• traveled 7 years ago
__ While still fresh in my memory, I am writing a review about our current vacation in Thailand in Phuket at the Chivatara Resort Bangtao Beach 3 *, then simply Chivatara Resort 3 * or Chivatara. As always, I am writing everything honestly on behalf of our family. I wrote a lot, sorry, but firstly, there is little reliable information about the hotel, and secondly, I want to warn some vacationers from the mistakes we made so that they don’t step on the same rake? .
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__ While still fresh in my memory, I am writing a review about our current vacation in Thailand in Phuket at the Chivatara Resort Bangtao Beach 3 *, then simply Chivatara Resort 3 * or Chivatara. As always, I am writing everything honestly on behalf of our family. I wrote a lot, sorry, but firstly, there is little reliable information about the hotel, and secondly, I want to warn some vacationers from the mistakes we made so that they don’t step on the same rake? . Everything was basically normal, but not without a fly in the ointment. So for those who are interested, read on, for those who are not, we pass by. I won't be offended by anyone, just don't throw stones at me.
__So, let's begin. We rested at Chivatara Resort 3 * from December 16 to December 25.2017 (this is actually a stretch), but according to the documents and conditions of the tour, when we bought from Pegasus, we had to rest from December 15 to December 26 inclusive (i. e. 10 nights + 1 night on the road). In general, again, the operators, together with the air carrier, shamelessly took away from us actually 2, and according to the calendar, 3 days of rest.
According to the numbers, it turns out 11 days, but in reality, 9.2 days flew out on the way there and back, well, more on that below.
__This year the three of us flew: me, my wife and daughter. The son refused to fly, so this time we were not a full complement. Well, in the opinion of our incomplete family, we got, let's say, a good vacation. The trip was booked two months before departure, and therefore the vacation was not particularly expensive, but not cheap either due to the current dollar exchange rate, the greed of the carriers and the operator, and the increased exchange rate of the Thai baht against the ruble. The hotel was chosen from the photographs, but it was alarming that there were very few reviews, and what were so all only positive did not happen. Well, we took the risk! We flew, as always, with a positive and good mood, but with caution, we did not know how we would endure acclimatization. After all, we are flying on vacation for the first time in winter. In vain worried about this - everything went well.
__In our entire travel history, we have visited 2 times in Turkey in two hotels 3 * and 5 *, 2 times in Egypt in Hurghada in a 4 * hotel and in Sharm El_Sheikh also in a 4 * hotel, 1 time in Cyprus in Paphos in a hotel 5 *, once in Tunisia in a 3* hotel. There is already enough experience in holidays abroad. Today we believe that we liked our vacation in Thailand more than not. We flew to Thailand from the tour operator Pegasus with RoyalFlight. The departure from Omsk at the beginning was postponed 3 hours ahead (instead of the departure at 23:3. In general, we flew out at 3 am already on December 16th, and given that the flight was 8 hours and a half (another +1 hour in Thai) and the road to the hotel, we almost didn’t have a day of rest on the 16th, only evening.
The return flight was also changed for us in a couple of days, they had to fly out of there on the 26th at 16:15 in the afternoon (we were happy, we thought we would have at least half a day to rest and say goodbye to the country, besides, December 26th is my birthday) , but Pegasus, together with the airline, perverted here and shod us for one more day, rescheduling the flight to the 26th but at 05:30 in the morning (or rather at night). That's it, we didn't have it on the 26th either. Without apologies and compensation, shamelessly we were completely taken away 2 days of real rest or three as per the calendar and according to the dates for which we bought the tour. And so the flight back and forth without problems, the planes are not bad, well-groomed, although in some places the plastic is broken, Boeing 767-300 (airbuses with 4 rows of seats in the center and two seats on the sides, 2 aisles) heavy planes, take off and land well , turbulence zones pass effortlessly. We were lucky, we got seats near and at the beginning of the plane, they sat there on the 4th row, and back on the 5th.
I usually can’t sleep on airplanes, but here I slept half the way like a baby. The food was poor, but a couple of times per flight, despite the fact that the flight attendants mixed up containers with cutlery and napkins from the ration on the way back Hot meals for the ration with forks and knives with a complete set of hygiene items! ). The choice of two dishes, as it is written on the airline's website, was not at all, what was given is what you eat, total savings. Well, it's not all that significant. Landing in Thailand was at Phuket airport (some flights land in Krabi and then tourists have to get to their hotels in Bang Tao for another 5 hours, but we were lucky) so we were at the hotel an hour and a half - two hours after landing.
At the exit from the airport, we were met by the Pegasus guide, checked our names, said the bus number, issued a local SIM card to contact the hotel guide (it could also be spent on 2 minutes of conversation with Russia, which we did). You can replenish the SIM card balance later in any supermarket by calling the phone number and paying at the checkout. We found our bus, waited for other tourists and drove off.
__Somewhere, around 16:00 in the afternoon, on December 16, we arrived at the hotel, at the reception we were immediately given food coupons and a room card, asked to fill out a questionnaire, they did not take a deposit from us. Here I will say right away: GUYS LEARN ENGLISH!! ! (at least English) because Thais don’t understand shit in Russian, but in English through a word, and then with the help of Google translator. I understand that merchants on the street may not speak Russian, but even that is understood by many.
At the hotel reception there should be at least one person who can translate and speak in a language that we and them understand! It is not there and this is a huge minus for the manager and staff! It was a shock for us (and later came out sideways for us more than once)! With so many Russians vacationing with them, they are not a boom boom in our opinion. In no country in the world where we were such problems were not observed! Well, in general, further our suitcases were picked up by a porter and helpfully gestured with his hand to follow him. He regularly led us to the building with our number and to the stairs to the second floor showing that we had to climb. We were surprised to know that the Super Deluxe room we ordered, according to the descriptions on the hotel website and somewhere according to the reviews of tourists, should be on the first floor (as we planned), and we are settled on the second floor, well, not at all as we wanted. Let's go to the reception and then again we will not understand each other!
Somehow explaining what we need, and they seemed to understand that we wanted to offer a smelly room on the first floor but at the very edge of the building near a noisy construction site located through the fence. Of course, this didn’t suit us, but since there were supposedly no other options, we still had to agree to the second floor, although according to our observations, there were a lot of free rooms of our category on the first floor at the time of our check-in, but why didn’t we gave a riddle, probably did not come out face. This is where our problems at this hotel began.
Well, in general, the porter escorted us to the place and brought in the suitcases, showed with gestures that yes, how and helpfully stood at the door without ambiguously hinting at mani, I somehow explained to him on my fingers that there was no mani now and when I change I’ll bring it to him, they need baht and we only have dollars and then large bills, what should I give him?
Well, that's how we ended up in our room 211 on the 2nd floor of the right building when viewed from the reception. Having sorted out a bit of things, they sat down to eat, they were hungry from the road. We knew that the food here is not ALL INCLUSIVE (and we didn’t even imagine how much it turned out to be wrong! ) so we took care of sandwiches at home, got food from our suitcases and had a bite to eat. Tired after the flight and the road, but already full, we began to look around in the room: everywhere the tiled floor was very slippery, apparently clean. The room is not small, but you can’t call it big either: there is one large double bed with bedside tables on the sides and a separate smaller folding bed. The room has a pair of wicker chairs and the same table with glass on top (it’s not clear why, probably in order for tourists to accidentally break it and, accordingly, then tear off money for it), a clothes dryer, a mirror, a wardrobe. There is a bathroom with a sink with a mirror, a shower and a toilet.
At first glance, everything seems to be not old, but somehow not new, but working. The water in the shower and sink drained normally, there were no problems. And here, speaking of water: do not wash white things in it in an instant, they will lose their freshness and become yellow, the water is disgusting, even at home my wife could not wash off the spoiled with bleach! There is a small refrigerator, a free safe, an LCD TV with one Russian channel Russia, there are plenty of sockets, a tee and an extension cord brought with you were not needed. In general, everything worked, everything lit up and turned on, the water was hot and cold without problems at any time. There was an individual air conditioner, which worked quite noisily, but it was normal, it was not hot, we even turned it off at night and slept like that. Both quiet and comfortable. There was an electric kettle and hairdryer.
Upon arrival, they put 2 bottles of water and then regularly replenished when 2 when 3 bottles of water, tea and coffee with milk in bags, a couple of glass glasses (keep in mind very fragile and we safely broke one of them, for which we then had to pay, well, about see below) and a couple of simple ones with two spoons. All rooms on the second floor have a balcony overlooking the pool, the sea was not visible, far from it. In general, everything was normal. Audibility: we didn’t notice much noise from the reception and the pool, but the door to the room on the opposite side muffled the sounds slightly, people in the corridor were clearly audible and the sounds of birds from the forest right next to the hotel were heard quite loudly in the morning.
__Hotel. Quite small. Location. Well, here's how. I still think it’s not the most successful, because.
there is nowhere to take a walk, there is no entertainment, there are no large shops nearby, only a shopping street with boutiques, cafes and massage parlors and a couple of micro shops 7/11 and FamilyMarkt, you have to go winding through the streets to the sea, although not far. The hotel itself is 2-storey and consists of 2 buildings located with the letter V and the same pool. The construction is not clear in time, honestly! They could not get rid of the feeling that the hotel was renovated, although many write on the Internet that it is new. Well, he doesn’t have the feeling that he is from scratch: on one side, palm trees that are already growing are not one year old, if you look closely at the rooms and in the bathroom, you can see that everything is tinted and glued, something is pretty shabby. Either they build it this way (then they need to tear off the hands of such builders) and the owner pretty much saved on construction, or is the hotel still not new after renovation and global repairs!
