Thailand. there are so many beautiful places in the world.
Once upon a time, now, it seems for a long time, one did not even dream of this “remote country”. We traveled half of Europe by car, were in the Canary Islands and the Maldives, in Egypt several times. But Tai seemed incomprehensible and out of reach ...And if everything was calm in Egypt, we would hardly have gathered there.
If you ask yourself the question: what scared you so much? First of all, not knowledge: another culture, somewhere at the end of the world…, far away, from St. Petersburg, 11-hour flight…
Well, be that as it may, the idea of a vacation appeared, and I began to prepare for it.
When traveling and on vacation, however, as in life, it is first important to set goals and define tasks: what do you want most of all. We decided that we want to see beautiful nature, snorkeling and diving is also a must. The group was also determined: me and my husband, our eldest son with a girlfriend and my dad. In general, the group, as you understand, is very diverse in age. And I wanted to relax so that everyone would like it.
For grandfather, peace and quiet, for young people the opportunity for shopping and variety, but for us, a little bit of both.
Humanity has come up with a great blessing: it is the Internet. All possible sites with reviews of tourists about travel and hotels, as well as sites of major tour operators in Thailand, were slid down.
Separately, I note booking. com and sayamatravel. com. On the first site you can read the reviews of tourists, and in general we have been using it for a long time to book hotels, and on the second site there are even video stories about many hotels, as well as descriptions of excursions and specific regions of Thailand.
So, trying to combine the incompatible, three regions were left for consideration: Phuket, Krabi and the Phi Phi Islands (or Phi Phi, I still did not understand how to correctly).
A plane from St. Petersburg flies to Phuket or Bangkok, a long transfer to Krabi, and even after an 11-hour flight ....In general, Krabi for permanent residence has disappeared. We hoped to get there on a tour.
Phuket seemed a little busier than we would have liked. The islands remain...
Phi Phi region includes 5 islands
, and only two of them have the names of Phi Phi Le,
and the only inhabited inhabited island of Phi Phi Don.
Now we need to choose a hotel. Our gaze settled on the Bay Vew Resort. I was attracted to it: 1- accommodation is not in the rooms of large hotels, but in separate houses - "villas", 2- not in the center and not far from it, you can by boat, you can also walk. Almost all other hotels located not in the center have very difficult access by land, and every time it seemed to take a boat to take a strain
Well, the time has come to book a hotel. Not themselves, through a tour operator, sent a request for 3 standard villas (it's cheaper, but the price matters to us), and began to wait. This is where the miracles began. If there are rooms of this category in booking. com two numbers out of three were rejected. They offered rooms of a higher category of a deluxe villa.
I did not want to give up this hotel, and there was a chance that the children would be confirmed the number, they agreed to change, but now they have already taken one villa for three. They began to wait again. The changed order was confirmed almost immediately, but the children did not receive any refusal or consent. After 3 days, and as you understand, the prepayment has already been made, the plane is reserved, the mood is combative, a refusal came to the room for my son. They immediately sent a request for a deluxe room, waited another two days ...and were refused. When asked how we are traveling as a family, and why they consider requests this way, our travel agent only shrugged her shoulders and showed records on the computer that the group was family. By the way, I want to say that we bought vouchers in the St. Petersburg company London Club Travel. It's not my first time with them. There have never been any problems, and it seems to me that the girls work honestly and conscientiously.
Returning to the order, we were offered a room of an even higher category: grand de luxe. To be honest, gritting our hearts and finances, we agreed. But the soul was warmed by such concepts as de luxe and grand de luxe.
It remains to choose an intercept hotel in Phuket. But I didn't really bother with that at all. We chose the hotel By The Sea.
Well, now it was possible to make an approximate schedule. Having strongly discussed with my son about the saturation of the rest with impressions, I decided to pick up possible excursions, and then what happens. I found a lot of interesting things, contacted via Skype with Russian guides in Phuket, however, looking ahead, I will say that I never had to use their services.
