Getting around in Phuket can be a pain, because some taxis and tuktuks rip you off – even for short distances (200B for a 2km ride!?) – and buses stop operating at 6pm. It doesn’t help that most buses only go through Phuket town, so if you’re planning to travel from beach to beach along the coast… good luck. You can, of course, rent a scooter and try to get around on your own, but Phuket’s beach roads are windy and dangerous and you’d need a GPS to maneuver through the town.

After scouring the Net for recommendations, we decided to hire a private driver to bring us around for the whole day. I promised him I’d help him do some promotion, so yeah. 😀

Introducing…. Mr Lek Landen!

We forgot to take a picture with him D: Here’s one from his official website. Link here

Our tour almost didn’t happen. We booked Lek for Sunday, but due to some last minute changes, we had to move it to Saturday instead. He was still super accommodating and picked us up from our hotel at 9am sharp in a comfy, air-conditioned SUV. Lek speaks very good English and we had no problem understanding each other at all. He was also super helpful when explaining things at each of the places of interest. Most importantly, his drive technique was on point: no drifts and stuff, so you don’t have to worry about car sickness. 😀

We talked for a bit in the car and he told us that he was born in Krabi, but came to Phuket to study and worked as a mechanic before he decided to start his own business. I admire him for his entrepreneurial spirit! 🙂

Our full day tour was marred by on-and-off rain, but by the end of the day we still got to go to a lot of places. Here are some (which I will detail in further blog posts):

Karon Viewpoint 

Ya Nui Beach

Big Buddha 

Snake Show 

Cashew Nut Factory 

Soi Romanee/Chinatown

Jui Tui Shrine / Put Jaw Temple

Night Market

At the end of the tour, he also kindly fetched us all the way back to our hotel in Patong, even though it was already half an hour past 5pm – with no extra charge! 🙂 Other than the above places, there are also lots of other attractions that he can take you to: like elephant riding, Tiger Kingdom (where you get to be up close with tigers), ATV riding, etc.

A whole day tour costs 1800B (about RM220 or USD50), so the rate was reasonable given the excellent service. We think we saved a lot because taxis would have been more expensive and they’d just take you to one destination.

If you’d like to use Lek’s services, you can visit his website at http://leklandenphuket.vpweb.com.au/. Or drop him an email at leklanden@hotmail.com, he replies fast. Hope you have an enjoyable time in Phuket like we did! 🙂