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Published: November 14th 2010
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My friend's resort
Looking out over the tiny pool at the resort where I stayed. The mountain in the distance often had a pretty fog coating it much of the day.....even if it doesn't here. Travel days 64-67
After flying from Jakarta to Bangkok, I stayed there two nights before flying onto Phuket on Wednesday. It was my first time to Phuket since the tsunami in 2004. I had been there that same year about 9 months prior and visited many places on land and sea surrounding this famous resort island. There are a great many small little islands in the beautiful waters of the Andaman Sea surrounding Phuket. (This includes many in neighboring Malaysia and Myanmar as well). I was to spend three days there.
The impetus for my journey was a spur-of-the-moment decision to fly down and again meet up with the girl I had been introduced to at my friend's apartment in Bangkok. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that she inadvertently (?) left her address book on my bed (Yngve's couch) at Yngve's apartment. We had been sharing a ridiculous amount of texts and emails since that time and beyond mutual physical attraction I felt a familiar connection with her. Like me she had traveled a lot (formerly as a flight attendant) and she had been living in Boston over the same period of time as I had.
Very Calm and Nice
This is Patong Beach at its sweetest and nicest time. Locals (that aren't selling something) stroll the beach and ambitious joggers cruise by. We left on nearly the same day! But she had just returned to run the family hotel business in Phuket and her busy life (she tends to work a lot) has gotten even more stressful. Nonetheless, she promised to spend a day with me having some fun and to put me up at her hotel and resort on Patong Beach. I knew I would seriously regret it if I didn't go and I really did hope to spend some time with her. Alas, many things went amuck but not all.
I did get a nice free room at her resort near the beach and had the chance to thank her parents in person....... that was cool!! They were worried about me and checked on me several times during my stay because I had a horrible stomach virus during the entire visit. (I am still recovering from it in Chiang Mai). On the other hand, she and I only spent four or five hours together during my entire visit and that was mostly when she was driving me somewhere or briefly during breakfast. (She did look after me and spent several hours making sure I got to the best hospital
My shot for the tourist brochure
This is the nicest part of Patong Beach to the north where all the expensive resorts are and have bought up much of the land. The positive aspect of this is that this is one of the few places where the natural environment is still intact and lush (at least compared to the more democratized parts of the beach dominated by thousands of small businesses). in town when I arrived feeling sick). All of our plans to do anything were completely spoiled by her work which seemed to keep growing like a mushroom cloud. This left me with a lot of free time to do my own thing. When I was feeling strong enough to do anything (I signed up for a surf lesson, took some photographs at the beach and rented a motorcycle), the rain ruined any well planned out intentions. It rained during nearly my entire visit. At the same time, most mornings (the best time on the beach) were free of rain and I had some nice walks. My room and stay at the resort were also quite nice. She left me at the airport destined for Chiang Mai as she rushed on to hotel business in KL. Most of our plans for fun were dashed and I don't know what that all means right now. But it would have been worse not to take the risk at all............even if our conversations via text often felt superior to our suprisingly more brief and ephemeral ones in real life.
Since I didn't get too terribly many photographs, I will include some from
Neighboring to the North
This somewhat private beach is just to the North of Patong my previous visits of Phuket and the surrounding area. Patong Beach where I stayed is a kind of tourist ghetto (near the main town) but has a fairly nice beach. But there are a number of nice beaches all over the island. Waterfalls, Baboon reserves, Aquariums, Diving Trips and Day trips are among many attractions. On many of the roads that go along Patong Beach, there are your usual Thai array of market stalls selling tourist paraphenalia, tailor shops, massage rooms, girlie bars and more upscale shopping and food venues. This aspect of the Thai tourist economy and the culture of glitziness that sits atop the spectacle are nothing new in Phuket and can be experienced in different places all over the kingdom. Nonetheless, it is a small part of what there is to do in Phuket but only if you want it to be. There are an endless number of other beaches to visit and many other nearby provinces such as Krabi and Trang are just as beautifull or more so than Phuket. The Southwestern Peninsula of Thailand (stay away from the very dangerous most Southeastern part!) has a ton of resorts so it might be a good place
Neighboring Beaches to the South
These beaches are a little bit quieter to the South of Patong. In fact, Kata beach (here) is much better for surfing than Patong and I would have gone here if it didn't rain so damn much. There is also a Club Med along here. to do your first beach vacation in Southeast Asia. The more adventurous are advised to try more obscure areas in Thailand or other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. (Wait until Myanmar opens up.....they have miles and miles of gorgeous coastline coupled with a desparately poor population that would likely desire a more open economy).
Wish there more to say or show for my travels to Phuket..................so enjoy the photos.
My next blog will be my return to Chiang Mai where I will stay until I go back to the USA next week via Beijing, New York City and Long Island. I hope to catch the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai with its famous Yi Peng (floating lanterns).
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