Phuket

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ThePezDispenser said:
We're both 23.

Girlfriend has been to Karon Beach (also near Kata beach so can go to both) before and liked it, could be a bit quieter also. Any other recommendations?

Looking for somewhere beach side, that's hopefully not so busy, and a little less touristy. Will most likely check out Patong and the like but not really keen on staying in the middle of it all especially in that really peak period. We're going to just mostly relax and take it all in. Rather than the night life scene (the full moon party will most likely be enough lol)
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Stay at Le Meridien in Phuket if you can, it's well worth it [more of the western luxury style relaxation rather than the isolated back to basics relaxation].

It's 5-10 minutes drive from Patong and has its own very nice and clean 'private beach' and a great pool area.

You will not get hassled for any shit whilst relaxing during the day and it's still accessible to all the bars/restaurants/shopping etc Patong has to offer.

It's also quiet at night so you will have no trouble sleeping.
 
popathon said:
Woud you recommend staying in koh samui and traveing to koh pangan for the FMP or staying in koh pangan?
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Both are solid options. I loved Koh Samui so I would suggest staying there for the majority of your stay (as I did, travelling on the speed boats to Koh Phangan solely for the FMP).

I'd assume Koh Phangan is a great place its own right so you could potentially go stay there a couple of nights b4/after the party.
 
I realise this is an old thread, but there's a pretty good resort deal on Groupon for Phuket at the moment. Is it as good as it looks? Will I get there and be greeted by cockroaches or is it a nice place to stay?
 

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dr0ne said:
I realise this is an old thread, but there's a pretty good resort deal on Groupon for Phuket at the moment. Is it as good as it looks? Will I get there and be greeted by cockroaches or is it a nice place to stay?
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I'm in a similar situation to yourself, mate. I'm heading over to Thailand mid November with 3 other mates, and one of them recently found a 15 day tour deal through Scoopon or something similar which went to 3-4 different islands (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan among them).

I know you don't really need a tour of sorts to travel around Thailand, but the deal sounded pretty sweet as we worked out that it'd cost all 4 of us around $750 each, keeping in mind this covered both our travel and accomodation expenses, as well as activities such as zoo trips etc. Only downside is the tour doesn't go to Phuket, or Phi Phi - which are 2 places along with Koh Samui & Koh Phangan that I wanted to head to.

The question is, has anyone done any tours around Thailand, and what were the experiences? Or would it work out to be just as cheap if we just backpacked around and booked our accom. and travel ourselves.

Cheers for any help! :thumbsu:
 
You get what you pay for when it comes to travel...
 
Freakie said:
You get what you pay for when it comes to travel...
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I don't know if that's -always- true. I've had some pretty good times with discounts, cheap flights and stuff like that. I find that just because there's a special or discount on doesn't always mean it's dodgy.
 
Hey what do people suggest for group of 19-20 year olds?
Thinking of Going into in June/July? Is the weather still good?

The plan at the moment is something like 14 days.was thinking of flying in to Patong then staying their for a 3-4 days, then with 3-4 in Ko Pha Ngan and PHI PHI Don. What do people think of that? Is Patong good for our age or is better to spend less time their.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

My sister said $2000 would cover all basic such as Food,Transport and Accomadation with a bit left over for drinking? And Lastly when is it best to book, was thinking of going in June/July 2012 so is December good to book Flights or is that a bit early?
 
WaLkEr_ThE_StAr said:
I'm in a similar situation to yourself, mate. I'm heading over to Thailand mid November with 3 other mates, and one of them recently found a 15 day tour deal through Scoopon or something similar which went to 3-4 different islands (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan among them).

I know you don't really need a tour of sorts to travel around Thailand, but the deal sounded pretty sweet as we worked out that it'd cost all 4 of us around $750 each, keeping in mind this covered both our travel and accomodation expenses, as well as activities such as zoo trips etc. Only downside is the tour doesn't go to Phuket, or Phi Phi - which are 2 places along with Koh Samui & Koh Phangan that I wanted to head to.

The question is, has anyone done any tours around Thailand, and what were the experiences? Or would it work out to be just as cheap if we just backpacked around and booked our accom. and travel ourselves.

