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Published: February 28th 2008
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The flight arrived into KL on time and our connecting flight out to Phuket was also on time all went very smoothly. The flight into Phuket was great as it was mid afternoon and we passed over Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley that we had visited last March. They looked beautiful from the air. The airport at Phuket is literally next to the sea and the landing was weird as you get very low to the shore, we could see all the jelly fish. We collected our luggage and set of to get a taxi, we had already pre-booked our accommodation through the internet. This was our first realisation that taxi's are not cheap in Phuket the local driver wanted 400 baht (62=1GBP) which was very excessive as we knew we were only staying a 10 minute drive away maximum. We opted for the metered taxi service which did have a 20 minute wait but was only 170 baht. After the driver got a little lost and had to phone our hotel we eventually arrived. We had decided to stay on Nai Yang beach which is much further north than the more touristy beaches. We had read on the
internet that the area was quiet and beaches very good.
Our hotel the Seapines was lovely one of the nicest rooms we have had so far and the staff were very welcoming. Set back off the beach you had to walk through the large hotel complex to get to the beach but that wasn't a problem. The area is certainly quiet with a lot of small shops and eateries not even looking open during the day. They are all collected on the beach front and each place has it's own sunbeds. After Vietnam and Cambodia arriving in Thailand was expensive which was to be expected. Food is always cheap but drinks were double the prices we had been paying.
The following day we headed off for the beach and decided to explore around the next bay which from our guide book said it was the start of the national park. The beach was beautiful but the sea was very rough and after taking a swim Tim did say he was concerned there was strong under current. All of the information for Phuket does warn of under currents and that a few tourist are drowned each year for not
being aware. We settled down on our beach blanket we have had with us since Goa but decided it was silly when we had a very quiet pool area at our hotel and free sunbeds. The beach guys were charging 200 baht a day for two sunbeds which was not too bad but it all adds up.
So we headed back to our hotel where no-one was using the pool area and we had it to ourselves. We had not paid for our room on check in so Tim decided to go and pay and get it out of the way. It was then that the lady informed us the price we had been given on the internet was a low season price and we were paying 1200 baht instead of 1800. This also included a very hearty breakfast. She said she would honour the price and it must have just been a mistake on the web. We had both said how lovely the place was and how cheap it seemed for everything that was available - we now knew why!! We had booked 5 nights here although we had 11 days before our flight out. We were slightly
kicking ourselves at this point!!
Sitting by the pool everyday was great although the hotel had a lot of people staying they all opted for the beach so we had the pool to ourselves all day every day - for free!!!!! Tim gets a little restless at times so one morning he took himself off for a walk. I was heavily into a book about the children of Cambodia that lived through the Khmer Rouge so stayed by the pool. He came back two hours later completely drenched in sweat you could have rung his shorts out. In the heat of the midday sun he had decided to walk through the hills to the next bay. When he showed me from the road where he had been it was no wonder he was knackered!!!! We also indulged in watching a local football tournament one afternoon. The pitch was across from our hotel and from the pool areas we could see them setting up. Every day at 2pm loud music started and they even had a commentator which was unusual. At the time we did not realise it was a tournament and could not work out how they found a
Local bar on Nai Yang beach
Check out their advertising on the left team to play every day. The afternoon we went to watch was scorching hot, how these lads run round in the heat is pretty impressive. It was a good laugh and we both enjoyed it.
One night there was a small storm completely unexpected and the rain poured down. We could not see a star in the sky but when the lightening came it lit them up like someone switching on a light. We spent an age trying to get this on camera and got quite a few good shots. We love a good storm and it was great watching the lightening crack across the dark sky. Another free evenings entertainment!!
Nai Yang itself was a little too quiet the beaches were nice but the options of where to eat limited. As we had already been to some very remote places we were looking for a bit more life. We literally stayed in our hotel and used the facilities there to save money. Our budget was 20 GBP a day but when you consider that we both like the odd beer, sunbed prices, water and soft drinks and evening meal we were not going to get very far
with the local restaurant prices. We checked out the local shops and found everything much cheaper, almost half the price. So we just bought what we wanted and took it back to the hotel where we had a fridge in our room. We also had a really nice decking area outside our room so we would sit there in the evening playing cards and enjoying the odd beer!!!
We enjoyed good food at the little restaurants Tim indulged in the Thia green curry which was very nice and I tried the red curry. We were asked how spicy we liked our food and as Tim can eat anything he went for 100%, I went for 50% and quite literally it tore the inside of my mouth out. I have never eaten anything so hot and it was a real effort to get it down. I felt I had to eat it though as the guy kept coming over asking if it was good and I didn't want to tell him it was way too hot. I gave up when my lips went numb but there wasn't much left by then!!!!!
We did try to see if the lady
would do us a deal to stay a little longer as it really was a very nice place but to be fair to her she wanted full price and 1200 baht was our full budget so we checked out the local buses and paid a very little amount to move further south to Kata beach which was a more touristy area. Again the local taxis wanted a small fortune to take us there. We also hoped that more competition would bring the prices down a little bit.
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mariah
non-member comment
those stars are SO amazing!