Just returned from a short trip to Phuket and Bangkok. I have not been back to Phuket for awhile. The last time being probably 1998.
This time round I brought my parents there and due to a shortage of hotel rooms in Patong, I decided to book the Hilton in Karon Beach, somewhere south of Patong. The hotel is huge, just imagine, there are 7 buildings within the property and the guy at the check-in counter did tell me 35 acre if I am not wrong. To get around the property, you can either walk or take the free tram service...yes tram...
When I check-in, I was told I am given a garden view room but I asked and said can't you give me an ocean view room because we were just across the road from Karon Beach. In the end, they not only upgraded me to an ocean view room, they even gave me a corner room which is larger than normal and we have a L shaped balcony that gives us a view of the beach and the hotel compound.
My parents are very happy with the room even though the room we were given is in an old wing...and though it was still early because we arrived there about 9 am and was given an early check-in. FYI...the room toiletries are from crabtree and evelyn.
Anyway we decided to take a walk around the hotel and went out to the beach. Then we venture to a town area probably 5-10 mins walk away and bought some fried chicken and sticky rice for lunch...it was delicious and yet cheap. Cost us about 105 bht for 3 of us only. After lunch, my dad saw that there wasn't any sun in the balcony and it was windy, he actually took a 3 hour nap on the beach chair on the balcony. After his nap we took a walk down to Karon town area and we were pleased to see that Karon is a very nice area to stay in...not as crowded and hectic as Patong so it was a better area to relax. We attempted to walk to Patong thinking it is near but in the end we gave up after finding out that we have to climb so many slopes (Only the next day did we find out how far it was when we took a cab). We then decided to spend time in the town area of Karon and we had dinner at a Thai seafood restaurant and then my dad and I went for a Thai massage. After which, we walked back to our hotel, enroute we stopped for coffee at a cafe. The walk back seems much shorter maybe because were were relaxed from the massage and also there were live music coming from some restaurants to accompany us on the walk back.
The next day, we wake up early to have breakfast and then took a taxi up to Patong. We stopped at a new and huge shopping centre called Jungceylon. It was quite a nice place to do some slow shopping while escaping from the heat, we bought lunch from the Carrefour there and then decided to walk along Patong beach. Patong beach has changed quite abit since the tsunami in 2004. The beach path has been repaved and redecorated. I think it looks nicer than before. One can't forget the tragedy that hit Asia as there were lots of signs along the way guiding tourist and locals alike where the nearest tsunami refuge centre is.
We head back to Jungceylon and all 3 of us ended up doing a facial at a beauty salon and then went for some local food at the food court there. Again not that expensive, cost us about 250 bht only. Then we took a taxi back to our hotel and that was the end of our trip to Phuket because the next day we check out real early after breakfast to go to Phuket airport to catch a flight to Bangkok.
That was a record, the family in front of us during check-in screw up their booking and the counter girl has to help amend alot of things for them and we ended up queuing about 45 mins...i was so mad I screamed at the girl, I know it is not her fault but the guy who was doing the check in before us was still there and was not aplogetic at all. And the girl did not try to make peace by giving us entry to the lounge or whatsoever, that was very bad customer service...but I had a worse experience in Bangkok later.
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