Phuket Baby Phuket!

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Day 8

Leaving Krabi in a crappy way

I slept and overslept and virtually woken up to the rude knocks at the door by the room boy who turned up to remind me that if I don’t vacate the room by 10:30 I have to pay for another day. I grabbed some fluids and bread piece and munching them rushed out to the street. Lucky that I got a Swangthaew which passed by less developed country road and dropped me at Krabi bus station just beside the Krabi open market. The bus conductor for Phuket bus virtually pulled my luggages out of Swangthaew and placed them in the bus luggage area. As I boarded the bus chasing the person I found the public bus has a majority of Thai country people. Occasionally a some hawkers board the bus trying to sell mango slices or something which resembled sweets and speak to me in Thai mistaking me to be a local. This reminded me of the bus journey to my country house from Calcutta only difference is that this bus is fully air conditioned and way cleaner.

James Bond Island and Phang Nga

The bus halted for a considerable amount of time at Phang Nga. The name sounded familiar and I got down at the bus station. I enquired at the local ships and found this is close to Ko Tapu on the Phang Nga Bay. All of James Bond Islands and other small exotic islands are located there. I got down at the bus station. Equiring the local tour operators I decided to do the Phang-Nga bay tour with a group of tourists. just in time to head to islands. Ko Tapu has become a popular tourist attraction since it was featured in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974; for this reason, it is also often referred to as James Bond Island (the later 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies also includes a scene in Phang Nga Bay, close to James Bond Island). Various Bollywood movies have also been filmed in these islands including the blockbuster Kaho Na Pyaar Hai starring Hritik Roshan. go to Khao Ping Gan (Leaning Rock) which was featured in the James Bond Movie, The Man With the Golden Gun, as Scaramanga's hideaway. Somehow I did not find that place attractive to what I expected post my trip to islands in Krabi. So I decided to head back to the bus station as soon as possible to avoid tourist trap.

Back in the bus station I boarded another bus to Phuket. As the bus passed the Phang Nga town
The scenic Sarasin New Bridge which links Phang Nga to Phuket island appeared. It was a delightful sight as we passed by highway road with a long stretch of deep blue sea surround us.

Phuket Town

Way late in the afternoon I reached Phuket town. The town looked is modern and more European style look. The roads and architecture reminded me of Portuguese type architecture I have seen in Goa. The bus and its conductor showed his true color. A step down from the bus and look sideways, I found my rucksack lie in dust completely shattered and unattended as if offloaded in a hurry as an extra burden. I was soon surrounded by tuktuk drivers, taxis and other escort touts to someplace. I was in such a damp mood that I brushed pass them and headed to decide to the main street and look out for a way the popular Patong beach. Luckily a local Thai guy came to my rescue and following him in scorching sun I discovered a place where the swangthaew leave for Patong. The sawngthaew was surprisingly biggest of all I have seen in my journey. It resembled a mini bus/truck with even single line seating arrangement in the middle. The mini truck did not leave until all the seats were full. I had a mix bag of tourists really from old to new Europeans, thai locals and ladyboys! The ride to Patong beach was rather long and it went on through small hilly road to the other side cutting through the traffic. I reached Patong road on the side where the shopping center, "Jungceylon" was located. I was stupid enough not to book a place in advance as I had no idea how touristy Patong is. To avoid touts pulling me to some seedy hotel I kept telling everyone that I have a reservation at hotel, Thara Patong. As I stepped to the main beach road from the narrow alleys where the Thai hookers from the girlie bar kept shouting and inviting me I felt I am in some beach in Europe. Apparently the hotel which I stated was completely on the other side of the beach, towards the extreme right end. It was tiresome experience to reach the hotel with load of luggage I carry. None the less, I continued walking taking regular breaks and gazing at the scenery of the beach which kept inviting me as well. The pursuit of cheap hotel proved to be fatal. The place was overpriced and exceeded my budget limit and also did not have a direct sea view. Helplessly, I sat on the street at the gate totally dejected, too tired to think to tired to move and search. Luckily across the street I spotted a descent restaurant. I asked for a room and luckily found a room by the beach which though on expensive side still manageable within my estimated budget range.

Patong Phuket

It was getting dark so after a quick shower I headed to beach. The locality where I was living was predominantly Russian. Even the signboards and restaurants were written in Russian. As I hit the sand of Patong beach I realized how far stretched this beach is. And there are beach beds and sunbathing chairs all the length of the beach. And there are all kind of beach activities like water ski , water scooter and parasailing are going on. Young and old white grandpa aged men with huge protruding belly in speedos were jogging on the beach. I was not sure whom they were trying to impress there. I strolled down the beach enjoying every moment of it collecting sea shells, taking photos and watching beach sports with the sun set slowly at the background. An Afghani looking gentlemen with peculiar Asian accent mistook me to be a photographer asked me to help him take some snaps. Later when he realized I am from India and he being a Pakistani put up an embarrassed smile in his face. India and Pakistan has been long enemies and recent attacks and wars between the two neighboring countries have added fuel to the rivalry. I parted after returning a smile and continued walking by the beach.

From Russia with Love! An encounter with a fairy and an Evening in heaven

встреча/столкновение с волшебным ангелом. ох! Встреча с феей, или Вечер на небесах. из России с любовью!

I was so engrossed in looking at the parasailing that accidentally bumped to someone and we fell on beach. As I turned and opened my eyes I realized it was some girl fairy face I have clashed to. With brunette hair shining like gold in late evening sun, tall, enchanting smile and even more gorgeous and curious eyes with depth of ocean she was just like a definition of perfect women or angel. I helped myself to get up and also helped her up. I was so bowled over by her beauty and that she was wearing two piece bikini that I could hardly utter a word for a while. All the while she kept smiling at me. Then at last she spoke. But I could hardly follow. In my trance state I forgot what to say to her. I started to talk in English but I doubt she understood me. I guessed from her accent she is Russian. I wish I have learnt Russian instead of taking French and German classes. What a pity! What a misery! She kept saying in Russian and try to understand her from her expressions and gestures and respond in English which I believe also tried to understand me in same fashion. We indulged ourselves in completely mindless childish beach fun activities, like walking hand in hand, taking photos together, playing in sand, making sand art, jumping up the waves, playing with water. We spend rest of our evening watching the sun go down and even did parasailing. It was an amazing view to see the sun go down, sea,beach and entire Patong below. Oh the moments I dream I am spending in heaven. Maybe I am dreaming.


It was completely dark when I walked up the street by the girlie bars where the places are packed with very old, fat, white American grandpas served by rather small Thai girls. There were so many exotic restaurants including decorated seafood stalls and restaurants along the length of the beach road displaying all fresh and frozen catch of sea food shrimps, prawns, lobsters and all varieties of sea food in front of them. Those include an open kitchen and romantic dinner arrangements. But good things in life come with a price “250 baht per 100gms of lobster!” We walked down infamous Bangla Road to the other side to Jungceylon Shopping Center the dreaded rain strike back. There I met up with a Babushka from Moscow who was on family visit to Thailand. The rain started to pour heavily and I had to take shelter under the shades of the shopping complex. A warm hot coffee from Starbucks and relaxing Thai massage followed as I watched the places outside gets drenched in the rain completely.

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