From Seahorses to Whalesharks, Two Weeks in Thailand - Siteseeing Relaxing and Diving
Apr 11th, 2006, 11:04 AM
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From Seahorses to Whalesharks, Two Weeks in Thailand - Siteseeing Relaxing and Diving
Just returned from a wonderful two weeks in Thailand - I got lots of help from lurking on the Asia board - so here is my trip report in hopes it may help others in their planning. The emphasis of this trip was on scuba diving.
Bangkok - we spent our first 2 days in Bangkok and saw the main tourist sites. We used a driver Denchai, arranged through Ratt and were very glad we did. He was a great driver and pleasant guide, although his english was not as clear as we hoped for(it was certainly better than our Thai).
We loved the longtail tour we took, especially the trip through Bangkok neighborhoods - seeing a komodo dragon on someone's front steps was quite a memorable experience.
We were too tired to be very adventurous in our eating. We stayed at the Pen and enjoyed dinner at Thiptara and dim sum lunch at Jester's. We were very disappointed in our dinner at the Supatra River House - it was our first and last time ordering off the "set menu". This was the worst meal of the trip (and probably one of the most expensive.)
Diving Aboard the Queen Scuba -
next we flew to Phuket for our 4 day scuba diving trip in the Andaman Sea aboard the Queen Scuba. This was an excellent expericence. Although my partner is an experienced diver, I am a novice (just got certified in December) so I was specifically looking for a shorter trip. I got very helpful advice in booking from Siam Dive and Sail. The Queen Scuba is a mid-priced boat, but had very high quality service. The staff were efficient, friendly, and most imporantly great dive masters. The Thai food onboard was some of the best we had anywhere on the trip.
We did four dives a day, starting in the Similan Islands, then headed North to Koh Bon, Koh TaChai and Richelieu Rock. The diving ranged from good to phenomenal. The best dive was at Richelieu Rock where we started the dive off seeing a tigertail seahorse and ended after seeing a 25 foot whaleshark. Richelieu rock would've been a great dive even without those sitings, as the marine life was vibrant everywere. Elsewhere on the trip we swam with mantas, turtles, and leopard sharks. On most every dive we saw lionfish and scorpionfish, along with common reef fish like batfish, angelfish, triggerfish, groupers, anemonefish etc. The seas were calm and flat, though some dive sites had pretty strong currents.
Kata Thani, Phuket-
After our dive adventure, I was ready to relax on land, so we headed to the Kata Thani in Phuket. We really liked our stay here. We got a good rate on an oceanfront jr suite as prices fell as of April 1st. We were happy to relax and enjoy the 300 bhat 1 hour massages by the pool. I even broke down and got my first pedicure ever.
We had our best meal of the trip at Mom Tri's Kitchen. The outdoor seting overlooking the sea is lovely and the Thai food was so tasty and well spiced, that we were sorry not to have eaten there more tahn once. We took a trip into Patong one night for dinner and after seeing the crowds, we were so happy that we chose to stay in quiet Kata Noi. We would definitely stay here again.
Phi Phi Island Village -
Next we headed to Koh Phi Phi Don via speedboat and stayed a Phi Phi Island Village (PPIV). The setting here is spectatular, the limestone islands arise out of the emerald green sea. We stayed in a deluxe room at PPIV and were glad we hadn't paid extra to be beachfront. The deluxe bungalows are one row back from the beach, but still have a view of the sea. The ocean in front of the resort is beautiful, but shallow - so swimming can be awkward, espcially at low tide. Fortuately the pool is large and quite lovely. Though often all the pool loungers were taken. The hotel wasn't full, so I can't imagine what the chair situation must be like at peak season.
The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. The food at dinner was somewhat disappointing. There is a Thai resturant, which is beautifully apointed and romantic, but the food is "Thai fusion" - which for the most part seemed to mean westernized and "blanded down". I couldn't help thinking how the food on the dive boat was better than what I was eating at this fancy restaurant.
We hired a longtail boat and toured Phi Phi Leh - where they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio film "the Beach". The trip was a lot of fun, we saw incredible scenery and did some great snorkeling.
We also went to Ton Sai Bay, which seemed to be in full swing - no tsumani damage visable. Here I had my first Thai street food - a chocolate banana pancake and a pineapple smoothie. Both tasted great and were a baragin at about $1. That night I had shrimp and prawns for dinner. Not sure which it was, but I came down with a pretty bad GI upset.
I spent the next day recovering, while my partner did a day dive to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. She took a speedboat arragned through the dive shop at PPIV. She was pretty disappointed with the day. The boat was not equipped for diving - the tanks, gear etc, all were placed in the center cabin and the divers had to maneuver around them. The boat was crowded and hot. The dive itself was a letdown visibiiity wan't that great and it paled with what she'd seen on previous dives - which seemed surprsing since many people had told us this site was second only to Richelieu Rock for Thai diving. Perhaps it was more about missed expectations. In retrospect, she would've preferred doing a local PP dives on a more comfortable boat.
