Team-BHP - Thailand ....the way i saw it..

Here i was , reading all the info, tips,tricks , travelouges from Ton's of people from all over the world,
but have to really thank Team-BHP Travelouges, for the tips for surviving in the land of smiles. a vote of thanks to
RufRoc and mjothi who was the inspiration for me to do the trip.

Mistake No.1 - Completely Believed the Travel Agent for my Stay in BKK.

Luck -- i booked the Hotel in Phuket.

From here it was a roller-coaster ride ....

Day 1 :
Landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport by 6AM , walked and walked till i reached the VOA Counter on the left side of the walkway
where i saw the loong Queue ,it took us around 1hr to get the visa stamped the queue.

Near the VOA Counter,there will be VOA Forms, take the VOA application form , fill it up , paste ur photo and wait in the
queue, once u reach ur turn the officer will take the form,your PP , and issues you a token , he might also ask u
how much money u have , he expects u have atleast 10,000 baht , he might also ask you to show the currency (In Baht ofcourse)
he then takes the form,pp and stamp a 2 week visa in it. and then calls the token no, go and collect it.. you are done with Visa.

Walk further , turn left where they have kept couple of thermal cameras on both sides to check ur temp , this is a precaution for
swine flu , walk slowly and head for the passport control queue , there again you have more than 10 counters , stand in
any one of them , here give the arrival card with all the details filled up and your pp , they will stamp immigration and
give u back the departure card & PP . keep the card safe. u need this card for u to get back to India.

Collect Your Luggage , scan it through the scanner near the exit gate which is fast & no issues here
and head for the taxi or outside or you can go towards the Domestic departure terminal which is on the 4th Floor.

Word of Advise :
If you are planning for a connection flight towards Phuket,Ko Samui, Krabi , please leave a gap or 2 to 3hrs as a safe gap,
for your next flight ,sometimes u might get stuck in VOA counter or immigration and u might be late for ur flight !

For me since i was going to Phuket, i finally grabbed the bag and ran to the departure terminal ,i had a flight to catch
to phuket at 9am.

So , please make sure that u leave atleast 2 to 3 hrs gap between the Arrival time and
the next domestic departure .

Grabbed a starbucks coffee on the way and ran to the Domestic Counter after i took the bag clearing through customs scan
which was a breeze ,and landed in Phuket by 10.30am , after lot of sniffing around talking , bargaining , got a taxi guy
for 1050 baht , to drop me to my Hotel in Karon , since we were 4 of them , we took a toyota mini van . Y Karon, well,
Patong is a crazy place, so wanted to stay away from the hussle and buzzle , but not so far from the Action zone...,patong
was only 20min drive from Karon !!

On the way to the Hotel, the taxi guy stopped in some Travel Agent shop , i was wondering what
it was for , and as expected i was guided into the office and the travel desk lady started
talking about what fantastic deal i had got with the taxi for the hotel drop and she can offer the same price for the
drop back to airport as well, and also she started selling me day trip packages, i politely refused and walked out
to the van and asked him to take me to my hotel.without any more stops we were on the way to our hotel.

I had booked my Rooms in Hitlon Arcadia,Phuket, Check-in was a breeze .
Rest of the day was more or less resting and figuring out what to do, walked around round the karon beach area and found
out about Car and Bike rental , after hearing the horror stories of bike rentals by goras and strict no no from them ,
all i could see was goras running around in bikes, well if they could rent it , why not me !!! after all, the bumper to
bumper riding in the peak bangalore traffic every day for 2 hrs to and fro and reach my destination without 1 honk
automatically qualifies me as one of the good samaritan bike riders in the country !!:)

Well , i was in for another surprise , since i could not get a bike without keeping my Passport with the rental,
the lady in Karon beach or anywhere else , although i tried giving the pp copy they flatly refused it..
so it was a gamble which i took and took a brand new 125cc Honda bike and made sure there was no scratches
or dent or any other issues in the bike before i took it.

i took a 125cc Honda Click which had done only 2000km , so it was more or less a new one and vroom....
we were off to the best riding experiences we had in the entire life..:D

After the Lunch we travelled to kamala beach ... nice and quiet place.if u want peace and less crowded, this is one of the
places , drive around, there are tons of unexplored beaches nearby with hardly any tourists around. we travelled the less
travelled path , found beautiful beaches all over kamala , stopped , watched in awe the beauty .....

