Phuket Trip - Final Preparation

When everything were already budgeted and well planned, some even have deposited the tour + petty cash money, we were shocked by the SMS received by Fenny from AirAsia: Our flight was rescheduled to 27 August 2010!!!!


For those who are not aware, we've planned and booked the ticket for Phuket between 26 to 29 August 2010. Yes, that makes it 4 days 3 night, not to mention the only flight on 29 August (Phuket to Jakarta) is early in the morning, which makes our trip 3 days and 3 night!!!!! There were several places that we have to sacrifice due to the short period of visit and now they (AirAsia) has rescheduled us and made it 2 days 2 nights??? I don't think so. When published on blackberry group, almost all of us disappointed and at rage to AirAsia. I try to think clearly, this case was not my first case when flying with AirAsia. This has happened when I visited Bali, they rescheduled my flight to the flight after my scheduled flight, but, when I called, they allow me to flied on the earlier scheduled.


Once I got back home, I called the call center. They put me on hold for one and half hour!!!!! I gone mad. I have to leave home since Alvin and Shienny has picked me to go. With an uncomfortable mood, I called them via mobile phone. What a miracle!!! They directly picked my call without first let me hear the annoying AirAsia waiting music. I confirmed the change in schedule with the officer and request an earlier flight. AirAsia didn't put us in more trouble. In fact, they were friendly and helpful. They put us to the flight on 25 August 2008. Our trip will become 4 days and 4 nights instead of shorter 3 days 3 nights.


For a short period of time, this good change of flight schedule (at least for me) didn't make everybody happy. Some of us were not happy with the change, they prefer the original schedule. Why is that so? Simply because the strict leave policy in their office. It would be troublesome for them to extend their leave. The rest of us are able to suppress the disappointment by encouraging them to propose the leave (even with lies :*satanic laugh*:)


As mentioned in the post earlier, by having longer visit time, we have to book another night at that hotel. Luckily the room is available, however, the price has went up. Since the price was still reasonable, we decided not to choose another hotel. We purchase the extra night for Rp241000 per person (Rp482000 per room).


Having extra time in Phuket, we are not prepared for any schedule, therefor, we decided to rearrange our itinerary:

25 August 2010: 
go to Patong, Simon Cabaret were cancelled because it cost quite much (800 Baht for 2 hours ladyboy show, I don't think so)

26 August 2010:
Phi Phi + Khai Tour (we decided to move this tour from 27 August because we know that this trip will be an energy consuming trip. By having this on our second day, we can have a rather loose schedule on the third day)

27 August 2010:
We decided to just let this day open. Another tour will cost us more money. We have planned a cost estimation and we don't want to move away from the estimated cost. Besides, as mentioned, 2 days of tour in a row will make us extra exhausted.

28 August 2010:
We will have Phuket sightseeing tour ended at Phuket weekend night market.












The cost estimation was 7000 Baht per person (include meals and transport, minus pocket money :D). I asked them to prepare 10000 Baht, 7000 Baht to cover the tour, meals and transports, 3000 Baht for their pocket money. For 'emergency' money, I recommend (its not compulsory) to bring 200 USD since USD is more common.

A week before the D-Day, we gather to have a final briefing. We reminded each other about the schedule, what to bring and several tiny matters. Since we will go island hopping, we try to find a waterproof backpack. The prices of those backpack are SOOOOO expensive T.T. One thing come to my mind. Why don't we just bring a "Lock and Lock" for our wallet and handphones :D Brilliant idea, ain't it? For the extra clothes we simply put it inside a plastic bag :D After a not-so-long discussion (2 hours?) about the number of clothes to bring, should we buy the sunblock here (we decided not to buy it in Jakarta) and a discussion about what to do in our FREE DAY, we went home and just wait for the  D-Day


Note: Thx to tyo for the picture editing ^^

Phuket Trip - Itinerary

Done with the plane ticket and hotel voucher, the next thing to think about is the itinerary. To be honest, the reviews I've received from our relatives, families and friends (except Heru and Lenny), Phuket is far worst than Bali. Some said that there is nothing in Phuket, the coast line is far shorter than Bali, the beaches are uglier than Bali, and just more negative reviews. These reviews has successfully doubt me to go to Phuket. Since none of us have been there before, we couldn't confirm or deny those opinion. A proposal for my friends to cancel the ticket and go to Bali ALMOST went out from my mouth, however, I decided to just go and see what are actually there.

