Нормальный спокойный отдых Normal relaxing holiday

I finally got the time and decided to write a review about my vacation in Phuket. Last year we were in Pattaya, and this year we decided to go to Phuket to compare. Although we knew that Phuket was a little more expensive (both hotels and everything else), I wanted to see the Indian Ocean..... Now, in order.
The hotel was chosen according to the principle away from various party centers and cities, since in Pattaya last year they saw what a hotel in the resort center means (thank God we did not live in Pattaya itself, but about 20 minutes from it) We stopped at Amor, like from the pictures looks good, and according to reviews, and the beach..... well, more on that later. So, on the 10th of August, my family and I, consisting of my wife and 10-year-old son, went to Domodedovo. I will not name the tour operator, so as not to be perceived as an advertisement, but everything related to it was on top. The flight was taken by Transaero, direct, since this year it began to fly 2 times a week. I checked in for a flight via the Internet, so we chose the seats ourselves, and at the airport we didn’t stand in a general queue, but went through the business class counter (of course we flew in economy class) A Boeing 747-400, it seems there are 350 passengers in it, in a word big on the outside but small on the inside. The distances between the seats are like in Zaporozhets, it’s a bit crowded....blankets were handed out only to women and children, feeding is so-so........ I don’t show off, last year Aeroflot flew to Bangkok, although there was an IL-96, but and the distance between the seats is larger, and the feeding is better..... well, God bless him with the flight... The Boeing, of course, takes off and lands very gently, so everything went smoothly.
Upon arrival, everything went quickly, we passed the border guards, got our suitcases in one fell swoop and went out. It is better to change money at the airport, there is a bank before the baggage claim, where the exchange rate is better than in the city. After the border guards, there are stands in the hall where you can take free booklets advertising excursions and a map of Phuket (the hotel sells this card for 200 baht, so it’s better to use a freebie) And the map will come in handy if you yourself will travel around the island or by taxi.

