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Published: February 23rd 2007
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Patong Beach
View looking up Patong Beach. Thankfully most of the middle-aged Europeans sunbathing topless are out of sight. This will be the first travelblog from our holiday in Thailand and as she has flown out from NZ to join me for the trip, the first blog starring Cushla. We are spending 9 nights in Thailand, starting in Bangkok, then heading to Phuket, then to Phi Phi Island and finally back to Bangkok for another night. Because of this split itinerary, I’ve decided to leave the Bangkok travelblog until last and will start this one on Day 3 at Phuket.
For those who don’t know, Phuket is an island just off the southwestern coast of Thailand, facing into the Indian Ocean. This means that it faced right into the teeth of the Boxing Day Tsunami a couple of years ago, and given that Phuket is a tourist mecca quite a lot of havoc was caused and lives lost. Nevertheless the island has bounced back remarkably to the point where we really couldn’t see any evidence of it having occurred at all.
We had a late afternoon flight down from Bangkok and followed the signs out of Phuket airport towards the taxi stands. However on our way we were intercepted by a cheeky little guy offering to take us
to our hotel at Patong Beach in his “limousine” for 150 baht a head (like NZD $7!). Sure enough it said Limousine on the side of his battered Toyota Town Ace Van, but we now realized that “Limousine” was the name of his taxi company! Nevertheless he was true to his word and dropped us off right to the door of our hotel. As I work for InterContinental Hotels Group I get discounted room rates at our hotel brands, so we stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort which is in pole position right on the beach front.
After dropping our bags we headed down the street for some dinner and our first exposure to the somewhat chaotic and occasionally sleazy underbelly of the Patong Beach nightlife. After all, anywhere where the flashing neon signs outside Hotels advertise rooms “Weekly, Daily or Hourly” doesn’t have much to hide. But speaking of hiding things away, we also came across a number of she-men - transvestites that at first glance look like pretty Thai girls until you hear their deep baritone voices call out.
The next day we spent lazing around the hotel pool. Cushie has just been through the NZ
Ebony and Ivory
The UK winter hasn't been the best tanning weather but I'm working on it ... summer so she already had a deep base tan to work with, while my UK winter pastiness has me white as a ghost and needing to be eased into the sun courtesy of the SPF 30. It was hot and very humid so we took advantage of the pool at regular intervals and kept hydrated courtesy of the poolside barmen. Through working at IHG I heard that during the tsunami a dead shark was carried 100m from beach and ended up in the pool along with the other debris, so sitting there gave you some perspective on how big the surge must have been. In the afternoon we headed down to the beach and then went on to the shops for a bit of bargaining action. With 20 baht to the NZD everything is phenomenally cheap here, and with the shops filled with imitation labels for pretty much everything, you can get some pretty good stuff for next to nothing.
Staggering under the weight of fake Diesel t-shirts and a fistful of dodgy DVDs, we headed back to the hotel for another swim, just in time for happy hour at the poolside cocktail bar. You actually sit at the
Poolside Bar
Enjoying late afternoon cocktails in the pool. bar on bar stools in the water and drink away into the evening, an experience that we couldn’t help but repeat the next day as well!
For our third day in Phuket we wanted to go elephant trekking, so we organized to go on an all day trip which included elephants among a whole lot of other stuff. We were taken north off Phuket to the mainland and to a coastal village where we boarded longtail boats and headed out to sea. First stop was “James Bond Island”, which was a film set from “The Man with the Golden Gun”. As always, everywhere you look there was a smiling Thai shopkeeper trying to ply their wares to you, including trying to sell us large shells for prices starting at 5000 baht (NZD $250), before settling for just 150 baht after negotiation. Our next stop was for sea kayaking, where we had a Thai guide who paddled us around a small island and in and out of sea caves. From there we headed on to a village floating completely on moored pontoons for lunch, which was included in our price and a really nice meal of Thai food to recharge
Patong Markets
The smoothest talking salesmen and the finest clothing ripoffs your Baht can buy. the batteries.
After lunch we headed back to the mainland for what we hoped would be the climax of the day - elephant trekking! When we arrived at the elephant camp there was a couple of busloads of Chinese tourists fighting each other to ride the elephants, so while we waited for them to move on we killed some time with a rubber tree demonstration. Tapping trees for rubber isn’t the most thrilling thing I’ve ever seen, although I was startled to hear that most of the tree rubber gets made into things like car window piping and condoms (FYI readers, don’t trust the ones from Thailand). While we continued to wait we saw an elephant show and I was picked from the crowd for a demonstration of jungle TLC, which pretty much involved me being molested by a 400 tonne elephant. They made me lie on my back with a towel over my midsection, and the elephant would lightly stand on me (elephant massage) and was told to give me “elephant kisses” with his trunk (like a sloppy hairy vacuum cleaner attached to your forehead). Then much to my surprise our guide announced that we would play “find
James Bond Island
Cush and I on James Bond Island. The tall rock behind us must be the most photographed rock in Thailand. the banana”, which involved him throwing bananas under the towel and the elephant going in with his trunk to get them and hopefully nothing attached to me! It was explained to us earlier that we were only riding the female elephants as the bull elephants “tend to go crazy” when they are on heat, although I had already experienced one amorous female elephant that day. Finally once all the fun was over it was our turn for elephant trekking, so Cush and I had our 15 minute trek on top of one. I felt a little sorry for them as the Thai elephant handlers aren’t shy to give them a clip around the head when they don’t do as they are told and it was a really hot day to be carrying ungrateful tourists. But hey - elephant trek done.
We were dropped off back at our hotel and I headed straight for the showers to wash the elephant slobber off before another cool off swim. As it was our last night in Phuket we went for one last mission duel with the shopkeepers and then headed out for another nice meal of Thai food. Normally a quite conservative
Sea Kayaking
Cush, myself and our guide Ali. eater at the best of times, I’m being ably guided by Cush through the different Thai dishes and am actually finding myself really getting into the Thai food.
That’s all for now. We traveled from Phuket to Phi Phi Island this morning and the next update will be about our time here!
Cheers,
Ben and Cushla
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Tox
non-member comment
I think the elephant was looking for peanuts under the towel.