But outwardly and from afar you can’t say that and it looks very dignified green, beautiful and cozy! The hotel area is clean. The landscaping is excellent, many flowers and trees have been planted, everything is blooming and fragrant.
__Cleaning the rooms. Starts in the morning and continues throughout the day. We were cleaned in our absence. They make beds, sometimes change towels, replenish soap, probably shampoo too, but we didn’t understand, there was a dark bottle on the shelf in the shower. They wipe the floor in the room and in the bathroom, put things in order on the shelves. We did not leave any tips or chocolates. I can’t say anything bad about cleaning, everything is standard.
__Hotel staff. Well, there's a TROUBLE! They seem to be trying to seem very nice, friendly and helpful, but as I said above, communicating with them is problem number 1!
At the reception, if there is any problem, they immediately run and call their chief (most likely this is the manager Mario according to the descriptions), and he begins to read something to us in a hoarse voice, bending his fingers in both broken English and listing something in his own that we can do what we can’t, and by the end of our stay, scare us with the police (we must see, according to his conclusions, that we wanted something supernatural in his possessions). Then some kind of bartender-manager for service staff ran around the hotel, so thin, dark-haired, so harmful he was always something he wouldn’t add or didn’t convey, his tongue clicked at us. Once we came to dinner with our beer, so he looked into the bag and stuck his nose in to see what we had there.
__The main contingent of tourists are Russians and Germans and a few Chinese. At least that's how it was with us. Therefore, the problem of the Russian language in the hotel is incomprehensible! Or maybe it is beneficial for Thais to pretend to be incomprehensible?
__Internet Wi-Fi. Free. At the reception, upon arrival, they issue a card per person with an access password. It seems to be caught and even in the room, but the speed is weak and very often throws out. Something serious is unlikely to be done. We sometimes really managed to talk with relatives via Viber or WhatsApp, but it was like a holiday!
__Nutrition. Ooooooooo! Here is a separate epic worthy of a whole chapter of the story! And here we hit the full on the most tomatoes !! ! Do not take it for stupidity or naivety, but we are in this country for the first time and we were not particularly warned about what kind of rake we could step on, and with both feet at once! We have always taken all inclusive everywhere in other countries. The travel agent told us that breakfast alone is enough in Thailand, and we can have lunch and dinner on the street in cafes, but did not specify what the difference would be in money. And looking at Pegasus that this hotel offers food not only one breakfast (i. e.
BB) but also breakfasts and dinners, and even with a plus (HB +, and plus it’s in a footnote at Pegasus that drinks are locally produced throughout the day, mind you! ). Well, we, as smart people, will look for food in cafes, we will eat and drink at the hotel itself and took HB + (i. e. breakfasts + dinners with drinks all day) and here we did a huge stupidity! Everything was fucked with us at once: Pegasus, quietly silent that we still need to look at the concept of the hotel itself in which we will live in terms of their nutritional conditions, and the hotel itself, according to the HB + concept, gives us leftovers from previous days for dinner and once a day a bottle of local beer 0.33 per adult and a glass of water! And it doesn’t matter that we were on excursions for 2 days and did not take these drinks, what has passed has passed, it is impossible to make up for the previous unused days. For an extra bottle of beer, pay 80 baht, while in a nearby store the same beer but with a large volume of 0.73 costs 63 baht in total. Feel the difference?
Here you have all the drinks during the day and such a dinner! And we overpaid for this joy on the tour 40 thousand for three. With this money, we could eat well in local cafes. So people, listen to good advice, take only breakfasts and in no case take lunches or dinners in Thailand, well, at least if you live in this hotel! I'm not talking about the fact that we all got sick in it, and it was after these terrible dinners. After a few days of such nutrition, immediately after dinner, my daughter became ill, she vomited and, thank God, it didn’t go deeper, then my wife got a gut and suffered for several days with pain in her stomach and frequent visits to the toilet after drinking all the stocks of medicines, but in the end I became ill, and the pipets are so bad, I was also rinsed completely into all holes, sorry. For a couple of days I couldn’t take anything in my mouth at all, only one smell made me sick. So judge for yourself about their dinners!
Moreover, they ate several times in street cafes and in another hotel restaurant where they spent the night on excursions - this was not observed anywhere. We've never been so bad before. We know the ban on the use of local water for drinking and washing, we don’t need to talk about it, and about clean hands too. So what is it? The breakfasts were good, I won’t say anything, everything is fresh and tasty, there was even some variety: there was fried bacon, meat, chicken, fish, pasta, rice, soups so-so, fried potatoes once, just a little bit of seafood, 2 types sauces, lettuce, sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, onions, the same type of sausage every day, boiled eggs, delicious yogurt, baking a couple of types of puff pastry buns, butter, jam in small packages. From drinks: hot coffee, tea in teapots; chilled diluted orange and hibiscus juices.
Fruits: oranges, bananas, sliced melon, watermelon, dragon fruit, papaya are not sweet. The food is undersalted, there is soy sauce on the tables, add whoever needs it. Everything is relatively tasty, but the variety does not shine. I don’t even want to write about dinners, disgusting! Here I’ll tell you one more thing: when we arrived, they brought us a menu for dinner for a couple of days like in a decent restaurant and in it you could choose dishes to your liking and for the amount, as it turned out, no more than 800 baht (as these 800 baht are divided equally for three of us , some Thais in this hotel know) and we learned this truth at the first dinner after a consultation with the staff led by hoarse Mario and paid 25 baht for the fact that we allegedly exceeded the limit. Can you imagine this Sabantuy if we do not understand each other in any way, neither in Russian nor in English?
The next day, everything would be fine, but again, at dinner, we sit and eat and the wife takes out the iron shavings from her mouth that came to her along with a spoonful of soup (thank God she didn’t swallow), we invite the waiter with gestures and show us they replaced the dish. After a couple of minutes, the daughter takes out the same from her plate, we show it again and, already incredulously and reluctantly, they change the dish for us again. It seemed to us that they looked at us as some kind of swindlers, but it was all real, really. After all this, we and a couple of other families who fell into the same concept of food were canceled the choice on the menu and for dinner they began to make the simplest buffet of a couple of dishes and without choice options on which we began to poison ourselves. So that's the food in this hotel. I'm not lying, not a word, believe me. I'm not saying that we had to literally squeeze this ill-fated free bottle of beer from them every evening, explaining that we have a right to it!
We had HB + food, so bring and put us silently on the prescribed bottle of beer for an adult and a glass of juice for a child, and it doesn’t matter if we drink them or take them with us, give us what we paid you with interest! Here we were poured water without problems, and we squeezed beer with juice every day and we were sick of it to hell, I hope you will understand us! The restaurant itself is small, located in the middle of the hotel right behind the reception, blown by all the winds, closed only with cellophane curtains. Everything seems to be clean in it, but birds fly and sit where they want, they drag it from the table. I won’t recommend any street cafes, to be honest, I didn’t like a single one, we tried to eat in a cafe right in front of the hotel and a little to the right of Tomyan soup, he didn’t go to us, we ordered rice with seafood with us, so-so. Once we dined at the Andaman restaurant on the beach, the same rice with seafood was not impressed.
In general, we had lunch at random, where it was ice cream with a cocktail, where it was fruit, and where we didn’t have lunch at all, because nothing simply got into our throats.
__SPA. There is not even a hint of him in the hotel. Nothing else but the gym! In general, I had to prepare myself for tanning and sea procedures ourselves on the street in a massage parlor. The concept of a Turkish hamam bath does not seem to exist in Thailand. But we found in one salon on the shopping street the procedure Full body scrub and massage for 1 hour for 550 baht per person, agreed for 1000 baht for two. The daughter refused this procedure. We think the money was not wasted. My wife and I liked it. In the salon there are separate 2-bed rooms for these procedures.
My wife and I were stripped naked (we thought it was all done in swimsuits), put on couches with covered towels and long and scrupulously applied scrub with oil, then sent to the shower to wash everything off ourselves and again invited to the couches for a relaxing massage with aromatic oils. Well, almost a hammam, we removed the old skin with a scrub, so that the tan would lay down well and get a good massage. Everything was great. Recommend!
__Swimming pool. One, located in the middle of the hotel in the shape of the letter V. Depth 1.75m, there is a veranda in the middle with a bridge and on one side a children's area with a small depth. There is a bar in the pool from the reception, but no one ordered anything in it. This is probably how they looked at us as savages when we went crazy with impudence and ordered one glass of Pina Colada for all for 150 baht. We immediately rolled out a bill for it, immediately in the evening it was paid out of harm's way.
You can swim in the pool until late at night, no one was kicked out. The water in it, surprisingly, did not smell of bleach at all and was always clean. It looks like they are using some other cleaning technology. Along the perimeter of the pool there are pissing figures of animals that were not turned off at night, their gurgling could be heard even with the doors to the balcony closed. Sometimes they forgot and thought that the water was running somewhere in the bathroom.
