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.
