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Published: August 1st 2010
We took an overnight bus from Bangkok to Phuket, we had booked through an agency near Khao San Rd even after the countless Lonely Planet warnings not to- welllll, guess we should have listened! Around 5:30am we were dropped off at a town called Surat Thani. From here, the passengers are to be divided into smaller minivans to get to their final destination. We sat in a bus station and watched the Jackass reruns on TV until we were put into a smaller bus to Phuket at 7am. They drove us around the corner and about 30 seconds after getting in, we were told to get out and take our stuff and wait outside another travel agency. Everyone was asking what time we would be leaving and why we were stopped again and no one would answer, they all would reply, “I don’t know”. Everyone was slowly being pulled into the agency to get pressured into upgrading their tickets for faster service and other locations over the next hour or so. We stood outside until it was our turn, they asked us where we wanted to go - we replied Phuket town (where we booked our tickets to) - they asked
us where we were staying - which hotel? , we replied that we had no hotel and that we hadn’t decided if we would stay in the town or in Patong yet (even tho we knew we were going to find a way to Patong as soon as we got to Phuket). They told us that if we paid 200 Baht/person extra we would leave to Patong right now, or we could wait another hour and half for the bus to Phuket town. We said we would wait, another 2 guys in the same situation traveling by themselves also said they would wait. They sent the bus to Patong away and not more than 2 minutes later they told us to load our bags into another van and that we would leave to Phuket right now.
When we got into Phuket province they stopped at another travel agency that again asked us which hotel we were going to. We told them AGAIN, not sure - gonna look around when we get there - just take us to Phuket town, please. So we piled back in and we were off - a couple kilometers later the driver told us, the
2 guys, and another 2 to get out for Phuket town. We grabbed our bags and hopped out beside a grocery store.... no tourist things in site, no guesthouses, not even a sea of tuk-tuks to come scam you. We asked a guy cleaning up carts in the parking lot of the grocery store to point out on the map where we were in Phuket town - he didn’t speak English but managed to tell us that Phuket town was down the road still. The bus driver had dumped us outside of the town we wanted to be in. The two guys and us headed down the road to walk to Phuket town and like clockwork, a sudden torrential downpour began. We ran with our packs on to the closest shelter we could find and started putting our rain covers and gear on. It really didn’t make a difference however; we all looked like we had jumped into the sea and were soaked to the bone. We walked a couple more kilometers before getting into town and finding the bus station from which we take a bus to Patong. Twenty more minutes of standing in the rain went by before
Viewpoint
Ko Phi Phi - rain drop on lenswe were whisked away by the local bus down the road to Patong.
Patong was an interesting place. Tons of resorts, loads of marked up prices, lots of Starbucks, McD’s, etc. Night time was when Patong really got interesting, girls wearing next-to-nothing lined up along streets waiting for their next “business transaction”. Girly bars were everywhere just like Bangkok and you couldn’t walk down the main road without ping-pong show offers every 5 seconds. We finally said yes to one persistent guy who told us all the shows are free, no cover, and come in for a couple of minutes and if you don’t like it you can just leave. We thought it would be funny, but the minute we got in we knew we didn’t want to be there, very dark and dumpy, some nasty chick on stage lighting some candles, and a lady who wanted us to pay 1000Baht for a drink because the show was free. We turned right around and went back to the night markets. Oh well!
It rained a lot while we were there so we didn’t get to enjoy the beach as much as we would have liked to. The day
Viewpoint
Ko Phi Phi before we left it cleared up in the afternoon and we headed down, the water was nice but there was tons of garbage all over the beach and in the water. Turns out we weren’t missing much! The next day we headed to Ko Phi Phi.
Ko Phi Phi can best be described as heaven on earth. Absolutely the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life. Every 5 seconds all I could say was how beautiful and amazing everything was. The day we got there the sun was out in full force, the water was emerald green and crystal clear. We checked into a hotel and headed straight for the beach. There is no real “beach area” anywhere right in the Ton Sai area but there are sandy shores and water that you can swim in everywhere so you basically just pick wherever you want and hop in. We went for a swim and roasted in the sun for the rest of the day. When I woke up from my nap on the beach, I looked over to see wild monkeys swing out of the trees and come right close to where we were, looking
for some food and fooling around. There were probably about 7 of them. I had never seen monkeys outside of a zoo setting so this was the best part of my day. Even tho I was terrified that one might bite me, I walked over to them and took some pictures from a comfortable distance. They didn’t care that I was there at all - obviously used to humans invading their gorgeous beaches. Another couple came to check them out as well, when the lady got too close to a mother and baby in the tree, two monkeys came at her and started growling and making themselves big. This scared the shit out of me and I went back to where Binnson was on the beach. The last thing I needed was some crazy monkey bite disease for a stupid picture!
The next day was slightly rainy so we went and explored the town a bunch, went shopping and got some cheap Thai massages. Our last day there we went on a hike up to the viewpoint. We accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up walking through the jungle up to the path. Luckily we weren’t the only
ones who made this mistake and 3 others trailed behind us. Just over an hour later we arrived at the top sweating buckets. We are ridiculously out of shape now... probably going to be sore for the rest of the trip from that one hike. But it was completely worth it and absolutely gorgeous at the top, you could see the small strip between the two islands that form Ko Phi Phi with the little village inside, plus the two bays on either side. We sat up there and relaxed and enjoyed the scenery for a long while before heading back to town. After booking our boat tickets to Krabi we decided to head out to the beach and catch sunset.
The water recesses a lot as the sun is going down and we were able to walk out into the sea a crazy distance with the water still only waist deep. All of the reef patches on the sand were out of the water and you could walk around and look inside. There were sooo many crabs and quick little fish scurrying around. We walked around checking out the reefs and taking pictures while enjoying the beautiful background
Low Tide
I was only about waist deep when I looked back and took this shot, water was very shallow in the evening of the sun setting on the bay. Next stop... Ao Nang, Krabi!
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Donovan
non-member comment
What? You didn't bring your anti-monkey bite repellent spray???? Your pictures are awesome! Again what a wonderful idea to keep a travel blog.. Nice way for everyone to keep up with all of your adventures.