__Aquapark. It is not in the hotel and there is not even a small slide for children. They say Phuket has its own water park - we didn’t go, I can’t say anything.
__Animation. She's not in the hotel either. Entertain yourself. There is nothing to do in the hotel or on the street. The youth will be very bored!
__Beach. Bang Tao beach is a fairy tale. Good, big, long. The sand is soft and clean. You can't see the trash cans along the beach, but there are periodically between the trees black plastic bags into which we threw garbage.
We noticed one strange feature nowhere on the beach you can see toilets! Where people go in need is not clear. The Andaman Sea is cool, clear, warm, often with waves. We loved it, especially my daughter jumping on them. The bottom is flat, gently sloping is the most for children. You don't need special shoes, you can swim barefoot. The beach is public and you can lie down wherever you want, they offer a lot of sunbeds, on average 100-150 baht per sunbed for the whole day. We took mats from the hotel, they were given to us surprisingly free of charge, they only signed for receipt and return. When there was no strong tide, we lay on the shore under the trees near the Best Western Hotel, more often we walked further along the beach through the river flowing into the sea to the Sunwing Hotel. There the beach was wider and the sand was better. Everywhere there are many minks where small crabs hid. We went to Surin Beach, as you leave the hotel on the left along the street to the mountain, go around the mountain on the left side along the main street and straight to the large stele with the inscription PARK SURIN, somewhere 1.
5 km from the hotel to the beach. Well, I'll tell you the beach was not impressed. We thought our beach was better. There is some kind of srach on Surin, there are a lot of merchants who throw their waste right there under their feet, cows walk between the trees, which seize anywhere and look so as not to clear mines. The water is the same, the sand is the same, so I don’t understand what other tourists admired there: yes it’s beautiful, yes sand, yes the sea. But all this is no worse than on Bang Tao beach, and even go so far. So we went there once and never went again.
__Outside the hotel. There is nothing remarkable. Just for a normal life you need to know some places and things. Very close to the hotel if you turn left and across the road there is a small Minimart store, everything is smelly and old and more expensive than everyone else. You can take everything from them only from the refrigerator: this is ice cream, beer and water if you are too lazy to go further to other markets. All payments are made in baht.
It is better to take dollars with you in large denominations of $ 100 or $ 50 (they have the same exchange rate and more profitable). While we were resting in exchange offices, the exchange rate fluctuated from 32.20 to 32.45 baht to the dollar. There are two exchange offices within walking distance from the hotel: one exit the hotel, turn left, go to the first intersection, turn right, cross the bridge over the river and in front of you is a green exchange office with the inscription Exchange, next to it is a kiosk where they make wonderful refreshing cocktails for 50 baht, and if a mix of fruits is 70 baht (I recommend mango with pineapple, we tried it - it’s delicious), you can also buy fruit from them at home in bags or buy from them in plastic containers. Ask that each fruit is wrapped in a piece of paper or packaging cellophane.
A little further, if you turn right from the exchange office and walk along the shopping street to the BestWestern hotel about 200 meters, then opposite, right next to the 7Eleven (or 7/11) minimarket, there is another blue currency exchange office also with the inscription Exchange (rates may vary, go there and there and choose the course more profitable). At the end of our vacation, we had a situation: there were not enough baht, we had to exchange a little more, but we only had $ 100 bills with us, we went to the exchanger, filed a $ 100 bill and said exchange only fifty dollars (exchange only $ 50) , we were exchanged $ 50 for baht and $ 50 were given change (you can take $ 50 bills with you for such a case, you won’t lose, the rate is the same). In the 7/11 market you can buy water, ice cream, cosmetics, alcohol and various knick-knacks. Everything is clean, civilized and air-conditioned. There is a similar store down the same street called FamilyMart. The range is the same as in 7/11. Opposite these markets there are tuk-tuks, they will take you wherever you want. We haven't used them so I can't say anything about them.
Almost immediately behind the 7/11 store, if you walk 20-30 steps, there is a nice boutique decorated in light green colors called Herbal Paradise Folk Medicine (no mistake, it says so on the sign). It speaks Russian very well, the owners come from Uzbekistan. Prices in it are even lower than at the night market, soap for 30 baht each, protective cream with aloe for 70 baht. We have not seen cheaper anywhere else, so here you can safely buy home soap, cosmetics, healing ointments and items of their traditional medicine, we recommend. If you go even further along this street, then after the FamilyMart store on the right side there will be a Baan Jira Massage salon, in which we just did a full body scrub with a massage upon arrival. By the way, it is also a very popular salon, because there have always been enough customers.
After his first visit, I agreed with them for a subsequent massage of the back, neck and head for 1 hour for 360 baht, according to the price list it was 400 baht, I bargained (by the way, don’t be afraid to bargain, you can significantly bring down prices and everywhere). Then I went for three sessions, I’ll tell you very well, the masseuse found by touch all my problem areas in the back and neck and worked well with them! I was satisfied. We walked further along this street, but did not find anything interesting. In the district there are shops with clothes, souvenirs, various cafes. You can buy something here, but it’s better to walk or go to the really big Tesco Lotus Market and get to the nearby Bang Tao night market (Tesco Lotus is open around the clock, and the market is on Mondays and Thursdays from 16:00). We talked with some Russians, they told us that they went there by tuk-tuk for 350 baht round trip, they even waited there.
In general, they ask for 400 baht, but you can bargain. Another of our Russian-speaking neighbors in the hotel walked, they said it's okay, you won't get lost, it's a bit far (2.2 km), but you can walk. We went on the last day before departure and regretted very much that we did not get there earlier. In TescoLotus, all Europeans and ours, who live closer, stock up on food at very good prices. A whole barbecue chicken in the market costs 139 baht, and once on the street in a cafe we barely found such a chicken and bought it for 400 baht (that's how tourists treat us). And the chicken from the market is excellent. Everything is on sale: fruits, vegetables, some normal food, alcohol, hygiene items, detergents and much more. In general, a normal market in the manner of our Magnet with normal prices.
If they had known that it was so, then immediately upon arrival they would have gone into it stocked with food, stuffed everything in the refrigerator and didn’t poison their dinners and didn’t turn up their noses from Thai food (sorry, but it didn’t go to us either by smell or taste, none of us I couldn’t eat it, although we saw many Russians who ate their Tomyans and PadTai in cafes, so it was already crackling behind our ears, we didn’t like it at all and we were happy with barbecue chicken like children! ). At the night market you can buy fruits, exotic meat and fish products, various smoked meats, souvenirs, their toothpastes, creams and oils, aromatic soaps (100 baht for 3 pieces), Thai ice cream with any fruit made right in front of you on the refrigerated table for 69 baht , which we ate on the excursion on the island of Phi Phi for 99 baht. The market is big and worth a visit.
How to get there: get out of the hotel, turn right and go constantly along the main road without turning anywhere, the road will wind around (they have no logic in the roads at all, they designed them like a bull peed), in several places there will be small intersections and you follow the rule where the road is wider there and you have to go, closer to the end of the street there will be an equivalent Y-shaped intersection, on it on the left side there is a yellow shield and next to it is a panoramic mirror for viewing the road, take it to the right. You will reach the main street (you will understand that it is central, there are many cars and wide, there will be a gas station and a currency exchange office on the right), turn left and walk along the road for about 500 meters at least until a sharp turn to the left, turn, and then you will see a large supermarket with the emblem Tesco Lotus, and a market across the street from it.
I strongly advise you to go to this store immediately upon arrival on vacation, especially if you want to eat normal food, in the market you will take whatever your heart desires and the rest will be successful. But you can walk there if you are not going to carry something heavy with you and if it is not very hot on the street, otherwise you are tormented, it is still far from the hotel to go.
__Tours. Here we must start with the fact that at the beginning we came across a very disgusting hotel guide from Pegasus. Natalia was her name. We were late for an appointment, we came later, we wanted to talk to her, at first she didn’t want to talk to us at all, then I, seeing how she shamelessly reproaches other tourists in front of everyone that they supposedly don’t want to take excursions from her, I doubted, but I needed Do we have such a meeting with this guide at all, but I still came up to talk to her later. So she openly hinted that if you don’t take excursions from her, then she won’t waste time on us.
Our roommates, also Russians, arrived before us and also suffered from it. They wanted to take a free overview of Phuket from her, she asked me to fill out a questionnaire and bring it to her, the neighbors filled it out, brought it, but she was not there, they put the questionnaire in a folder on her desk. After a while, the guide called them back and let them scold them like children, how dare they not give the questionnaires to her personally, in general, the neighbors freaked out and also sent her away saying that they didn’t need anything else! This was the guide. As it turned out later, she replaced our temporarily absent guide Marina. We met with Marina later before leaving on several issues, a good, friendly, normal girl. And this Natalya was absolutely inadequate, well, God be her judge.
By the way, if anyone has any questions: the hotel does not have a stand on which they post information about the departure (as in all civilized countries and hotels), they receive it at the reception every day at 17:00 pm, print it out, keep it or put it in the Pegasus folder on the coffee table next to them. So be sure to check the departure time a day before departure so that you are ready. In general, wherever we rested, information about the departure was always posted exactly one day in advance and it didn’t matter when the reception decided to receive and process it. During the day, everything is always fun at the stand, right there not, only at 17:00 pm the hotel will connect and receive. We even when leaving the hotel was not all right. Thank God that I looked on the Internet a couple of days before departure and saw that we had moved it from 16:15 on the afternoon of December 26 to 5:30 at night, also on December 26, that is, the departure is obtained earlier, count by 12 hours, at 2 am on the 26th we should already be picked up by a transfer.
