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Published: February 28th 2007
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The Sad Reality
the average income for a Thai citizen is only $3 a day. Many Thai girls capitalize on older single males with lots of money. They are pretty much both taking advatange of eachother It took 10 hours in a mini van to get from Penang, Malaysia to Krabi, Thailand. I thought it would be much more exciting driving through a real official warzone of the southern states of Thailand, but it was uneventful. Of course that's a good thing though.
In our van we met our new freinds from England, Ross & Kat. We will spend the next 3 or 4 days with them touring the surrounding beaches of Krabi Province with them. They taught us about their year long trip through Indonesia and so on. We taught them that you could swim in any 5 star hotel's pools and artificial waterfalls you want for free. So we learned a lot from eachother! This is our second time to the beaches of Ao Nang and Railay. If you'd like to see pictures and what they were like just check out my old
blog and look up "Krabi" The only difference is this time was sunny and much more pleasant weather.
Not to far away from us are some of the most beautiful islands of all of Thailand. Phi Phi Island. They're really pricey to stay at, or even eat at. But it's
Phi Phi Island
Almost fully recovered from the 2006 devestating tsunami. The scenerey here is stunning. I wish I could've spent more time here one of those places you must see. So we booked an organized tour. Not something we'd normally do, but ti was worth it. The water is so amazingly clear here. The beach so beautiful that the movie called "The Beach" was filmed here. We went snorkelling around some coral reefs and swama with million of courful fish. it was so amazing. That night we ate at the market and drank night away chatting with our new friends
We were lucky to beat the system. Instead of paying 250 bhat to Phuket from the privatley run busses we were able to find out where the locals catch the bus. It was less than half price and the busses are just as nice. Even better they run on time and aren't full of theft. Can't really say that about the private busses.
It only took 3 hours to get to Phuket town. It was a bit harder to figure out how to get to Patong Beach the way the locals do. Nobody at the bus station would tell us the truth. They all say it's a 300 bhat ($8.00) taxi ride. After a half hour of walking we found what
the Thai's call a bus, which in reality is a giant pick up truck and everyone sits in the back. It only cost 20 bhat (50 cents). Being on the budget we are it feels great to save all this money. It's only a couple dollars here and there but it really adds up over the months. Plus local transport is always much more comfortable.
Hotels are expensive here. We were lucky to find one for $18.00. haha $18.00 sounds rediculous when I say that's expensive, in reality it's stupid cheap. But keep in mind we are usued to paying $4.00 to $10.00 max. It's a cheap country!
Patong Beach is a classic example of overdevelopment. It's an all out attack on your senses. Trucks scream down the streets with loudspeakers advertizing all kinds of thai boxing events, restaraunts and anything else. The streets are filled with 100's of sleezy girlie bars and neon lights. There's also restaraunts, irish pubs, real clubs, tailor shops and tacky souveneer stores. Literally 1000's of these places. Patong is one of Thailand's most popular beach get aways for old fat europeans. Must be about 100 thousnad of them cruising the streets. Some
@ The Nightclub
It wasn't as hard as it looks to escape the girlie bars and go to a normal nightclub with familes, and many old men with young Thai "girlfriends"
Like typical Thailand, the beach is beautiful, stretches for about a kilometer and the water is clear. The sand is a fine powdery white. Unfortunatly it's full of 1000's of beach chairs and umbrella's leaving almost zero room to lay on the actual beach. To add insult to injury they charge 100 bhat (USD $3.00) per chair to sit there. I refuse to pay so we find what little space to put a towel down and get some sun. Swimming is great. The water is warm and I swear I could spend all day in it.
The crowd sucks here. Hard to meet anyone. But it's actually a really fun place to be. We were warned to stay away because it's not our scene. We wouldn't like it. That's not entirly true. It may have its downside but it's a wild party town. Beer is cheap, actually most drinks are cheap and entertainment is available on every square inch of the street. It's absolutley nuts! Strippers are dancing on open air tables on the streets. Half of them are lady boys. Girls that were once boys but have
The Surgeon
or drugdealer? and his young Thai girlfriend now been snipped. They'll show you their new pussy, and let you take a picture of it for 100 bhat! I guess showing their new tits are free. This place is definatly a place where one should think twice about bringing their children! However I've seen a few sitting in the front row of one of the bars watching the ladyboys dance, while teir fat european parents enjoy a beer.......weird!
Obviously this place comes alive at night. We've been doing our best to sleep in as late as possible. Spend sometime on the beach and then party at night. The problem is between noon and 4pm the beach is much too hot for us. It's so uncomfortable and we must seek shade. Then the problem is that I suspect they cut the trees down so we have no alternative but to buy a chair and umbrella. I feel bad for Jasmine because she loves the beach so much but I on the other hand find it really boring to sit there for hours doing absolutley nothing. And I can sense that she knows it. I do my best to struggle on through it though.
We've been eating in
Patong beach
The water and sand is great. Otherwise the beach sucks here. It's full of umbrellas and chairs and old fat europeans. the only restaraunt in town that has food with prices we're willing to pay. It's a really expensive town. In reality it's ultra cheap for the package tourists it attracts. Large seafood dinners for $12.00 a meal are widely available. it's just that our budget allows us to spend about $6.00 a meal between both of us. Which is done really easily elsewhere in this region.
The second night of wild partying we met a guy at the bar who says he's a surgeon from England. he liked to flash his money. I suspect he's probably a drug dealer, because doctors don't usually brag about how much money they have. Of course he had a young Thai girlfriend. He loved to spread his money around and seemed to know all the owners of the all the clubs. He ended up buying us all kinds of drinks as well as paying our admission to the nightclub. The nightclub is completely westernized and actually lots of fun. We ended up dancing the night away. We had tons of fun. The surgeon dissapeared, before we had a chance to thank him. Wherever we travel to, we always seem to run into people
Kata Beach
Kata and Koron Beaches are much nicer and quieter. Still have the umbrealls but less than half patong has. The crowd is more the family type vacationers who take care of us like that. I'm not to sure why.
patong was getting abit much for us. we found out about 2 beaches Kata and Koron only 6km away. Prices are rediculous for taxi's to bring us there, so we took the 20 bhat bus back to Phuket town and then to Kata. Took an hour longer but once again saved a chunk of cash.
The beaches are even nicer here. Phuket province is simply a gorgeous area with the nicest beaches in Thailand. They still have those crappy chairs and umbrella's but they don't cover the entire beach. It's quieter here, more family orintated. The crowd still sucks though. mostly old fat europeans. The town is dotted with all kinds of fancy restaraunts. It's actually a romantic place to be. definatly worth a couple days. It's cheaper to. We got a really nice hotel with a pool for almost half the price we paid in Patong.
We're enjoying our last few days on the beach. We go home to vancouver in just 2 weeks. Our last week will be spent in Burma where there is no beach. I wonder if we'll be able to
keep our tans?!!!
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Colonel
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Fat Europeans
Yeah, those fat Europeans must have really spoiled your holiday. They shouldn't be allowed to such great places. What will you do when your designer jeans no longer fit and your hair gets a bit thin? You can hide yourself away or get out and play! Get out of your comomfort zone and enjoy your life. These fat Europeans are allowed their time in the sun.