Advertisement
Published: November 17th 2006
Monday 13 November 2006
Arrived in Phuket! :-)
We had originally booked to go to Pattaya but changed our minds last minute to go to Phuket. We heard some horror stories about the stuff that goes on in Pattaya so we thought we would start our trip to paradise early.
Our hotel is set against the mountainous backdrop of Patong Beach. Kerry was a little anxious about being right on the beach "just in case" and most of your know Kerry's luck. Another cheap but fantastic hotel, if a little noisy as it was a brand new build with paper thin walls, floors and ceilings. Not to mention the bloody local Cockrels giving us an early morning wake-up call everyday "gits". We ventured out for a wonder down to the beach as we didnt arrive until after dark. The beach was a 10 minute walk away then we hit the mental city central of Patong Beach. Neon lights, open-air bars, music blaring, sweaty pasty bodies, loads and loads of he-she's (who thought they could dance, after all, they are still men!) and tourists looking bewildered at the goings on all around. We treated ourselves to a slap up
Naithon Beach
Those are the rain clouds we spoke about!!meal (still only cost a tenner a head including drinks). Patong was so much hotter than anywhere else we had been so far. The restaurants even had fans squirting out water jets to keep us cool. We were both starting to settle in to our surrounding mayhem until we saw a couple of sign posts saying "TSUNAMI EVACUATION ROUTES". There were Tsunami watch towers on the beach and signs pointing which way to leg it should sirens start to ring out. We looked on the Tsunami map showing the different safety zones, at least our hotel was out of the danger zone!
It is hard to imagine whilst sitting on the beach all of the devestation caused by the Tsunami two years ago. You would not have thought anything would have ever happened here as it has all been built back up trade as normal. It seems that the Tsunami may have even made Phuket a more popular resort than it was before as Kerry believes it is even busier than when she came four years ago in the peak season.
Tuesday 14 November 2006
Our first full day was spent exploring the sea front and in
awe at how beautiful a place can be after such a disaster. We took a taxi to the far South East of the province to have a look at the aquarium, part of the Marine Biology Centre. The place was almost deserted but the aquarium was really good as you could get up close and personal with all sorts of mental species of fish including piranhas, electric eels, sea turtles and these absolutely HUGE fish with lips like Kezza's. :-00
Due to the high drinks prices we had planned for the evening to buy a large bottle of vodka and go back to our hotel and get slightly mullered before we hit the bars of Patong ready to PARTY into the early hours. We bought the vodka, even had a couple of stronger than strong ones whilst we were chilling in our room. We then decided to go in for a bit of a cuddle before we got ready and woke up at 8.30 the next morning! Great night had by all - must have been absolutely knackered.
Wednesday 15 November 2006
Determined to make up for our less than adventurous evening, yet another plan was formulated.
The seed was sewn for our global adventure when we had originally booked a two week holiday to Thailand. One of our original hotels would have been just up the coast at Naithon Buri Beach Resort. So out of curiosity we decided to spread our wings and hire out a "ped" (for those who care, a Honda Air Blade 110 - Stu's first Blade, bless). It was soooo good to release ourselves from the dastardly clutches of the expensive tuk tuk and taxi drivers and make our own way around the island. At least the traffic and the roads around here are nice and easy, we would not have dared to this in Bangkok. In fact they tell you not to in all of the travel guides. We set off bright eyed and bushy tailed. Stu was glad to be back on two wheels again and Kerry was happy to top up her tan (no leathers on this bad boy!) We just took it steady as we obviously had no leathers and plastic kids helmets! We made it to our destination - a beautiful beach and a clear warm sea with hardly a soul in sight. The hotel we were
supposed to be staying in was also very very pretty. We stayed for a few hours, took in the rays and appreciated the view.
We jumped back on our trusty steed and headed back to the ranch. A couple of kilometres down the road we caught sight of a few hefty clouds looming over our route home and YES, YOU GUESSED IT - those bad boy clouds were choca block full of big fat ass rain drops - BLOODY TYPICAL! We got absolutely drenched to the bone. I think we were drier in the swimming pool. This wasnt the normal type of rain you get back home - OH NO - this is still monsoon season over here. Those massive rain drops bloomin hurt. Its weird riding along with the groovy plastic piss pot on your bonce and then encountering a tropical deluge then you pass through a hot air pocket which steams your sun glasses up so you cant see where your going. NOT GOOD when you are doing 30-40 mph on a flooded mountain road. Oh well, we made it back all in tact but the resort was completely dry so we got a few odd looks
as we looked like a pair of drowned rats. We dried off and cracked open the voddie. We were both adamant that we would make up for last night so we knocked a few vodka and red bulls back in preparation for a fun filled evening. We were careful to only take a few hundred bahts out with us as it is so easy to think "stuff-it". It seems that we had turned into light-weights any way and got drunk very quickly. We have no idea what time we headed back to the hotel but we can say the walk back along the beach was fantastic. We parked our bums right next to the waters edge and watched across the ocean and over the mountains to either side at the thunder and lightning show. Who needs a nightclubs and laser shows when you have got Mother Nature to supply the base line and the pyrotechnics!!