And the hotel received the information only after 17:00 in the evening of the 25th, not in a day, but literally in a few hours. And if we left or went for a walk somewhere until late at night, not knowing that we now have such an early flight? How is that? ! Well, in general, cursing in our hearts, we ran, picking up things in a handful of ass. And my wife and daughter at the beginning of the holiday wanted to surprise me and ordered a birthday cake for December 26th. They wanted to make us happy on our birthday, we thought how people could even get a free compliment from the hotel here, but it didn’t happen, we left earlier and no one gave us anything. But the compliment was that we were ripped off 50 baht for a broken water glass. My wife in the room somehow, the devil pulled the glass to rinse after the juice in the bath and didn’t even drop it, but simply put it in the sink, and he fell on his side and broke, very fragile, as if on purpose. They thought they might not notice, but where is it.
The bus has already arrived for us, it is waiting, and they took the card from the room and ran at 2 am to check if everything was in order there. Revealed the missing glass and let's shake us. In general, happy birthday to you Vlad and your family! So they left without tasting a free compliment, but giving them 50 baht as a parting gift (they could have forgiven such a trifle on the day of jam). By the way, keep in mind that in each issue there is a leaflet warning what fine you will have to pay as a result of the loss of one or another in the list. This is where we got it too. All in full. Well, I digress from the main topic. Let's start again
__Excursions, double 2. We took one 2-day excursion 3 in 1 (11 islands). We watched their videos on youtube, then found them on the Internet and, while already in Thailand, we phoned their operator and ordered. Well, I want to say for the price, I understood why the guide from Pegasus was so indignant that they didn’t want to take excursions from her.
We paid 11.500 baht for three + 400 baht voucher delivery (the company is located in Patong, and since it’s a long way to go to Bang Tao, we had to pay for the delivery of the voucher, why? but oh well, it still turned out cheaper than taking from Pegasus), total 11900 baht, transfer is free. At Pegasus, such an excursion, converted from dollars to baht, for the three of us would cost 18.000 baht. Feel the difference? In general, on the tour: they took us from the hotel, brought us to the port, took us to a shed where everyone met the loud-voiced Dima (a Russian boy from Nizhny Novgorod) our guide for these 2 days and Ivan (also our boy from Ukraine) our photographer. Then Dima read out our rules and agenda to us. In this place, the first money scam began: we were strongly recommended to rent fins for 200 baht per pair, because
according to Dima, on snorkeling we will swim at shallow depths and we can scratch and cut ourselves on corals or get on sea urchins or we will be carried away by the current, all this is a scam, people just scared, you can safely not take them, unless of course you are used to swimming only with them, and then, already in the process where they swam and snorkeled, it turned out that the depths there were at least 4-5 meters to the corals, and the guides themselves let it slip. They immediately offered to buy waterproof covers for gadgets and raincoats so as not to get too wet on the road, take a picture against the backdrop of palm trees for a plate with a photo as a keepsake, which you will then buy at the end of the tour for 200 baht. Be sure to take covers, if you don’t have your own, a boat at speed, when it flies through the waves, a lot of sea water gets into it, this can kill your equipment. We did not take a raincoat as you wish, the water in the sea is warm, no one froze, the spray did not strain.
I think it won’t hurt to take a picture, there will be a memory, though the plate is small, we could make a larger photo and plate for this money. Then we filled out the marine insurance and proceeded to the pier in an organized crowd to board the sea vessel. We loaded onto a boat with 3 Honda 250 engines and blew across the sea, it took our breath away! The boat goes well, but the engines yell great and it is thrown up on the waves, the speed is about 60 km / h. Who is afraid of pitching and has problems with the back and musculoskeletal system, this tour is not for you, do not risk it! On the first day, we visited Bond Island with a sloping mountain where people make wishes, and where the island stands with an inverted bottle, took pictures there from the observation platforms.
Then we sailed for lunch to these gypsies in a village on the water, we had a good lunch. Everything was clean and tidy. Then they showed an island in the sea on which the Thais built a castle for their king. Then they landed on an island with a cave of phalluses and living monkeys. They didn’t see monkeys, but they visited the cave, there really are a bunch of all sorts of different phalluses of different sizes and colors, and it looks like they are still being carried there. Then we sailed past the island with a chicken head and arrived at the place of our first snorkeling. I will say that the underwater world of the Andaman Sea is very, very far in beauty from the Red. There is no variety of fish, corals are all the same color, gray. So we did not enjoy this spectacle. It was also terribly inconvenient to climb back onto the boat from the water, the ladders are narrow, short, it is very difficult to climb without help.
Then we landed on the island of Phi Phi (their local Ibiza) where we had dinner, checked into the Andaman Beach hotel for the night and walked around the island, tried their alcoholic drinks from buckets for 400 baht each and looked at the fire show. Drinks and cocktails were not particularly impressive, they drank better for the same money, the fire show was also much more interesting. Everything is monotonous for them, there are no shocking tricks and raisins, everything is simple to disgrace, snotty boys twist and turn everything the same. Immediately next to the hotel where we settled in, we tried a hot pancake wrapped in a triangle with fruits, condensed milk and chocolate in a cafe, very tasty and their Thai ice cream for 99 baht, which is made right in front of you on the refrigerated table. The whole island, boutiques and cafes are hung with garlands. When it got dark it became very beautiful, everyone was preparing to welcome the new year. In general, they were, walked up and returned back to the hotel where they fell tired.
By the way, the building is absolutely new in which we got a room, but at night there was something. I woke up from the fact that someone rushes along the ceiling! I lie and I can not understand what is happening? Then it dawned on me when I heard squeaks - these are rats running and fighting in the walls and ceiling behind drywall, pipets !! ! Well, thank God my girls didn't hear that. On top of everything else, mosquitoes bitten everyone at night. Yes, yes, they are here, we did not have them at the hotel in Bang Tao, where we lived. Thus ended the first day of the tour. On the second day, we got up at 7:30 in the morning, washed ourselves and went to breakfast. We had breakfast, boarded a boat at 9:00 and flew further to the Maya Bay lagoon, where they filmed the film The Beach with the participation of a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Very beautiful place, sand like semolina. We walked around the island, took pictures, went to the observation deck, saw the cupcake island, then everyone swam. They rummaged with their daughter in the sand, dug in and made a Batman out of themselves.
But gradually tourists began to arrive on the island and very soon the people began to crowd. We were picked up and we sailed further to the lagoon called Pele to go snorkeling for the second time and rejuvenate because the water in this lagoon is very salty and saturated with various minerals. We bought, dived from the boat and sailed on. We were shown an island where swallow nests are harvested for a delicacy worth $300 a serving. Then we sailed to the island where crabeater monkeys live, looked at them and took pictures. Then we sailed to the island of Koh Mai Pai or the Bounty, where we just stupidly sunbathed and swam. A beautiful island with a huge beach and clear sea. They say monitor lizards live on the island, we did not see it. That's all, it was the last island, then we sailed home to the port of Phuket, where it all began.
Here, before we were all dropped off, there was the last swindle for money, such as the team and the captain in gratitude (or is it an illegal fare? ) It was necessary to tip at least 100 baht per person (a strange tip, agree, usually tip is as much as you can or no matter how much you feel sorry for and not forcibly, but here immediately with the condition of at least 100 baht and Dima himself will come up with a hat to everyone), so be prepared for this. We pay, get out of the boat and go back to the shed, there you hand over the fins if you took them and right there on the table you will find photos on plates for 200 baht. Well, that's all. Then the road home by minivan and hotel. In general, an excellent excursion, they took it and did not regret it, although they were a bit tired. Some on the second day it was already bad in the boat and Dima gave them pills for motion sickness.
The tour has a great advantage - it alone covers almost all the famous islands of Thailand, some of which are offered by tour operators for visiting separately. The tour is worth visiting, only operators should be warned about additional non-standard expenses such as tips that will shake you off along the way.
__ Well, that's probably all, it's time to finish and summing up I want to say that you can and should have a rest in Thailand! Excellent nature and climate, bewitching islands, azure sea everything is fine! But the rating is excellent absolutely not suitable for the Chivatara hotel precisely because of the food, service and staff at this hotel. All this ruined our holiday experience. We consider the hotel itself excellent, but something needs to be done with the approach to serving tourists!
To all of us, Thailand seemed very friendly and, in principle, clean, if you do not look at the territory of the private sector where we saw a lot of garbage. The sea is cool, the sun is comfortable, the sand is soft, clean, the nature is gorgeous. A hotel of 3 stars and above does not pull, well, maybe with a stretch and a four, but only because of the beautiful appearance, clean rooms and comfortable territory with good landscaping, there are no complaints here. And the main staff must be taught to understand and speak the language of tourists who come to them or have at least one interpreter manager at the reception.