By 4pm we were at Surin Beach. calm and quiet again !! walked around , sat in the beach,dozed off, woke up, man .. how i wish this could come true in my city !!!
this is what a holiday destination should be... walk at your pace,sit where ever u like, no one to disturb, no salesmen, pure bliss !!:D

It was evening around 5.45 and we left from Surin , we hit a diff route to phuket and managed to get lost...:)me and my arrogance, never askin for directions ....!! by the time we realised ,we were wayy far away over even Karon !! , we passed Fantasea, Shooting Range, the usual Tourist spots on the way but whooz complaining !! , anywhere u turn or go , it was the most scenic route, i really wonder if i could have enjoyed so much if i took a car on hire !!, i mean getting lost, turn where ever u want, stop where ever u want, sit, enjoy the calmness, the beach, the scenery !! ,!! slowly we turned back and hit home !!!

Reached Karon by 7pm, walked around and spotted a good massage place near the hotel... no no no .. not that type.. this was a good place , how do we know ? well, follow the crowd , if the place is crowded u can be sure that it's a good one...and also the good ones usually have the ladies dressed in uniform , we had a good 1hr foot massage for 250 baht !! fantastic stuff.. within 1hr all our batteries were re-charged ...!!

We went to a small restaurant in Karon , had a quiet dinner in a small but good restaurant in Karon and hit the bed !! man whatta day !

Quote:

Originally Posted by vraghuz (Post 1505192)

Dear Raghuz,
Another alternative idea is to download the VOA form from the thai governmrnt website and fill it up beforehand. You can save a lot of time in filling in the details.
Please correct me if I am wrong, I think the visa fees of 1000 Baht is waived till 14-Mar-2009 to rpomote tourism.

After breakfast , it was time to check out the otherside of phuket, so today's plan was Kata,Pnom Peh,rawai so on...
Kata beach is again 10min drive from Karon Beach, nice laid back town,walked around the town and the beaches,moved towards Kata Noi, then Nai Harn ,Promthep Cape, towards the sunset view point, man what a view from sunset view point , truly remarkable, which is on a little hill side, towards the cape ,there are lots of small beaches ,with excellent snorkellingpoints and hardly any tourists..

This is what i was looking forward to , not the madness of Patong !! from there we moved towards Rawai , which seems like a fishing village, nice !! few visitors !! less crowd...

Since i was also into Aquatic Hobby , i wanted to Visit the Phuket Aquarium, from Rawai , we hit towards Aquarium and again
managed to get lost and reached Cape Panwa !!! but whooz complaining , man !! again whatta view , i knew i was near phuket
Aquarium , but the beauty of Cape Panwa , i was left speechless... well , i left Panwa towards Phuket , thinking that i will come back to Aquarium tomorrow, on the way back we stopped at Phuket Zoo,, Another Major Rip off !! dont even go near !! nothing is there which is intresting or worth the 500 baht u pay !!

we slowly hit back towards Karon, and boy i was hungry , stopped again at a Local Food Joint where i saw a decent crowd , and pointed at noodles, meat and ingredients to add , had one of the best thai food for 100 baht !! for two. !! ...

Eating Out:
Anywhere you eat in Phuket, the bill can vary from 750 baht to 1500 baht , the issue here was i wanted everything very spicy where
most of the thai food i tasted was plain and had very little spice , so improvise , add , ask them for more spicy , if we tell them spicy they will bring food which is ok , ask them very very spicy ,and voila .. u will have a great time.. this ofcourse if u like more fire to the food , if u don't like more spicy food, then ask them spicy, that should be ok .

Most of the restaurants have or cater more or less towards western and euro based food and where ever they mention thai ,
its basically for westerners and europeans , if u want an authentic thai, then move out from the town areas of Phuket ,
patong, where u will find authentic thai food , which is mouthwatering and dirt cheap !! look out for small eatouts,
where thais flock !! thats the place u want to go if u want some good thai food !!

