OK, this may seem odd, but I'm a 40yo advertising creative director and I'm going through my pre-mid life crisis and I'm coming to Phuket. I know nothing about the area and that's cool. I want to meet fun people, learn how to travel on a slim budget and stay in hostels and work odd jobs for extra cash. I lived and worked in Japan and have traveled all over Asia but never to Phuket. This is also my first time as a low budget traveler and I'm not sure how to do this. Odd, yes, I know.

Can anyone, any age, race, relgion, gender contact me and tell me some things I need to do to prepare and what short cuts can I use once there to get plugged in to the backpacker scene. I'm talking about where to find the cheapest bus from the airport, how to find others at hostels (and how to find the hostels), who hires Americans to do odd jobs, etc.

Please, ANY help would be great. I'm coming sometime in late November.

Please email [email protected] since I wont be coming back to this site. I've read a lot of the reviews and the people who come here seem to have the best information. Ive posted on a few other sites as well.

Thank you so much in advance.

scott nosenko

be very careful about working without a work permit

Don't like to blow out a candle but you can totally forget the idea of casual work, just not a reality, forget it, as far as hostels, that is not such a concept on Phuket and the couple of places I have seen are the same or more than guesthouses, you can get a fan cool room from about USD 10-15 depending on time of year, do appreciate Phuket is a highly developed tourism center and not these days really for the laid back backpacker scene. Depending on time of year you might find other islands or beach areas cheaper to stay on.

lonelyplanet.com Happy Travels!

Try www.PhuketDelight.com

Scan across the menu and one of the options with info is "Working on Phuket" - might be some info you can use there.