I would advise the manager Mario to be removed away from tourists, except for bending his fingers, getting into all the problems and blowing up conflicts with shouting out the word POLICE (the word POLICE, in his opinion, probably sounded specifically for intimidation and was naturally understandable in any language, and maybe swear words were a plus , in their language, we did not understand) he does not know how. An unpleasant type, we do not know to whom he seemed like a darling (someone admired him earlier in the reviews). So problems with tourists are not solved, such an attitude was experienced for the first time and was shocked! There was a tall, dark-haired, thin young Thai girl at the reception, so she tried her best to do something for us and understand, and Mario is better off without him. It was this kind of trouble that spoiled the good attitude towards the country. Well, God be with them. This year we rested 200% of the body, but not quite with the soul.
__So, let's begin. We rested at Chivatara Resort 3 * from December 16 to December 25.2017 (this is actually a stretch), but according to the documents and conditions of the tour, when we bought from Pegasus, we had to rest from December 15 to December 26 inclusive (i. e. 10 nights + 1 night on the road). In general, again, the operators, together with the air carrier, shamelessly took away from us actually 2, and according to the calendar, 3 days of rest.
According to the numbers, it turns out 11 days, but in reality, 9.2 days flew out on the way there and back, well, more on that below.
__This year the three of us flew: me, my wife and daughter. The son refused to fly, so this time we were not a full complement. Well, in the opinion of our incomplete family, we got, let's say, a good vacation. The trip was booked two months before departure, and therefore the vacation was not particularly expensive, but not cheap either due to the current dollar exchange rate, the greed of the carriers and the operator, and the increased exchange rate of the Thai baht against the ruble. The hotel was chosen from the photographs, but it was alarming that there were very few reviews, and what were so all only positive did not happen. Well, we took the risk! We flew, as always, with a positive and good mood, but with caution, we did not know how we would endure acclimatization. After all, we are flying on vacation for the first time in winter. In vain worried about this - everything went well.
__In our entire travel history, we have visited 2 times in Turkey in two hotels 3 * and 5 *, 2 times in Egypt in Hurghada in a 4 * hotel and in Sharm El_Sheikh also in a 4 * hotel, 1 time in Cyprus in Paphos in a hotel 5 *, once in Tunisia in a 3* hotel. There is already enough experience in holidays abroad. Today we believe that we liked our vacation in Thailand more than not. We flew to Thailand from the tour operator Pegasus with RoyalFlight. The departure from Omsk at the beginning was postponed 3 hours ahead (instead of the departure at 23:3. In general, we flew out at 3 am already on December 16th, and given that the flight was 8 hours and a half (another +1 hour in Thai) and the road to the hotel, we almost didn’t have a day of rest on the 16th, only evening.
The return flight was also changed for us in a couple of days, they had to fly out of there on the 26th at 16:15 in the afternoon (we were happy, we thought we would have at least half a day to rest and say goodbye to the country, besides, December 26th is my birthday) , but Pegasus, together with the airline, perverted here and shod us for one more day, rescheduling the flight to the 26th but at 05:30 in the morning (or rather at night). That's it, we didn't have it on the 26th either. Without apologies and compensation, shamelessly we were completely taken away 2 days of real rest or three as per the calendar and according to the dates for which we bought the tour. And so the flight back and forth without problems, the planes are not bad, well-groomed, although in some places the plastic is broken, Boeing 767-300 (airbuses with 4 rows of seats in the center and two seats on the sides, 2 aisles) heavy planes, take off and land well , turbulence zones pass effortlessly. We were lucky, we got seats near and at the beginning of the plane, they sat there on the 4th row, and back on the 5th.
I usually can’t sleep on airplanes, but here I slept half the way like a baby. The food was poor, but a couple of times per flight, despite the fact that the flight attendants mixed up containers with cutlery and napkins from the ration on the way back Hot meals for the ration with forks and knives with a complete set of hygiene items! ). The choice of two dishes, as it is written on the airline's website, was not at all, what was given is what you eat, total savings. Well, it's not all that significant. Landing in Thailand was at Phuket airport (some flights land in Krabi and then tourists have to get to their hotels in Bang Tao for another 5 hours, but we were lucky) so we were at the hotel an hour and a half - two hours after landing.
At the exit from the airport, we were met by the Pegasus guide, checked our names, said the bus number, issued a local SIM card to contact the hotel guide (it could also be spent on 2 minutes of conversation with Russia, which we did). You can replenish the SIM card balance later in any supermarket by calling the phone number and paying at the checkout. We found our bus, waited for other tourists and drove off.
__Somewhere, around 16:00 in the afternoon, on December 16, we arrived at the hotel, at the reception we were immediately given food coupons and a room card, asked to fill out a questionnaire, they did not take a deposit from us. Here I will say right away: GUYS LEARN ENGLISH!! ! (at least English) because Thais don’t understand shit in Russian, but in English through a word, and then with the help of Google translator. I understand that merchants on the street may not speak Russian, but even that is understood by many.
At the hotel reception there should be at least one person who can translate and speak in a language that we and them understand! It is not there and this is a huge minus for the manager and staff! It was a shock for us (and later came out sideways for us more than once)! With so many Russians vacationing with them, they are not a boom boom in our opinion. In no country in the world where we were such problems were not observed! Well, in general, further our suitcases were picked up by a porter and helpfully gestured with his hand to follow him. He regularly led us to the building with our number and to the stairs to the second floor showing that we had to climb. We were surprised to know that the Super Deluxe room we ordered, according to the descriptions on the hotel website and somewhere according to the reviews of tourists, should be on the first floor (as we planned), and we are settled on the second floor, well, not at all as we wanted. Let's go to the reception and then again we will not understand each other!
Somehow explaining what we need, and they seemed to understand that we wanted to offer a smelly room on the first floor but at the very edge of the building near a noisy construction site located through the fence. Of course, this didn’t suit us, but since there were supposedly no other options, we still had to agree to the second floor, although according to our observations, there were a lot of free rooms of our category on the first floor at the time of our check-in, but why didn’t we gave a riddle, probably did not come out face. This is where our problems at this hotel began.
Well, in general, the porter escorted us to the place and brought in the suitcases, showed with gestures that yes, how and helpfully stood at the door without ambiguously hinting at mani, I somehow explained to him on my fingers that there was no mani now and when I change I’ll bring it to him, they need baht and we only have dollars and then large bills, what should I give him?
Well, that's how we ended up in our room 211 on the 2nd floor of the right building when viewed from the reception. Having sorted out a bit of things, they sat down to eat, they were hungry from the road. We knew that the food here is not ALL INCLUSIVE (and we didn’t even imagine how much it turned out to be wrong! ) so we took care of sandwiches at home, got food from our suitcases and had a bite to eat. Tired after the flight and the road, but already full, we began to look around in the room: everywhere the tiled floor was very slippery, apparently clean. The room is not small, but you can’t call it big either: there is one large double bed with bedside tables on the sides and a separate smaller folding bed. The room has a pair of wicker chairs and the same table with glass on top (it’s not clear why, probably in order for tourists to accidentally break it and, accordingly, then tear off money for it), a clothes dryer, a mirror, a wardrobe. There is a bathroom with a sink with a mirror, a shower and a toilet.
At first glance, everything seems to be not old, but somehow not new, but working. The water in the shower and sink drained normally, there were no problems. And here, speaking of water: do not wash white things in it in an instant, they will lose their freshness and become yellow, the water is disgusting, even at home my wife could not wash off the spoiled with bleach! There is a small refrigerator, a free safe, an LCD TV with one Russian channel Russia, there are plenty of sockets, a tee and an extension cord brought with you were not needed. In general, everything worked, everything lit up and turned on, the water was hot and cold without problems at any time. There was an individual air conditioner, which worked quite noisily, but it was normal, it was not hot, we even turned it off at night and slept like that. Both quiet and comfortable. There was an electric kettle and hairdryer.
Upon arrival, they put 2 bottles of water and then regularly replenished when 2 when 3 bottles of water, tea and coffee with milk in bags, a couple of glass glasses (keep in mind very fragile and we safely broke one of them, for which we then had to pay, well, about see below) and a couple of simple ones with two spoons. All rooms on the second floor have a balcony overlooking the pool, the sea was not visible, far from it. In general, everything was normal. Audibility: we didn’t notice much noise from the reception and the pool, but the door to the room on the opposite side muffled the sounds slightly, people in the corridor were clearly audible and the sounds of birds from the forest right next to the hotel were heard quite loudly in the morning.
__Hotel. Quite small. Location. Well, here's how. I still think it’s not the most successful, because.
there is nowhere to take a walk, there is no entertainment, there are no large shops nearby, only a shopping street with boutiques, cafes and massage parlors and a couple of micro shops 7/11 and FamilyMarkt, you have to go winding through the streets to the sea, although not far. The hotel itself is 2-storey and consists of 2 buildings located with the letter V and the same pool. The construction is not clear in time, honestly! They could not get rid of the feeling that the hotel was renovated, although many write on the Internet that it is new. Well, he doesn’t have the feeling that he is from scratch: on one side, palm trees that are already growing are not one year old, if you look closely at the rooms and in the bathroom, you can see that everything is tinted and glued, something is pretty shabby. Either they build it this way (then they need to tear off the hands of such builders) and the owner pretty much saved on construction, or is the hotel still not new after renovation and global repairs!
But outwardly and from afar you can’t say that and it looks very dignified green, beautiful and cozy! The hotel area is clean. The landscaping is excellent, many flowers and trees have been planted, everything is blooming and fragrant.