On the way back from Rawai , we travelled a differnt route to reach Phuket, stopped at numerous small shacks and tasted the
best of thai , a meal for two costed us 110 baht !!! and it was tasty,filling,satisfying !! , the issue is since these guys
dont talk much english , u have to depend on sign language , go to a shack,where most of them makes the phad thai or what they
call the noodle soup right in front of u, observe what they are adding , then pray !! :D, and ask them what u want how u want it , by a simple yes and no.

for ex: point to noodle say yes, so does with the meat and the spices and the add on u think will be good . with a few yes and no, voilaa , u have the best noodles in front of u !!!

we reached Karon , by then it was night and the party animal in me woke up ... well, what to say, we hit Patong , it was around 8pm and we were near Patong , and there we saw a looong queue in the Road , and my Fears came True , it was a Police checking and we didn't had our License with us ... well what happened next !! like a true Bloria'n Biker, Closed my eyes , Prayed, and gave Full throttle ,through the small opening , and a few whistles from the Policemen, we whizzed past them and flew towards Patong !! My heart was in my mouth and i was shivering like a leaf by the time i reached Patong beach , threw the bike in a parking lot , locked it and we ran !! still thinking that they might be chasing us ....

Well nothing like that happened , we had a nice Dinner at Patong ,visited couple of Pubs, walked through the Famous Bangla Road, where the action was happening !!

Bangla Road :
This is another miniature version of the B'lore brigade road , where u have Pubs in both sides of Roads ,with Liveshows, Pole
dancing and what not !!!! truly a revelation for the first time visitors !!Music blaring on both sides ,competing against
each other, it is sure fun and action zone for Stags !!! Bangla road closes traffic at 7pm and out comes the chairs and tables from
the near restaurants and pubs to the road, after that its Chaos !!! man its a sight to see !!
u have pubs for each nationality ,brits,swedish,Aussie's,German's , scottish, u name it , its there !!

By 11.45pm we were tired and decided to hit back to Karon , to call the night off , Gave the key to my wife to drive the bike as i was a little shaky from the last escape ! , slowly we moved towards the place where they was checking going on, and voila !!,, there they stood , on both sides of the road !

I told my wife to park the vehicle somewhere and wait till the fiasco was over , as usual , the female ego in her inflated and was not in a mood to listen, i wonder why they always ooze with so much confident that they think they can get away from anything !! !! all my pleading went to deaf ears and she drove right into their throat !!

We were duly stopped , she tried all the tricks in the book to negotiate ,gave stories, told the cops that the Lic was at hotel, all turned deaf ears !! we were duly issued a Ticket of 300 baht !!

Worse , we had to go the Police station to pay it, comeback , show these guys the receipt , then leave, where on earth am i going to find out where the station was, the young police chap was a nice guy, he draw me a route map in the back of the challan , and was courteous enough to let us off in the bike to the police station and we were off to the Katu Police station !!

Imagine this in Blor'e, we could have easily escaped without going to the police station , take some small galli route and hit home !! i didnt want to take any more risks that day , so off we went searching for the police staion, found it after 30min and went in , behold , what did we see ....

There was a looong Queue of goras standing in queue to pay up , well thats when i breathed a sigh of relief that i was not alone !! and this was rather another organised way of squeezing money out of tourists !! i sat there inside the comfort of a A/c Police station ( :uncontrol) waiting for my turn to payup the fine.

Meanwhile there was another drama unfolding outside the station, i went out and sniffed around and found out that , it was a Arab Teenager ,who took one of the superbikes for a daily rent from Patong beachside and managed to scratch it a little, and the bike guy was asking 50,000.00 baht for damages !!

i was in no mood for any more troubles, so i went back , paid up the fine, went back to the cop , showed him the challan and i was off !! he was courteous enough to tell me that the challan was valid for a day , so that anyone else stops me on the way or tomorrow , i just have to show the ticket !! we reached Karon in no time, parked my bike, hit the room and could not sleep for more than 1hr !! man whatta day or rather night it has turned it to be !!!!!!