5D4N Phuket 2014 - Before Fly, Transport, Stay
Part 1: Flight, transport, stay; Part 2: Patong Explore; Part 3: Raya Island and Coral Island hopping; Part 4: Karon, Kata, Phromthep Cape; Part 5: Phuket Town, Rawai Beach, Part 6: The End
The Phuket trip posts are divided into few sub-categories coz I'm very long-winded!! So many things to tell!!! (I just hope someone out there really cares about what I write heh)
Abbreviation: B = Baht; time stated in this Phuket trip posts is in GMT +7 hours.
Our itinerary:
Day 1:
- stay at Patong Station House, Patong
- Jungceylon Mall, Banzaan Fresh Market, Patong Promenade, Bangla Road
- Makan at Wine Connection, Drink & Food Festival
Day 2:
- Island hopping to Raya Island and Coral Island
Day 3:
-Motorbike ride
- Karon, Kata, Laem Phromthep
- Makan at Myanmar local food, Lobster & Prawn Restaurant Kata
Day 4:
- Motorbike ride
- Phuket Town, Wat Chaithararam, Rawai Beach
- Makan at Boat Noodle, Sea Gypsea@Rawai
Day 5:
- Kata Beach
- Go Home
(General) Expenses: RM1500 aka ~15,000B for 2 person
2800B on hotel; 400B on motorbike rental + 220B on fuel; 800B x 2 on island hopping package; 120B x 4 on two way airport bus transfer; approx 6000B on food.
Before Fly:
The tickets were bought in Feb at the AirAsia Travel Fair in Paradigm Mall, Hon queued almost 2 hours for this!!
He die die wanna keep secret of the destination, so when I asked him, he said "What if I tell you it's Hatyai? Will you mad?" I was like nevermind lah I'm willing to go tian ya hai jiao with you, it's just that my friends here in Perlis will laugh die as it's merely two hours to go to Hatyai from Perlis, yet I had to fly over to KL, then fly to Hatyai and back haha!
The secret was well-kept until two weeks before the trip. He had to spoil the secret coz he needed to discuss to-do list, like accommodation options, island hopping etc.
Once I touched down KL on Friday night, we went to Fahrenheit 88 KL to meet up Hui Pheng, as I had to miss her wedding dinner because of this trip, so meet up as redemption hehe.
Our flight was at 7.25am. When we got ready to go catch the airport bus to KLIA2 (Hon's bro in law sent us), I realized I got out the house in blur. Clumsy me forgot to wear glasses!! So I head back to retrieve the glasses and it was nowhere to be found!! Had to go out in blurry vision as we were running late and there's no time for me to wear contacts. My eyesight were not as serious as some of my friends who are partially blind without their glasses on, but I feel very insecure in blur, so had to hold Hon's hand as tight as possible and followed him closely. Only managed to wear contacts when we walked into the departure hall.
Transport:
1) Airport Transfer by Bus - 120B per pax one way
If you are a carefree person who haven't even book a room for the first night once you touch down at a foreign country, like we did, meaning you have to go to the town by your own instead of airport transfer by the hotel, fret not!!
At the doors of Phuket International Airport international arrival, on the left there's a table acted as a counter and a huge signboard that says 'Airport Bus'. The bus was parked at the left side (the people at the table will point the direction for you), hop on, pay the ticket (120B per pax to Patong) and enjoy the ride.
There was only 10 pax on the bus that day, the bus drove off, stopped at the office-alike place and asked us to switch to the much smaller minivan. Almost 80% of them got down at Phuket Town, a 'US white junk' asked the driver to send him to his apartment next to a golf club nearby Patong beach... and gave merely 20B as tips kedekutnya!! I called him white junk coz of his way of 'yo man I have some Baht here for yo man send me over and I'll give you some Baht man yo' talking Ewww! Summore tried to hit on a China girl who traveled alone LOL.
The bus ride took about 1 hour to Patong and only three pax dropped off at Patong. The bus stopped at Jungceylon Mall, which is a havoc shopping mall and famous landmark in Patong. It is like the centroid of Patong.