Cheers for any help! :thumbsu:
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Ok, so we've since decided to pass the 'tour' option, and go with our own thing.

My mates have no idea what to do or where to head, given they have spent little if no time overseas before. So i've taken the reigns and agreed to do a little research and work out our full itinerary and schedule. Our dates are from 20/11 until the 6/12

I've worked out a rough path of the places we are going to visit and the order in which we do so. The destinations and order are as follows...

Bangkok, Koh Samui, Kho Phangan, Phi Phi (Krabi), Phuket.

Factoring in that our flight heads to Bangkok first off, that will of course be the first port of call. We'll miss out of a Full Moon Party during the times we will be in Thailand, but there is a Black Moon Party on the 25/11, so we have 5 days from landing in Bangkok to travel down to Koh Phangan in order to catch it. I figure the best avenue would be to travel from Bangkok to Koh Samui, and then take the ferri/water transport across the Kho Phangan on the 25/11.

The question is does anyone think it's worthwhile to book accom in both Koh Samui AND Koh Phangan, or is it just as useful to book it in KS alone given Koh Phangan is only a short boat ride across? I guess my question is, is there much to do in KP apart from their Full/Half/Black Moon parties, or is it only worth a day trip? I know KS is magical from the number of people i've spoken to who've been there, but not sure about KP.

Anyway, back to my proposed schedule, we then travel from KP back to KS and take a flight across to Krabi/Phi Phi, and then head across to Phuket where we spend our last couple of days before heading back to Bangkok to head home (have a return ticket from Melb>Bangkok>Melb)

The one major stumbling point is working out the number of days we stay in each location (Bangkok, Koh Samui, Kho Phangan, Phi Phi (Krabi), Phuket). :confused:

Any thoughts/recommendations from those that have travelled to the destinations we're heading would be much appreciated! :)
 
Just stay on Koh Samui, no need to stay on KPN. You will have to fly to Phuket from Koh Samui and then a boat transfer to Phi Phi Island, book soon because there is only 5 flights a day and they tend to book out well in advance.

Do Bangkok on the way home, otherwise you will be carrying all the crap you buy for the entire trip.
 
Freakie said:
Just stay on Koh Samui, no need to stay on KPN. You will have to fly to Phuket from Koh Samui and then a boat transfer to Phi Phi Island, book soon because there is only 5 flights a day and they tend to book out well in advance.

Do Bangkok on the way home, otherwise you will be carrying all the crap you buy for the entire trip.
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Cheers for the helpful advice mate, really appreciated! :thumbsu:

Our flight from Melbourne flies to Bangkok first up, so we're forced to start our trip there. We have to get back to Bangkok by the end of the trip as our tickets are return out of Bangkok to Melbourne, so I guess we can just do all of our shopping on our 2nd stop in Bangkok.

Wow, had no idea they only did 4-5 flights max out of KS to Phuket! Thanks for the heads up! :eek:

With the boat transfer, is that something we have to book in advance, or can we do that on our arrival into Phuket?

BTW has anyone been to a 'Black Moon Party', if so, how does it fare compared to the Full or Half Moon parties? The Black Moon Party is our only option as the other 2 don't fall on any of the dates we're in Thailand, so i'm hoping it's at least worthwhile.
 
strath39 said:
How's the shopping in Patong and Ko Samui?
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Shopping in Patong? All depends on what you're after I guess.
A seasoned traveller will know how to smell out the best "copy" deals and if you're new to that you just have to keep asking until you find the "secret" shops.

Best going to Bangkok for that sort of stuff though.
There is a particular area (Hidden shops) where they trade in the premium copies and I mean high quality stuff (Bags, Watches etc), but you will pay more than what you may had experienced on the streets of Hong Kong, Vietnam and the like.

Phuket is an easy holiday though, but don't go down Bangla Rd. after hours with your teenage daughter.
Mine embarrassed me and I have photo's of myself and the the local ladyboys to prove it. :eek:
 
WaLkEr_ThE_StAr said:
BTW has anyone been to a 'Black Moon Party', if so, how does it fare compared to the Full or Half Moon parties? The Black Moon Party is our only option as the other 2 don't fall on any of the dates we're in Thailand, so i'm hoping it's at least worthwhile.
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Nothing compared to the FMP, it's not on Haadrin Beach either it's up in the jungle. I found the night after down on the beach was a bigger party than the BMP but we went in June so maybe that was just low season.

