Thai hospitality..?

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I've been quite nice in my reviews of places lately and only recieved one hate comment these last couple of days so I thought I'd share a cute little story from Phuket.

As I revealed in my last post I was on a total beach quest while in Phuket and the last of these crazed days ended with a twist. So, a short recap: I landed on Rawai Beach on the east side of the southern tip, walked over to Yanui Beach on the west coast and finished on Nai Harn Beach north of Yanui. I knew from the broschure I'd picked up at the tourist office that the last sawngtheaw would leave at 6:05PM, costing 40 baht. So I walked up to the "bus stop" at about 5PM. I found a lazy guy sitting in an empty vehicle. "Is this the sawengtheaw for Phuket Town?" I enquired. "How many?" he replied. This answer was a bit odd I thought as this was the public transportation, following a schedule and with set fares. "Um, just me. One person" I said. "150 baht!" Asshole says. "WHAT!?" I pulled out the broschure and pointed at the price. "40 baht! You gotta be kidding me!". "No, no, last one" he said. I stormed off and spoke to some other guys hanging around in other sawngtheaws. Turned out this was the last one back to Phuket and the asshole wanted to suck me dry. Steaming with anger I went back to Asshole and tried to reason with him. Ha ha, why did I even bother? He was determined to rip me off and I would rather have eaten puked up turds than given this piece of shit a penny of my money. So I unleashed a tsunami of profanity in his lowlife face and started walking the 569 million kilometers back to Phuket Town.

I really didn't feel like walking anymore as I'd been doing a hell of a lot of walking already this day but not much choice here. I started testing my hitchhiking skills and frenetically waived my thumb. But as I soon discovered it's much easier to hitchhike in Australia with a female companion as the main draw... A bunch of kilometers later a western dude picked me up on his motorbike where I sat with his dog in the "side wagon" (whatever that shit is called). He drove me a short distance into Rawai and there I had to try my pathetic luck again. Again I walked for a million kilometers, cursing the "friendly" Thais. The only local that had stopped was a dude on a motorbike who wanted a shitload of money to take me to Phuket Town. However, just as you spiral into your worst bitter resentful mode, a friendly soul turns up and gives you a helping hand. A local guy who didn't speak much English offered to take me all the way to the next town for nothing. I was so grateful and a bit ashamed for cursing out the "friendly" Thais. Suddenly I was on a roll and not long after this nice guy had dropped me off another lifesaver showed up and offered me a ride. This dude took me all the way into Phuket Town and dropped me off just a block away from my guesthouse. Unbelieveable! I am eternally grateful to these guys as I don't know how many hours it would've taken to walk all the way back. It's quite a distance. So I guess it's like everywhere, most people are assholes but then you have the occasional angel here and there.

PS. I'm already back home. I'm just trying to catch up with my blog posts. And yes, more hate comments have been coming in... :-)

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Photos

An overview
Encircled is Phuket Town where I was living and then you have the arrow pointing to where I had to walk from. I know, this doesn't say much as there are no distances mentioned but trust me, it's a hell of a walk.