Layover In Bangkok - Drinks at Sky Bar /Scirrocco
I managed to book our return from Phi Phi/Phuket with 6 hour layover in Bangkok. We arrived at 5pm, but our flight to JFK didn't tkae off til 12:40. Poor planning, mostly due to nervousnes about missing a connection leaving the island. With all that time to kill, we decided to take a cab into Bangkok and get a drink at the Sky Bar a the State Tower. They are pretty strict about their rules here - no backpacks, no sport shoes or flip flops. We were under dressed and over luggaged. We checked our carryons with the LaBua bell desk, but still managed to violate the flip flop rule. The door staff are pretty rigid - so I had to go back down to my carryon and changed into my Merrills - somehow these passed - and we were shown to the outisde bar at "Distil". We enjoyed expensive maitais and watched the sunset.
Later, after dropping many $$$ on sushi, did they deem us fit, and led us ouside to the Sky Bar. The view out here on the 64th floor is amazing!!! We hadn't really realized what we were missing. Many people weren't really all that better dressed than us - must be about attitude as you enter as to where they have your drink. We had a great time and were gald we didn't just sit at the airport.
We took a cab back to the airport and sailed right in, until we got 1 km from the terminal. It took about half and hour to drive that last km at 10:00 on a Friday night. Good thing our layover was so long!
Flights - Thai Air direct from JFK
We live near Philly and drove to JFK in order to get on the direct flight to BKK. We did park, sleep fly at the airport Ramada and it was fine. We bought seats in Premium economy and thought the extra space and pitch was worth the price.
We had a really great time in Thailand - still haven't figured ut how to beat this jet lag though
Bangkok - we spent our first 2 days in Bangkok and saw the main tourist sites. We used a driver Denchai, arranged through Ratt and were very glad we did. He was a great driver and pleasant guide, although his english was not as clear as we hoped for(it was certainly better than our Thai).
We loved the longtail tour we took, especially the trip through Bangkok neighborhoods - seeing a komodo dragon on someone's front steps was quite a memorable experience.
We were too tired to be very adventurous in our eating. We stayed at the Pen and enjoyed dinner at Thiptara and dim sum lunch at Jester's. We were very disappointed in our dinner at the Supatra River House - it was our first and last time ordering off the "set menu". This was the worst meal of the trip (and probably one of the most expensive.)
Diving Aboard the Queen Scuba -
next we flew to Phuket for our 4 day scuba diving trip in the Andaman Sea aboard the Queen Scuba. This was an excellent expericence. Although my partner is an experienced diver, I am a novice (just got certified in December) so I was specifically looking for a shorter trip. I got very helpful advice in booking from Siam Dive and Sail. The Queen Scuba is a mid-priced boat, but had very high quality service. The staff were efficient, friendly, and most imporantly great dive masters. The Thai food onboard was some of the best we had anywhere on the trip.
We did four dives a day, starting in the Similan Islands, then headed North to Koh Bon, Koh TaChai and Richelieu Rock. The diving ranged from good to phenomenal. The best dive was at Richelieu Rock where we started the dive off seeing a tigertail seahorse and ended after seeing a 25 foot whaleshark. Richelieu rock would've been a great dive even without those sitings, as the marine life was vibrant everywere. Elsewhere on the trip we swam with mantas, turtles, and leopard sharks. On most every dive we saw lionfish and scorpionfish, along with common reef fish like batfish, angelfish, triggerfish, groupers, anemonefish etc. The seas were calm and flat, though some dive sites had pretty strong currents.
Kata Thani, Phuket-
After our dive adventure, I was ready to relax on land, so we headed to the Kata Thani in Phuket. We really liked our stay here. We got a good rate on an oceanfront jr suite as prices fell as of April 1st. We were happy to relax and enjoy the 300 bhat 1 hour massages by the pool. I even broke down and got my first pedicure ever.
We had our best meal of the trip at Mom Tri's Kitchen. The outdoor seting overlooking the sea is lovely and the Thai food was so tasty and well spiced, that we were sorry not to have eaten there more tahn once. We took a trip into Patong one night for dinner and after seeing the crowds, we were so happy that we chose to stay in quiet Kata Noi. We would definitely stay here again.
Phi Phi Island Village -
Next we headed to Koh Phi Phi Don via speedboat and stayed a Phi Phi Island Village (PPIV). The setting here is spectatular, the limestone islands arise out of the emerald green sea. We stayed in a deluxe room at PPIV and were glad we hadn't paid extra to be beachfront. The deluxe bungalows are one row back from the beach, but still have a view of the sea. The ocean in front of the resort is beautiful, but shallow - so swimming can be awkward, espcially at low tide. Fortuately the pool is large and quite lovely. Though often all the pool loungers were taken. The hotel wasn't full, so I can't imagine what the chair situation must be like at peak season.
