Scootin' Around Phuket

Up early. Have a cold. Damn air conditioning. I truly believe we should have a fan room even though it feels oooohhhh so good to walk into a nice cool room after being out in the heat all day. With the temperature hitting 33 degrees each day, a few minutes of bliss can change a great day to an even better day. The trade off though is the running nose and wicked cold I usually catch. If it weren't for mosquitoes, I would have the windows wide open.

Ugh. If Candace finds out I'm using all of her precious toilet paper to blow my nose.... I hate having a cold.

The plan today was to head east to Phuket town and then head north of there to check out a few temples and hopefully stumble on something cool. With our stomachs full on another English breakfast for me and an American for Candace courtesy of the Pineapple Guesthouse kitchen (Candace preferred Salu Baan's breakfast as they include more fruits), we headed out onto the road. Our first stop was to be Wat Chalat (I think it might actually be Chalong) and then the Gibbon Rehabilitation Center.

Like any morning around the world, the streets were filled with people all making there way somewhere. I still find it funny how you'll be stopped at a light with a twenty other scooters and as you look around, a few are stealing glances at you while the majority of other riders and their passengers are staring at you. At first it was unnerving and now I smile back, give a few nods or winks if they're cute girls. The reactions usually start with a few giggles, along with a few ear-to-ear grins. The best are the people who give you the nod. Kind of makes you feel like you're being accepted.

Finding Wat Chalat proved easy enough. Signs led the way and once we were close enough, we could hear the monk's chanting being piped through a sound system at the requisite near ear-bleeding level. Last year when we first encountered extremely loud Thai music being pumped out, we wrote it off as someone who was trying to attract attention to their food stall. After running into this maximum volume setting by almost everyone that had speakers, we came to accept that Thai people like it LOUD! The most annoying are the trucks that drive around advertising kick-boxing events. Loud Thai music is blasted while an announcer, who rides in the back of the truck with a few featured fighters, yells about the up coming event.

Wat Chalat was quite busy already with Thai people as it is an active temple. We were able to check out the entire area and had made our way to the ornate room high up in one of the temples just as the first tour buses started to arrive. This room housed a huge orb in which a smaller orb was suspended. Not knowing the significance, I asked a Thai lady what the small white piece, about the size of a wad of gum, was. Turns out that it was a piece of Buddha's bone. As we left the room, we overheard several tourists stating that they had no idea what it was yet still snapping pictures. Feeling a little travel snobbery coming on, I hurriedly took a few myself. At least I took the time to find out what it was I was taking pictures of!!!

The massive flood of people couldn't have been better timed to cue us to move on. Of course what a better way to start the day than sitting onto the hottest of hot seats. We had forgot to leave a scarf draped over the scooter's seat when we left it parked out in the morning sun. I now a have a nice burn on the back of my legs.

Maybe I'm just used to maps that are accurate or perhaps we have an abundance of signage in North America that will point you straight when looking for areas of interest. Either way, I am convinced that in South East Asia, they could use with a good Google mapping of the area. This would then allow everyone to have brochures with maps that are similar if not accurate.

When we initially arrived to Phuket, we grabbed a few brochures with maps from kiosks at the airport. After further study, we found each one had the main roads listed and after that each one had its own ideas of what would be important to list on a map. One map, distributed on behalf of the gem dealers listed all the streets that had Gem stores along with the high end hotels and restaurants. The next one listed all the competing Gem stores to the first map and their selections of fine dining. This would have been fine except that even when they had roads named the same, some of them headed in different directions on the opposing maps. Map number three only made things even more confusing.

We agreed on what we thought would be the area where we would find the Gibbon Rehabilitation Center, we headed out. As we sped along, we were treated to some great views of Phuket Island. We however, ended up in Surin Beach before deciding that we had obviously passed the Rehab. We decided to head to the water to cool off and buy some fried chicken that we could smell cooking from the roadside. Muslims seem to have the best fried chicken stands. The chicken isn't really spicy but its so succulent and tasty. Mmmmmm. It would make the Colonel lower his head in shame.

I heard a guy once say that he never scammed an honest man. When I questioned him about that, he explained that all of his victims, no matter how illegal it was or who got hurt because of it, wanted to get something for nothing. Not a one of them was honest. Scams in Thailand work on this same principle. Whether it be the gem scam where you buy gems at a 'discounted' price only to find out when you get them home that they are worth even less than you paid, or it could be the Tuk Tuk scam where you can't resist the unbelievably low price to tour the whole city and end up going to a few tailor shops, a person's greed is played upon.

After our beach side meal, we were getting to leave when a Thai walks up and gives us two free scratch and win promotional tickets for a local resort. He tells us that some of the big prizes are gone and that we may only win a t-shirt as that was the most common prize. I looked at Candace and gave her my best, 'This guy is so honest how can we not scratch and win ourselves a couple of t-shirts' look. I scratch my ticket and sure enough, I win a t-shirt. The Thai laughs. I guess this is not the first shirt won today. Candace scratches her ticket and it shows 3 WIN symbols. The Thai guy, congratulates her on winning a t-shirt then does a double take. He scratches the ticket completely off and tells her that she has won one of the grand prizes. Of course the big trip is gone as is the home entertainment center. The next best prize is 20,000 B.