The return trip worth some writing.
All the booths and shops on Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi Road (a LOT of them) have this 'airport transfer' service offered, price range between 160B - 200B, mostly pick up from Hotel. On our way to Banzaan Fresh Market, we spotted a red wording signboard opposite the road (along Phangmueang Road) and saw 'Airport bus'.
The bus 'station' is about 50m from Jungceylon Mall. Exiting through the back entrance of the mall, opposite would be the Banzaan, the bus station is of the same side of Banzaan, about 50m away. As you can see from the picture above, the signboard is kinda hidden behind electric poles and whatnot, look out for the bold red words on a white background sign. The bus station faces inward, not outward to the main road. The price is 120B per pax and the person in charge is Mr. Pinit, a very nice and friendly guy.
We had slight communication problem with Mr. Pinit as his English is rather limited, so we couldn't know for sure when did the service start. We assume it is fairly new that nobody knows about it! When we were offered airport transfer service by the booth person, we rejected and told them (the nicer ones lah, others we just ignored and walked off) about this airport bus thingy, and surprisingly, all of them taktau! Or maybe they pretend don't know coz don't want to lose business mah.
Anyway, the service is so obscure, when we went to buy our tickets (and return to change the date), there's only two to three pax on the schedule. On our way back, there's only two of us in the minivan!!
When the 'station' is closed, Mr. Pinit will put a pole in front of the door, writing down his name and contact details. When we bought our tickets, he jotted down his contact number on the name card he gave us. Besides that, he also recommended us a makan place in Rawai beach, belong to his friend! A very very nice guy!
2) Motorbike Rental - 200B per day
According to Hon, Phuket's traffic flow is slightly heavier than Chiang Mai (he been there done that), but, unlike Cambodia and Vietnam etc, Phuket is a motorbike-friendly place in overall, so if you are planning a carefree trip to Phuket, it's highly recommended for you to rent a motorbike and go around. Bicycle is only for those very fit physically and mentally as Phuket, as in 'Bukit', is very hilly.
There are rows and rows of booths and shops to enquire the rental rate, price ranging between 150B - 300B, with different types of motorbikes available to be chose from. The one who offered 150B per day (her motorbikes were in good condition too) asked for passport as guarantee which kinda freak us out and we back off. No way were we to take the risk over a cheaper rate.
We got a deal with the booth nearby our hotel, a lady with a mixed blood boy whose his name skip my mind and a ladyboy who is very funny and nice. The rate was 200B per 24hr and he/she asked for passport OR positive ID, so Hon gave him/her his expired driving license.
The motorbike is in rather good condition but the fuel consumption is high. There are stalls and shops selling bottled gasoline/petrol for 30B - 50B, they put it in a glass alcohol bottle and it's only about 700ml. The content is the same but different stalls have different pricing donno why. We refueled three bottles of 40B ones (overall 120B, but only about 2L) and it was just enough for 47km. It almost hit the bottom of the fuel tank by the time we got back to our hotel on our motorbike ride.
On the next day, we head to Phuket Town and refueled 100B at Shell, the rate was 30.43B per litre so we got around 3.3L, and it was enough for almost 70km of our road trip! If only we knew earlier that there's a Caltex slightly outside of Patong we wouldn't have wasted our money on the bottles ones, spent more for less fuel.
Stay:
Once we hopped off the bus at Jungceylon Mall, the first mission was to look for place to stay. We walked in and out of several hotels, price ranging between 600B - 3000B, one fully booked, some no WiFi in the room, some with nice room but construction going on at the side, and we finally settled at....
For the three four nights of our stay, we stayed at Patong Station House which is right opposite of very pinky and huge Christin Massage parlor (I Googled and turns out this Christin place is the BEST naughty massage in Phuket!! - Hon kinda regretted he knew this too late). This lane has a few very uniquely designed boutique hotels, although looked kinda shabby based on the rain-stained walls and rusty aircond. At the end of the lane is a high rise Patong Heritage Hotel.
