We are back in Southeast Asia starting in Phuket Thailand,
where the cost of living is well within reach,
all the people are as friendly as a peach,
and you can get Pad Thai for just a few Baht each.
Could you see yourself lounging here on the beach?
Well we're going to help you answer that question in this video.
If you're thinking about coming here for a vacation
or maybe even considering living here long term,
we'll let you know everything we like about Phuket but also just a few things that we don't like.
My name is Ryan, my wife Emily and I are the Snail Travelers.
So of course the beaches are going to be on our list.
This is the main reason why people come to Phuket, right?
Kata and Karon beaches are our favorite in Phuket mainly because the water is so clear.
These two beaches are both right next to each other on the Eastern side of the island.
The waves aren't too big or too small just
the right size for us and it was fun to watch the surfers.
Something else we like about these two beaches especially
Karon Beach are the big trees that provide shade.
We're so cheap we prefer that free shade from the trees over renting an
umbrella, you can understand right?
So yeah no hesitation here we're gonna give Kata and Karon Beach a thumbs up.
Okay let's start with the Naka weekend market on Saturday and Sunday nights.
They sell clothes and jewelry and purses and stuff.
But why bother with all that stuff when there is food to be eaten?
I'm sure you must agree with me on this.
There are plenty of food stalls to choose from,
and what we like about it is the food portions are generally small
but also inexpensive so you can get a little bit of everything instead of one big meal.
Well okay not everything there are just too many choices to get everything,
but I can tell you that your stomach will be satisfied, no doubt about it.
I can't remember everything we got because there were so many different things.
I do remember the dumplings because they were so good,
and I know it's not really Thai food but I just couldn't resist and they were delicious.
The Naka Market would be a good one to choose if it's raining because it's covered,
whereas the Phuket weekend Market is out in the open on the street but equally enjoyable.
This market is only on Sunday evenings and again
we think the irresistible food is the main reason to come here.
So the weekend markets we think are a mandatory experience here in Thailand and get a thumbs up.
So what's the songthaew you might be asking?
Well it's the main form of transportation here if you don't have a car.
They are basically trucks that go between the major points in Phuket.
When you see the songthaew that you want to take just hop into the back of the truck.
At some point during the journey the driver will
collect the fee which is usually right around 40 Baht or just over US$1 or so,
but prices have been going up.
So we give a thumbs up to the songthaews in general,
however they can be hard to flag down in mid-route
and in that case your other public transportation choices are scarce.
So even though we gave the songthaews a thumbs up,
we're going to give a thumbs down to public transportation
in general because options are so limited.
So how much do things cost at Phuket you might be wondering?
Well let me go over some of the numbers here starting with housing.
If you want to purchase property here the first thing you should know is that
foreigners are limited to buying a condo unit.
You can't directly buy land or houses.
Now if we were purchasing a condo here
we think we would need to spend something in the low to mid
US$100,000 range to find something that would fit our lifestyle.
You might be able to find something cheaper or maybe
you need to spend more for you to be comfortable.
It all depends on your lifestyle.
And if renting on a one-year lease we think something in
the US$500-$600 range would be comfortable for us,
plus a little more for utilities especially for running the air conditioning.
And for slow traveling and renting for one
month on Airbnb we're looking at something in the US$800-$1000 range
depending on the season and location.
Now what about food prices? Cheap. Really cheap in fact.
You can get a full meal of street food for a dollar or two.
Sometimes it's not much more expensive to eat street food than it is to cook
yourself with food from the grocery store.
Overall we think we could live in Phuket in the
US$1200 to $1400 range per month for the two of us,
that's based on our personal lifestyle renting a small modest apartment,
avoiding touristy restaurants and using songthaews instead of taxis.
Our friends at the Khaki Shorts YouTube channel live
here and they have videos about life in Phuket,
including the cost of living that you should check out.
Overall we think the cost of living in Phuket deserves a thumbs up.
Just about a 15-minute walk from Karon Beach is
where you will find The Pad Thai Shop and it's well worth the walk.
This place is authentic you're going to get the real deal here when it comes to Thai food.
And of course when at The Pad Thai Shop what else are you going to order other than Pad Thai right?
It's probably the most famous Thai dish so I'm sure you know about it.
The price for one plate of pad thai along with a delicious bowl
of the soup you see here 60 Baht or about US$1.65.
This restaurant is a mix of local Thai people and foreigners,
and yeah this meal was definitely one of the best during our time in Phuket.
The airport itself is actually quite nice, getting through immigration was a breeze,
and as you can see from the map here there are flights to Phuket from all over the world.
But Emily was almost attacked and murdered by a robot in the baggage claim
And even worse, and being serious here,
our experience at the taxi stand outside the airport was total chaos.
They were trying to group people together who were going to the same location.
They would tell us to wait off to the side and then would seem to forget about us.
And the price kept changing depending on how quickly we wanted to go.
We ended up paying 375 Baht each which is about $US10,
but some of the other people in the minivan taxi told us they paid a few thousand baht.
So yeah the airport transportation was too disorganized and gets a thumbs down.
Unfortunately the airport buses weren't running when we arrived at the airport late at night.
We almost didn't come here because the public
transportation options to get here are hard to find,
but our friends I mentioned earlier had access to a car and that was so fortunate
because this is indeed an impressive site, for two reasons.
The statue itself of course as you can see in the video clips here is spectacular,
but equally spectacular are the views that you get from here
because the big Buddha is located at one of the highest points on this part of the island,
allowing for amazing views of both the west and the east coast of the island.
Thumbs up here for the statue and for the views.
What is o-aew you might ask? Well you're looking at it here.
It's a delicious shaved ice dessert that originates right here in Phuket,
and what makes it different from typical shaved
ice is that it contains this black jello made from the o-aew plant.
The flavor is impossible to describe other than delicious.
See how happy I am? So yeah it must be delicious.
We got ours at the Lock Tien Food Court right in the heart of Phuket town,
and yep as you guessed we give it a thumbs up.
The beach itself here at Patong we thought was actually quite nice.
It's a very long beach so it's a great place to walk.
There is a lot of activity here and it was fun to watch the action and the water sports.
But the area around the beach wasn't really suited for us because it's just so touristy.
There are a lot of bars, a lot of noise, and a lot of chaos.
But hey if you like the party atmosphere come to Patong Beach you will love it here.
But for us we think the other beaches we showed you earlier in the video are more appealing.
This beautiful park is located in the Phuket town area and has several lakes and walking paths,
and it's quite a large park if you ask me.
Now if you're here in Phuket just for a
short holiday it might not be worth your time to come here.
But if you are living here in Phuket we think it's a great place to come spend some time outdoors.
Alright hey we've got a whole collection of videos
from destinations around the world on the playlist that you see here,
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Thanks for traveling with us.