Phuket

Things to do

At the end of the day, you don’t go to Phuket to swim in a hotel pool, and at some point you’ll want to brave the outside and find something to do.

If you have a car and know where to go, you can arrange most excursions yourself. Boats and gear can be hired separately, and the ocean can be explored in private.

If you have limited time there are many daily tours, and these will be your best choice. Your hotel will be glad to direct you towards a tour (probably at higher cost), and dozens of tour agents are to be found on the main streets of tourist areas.

Bargaining is essential. Tour companies provide informational leaflets to agents, and these will explain everything you need to know. The prices on these leaflets are negotiable and, during the low season anyway, you can expect to get substantial discounts. If you intend to take part in several tours then you should obtain a better discount by promising to take all your business to the same agent.

If you are not sure what to do then talk to the agent and tell them what you’re interested in. Many tour companies cover the same destinations, and are aimed at different price and experience levels.

The biggest advantage of a tour company is that they will handle all transportation, and will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel. The tours usually include food and drinks, and the price you pay should cover the entire day, with no hidden costs.

Avoid any tour that includes a stop at a shop, and check with the agent to make sure. Free tours are available, but require you to spend several hours listening to marketing pitches.

Photographic equipment is to be taken entirely at your own risk. If you’re on the ocean you will get wet, and your camera will not like it.

Phuket Siam Sea Canoe

These guys were great, and are highly recommended.

They’re a little more expensive than the alternatives, but the extra money goes a long way to making a better experience.

You are taken, along with 20 or so other people, on a medium sized boat out into the ocean. Soft drinks are free, as are biscuits and bananas. The crew fall over themselves to help, and they genuinely seem to enjoy their job.

And why wouldn’t they? Everyday is spent out in the ocean visiting some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world. It’s only here that you can breathe a sigh of relief for escaping all the tourism that’s dogged you so far. At least, that’s what you think.

The tour includes several canoeing trips, a visit to James Bond Island, and a swim in the ocean.

The highlight of the canoeing is when you are taken into a cave running through an island. The cave is full of bats, thankfully sleeping, and when you break through the tiny you are greeted with a spectacular lagoon.

It’s hard to describe how wonderful and tranquil this is, and pictures can only hint at it. The place is primordial. You are surrounded by sheer cliffs, trees, plants, and mangroves. You could almost be forgiven for thinking that Jurassic Park was a documentary.

Reality isn’t far behind, and you’re in this paradise with the 30 or so people on your boat, as well as several other boats that parked up alongside you. After a circuit of the lagoon you are taken back through the cave, only this time you jostle with other canoes for control of the entrance.

The other, very commercial, highlight of the tour is the visit to James Bond Island (Ko Phing Kan, as featured in The Man with the Golden Gun). What was once a remote deserted island is now lined with trinket-selling beach huts. Paradise has never been so busy. Despite this, it is undeniably beautiful, and the stalls are easily ignored.

Lunch is a bountiful supply of tasty Thai food. Nobody goes hungry.

One more stop is made on the way back where you are free to go swimming, relaxing, or canoeing. There are more people here, but you don’t care; in a place like this, no one gets stressed.

An icy coconut greets your return to the boat. The crew put on some music and do a comedy dance routine, and everybody goes home happy.

The cost of the tour was 1400 baht, even though it was advertised at 2400. Everything is included in the price, although you can buy extras (such as beer).

You should make sure to bring high-protection sun lotions, sunglasses, and a hat. The ocean sun is particularly voracious.

A swimming outfit may be required (if you intend to go swimming, or the canoe capsizes). The only changing facilities are an on-board toilet, which involves fighting with your clothes as the boat sways, and trying not to step inside the toilet. You may want to change in your hotel first.

Sea Angel Company

Unlike the previous tour this was on a much bigger scale. The boat has a maximum capacity of 500 people, and you are packed inside like cattle on the way to market. This is not a peaceful trip by any means.

The tour makes several snorkeling stops, before arriving at Phi Phi island for lunch. Due to the number of people onboard, everything involves queuing. You queue to get a snorkel, you queue to get a jacket, and you queue to get into the water.

None of this matters once you’re in the water. Swimming in the ocean and looking down on coral reefs and exotic fish is, simply put, an amazing experience. You’ll want to stay all day, but the stops are only 15 or 20 minutes long before you have to return (and yes, queue to get back onboard).

Safety is very lax, with no formal instructions on what to do with the gear, or what to do if there was a problem. Smaller boats zip about the ocean as you, and several hundred other people, splash about.

Leaving the snorkeling areas behind and you notice the bad side of all this tourism. A bag of garbage floats gently past. A thin veil of oil spreads out across the ocean from the ship engines. Are you feeling guilty?

Lunch is served at a hotel on Phi Phi island, and hordes of ravenous people try and eat as much as they can. You are given an hour afterwards to explore Phi Phi, which is a pleasant island, seemingly full of young travellers seeking an escape from tourism, while simultaneously creating their own.

Drinks are available throughout the journey, and the boat has its own snack shop.

Swimming gear is essential and changing facilities negligible (again you are fighting in the toilet). Make sure to pack that waterproof sun lotion as the sun will savage you any chance it can.

The tour cost 750 baht, after negotiating down from an advertised rate of 1200 baht.

Overall the tour was great fun, but mostly this was inherent in snorkelling; the rest was eco-destroying mass tourism.

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