Sorry, I never come across that a flight is cancelled because of insufficient passengers. I have once taken Dragon Airline to Sabah and the flight was carrying about 30 passengers only. Also, Christmas is a very hot season for traveling and it is really strange to hear that there are insufficient passengers.
I will join a Hongthai tour to Phuket by OX on 1/2/2006. Is your travel agent reliable? Or simply your reservation is for group tickets but there are not enough travelers?
I bought the tickets from EGL which is very reliable. My flight is OX219 depart at 8:55am on 1/2/2006.
I will leave Phuket at 9:00am on 5/2/2006.
My tickets are group tickets and I need to meet their group at the airport to get the tickets.
I do agree your opinion and wish what Mi.....ar said is only bullsxxt. I've booked guest house and local dive tour in Phuket already. I hope my trip will not be turned down la.
bigdaddy,
Hongthai advised us last week that the return flight on 5/2/2006 would be changed from 0900 to 16:55......but I'm not sure whether there is only one OX flight each day.
By the way, would you mind tell me more about your dive tour e.g. which island, $$$, etc.
I will visit Similan. I will depart from Patong / Kata very early on 02/02/2006 and live on a boat for 3D2N. Quite expensive, around HKD2400.
Similan is 9 islands 3 hours from Patong and is the best dive site in Thailand. However, there is no establishment on the islands and it do not suitable for non-divers.
If you go with small kids, you should go with the tour. If you go with big kids, I recommend Racha Yai which is much much better than the hongkonger's island. HKD200 per head only. Do not go to PP, it was damaged.
Tell you something more, a round trip ticket takes me HKD2000 only. quite reasonable.
bigdaddy,
You must be an experience diver. The re-scheduled flight is really good and I wish you would be on board too.
My hb is licensed and I'm sure he would like to dive. Similan is good but the long journey does matter much if he takes a day trip. Any other choices for scuba diving?
My tour includes trips to "egg island" and "coral island". Actually I don't expect much but I think they are at least better than those near Pattaya. PP is optional with an extra cost. It sounds good (as read from the leaflet) as the trip includes visiting caves and canoeing.
I will travel with kids at 5 and 7, are they big enough for Racha Yi? (Actually, what makes Racha Yi so special and is suitable for big kids only?)
Racha is an island 20km south of Phuket, not far away from Patong. It is a developed island with villa on the island, it is suitable for families. It is very beautiful above and below see level. Your husband should has 2 dives there.
Coral island was good 15 years ago. It was screwed up by group tours. You will find a thousand people on the beach. Don’t try the scuba dive or sea walker there.
I have never been to “egg island”, called Koh Khai in Phuket, before. As it is a destination of group tour, it should be full of people.
My ranking is (from good to bad) Racha, egg island, coral island.
You should have a free day. You can go to coral island and egg island with the tour and join a local tour to Racha on the free day. Don’t follow the tourist guide to PP. PP was 50% damaged and it is too far away (40km) for 5 and 7 yrs old kids. They will get bored on boat or get sick on speed boat.
I give you this website for reference. Their price is reasonable. I don’t join this tour company because their office is in Phuket town. You should join the tour companies at Patong, Karon or Kata.
http://www.goldenbeachtour.com/DivingDayTrip_cn.htm
I will go to Phuket on March 1 and am comparing the tours from different travel agents. Why you choose Hong Thai? How about Morning Star? I'm very concern of the hotel/resort as I will go with my 26 months old boy.
Belinda,
I have joined Hong Thai tours before and they are OK. Personally I think whether HT or MS make no major difference as both of them are big agents. The quality of the hotel rests with how much you pay. Avoid tour code ends with "SPC" if you want better accommodation. Also, some tours will specify the hotel that the group will be accommodated e.g. Allamanda, Crowne Plaza, etc. It may be a good choice and you don't need to worry about something called "xx hotel or equivalent" which give you no idea on where you stay.
bigdaddy,
Just back from Phuket. We have great fun there though the return flight had been delayed for 5 hours. Had gone to Racha Yi (now re-named as Raya Island) where is indeed a good site for snorkeling. Hope you enjoy your trip too.
