Overnight Sea Life Safari
By February 23, 2021 5 Star Marine News, Island Hopping, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

Overnight Sea Life Safari

Thailand’s local wildlife has been given a much-needed chance to recover since the disappearance of tourists flooding in. Islands and national parks have seen sea and wildlife populations start to return, making right now a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get out and explore. 

The Sea Life Safari offers a chance to relax and enjoy the abundance of marine animals over 2 days and 1 night, where the 5 Star Marine team uses their experience and expertise to take you to little-known coves, bays, and secret spots to glimpse the fantastic wildlife on offer.  

The two idyllic Racha Islands, (Koh Racha Yai and Koh Racha Noi), provide the ideal destination to enjoy nature; with some of the best snorkeling reefs in Thailand, tropical white powdery beaches, and crystal-clear turquoise waters. Koh Racha Yai has situated a mere 45-minute speedboat ride away. However, to experience the plethora of marine life on offer, you need to venture a little further to its smaller twin, Koh Racha Noi – An uninhabited rocky island, with plenty of fantastic snorkeling bays. 

During this 2-day trip, you can take your time to relax on stunning deserted beaches, snorkel at both islands and dine at local restaurants in beautiful bays. When you want to explore the local wildlife, 5 Star Marine knows all the best spots. 

You might get lucky enough to encounter a pod of inquisitive dolphins playing near your boat, or even see some Green or Hawksbill turtles who are fundamental to our marine ecosystems.  Look up to the skies to catch sight of the unusual Hornbills, which are characterized by their long, down­curved bill with a bright yellow casque (or horn) on top. 

Get the opportunity to glimpse some smooth-coated sea otters, which have even been known to try to get aboard! How about dragon spotting? OK, not exactly, but Thailand’s Monitor Lizards can grow up to a staggering 2 meters long. 

Last, but certainly not least; the stunning coral reefs around these twin islands are just teeming with aquatic life, and make for excellent snorkeling.  There are opportunities to see giant starfish, pufferfish, or sea turtles, and reef fish like Parrotfish, snapper, and angelfish can be found in the shallow waters just steps from the beach where you have your pick of snorkeling spots. 

Although sightings of these creatures cannot be guaranteed, one thing is for sure; when tourists do return, spotting some of these animals will again become a rarer opportunity. 

2 day / 1 night Sea Life Safari itinerary with FREE round trip private minibus transfers available now.

Covid 19 Donation Update February 2021
By February 16, 2021 Uncategorized Comments Off

Covid 19 Donation Update February 2021

As we move towards the end of February I felt it was important to give a quick update to our customers, friends, family, and supporters on our efforts to provide food relief to local Phuket residents. 

We are now past the 12-month mark of the devastating effects of tourism here in Phuket.  We are seeing more and more businesses closing, people giving up and desperation coming forth. 

Thailand was hit with a resurgence of Covid during the December / January period which saw Phuket shut down Domestic Travel.  This “Second Wave” was devastating to morale as well as the financial resources of those surviving. 

During the past month and a bit we have received more and more requests for help, and the requests have become more desperate. 

As we visit communities they share with us that they have been without work for 12 months, they don’t know where to turn, and they are just struggling. 

The good news is that we have increased our funds available for donation meaning we can reach more people, help more people and provide more support. 

In addition to that, to make things more fluid and to take some pressure from Sutai Muay Thai Team and 5 Star Marine Team we have recruited volunteers. 

As you can see in the video below our packing days are getting lots of people turning out to help. 

This would never have been possible without the help of UWC Thailand, its teachers, students, and volunteers.  In addition to UWC Thailand, we have also had great ex-pat help. 

To help manage our volunteer efforts to of our wonderful friends and customers Stepped into the position of Volunteer Managers. 

Huge shoutout to Pete and Nina for taking on that responsibility and allowing us to help more people more efficiently. 

So as the year continues, we expect to continue to be providing food relief support to our local Phuket communities. 

