1. Online resources
* Phuket.com (comprehensive info about Phuket. You can book tours via this website too. The price of the tours *may* be cheaper. For example, Phi Phi Island Snorkling day tour costs THB1500 per pax on this website. However, the cheapest tour price I could get locally is THB1750.)
* kata-beach.com (everything about Kata and Karon beach; We stayed in Karon beach.)
* Phuket map (online free maps for major beaches and the Phuket town.)
* Jamie Monk's blog (hosted by an expat living in Phuket, a very interesting blog and provides insider's tips. He also hosts other blogs, one of which is the Phuket's weather blog.)
* Asiarooms (I found the cheapest room rate on this site after compared with other major hotel portals, such as zuji, tripadvisor, wotif, agoda. I don't dare to use unheard sites. The customer service agent of Asiarooms is helpful too though they doesn't speak English very well.)
According to the locals, end April - June is the low season (rainy days) where everything is cheaper and everywhere is less crowded.
2. Air ticket
Fly with a budget airline is sufficient as it takes 2 hour only to fly from SG to Phuket. Do book during promotional periods that you will only need to pay taxes and charges. We booked our tickets during $0 promotional period (Tiger Airways, in end February) and paid about S$300 for taxes and charges.
Tiger Airways: overall, the journey with the no-frills carrier was pleasant - width of the seat is OK for mid-size Asian, service is OK, plane take-off and land down smoothly, except the back of seat is kinda straight for me.
3. Food
We usually aim for local foods when travelling. Reasons are simple - special, authentic, and cheap. During our trip, we ate local Thai food at both expensive and cheap restaurant, and local Chinese chicken rice. No western food except the complimentary International breakfast buffet.
The Thai version of chicken rice is very interesting. We found this eatery among old shophouses when we wandered around for lunch in Phuket town. The rice and chicken tasted about the same as the Singapore style; the interesting part is that the food was served with a plate of vegetables, including lettuces, cucumbers, spring onions, and garlics. Yes, with few stalks of spring onions and few cloves of garlics!!! My husband tried both and said it's kinda weird.. haha.. :p Anyway, the diners in the easteries happily enjoyed their vege...
For Thai food, again, we explored the streets to look for authentic local food. A special note on this eatery which we went there twice! It runs by a family which the owner's job is to greet the customers and keep asking "OK?" We tried local dishes on our 1st visit and ate live seafood on the 2nd visit. The food was cheap, tasty, and authentic - 1st dinner costed us about 100 Baht for 3 dishes + rice + drinks, 2nd dinner costed us about 700 Baht for 1 vegetable + 4 huge tiger prawns + one 1-kg red snaper + drinks + rice (trust me, this is more than enough for two Asians!)
The eatery is located at Thai Na Road at Kata Beach but I can't remember its name. When you reach the junction of Patak Road and Kata Road, you will Smile Inn and Family Mart (convenience store) along Thai Na Road. You need to walk for 10-15 minutes before you pass by a small eatery selling live seafood. It's an old shop and look a bit dirty. The wall is filled up with photos of Thai royals, currency notes of different countries, and big poster featuring different ingredients.
(Sorry that we didn't take picture on the food..)
4. Sight-seeing land tour
Do take the local bus (Songthaew)!
It is an experience. We took the local bus service between Phuket Town and Karon/Kata beach. It costs 40 Baht per person and about 45mins ~ 1 hr from Karon to Phuket Town. If you took Tuk-tuk (the local taxi), as told by the hotel staff, it costs 500 Baht for a half-an-hour ride. Few interesting parts are: 1) passengers sitting face to face and there's a bench in the center to take in more passengers; 2) the bus is actually a converted mini lorry; 3) the bus driver stops the bus at half way to collect bus fare. Honestly speaking, it's dangerous to take the bus especially for passengers sitting near the exit (see the picture above!) You don't have anything to hold on except window grill. However, it's an experiece! :)
When we reached Phuket Town, we were approached by an enthusiastic Thai man who turned out to tout business for city tour. He kept following us for a few streets (afraid that other tuk-tuk driver approached us). As the weather wasn't good we finally agreed to take his service at 400 Baht. He agreed to ferry us to the Rang Hill (the highest point in Phuket Town) for city view, tour around the city and interesting places, drop us at shopping district, drive us to Patong Beach, then back to the hotel at Karon Beach. Overall, the tour is OK BUT we felt cheated when we realized the "interesting places" are those tourist places - jewelry shop, cashew nut factory, tin factory, fruit stalls - where he can collect stamps to get free gasoline. Next time if a Tuk-tuk driver offers you a city tour, you better check the itinerary carefully! Anyway, I felt 400 Baht was worthwhile as the ride from Patong to Karon might likely cost 300 Baht.
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