The owner is an India Indian who speaks fluent Thai and English. The rate was 800B per night and we got it at 700B per night for three(?) nights. The owner die die don't wanna discount another 100B for us =/ (If you wonder what's up with the three nights instead of four, stay tune, story up soon)
P/S: while copying the picture's URL, it stated there that from 1 May til 30 October 700B per room jilakat kena con! -_-
The room was clean and spacious, spacious enough for us to hang dry our laundry. Laying on the bed, besides TV and the window facing outside, on the other side is the glass window of the bathroom, as in the picture, but if you beh tahan the sight of your fatty other half taking shower or you feel shy, you can always roll down the curtain from the inside LOL. The TV has about 80 channels, but no worries, only 90% of the channels are Thai, there's CI, Discovery, Bio etc the non-Thai ones to watch.
I find the location of the hotel is very convenient. It is in a decent walking distance to Jungceylon Mall (200m); quite a distance from the ever famous and havoc Bangla Road so we could enjoy the quiet night; restaurants, bars and convenience stores are in reachable distance, it was great! The comfy bed and pillows are bonus!
Patong Station House
205/3-4 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Rd., T.Patong A.Kathu Patong Beach 83150, Thailand
The Phuket trip posts are divided into few sub-categories coz I'm very long-winded!! So many things to tell!!! (I just hope someone out there really cares about what I write heh)
Abbreviation: B = Baht; time stated in this Phuket trip posts is in GMT +7 hours.
Our itinerary:
Day 1:
- stay at Patong Station House, Patong
- Jungceylon Mall, Banzaan Fresh Market, Patong Promenade, Bangla Road
- Makan at Wine Connection, Drink & Food Festival
Day 2:
- Island hopping to Raya Island and Coral Island
Day 3:
-Motorbike ride
- Karon, Kata, Laem Phromthep
- Makan at Myanmar local food, Lobster & Prawn Restaurant Kata
Day 4:
- Motorbike ride
- Phuket Town, Wat Chaithararam, Rawai Beach
- Makan at Boat Noodle, Sea Gypsea@Rawai
Day 5:
- Kata Beach
- Go Home
(General) Expenses: RM1500 aka ~15,000B for 2 person
2800B on hotel; 400B on motorbike rental + 220B on fuel; 800B x 2 on island hopping package; 120B x 4 on two way airport bus transfer; approx 6000B on food.
The tickets were bought in Feb at the AirAsia Travel Fair in Paradigm Mall, Hon queued almost 2 hours for this!!
He die die wanna keep secret of the destination, so when I asked him, he said "What if I tell you it's Hatyai? Will you mad?" I was like nevermind lah I'm willing to go tian ya hai jiao with you, it's just that my friends here in Perlis will laugh die as it's merely two hours to go to Hatyai from Perlis, yet I had to fly over to KL, then fly to Hatyai and back haha!
The secret was well-kept until two weeks before the trip. He had to spoil the secret coz he needed to discuss to-do list, like accommodation options, island hopping etc.
Once I touched down KL on Friday night, we went to Fahrenheit 88 KL to meet up Hui Pheng, as I had to miss her wedding dinner because of this trip, so meet up as redemption hehe.
Our flight was at 7.25am. When we got ready to go catch the airport bus to KLIA2 (Hon's bro in law sent us), I realized I got out the house in blur. Clumsy me forgot to wear glasses!! So I head back to retrieve the glasses and it was nowhere to be found!! Had to go out in blurry vision as we were running late and there's no time for me to wear contacts. My eyesight were not as serious as some of my friends who are partially blind without their glasses on, but I feel very insecure in blur, so had to hold Hon's hand as tight as possible and followed him closely. Only managed to wear contacts when we walked into the departure hall.
Transport:
1) Airport Transfer by Bus - 120B per pax one way
If you are a carefree person who haven't even book a room for the first night once you touch down at a foreign country, like we did, meaning you have to go to the town by your own instead of airport transfer by the hotel, fret not!!