I think it's important to note that at this point, even with all the bells and whistles going off and the red flags waving, we couldn't resist to go with this guy and collect our prize. This guy was a pro. The double take when he realized Candace won. Telling us we would only win a T-shirt, right from the get go and that the big prizes were gone and all that was left was a 20000B money prize. His big smile and welcoming way had sealed the deal.

On our way there, I told Candace that it was no doubt a time share presentation. We thought we would check it out and bail once we got bored. Once at the office, we sat down with a Brit that was going to give a quick 90 minute presentation before giving us our prize. He took us across the way to a cafe and we had cold drinks paid by him of course. He asked us about ourselves and our travels. Sharing as little as possible without trying to seem rude, I suggested that we would have to leave in 45 minutes as we had supper planned with friends on the other side of the Island. We were rushed back to the office and the sales pitch was on, not for times shares but holiday plans.

I ended up having to suggest that we meet for breakfast the next morning to which he said he would have a car swing by to pick us up. We had told him where we were staying back at the cafe. Realizing that our 45 minutes had stretched to 1 1/2 hours, and that we may not make our 'diner date' which was actually us, another couple we met and friends of Steve and Lek's going to see the Big Buddha together. Foolishly, I agreed. Before we left,we asked for our grand prize which amazingly enough turned out to be a weeks free vacation at one of their holiday plan locations. Of course to register it would cost 50.00US. The t-shirt sucked too.

We were flying along on the scooter, passing Thai's on their way home from work. Because of our lucky scratch and win tickets, we did not leave ourselves much time to get back to the guesthouse where two other couples would be waiting to go with us to the big marble Buddha. We had just taken off from a set of lights, neck and neck with a Honda wave with two jr. high school aged boys that thought we had wanted race side by side, our knees almost touching. Our underpowered and over weighted scooter slowly pulled away from the brand new Wave and its 150 lbs of cargo. A grin had spread across my face and Karma saw it before I could catch myself. Our bike began to wobble and weave as we veered in the path of the two boys.

When traveling, you learn that sometimes, Shit Happens and that you need to be laid back about it. To Thai people, saving face is important and getting upset in public is a form of losing face. Much like Jamaica has "No Worries Man", Thailand has "Mai Bpen Rai" which for me, translates "Don't blow a gasket about shit....it's your holidays".

As we weaved in front of the boys and lost speed, they expertly pulled around us and sped off laughing. The tell tale "flop, flop, flop" told us we had blown a tire in the middle of rush hour somewhere in Phuket Town. I pulled the bike up on to the sidewalk and we stared at the flat tire.

We ran across the busy intersection to a row of shops. The first one we stopped in was a cell phone shop. The guy working inside let us borrow his phone. After a few attempts at speaking to the owner of the bike, we mimed our problem to the shop owner who pointed across the street to another shop. A bike repair shop. Yes. It seems we've broken down almost beside a motor bike shop.

I have been to many garages before and this was no different. It had parts lying around, tool boxes sitting at the ready, a mechanic itching to fix something and an eager assistant.

Well I guess it was a little different.

I had driven the bike to the little shop and pulled in where an older man and lady, about 65 years old, wearing flip flops stood. Anther older lady sat in a chair off to the side. He quickly had the bike up on its stand, loosened off the nuts and had the blown tire off. His assistant/wife, of equal age, was following behind him arranging tools and parts in their "proper" place after he was done with them. Between the two of them, they had the tire changed in about 15 minutes. He went over all the nuts with a wrench and she of course followed up behind giving them all a turn as well.

200B poorer, we were back on the road with only 15 minutes to get to the guesthouse. We must have appeased the road Gods because we caught every light and were not pulled over for speeding. Not that it mattered much in Thailand as people see traffic laws more as suggestions then principles to follow. We pulled up to the guest house, seeing Rose and Shane, the couple waiting out front. After a quick dash upstairs to change shirts and we were riding in an air conditioned SUV heading to the Big Buddha of Phuket.

We had been told that due to the steepness of the road up to the Buddha statue, a 4X4 was needed but we saw several scooters, even automatic step-thrus like ours labouring up the hill.

Once at the top, we marveled at how big the Buddha statue really is. It appears that this is a work in progress which is going to take another 3 years to complete. As we walked into the main building, a dump truck was backing up to add to the growing pile of mud that would eventually be spread out to form more of the base along the side of the main building. After climbing up to the top and taking the obligatory pictures, we spent most of our time talking with the wife of our driver and learning more about her views on tourism and life on Phuket in general. I think this was more rewarding then actually seeing the Statue and fit in to our whole purpose of this trip.

When we decided to come back to Thailand last year, the most important thing to me was to learn more about the people. I took the time to read about their history and now I wanted to sit and talk with them. This was one of those opportunities and I hung on every word. I would never fit into this society, but I felt closer than I ever had listening to this one person sharing her thoughts.

Our trip back down the mountain was uneventful. After supper, I booked another dive trip for the next day with Sunrise Divers and we both got foot massages next door to the dive shop. It seems Candace had spent part of the day here while I was diving and they were more than happy to see her again. They were really excited when I mentioned that I was diving again the next day. They expected Candace to show up for some time in their chair and made a point of telling her she had to come back.

Supper was another fantastic meal at Salu Bua and we ended up going to bed not long after. I was concerned about the air-con stuffing me up even further and ruining my dive the next day and ended up turning it down from freeze to chill.

Air con is evil.

---

Part of trip: Thailand and Cambodia

---