We were met by a minivan, and after 20 minutes we were already at the hotel. The check-in went quickly, they ask to leave a deposit in the amount of 100 Baku raccoons (but this is the case everywhere in Tai) At first they tried to get a room on the ground floor, but I refused, because there is not a balcony, but a terrace, although someone will find a terrace more convenient, right through you can walk out of your room to the pool. In a word, they immediately showed a room on the second floor, which we took (all of course without any additional payments, as is the case in Turkey or Egypt) There is a free safe in the room (which initially did not work, but a call to the reception and 5 minutes expectations were decided) In the bathroom there is a shower cabin and a bathtub, although for some reason there is no shower in the bath itself, although the faucet on the bathtub is like for a shower... these Thais are wonderful..... by the way, I was surprised a little by the toilet....when draining water, it is filled to the brim, it seems that now everything will flow to the floor, and then everything goes away. The Taets called from the attendants said that it should be so. By the way, everywhere in the hotel all the toilets are flushed this way, so don't be alarmed. Now further down the room..... in the room there is a minibar filled with local beer and something else at space prices, on the bar there are nuts, cookies and a map of Phuket (also paid) I immediately told the manager girl that I had all these “gifts from Thailand ” are not needed, and asked to take all this out of my room before my final eviction, which was done by the employees immediately and without any objections. Thus, we get an empty refrigerator, with the ability to fill it with goods from the supermarket at our discretion.
In addition, there is a kettle in the room, free tea, coffee, sugar, and every day they put three bottles of water, each with a volume of 0.6 liters. The room itself is not bad, usual for Thailand. We had a huge double bed, and a cot was brought for the child (although this is normal, albeit a folding bed, not a cot, in our understanding. There are also rooms where instead of a double bed there are two single beds, large by the way. Our room was standard, with a view to the pool (with a sea view there are no rooms in the hotel, or rather there are several, but the view is not of the sea, but of a small grove, behind which there is a sea (I call the sea, because it is the Andaman Sea, which then passes into the ocean) , but this is not important) So... what else did I miss about the hotel...... the hotel itself is old, but clean, with traces of repair....in general, a normal three-star hotel. Yes, yes, it doesn’t pull on a four , according to tour operators, neither in service nor in food, I was in the top four last year, believe me, this is not 4 stars. But we knew this and were not upset about this, as we were going to the ocean... and we received... Leaving our clothes, we immediately went to the beach. This is certainly something. For such a beach, you can Forgive the Thais. Light sand, clear water, on the beach there is a grove of palm trees and some kind of coniferous trees, like our larch, but with very long needles. You can put a sunbed under a palm tree and sip a beer. Class! We swam every day, sometimes the sea was a bit stormy, but riding the waves is such a thrill! ! The sea, of course, is not the same as in Egypt (we dragged masks with flippers with us, they were not useful, there is nothing to see at the bottom near the hotel, and if you go on an excursion, they will give you all this anyway). Beer and coconuts on the beach for 50 baht (for comparison, in Pattaya I bought coconuts, though not on the beach, for 10 baht) But this is Phuket, everything is a little more expensive here. There is a bar and a cafe on the beach....I read other people's reviews about these catering places and, frankly, I don’t understand their enthusiasm. Frank vipers, although once we ate something there, and did not get poisoned, and it was even tasty. But usually for lunch or dinner we went along the beach to the right of the hotel 300 meters away. There are several restaurants, the most decent of them is the last one, but it is also more expensive than the others. The three of us usually ate baht for 700-800, quite tasty, although I couldn’t get the Thais to fry my pork in one piece, apparently they all bring meat already cut, but in one piece, no way. Although there is beef in one piece, but pork, well, no way. But it's not really critical. Seafood is quite expensive, the cheapest fish in these restaurants is 500 baht per kilogram. You choose a fish in the aquarium, they fry it, and the price of the dish depends on the weight of the fish (usually not less than 500 baht, but the fish is tasty, although I don’t eat it at all, but I tried it there, it’s delicious.
In general, if you want to eat seafood so that the toad does not choke and try all kinds of lobsters or large shrimp, or scallops, or... yes, they have all sorts of sea creatures) then you need to go to Patong (500 rubles from the hotel by taxi), There it is 2-3 times cheaper. For example, my wife and I took a huge lobster for 900 rubles, and the child 2 shrimp the size of his hand for 400 rubles, which he ate. But in Patong every day you can’t roll, although someone likes it. By taxi 20 minutes and 500 rubles. one way. Taxi prices there all over the island are 500 rubles, where you won’t go..... even in Phuket Town (there are several huge shopping centers where you can shop and buy souvenirs, one of them is called Outlet, and the second I don’t remember how , but not far from the Outlet, a little further along the highway, maybe five minutes. Ask your guide, he will tell you, or you will see on the map. By the way, good fashionable things are not much cheaper than in Moscow. And if you go to Cherkizon, then there are prices for example, for the first time in my life I saw jeans sold for 50 baht, but I can’t say anything about the quality of these particular jeans, since I didn’t even come closer to examine them.
Now about the cultural leisure on the beach. Sunbeds are of course free, and there are enough of them for everyone, so you don’t have to run at 7 in the morning to borrow. Hawkers with their junk are constantly walking along the beach, unobtrusively offering, smiling, leaving....in a word, they don’t really strain. Grilled corn is offered, which is fried right in front of you (they have a barbecue right in the basket, they quickly inflate the coals, 5 minutes, and you enjoy the taste of fried corn for 50 baht, really very tasty) A bottle of beer 50 baht, ride a jet ski 1200.1500 baht for 15-20 minutes (expensive, cheaper in Patong).