At the doors of Phuket International Airport international arrival, on the left there's a table acted as a counter and a huge signboard that says 'Airport Bus'. The bus was parked at the left side (the people at the table will point the direction for you), hop on, pay the ticket (120B per pax to Patong) and enjoy the ride.
 |
| All excited on the first day =D |
The bus ride took about 1 hour to Patong and only three pax dropped off at Patong. The bus stopped at Jungceylon Mall, which is a havoc shopping mall and famous landmark in Patong. It is like the centroid of Patong.
 |
| Jungceylon Mall -- arrived too early not yet open |
The return trip worth some writing.
All the booths and shops on Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi Road (a LOT of them) have this 'airport transfer' service offered, price range between 160B - 200B, mostly pick up from Hotel. On our way to Banzaan Fresh Market, we spotted a red wording signboard opposite the road (along Phangmueang Road) and saw 'Airport bus'.
 |
| The bus station is where the yellow arrow pointed at |
We had slight communication problem with Mr. Pinit as his English is rather limited, so we couldn't know for sure when did the service start. We assume it is fairly new that nobody knows about it! When we were offered airport transfer service by the booth person, we rejected and told them (the nicer ones lah, others we just ignored and walked off) about this airport bus thingy, and surprisingly, all of them taktau! Or maybe they pretend don't know coz don't want to lose business mah.
Anyway, the service is so obscure, when we went to buy our tickets (and return to change the date), there's only two to three pax on the schedule. On our way back, there's only two of us in the minivan!!
 |
| ...while the driver took 5 minutes for puff break |
2) Motorbike Rental - 200B per day
According to Hon, Phuket's traffic flow is slightly heavier than Chiang Mai (he been there done that), but, unlike Cambodia and Vietnam etc, Phuket is a motorbike-friendly place in overall, so if you are planning a carefree trip to Phuket, it's highly recommended for you to rent a motorbike and go around. Bicycle is only for those very fit physically and mentally as Phuket, as in 'Bukit', is very hilly.
There are rows and rows of booths and shops to enquire the rental rate, price ranging between 150B - 300B, with different types of motorbikes available to be chose from. The one who offered 150B per day (her motorbikes were in good condition too) asked for passport as guarantee which kinda freak us out and we back off. No way were we to take the risk over a cheaper rate.
We got a deal with the booth nearby our hotel, a lady with a mixed blood boy whose his name skip my mind and a ladyboy who is very funny and nice. The rate was 200B per 24hr and he/she asked for passport OR positive ID, so Hon gave him/her his expired driving license.
 |
| Our 烈火战车 for two days |
On the next day, we head to Phuket Town and refueled 100B at Shell, the rate was 30.43B per litre so we got around 3.3L, and it was enough for almost 70km of our road trip! If only we knew earlier that there's a Caltex slightly outside of Patong we wouldn't have wasted our money on the bottles ones, spent more for less fuel.
Stay:
Once we hopped off the bus at Jungceylon Mall, the first mission was to look for place to stay. We walked in and out of several hotels, price ranging between 600B - 3000B, one fully booked, some no WiFi in the room, some with nice room but construction going on at the side, and we finally settled at....
 |
| Picture grabbed from their FB |
The owner is an India Indian who speaks fluent Thai and English. The rate was 800B per night and we got it at 700B per night for three(?) nights. The owner die die don't wanna discount another 100B for us =/ (If you wonder what's up with the three nights instead of four, stay tune, story up soon)
P/S: while copying the picture's URL, it stated there that from 1 May til 30 October 700B per room jilakat kena con! -_-
The room was clean and spacious, spacious enough for us to hang dry our laundry. Laying on the bed, besides TV and the window facing outside, on the other side is the glass window of the bathroom, as in the picture, but if you beh tahan the sight of your fatty other half taking shower or you feel shy, you can always roll down the curtain from the inside LOL. The TV has about 80 channels, but no worries, only 90% of the channels are Thai, there's CI, Discovery, Bio etc the non-Thai ones to watch.
 |
| No ladyboy please |
Patong Station House
205/3-4 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Rd., T.Patong A.Kathu Patong Beach 83150, Thailand
Comments
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Phuket Airport Transfer