I went to Phuket with 3 friends in November 2013. The season is best between November and April and this is why the Similand Islands are opened only during that period (unfortunately we didn't go as I couldn't convince my friends to forget about the full moon party in Phi Phi Island on July 17th).
The flight schedule was quite good from Hong Kong with Air Asia airline:
Thu 14 Nov 2013 FD2965 HKG 20:25 HKT 22:55
Tue 19 Nov 2013 FD2964 HKT 15:35 HKG 19:55
The itinerary was as below (Airport > Patong beach > Phang Nga Bay > Phi Phi Island > Airport):
The Story...
(I finally decide to type this report after almost 2 years later. After reading this I suggest you watch the video as I used more often the Gopro than my camera)
... November 14th
After landing in Phuket international airport, we took a taxi (that I book in advance via e-mail bj1998th@yahoo.com.hk, it's a bit cheaper: 600B car / 800B van) to go to our hotel in Patong beach area. The location was probably a mistake regarding our travel plan but my friend booked it before the plan was actually finalized. We arrived past 10:00 pm and we went outside for a drink. I remember I took only 1 or 2 drinks and had terrible headach afterwards, the alcohol can be very bad in Thailand (or worse).
Another reason to go in Patong beach area is the "ladyboy show" which we didn't attend (I didn't know at the time but my friends recommended to see it once I was back in HK).
November 15th...
The hotel street where we stayed. My friends were in Apsery (left) and I was staying in the bed & breakfast (Bann Sabai Dee) in front of it. They were nice as they let me use their phone to call John's Gray to confirm the tour pick-up.
Before our tour starts, we went to the beach nearby.
At around 11:30 am we were be picked-up by the travel agent for a canoe tour in the hong with John's gray. That's really a must do if you go on vacation in Phuket. The meeting point was a pier on the north east, but this company can picked up tourists in most places.
I don't have too many pictures as it was dangerous to keep the camera with the water around, but in the video on top of this page you can see a lot more about this tour.
The tour last the whole afternoon and ended at night, the itinerary was as below:
1130 - 1230 Hotel Pick-up
1200 - 1300 Arrive Ao Po, Board our modern Twin-engine escort boat, Thai style light lunch, trip and Nature Game briefing
1430 Arrive first island and explore 1-2 caves and hongs
1530 Return to the escort boat and move to the second island
1600 Explore two more caves and hongs
1800 Thai seafood buffet dinner during Phang Nga Bay Sunset
1900 Return to your kayak after dark to float your Loi Kratong
2000 Depart for Ao Po.
2100 Arrive Ao Po and transfer to your mini-van.
2130-2200 Drop off at your hotel. End of JGSC service.
Our second night was in Phuket town (Lub Sabuy Guest House), close the the pier we need to go the day after to take the ferry to Phi Phi Island. John's Gray arranged the drop-off in our second hotel with no issue!
November 16th...
I don't remember the ferry schedule, but I think it's was very early for the one we wanted to take. We took a taxi from the Hotel to the pier which was around 10 min. There was a lot of tourists and the ferry was (almost ?) full.
Some pictures of when we arrived in Phi Phi Islsand:
After dropping our stuff in our hotel, we spent the rest of the day walking around and enjoying the beach. We took a taxi boat to go a southern beach. It's also at walk-able distance, the area around the pier is not that big.
At night we book a diving tour for the day after. One of my friend wanted to validate her PADI level 1, so she took a longer tour including 4 diving. For the rest of us, we just wanted to dive and see sea life so we had to go for a discovery dive (2 dives). The good thing once you have the PADI is that it's about 30% cheaper to go diving.
The next 3 nights were in the Andaman Beach Resort. I was looking at the map at the time I'm typing this post (May 2015) but it seems it has moved location or google map is wrong. This hotel was very quiet, by the beach and the location still very convenient (5-10 min walk from town center).
November 17th...
The day of the full moon party and actually the main reason my friends wanted to go to Phi Phi island (which I couldn't care less :).
The morning was scheduled with the dives we book the previous night. I think we left the pier at around 8 or 9:00 am and came back a bit after noon. A quick lunch was including with the tour.
The friend doing the PADI had to go back in the afternoon but we find out later she couldn't do it because the boat had a technical issue. So eventually she was missing one dive to complete the level 1.
During that time, the rest of us went to the famous Phi Phi island view point, which is a short walk/hike of about 30-40 min.
On the way back, we met by chance our friend that couldn't do the afternoon dives and we decided to finish the day once more at the beach. Also we rent a canoe for about 1 hour with one of my friend.
Also at this specific time, the locals are preparing the below to drop it in the water in order to ask for forgiveness.
We had a nice dinner, then went to a bar to see a fire show and then it was time for the full moon party.
November 18th...
This was for me the best day in Phi Phi island. We book a 6H boat tour to see the different islands around (such as the famous beach from the movie "the beach" with Leonardo Di Carpaccio :)
It's hard to find words to describe that day, so just take a loot at the pictures / videos:
November 19th...
The last day was a long way back home, first of all we needed to take the ferry back to Phuket, then a taxi to the airport.
