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Published: March 25th 2006
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Jonny devestated
Just before he left us to go solo G'day heres my rundown of the last few days events.
21st March
The first place we visited in Phuket was Patong, to put it mildly we didn't rate it that much. We'd heard from other travellers that Phuket was meant to be well good but what greeted us at Patong was basically Benidorm: neon signs outside every bar, English, German, Scandanavian pub grub signs everywhere (not that thats a bad thing!) and worstly fat Europeans with a young Thai girl on their arm-Sleazville!
Despite getting physically harassed by about 10 Thai girls outside every bar we passed we still managed to have a good night! We ended up in this bar and were playing all sorts of bar-typed games: including connect 4, which took me back to many a happy childhood hour (The barstaff are absolute demons at it, if their was money to be made out of connect 4 they would be quids in). The weirdest bar game we played involved trying to hammer a nail into a big barrell by the side of the bar- Everyone took it in turns trying to whack their nail until eventually someones nail was completely hammered (so to speak) I'm
What lies beneath
Me looking Pat Sharp with my snorkel gear on. not one to criticise Thai culture or anything but Booze+hammers+nails doesn't seem like a combination made in heaven?!
The night was rounded off at 5am after watching the mighty reds put what we thought was 4 past Birmingham, only to realise it finished 7-0 (We left early due to our inability to keep our eyes open much longer)!
22nd
Goodbye sleazville, hello beach paradise! Today the 4 became 3 (for a short while at least), Jonny wanted to head to Ko Phi Phi whereas me Bully and Will thought we'd give Phuket another chance to impress us. We made a good choice! Kata beach is much nicer than Patong- Still enough nightlife but less sleazy old men and the beach is really nice. We got ourselves a cheap room and headed to the beach- cue muchos doing not a lot really. Got more stuck into this book i've been reading, "A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson-I'd recommend it. Night time=few beers few games of pool
23rd
As above! Only with a bit more sunburn- Damn you Sun!
Ps It bucketed down tonight!
24th
Today we actually had an action packed
Robin Red Chest
Me with the fishes(They are there, honest) day, we got up bright and early- too early for most of the food places to be open (the only one open was a posh hotel where it cost 4 quid for an all you can eat buffet, about the price of 2 nights accomodation for us!!) Food was good though!
After Breakfast we were picked up by a minibus which took us to the harbour from where we caught a boat to a small island off the coast of Phuket. Apparently the film "The Beach" wa partially filmed on the bay where we chiled out.
The day involved snorkelling around the island: it took a little bit of getting used to not breathing through your nose and not swallowing sea water but managed to get the hang of it pretty quickly. We saw loads of tropical fish amongst the coral, of various patterns and bright colours: we found nemo aswell.
After a buffet lunch on the beach (God, i'm gonna be huge after this trip if I keep this up!) we hired some flippers and a group of about 10 of us were led by this guide a bit further out to sea where apparently we would be able to se a shark. The flippers are apparently pretty essenitial so you don't get poisoned by the Sea Erchins which lurk at the bottom of the coral (They are basically just black bals of spikes). After much knackering swimming around the island and a few mouthfuls of seawater we'd seen a lot of tropical fish and coral but no sharks, they were proving quite elusive. Eventually though i saw a murky shadow about 10 metres in the distance and it's shape materialised into that of a shark, it was only about 1.5 metres long but that was long enough for me! When we were heading back to the beach we saw another shark, this time I got a much better view of it as it swam up right behind the guide (He says he gets attacked by them all the time but luckily we escaped unscathed).
The rest of the day involved chilling out on the beach and playing a bit of volleyball (quite an active day actually, i was shattered). We got back to our guesthouse at 4ish and had another night of pool, connect 4 and jenga (How cool are we eh?!) Ps Bought a pair of Thai Boxing shorts which look awesome/ridiculous- I'l try and guage how they look the next time i grace a beach.
Tommorow we head to Ko Phi Phi where we should hopefully run into the elusive Jonny.
Take Care, Mike
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Catherine Smith
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Thai Shorts
You have got to post a photo of you in thai shorts. Only stopped laughing now. The sea-canoe trip is by a man named John Gray Sea Canoes (probably a bit expensive for you cheap skates though - approx. £30/day, including lunch) well worth it though. Sounds as though the snorkelling was a good day out. Surprised you didn't go to see the Lady Boys Show, if I remember that was in Phuket, although most bars have their own version!!! Enjoy Ko Phi Phi. Look forward to the photos. Love MamX PS: Thanks for the lovely flowers and handmade card for mothers day (it's a good job you have a sister).