in Phuket. The rate is THB 24.6=S$1 so I decided to change half of my pocket money, just to find out that exchange rate in Phuket is better (THB 25.16 = SG$1.00) I was able to exchange my SG$400.00 pocket money for THB 9,952.00 in total.
For our first day activity, we were able to book an Island day tour with PhuketSRCTravel for THB 1800.00. I highly recommend this travel agency, they have the cheapest package and friendly/accommodating owner and staff!
By the way, my companions in this trip were (L-R) Kuya Derek, Ate Lilian, Ben, Win John plus (not in the pic) Ate Van, Ate Joyce and Kuya Jerwin.
20 August 2016 – Day 0
It was a smooth 2-hour flight from Singapore to Phuket and we arrived past 21:00H local time.
It took us an hour to get to our villa. Ang layo lang!
21 August 2016 – Day 1
Good morning Phuket! Nakumpleto din kami sa isang picture. (L-R) Kuya Derek, Ate Lilian, Kuya Jerwin, Ate Joyce, me, Ate Van, Win John and Ben 🙂
It was a 30-min drive from our hotel to Royal Phuket Marina. We were scheduled for Phi Phi Island – Maya Bay – Khai Island for the whole day.
Our first stop was Phi Phi Don Island, which is an hour from Phuket. We instantly fell in love with what we saw next. It was like we were in El Nido, Palawan, the rock formations and crystal clear water is almost the same.
Let me share you my unfiltered photos ❤
After hours of cruising Phi Phi Don, we stopped by for lunch. They offered buffet lunch with thai cuisine and a couple of western dishes. I helped myself with these:
The view is also fascinating from the island where we had our lunch
We continued to cruise the waters of Phuket and our next destination was Phi Phi Leh Island. Maya Bay to be exact. Pictures along the way —->
Maya Bay, as expected, has emerald green crystal clear waters and beautiful white powdery beach. Almost as perfect as Maldives and the beaches in the Philippines (honestly speaking!)
After an hour of fooling in the beach (my GoPro almost got lost here haha!) we went to our last destination. Almost an hour of travel, we arrived to the equally beautiful island of Khai Nai.
Nothing is better than a fresh mango shake and grilled corn cob with a heavenly view.
I got the chance to take a photo with our energetic tour guide (forgot her name). Khob Khun ka! (thank you)
After the tiring yet fun filled island hopping, we searched for a place to have dinner.
Shout out to the kind and accommodating owner and staff of PhuketSRC, we stopped by to pay for our activity the following morning.
We had our late dinner and finally had a taste of an authentic thai food (spicy!)
They say your trip to Phuket is not complete if you had not experience some fun night out. Where else, but Bangla Road! It is famous for its neon lights, loud music, cheap beer and sexy girls.
Prostitution is indeed open in Phuket. Just by walking along the streets, you can see girls or maybe trans (difficult to tell, seriously) dancing in a pole (open bars).
Others are offering for some nasty sexy show. And I really mean nasty, never thought this show is for real.
We walked along the Bangla road in search for a cheap bar with good music and we came across this bar with Filipino band 🙂
To sum it all, I had the most incredible first day in Phuket! Budget breakdown as follow:
Airfare: S$70.00 RT ticket Singapore-Phuket
Villa: THB 7,250.00 for 2 nights /7 pax = THB 1,035.00
Airport transfer: THB 1,100.00 / 8 Pax = THB 125.00
1st day bfast: THB 50.00 / Pax
Whole day island hopping: THB 1,800.00 including lunch (c/o Phuket SRC)
Snack at Khai Nai Island: THB 25.00 (corn)
THB 150.00 (mango shake)
THB 75.00 (hammock fee)
Dinner at Wok : THB 381.00 /pax
Beers : 1040 / 7pax = THB 149.00
Tuktuk (minivan) from Bangla Road to Villa : THB 64.00 / pax
TOTAL EXPENSES FOR DAY 1: THB 2,694.00
TOTAL FOR HOTEL+TRANSFER : THB 1,160.00
