Holiday in Phuket
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2010
1
16
33
Trip End
Jun 06, 2010
Patong, Phuket, Thailand
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Our time here was split; we spent 6 nights in PL Guesthouse and 7 nights in Absolute Sea Pearl resort. Our original plan was to head to Koh Pangan for the Half Moon Party but realised that was going to take ages to get there and cost quite a bit. And with the opportunity of free accommodation for a week we decided to stay in Phuket.
Patong is a crazy place. Its very resorty which is quite new to us on our travels. At first it was a novelty; safe, easy, fun with lots to do. But soon became a bit much for us, not to mention the fact that Phuket is much more expensive than the rest of Thailand! However, one thing Phuket did deliver on was the cheese sandwich Carly had been dreaming of – as much as we love the Thai food, sometimes you just need a cheese sandwich! There is a short road running perpendicular to the beach called Bangla Rd which has it all; bars, clubs, live bands, go-go dancers, ladyboys, iguanas, ping-pong shows, connect-4 (the locals are ace at this game and can tell half way through if they’ve won or lost!!), hammer and nail (you compete with someone to hammer a nail into a block of wood with the narrow end of the hammer, not easy after a cocktail bucket!!), and magicians! It’s a great place to just sit down with a drink and watch everything that’s going on. We had some brilliant nights out here and met some great people. One night we went to the cinema which was quite different….before the film started we all had to stand whilst we watched a film of the King, lovely!
There are a few downsides to Patong; the busy beach, the expensive food and drink, but most of all the smelly open drains!! They try to help this issue by placing some wet cardboard or a rug over them but its still stinking, tiger balm under the nose is essential!!!
Massages here are a little different too. Across the road from our Guesthouse was a huge pink building called Christin Massage with an official looking sign on the front. We though it might be a school of massage, especially as there were lots of massage places around it. Turns out this is essentially a brothel! Apparently this is where you find fishbowl girls – the girls sit behind a glass window so it looks like a fish bowl. We thought it would be concentrated to this one building but we were wrong. We decided to get a massage in Patong, Carly went for a foot massage and Michael went for an oil massage. We’re pretty sure the girls massaging us were actually boys if you know what we mean! Carlys masseuse was more interested in her own looks in the mirror than giving a massage and actually didn’t massage, just rubbed moisturiser into her legs for ages, whilst Michael was getting asked if he wanted 'extras’!!! That was a sharp exit!! First and only massage in Patong… people, you have been warned!! He he!
We did a couple of trips whilst here. Our first one was to Phang Nga Bay where James Bond Island is (where they filmed Man with the Golden Gun). It was incredible; the view of all the small limestone islands jutting out of the water was just how we imagined it to be! Before we got to James Bond Island we stopped off at a bat cave where we got into Kayaks and explored with a guide. The cave was full of bats hanging from the roof and there was a strong smell of bat pee! Our next stop involved some more kayaking. This time we went right through a cave to a lagoon which was pretty special. Here we saw a swimming crab and a horseshoe crab (looks like something out of Alien!!), a rock shaped like King Kong, and a rock shaped like a giant fish. Finally we made it to James Bond Island and it didn’t disappoint. It was great to see that piece of rock stand in the middle of the lagoon and get our picture taken with the Bond – Scaramanga gun dual pose in front of it! The beach was much smaller in real life than in the film, and we couldn’t find Scaramanga’s lair anywhere!!!
The other trip we did was to Phi Phi Island. We planned to stay on the island for a couple of nights, but after some researching, discovered it was very expensive so found a cool Maya Bay camping trip. Phi Phi island is actually 2 islands: Phi Phi Don (larger, inhabited), and Phi Phi Ley (smaller, uninhabited). Phi Phi Ley is a national park and until 2 years ago no-one was allowed to stay on the island over night. Now there is an organised tour to take small groups of people to camp on the island. This was a real treat, first we got a ferry to Phi Phi Don, hit the beach for a while then got a converted fishing boat to Phi Phi Ley. We arrived at Maya Bay just as all the tourists were leaving. Then, it was just us (well actually 17 of us) on this island. A great feeling, just like the film ‘The Beach’! Our guides made us a fab penang curry for dinner, followed by a bucket of Samsong rum + coke, then a bit later made us great BBQ’d chicken wings!! After singing lots of Thai reggae tunes, playing with loads of hermit crabs and a (amateur) fire show from the guides we all grabbed a mat and sleeping bag and headed onto the beach. It was so dark we could see millions of stars in the sky and also saw quiet a few shooting stars! The moon was very low in the sky and sat behind the cliffs but it managed to light up the bay which was amazing!! Unfortunately there are some things cameras can’t capture but they are memories we’ll have forever! We were told if we want to see sunrise to get up for 5.30 am. This wasn’t too difficult as we didn’t have the best sleep. It was a bit windy through the night so every so often we’d get a face full of sand! We also had loads of hermit crabs roaming around us (one girl got bitten) and a sneaky wee rat had a rummage at our bag, which gave us the fright of our lives, not to mention paranoia for the rest of the night!! Anyway, we got up at 5am along with a friend from Kosovo and headed through the jungle to the other side of the island to see the sunrise. Well, we soon realised we were way off and had a good hour to go. Nevertheless we did see a snake and had a nice walk whilst everyone else was sleeping. Sunrise was actually around 6.45am and was really nice. We had to climb through a cave to get to a platform where we could see it so that was fun. After breakfast we too a kayak out by ourselves to one of the other beaches which was fun, then we headed back to Phi Phi Don when all the tourist started to arrive, perfect!!
Another trip we did from Patong was to explore the beaches ourselves. We met a really nice Russian couple who told us about some good beaches to check out, so we hired a moped (as everyone does) and set off. Carly was terrified of the crazy traffic and the moped to we didn’t last very long. We managed a drive around town and a trip to the hospital to get Carlys fingers x-ray’d (£16 and a long wait - £10 was the doctors fee, which was about £5 a minute!!) before heading home. Later on, we read that over 200 people die in Phuket every year due to motor bike and moped accidents – right choice to return it! A couple of days later we decide to hire a jeep as they looked awesome and were cheaper than cars. Obviously there is a reason for that. It feels like driving a monster truck, the gear stick was very loose, and there was no luxuries like power steering, radio, speedometer….. and hand brake!!! Yes, when we arrived at our first beach the parking was on a hill and that’s when we noticed we didn’t have a hand brake!!! The parking attendant said it was fine and went to look for a rock to put behind the wheel! No way! We went back to the hire place and upgraded to a sporty Honda Jazz (didn’t know they existed!). Ah, now we had everything including air-con and breezed up the steep mountains where the Jeep nearly stalled in 1st gear!! Our 1st beach was Laem Sing which had been hyped up to us. It was ok but nothing too special. The next beach was Laguna Beach. We had to walk through a 5 start resort to get to it, but no-one batted an eye lid! We must look the part! This resort owns a baby elephant called Mina and at around 3pm she comes down to the beach for a play and a swim. Our timing was perfect and shortly after we arrive Mina strolled down to the beach where we were lying. She was so cute and playful and gave Michael high-5’s and strangled him with her trunk! After this we drove back south, past Patong, to Viewpoint which has a great view of 3 beaches. We stayed here for sunset then had a nice meal on the cliffside.
Great time spent in Phuket but a bit too much like a holiday for us. Back on the road backpacking now, next stop Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!!
