Karon Beach- October 2006

Last October we traveled back to visit our family in the US and on the return trip we stopped off in Phuket to burn off our jetlag. We flew 12Go from Bangkok in the afternoon. Actually, I am sad to say that it seems that the same flight we were on a year ago crashed into the Phuket airport killing 87 people. We weren’t terribly pleased with 12Go. The flight was late, as were all the other flights we flew on with them, and the return flight was terrible. At least the water was free!

Once we arrived, we immediately took a minivan from Phuket to the quieter Karon Beach and checked into our hotel Baan Karonburi Resort This was a very nice place but a little too Holiday Inn- like. The food was good, the air conditioner was great and the rooms were very clean but it just felt a little fake. The beach was lovely and I really enjoyed the day just reading and resting out on the beach.

The second day, we took a nice snorkeling trip with the Leisure 4 group to Phi Phi Khai Island. It was an all day affair. The first half was spent at some horribly touristy sites filled with giant tourists crunching over delicate coral. The second half they took us to some less touristy places and left the kiddies on the beach while the adults did more serious snorkeling. We saw some beautiful things and really enjoyed this part.

The beach was beautiful, the water was warm and the sunsets were gorgeous. I highly recommend Karon Beach over Phuket. Where ever you stay and whatever you do the beach is quieter and more relaxing. Which is more than I can say for our trip home.

We traveled home to Chiang Mai and had one of the most ridiculous trips ever! The flight connected through Bangkok and ran late. In order to connect on 12Go you have to go out through arrivals, come back through ticketing, check in, go back through departures and get on the plane. Because the flight ran late, we had to run for it with our backpacks to make our connecting flight which departed 20 minutes after our arrival. We sprinted through the airport, picked up our tickets at ticketing dashed through departures and ran onto...the same plane we had just got off from Phuket. We actually sat one row away from where we sat on the previous flight which we knew because the sound system was broken in the back so we couldn't hear the safety video and the tray table in our old row kept falling down. Other passengers with checked bags or without our sprinting skills actually missed the flight. Karon Beach I can recommend, 12Go I cannot.