The day of departure has come. We flew from St. Petersburg to Phuket with Transaero. She, as always, was on top. Very convenient evening departure and morning arrival to Phuket. 11 hours of flight, contrary to expectations, passed without tension.
Upon arrival, we were met by the Biblio-Globus tour operator, who hung wonderful beads of natural flowers for us. A trifle, but how nice. We wore them all day.
Upon arrival, you are given one free SIM card per number, there is some money on it to be enough for the first time, for example, to contact the company manager. You are also given one Biblio-Globus backpack per room, which contains all the necessary documentation: a map of Phuket, phone numbers of company managers, phone numbers of governing bodies, information about free and paid excursions. They are immediately taken to the bus and taken to the hotel.
Yes, I did not note that a transfer to Phi Phi is immediately impossible. So upon arrival and departure, respectively, we had to stay in Phuket for one night.
Transfer to our hotel was 1.5 hours. This is understandable, it is located on the opposite end of the island from the airport. According to the documents, check-in, as elsewhere, after 14 hours. We were at the hotel around 11.
They settled in immediately and without problems. Now about the hotel. We were settled on the first line, right next to the pool, restaurant and access to the sea. Huge spacious rooms with kitchen and living room. After looking around a little, they immediately ran to the sea. It disappointed us a little. The water, of course, is warm, but in this place it is unclear, not dirty, no, but rather unclear. And, of course, small. The first time we were surprised by the ebb and flow: the water goes far and comes. As planned, we contacted the manager and booked tickets for the "best show in Phuket" FantaSea. Tickets for it cost 2200 baht per person with an all-inclusive dinner. Thai baht is our ruble, the difference is about 2 kopecks. The bus came for us around 5 pm. It should be noted that the performance itself begins at 8 pm. They bring people in advance, look around, have dinner, and just have fun. When they get off the bus, they immediately show the sector where the return landing will be.
We had fun. We took some pictures and went to the local zoo.
At the entrance to the park, everyone is stuck with an emblem. On it, as we later understood, the table number at dinner and the number of the sector and seats at the show itself are fixed. This is what the restaurant looks like at night.
We were very surprised by the organization. Everything is clear without problems. Lots of people, but no fuss. Clean, beautiful and delicious. A lot of fruits. After dinner, we went to the show with everyone. Since the emblem is pasted, employees can easily show you the direction, and there are inscriptions everywhere. Please note that all photo and video equipment must be handed in at the entrance to the performance without fail. Again, there are a lot of people, but there is no feeling of hustle and bustle. The performance itself left mixed feelings. A lot of people, elephants, cool aerial acrobats, a lot of pyrotechnics and lights. But somehow I didn’t see all this in a single line ...
The show is over.
View from the water of our hotel. All villas are on the beach, covered with trees.
Everything is beautiful and romantic. But it happens very rarely, so that without a fly in the ointment ...
We came to the reception. We got the numbers pretty quickly. This is where we were disappointed.
Reading the information on the hotel's website, in the buken and on the tour operator's website, it was not very clear to me how one room category differs from another. For additional the hotel responded to the request about new large villas with a size of 40 sq. m. and obligatory sea view. Well what can I say to that...
1- You will not find information anywhere on the territory of the hotel and nowhere in general which villas belong to which category
2- The hotel has all villas with sea view (except one: a large family villa)
3- Size 40sq. m. is not clear, of course we did not measure. But the room itself is small (and we lived together, we thought 40 squares is a lot). In general, in the room the bed is placed with difficulty and under the very air conditioner, which is installed on the floor. San.
By the way, at the same time I found out that there is no permanent manager from Biblio-globus on the islands, but in St. Petersburg they promised us. Realizing that nothing can be fixed, we decided to calm down and take a rest. Here on the islands we were again surprised by the tides. Water walks back and forth about 2.5 - 3 meters deep! ! ! ! That is, it leaves completely for 250-300 meters along the coastline.
