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Published: March 24th 2007
Patong Bay & Ko Phi Phi
The last 10 days have just flown by. As I near the end of my trip my time over here in Southeast Asia seems to just disappear. The journey out of the Gulf of Thailand heading southeast to the peninsula of Phuket was quite a long one. It began with a night boat ride aboard an old passenger ferry that departed Ko Tao at 9pm and arrived on the mainland the next morning at 6 am. The extensive boat ride was followed by a long layover and a very unpleasant 6 hour bus ride in mid day heat to get to Phuket.
Phuket, is one of the largest tourist destinations In Thailand. It plays host to Backpackers, Business travelers and families who come to Phuket in search of sunshine and almost whatever else you can dare to imagine. Our time spent in Phuket was divided between Patong Bay, and an island just off the mainland named Ko Phi Phi (or little Sweden. I think the Swedish might be trying to take over Thailand by the way, alert the UN). It was quite a feeling to be here in Thailand in the exact
cavern
Ko Phi Philocations where a portion of the 2004 Tsunami unbearingly swept through the beachfronts destroying and dismantling families and buildings in its path. I tried not to talk about it with the Thai people because I felt they got the same tourist questions everyday.
Our original plan upon arrival here was to head to the famous Similian national islands for some scuba diving. Most of the dive shops however didn’t offer day trips and were trying to sell the more extensive 3 day 12 dive packages on a live aboard. Since they were pricy, we decided against them and spent a few days exploring crazy Patong. There is not a whole lot to do in Patong, our days were spent lounging on the mile beach strip, shopping around, and then in the evening heading out for an iced Chang beverage where one could people watch, and play a guessing game called is it a Lady or Ladyboy? Ah yes, its Thailand alright, more amusing then anything, but you still have to wonder what is going through the head of the overly intoxicated males stumbling home hand in hand with what is very obviously another man, do they know? Are they
playing ignorant? Or have they truly lost their marbles?
After exhausting Patong bay, we made the ferry journey across the Andman Sea to the beautiful Ko Phi Phi Island. There we found some pretty awesome reef to explore and did a day boat trip around a few surrounding islands. We had planned only to stay in Phi Phi for a short portion, however when we received news of fires burning in a smoky northern Thailand we decided to hold of on the jungle adventures, and stay around the area. We did a few hikes to the viewpoint and visited Ao Maya, which is where the movie the beach was filmed.
Well I hope you like the pictures everyone. I am currently in Bangkok, and I don’t think I will do a blog post here. I will be leaving for Cambodia this Sunday, which will be excitingly proceeded by Vietnam (yes) and Laos. Take care, all the best.
Corey
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mike and gail
non-member comment
good memories
Thank you, Corey, for the good memories for Gail and Mike, and we're sure for Ben and Andrew too. Mike wants to know if you found his favourite sign in front of a bar, Party 'til you Puke! We loved Ko Phi Phi and the people. We have the same photo from the hike up the mountain. Nice suit, Corey. Mike is going to step up his cerveza so that he might fit in it one day! We think that if you and Jordan are dressed up in those suits, you will have to be very careful with the "pseudo ladies"! Keep enjoying life. We look forward to your blogs on Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia....places we haven't visited yet. Gail and Mike