Best place to live in Phuket

[Felt 35]

GOM: My list was not meant to be taken too seriously. Just a crooked humor of the jungle person, who have no sane friends. The list was supposed to be equally rude for all of us.

understood Oilinki, also liked your post where the Finlanders on the island live.

Lots of condos/apartments in the Bangtao area OP.

Condos there is in the Bangtao area but the OP should expect to pay from 30K for the simplest ones to 500K monthly.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Felt 35

[IAMSOBAD]

Anyone know a good moving company to bring a household of furniture from Bangkok to Phuket? Along truck plus workers?

[eezergood]

JVK movers - I used them last time, very easy & good service.

[NamKangMan]

JVK movers - I used them last time, very easy & good service.

Does this company have a restriction on the size of items for removal?

For example, can I send one box with them, or it has to be a full truck with furniture etc?

[eezergood]

Sorry I have no idea - but for 1 box ems maybe the best option?

Also, i must admit, I did nothing to organise my last move - I just know when I arrived in Phuket the stuff arrived the date & place we agreed and was in good condition,

[IAMSOBAD]

Eezergood thank you. Did you move from BKK? How long did it take them?

[Old Croc]

The wife sent a leather couch and armchair from Phuket to Dan Sai through the post office.

http://www.thailandpost.com/service-detail.php?sid=9&service=395

[eezergood]

Eezergood thank you. Did you move from BKK? How long did it take them?

Yes from BKK - Patong. If memory serves it was about 4-5 days, BUT we had our stuff in local storage first so its possible they told us it had arrived but had not.

Edited November 19, 2013 by eezergood

[Guest]

I moved from Bangkok to Phuket about 5 years ago. Used at the time new company, Bangkok Movers if I remember correctly.

A week before the moving day, they delivered cartoon boxes to put the smaller stuff in. Then on the moving day they came with a large truck. Packed the large items and put them to the truck. During the day it became obvious that one truck was not enough and they organized another, smaller one in addition.

After packing, they started the journey to Phuket. Next day everything was unloaded to the new house.

The whole process was well organized and professional. I don't remember the costs, but it was not very expensive.

Lesson learned: Dump everything what you don't really need. I had lot's of stuff on boxes for ages.. and many items I never used again.

[IAMSOBAD]

Great advice! Thank you

[eezergood]

Great advice! Thank you

Where did you choose?

[IAMSOBAD]

I'm coming down to search the areas people reccomend. Any more ideas?

[eezergood]

Again as mentioned by many, it will depend on your needs/wants vs budget & expectations.....

I, personally, would not live in Patong if i didnt have to.

[Mattbaldacchino]

I've lived in kamala for 3 months, loved it. People were friendly and life was quiet in the area I was in. Can tell a huge difference between low and high season though. Lots of people in high and all but dead in the low , for me that was one of the highlights. Also depends on the area, I lived in the predominantly Muslim area and I found the farther you get from the beach and main road the nicer the people..my landlady even used to come by once a week for a chat and to clean ( even though I insisted i would clean myself) going back there again for the long run this time

[grumpyoldman]

I've lived in kamala for 3 months, loved it. People were friendly and life was quiet in the area I was in. Can tell a huge difference between low and high season though. Lots of people in high and all but dead in the low , for me that was one of the highlights. Also depends on the area, I lived in the predominantly Muslim area and I found the farther you get from the beach and main road the nicer the people..my landlady even used to come by once a week for a chat and to clean ( even though I insisted i would clean myself) going back there again for the long run this time

I can't believe the state of that main road through Kamala. After all these years since the Tsunami, they've had chances to really fix it up, make it a nice main drag through town, but no, dilapidated buildings and dirt, man, place looks horrendous 3rd world. Would never choose to live there. Guess you won't want to have a dog, sausages on the grill (?), friendly smiles can get dark in a hurry if you are looking at one of your neighborhood girls.

Question too, maybe phuketrichard is out there. I see they have fenced the whole of the beach up toward the new Novotel (contributor to the black water) and it looks as though all that is set for development? Going into that turn up the hill toward Surin, all those trucks if so are going to create a massive nightmare. No thanks, you guys can have it.

[phuketrichard]

still like it here :-)

The road is not as bad as it seems and still not much traffic although the lights are a pain in the ass.

yep from the Moslem cemetery all the way to the Novotel on the beach side of the street and across where the fence is brought by one company.

hope it takes them years to get going.

They also have cleaned up the land on the main road and before the turn for Fantasy, its been a mosquitoes breeding ground.

Plus we have that 95% completed hotel which has not opened in 4 years.

Problem with all the empty land on the main road is the owners just want to dam much money for it.

Its hard to make money in a village but we are getting tons of condos built here

Edited June 14, 2014 by phuketrichard

[grumpyoldman]

still like it here :-)

The road is not as bad as it seems and still not much traffic although the lights are a pain in the ass.

yep from the Moslem cemetery all the way to the Novotel on the beach side of the street and across where the fence is brought by one company.

hope it takes them years to get going.

They also have cleaned up the land on the main road and before the turn for Fantasy, its been a mosquitoes breeding ground.

Plus we have that 95% completed hotel which has not opened in 4 years.

Problem with all the empty land on the main road is the owners just want to dam much money for it.

Its hard to make money in a village but we are getting tons of condos built here

PR, is that the one with the red brick Angkor looking theme? Thanks for the info on the beach land before the Novotel, thats gonna be a mess if and when they get going.