__Cleaning the rooms. Starts in the morning and continues throughout the day. We were cleaned in our absence. They make beds, sometimes change towels, replenish soap, probably shampoo too, but we didn’t understand, there was a dark bottle on the shelf in the shower. They wipe the floor in the room and in the bathroom, put things in order on the shelves. We did not leave any tips or chocolates. I can’t say anything bad about cleaning, everything is standard.
__Hotel staff. Well, there's a TROUBLE! They seem to be trying to seem very nice, friendly and helpful, but as I said above, communicating with them is problem number 1!
At the reception, if there is any problem, they immediately run and call their chief (most likely this is the manager Mario according to the descriptions), and he begins to read something to us in a hoarse voice, bending his fingers in both broken English and listing something in his own that we can do what we can’t, and by the end of our stay, scare us with the police (we must see, according to his conclusions, that we wanted something supernatural in his possessions). Then some kind of bartender-manager for service staff ran around the hotel, so thin, dark-haired, so harmful he was always something he wouldn’t add or didn’t convey, his tongue clicked at us. Once we came to dinner with our beer, so he looked into the bag and stuck his nose in to see what we had there.
__The main contingent of tourists are Russians and Germans and a few Chinese. At least that's how it was with us. Therefore, the problem of the Russian language in the hotel is incomprehensible! Or maybe it is beneficial for Thais to pretend to be incomprehensible?
__Internet Wi-Fi. Free. At the reception, upon arrival, they issue a card per person with an access password. It seems to be caught and even in the room, but the speed is weak and very often throws out. Something serious is unlikely to be done. We sometimes really managed to talk with relatives via Viber or WhatsApp, but it was like a holiday!
__Nutrition. Ooooooooo! Here is a separate epic worthy of a whole chapter of the story! And here we hit the full on the most tomatoes !! ! Do not take it for stupidity or naivety, but we are in this country for the first time and we were not particularly warned about what kind of rake we could step on, and with both feet at once! We have always taken all inclusive everywhere in other countries. The travel agent told us that breakfast alone is enough in Thailand, and we can have lunch and dinner on the street in cafes, but did not specify what the difference would be in money. And looking at Pegasus that this hotel offers food not only one breakfast (i. e.
BB) but also breakfasts and dinners, and even with a plus (HB +, and plus it’s in a footnote at Pegasus that drinks are locally produced throughout the day, mind you! ). Well, we, as smart people, will look for food in cafes, we will eat and drink at the hotel itself and took HB + (i. e. breakfasts + dinners with drinks all day) and here we did a huge stupidity! Everything was fucked with us at once: Pegasus, quietly silent that we still need to look at the concept of the hotel itself in which we will live in terms of their nutritional conditions, and the hotel itself, according to the HB + concept, gives us leftovers from previous days for dinner and once a day a bottle of local beer 0.33 per adult and a glass of water! And it doesn’t matter that we were on excursions for 2 days and did not take these drinks, what has passed has passed, it is impossible to make up for the previous unused days. For an extra bottle of beer, pay 80 baht, while in a nearby store the same beer but with a large volume of 0.73 costs 63 baht in total. Feel the difference?
Here you have all the drinks during the day and such a dinner! And we overpaid for this joy on the tour 40 thousand for three. With this money, we could eat well in local cafes. So people, listen to good advice, take only breakfasts and in no case take lunches or dinners in Thailand, well, at least if you live in this hotel! I'm not talking about the fact that we all got sick in it, and it was after these terrible dinners. After a few days of such nutrition, immediately after dinner, my daughter became ill, she vomited and, thank God, it didn’t go deeper, then my wife got a gut and suffered for several days with pain in her stomach and frequent visits to the toilet after drinking all the stocks of medicines, but in the end I became ill, and the pipets are so bad, I was also rinsed completely into all holes, sorry. For a couple of days I couldn’t take anything in my mouth at all, only one smell made me sick. So judge for yourself about their dinners!
Moreover, they ate several times in street cafes and in another hotel restaurant where they spent the night on excursions - this was not observed anywhere. We've never been so bad before. We know the ban on the use of local water for drinking and washing, we don’t need to talk about it, and about clean hands too. So what is it? The breakfasts were good, I won’t say anything, everything is fresh and tasty, there was even some variety: there was fried bacon, meat, chicken, fish, pasta, rice, soups so-so, fried potatoes once, just a little bit of seafood, 2 types sauces, lettuce, sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, onions, the same type of sausage every day, boiled eggs, delicious yogurt, baking a couple of types of puff pastry buns, butter, jam in small packages. From drinks: hot coffee, tea in teapots; chilled diluted orange and hibiscus juices.
Fruits: oranges, bananas, sliced melon, watermelon, dragon fruit, papaya are not sweet. The food is undersalted, there is soy sauce on the tables, add whoever needs it. Everything is relatively tasty, but the variety does not shine. I don’t even want to write about dinners, disgusting! Here I’ll tell you one more thing: when we arrived, they brought us a menu for dinner for a couple of days like in a decent restaurant and in it you could choose dishes to your liking and for the amount, as it turned out, no more than 800 baht (as these 800 baht are divided equally for three of us , some Thais in this hotel know) and we learned this truth at the first dinner after a consultation with the staff led by hoarse Mario and paid 25 baht for the fact that we allegedly exceeded the limit. Can you imagine this Sabantuy if we do not understand each other in any way, neither in Russian nor in English?
The next day, everything would be fine, but again, at dinner, we sit and eat and the wife takes out the iron shavings from her mouth that came to her along with a spoonful of soup (thank God she didn’t swallow), we invite the waiter with gestures and show us they replaced the dish. After a couple of minutes, the daughter takes out the same from her plate, we show it again and, already incredulously and reluctantly, they change the dish for us again. It seemed to us that they looked at us as some kind of swindlers, but it was all real, really. After all this, we and a couple of other families who fell into the same concept of food were canceled the choice on the menu and for dinner they began to make the simplest buffet of a couple of dishes and without choice options on which we began to poison ourselves. So that's the food in this hotel. I'm not lying, not a word, believe me. I'm not saying that we had to literally squeeze this ill-fated free bottle of beer from them every evening, explaining that we have a right to it!
We had HB + food, so bring and put us silently on the prescribed bottle of beer for an adult and a glass of juice for a child, and it doesn’t matter if we drink them or take them with us, give us what we paid you with interest! Here we were poured water without problems, and we squeezed beer with juice every day and we were sick of it to hell, I hope you will understand us! The restaurant itself is small, located in the middle of the hotel right behind the reception, blown by all the winds, closed only with cellophane curtains. Everything seems to be clean in it, but birds fly and sit where they want, they drag it from the table. I won’t recommend any street cafes, to be honest, I didn’t like a single one, we tried to eat in a cafe right in front of the hotel and a little to the right of Tomyan soup, he didn’t go to us, we ordered rice with seafood with us, so-so. Once we dined at the Andaman restaurant on the beach, the same rice with seafood was not impressed.
In general, we had lunch at random, where it was ice cream with a cocktail, where it was fruit, and where we didn’t have lunch at all, because nothing simply got into our throats.
__SPA. There is not even a hint of him in the hotel. Nothing else but the gym! In general, I had to prepare myself for tanning and sea procedures ourselves on the street in a massage parlor. The concept of a Turkish hamam bath does not seem to exist in Thailand. But we found in one salon on the shopping street the procedure Full body scrub and massage for 1 hour for 550 baht per person, agreed for 1000 baht for two. The daughter refused this procedure. We think the money was not wasted. My wife and I liked it. In the salon there are separate 2-bed rooms for these procedures.
My wife and I were stripped naked (we thought it was all done in swimsuits), put on couches with covered towels and long and scrupulously applied scrub with oil, then sent to the shower to wash everything off ourselves and again invited to the couches for a relaxing massage with aromatic oils. Well, almost a hammam, we removed the old skin with a scrub, so that the tan would lay down well and get a good massage. Everything was great. Recommend!
__Swimming pool. One, located in the middle of the hotel in the shape of the letter V. Depth 1.75m, there is a veranda in the middle with a bridge and on one side a children's area with a small depth. There is a bar in the pool from the reception, but no one ordered anything in it. This is probably how they looked at us as savages when we went crazy with impudence and ordered one glass of Pina Colada for all for 150 baht. We immediately rolled out a bill for it, immediately in the evening it was paid out of harm's way.
You can swim in the pool until late at night, no one was kicked out. The water in it, surprisingly, did not smell of bleach at all and was always clean. It looks like they are using some other cleaning technology. Along the perimeter of the pool there are pissing figures of animals that were not turned off at night, their gurgling could be heard even with the doors to the balcony closed. Sometimes they forgot and thought that the water was running somewhere in the bathroom.
__Aquapark. It is not in the hotel and there is not even a small slide for children. They say Phuket has its own water park - we didn’t go, I can’t say anything.
__Animation. She's not in the hotel either. Entertain yourself. There is nothing to do in the hotel or on the street. The youth will be very bored!
__Beach. Bang Tao beach is a fairy tale. Good, big, long. The sand is soft and clean. You can't see the trash cans along the beach, but there are periodically between the trees black plastic bags into which we threw garbage.
