Phuket

Airport shuttle from the Phuket airport to Kata, Karon, or Patong costs 180 TBH per person and there isn't any other option. A taxi is 750. The shuttle took a long time. There was pretty bad flooding in Patong and Karon. Stayed at "Kata on
Sea" in a bungalow with fan and western bathroom for 500 TBH and it
had a swimming pool. Location was kinda far from the beach but it was
quiet and a good place. Basically at the northern end of Kata pretty
close to Karon. Kata beech is really nice but touristy. There is a
reasonably priced restaurant on the water at the south end called Ska
or something.

Patong: went for one evening. Kelsey checked into Patong Backpackers
100meters from the beach end of Bang La (the bar street) which was a
great location. Places seemed nice. 250TBH for dorm, AC, Internet,
movies, seemed clean.

Patong is unbelievably trashy. TONS of bars, hookers, lady boys, etc.
I'm not sure there's anywhere else in the world like it. The beach
looked pretty nice though and if you were with a group of friends it
could be a fun place to rage. The Tuk Tuk (kind of taxi truck) cost
300 TBH each way after haggling down from 400. It's about a 15 min
ride to Kata.
I shipped 5kg of stuff back to the USA from Kata for 1180 TBH on the
slow boat (3 months). Was a good price- slightly more expensive than
Malaysia's price but included packing materials and WAY cheaper than
shipping from Singapore. 10 kg would have been about 1900 TBH.

Going to Koh Phi Phi was 300TBH from Kata. Included pick up from hotel
and boat to the island. The boat was late cause the engine wouldn't
start but we finally got there.