Having been to Thailand a few times in the past, primarily to Bangkok I didn’t know if I wanted to spend more time in the country or not when I was thinking about my S.E.Asian workcation. Bangkok had set a certain kind of image that I wasn’t keen on hitting the country again. Also considering that I tend not to head to a country that I have been to in the past, I thought of not spending more than a couple of days in Thailand before progressing to the next country of Cambodia.
So when I booked my flight out of India, I picked the destination as Phuket, wanting to hit southern part of the country this time around and wow ! that was probably the best decision of the entire 2 month getaway to this part of the world. I had such a good time the first week or so in Phuket and surrounding islands that when I finished travelling to Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam over the next 6-7 weeks I returned back to Thailand to spend more time in the islands; this time though it was to Krabi & the surrounds.
I landed in Phuket around 9am after a overnight flight that had me transit through Kuala Lumpur. As soon as I landed I connected to the airport Wi-Fi to attend a quick work meeting, which I was on time for. And soon after that I took the airport bus to the city center so I could find my hostel and crash for a couple of hours. The bus traversed through some windy roads first and then through the coastline until I reached my stop. Until then nothing about Phuket was exciting; accommodation was a nicer place though but everything everywhere seemed very quiet. Apparently I had dropped by during the off season and the tourists, I was told, arrive in heaps around mid-late April, where as I was there a month earlier.
That evening after catching up on some sleep, I walked to Patong Beach just before sunset and as decent as it was, I wasn’t wow’d by anything. The water was alright, sand wasn’t too soft, lots of parasailers in the air and plenty of people at the beach. It was good but nothing great. The sunset wasn’t amazing either. It was a first impression of the city that I didn’t need. Just a few weeks before arriving into Phuket, I had spent a month in Goa (India) where I had some of the most spectacular sunsets every evening. So awesome that watching it every evening made it more & more mesmerizing than the previous one. Probably it was cuz of that, the Patong Beach sunset and its evening ambience didn’t tickle my fancy as much. But a couple of days later I went further south from Patong to Karon & Kata beaches and those beaches & their sunset were absolutely gorgeous.
While in Phuket/Patong, I wanted to check out the islands in the region and as such I hopped on to two separate tours on separate days. And this turned out to be some of the best experiences of Thailand for me, so much so that after all the remaining travels in the region, I returned to Krabi so I could spend more time in the islands. On one of the days I went on the Maya Bay Island tour, which included a cave tour, swimming at Pi Leh Lagoon, snorkeling at Monkey Beach, lunch at Phi Phi Islands and visit to Maya Bay, which was a total delight. Swimming in Pi Leh was what I enjoyed the most; such serene waters and a brilliant sunny day to go with it despite a plethora of tourists. The lunch at Phi Phi was great too, with a large unlimited buffet to eat to your heart’s (& stomach’s) content. We finished that day with an amazing sunset at Punya Beach and by the time I headed back to my hostel it was almost 8pm. A long tiring day for sure, despite which I caught up on the day’s office work for a couple of hours before knocking off.
On another day I jumped onto the James Bond Island tour, which was a slightly shorter tour in comparison but equally enjoyable. This one covered a few islands with a couple of lovely snorkeling points. Apart from the James Bond Island being the highlight, there was also a kayaking tour that took us to some breathtaking rock formations making for an amazing landscape in the water. Being the water baby that I’m I made the most of the water, swimming & jumping into the waters of the Andaman Sea whenever & wherever possible. This tour being a relatively shorter one dropped me back at Patong before sunset and I could enjoy the evening ambience at the Patong Beach & Bangla Streets.
All these tours are so well organized, where they pick you up right from the hotel/accommodation, take you to the ports of departure to the islands, finish the days’ activities, and then drop you back at your stay. Even for a backpacking traveller like me, the costs were absolutely reasonable; the experience is what makes the whole thing enjoyable and if you’re lucky, you do meet some fantastic fellow solo travellers who can make for a great time.
On my return to Thailand after a few weeks, I chose to stay in Krabi and explore the surrounds. Spent a good of time of Ao Nang beach which was more festive & more Indian than India is !! Not something I was expecting or wanted it to be. But given the tourist season had not yet picked up, it wasn’t as busy as it normally gets apparently. From Krabi again I jumped onto a island tour that covered half a dozen islands. But the highlight was the snorkeling & sunset on Hong Island and watching the bioluminescent plankton at night on the way back.
The bioluminescent plankton was so mesmerising that it was so hard to get out of the water. To experience its full glory, we had to jump into the water in pitch black darkness, with our snorkeling gear on and then shake the water a bit with our hands n legs for the plankton to light up. It was literally an out of the world experience. It felt like I was floating in space with the zillions of stars twinkling right under my eyes. Something that has to be done to understand what the feeling is like, cuz no words can express the joy of this !!
All in all, the southern islands of Thailand gave me a completely different perspective of the country and for the good. Having spent time in Bangkok before in my previous trips, this time along with the islands I spent time in Pattaya as well. But for sure it’s the islands which have my heart and definitely somewhere I’d return back to, to spend more time & further south. The world is a beautiful place no doubt and one lifetime isn’t sufficient to experience it all. But if one gets to spend a good amount of time in the islands of Thailand, then all the other countries on the planet can take a back seat & wait for their turn 🙂
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