We noticed one strange feature nowhere on the beach you can see toilets! Where people go in need is not clear. The Andaman Sea is cool, clear, warm, often with waves. We loved it, especially my daughter jumping on them. The bottom is flat, gently sloping is the most for children. You don't need special shoes, you can swim barefoot. The beach is public and you can lie down wherever you want, they offer a lot of sunbeds, on average 100-150 baht per sunbed for the whole day. We took mats from the hotel, they were given to us surprisingly free of charge, they only signed for receipt and return. When there was no strong tide, we lay on the shore under the trees near the Best Western Hotel, more often we walked further along the beach through the river flowing into the sea to the Sunwing Hotel. There the beach was wider and the sand was better. Everywhere there are many minks where small crabs hid. We went to Surin Beach, as you leave the hotel on the left along the street to the mountain, go around the mountain on the left side along the main street and straight to the large stele with the inscription PARK SURIN, somewhere 1.
5 km from the hotel to the beach. Well, I'll tell you the beach was not impressed. We thought our beach was better. There is some kind of srach on Surin, there are a lot of merchants who throw their waste right there under their feet, cows walk between the trees, which seize anywhere and look so as not to clear mines. The water is the same, the sand is the same, so I don’t understand what other tourists admired there: yes it’s beautiful, yes sand, yes the sea. But all this is no worse than on Bang Tao beach, and even go so far. So we went there once and never went again.
__Outside the hotel. There is nothing remarkable. Just for a normal life you need to know some places and things. Very close to the hotel if you turn left and across the road there is a small Minimart store, everything is smelly and old and more expensive than everyone else. You can take everything from them only from the refrigerator: this is ice cream, beer and water if you are too lazy to go further to other markets. All payments are made in baht.
It is better to take dollars with you in large denominations of $ 100 or $ 50 (they have the same exchange rate and more profitable). While we were resting in exchange offices, the exchange rate fluctuated from 32.20 to 32.45 baht to the dollar. There are two exchange offices within walking distance from the hotel: one exit the hotel, turn left, go to the first intersection, turn right, cross the bridge over the river and in front of you is a green exchange office with the inscription Exchange, next to it is a kiosk where they make wonderful refreshing cocktails for 50 baht, and if a mix of fruits is 70 baht (I recommend mango with pineapple, we tried it - it’s delicious), you can also buy fruit from them at home in bags or buy from them in plastic containers. Ask that each fruit is wrapped in a piece of paper or packaging cellophane.
A little further, if you turn right from the exchange office and walk along the shopping street to the BestWestern hotel about 200 meters, then opposite, right next to the 7Eleven (or 7/11) minimarket, there is another blue currency exchange office also with the inscription Exchange (rates may vary, go there and there and choose the course more profitable). At the end of our vacation, we had a situation: there were not enough baht, we had to exchange a little more, but we only had $ 100 bills with us, we went to the exchanger, filed a $ 100 bill and said exchange only fifty dollars (exchange only $ 50) , we were exchanged $ 50 for baht and $ 50 were given change (you can take $ 50 bills with you for such a case, you won’t lose, the rate is the same). In the 7/11 market you can buy water, ice cream, cosmetics, alcohol and various knick-knacks. Everything is clean, civilized and air-conditioned. There is a similar store down the same street called FamilyMart. The range is the same as in 7/11. Opposite these markets there are tuk-tuks, they will take you wherever you want. We haven't used them so I can't say anything about them.
Almost immediately behind the 7/11 store, if you walk 20-30 steps, there is a nice boutique decorated in light green colors called Herbal Paradise Folk Medicine (no mistake, it says so on the sign). It speaks Russian very well, the owners come from Uzbekistan. Prices in it are even lower than at the night market, soap for 30 baht each, protective cream with aloe for 70 baht. We have not seen cheaper anywhere else, so here you can safely buy home soap, cosmetics, healing ointments and items of their traditional medicine, we recommend. If you go even further along this street, then after the FamilyMart store on the right side there will be a Baan Jira Massage salon, in which we just did a full body scrub with a massage upon arrival. By the way, it is also a very popular salon, because there have always been enough customers.
After his first visit, I agreed with them for a subsequent massage of the back, neck and head for 1 hour for 360 baht, according to the price list it was 400 baht, I bargained (by the way, don’t be afraid to bargain, you can significantly bring down prices and everywhere). Then I went for three sessions, I’ll tell you very well, the masseuse found by touch all my problem areas in the back and neck and worked well with them! I was satisfied. We walked further along this street, but did not find anything interesting. In the district there are shops with clothes, souvenirs, various cafes. You can buy something here, but it’s better to walk or go to the really big Tesco Lotus Market and get to the nearby Bang Tao night market (Tesco Lotus is open around the clock, and the market is on Mondays and Thursdays from 16:00). We talked with some Russians, they told us that they went there by tuk-tuk for 350 baht round trip, they even waited there.
In general, they ask for 400 baht, but you can bargain. Another of our Russian-speaking neighbors in the hotel walked, they said it's okay, you won't get lost, it's a bit far (2.2 km), but you can walk. We went on the last day before departure and regretted very much that we did not get there earlier. In TescoLotus, all Europeans and ours, who live closer, stock up on food at very good prices. A whole barbecue chicken in the market costs 139 baht, and once on the street in a cafe we barely found such a chicken and bought it for 400 baht (that's how tourists treat us). And the chicken from the market is excellent. Everything is on sale: fruits, vegetables, some normal food, alcohol, hygiene items, detergents and much more. In general, a normal market in the manner of our Magnet with normal prices.
If they had known that it was so, then immediately upon arrival they would have gone into it stocked with food, stuffed everything in the refrigerator and didn’t poison their dinners and didn’t turn up their noses from Thai food (sorry, but it didn’t go to us either by smell or taste, none of us I couldn’t eat it, although we saw many Russians who ate their Tomyans and PadTai in cafes, so it was already crackling behind our ears, we didn’t like it at all and we were happy with barbecue chicken like children! ). At the night market you can buy fruits, exotic meat and fish products, various smoked meats, souvenirs, their toothpastes, creams and oils, aromatic soaps (100 baht for 3 pieces), Thai ice cream with any fruit made right in front of you on the refrigerated table for 69 baht , which we ate on the excursion on the island of Phi Phi for 99 baht. The market is big and worth a visit.
How to get there: get out of the hotel, turn right and go constantly along the main road without turning anywhere, the road will wind around (they have no logic in the roads at all, they designed them like a bull peed), in several places there will be small intersections and you follow the rule where the road is wider there and you have to go, closer to the end of the street there will be an equivalent Y-shaped intersection, on it on the left side there is a yellow shield and next to it is a panoramic mirror for viewing the road, take it to the right. You will reach the main street (you will understand that it is central, there are many cars and wide, there will be a gas station and a currency exchange office on the right), turn left and walk along the road for about 500 meters at least until a sharp turn to the left, turn, and then you will see a large supermarket with the emblem Tesco Lotus, and a market across the street from it.
I strongly advise you to go to this store immediately upon arrival on vacation, especially if you want to eat normal food, in the market you will take whatever your heart desires and the rest will be successful. But you can walk there if you are not going to carry something heavy with you and if it is not very hot on the street, otherwise you are tormented, it is still far from the hotel to go.
__Tours. Here we must start with the fact that at the beginning we came across a very disgusting hotel guide from Pegasus. Natalia was her name. We were late for an appointment, we came later, we wanted to talk to her, at first she didn’t want to talk to us at all, then I, seeing how she shamelessly reproaches other tourists in front of everyone that they supposedly don’t want to take excursions from her, I doubted, but I needed Do we have such a meeting with this guide at all, but I still came up to talk to her later. So she openly hinted that if you don’t take excursions from her, then she won’t waste time on us.
Our roommates, also Russians, arrived before us and also suffered from it. They wanted to take a free overview of Phuket from her, she asked me to fill out a questionnaire and bring it to her, the neighbors filled it out, brought it, but she was not there, they put the questionnaire in a folder on her desk. After a while, the guide called them back and let them scold them like children, how dare they not give the questionnaires to her personally, in general, the neighbors freaked out and also sent her away saying that they didn’t need anything else! This was the guide. As it turned out later, she replaced our temporarily absent guide Marina. We met with Marina later before leaving on several issues, a good, friendly, normal girl. And this Natalya was absolutely inadequate, well, God be her judge.
By the way, if anyone has any questions: the hotel does not have a stand on which they post information about the departure (as in all civilized countries and hotels), they receive it at the reception every day at 17:00 pm, print it out, keep it or put it in the Pegasus folder on the coffee table next to them. So be sure to check the departure time a day before departure so that you are ready. In general, wherever we rested, information about the departure was always posted exactly one day in advance and it didn’t matter when the reception decided to receive and process it. During the day, everything is always fun at the stand, right there not, only at 17:00 pm the hotel will connect and receive. We even when leaving the hotel was not all right. Thank God that I looked on the Internet a couple of days before departure and saw that we had moved it from 16:15 on the afternoon of December 26 to 5:30 at night, also on December 26, that is, the departure is obtained earlier, count by 12 hours, at 2 am on the 26th we should already be picked up by a transfer.