Excursions from the tour operator were not taken, as the locals are 2 times cheaper. I know English, so it was not a problem for me to translate everything that the guide says. But in fact, if you know English within the school course, then this will be more than enough, since Thais, with rare exceptions, know it no better than you, believe me. And it doesn't matter if you graduated from Cambridge or only 3 classes of a parochial school, you will be understood the same way. This is due to the fact that European languages ​ ​ ​ ​ are quite difficult for Thais, since Thai does not have many letters from the Latin alphabet, and they try to remake the grammar in their own way. But this is not scary - you will understand each other anyway. By the way, my son and I learned a dozen phrases in Thai (of course, our pronunciation was far from ideal, since the Thai language, like all South Asian languages, is very difficult for Europeans), but when Thais hear Thai words from a European, they just get thrilled. (again, when trading in the market, this helped in terms of a small discount).
Let's get back to the excursions... We only took a free survey from the guide. It is clear that they arrange this excursion for kickbacks from a jewelry factory, a cashew factory, a latex factory... and other places where they are imported . . By the way, these places are called factories for tourists. In fact, they don’t produce anything there, it’s just that they have such marketing techniques for “packing” tourists. Although prices are anyway lower than in Moscow. For example, two latex pillows cost us 4000 baht per pair (for example, in Moscow, a pillow made of natural latex costs from 3500 in an online store, everything that is cheaper is not natural) Although talking with locals, I found out that they have shops where tourists are not they carry, but where the same pillows cost 700 baht. I didn’t check, I don’t know, but I saw such shops.
On a snake farm, they offer to buy all sorts of extracts and ointments from snake bile for fabulous money. Do not buy. Divorce. In other places it is much cheaper.
It is profitable to buy stones at a jewelry factory, only in silver, since in gold it comes out no cheaper than ours, although very beautiful products come across. By the way, everywhere they talk about local sapphires, rubies and emeralds..... do not believe it. Almost no stones are mined in Tai itself. All this stuff is brought from neighboring Myanmar (Burma, in our opinion, where all the stones are mined). This was told to me by a Thai on the beach, with whom we often talked. He runs a suit-making shop, is a talkative, intelligent fellow, speaks good English, and is originally from Myanmar. Of course, he also doesn’t sew by himself, he only takes measurements, but he carries it all to the city, where, apparently, the masters sculpt costumes for you. My wife and I ordered a suit for ourselves, by the way, they sewed it incomparably, everything is brand new, and it’s normal for the money. Of course, he’s still the same trader, I constantly bargained with him like a Jew with an Armenian, but what can you do, this is a business, he wants to sell more expensive, I buy cheaper....in the end, they always found a compromise. The name of this crook is Jack, a nice guy. Chase-Armani.

Next. . . there's another guy on the beach, they call him Bob. Keeps a semblance of a bar on the beach. Sometimes in the evening we sat on the shore, drinking beer with Jack. Bob has a guitar, I sang Russian, English songs to them, Bob Thai....so cool, you sit in the evening on the shore of the Indian Ocean, surf, drink beer, play the guitar....romance !!!
Let's get back to tours. I took elephant rides (it’s cool, you even get a little bit when the elephant in the jungle starts to descend to the ditch..... well, how does it come to him in the head to screw up... but everything is fine, the elephants turn out to be smart. The same tour included rides on buffalo in a cart. I'll tell you that..... along a muddy road, in a cart with huge wheels, the cart dives into a hole in a rut and you jump up on a bench with the risk of flying out of the cart with your face into the mud. In short, no pleasure, only bruised asses. Fortunately, they only take 100 meters. And they ride on elephants for 25-30 minutes.
We also took a trip to James Bond Island. Very beautiful. The same tour includes a half hour canoe ride through caves, mangroves. . . awesome. They did not spare the money, even despite the fact that they were not lucky with the weather, that day it rained periodically.
I don’t remember the cost of excursions, but the fact that it’s 2 times cheaper than the guide’s is for sure. I took them on the beach, in a booth called "Alim Tour".
Feeding at the hotel, let's say "not very diverse", but you will not die of hunger. By the way, we dined a couple of times in the hotel restaurant (for the money, of course, since the tour includes only breakfast). Both the service and the food are of course on top, but the prices are more expensive than in the "viper" on the beach. There are other places nearby where there is more or less decent European cuisine, there is next to the Lotus store (it takes 10-12 minutes to walk along the road or 100 rubles by taxi) There is a good pizzeria, McDonald's, a cafe with Mexican cuisine across the street from them, and a grill bar was planned to open next to the Lotus (but it never opened during our stay). The Lotus itself is like our miniashan, in principle, everything you need can be bought. Near the Lotus, 2 times a week, there is a Cherkizon, where I saw jeans for 50 rubles....

The way back home also passed without incident, everything was clear and smooth. The main thing is not to overdo it with the purchase of souvenirs, so that there is no excess luggage (the surcharge in this case is not sickly, it seems 5 euros for each extra kilogram). We were very lucky in this regard, since an aunt with a child was resting with us at the hotel, and since she had only one bag, we were able to write down our third suitcase full of all sorts of things from Thailand, including coconuts that weigh I will tell you....
I don’t know if we will go to Thailand next year or pick up something else, but what we liked in Thailand is for sure.
If someone has questions, write in a personal, I will answer everyone.
Yuri.