Stay Safe
Shaun

Volunteers Needed For Saturday 30th January 2021
By January 26, 2021 5 Star Marine News, COVID 19 DONATION, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

Volunteers Needed For Saturday 30th January 2021

This Saturday The 30th January 2021 At 9:00 AM We Need Your Help. Due To The Resurgence Of Covid 19 More And More Families In Phuket Are Without Work. For Over 11 Months We’ve Been Packing And Distributing Life Bags. This Saturday We Need Some Extra Hands To Prepare A Donation.

There Is No Cost, We Are Not Asking For Donations We Want Your Time. We Have Purchased The Supplies, We Have The Packing Tools We Just Need Some Good Old Fashioned Sweat.

DISCLAIMER: Before You, Volunteer To Help Please Note We Use Plastic. Until We Find A Free Source Of 8000+ Environmentally Friendly Bags Per Month We Use Plastic. We Understand The Downside Of Using Plastic But We Just Haven’t Found A Viable, Free Alternative.

For 11 Months We Have Donated And Each Time We Donate We Run Out Of Life Bags. We Are Maximizing Our Resources To Buy Food to Feed More People And The Cost To That Is We Must Use Plastic.

So If You Have Time And Can Help Here Are The Details:

Date: 30th January 2021 (Saturday)
Time: 9:00am
Location: Sutai Muay Thai Sutai Muay Thai Helps With Life Bags

We Will Supply All You Need To Pack. We, Will, Have Covid Screening On-Site And Work To Make It A Safe Packing Environment. Both Sutai Muay Thai and 5 Star Marine Staff Will Be On-Site To Pack And Ensure TAT SHA Compliance.

If You Can Help Comment Below Or Private Message Us. It Takes 10 People About 4hrs To Pack 300 Life Bags. We Are Packing 900+ So We Need At Least 30+ Volunteers!

5 Star Marine Covid Update January 2021
By January 4, 2021 5 Star Marine News, Island Hopping, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

5 Star Marine Covid Update January 2021

After a pretty rough 2020, we were hoping that 2021 would see a more stable and predictable Domestic Tourism market and the return in a small way of an international tourism market. The reality is that the start of 2021 has seen a lot of uncertainty combined with a resurgence in Covid 19 cases here in Thailand.

To date, Phuket has been lucky enough to not have reported many cases from the recent outbreak but with the amount of inter-provincial travel that occurred over the New Year period, it’s a matter of time before more cases are reported.

What Is 5 Star Marine Doing In Response To The Covid Resurgence?

At this time the Provincial Government of Phuket has not restricted our business or Private Boat Tour companies from operating. We have been ordered to increase the amount of Covid Screening we are doing at our pier.

So in response to the Covid Resurgence, we have implemented as follows:

1. Travel Advice – We have advised customers of ours that have booked multi-day tours outside of the Phuket Province about the possible effect that Covid will have on our ability to complete these tours. We have offered our customers the ability to cancel and refund their tours. We do not offer credits or deferred dates, we prefer to provide full refunds and wait for the government response to Covid to stabilize.

2.One Day Tours – We are operating all of our single-day tours to Phi Phi, Raya, Phang Nga Bay, Hong island, and beyond as normal. For these tours, you will be screened at the pier per our normal TAT SHA accreditation with hand sanitizer and medical masks available on all our boats.

3.Staff Screening – We are screening all of our staff per our TAT SHA regulations and response plan. To date, our staff has not returned any failed screenings but we continue to monitor the situation.

4.Boat Cleaning – We deep clean our boats daily, sanitize all our equipment, and use recommended and regulated procedures to do this in addition to our Company Response Plan which has been in play since March 2020.

Do You Have Availability?

For certain we have bookings and availability on all our boats. Due to orders issued by the BMA and advice provided to inter-provincial travelers a lot of our pre-bookings have now canceled and crews of all our boats are available to complete tours upon request.

Will You Continue Your Donation Program?

We have recommitted with our volunteer team to continue our Life Bag donation program in 2021 with the first day of packing starting on January 4th, 2021.