And the hotel received the information only after 17:00 in the evening of the 25th, not in a day, but literally in a few hours. And if we left or went for a walk somewhere until late at night, not knowing that we now have such an early flight? How is that? ! Well, in general, cursing in our hearts, we ran, picking up things in a handful of ass. And my wife and daughter at the beginning of the holiday wanted to surprise me and ordered a birthday cake for December 26th. They wanted to make us happy on our birthday, we thought how people could even get a free compliment from the hotel here, but it didn’t happen, we left earlier and no one gave us anything. But the compliment was that we were ripped off 50 baht for a broken water glass. My wife in the room somehow, the devil pulled the glass to rinse after the juice in the bath and didn’t even drop it, but simply put it in the sink, and he fell on his side and broke, very fragile, as if on purpose. They thought they might not notice, but where is it.
The bus has already arrived for us, it is waiting, and they took the card from the room and ran at 2 am to check if everything was in order there. Revealed the missing glass and let's shake us. In general, happy birthday to you Vlad and your family! So they left without tasting a free compliment, but giving them 50 baht as a parting gift (they could have forgiven such a trifle on the day of jam). By the way, keep in mind that in each issue there is a leaflet warning what fine you will have to pay as a result of the loss of one or another in the list. This is where we got it too. All in full. Well, I digress from the main topic. Let's start again
__Excursions, double 2. We took one 2-day excursion 3 in 1 (11 islands). We watched their videos on youtube, then found them on the Internet and, while already in Thailand, we phoned their operator and ordered. Well, I want to say for the price, I understood why the guide from Pegasus was so indignant that they didn’t want to take excursions from her.
We paid 11.500 baht for three + 400 baht voucher delivery (the company is located in Patong, and since it’s a long way to go to Bang Tao, we had to pay for the delivery of the voucher, why? but oh well, it still turned out cheaper than taking from Pegasus), total 11900 baht, transfer is free. At Pegasus, such an excursion, converted from dollars to baht, for the three of us would cost 18.000 baht. Feel the difference? In general, on the tour: they took us from the hotel, brought us to the port, took us to a shed where everyone met the loud-voiced Dima (a Russian boy from Nizhny Novgorod) our guide for these 2 days and Ivan (also our boy from Ukraine) our photographer. Then Dima read out our rules and agenda to us. In this place, the first money scam began: we were strongly recommended to rent fins for 200 baht per pair, because
according to Dima, on snorkeling we will swim at shallow depths and we can scratch and cut ourselves on corals or get on sea urchins or we will be carried away by the current, all this is a scam, people just scared, you can safely not take them, unless of course you are used to swimming only with them, and then, already in the process where they swam and snorkeled, it turned out that the depths there were at least 4-5 meters to the corals, and the guides themselves let it slip. They immediately offered to buy waterproof covers for gadgets and raincoats so as not to get too wet on the road, take a picture against the backdrop of palm trees for a plate with a photo as a keepsake, which you will then buy at the end of the tour for 200 baht. Be sure to take covers, if you don’t have your own, a boat at speed, when it flies through the waves, a lot of sea water gets into it, this can kill your equipment. We did not take a raincoat as you wish, the water in the sea is warm, no one froze, the spray did not strain.
I think it won’t hurt to take a picture, there will be a memory, though the plate is small, we could make a larger photo and plate for this money. Then we filled out the marine insurance and proceeded to the pier in an organized crowd to board the sea vessel. We loaded onto a boat with 3 Honda 250 engines and blew across the sea, it took our breath away! The boat goes well, but the engines yell great and it is thrown up on the waves, the speed is about 60 km / h. Who is afraid of pitching and has problems with the back and musculoskeletal system, this tour is not for you, do not risk it! On the first day, we visited Bond Island with a sloping mountain where people make wishes, and where the island stands with an inverted bottle, took pictures there from the observation platforms.
Then we sailed for lunch to these gypsies in a village on the water, we had a good lunch. Everything was clean and tidy. Then they showed an island in the sea on which the Thais built a castle for their king. Then they landed on an island with a cave of phalluses and living monkeys. They didn’t see monkeys, but they visited the cave, there really are a bunch of all sorts of different phalluses of different sizes and colors, and it looks like they are still being carried there. Then we sailed past the island with a chicken head and arrived at the place of our first snorkeling. I will say that the underwater world of the Andaman Sea is very, very far in beauty from the Red. There is no variety of fish, corals are all the same color, gray. So we did not enjoy this spectacle. It was also terribly inconvenient to climb back onto the boat from the water, the ladders are narrow, short, it is very difficult to climb without help.
Then we landed on the island of Phi Phi (their local Ibiza) where we had dinner, checked into the Andaman Beach hotel for the night and walked around the island, tried their alcoholic drinks from buckets for 400 baht each and looked at the fire show. Drinks and cocktails were not particularly impressive, they drank better for the same money, the fire show was also much more interesting. Everything is monotonous for them, there are no shocking tricks and raisins, everything is simple to disgrace, snotty boys twist and turn everything the same. Immediately next to the hotel where we settled in, we tried a hot pancake wrapped in a triangle with fruits, condensed milk and chocolate in a cafe, very tasty and their Thai ice cream for 99 baht, which is made right in front of you on the refrigerated table. The whole island, boutiques and cafes are hung with garlands. When it got dark it became very beautiful, everyone was preparing to welcome the new year. In general, they were, walked up and returned back to the hotel where they fell tired.
By the way, the building is absolutely new in which we got a room, but at night there was something. I woke up from the fact that someone rushes along the ceiling! I lie and I can not understand what is happening? Then it dawned on me when I heard squeaks - these are rats running and fighting in the walls and ceiling behind drywall, pipets !! ! Well, thank God my girls didn't hear that. On top of everything else, mosquitoes bitten everyone at night. Yes, yes, they are here, we did not have them at the hotel in Bang Tao, where we lived. Thus ended the first day of the tour. On the second day, we got up at 7:30 in the morning, washed ourselves and went to breakfast. We had breakfast, boarded a boat at 9:00 and flew further to the Maya Bay lagoon, where they filmed the film The Beach with the participation of a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Very beautiful place, sand like semolina. We walked around the island, took pictures, went to the observation deck, saw the cupcake island, then everyone swam. They rummaged with their daughter in the sand, dug in and made a Batman out of themselves.
But gradually tourists began to arrive on the island and very soon the people began to crowd. We were picked up and we sailed further to the lagoon called Pele to go snorkeling for the second time and rejuvenate because the water in this lagoon is very salty and saturated with various minerals. We bought, dived from the boat and sailed on. We were shown an island where swallow nests are harvested for a delicacy worth $300 a serving. Then we sailed to the island where crabeater monkeys live, looked at them and took pictures. Then we sailed to the island of Koh Mai Pai or the Bounty, where we just stupidly sunbathed and swam. A beautiful island with a huge beach and clear sea. They say monitor lizards live on the island, we did not see it. That's all, it was the last island, then we sailed home to the port of Phuket, where it all began.
Here, before we were all dropped off, there was the last swindle for money, such as the team and the captain in gratitude (or is it an illegal fare? ) It was necessary to tip at least 100 baht per person (a strange tip, agree, usually tip is as much as you can or no matter how much you feel sorry for and not forcibly, but here immediately with the condition of at least 100 baht and Dima himself will come up with a hat to everyone), so be prepared for this. We pay, get out of the boat and go back to the shed, there you hand over the fins if you took them and right there on the table you will find photos on plates for 200 baht. Well, that's all. Then the road home by minivan and hotel. In general, an excellent excursion, they took it and did not regret it, although they were a bit tired. Some on the second day it was already bad in the boat and Dima gave them pills for motion sickness.
The tour has a great advantage - it alone covers almost all the famous islands of Thailand, some of which are offered by tour operators for visiting separately. The tour is worth visiting, only operators should be warned about additional non-standard expenses such as tips that will shake you off along the way.
__ Well, that's probably all, it's time to finish and summing up I want to say that you can and should have a rest in Thailand! Excellent nature and climate, bewitching islands, azure sea everything is fine! But the rating is excellent absolutely not suitable for the Chivatara hotel precisely because of the food, service and staff at this hotel. All this ruined our holiday experience. We consider the hotel itself excellent, but something needs to be done with the approach to serving tourists!
To all of us, Thailand seemed very friendly and, in principle, clean, if you do not look at the territory of the private sector where we saw a lot of garbage. The sea is cool, the sun is comfortable, the sand is soft, clean, the nature is gorgeous. A hotel of 3 stars and above does not pull, well, maybe with a stretch and a four, but only because of the beautiful appearance, clean rooms and comfortable territory with good landscaping, there are no complaints here. And the main staff must be taught to understand and speak the language of tourists who come to them or have at least one interpreter manager at the reception.
I would advise the manager Mario to be removed away from tourists, except for bending his fingers, getting into all the problems and blowing up conflicts with shouting out the word POLICE (the word POLICE, in his opinion, probably sounded specifically for intimidation and was naturally understandable in any language, and maybe swear words were a plus , in their language, we did not understand) he does not know how. An unpleasant type, we do not know to whom he seemed like a darling (someone admired him earlier in the reviews). So problems with tourists are not solved, such an attitude was experienced for the first time and was shocked! There was a tall, dark-haired, thin young Thai girl at the reception, so she tried her best to do something for us and understand, and Mario is better off without him. It was this kind of trouble that spoiled the good attitude towards the country. Well, God be with them. This year we rested 200% of the body, but not quite with the soul.
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