Posted on Fri, 14 Oct 2011

Phuket Island Hopping By Private Boat

Holiday season is coming near and I am compelled to write this. Heck, I have been compelled to write this and share the love since my Phuket trip last year, but with so many interesting news flowing in to SimplyFab’s desks from all over the world, there’s just so much distraction! Anyway, the keyword for this ‘Breakaway’ story is Coral Seekers, a most lovely private speedboat charter company we discovered by chance on a trip to Phuket.

But first, need to wind back for some historical background….A few months before that, we had made our first trip with some very dear friends to the resort island and wanted to try a spot of snorkelling and island hopping. We were recommended by the manager of our villa to a particular day tour, and on good faith, we took it.

Horror of horrors, we were squashed onto a speedboat with a group of other tourists, in particular a foursome of particularly loud and obnoxious middle-aged southern Europeans who clearly had not travelled on speedboat before. Once it started bumping and leaping through the waves for our 45-minute journey out, the two women – dripping inappropriately with gold jewellery, matronly in girth and with their bits and pieces stuffed into too-small bikinis – began screaming and wailing and weeping at the top of their lungs, much to the chagrin of the other tourists. Worst thing was, our little children who were otherwise holding on rather stoically to the uncomfortable journey, were so frightened by these adults’ caterwauling that the littlest one started crying too. To make matters worse, these exemplars of odiousness kept the entire boatload of passengers waiting every time we had to depart from each island visited as they were busy buying seashells and plastic picture frames, only to clamber up later, talking loudly to each other and without even the slightest apology.

Never again, we swore. So on our next visit to Phuket half a year later, with snorkelling still in mind, we decided to fork out a little premium and go private. And that’s how we discovered Coral Seekers. They were an absolute gem. They ran private charters out and took care of everything, picking us up from our villa in a private minivan and returning us there again at the end of the day. In between, we had the entire speedboat to ourselves (above), laden with a huge, ice-filled ‘eskimo’ of drinks – Coke, Beer, orange squash, plain water.

We island hopped at a leisurely pace, and the guides timed it such that every island we went to just missed the tourist hoards, so it was nice and quiet most to the time. It was customised to an extent, so snorkelling spots were child-friendly, pristine and clear (left)….save for one which was in a relatively unsheltered area. I was being washed away by the waves further from the boat – me not being a very strong swimmer – and the guide swam over to push Auntie back in the right direction. Whew!

The highlight for this foodie though was the picnic lunch! While other tourists sat in the sun or were shipped off to mediocre tourist restaurants, we had a picnic laid out on table under the shade of a tree (left & above with lunch being brought to shore in the eski). Pasta salad, lots of drinks and beer, cold cuts, cheese, green salads, bread, chilled slice fruit and crackers – plus table cloth and straw mat even! We did see some envious looks cast our way, but we forgave them as they were later seen squeezed en mass onto unsheltered row boats to be brought back out to their vessel (second picture from the top of this post – note the difference between private and budget transport!).

The guides spoke English and we were lucky to have one – I can’t remember his name (right) – who was such a gem to the three kids we had in our group. While the adults flopped on deck chairs by the beach in post-lunch stupor, he brought them out one by one, and very safely too, to see the corals further out beyond the beach. He pointed out sea stars and corals and stuff, and got them very excited about what they saw. While he allowed them to bring a few of these creatures back to the shallows near beach, he made sure the coral were never harmed and never lifted out of the water, teaching the kids the value of conservation and respect. We were so impressed!

At the end of the island-hopping expedition, we were brought back to the Coral Seekers’ premises where there was a nice shower area to wash off before they brought us back. Very civilised and very nice… and per person, it worked out cheaper than the first day trip we made with the howling horrors.