This report is something that I have looked forward to writing for some time,
mainly because it means that my wife and I have spent at least 10 straight days together. This is almost a record for us in the last 4-5 years.
To give a little background, Ms F and I are in our thirties, we have no children, she is a manager for a multinational Pharma company, I work for a medical device company and we live in Brisbane, Australia.
The instigation of this trip came about when we realised we had not spent any real consistent time together in a long time.
We had searched for Holidays in Bali, Vietnam, Fiji and various other tropical spots, with the main criteria being that I could get a tan, and Ms F could do a bit of shopping. Please bear in mind that Ms F is Olympic standard when it comes to shopping and I am not. I tend to get grumpy and/or cranky after 10 hours straight.
I cannot work out why……..

Anyway, I found a package deal on Travel.com.au for a new resort on an island off Phuket. Racha Island – http://www.theracha.com

The deal was as follows, 2 x airfares on Thai (economy) from BNE to BKK to HKK, transfers from the airport to Chalong Bay, then a speedboat to Racha Island. Ten nights including breakfast, afternoon tea and a Deluxe villa for the total price of AUS $3420. A bargain was to be had! The normal price for the accom alone would be 125,000 baht, which converts to about AUS $4200 We also included a two nights in BKK at the Conrad on the return leg. Please bear in mind though, that the resort is not yet completed and has a number of villas and the Spa to be completed.
The travel agent we had sent us information to this effect and we were prepared for a tent on the beach.
We left Brisbane on TG 984, which departed at 11:30pm on Wednesday the 28th of July to Bangkok.. The worst part of this was that I had to work that day until about 6:00pm, which did not leave me much time to get into holiday mode.
The only thing I was concerned about at this stage was that the plane was one of the dreaded MD 11’s. A plane so bad that Orville and Wilbur would never have taken up the pursuit of flight had they known that this would be one of the outcomes.
I wish there was a redeeming feature to this aircraft, but the only nice thing I can say about this leg was that we had been preallocated seats 33 J & K, which at least meant we did not have to share with anyone else.
Ms F has the ability to pass out upon completion of a meal for at least 5-6 hours, I have to rely on a good book, and my Ipod and NC headsets to give me at least some respite from the flight. The funniest thing I saw on this flight was the tiny screen several rows in front of me on the wall. It was no bigger than my IPAQ screen. Seriously. I cannot believe that even the passenger seated directly in front of it would be able to see anything on it. The main screen had a projector on it that is obviously well past its use by date. No real colour and very fuzzy. A complete waste of time trying to watch the “Friends” repeat. Not just because of the screen. I regard “Friends”, “We love Raymond” (I hate Raymond SO much) and all of their ilk as something like what purgatory will be like for me. At least give me a twenty year old episode of “Fawlty Towers”! Please.
The service was faultless as I have come to expect from most Asian carriers I have flown on/heard about.
The meal was nothing special and I cannot even remember much about it. Sorry to the elevated Gastronomes amongst us.
We landed in BKK after nine hours (5:00 am local time) and had a two hour layover before our flight to Phuket to enjoy the human zoo that is BKK airport.
I spent a considerable amount of this time searching for an espresso that didn’t look or taste like liquid boot polish, Ms F started work on the Duty free shops.
One thing I did notice was that there is no ATMs airside, although if you do need cash you can get it by withdrawing cash manually on your MasterCard or Visa.
Our flight to Phuket was called and we got the bus to the plane along with every nationality I could think of. From Local businessmen to Swiss backpackers to families with many, many children and the equivalent amount of hand luggage.

