THAILAND
Seems like everyone and their pet poodle has been to Thailand (twice), or at least that’s what it felt like to me so I set my sights on visiting this incredible destination in 2017 to see what the fuss was about. So using the combination of google flights and booking.com I was able to get away at an incredible price for a week. What a mind-blowing feast of beauty this was!
Watch the video which I created in January 2020, nearly three years after, featuring scenes shot in Bangkok, Phuket, the islands of Koh Phi Phi and surrounding areas of Krabi, Monkey beach etc. Then read the blog to find out how I flew to Thailand for £307 return from London and found amazingly good value accommodation.
This blog post gives you the info and tools that you need whether you’re on a modest budget or want the fully lavish golden parachute holiday. This is the process that I use for travelling anywhere in the world. (Uhh, not the golden parachute..)
The food in Thailand is one of the main draws to this country and I was in my element being able to buy reasonably priced street food such as pad Thai, fresh fish and warm sticky rice with mango from street food vendors in Bangkok and Phuket. See some of the photos above. Of course the Thai massages are legendary.
Book your Flights with Google Flights
I’m not sure why Google doesn’t advertise their own “Google Flights” search engine but it really is the best way of grabbing a great deal on flights to Tobago or anywhere else in the world for that matter!
Start by selecting your location and destination for example one of Bangkok’s airports or as I would recommend now, fly straight to Phuket (HKT), then click the drop down menu. You will see grey “expensive prices” and the green “best prices” up to 11 months in advance. Select a green departure date and the corresponding return price value to get the lowest price. You can set your own parameters like fewer stops, airlines, bags etc.
***BONUS*** Airline tickets are sold in buckets (as opposed to selling all the seats on the plane at the same time) and to make a long story short, the prices can vary wildly for the same exact flight. Google flights has a “track flight” feature which emails you if the price goes with up or down and so you can snag the best price available, especially if you start tracking about 2-3 months in advance.
2. Book your hotel through Booking.com
When it comes to accommodation, for me nothing beats Booking.com both on price and convenience. It really has proved to be the cheapest solution with the widest range of accommodation. The greatest thing is the more you travel, the cheaper it becomes as you get a “genius” discount when you become a frequent traveler. Also, life happens and if you book through Booking.com you can cancel sometimes on the same day before a certain time at no cost. But if you want luxury and a baller’s experience, you can set the filters to only show you the higher end properties also.
So have a look for accommodation below and sign up if you haven’t already.
You can search for Phuket hotels here for example or use the search or maps below.
You can search for Koh Phi Phi hotels here for example or use the search or maps below.
Where I Stayed
Personally I can recommend all of the three hotels that I stayed in although the breakfast in the Chanalai Hillside Resort hotel in Phuket wasn’t great especially compared to the breakfast at the Mandarin Hotel in Bangkok, which was literally an all-you-can-eat Asian dinner but served at breakfast. None of that rubbish “breakfast of champions” scrambled eggs, baked beans and hash browns nonsense’ here. This was a full on banquet of chicken, noodle, pork steam buns and a whole host of other dishes. Amazing.
Mandarin Hotel Managed by Centre Point, BANGKOK - BOOK
This hotel like I described above had a mind-blowing breakfast, was super reasonably priced and was in a great central location. Would recommend!
Paradise Resort Phi Phi - BOOK
The hotel or more like huts we stayed in on Koh Phi Phi were cute but the new ones that they had just built would be the ones I would go for. Your sliding doors opened up onto the beach and the shower had no ceiling! You could shower under the stars. Plus the super relaxing Thai massage service next to the beach was just a lazy man’s walk away. Incredible. I remember falling asleep while having a massage as the sun was going down and you could hear the waves crashing on the seashore a few meters away.
But of course there are many great hotels to stay in there too. Have a look here: Koh Phi Phi Don Hotels
Chanalai Hillside Resort, Karon Beach, PHUKET - BOOK
This was my least favourite hotel out of the stay only because of the breakfast which was not impressive at the time. The great thing about the hotel was the quiet location and the fact that if you had a ground floor room you could step out of your room straight into the pool. That was really cool.
MUSICIAL NOTE
The music was an idea that I had been planning for three years, to sample a bit of the busker and use it as the basis of the soundtrack. I had the entire recording translated from Thai to English. The song is about a man being heart broken that the woman he loves has other lovers despite his true and only love for her. He sings of his heartbreak and that she “has so many lovers”. It’s this phrase that’s sampled and replayed to form the musical loop but you can hear throughout the track. The original phrase is sung live and is repeated at the end of the video where I show the disabled busker outside the Wat or Temple. - OD Hunte
CONCLUSION
I’m wishing you a safe and enjoyable holiday in one of the most beautiful parts of the work embraced by incredibly friendly and delightful Thai people. If you found this post helpful please share it with your network. Thank you.
OD Hunte
Music Producer / Model /Actor / Drone Pilot / Stock Video shooter
INSTAGRAM: @odhunte