All you ever hear is ping pong, TUK TUK?
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2011
1
53
75
Trip End
Jul 28, 2012
Where I stayed
Patong, Phuket, Thailand
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Patong, Phuket
Now we had already read in our travel books that Phuket especially Patong was considered as a seedy area, so we weren't expecting that much.
On our first evening we walked to the centre to try and find some food and came across the biggest and cheapest street food we had found so far, so we ended up buying quite a bit and then wondered across to Phuket square. We both thought it was really nice and couldn't understand why it had been referred to as 'seedy'but then we hadn't actually found the main pubbing/ restaurant area yet.
The next day i (Dawn) went to the beach and went for a swim and found the main area during the daytime it was ok during the day apart from all the TUK TUK drivers trying to get me to go with them even though i wanted to head to the cafe 1 minute away by foot. I suggested Andy and i check out this area at night when i got back. Heading down the street within 2 seconds i had a board shoved under my nose telling me to go to a ping pong show and within 10 metres i had heard ping pong 20 times. Once you got over that annoyance and found a bar it was an interesting place to people watch and play spot the lady boy.
I also went into one of the shops as i was looking for some new clothes and i wasn't really interested in one stall but asked how much when a playsuit came up as the equivalent of £15 i said no thank you and walked away but then this woman grabbed my arm and would not let go of me...i literally had to peel her fingers from my arms 1 by 1.
We then decided to head to another bar where we could actually chat and sit down, ordered a Chang and then looked around. Straight away we realised we were in a pick up bar, there were young Thai ladies about 17/18 sat with older guys...it was a bit gross especially as you could see one of the guys running his hands up and down their legs! Shortly after we left that pub and went for a late night Mac Donald's where we found 2 police offices tucking into their dinner.
The following day was another beach day, which was really nice again, we also went for lunch. We decided to get a starter on the menu this time as it sounded interesting but it was a weird concept as somehow my starter came out after my main did, but the food was gorgeous! In the evening we hadn't learnt our lesson and headed out on the town again, first we stopped in Phuket square where they had some free wine tasting and then watched a fountain that had a lazer show projected onto the water. To begin with i was standing in the wrong place and the fountain soaked me!
We then headed out again and people watched again with this older couple from Australia and
drank beer and cocktails whilst trying to be sold ping pong and watches/sunglasses/flowers and anything else that can be carried.
I'm glad we went to Patong but it was a very unique experience. One thing i forgot to note is that in Phuket square there are lots of elephant statues painted in different outfits, they were pretty cool.