[Mattbaldacchino]

I've lived in kamala for 3 months, loved it. People were friendly and life was quiet in the area I was in. Can tell a huge difference between low and high season though. Lots of people in high and all but dead in the low , for me that was one of the highlights. Also depends on the area, I lived in the predominantly Muslim area and I found the farther you get from the beach and main road the nicer the people..my landlady even used to come by once a week for a chat and to clean ( even though I insisted i would clean myself) going back there again for the long run this time

I can't believe the state of that main road through Kamala. After all these years since the Tsunami, they've had chances to really fix it up, make it a nice main drag through town, but no, dilapidated buildings and dirt, man, place looks horrendous 3rd world. Would never choose to live there. Guess you won't want to have a dog, sausages on the grill (?), friendly smiles can get dark in a hurry if you are looking at one of your neighborhood girls.

Question too, maybe phuketrichard is out there. I see they have fenced the whole of the beach up toward the new Novotel (contributor to the black water) and it looks as though all that is set for development? Going into that turn up the hill toward Surin, all those trucks if so are going to create a massive nightmare. No thanks, you guys can have it.

Road isn't that bad, certainly better than most of the roads in my country maybe that's why I don't mind it. I'd personally rather have a "3rd world" looking place than skyscrapers and huge resorts everywhere (yes I know its getting to that stage..) but I was always a simple island boy. With regards to friendly smiles maybe its because I'm a young farang (serious question)? I did notice the girls (no not bar girls) in particular were always more friendly, waving and smiling as I walked/drove past. Maybe its because I smiled at them? Men too nonetheless, one time I took my bike to a mechanic whilst he was having lunch, I was expecting him to get mad but with a big smile he said "come back in 30 mins and it will be done" (400 baht for a new battery, pretty cheap!). I guess it boils down to how friendly you are to the locals and how you treat them. Not everyone is like that though and I personally attribute it to the way they were treated by farang, if they had bad experiences in the past, chances are they'll be wary.

Everyone was friendly, tried their best to help and used to spend ages playing with the neighbourhood kids. Also never had the problem of pushy bar girls like in Patong, with them literally trying to pull me into their bar/massage parlor. As another example of the friendliness; When I first rented a scooter I didn't realise it was all but dry & had no clue how to fill it.. I pushed it to a petrol station and after about 2 mins of trying to figure out how it worked, I was surrounded by 4 locals, 2 of them happily chatting to me and 2 filling my bike. Its all down to personal preference really, I liked Kamala, still have plenty of friends there and I'll be going back..for now. Just my 2c

[phuketsub]

One post removed. Please keep it civil; refrain from off-topic insults.

[Tapster]

Wow!

Perfect...........six months on from the last post and i'm now living here.................not in a secret place so that nobody can come and spoil it, but off Soi Sai Yuan in Rawai, in a quiet area where the pleasant and natural-and-not-from-a-tape/CD sound of the nearest muezzin is music to my ears...............not a 5am wake-up call as it was on Viset Road, near the Chalong Circle.

Enmarie and I looked at a lot of areas on our exploratory trip (Feb-Sept 2014) and we settled on a place between Rawai and Nai Harn beaches.

Sois off Soi Sai Yuan are often quiet as they're culs-de-sac and the touristas never get up there. However, within a few minutes' drive you can be in party central and enjoying great food and more social contact than you might be comfortable with..........but you can choose how involved you want to get.

I think that that the deep South of the island offers a real and permanent holiday feel with accessible beaches and great food and drink opportunities when you want them.

My (entirely subjective first impressions..........but they say those count, don't they?) of some other areas, with no disrespect to anyone living there:

Kathu: you gotta love golf, be able to put up with hurricane winds during some parts of the year and it has a boring feel, like Bournemouth or Weymouth in the UK..........no parties appear to be happening anywhere close and what's the point of living in Phuket without feeling that you're somewhere with joie de vivre?!!

If you have to sell an area on the basis that it's convenient for Central Festival and Patong is only 20 minutes away, I say...........stay away............unless you like golf and wind a lot!

The west coast areas are obviously potentially very touristy. There are isolated, quiet sois in Kata and other areas but basically you're in tourist hell for some significant part of the year, aren't you? I can't be doing with that. I like birdsong in the morning and minimal traffic noise if I choose to relax for the day.

Paklok and the NE are fantastic, often unspoilt areas and I very definitely don't rule out a move to there in time...after the long-term holiday feel has (or may) wear off.

I don't know much more than that yet, but it seems that if/when the Chalong underpass happens, it may be important to choose whether you live North or South of the Circle.

PS

Karen Bravo...........some time back you sent me a somewhat supercilious comment after I called you "dude".

Well, I'll raise you that and tell you that it's not "ad nauseum" but "ad nauseam", so I can call you dude any time I want because I'm a surfer dude and a classical scholar. You are an arriviste and a pretender, dude!

[KarenBravo]

There's only one thing worse than a member of the spelling police and that's one that takes six months to actually point out a mistake. Gnarly.

[KarenBravo]

.........apart from that, I agree with most of your post.

[Old Croc]

You agree that you are an arriviste?

[glassdude007]

Where did you find the Great food in Rawai ??

Just wondering ? Most places here same same menu

Small portions and crap sevice for the price..

[Tapster]

@ KarenBravo

A very fair last post, sir.

Let's start our forum friendship anew?

[Bogan Koori]

Stay away from Rawaii. It's like little Manchester.