не лучший отдых not the best holiday

The Sofitel Phokeethra Krabi Golf & Spa Resort (Thailand) is located on Ao Nang Beach in Krabi Province (travel time from March 6 to March 20.2013).
Flight. We flew on a charter flight Moscow-Phuket with the TRANSAERO airline. ATTENTION!! ! The weight of the carried luggage (up to 20 kg per person) and hand luggage (up to 5 kg) is excessively limited (on the way back, you had to pay for the excess). Food at the level, service as on all other Russian airlines. Travel time 9.5 hours. Then a transfer (from the airport to the hotel) for another 2 hours by car (the trip was not impressive, there was a lot of household garbage everywhere).
Hotel. Settled quickly without red tape. Beautiful 3 storey hotel. The territory is well-groomed, cleaned daily and carefully. A very large swimming pool (they say that it is the largest in Thailand), there is a playground, a tennis court, a golf course. All rooms with balconies or terraces. The room has a safe, a large bathroom with a shower and a bathtub (there are toiletries - shampoos, a hairdryer, slippers, bathrobes, etc. ), a small TV (no Russian channel), a mini-bar (for a fee), an electric kettle . The air conditioner worked properly and silently (plus a fan).

Disadvantages. The beach is located across the road, which is not properly equipped (there are no umbrellas, showers and toilets on the beach), only 17 sun loungers for the entire hotel. About five hundred meters from the beach of the hotel there is a cargo pier, so the traffic on the road is heavy, every 5-10 minutes large heavy trucks with trailers run to the pier (back and forth) (mostly they transport sand, gravel and crushed stone). Now imagine the smell of exhaust fumes that haunts you, since the road separating the beach and the hotel is only 5 meters from the beach chairs and 15 meters from the hotel pool. Dinners and lunches at the hotel are very expensive (from $60 per person). The mini-bar is also very expensive (for example, water 0.75 liters - 160 rubles, a tea bag - 150 rubles). Bed linen was not changed daily (about once a week). Wi-Fi is paid ($40 per week).
Sea. Calm, the water is warm but not clear. Low tides are unpredictable - sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evenings, sometimes in the afternoon. You can’t swim during low tide, as the bottom is rocky and even in special shoes you can get hurt. You can snorkel at high tide, but there are few living creatures.
Kitchen. Buffet (breakfast only), everything is very tasty (juices, ham, cheese, yoghurts, etc. ). However, fruits (mostly pineapples, dragon fruit, watermelons) were generally not ripe. Sometimes apples, oranges, bananas and mangosteens appeared (there were no mangoes).
Purchases. Local money is baht (1 baht is equal to about one ruble), so it’s easy to navigate the prices. We took a taxi near the hotel, on a special poster there are prices to the destination (round trip) - this is very convenient, as the taxi driver is waiting for you at the agreed time (no prepayment and surcharge for waiting time), and then takes you back to the hotel . In the village of Ao Nang, there are many different shops and stalls where we bought various souvenirs (it takes 20 minutes by taxi from the hotel for 1000 rubles there and back). We were also advised to visit the Big C shopping center in Krabi (it takes 40 minutes by taxi from the hotel for 1500 rubles round trip). We do not recommend - it sucks!! ! Although the products of course you can buy and they are much cheaper than near the hotel. At the snake farm, we bought balms from Thai herbs with snake venom for ourselves and relatives ($70 each), botox cream $80 and pearl powder with cream $150. At the factory for the production of latex products - a mattress 180x200 for $ 1650 and in addition 2 pillows and 2 bagels - as a bonus (we are satisfied with the purchase, it turned out to be very convenient and comfortable to sleep on such a mattress). But the seller (name is Ruslan) assured us that the mattress weighs 10 kg and can be carried on the plane as hand luggage, as the Thais "welcome" when they buy their products. Deceived!! ! As it turned out, the weight of the mattress was 22 kg and I had to pay $ 400 for overweight. At the same time, the airport employees behaved very aggressively, they did not let passengers through even if the luggage was overweight by one kg. They insisted that we share hand luggage (with a total weight of 10 kg) at 5 kg per person (we had to shift some of the things from the bag to the bag). In general, during our stay in Thailand, we had the opinion that the Thai people are unfriendly and inhospitable. They have a consumer attitude towards foreigners - if they give money (no matter for what), they will smile, if they don’t pay - irritation and even anger appear on their faces (we are unlikely to return to this country again).

Weather. It rained only three times during the day (short-term for 30 minutes) and once at night. The water temperature is 25-27 degrees, air - 32-37.
Excursions. We went to P. I. P. I. I liked it very much. Wonderful nature, diverse landscapes, beautiful sandy beaches, clear, warm sea with a lot of living creatures (even more and more diverse than the Red Sea). The guide's name was Leonid, a professional in his field, he told a lot of interesting information. During an excursion on one of the islands, we visited the market, where we bought a lot of souvenirs. Then we went to the elephants on our own (600 rubles by taxi back and forth), took plenty of pictures. There was not enough time for temples and caves, and perhaps there was no great desire.
Travel agency. The host of Exotic Voyage is a complete disappointment. We never saw the guide, he never came to the hotel. In general, they called each other by phone (and on our initiative). They were only interested in orders for excursions and that's it. A free sightseeing tour of Krabi was generally "squeezed", referring to the fact that it is carried out only if there are 6 people or more. Somehow they persuaded them to take us to a snake farm and a factory for the production of latex products (located in Krabi in one together) at the end of a paid excursion to the PIP island. At the end of the holiday, we asked them to pick up the car to the airport early, but it arrived half an hour later than the appointed time. They could not or did not want to explain the reason for being late (probably such an attitude is in the order of things).