Wanderlast

Sorry to chime in with negative thoughts but I need to post to pay back for all the help I have gotten here over the past couple of years. I took my family to Phuket and we stayed at the Holiday Inn for several weeks in July. First, everything you hear about the Holiday Inn is true; it is wonderful, especially for families. Rates were half price and so much for the SW monsoon, or rainy season: it didn't rain much at all.
What you should pay attention to however is that the Andaman Sea is very dangerous. I took the family there with idea that we would not be able to swim on the beach as all my kids are young and none are strong swimmers. Of course, the kids thought Dad was being silly. Within the first 2 weeks 4 or 5 people had drown on various west coast beaches, all adults. We did end up swimming at the beach from time to time but we watched what the tide was doing. Get a tide table and limit swimming to slack tide or as tide starts to come in. Drowing from rip currents can happen anywhere; last time I was in the Florida panhandle eleven people drown from rips the day we left.
Now on to the controlable negatives: the water at Patong Beach was disgusting at times, lots of plastic bags, paper, condoms and junk. I had been on this same beach in November six months earlier and it was pretty clean but that was NE monsoon and the stuff they dump in the water gets blown out into the Andaman. Not so in the SW monsoon, it gets blown back to beach. A friend had been there in April and told me about the dirty beach then but I guess I had trouble believing him. I have read Phuket is running out of places to put its trash. Also, at any time of the year be careful of getting on a thai boat including public ferries as they like to overcrowd them, but especially in the Andaman during the SW monsoon.

Two other negatives which the government could fix if they wanted: First, Agressive Indian Tailors! who although they have lived in Thailand for ever do obnoxious things no Thai would. Everybody knows them and how to handle them but it gets real old. The rest of the touts are boring but managable. Next, we have the Tuk-tuk drivers. Between November '06 and this summer the government changed the traffic pattern to one way one the beach road. The Tuk-tuk drivers protested but were over ruled. They responded by doubling their fares from 100 Baht to 200Baht. These people are very angry now. I didn't think they were so nice before. Perhaps other tourists are boycotting them--I only took one in a months stay. In July, there would long lines of them by the side of beach road, taking up room and parking, with no customers. The alternative is to rent a motorbike for 200 Baht a day. The Tuk-tuk drivers, sensing this is where their business has gone are quite agressive about forcing you out of the way even though there is traffic in front and no where to go. In Bangkok the poor taxi driver will take you across town in rush hour and he earns 58 Baht. The Patong Tuk-tuk wants 200 baht to go 3 blocks! As everyone knows, the reason there are no buses like in other Thai cities and the Tuk tuks dominate is because the Mafia controls the Tuk tuks. Who will stand up to them? Not the government or the police, so far. Take a motorcycle taxi or walk! If you rent a motor bike be careful: it's the number 1 cause of injuries among foreigners and if a Thai runs you over too bad but if you run over a Thai you're in trouble. That was going to be the extent of my negative warnings to Fodorites but since I have been keeping up with the Island by reading the Phuket Gazette online since my return, I am afraid I have one more: there has been a disturbing rise in violence against foreigners on Phuket lately, especially in the southern tip of the island, including armed robberies and murders. Usually these are not reported in the mainstream Thai press. There's a story there now about two incidents: both victims report they were disappointed in the police response. Many expats will not express surprise at anything I have reported but would they agree there does seem to be something going on in Phuket lately. I would be interested hearing comments by some of the regulars.

I am a huge fan of Thailand. It is one of my favorite countries in SE asia and the world. I have always told people when asked that Asian cities are much safer than US Cities. I am sorry to be critical of a country and a people I truly love but maybe if the tourists start complaining the government will have to do something.

LeighTravelClub

Some Tips on Not Drowning

Most tourist drownings in Thailand involve people caught in RIP CURRENTS on popular beaches. Phuket and Ko Chang have the worst records, but rip currents can occur anywhere there is a surf running. All that water heading beachwards has to get back out to sea somehow, and that is the rip current.
Waves in Thailand are more a wet season thing, during and after periods of prolonged strong winds.Big waves are absent 99% of dry season.
Inexperienced people finding themselves shooting out to sea in a rip current try to swim against it, get exhausted, take in water, and drown.THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN! Anyone who can merely tread water, let alone swim, should never drown in a rip.
First DON’T PANIC.
Surfers use rips all the time to take them “out the back” to the take-off zone. They don’t even have to swim. I suggest poor swimmers do exactly the same. ALL rips dissipate in the deeper water just behind the wave breaking zone. They have done their job, and do not go further. The longest rip I have ever seen went 400 meters from the shore in a HUGE SURF, much bigger than anything Thailand gets. Most rips last for 100-150m. Once you are out in the calmer water past the break zone, tread water, put up your hand and wait for someone with a longtail to pick you up.
Yes, The Andaman Sea can be very dangerous.....just as any sea can! However, it is one of the most beautiful in the world.

skittle

Good advice Leigh, I would like to add a couple of things which seem obvious but might not be to people who are on holidays and not so familar with the surf.
Never swim at night.
Never, never swim if you have been drinking.

Batfish

Nobody seems to like Tuk Tuks. It's cheaper to rent a bike for the day, and if you want to see more of the island than just Patong, better to rent a car. Some tourists seem happy to pay a few hundred Baht for a ride, and if you are planning a "night out", then a tuk tuk is a very good idea. The recent violent attacks have all been in the same area of Phuket and all late at night. Riding a bike at 1am, alone, along a dark, twisty road is not a good idea anywhere in the world. I hope the police here wake up to the fact that if tourists feel unsafe, they will go somewhere else. I hope such attacks will not continue. (You can find reports in the Phuket Gazette, even if it does not reach the wider press.)

Jamie
Phuket

JamesA

The undercurrents in the rainy season ( green season ? ) have always been well known, when I lived there I would see people in the water whilst flags were flying. But even with danger flags flying people seem to ignore it.
When they introduced the one way Patong system a fare went from 150 to 200, although the route taken was not affected at all by the one way.

shanek

We stayed at Le Meridian in august and never paid more than 150 baht for a tuk tuk to any part of Patong.WE were quoted 200-250, we smiled and said that 150 baht is what we were happy paying and we always settled on that. We got no bad attitude at all. We managed to get up to 8 people for this price and they seemed happy with that fare.
We didnt spend any time at the beach in Patong but the beach and water in front of the Meridien was fantastic. There were some reasonable sized waves but nothing dangerous for a reasonably strong adult swimmer. If we had the kids with us we would have stayed in the pool though.
We spent a day at Kata and the conditions there were similar.