I know some people have already said to stay on Samui but depending on how much time you have staying a day either side isn't a bad idea, Koh Phangan is a great island to chill out on and i've never been too trusting of the night speedboats, too many horror stories.
 

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standingroomonly said:
Nothing compared to the FMP, it's not on Haadrin Beach either it's up in the jungle. I found the night after down on the beach was a bigger party than the BMP but we went in June so maybe that was just low season.

I know some people have already said to stay on Samui but depending on how much time you have staying a day either side isn't a bad idea, Koh Phangan is a great island to chill out on and i've never been too trusting of the night speedboats, too many horror stories.
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Thanks for the review mate. Ah well, will have to make do with the BMP, but can't complain. :thumbsu:

Spewing that we only realised after we booked our cheap $750 return flights that the FMP and HMP fell on dates outside those which we chose to travel. We were too busy scrambling to make the most of the cheap flights through Jetstar to consider it. Didn't realise how big the parties were until after I did some further research.

Btw of the dates we're going to be traveling (20/11 - 6/12), and the destinations we're headed (Bangkok, Koh Samui, Kho Phangan, Phi Phi (Krabi), Phuket), how many days do people think we should assign to each? I heard the most positive reviews about KS, but apart from that not too sure for the other places. :confused:
 
magic_johnson! said:
There's a legal age :confused:
Actually wouldn't think even Thai people know that :p Not enforced at all...
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j2kboiz said:
Never knew that and didn't matter when I was there but it's not enforced at all.
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It is "enforced" routinely but typically only for Thais ... anyone who has been to a club in Thailand would see the locals being asked to show ID going in ... they occasionally do it with farang but so rare as to be a non-issue and typically only used as an excuse to not let some people in ...

As I say, this is for clubs, and the more upscale the club the more pedantic they can be (again with the locals 99.9% of the time). In bars/gogos, I have never ever seen or heard of a farang (westerner) being asked for ID of any sort ... and many employ Thai below the legal age (which is a moving concept depending on what they are doing as an employee) but nominally, ID is still required on request ...
 
magic_johnson! said:
There's a legal age :confused:
Actually wouldn't think even Thai people know that :p Not enforced at all...
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You must hang out in the sleazy clubs full of prostitutes yeah?

Go to any decent 'Thai' club outside of the main tourist area and you will see people getting asked for ID.
 
Banyan is nice in Phi Phi, not to far from the pier although on the other side of the island to all the clubs etc.. but only a 10 min walk (unless half pissed like we were and ended up in the middle of nowhere at 1am like 2 kms from where we thought we were)

It is more expensive though, I think 1000 baht a night. Beats the place we stayed at on the fist night half way up a hill and an absolute shit hole (free wifi though!).

Sorry not much help.
 
What's the go with vaccinations etc. I know it's recommended you get the Hep A and Tetanus shots, but of a couple of people I spoke to who are seasoned travellers they reckon you get away with not getting them. They are pretty friggin expensive to get as well, which doesn't help.

I know if you stick to bottled water you should be fine. Any thoughts?

Has anyone travelled to Thailand and not had any vaccinations?
 
WaLkEr_ThE_StAr said:
What's the go with vaccinations etc. I know it's recommended you get the Hep A and Tetanus shots, but of a couple of people I spoke to who are seasoned travellers they reckon you get away with not getting them. They are pretty friggin expensive to get as well, which doesn't help.

I know if you stick to bottled water you should be fine. Any thoughts?

Has anyone travelled to Thailand and not had any vaccinations?
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Got mine done yesterday. Hep A and Thyfoid (spelling?) doc recommended those. I didn't need tetanus (maybe I'm still good from High School?). Doc also recommended Millearia tablets, though it's not the rainy season so we should get away without them.

The two injections cost 115 odd so really not that bad.
 

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