Phuket, Thailand
Saturday, October 30, 2004
We're back in
Bangkok on the night before our 26-hour odyssey back to New York. Our last entry was a week ago, right before our flight to Phuket. Phuket is a large island on Thailand's west coast. It is a real resort island, in contrast to the backpacker havens of Ko Samui and Ko Phan Ngan. The main beach is an absolute mess, packed with go-go bars, massage parlors, pubs, discos, fast food joints and street vendors. Before getting to Phuket we had booked a hotel at Hat
Kamala, which turned out to be a sleepy strip of beach populated by friendly family-run hotels and restaurants. Nice place to fry oneself in the sun and jump in the ocean, not much else going on. In recognition of our isolation the taxi drivers extorted huge fees to take us to other parts of the island. After a few days we transferred to a great hotel on
Karon beach, nabbing a great last-minute deal on the internet. This was our first hotel with a usable pool. After a couple of days basking in unprecedented luxury, we took a trip over to Ko Phi Phi, the island made semi-famous by Leo in "The Beach" a couple of years ago
. The island was beautiful, but seriously marred by over-development. The next day we took a well-organized day-long sea canoeing trip run by John Gray, a 60-year old American who hit Phuket 15 years ago. The island caves were stunning, and we were free to enjoy them because our canoe came with a man to row us around.
On our last day on Phuket, we took a long drive up to Khao Sok national park. We took a jarring trip on the back of an elephant. Other tourists seem to get a big kick out of elephant rides in the woods, but after two such adventures we haven't been able to understand why. The elephant bounces you around like a washing machine spin cycle, fouling his path in the nastiest manner as he advances. Anyway, we then took in some grand park scenery and finished up with a canoe trip down a river (again, someone else did the rowing). On the way back to Phuket our tour guide's car resembled a death-trap, featuring broken air-conditioning and windows that would not roll down. We somehow survived, and flew to
Bangkok the next morning. So here we are, at the end of our trip.