Thursday 16 November 2006
Woke up feeling a little worse for wear - well Stu did any way (old git!). We had brekkie and decided what to do that day. Kerry, the Navigator, mentioned a place in the North of Phuket which she thought would be a good day out. So we rode roughly 40 km up the West Coast and across to the North East corner of the province. Our first port of call was Khao Pra Taew National Park. It didnt mention in the guide book how much it would cost but it was 200 bahts each (slightly more than we had anticipated). We didnt really have a choice but to pay seeing as though we had travelled so far. The park was very pretty and had a big waterfall where all the local school kids were swimming and messing about (no doubt bunking off school too). It was sooooo hot there which made it impossible to climb any further up the path to the waterfall but we had a paddle at the bottom to cool us down. Also in the park was a Gibbon Project. This was a Project run by volunteers to integrate gibbons back into the wild. Many of these gibbons had once been pets to Thai people or road side attractions and so didnt know how to survive in the wild. It was quite sad to see that one had only one leg and one arm and another didnt know how to "sing" (not like Stu in a karaoke bar - the high pitched weeping sound you hear on documentaries) - as he would have been forced into silence by the owner - this is a necessity in order for them to mate and interact with other gibbons in the wild.
Possibly the scariest thing we saw the day was the whopping, huge, great fat SPIDER which hung from its web near the entrance to the Gibbon Project. It was a nice couple who pointed out this by saying "No move, Spider!!" - "NO SHIT SHERLOCK" Kerry moved alright, whilst Stu tried to take some close up pictures. That was one bad boy you wouldnt want to find in your bed at night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a quick coconut refreshment before getting back on the ped and followed the road South which took us along the East Coast. Our trusty ped saw us up mountains, through villages and towns and we passed through some beautiful scenery. We even crossed over to Siray Island (this sounds more special than it actually was). We ended up a what could have been a nice beach if the Gypsy's hadnt left litter all over it as they had a community right next door. We quickly left there and carried on through Phuket town and with a few wrong turns eventually made our way to Prom Thep Cape View Point. This is the Southern most tip of Phuket and apparently an excellent spot for watching the sunset. We had a quick drink a the cafe before seeing some more hefty clouds looming over the mountains so decided to get the hell out of there. We had visions of another torrential downpour drenching us again. We rode back up the West Coast passing through some lovely beaches such as Kata and Karon Beach (these are much less crowded than Patong - definately more stunning - would recommend these over Patong). We made it back to drop our bike off at about 6pm and could not believe how much of the island we had seen in one day. This was definately worth the 3.75 pounds a day we had paid for it :-)
Needless to say we were both quite shattered so we went and had a meal (Japanese again, which we had to cook ourselves - it was a shock to Kerry). We then went to an internet cafe to try and sort the next part of our trip out.
OUR PLAN!!!
Instead of doing the normal tourist thing and spending the day around Phi Phi Island we decided to stay a couple of nights there. The only problem being is that there are only a few places to stay as it is a tiny island which was wrecked the Tsunami plus there are only a few places to stay here any way as it is a very exclusive "resort". There is a problem with this time of year as it is fully booked with tourists from all around the world who have seen Tsunami footage and also the film "The Beach". After this we are going to Ko Lanta which was recommended to us by the nice Thai couple who were our tour guides to the River Kwai. We will stay there for four nights before heading off to Krabi. We are not going to make too many rigid plans right now but we know that we can save more money if we try to keep four of five days ahead of ourselves. Thats the theory any way!!
Keep you posted!!
Love Kez & Stu xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.202s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 57; dbt: 0.1401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Tray
non-member comment
Hi Guys been waiting for your next journal. Glad to see that its all back to normal from when i was there (six weeks before the Tsanami.) I am so jealous!!!!!! I dont know hey, sneaking voddy out to pubs to save cash, some things never change :) Love Tray xxxx