Considering such ebb and flow, and simply by what I saw: there are no corals near the shore, white sand and huge stones. There are also very few fish along the coastal strip, and locals also catch it with nets right off the coast. In general, snorkeling, as in Egypt from the shore, is impossible: there is nothing to see !!! ! ! !
But I had a "secret weapon" in reserve. No wonder I spent so much time on the Internet. We took a boat with a tail (not on the first day) and set off around the island. Agreed with the locals, they are cheaper than through the hotel.
A boat for 4 hours with stops at the beaches and for snorkeling for five cost us 1800 baht.
The owner of the boat on one of the beaches found a coconut, and treated us and made a feast for the fish. We liked it very much, we made one mistake: SUN. Husband and son burned quite badly, the skin then peeled off horror.
We continued to carry out the planned program, and started looking for a dive center. Of course, it would be better to find Russian or Russian-speaking instructors (I even read that they definitely exist on the islands), but how will it work out. There are apparently no dive centers on the island, and that's good luck! In one of them we were told where to find Russian instructors. Meet the Russian dive center on the Phi Phi Islands.
And here are the valiant instructors
During the holidays, we went with the club for 4 days, 2-3 dives, and the children - 5 days. For myself, I realized that diving is my element, and I seem to have recently returned, but “the gills have already dried up”!
Very beautiful sites: caves and sheer walls of reefs, beautiful fish, turtles and leopard sharks, and other living creatures.
And here we are: above the water
And underwater
In between diving trips, we took a boat with a tail twice more. One time to visit the neighboring island of Phi Phi Le. It was used to film the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. To be honest, I haven't seen the movie. And she was on the island. True, enterprising Thais have made a national park out of the beach. Anyone coming ashore from the beach has to pay as much as 400 baht. We didn't pay. We swam with masks nearby, rested on neighboring small beaches.
And sailing around the island, we stopped in the bay. There are rope and wooden ladders. Climbing up and then going down them ended up in this park on the other side of the free. What can I say!! ! ! ! ! The failure of Ostap Bendar will not seem like a wine joke. There are two houses, three tents, and a large complex of toilets. AND EVERYTHING! ! ! !
Once again we took a boat to snorkel near the hotel. There is a bad reef there: a lot of fish, we saw a sea snake, and also the so-called shark point: especially in the afternoon, reef blacktip sharks swim there, they are small 1.5 meters in length, but when there are 6 of them at once! Impressive!
We also went up to the observation deck. The view from it is amazing. We did not guess, but who will go, keep in mind: there are mosquitoes! Lot! Need some spray.
Unfortunately, on the last day we found out that it turns out that you can get to this observation deck not only through the center of the island, but directly from our hotel. There, from the 4th line, a barely noticeable path goes into the jungle, past the treatment facilities, up. They say that there is an inscription there that it is not recommended to walk in the jungle after 5 pm. By the way, there are monkeys everywhere on the island. We even saw them on the main street near the port.
Yes, of course, we were not bored in the evenings. We went to the city.
Many shops, an abundance of massage rooms. 1 hour massage costs 300 baht. And the procedure with fish 150.
I also planned to go on excursions: to the James Bond Islands, and to the Krabi region.
But unfortunately, such excursions from the islands are difficult.
After much clarification, I managed to find out the following: these excursions are conducted only from Phuket or from Krabi. Duration from 8-00 to 17-00. From the Phi Phi Islands to Phuket and Krabi, only 2 ferries run per day at 9-00 and around 15-00. Accordingly, to get on these excursions, you need to spend two nights either in Phuket or in Krabi. But it's a shame, the hotel has already been paid for here, and you have to pay again. And then we didn't have time for that. I want to note that quite a lot of Russians come to the islands. Some travel for 2-3 days (individual tours), and some, like them, for the whole vacation.
11 days on the islands flew by unnoticed. I forgot to write about the weather.
