Places to Visit Near Bua Yai

There is a certain amount of fun in planning out your own itineraries. You can choose what you want to do, where you want to stay, what you want to eat and most importantly how you want to go about doing these things. Let me tell you, first of all it saves a lot of cost, if it is compared to the trip planned out with a travel agency and secondly, you don't have to be dependent on them for your own trip. Phuket 2016 was one such trip which had no planning whatsoever except the flight tickets from Kolkata to Phuket via Bangkok and hostel reservations. It was the first occasion where I relied much more on my spontneous planning skills and that of my extremely annoying but travel-seeking friend Abbas Juzer, who apparently had to spend double the amount on flight tickets coming from Dubai. This was supposedly our stress buster trip after being completely saturated at our corporate jobs and our only objective was to relax, explore, party and have a whole lot of fun. "Two bacheors, Phuket, Thailand, fun", sound fishy eh? You are left to your own imaginations in trying to interpret what that means :P

Day 1, Jan 4th, 2017: As we landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, we almost forgot the weariness of the journey from Guwahati the previous evening, the long wait at Kolkata airport, and the almost lack of sleep on the flight due to excitement (or was it too much coffee). Visa on arrival was done quickly enough and hassle free as we excitedly took pics from inside the car as our car sped through early morning Bangkok traffic to Don Muang airport for our flight to Phuket.

Phuket, an island so big has a lot to explore. From elephant rides to canoeing, from waterfalls to ziplining and tour to phiphi islands will take one to zenith. As we missed Indian food badly and desperately needed some spicy taste , we came across an Indian restaurant C-Food run by both Indians and Pakistani. The food is relishing, amazing and cheap in budget.In Phuket, one can visit the Bangla Road to watch out for Muay Thai fight.

It is a short one hour fifteen minute flight to Phuket. The airport at Phuket is quite far away from the main Patong beach area, but you have cheap shuttles available until late night.

Thailand seems to have lucked out when it comes to beaches. Stunners at such short distances. Spotting this tiny island from your flight, it’s surrounding emerald and jade waters leave a lasting impression on you. What a ravishing beauty!Here are the top family things to do and see @ Phuket-

Phuket is good bet to explore while one is here but the internal flight from Bangkok to Phuket was digging a big hole in our meagre pockets so we chose explore Bangkok and Pattaya thoroughly in that one week, and trust me one week was less to explore the both in and out. So the decision to leave Phuket for another time was good plan as Phuket does deserve it's share of time and is more of a romantic place than a student place as it's obviously more expensive than the low-maintenance siblings of Thailand. Vegetarians all the very best, you can always click the food if you can't eat the food.

On the very same day I reached Phuket and as soon as I reached my hostel from airport for the first time in my life, I experienced such sort of things called backpacker hostel. I stayed at Bodega hostel near Bangla Road, Patong beach. I met couple of girls who travelling since last couple of months and then there was this guy who arrived couple of days back in Phuket and few more. I started having conversation with them and trust me it felt so good as if we knew each other for so long. I got along with those people very well and right from there it set the tone for the rest of my journey.

Oh you cant miss going Bangla road at Patong beach. Go Go bars and girls all around.

 #SwipeRightToTravelBus transfer from Bangkok International to Domestic. I was the last to board thanks to my punctuality. I saw two empty seats, one at the window and the other next to this girl in her mid twenties. On a trance of backpacking solo, I chose the latter. A few minutes past and the first thing I asked was the time, it is cliché but often breaks the ice and helps you decide if you vibe or not. As it turns out, we progressed from the bus to the Airport Gate, we were both headed to Phuket for the first time and we'd exchanged numbers and decided to spend a day travelling around Phuket together. What we did not know was how would this day unfold. The next morning, I hire a scooter and pick her up from her hotel. And following are the list of things we did:1. Cover 6 different beaches trying banana pancakes and singha beers.2. Get drenched on the highway due to unseasonal rains.3. Swim at the highest waterfall of Phuket in the National park.4. Race our scooter 50 kms south to catch the sun set at 'Prom thep Cape'.5. Post sunset went to the Phuket walking Street and drank more beers, met random travellers. To end the day, I dropped her at her hotel and left for Phi Phi islands the next day. She was French, 'Celene' was her name. We knew eachother for 48hours from the time of meeting to the final goodbye. But she gave me one of the best days of my life I would never forget.

If you haven't yet been to Thailand, you're probably the only one in the entire neighbourhood then. Phuket is extremely welcoming to tourists, especially Indians, hence there's no reason why Thailand should be left out from the places you will have visited in 2017. Despite being 49km long (that's HUGE), it's completely surrounded with water. While the Phuket Town is an artsy, culturally-profound capital, Rawai on the island's tip remains completely aloof and hippie-welcoming with its laidback attitude.Famous for: Beaches and nightlife.Things to do: Just chill at the Karon Beach. Visit the Phuket FantaSea cultural theme park.Weather in January: Average is 27 degrees celsius. Perfect for sunbathing.Average budget per head for 5 days (excluding flights): Rs. 42,000For more details, read this.