I started to do some research on the things to do at Phuket. Most of the information told me that the best things to do (aside from Patong's wilderness) is island hopping. It has been our top priority to go to the popular Maya Bay at Koh Phi Phi Ley, an island around 1 1/2 hours away from Phuket by boat. It was made famous by the movie starred by Leo DiCaprio, 'The Beach'.

As the result of the research, the most popular tour was PhiPhi and Khai island tour, followed by James Bond Island at in Phang Nga area, elephant trekking, hiking, etc. Although fishing and diving also popular on islands surrounding Phuket, since there are no certified diver among us and none of us willing to spare our precious 4 days in the ocean waiting for the fish to come to us, I crossed out those two activity.

after narrowing things down, I decided to propose PhiPhi + Khai tour and eco trekking tour to the groups. At first, I was planning to stay a night at PhiPhi but the short visit period (our planned trip was actually 4 days 3 nights, thx to airasia to rescheduled our departure time so that we could stay for 4 days and 5 night :D) didn't give us much choice for the activity to do there. Take note that the latest ferry (the public transport) to phiphi leaves at 15.00 and our plane arrive there at 14.10. The only option is to charter a speedboat for 14000 baht - only transfer, tour not included. After discussing things with Juan at Starbucks sarinah, we told the group via blackberry,that we won't spend the night at Phi Phi.

The next meeting took place at The Coffee World FX, Pdik and Ci El couldn't come, so we just kept them updated, again, via blackberry. These are our initial itinerary:

However, the eco-trekking tour was cancelled. We thought it would be too much if we have tours two day in a row. It seems quite reasonable. For us, holiday is not holiday if we are binded to a tight and tiring tour schedule. Since the plan was decided, I started to burst the proposal email to 14 tour and travel in Phuket, including the one that is recommended by Heru. I inquired for 8 hours car for the first day, Phi Phi and Khai tour for the second day, 12 hours car for the third day and early morning hotel to airport transfer.

Replies were accepted at most 3 days after the email sent. Some are surprisingly expensive and some are cheap. We decided to pick not the cheapest, but the one with the best deal - reasonable price and good facilities and tour. The price are 2500 baht for 8 hours car and 3500 for 12 hours car, 1800 bath for PhiPhi plus Khai tour, 200 baht per person for airport transfer. There are some tour and travels with cheaper price, but comes with smaller/older car and smaller speedboat and/or worse meal offer at Phi phi. We are lucky to get a new toyota communer car with spacious capacity for max of 12 person.

Phuket Trip - The Hotel

The next important things to do was looking for the Hotel. The boys won't mind staying in a "economical" hotel, but hey, we got some girls in this trip! So I started to look for some decent and not-so-scary hotel (the not-so-scary defined by Fenny is a minimalistic hotel or at least not a traditional hotel with lots of carving ornament). When it comes to hotels, so far, the only site that give me true insight about the hotels is www.tripadvisor.com. Thanks to the website, I am able to distinguish the good "display" hotel and good hotel (good "display" hotel when they provide brilliant website with brilliant photo but comes with shitty reviews).


After browsing the site, I shortlisted some of the hotel (good price, good review and of course not scary). From what I've read on the net, hotels in Patong area are not recommended simply because of its 'wild' nightlife. So I decided to stay in Kata area (FYI the common hotel area near by the beach are Patong, Karon and Kata) since Karon - as described on the Lonely Planet travel guide - good for family. It seems like Kata is not too quiet yet not too noisy =D.


