Recent trip to Phuket and Bangkok
 

As I planned our trip to Thailand I was a regular reader of this forum so I thought I should post a trip report.

Phuket
Our time in Phuket was spent at the Marriott Beach Club in a 2 bedroom condo. The unit was beautiful, comfortable and very clean. The master bath was luxurious with a large soaking tub and seperate shower. The beds were quite firm. If you do not like this type you can request a mattress topper to soften things up. Housekeeping was excellent and very friendly. The resort suggested that you not drink their tap water and supplied bottled water daily.

The grounds were beautifully kept and the pool was really well designed. One section was about 8 feet deep which we loved.

Unfortunately I was sick the first morning we were there with a terrible cough but waited 4 days to see the doctor. The doctor was not there in the morning but he came to my room in the afternoon and gave me several medicines to take care of the cough. Everything was very efficient.

Since I waited so long to get my antibiotics I was not up to much touring on the island. Hopefully I will do more on the next trip. We did see Fanta Sea. The show was very good but the dinner was unremarkable.

Bangkok
While in Bangkok we could not resist staying at the Peninsula. It really was a beautiful place and the service was outstanding. I did not like the pool area and the pool water was uncomfortably cold. Now that I have experienced the Peninsula I will probably stay at the Marriott Resort and Spa the next time.

We hired a private tour of the Grand Palace and really enjoyed hearing all of the history and background from the guide. Had we gone by ourselves we would have missed a lot.

We went to the weekend market on a surprisingly cool day taking the Peninsula boat across to the Sky Train. The Sky Train was very clean and cool and we had no trouble getting to the market. It was an amazing experience. I wish we had brought 2 backpacks instead of just 1 for all of our purchases. We negotiated on some prices but some things were such a bargin I could not justify asking to pay less.

Even though I was sick (or just recovering) most of the time the trip was really wonderful. We hope to return next year. We travelled on Malaysia Airlines from Newark. The service was good but the stops made the trip so much longer than necessary. Next year we hope to use Thai Air's new non-stop service or maybe Singapore Air.

Feel free to post questions and I will answer if I can.

A few JW Phuket questions.

How was the food, and what restaurants did you eat in? How are the food and drinks prices at the hotel? When were you there and was it crowded? Did you have to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to get a chair by the pool?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the report. Where did you eat in BKK? How did you like the food?

I'm delighted to hear about the Beach Club in Phuket, since I'll be there in the middle of May. I've heard that the beach is unsuitable for swimming -- is that true? And just how far is it from town?

The food at the Marriott in Phuket was very inexpensive for a 5 star hotel but perhaps a little expensive for Thailand. I am sure cheaper food could be found but I enjoyed the comfort of eating at the resort. Breakfast of course was delicious. We ate at the buffet several days. Perhaps I am in the minority but I am not a big fan of Thai food in general because I do not enjoy particularly spicey food. When the spice is toned down to what I can tolerate it takes away too much of the flavor. I consider this to be my weakness as opposed to a flaw in their cooking style.

We had no problems getting chairs at the pool. The occupancy did not seem very high though so this could be more of a problem when the tourism recovers. We were in Phuket Feb. 26 - March 5 and in BKK March 5 - 9. The pool at the Beach Club was quite nice with a convenient location. If we had been staying at the JW we would probably have used that pool. Both were available to us.

The Marriott was about a 30 minute drive from Phuket Town. I wish we had gone to Phatong instead. I was not very impressed with Phuket Town.

The beach was different each time we went out. One day it was wavey but did not have a strong under current. Another day it was very calm on the surface but the under current was quite noticable. I think you should pay attention to the posted conditions each day.

In Bangkok we ate at the Peninsula every day. There was so much variety that we chose not to venture out at meal time. Keep in mind that this was our first trip to Asia and I think we were still getting our bearings.

The JWM is about 30 minutes to Phuket Town but that is the 'town', not that much to see but a lot of old Sino-Portuguese architecture if you get away from the center. Patong beach is about 40 minutes depending on traffic.
From May to october the hotel will probably place warning flags, adhere to them, there can be very very striong undercurrents, if they put up the Red Flags for no swimming abide by it, crazy when you hear of drownings when people have gone swimming when the red flags were posted. Not all beaches have them but I guess certainly the JWM would.
The location is north of the airport on the way to the bridge. if you plan a trip to James Bond island or other parts of Phang Nga it is convenient.

thanks for the report...i plan on a short stay at the phuket jw in june so this has given me some first hand info...i have taken note of the flag warnings too...

What type of room did you get at the Peninsula? We are looking to stay there as well and are trying to decide if $13 more for a Grand Deluxe or $25 more for a Balcony room.

Does anyone have any advice on this?

I would not have spent any time on the balcony and we were there on relatively cool days. The view from the windows was lovely. At first we were on the 14th floor but we were later moved to the 6th floor (in a suite) due to some mechanical difficulties they were having. The view of the river was not much better from the higher floor but I did like the additional privacy. On the 6th floor we were right next to another building and we could easily see right into their rooms. Of course they could see right into ours as well. I felt like I needed to close the curtains even in the daytime.

Go for the grand deluxe and get the privacy so you can enjoy the view.