We decided to catch the bus to Phuket as it was about 1/3 of the price of flights. We were told it would be about 14 hours on the bus which is decent I must say. Even though it was a “VIP” bus. How ever it only cost us $27 so we couldnt complain. We left Bangkok at 7pm and made our way through the protesters and of the city. After a couple of stops during the night we arrived in Surat and changed buses. From there we made it into Phuket around 12pm feeling a bit jaded, emotions were high coming off that bus I can tell you. There were about 10 of us heading to different parts of Phuket so we were dropped off in a van which was quite expensive and no one was happy about that. After a few arguments everyone accepted the situation and we headed off to our various hotels. After 19 hours of travels we made it to the Living Room Guest House which I will review in “Tips for the Road” Needless to say after a quick meal we were in for an early night.

Our first day here we hired some scooters and checked out Patong beach and Phuket town. They had some pretty sweet go carts there which were only slightly cheaper than NZ but none the less super fun!

We booked ourselves on a tour to James Bond Island the next day which included a day on quite a large boat as it took us to different islands and caves. The most amazing part of this tour included Kayaking through diamond cave with 4 of us crammed into this wee thing getting preeetty comfortable with each other. Depending on the tide determines how close your face and knees will be to these sharp jaggered rocks towering down on you. Ian got the worst of it scraping his knee several times, quite funny! Lunch on this tour is pretty sweet too! A buffet lunch is served which caters for vegetarians and meat eaters so nobody went hungry and everyone was ready for their afternoon naps. Would give this tour a 6/10.

Matt

Ian and I decided to book a fishing charter the day after which was really good! Nathan came along but didn’t fish. We set sail from Chalong pier at about 8.30am and sailed for a couple of hours as they set up the 6 trolling lines. Each person fishing on the boat had to pick a card and depending on the card determined when you would fish. Ian selected #1 so he got to reel in anything that was caught on the line. Being the pro fisherman he is he was able to catch a baby tuna! Time passed after and no fish would take the bait so we stopped the boat and did a couple of hours of hand line fishing. They caught a lot of snapper which probably wouldn’t qualify in NZ but the Thai fisherman insisted we keep them. We were told we went fishing in low season so our fish would be no trophy but we had fun none the less.

Fishing was done and they pulled into a reef with a lot of beautiful fish and the clearest water I have ever seen. Here we went snorkelling and ate lunch which was a perfect end to the day! The whole day cost us $40 each. I would give this charter an 8/10.

Matt

Things are super expensive in Phuket compared to Bangkok so we decided we wouldn’t stay for too long. We hired  scooters again and went for a ride around the the cape. Really nice roads for riding! And then we stumbled upon this ridiculously nice beach! There are a few of these, really quiet and clean from the lack of tourists.

We left for Vietnam yesterday the 24th and arrived last night. Really good vibes here so far! But Ill update you soon on our progess here. We are off to look at motorbikes to buy here in a couple of hours. Looking forward to it!!