At first, our main option was Ibis Hotel Kata. The three stars hotel looks good and it was so cheap. The rate for a Night was Rp300000 or around 35 USD. Thanks to our friend Heru, who at that time just came back from Phuket. He recommended us his hotel, the hotel that was my second option at first. It was a 4-stars hotel and according to his word, it was fun and great at the hotel. So I informed the group about the hotel. Lucky us, The Sugar Palm Grand Hillside hotel was having a discounted price at the moment. Believe it or not, the 4-stars, 1 years old hotel was at Rp280000 for a night!!! Without any hesitation, I asked the group to   confirm their trip and pay for the hotel. It was at February 8, 2010. 


These are Photos taken by us at SugarPalmGrandHillside Hotel

Looking great? It IS great!!!! Visit www.sugarpalmgrand.com for more info about the hotel.


As informed in earlier post, our flight was rescheduled 1 day earlier, so we need to book one extra night at the hotel. The price has gone up to Rp480000 per night. It was still a good deal though.


The room arrangement was Girls (Fenny, Shienny n Ci El), Boys (Me and Alvin), Boys (Pdik and Juan). Each boy paid Rp660000 for 5 days 4 nights stay at this number 2 Asia's trendiest hotel new 4-stars hotel. What a deal ^^

Phuket Trip - The Plane Tickets

The initial member of Phuket trip is Me, Fenny, Alvin, Shienny and Ci El. To be very honest, we DIDN'T plan anything until we happened to see AirAsia 2009 0 rupiah promo!!!! Our first and second option were actually Singapore and Bali, however, the 0 rupiah flight to those two destination were fully booked. 2 days after the promo started, Fenny called me at around lunch hour to tell that she have bought a ticket to Phuket. I'm not the only one left without option. Alvin knows that Shienny bought a return tickets to Phuket (CMIIW) 5 months later. We purchased this 4 days and 3 night (from 26 to 29 August 2010) return ticket on Nov 11, 2009

As shown on the picture (click to zoom), we managed to find a very cheap tickets: five of us, Rp 1620000 !!!! or at around 180 USD from Jakarta - Phuket - Jakarta. Believe it or not, its Rp324000 or around 36 USD for 2 hours and 50 minutes flight, per person.


By the time we bought it, we try to persuade other to buy and go together with us to Phuket, however, the next date of purchase is 28 Dec 2009. Me and Fenny (well, actually I did few effort on this) managed to persuade Pdik and Gato to buy another tickets. The ticket price was a little bit below normal price. Juan was the last person who bought the ticket with slightly cheaper price than the second purchase.

Pdik and Gato bought the tickets for Rp 974000 per person or around 110 USD and Juan for Rp 643000 or around  72 USD. However, I discovered that Juan ticket didn't include the pre-purchase luggage on the way to Phuket. Luckily he has one on the way back from Phuket to Jakarta (I have no idea what happened if he don't have it :D - You will know why later on the other post of the blog).

By February 2010, the time when we purchased the hotel vouchers, Gato decided to cancelled the trip due to the excessive workload that unable her to take her leave at that time. What a pity, perhaps we could go somewhere else together next time ^^

After finished with the tickets hassles, since nobody worry about the trip, I started to gather information on Phuket through internet. This is where we decided to create Phuket Group in our BB :). While browsing informations about Phuket, I also never-endingly checking the Phuket hotel and our trip's budget which will be posted on another entry :)

The Travellers Mind - Our Blog

As promised to all the PHUKET members, I created this blog. The main purpose of this blog is to share the memory for all the members of what so called "The Travellers" (Janu - Me, Fenny, Pdik, Juan, Alvin, Shienny and Ci Elly). Phuket trip has triggered me to create this blog since on this first trip to Phuket, we did well on arranging everything in order and on budget. I hope that this blog will last longer than my last blog.

I am eager to have more trip together on an even larger groups somewhere. Hopefully, we could help people on arranging their trips through our experience. Just drop me a comment.

Enough about the content of the blog. Since I am a new comer on this blog world, I hope all my kind friends ^^ will understand my limitation in managing this blog. I promise to expand the blog once I learn more.

And for the last foreword, this blog is dedicated to all the people in this following picture......

Phuket Trip's Member (from left to right) -
 Pdik, Juan, Janu, Shienny, Ci El, Fenny, Alvin

Enjoy the blog!!