so! i planned my friend's trip around my trip to phuket. i was running a half marathon, and initially i intended to just go friday - sunday, but since she was coming i expanded it to thursday - monday. we spent two nights in patong and three up in bang tao, which is where the marathon was.
we stayed at the fundee boutique hotel in patong. we were greeted with towel elephants when we got there! the hotel was nice, and it had free wifi which was great. we ended up getting breakfast at the hotel next door, though, as it offered a buffet while the fundee only offered a standard eggs, sausage, bread breakfast (at least, that's what the sign said) for the same price.
i really didn't do a good job of planning for this trip, but luckily the internet was easy to help. tourist phuket is known for only a few things: partying, elephants, food, the islands, big buddha, and that's all i can think of. we're not big partiers, and big buddha is a fairly recent construction, so we stuck with the basics. i booked two of our tours through www.phuket.com/www.asiawebdirect.com. i was a little nervous at first because it asked for the CC# and didn't provide a confirmation email until several days later, but it turned out to be very legit and nice. the tours are a little more expensive than what you'd get if you got them on the ground in phuket, but i am way too much of a planner to leave it up to fate. no matter where you book your tour though, whether online or at one of the many stalls scattered throughout phuket or at your hotel, your transportation will also be scheduled. it was so nice to not have to worry about taxis for a change. AND, when i contacted asia web direct about changing out drop-off location because we were changing hotels, it was no problem to change it. it was convenient.
our island tour was great. i'm not sure the name of the actual company, as it's one of the ones we booked online, but we left out of the royal phuket marina. it was about a 45 minute ride to our first island, which we actually breezed past because the driver/guides thought it was too crowded. we went on to another one, where we all jumped out of the boat and swam for a bit. then we got back in, and drove past an island with caves where the birds who make nests with their saliva live. they harvest the birds nests and use it as an herbal remedy. no thanks for that. then we went to monkey island! where we fed monkeys. i was way excited. then we went to another island and snorkeled for a bit. then we went to another island, where our buffet lunch was waiting. since i never know what kind of meats will be provided, i always ask for a vegetarian meal (just like when i fly). they were happy to accommodate. it turns out there was plenty of meat that i'd like there, but having the veggie option was nice. phuket gets a LOT of europeans, so they had both asian and western food. after lunch, we laid on the beach for a bit, then got back in the boat to go to bamboo island, where we laid on the beach some more.
in all, i liked the tour, but we did a lot of boat riding and not a lot of beach laying. the longest we had on the beach was about 45 minutes, which isn't a lot of time to relax. still, it was fun!
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