Hello lovely readers! It’s been awhile!
This year we decided on a 4 day free and easy trip to Phuket, Thailand, just before the Christmas week.It was a great experience travelling on our own without following a tour or booking a beach resort.
My oldest son did not come but helped to book a cheap (yes, cheap) no frills air bnb in the Kathu district, which was centrally located and about 20 to 30mins by taxi to places of interest.
If you are on a shoe string budget, this could be the deal for you!
Our apartment had one private bath/toilet and small kitchenette with fridge/freezer, kettle, microwave and electric hot plate and minimal utensils such as frying pan, glassware, cutlery, coffee cups and ladles.
This is spartan and urban camping at best, where you can buy your own provisions from the 7-11, for quick breakfasts, snacks and night caps.
There was also a washing machine but we did not have to use it. These amenities are actually very affordable at the local shops where you can find coin operated washing machines.
For the more adventurous and seasoned traveller, you could see Phuket by motorbike or rented car. There are many cheap rentals here.
Although the apartment was spartan, the pool (which I used on 2 days) and gym were good for the price paid! The gym had a couple of treadmills.
The view from our 2nd floor apartment window was not aesthetically inspiring Lol.
In any case it did not matter to us as we would be out exploring and only come back to the apartment to rest!
Wifi was also available at the apartment which the host provided. Unfortunately he did not give us the wifi access prior and we only managed to contact him after we paid for sim cards. However the sim cards were very useful for moving around and locating destinations!
It’s a good idea to check with your air bnb host about wifi access, apartment card keys and identification wristbands for use of apartment facilities before leaving for your vacation. Being a noob, this I did not do.
Anyway, day 1 was spent sight seeing after we arrived at Phuket International Airport at 9am, as we could only check into the apartment after 2pm.
The transport from the airport had been pre arranged by our air bnb host.
Not being able to communicate, the driver gave us a map of places of interest and gestured that we could choose a place to visit. We decided to go to ‘Old Phuket Town’ in Muang District as our first stop.
There were quite an interesting array of shops and cafes here. If you are interested in buying souvenirs this is a good place to go.
It’s best to get a driver who speaks English. This will ensure you have no miscommunication. The driver who took us from the airport was using Google Translate to ask me ‘Where would you like to go?’. I was amused as he spoke into his phone in Thai!
But after walking around in Old Phuket Town, it was soon lunch time and we were hungry. After pointing to a photo of seafood the driver took us on a long drive and it seemed too far! So we decided to head back to the air bnb and informed the driver.
We saw a small eatery and were already about to order when the driver beckoned to us that there was a seafood place ‘nearby’.
We regretted immediately as he took us on another 20 to 30 min journey! We had a lunch of steamed squid, garlic fried vegetables and a fried snapper in sweet and sour sauce with pineapple fried rice.
After lunch, we finally arrived at the air bnb apartment about 2.30pm.
After unpacking, we rested during the afternoon. We had an early dinner of Thai street food at the same eatery, we went to buy supplies and decided to get sim cards for myself and Jared. Upon being ‘online’ again, I saw a message from my host, providing access to his apartment wifi. We contacted him for extra blankets for my son which he provided in the evening.
With dinner settled, we decided to explore Patong Beach and the surrounding areas the next day.
End of day 1.
The next morning, we booked a taxi ride to take us from Kathu District to Patong Beach.
We spent a day at Patong, taking in the sights.
There were many shops selling tshirts and souvenirs as well as tour companies arranging island hopping trips involving a wide range of water sport and other activities.
The tshirts were a great buy.
Many drink sellers can be found along the beach selling cold drinks, ice cream and fresh coconut and sugar cane drinks. These would be ideal to quench your thirst!
We cooled off at the nearby shopping mall (Central Patong) and had a Japanese lunch at Miyazaki (no pictures). Both places are featured on Google maps.
Then it was time for a feet cleaning session! This was a simple set up outdoors where you could have feet cleaned by fish based on 15mins to 30 mins.
We soon continued walking through the streets and passed a very unique building. It’s actually a night club/discotheque called Tiger night club. I did not get a chance to take a full front view of the building but there are many pictures on Google maps that you can refer to.
We had a Thai traditional massage at one of the street shops, which helped relax tired aching muscles.
We went to another shopping mall after the massage session and had a sumptuous hotpot for dinner!
After buying breakfast supplies such as bread, eggs, ham and fresh mangoes from the supermarket at the mall, we took a taxi back to our apartment in Kathu.
End of day 2.
On the 3rd day, we decided to split up our sight seeing and activities into 2 segments, with a break after lunch and return to apartment to rest, and then heading out again in the late afternoon.
We hailed a taxi from across the roadside from our apartment to take us to two places. The first was the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, and the second place was Tiger Kingdom.
I enjoyed the Elephant Sanctuary experience more than the Tiger Kingdom visit.
We had called before hand to ask what activities they offered.
For ‘walk in’ guests, there is a short 1 hour program which includes elephant feeding, a brief explanation about how paper is made from elephant poop (yes, elephant poop!) and an activity station for you to decorate an envelope made from elephant poop paper to take home (free) as a souvenir. You can also stand near the elephants to take your selfies with them.
These elephants are gentle creatures and the whole experience would be great for families with young children.
There are more activities included for a half or full day, such as elephant bathing and grooming and taking elephant rides. The sanctuary also has clean showers and changing areas for guests after they have played with the elephants and need to freshen up.
The Tiger Kingdom was a totally different experience. It was more ‘touristy’ and the main objective seemed to be taking pictures with the tigers. And the prices were quite exorbitant. The tigers were kept in cages with hardly any room for them to move. I did not take any pictures as the whole set up felt so inhumane.
We had a quick western type lunch at the restaurant at Tiger Kingdom and headed back to the apartment. Back at the apartment, I managed to swim a few refreshing laps in the pool.
We headed out again at 4pm and visited Rang Hill View Point.
It was a scenic spot and you can see the whole of Phuket from the hill top. We stayed awhile to take in the sights. For those interested in religion and sculpture, within the same vicinity you could also visit the Big Buddha. We passed the area but did not visit.
After spending about 45mins at Rang Hill, our taxi took us to the nearby Phuket Weekend Night Market.
This was a huge open area and by 5pm, the crowd was starting to build!
The stalls offered local foods as well as ‘international’. Yes! Turkish, Korean, Japanese, Muslim and local Thai foods could be found here!
Even exotic if you are gamed to try! Fried grasshoppers and worms were sold as snacks!
We walked through and there were food stalls as well as stalls selling leather goods, jewellery and clothes.
We decided to try some seafood dinner. This time it was fried pepper crab (not shown), lobster, and steamed sea bass.
We also had some roast pork and pineapple fried rice.
By the time we finished, the bright coloured lights had come on, making the whole place even more attractive!
We left before it got even more crowded.
End of day 3.
On our last day, we had to check out of the air bnb by 11am.
We decided to visit old Phuket Town again for lunch and last minute shopping before catching our 4pm flight back to Singapore. This time the taxi stopped us at a different street.
There was an interesting wall mural we passed and there was a striking turquoise coloured building facing a junction.
Both the mural and building attracted tourists to take pictures, myself included!
We had a light lunch at a local food centre, some fried noodles with pork rib soup, and vegetable rolls with sweet sauce.
Then it was time to go.
Bye bye Phuket! It was a lovely and memorable 4 days!
To my readers, thanks for stopping by! 🙂
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