Journey to Phuket

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The Death Boat

After a leisurely breakfast at a lovely French Bakery, we boarded the ferry to Phuket. The ferry was slightly older and more rickety than the ones we have caught previously. We had barely made it out of the bay when we realised that it was going to be a rough trip. The swell was pretty big and came over half way up the boat, which was fine until the driver had to start turning the engine off to slow down before he hit the bigger waves. Fear spread among the passengers and several of them (including Becca) put theire lifejackets on and prepared for the worse. After a two hour white knuckle ride that people go to theme parks for, we arrived, in one piece in Phuket.

For once we had booked a room in Phuket town so caught a mini bus that we had paid for on the ferry which surprisingly took us directly to our hostel. We checked in and had a nice shower and eat our dognuts that we had brought from the bakery earlier. Our hotel is in the main town of Phuket, no where near the beach which is nice as you can become bored of beaches after a while. We had several admin tasks for the afternoon, the first was to get some washing done, but fortunately our hostel does washing, so that was easy. Next we had to change some money, which normally is easy. Today however it is a weekend and the queens birthday which means most places in Thailand are shut. After a breif panic as we are on to our last 1000 bhat we found a bank that was open and changed money.

Now that we had some cash it was off to book a bus ticket to Bangkok, so we headed over to the bus station, 5 minutes walk away. We fought past the touts trying to scam you (there every where) we managed to find the ticket office for the qovernment bus, just because you're at the government bus terminal doesn't mean all the tickets are for government busses!!! We found the queue and were joined by a number of Thai's which is always a good sign. We booked the bus for the 14th August at 17:30, the journey takes 12 hours so we will be in Bangkok on the 15th at 06:00 ish (Thai transport is never on time).

The final task was to book some sea canoeing for tomorrow, we found a company back home on the net so decided to use them as they looked good. We found a phone number and Becca called to book us in. She is normally really bad a haggling however maybe because it is the Queens birthday or she is relieved to still be alive after the boat trip this morning, she asked for a discount......... her request was met by a 20% reduction!!!

After a hectic life afirming day we retired to our room for a well earned rest.

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Photos

The Death Boat 2
It was rougher than it looks!!

Still alive
A statue at the Tourist office in Phuket

Comments

[Nicole - curious reader]

Phuket
Hello! I am just planning a Thailand adventure for my fiancee and myself. It sounds like this was a thrilling adventure indeed, with your caving and kayaking and all... So would you still recommend this experience for others? What tour company did you use for kayaking, and how much did it cost? Thanks so much for your travelblog, you have fabulous advice! cheers, nicole

[Pete and Bex]

Phuket
Dear Nicole, Thanks for your comment, we're pleased to hear you enjoyed reading our blog. We would definitely recommend the experience, we had a fantastic time in thailand generally, once you get used to all the touts it's really enjoyable. The kayaking was with a company called Sea Canoe, they have a website at www.seacanoe.net, they seemed to be one of the better companies. It costs about 1800 Baht each, but Becky managed to sweet talk them a bit and get it for 1200. Hope that helps and if you want any more advice, just let us know. Cheers, Pete and Bex