The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. The food at dinner was somewhat disappointing. There is a Thai resturant, which is beautifully apointed and romantic, but the food is "Thai fusion" - which for the most part seemed to mean westernized and "blanded down". I couldn't help thinking how the food on the dive boat was better than what I was eating at this fancy restaurant.
We hired a longtail boat and toured Phi Phi Leh - where they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio film "the Beach". The trip was a lot of fun, we saw incredible scenery and did some great snorkeling.
We also went to Ton Sai Bay, which seemed to be in full swing - no tsumani damage visable. Here I had my first Thai street food - a chocolate banana pancake and a pineapple smoothie. Both tasted great and were a baragin at about $1. That night I had shrimp and prawns for dinner. Not sure which it was, but I came down with a pretty bad GI upset.
I spent the next day recovering, while my partner did a day dive to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. She took a speedboat arragned through the dive shop at PPIV. She was pretty disappointed with the day. The boat was not equipped for diving - the tanks, gear etc, all were placed in the center cabin and the divers had to maneuver around them. The boat was crowded and hot. The dive itself was a letdown visibiiity wan't that great and it paled with what she'd seen on previous dives - which seemed surprsing since many people had told us this site was second only to Richelieu Rock for Thai diving. Perhaps it was more about missed expectations. In retrospect, she would've preferred doing a local PP dives on a more comfortable boat.
Layover In Bangkok - Drinks at Sky Bar /Scirrocco
I managed to book our return from Phi Phi/Phuket with 6 hour layover in Bangkok. We arrived at 5pm, but our flight to JFK didn't tkae off til 12:40. Poor planning, mostly due to nervousnes about missing a connection leaving the island. With all that time to kill, we decided to take a cab into Bangkok and get a drink at the Sky Bar a the State Tower. They are pretty strict about their rules here - no backpacks, no sport shoes or flip flops. We were under dressed and over luggaged. We checked our carryons with the LaBua bell desk, but still managed to violate the flip flop rule. The door staff are pretty rigid - so I had to go back down to my carryon and changed into my Merrills - somehow these passed - and we were shown to the outisde bar at "Distil". We enjoyed expensive maitais and watched the sunset.
Later, after dropping many $$$ on sushi, did they deem us fit, and led us ouside to the Sky Bar. The view out here on the 64th floor is amazing!!! We hadn't really realized what we were missing. Many people weren't really all that better dressed than us - must be about attitude as you enter as to where they have your drink. We had a great time and were gald we didn't just sit at the airport.
We took a cab back to the airport and sailed right in, until we got 1 km from the terminal. It took about half and hour to drive that last km at 10:00 on a Friday night. Good thing our layover was so long!
Flights - Thai Air direct from JFK
We live near Philly and drove to JFK in order to get on the direct flight to BKK. We did park, sleep fly at the airport Ramada and it was fine. We bought seats in Premium economy and thought the extra space and pitch was worth the price.
We had a really great time in Thailand - still haven't figured ut how to beat this jet lag though
Apr 11th, 2006, 01:40 PM
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Nice report, thanks. I'm not a diver, just a snorkeler. Would it be possible to see a seahorse from 15 feet deep or less? Kata Thani/Kata Noi -- what was the oceanfront rate you were able to get and how did you book?
Apr 11th, 2006, 03:24 PM
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lovely report Rumrita - we went on a liveaboard 5 years ago and loved Richelieu Rock too. However, we did find Hin Daeng and Hin Muang second to Richelieu, but we had good visibility, perhaps that made the difference. Sounds like you had a great time, BB
Apr 12th, 2006, 04:05 AM
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vik13 - We saw our seahorse at about 90 ft. It may be possible to see one snorkeling, but I never have. This was my first seahorse sighting after 10 year of snorkeling (in the Caribbean/Mexico and Hawaii.) There was plenty of good snorkeling on the trip - during surface intervals aound the Similan islands on the boat and off of Koh Phi Phi. Phuket was not good for snorkeling however- it seemed seriously overfished. At Kata Noi beach we did see some parrot fish, puffer fish, sea stars - but very few and the visibility was pretty poor.
As for the Kata Thani, we booked through sawadee.com - 4350 bht per night inclusive of taxes and breakfast. As a first timer to Thailand, I realize what may be a bargain for me, may not be for others - this comes to about $105 per night. It was well wrth it for us.
As for the Kata Thani, we booked through sawadee.com - 4350 bht per night inclusive of taxes and breakfast. As a first timer to Thailand, I realize what may be a bargain for me, may not be for others - this comes to about $105 per night. It was well wrth it for us.