This was one of the newer TG A330’s and was very clean. This was much better than our first leg. We had the window seats again and took in the view of BKK as we took off. The meal was delivered very promptly and I took multiple cups of coffee to help alleviate the tiredness that was starting to creep in already.
We had noticed that the 3 rows of 2 in front of us were taken up by one family. Mum was in the first row with older child, dad in the second with one and in the row directly in front of us was two more kids aged 4-5 and 7-8.
Uh oh. My worst travelling fear after “Big smelly talkative guy”.
They started on the meals and before I knew it, a glass of orange juice was spilling from their seat onto our hand luggage and pants. I pressed the call button and tried to get Dad’s attention. He steadfastly ignored me.
The F/a came down, looked at the mess and proceeded to find some napkins for us. The two kids laughed as I got plenty of OJ for my duty free bottle of Stoli.
My patience was really starting to get tested when Dad kept ignoring even the FA.
I know this will get me flamed by those with kids here, but please, please please keep your kids in control whilst on a plane. I have flown with the most perfect angels beside me, but I also flown with the Devils nephews. It always seems to come back to the attitude of the parents. OK, my radio talk back host moment is over.
We got into Phuket and just after we landed the heavens opened up and it poured with rain. Just what you would expect to see in Thailand in July really.
We got our bags and walked out the front to meet our transfer and started looking for our name on a piece of paper being held by one of the many people waiting outside the terminal.
Hmmm nothing.
We looked around, nothing with the resort name either. I checked our papers looking for the phone numbers of the resort. Ms F fired up the phone and we started to call.
We called the resorts number we had listed, but it was the wrong number. We called out T/A back in Australia and was told that our T/A was away that day and everyone else was out on lunch. Could someone please ring us back? We found a Thai lady from the local T/A who was associated with ours who was happy to help us, she started calling people on her phone as well, but to no avail. I am now on the way to grumpy and Ms F is not happy either. This is the last thing you want when travelling and are expecting things to go smoothly. I asked around and found that we could get a taxi to Chalong Bay, which is the pick up point for the speedboat transfer to the island, for 550 baht. We decided that we should just take matters into our own hands and go. Just as we were getting into the taxi, a supervisor from out T/A rang back and said he had tried to get onto the island, but without success. He had also spoken to the Wholesaler, Indotravel and they could not help either.
Just as a side point for the Australian readers, we saw former Cold Chisel member Ian Moss and family getting into the next cab from us. Obviously a quick holiday for him as I had seen his new tour dates in Australia recently.
But I digress.
The taxi took us to Chalong bay, the home to more tourist speedboats than I had conceived were possible. It took about 40 mins. Very nice to be in air-conditioning at this point.
The rain was now bucketing down and we jumped out of the taxi and up to the main drop off area for the speedboats. We started asking around about a boat to Racha Island but no one seemed to know much about it. At this point I would like to point out that my knowledge of the Thai language is absolutely non existent. The locals were very friendly and they had a far greater grasp of English than I did of Thai.
We were stating to get very annoyed now, and the phone got brought out again by Ms F. She started calling back to Australia again and had no luck. We were stuck.
OK, time to be decisive again. I started sussing out prices to Racha from some of the speedboats operators. The prices varied massively from 10,000 baht ($400) to 5,000 baht. Bugger that, I would swim first. We had paid for our transfers and dammit, I was going to get one. It was now 11:00 am and I was getting very very annoyed.
Suddenly this young Thai girl approached us with a phone in her hand. I took it and found it was one of the front desk guys from the island saying that the boat would be there to pick us up at 3:00 pm. Very sorry etc etc.
Ok, what do we do for 4 hours in the rain in Phuket when we are tired?
Let’s go shopping!
So we canvassed the locals again who advised us to go to the “Big C” in Phuket town.
We got a cab and started our first real shopping tour of Thailand.
“After several hours, a really bad pizza, a head and shoulder massage, we headed back to the pier for our transfer.
When we arrived, several Racha Island Staff member were also waiting for the boat which was now delayed a further hour. They were also very apologetic.
It is now 4pm, we are really tired, it is bucketing down with rain and we are generally not happy with the first day of our holiday.
The boat arrived and several staff members got off, one looking very green and quite unwell. This was going to be an interesting trip to the island.
The boat was a large “Scarab” type with seating for about 12, and had all of its covers in place to keep out the driving rain. I was impressed to see two Yamaha 250 hp outboards hanging off the back.
We headed out from the pier and it was clear that this was going to be a choppy run.
The swell was large and the driver was constantly altering speed and course to suit the conditions. Not quite the trip we had expected, but all part of the fun of travelling.
We arrived on the Island after about 45 minutes and proceeded to moor at a long floating pontoon. This was rising up and down with the waves, kinda like a carnival ride. It was still raining. Hard.
We jumped off, the staff got the bags and we made our way to the oldest bus I have seen in some time. They took us on a 5 minute drive to the resort.
We were very greatful at this stage to be on “Dry” land.
To be continued.