Phuket 346

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Wanting to experience more than just the azure rimmed beaches of Phuket, we decided to move into the town of Phuket. Once a tin mining hotbed, we hoped that Phuket Town would offer us a different look at the Thai way of life.

Our ride into Phuket Town included a brief history of the area as recounted by Pineapple Guest House owner Steve along with a stop at his daughter's school.
We were treated to a group of giggling school children in white dress shirts and either blue skirts or pants that peered into the car at us, noses pressed against the car windows. Large brown eyes stared us down and then disappeared in a fit of infectious laughter when the headmistress called them into the garden.

Imagine our surprise when Steve admitted the guesthouse he had suggested we try was one that he had driven past quite often but knew nothing about. He had often wondered what it was like and thought it looked neat. As Steve sped away, we stood on the corner, already missing the air conditioned car, staring at the shady interior of Phuket 346.

Phuket 346 started out in the 1930s as Phuket’s first ice shop, then a Photo shop and finally after much restoration, an art house with rooms for rent on the second level. We were led through the main reception area that had some comfortable wicker furniture, a bar, some computer and a small art gallery featuring Manit Sriwanichpoom and his interesting work, Pink Man.

We were shown one of three rooms (the other two were not complete yet) and were surprised with the bright yellow wall and the over sized picture of a sea horse. We were immediately hooked and paid the 1000 baht for the first night's stay. Although the rate was higher than we had hoped to spend, we couldn't pass up the eclectic styling.

Our first stop was Robinson's Department store which was only blocks away and then a more traditional Thai market that offered everything from soup to nuts. While watching men shovel ice from the back of a pick-up truck into large bins which held all sorts of raw meat, we agreed to go with a tout on a tour of Phuket Town.

For the low cost of 80 baht, we were sure that we would be looking at gems within the hour. After checking out a temple and some architecture in the town, we sped out of town and after a short arrived at the Gem factory. Talk about unbelievable. We were escorted around by a security guard, probably for the safety of the gems as we could not afford to buy anything there. I think the small plastic glass of coke was a nice touch to the whole visit.

After getting dropped off back where we started, we stopped at McDonald's where I finally bought a corn pie. Who ever said that creamed corn would not taste great in a deep fried pastry crust. Mmmmmm.

Our afternoon ended with us doing the walking tour of Phuket Town seeing such things as the Thavorn, the On On hotel, used in the movie The Beach as the Guest House Leo stays in and a small hidden Chinese shrine with an 'secret' exit out the back, through a building on the backside.

We used the evening to get caught up on emails, Facebook, Skyped the kids and just before bed had 3 visitors. Being in a tropical country, we knew that sooner or later we would run into them and tonight was the night.
3 large cockroaches had snuck in through the unscreened bathroom vents. One got chased back out the vent, another down the drain while the third chased us out of the bathroom and forced us to jump up on the bed. He quickly scurried under the door and was never to be seen again.

Candace bagged up the empty drink cans and the empty pizza box we had left over from supper, taking them downstairs before we went to bed. We checked the bed and once sure that it was free of intruders, we lay motionless, listening for any creepy crawly bugs. Of course, we left the lights on in the bathroom as I'm sure you all know, Roaches don't come out when it's bright out (or so we hoped).

This all led to me lightly brushing Candace's arm several times. Each time she jumped, I laughed hard enough to snort. I found it wasn't too funny when she did it back. Needless to say, it felt like forever to fall asleep.

(We would still recommend this guest house as it quite neat and close to everything. I have seen Roaches in 5 star hotels in the tropics!)

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