48 Hours At Sea In Phuket, Thailand
Getting away from the world, and relaxing out at sea is honestly my favourite past time so whenever I’ve got the means to do it, I’m gone in a heart beat!
Last week the weather cleared up in Phuket, and I decided to book a flight out there for a quick last minute get away. Gotta use those holiday days up before the end of the year, and this was a perfect short break for me and the wife before the festive season begins!
Here’s how my trip went:
10pm Departed Los Angeles (LAX) on a overnight to Phuket, Thailand (HKT) with 1 stop in Guangzhou
2pm Arrived in Phuket, weather was clear at around 86 degrees, the concierge picked us up from the arrivals lounge directly, and took us to the yacht that was waiting for us in the marina! Now I have arrived!
3pm First meal on board (delicious thai food it’s hot and spicy, just how I like it!) time for a well deserved drink — scotch on the rocks!
4:20pm Decided to go diving and swimming around the yacht, truly enjoying life, the marine wildlife is just insane… and of course you know what time it is!
Around 5:30pm? A completely mesmerising sunset begins, the crew called to us that food was ready— once we’d pulled ourself away from the lovely warm waters of the Andaman sea and watching the fishes and turtles swimming, we realised how incredibly ravished we’d become! Let me tell you we were not disappointed, gourmet Thai food that would put any restaurant back home to shame! Delicious tom yum, som tam and my favourite pad gra pow (with fresh shrimp!) I could eat this every day honestly. I was stuffed but my wife had an appetite for seconds, and really I couldn’t refuse when the pineapple rice came out!! It went down perfect with an ice cold beer laos (or two…hehe)
7pm The sunset and meal was one of the best we’ve experienced since starting doing these charters, and I love how staying overnight on the yacht means you are not rushed at all and can just make yourself at home. Wife decides to open a bottle of beer too, and we got settled in to the extremely comfortable couch to watch the stars reflecting off the ocean!
10pm Both exhausted now from the flight and swimming, we got a shower and went to bed. The bedroom was about the same size as the one in our son’s condo back in the states!!! Very spacious and well fitted, with no expense spared! As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light… 🛌
The Next Day…
7:20am (ish) I woke up just around sunrise feeling very refreshed and rejuvenated, we certainly did sleep well on the boat and it was so quiet with only the noise of lapping waves to disturb us. I wish I owned one of these beautiful vessels for myself really.
8am Breakfast was served! We went for the American (of course) hash browns, eggs n bacon, fresh OJ and coffee that was just brewed, this was the perfect accompaniment to the fresh morning breeze and glass like still water. Wife went for an early morning swim while I caught up on emails.
9:30am After a morning shower we headed out to see some islands from where we had been situated in Phang-nga bay. The first stop was the incredible Koh Rang Yai! The beach here is beautiful and sandy, we sunbathed and relaxed for a while, then our guide showed us the pearl farm here which was very interesting to learn about. I’d never seen pearl farming before this!
1pm We headed back out to a small island south east of Koh Rang Yai called Koh Khai (Koh means island in Thai) the water here was so clear and the sand so perfect we decided to drop anchor, and settle down for our second day.
4:30pm Whisky and an early dinner was the perfect blend. Today we were prepared for the glorious sunset and did some Yoga before eating, to settle our minds and invigorate our bodies!
6pm Another perfect sunset, I wish I could see this everyday of my life. 🌅
8pm Drinks and deserts, some sweet coconut treats. This really is living the dream! Sadly though… reality is about to kick in. We are heading back to LA in under 12 hours time 😂☹️ We really made sure we made the most of the last night!
9am(-ish… I think) I woke up later today (just a little hung over, but come on it’s the last night) We had another great breakfast and headed back to the marina to check out Phuket town for a couple hours before boarding for our flight. Phuket is a nice little tourist town really, with beautiful rolling hills and so much going on, I’m not really into city scenes like Bangkok (living in LA is enough city for me) so the slower pace of life in places like Phuket always refreshes me and leaves me with lots of ideas. We had some great fruit smoothies and had the obligatory Starbucks before the concierge took us to the airport right on time
3:30pm Once we boarded and had got comfortable in our seats on the plane, we realised just how much of an incredible experience we’d just had on the yacht and could not stop talking about it!
All the way back we just kept on remembering moments. The nature is really outstanding in Phuket and when we went swimming and looking under the crystal waters on the first night it really made the trip for us, we saw so much wildlife that we have decided to start keeping tropical fish back home!
6pm (The next day) It’s a long flight! And we’re beat! Feels good to be back in LAX but I’m already missing the warm breeze of Phuket. Time to get back to reality, but honestly all I’m thinking about is when we can get some time off and book another charter!
As you can probably tell I’ve become addicted to getting out on the water since my first charter experience several years ago, and although I had some bad luck originally by trying to get a special price, I’m really happy with the all-inclusive package deal we arranged with our chosen charter company (Thanks to all the staff at Hartt Voyages!)
If you want to book a charter and have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll try my best to give you any advice I can. Most important is remembering to pack some sunscreen because it does get seriously hot out there in the midday! This totally slipped our minds! But the yacht staff onboard were so helpful they got some for us and we managed to not get burned at all.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip and it’s inspired you to try out chartering a yacht in the Andaman. There are so many beautiful idyllic places to see and doing it on a long weekend of a 4 day break is within reach (just!) but very much worth it.
Just make sure you go straight from the airport to the yacht so you don’t waste anytime at all.
Last and most important point: Always use an all-inclusive service like the one our charter provider offered because otherwise you will (trust me on this) get screwed on hidden fees and boat jargon you just do not understand.
I recommend you do not hire a bare yacht (it has no crew!) and just ask for an all-inclusive deal with crew. Many companies do not do this though, as they make the majority of their money out of hidden fees for food, drinks, fuel and so on.