There are no thermometers anywhere, so I can’t tell the temperature of the air and water. But absolutely for sure, the water is like fresh milk, and the air is pleasant and comfortable. Every evening clouds gathered and it rained, sometimes not strong and short, sometimes plentiful and with thunderstorms. But during the day, even if there were clouds, there was no rain. Well, here's the way back. We boarded the boat and drove to the port. And then miracles began. The fact is that apart from the forms from the tour operator, where it is written about accommodation and transfer, we had nothing. First we were sent to one ferry (and there are two of them at the same time and on a parallel course), then to another. We were also not allowed to see it, they began to demand tickets. This is where the help of the manager who oversees us was needed. But on my five calls in a row, she did not answer. We were offered to buy tickets, again go to the next ferry ....And time passed and there were about 15 minutes left before departure, when I, in despair, began to dial the phone of the senior managers of the Biblio-Globus.
But before I had time to do this, the issue was resolved and we were stuck with the cherished emblems and allowed on the ferry. The return ferry was less comfortable, and there were people on it, like "herring in a barrel. " I thought, God forbid, the problem is that there will definitely not be life jackets on board for all. They sailed half an hour late. We stood on the roadstead, waited for the ferry from which island, from which everyone in full force was reloaded to us on the ferry and we sailed. There were so many people that it was difficult to move around the upper deck ...
Arrived at Phuket port without incident, it has become a habit that we were met without problems and taken to the same By The Sea hotel. We were satisfied with the hotel for the first time. And then we were given rooms in the first building from the reception on the 3rd floor. At first I was upset, far from the sea. But as soon as you entered the room, there was no trace of the experience. The room is simply huge: two rooms and a living room, two bathrooms, a kitchen. 3 TVs.
Huge terrace overlooking the sea. The beauty!!!!!!! ! ! !
Settled. But I had plans again. On the road, near the hotel, we took a taxi and went to ride elephants, see the statue of the Big Buddha and the functioning temple of Van Chalong.
This statue in sunny weather could be seen even on the islands of Phi Phi, for 45 kilometers.
Then we went to the temple.
And so, during the prayer, the Thai roofing felts call on the gods to hear the prayer, or they scare away evil spirits. But the crash is concrete.
In general, we rode around Phuket for 4 hours. For 6 people we paid 1500 baht. We were taken to the exchange office and to the shopping center, and to the fruit market. And in the evening in our huge room they arranged gatherings: there were five of us and a couple from Arkhangelsk. They had a plane in the morning to Moscow. And we still have a whole day. Transfer from the hotel at 17-45. Having a quiet breakfast, and already fully appreciating the buffet. And what delicious coffee they have! Let's go swimming in the sea.
I took an inflatable "surfboard" a small mattress (bought in Lenta for 49 rubles) and splashed in the sea with pleasure on it. The son, after reading the information of the hotel, said that he had to leave before 11 am. Well, we are ready for this. We extended our room until 18-00 for 1000 baht, the children moved all things to us and at 14-00 we went to the snake show with the same taxi driver. But not where they take everyone for free. I stroked a cobra and a python. This is a unique and indescribable feeling. I could not tear myself away, I was ready to stroke these "creatures" again and again. It turns out that snakes are very pleasant to the touch. They were very pleased with the show. Then we went to the local zoo, and there is a show of crocodiles and elephants. The crocodile show is short, 15-20 minutes, but impressive. And the elephant show is amazing! After seeing everything, we arrived at the hotel 15 minutes before the transfer. We quickly packed our things and boarded the bus. Well, then the airport, check-in. At the time of takeoff, a thunderstorm began. Flight delayed by 30 minutes
. We were very afraid that the return flight would be painful: going from rest is always more difficult. But immediately after the flight, everyone fell asleep. It's been a very busy day! Petersburg landed on schedule. Here we are at home.
P. S. Already now, I want to definitely return to Tai! There are so many beautiful and interesting things that we have not seen. We don't say, "Tay goodbye. " We say: “See you again, Thailand! »
19.02. 2012 -04.03. 2012