Why You Should Support Local Businesses During Covid 19 Pandemic
By September 28, 2020 5 Star Marine News, COVID 19 DONATION, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

Why You Should Support Local Businesses During Covid 19 Pandemic

 

During this difficult time of the COVID, 19 Pandemic as many as 70% of tourism businesses have not been able to re-open here in Phuket.  Whether that is from a lack of customers, financial problems, or staffing problems it doesn’t matter, what matters is that this means a lot of people are without work.

As a responsible company that is invested in the local community, as you can see from our regular donations, we also choose to support local businesses by spending at local restaurants, booking local staycations, and supporting businesses that have been supporting local people.

This is something we promote heavily on our social media as we strongly believe that the only path for tourism here in Phuket is through Domestic Tourism until at least the end of 2021.  While the government has started to let in long-stay tourism the number of tourist arrivals is just not enough to sustain the local economy.

So we encourage you, if you can, to spend local, stay local and support local businesses.  Also, pay special attention to those local businesses that are investing in keeping the community going.

Businesses like ours here at 5 Star Marine that are offering significantly discounted COVID Rate trips, businesses like ours that are making regular community donations, and businesses like ours that are taking the time to promote and help other local businesses.

Stay Local, Support Local and You’ll Discover Places You Never Knew Existed!

When Will Phuket Open Post Covid?
By August 31, 2020 5 Star Marine News, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

When Will Phuket Open Post Covid?

When Will Phuket Open Post COVID?

One of the most asked questions on Facebook Groups that are related to traveling to Phuket is “When Will Phuket Open?”

The answer to the question until now has been “no one knows”. There were reported efforts of a travel bubble, which would allow entry of certain citizens from certain countries.

This thought was put on ice when a foreign diplomat arrived on a special request entry and ended up testing positive for COVID triggering a lockdown of the areas that he visited and mass testing.

The reality is the government doesn’t want to affect the continuing economy that it has by injecting large cases of COVID into the country.

The alternate to that reality is that tourism is a large chunk of the GPD of Thailand so at some point, the amount of economic pain caused by closed borders will be so great that they are forced to open.

This “Tipping Point” appears to be happening now, to be honest. The government is now talking about “Safe and Sealed” zones where they will allow long-stay travelers who wish to visit islands like Phuket for at least 30 days.

The first 14 days will be a quarantine in a 1km zone at approved resorts and then after that, they are free to travel.

The details are still being worked out, which sometimes means that maybe this won’t happen at all as it’s difficult to manage is too hard.

So the answer to the question still remains, We Just Don’t Know.

5 Star Marine Helping The Local Community During Covid 19 Pandemic
By April 28, 2020 5 Star Marine News, Private Boat Charter Comments Off

5 Star Marine Helping The Local Community During Covid 19 Pandemic

If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram you’d notice that the team at 5 Star Marine are working closely with the local community to help get support to those who need it.

Over the last few weeks, we have been donating rice, water, chicken, beef, and more to communities that have been significantly affected by the Covid 19 pandemic.  To understand Phuket is a tourism town.  When our government made the decision to lock our borders almost all of the people of Phuket were out of work.

This led to a lot of people running out of money and food.  Seeing this need our team snapped into action and started organizing food and supplies for families that needed it.  Through our work, over the last few weeks, we have donated over 4000 Kilograms of Rice, over 3000 bottles of water, more than 200 Kilograms of Chicken and so much beef we lost count.

All these donations have been financed by the team behind 5 Star Marine.  We have not sought donations from our customers we have worked with our team and the team from Sutai Muay Thai to put these donations together directly.

We don’t write this to hope for praise, what we hope for is your support.

Support The Businesses That Support The Community With Your Custom!

When travel restrictions are lifted, and they will be lifted, we hope that those of you who do choose to travel to Phuket that you choose to support businesses like ours that helped out in the time of need.

Don’t get me wrong, we are not the only business helping, there are restaurants, dive shops, hotels, and more helping out.  What we hope to see is that you choose to eat at those restaurants, dive with those dive shops, stay at those hotels and go on private boats with companies that are helping.

These are the companies that are working with heart during these hard times and we should reward those companies with our custom.  Just like we plan to.  When we can we will visit these restaurants, eat there and we will repay there kindness with the thing that counts to them, customers.

5 Star Marine Giving Back To The Community