My comment is excellent.
The coral and sea life of Similan is slightly affected by the tsunami only.
I saw big creatures like panther shark, napoleon(so mei), white tip shark and sea turtle. Huge number of median size fishes like groupers(star ban), jets and eels. Uncountable number of coral fishes. The density of fishes is like the the top floor of the aquarium in the Ocean Park.
Is Racha good. Is it much better than the coral island and egg island? I haven’t been there for a long time. Have your husband dived there? Did you and your kids enjoy. I may take my kids to Phuket, not the Similan for divers, next year if the price is cheap. Is the hardware and software on the island good enough for kids stating 2 days 1 night?
bigdaddy,
Raya is much better. The coral island and egg island are packed with tour groups from HK, Taiwan and China. Some ladies walked into the water with long trousers, high heels and handbags. Oh, my! You know, I have been to egg island 5 years ago. It is a different picture.
My hb hadn't dived for the whole trip. He played with us all the time but actually he quite enjoyed it. At Raya, the guide took us to a bay off the island for snorkeling by a speedboat. My daughter who is at 5 joined us too. It is of real fun. There are hotels on Raya. At least, a luxury one called Racha Resort and a basic one called Bungalow Raya Resort. You may check their websites for details.
Yes, it is much easier to reach Similan from Khao Lak. However, Khao Lak was totally distroyed and there are only 2 hotels running in Khao Lak.
I took a taxi from the airport to Kata. It took me Baht560 or Baht650, I can't remember. :-( . Compare with my Baht600 backpackers' room, :-( .
On the next day, I needed to travel 2.5 hrs from Kata to a pier close to Khao Lak(Patong would be better, less than 2 hrs). Then transferred to a speed boat and had a 1.3 hrs ride.
Similan is not suitable for kids. I would not introduce to the parents here. However, I found a 1 yr old Japanese boy on the liveaboard. On my second day on board, a Russian family came with a 5 yrs and a 12 yrs old boy. One more thing that is out of my expectation is around 1/3 of people can't speck English. I said good morning to the Russian family but they only look at me with their mouth slightly open. This trip made me very happy because language and colour is not a is not a barrier. We use hand signal.
Sea food and local transportation is too expensive in Phuket. The night life in Patong make me sick.
I want to have a half day tour to the egg island on the last day but turned down finally as we were very tired. Trousers and high heels, Jes.
How is your trip. How is the hotel and food provided by Hong Tai.
Is the tallest building Patong Tower a hotel? 95% dark!
Just 2 hotels in Khao Lak. What a pity. I hope this area will be recovered soon. I surely will have seasick if I stay on a ship for 3 days. Need to think of other options to reach Similan.
I don't like Patong too. We stayed at a 4-star hotel at Karon which is new and nice. I like Karon. Outside the hotel is the Karon Beach. Karon is not as busy as Patong but you may also find restaurants and shops nearby. Transportation is expensive in Phuket (disproportionately high) but I think seafood is quite cheap. We had a seafood dinner at Patong with fish, king prawn, curry crab, clam, squid…and only cost about 4800 baht for 10 people, including drinks. Of course, the food provided by Hong Thai is just so so la.
Similan is one of the 10 best dive sites in the world. Coral area is bigger than Victoria Park. Variety of small and medium size fish is higher than the Ocean Park. However, it is only suitable for divers. It is not recommended to learn diving at that site because the boat will drop you at deep water.
From June to Sept, boat is not allowed there because the sea is rough. From Dec to April, the sea is super clam and nobody will get sea sick.
“People one life, things one life”, I ate a tiger prawn @0.25kg each which can’t be found in HK. It took me around HKD80 each. :-( I ate the same somewhere in Philippine @HKD20 only.
BK parents
Poor to hear that the coral island and egg island are screwed up by those high heels travelers. I want to tell the BK parents that sea of Phuket is different from what they seen. If somebody wants to enjoy sun and beach, go to the beaches in east HK. They are surely better than the coral island.
Lastly, please don’t eat shark fins and coral fishes or, eat less.
quite reasonable.
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