Phuket, Thailand

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PHUKET

Patong Beach

Nice beach littered with hundreds of dirty loungers and umbrellas, oh yes and the tourists. We watch (see video) some parasailing, one driver in the boat and one driver in the parachute – look no straps! It was amazing to watch this family of 4 kids take turns, youngest 4 year old girl. Wrap the strap around and around cos of course she is too small to fit the harness. Up she goes and he races behind, grabs the ropes and lifts himself up sitting amongst the straps as it takes off into the air. He then glides and steers the parachute around the skies and brings it back down, dropping to hang by his hands running into land.

Patong consists of 1 shop, 1 restaurant, 2 massage parlours and 4 bar stools for every tourist. There was a big Mall area that had tourist shops, a few restaurants and a SWENSONS!!! So we eat some great pasta and drink some cheap beer, and dig into some amazing chocolate ice cream dishes. There is this large shop area with floor to ceiling windows and inside are all these beds with tourists covered in sheets getting facials and Thai massages, on show for all to see, but only NZ$12!

The biggest attraction in Patong was the long bar areas, and there were heaps of them around town. There is this one main wide road lined on both sides with long, long, long, long bars and bar stools, one hideously decorated like a lion’s den, and girls/boys/lady boys in skimpy sexy clothes out front trying to coax you in. Unfortunately not all young, some had passed their used by dates. We spent an evening visiting one bar chatting to the girls and their friends selling sex shows, as they all played let’s see how many strikes it takes to hammer the nails into the clump of wood – just to pass the time, as you do. There was a constant stream of tourists walking down the middle of the very wide road, traffic is stopped and the drawcards are the girls and lady boys parading in front of the bars, or nearly naked dancers upstairs in glass booths or dancing on the bars. We saw tourist with kids as young as 6 sitting in bars with half naked girls, the newly teenage boys looking very embarrassed!

We move to a bar that has gathered a crowd and sit down for a few drinks. This guys is dancing, he is a great entertainer so has drawn a very large crowd around the bar. A drunk couple in the crowd get into it and decide to get up and dance, trying to coax the audience to join them (to no avail). They got totally carried away dancing, hair swinging, arms flying, muffin top shuddering. Hmm like to pop one of those pills! Actually we had a great night, really enjoyed the entertainment.

They say there is a taxi mafia here, every mode of transport has the same charge card and no one, but no one, will budge or negotiate. There is no bus either from Patong to Kata or Karon, so we paid NZ$16 for a 15 minute ride, anywhere else in Thailand it would have cost NZ$4. Our 6 hour bus journey was less than that from Krabi to Phuket. Anyway, two nights in Patong is enough, it’s a bit Kuta’ish so we head to Karon/Kata area to see if it had changed since our visit 6 years ago.

Accommodation – Aspery – good budget clean hotel. Booked a superior room to ensure we get in the new block and it had all the comforts, including DVD player. Only 10 minutes walk to the Mall and main entertainment street, and 2 minutes to the beach. http://www.asperyphuket.com/



Kata/Karon Beaches

Great deal on Agoda for Deluxe room with pool access at Kata Beach, so we book in for 3 nights and enjoy cloudy/sunny days reading around the pool. Kata & Karon beaches, next to each other, are both nice beaches but signs everywhere from April to November “dangerous rips”. The Thai newspaper reports 6 tourists have drowned between 18 May & 17 June quoting 'The tourist is naughty and ran into the sea and did not believe the lifeguards.' There are plenty of tourists swimming, there are signs on the roads behind the beaches and even red flags on the beach sign written "don’t swim here, its dangerous". In NZ red flag indicates its safe, but in Asia it indicates it’s dangerous. In Vietnam Liam and I swam by a red flag thinking it meant safe, moving due to sighting of a jelly fish, only to find out red flag meant do not swim there.

Kata is quite nice, the beach is lined with loungers and umbrellas, the beach road is dominated by Club Med, so the main road behind Club Med is where the accommodation, shops, bars and restaurants are, all facing Club Med’s back wall. There are plenty of side roads with good cheap drink and food and of course massaaARRRG everywhere. Heaps of Russian tourists here.

Anyway loving our flash deluxe room with pool access and before we went out to dinner we did our normal quick fly spray of the room to catch any lurking mosquitos. This obviously brought out the cockroach we found scuttling around the bathroom floor – squirt – dead. Hhmm normally travel in 2’s the other one may show tomorrow. But at 4am, sound asleep, room dimly lit from pool lights, tickling on my neck, sleepy eyes opening, outline of very large cockroach on chest, brush, yelp, jump, scream – squirt – squirt – squirt - dead. OMG how am I ever going to sleep again, they know the rules; that is was one very brave (or dumb) cockroach!

Nothing eventful happened, we moved hotels, walked from one end of Kata to one end of Karon. We prefer Kata to Karon, just a nicer tourist area. We walked past the girly bars every night to Kata Hill area for dinner, and saw a baby elephant. We sat on our deck watching the people in the flats below cook dinner in a kitchen that we would refer to as a backdoor porch. This housed their cooking utensils, pots, bowls and gas element, and god knows how many cockroaches.

Main articles in the tourist news:

· Phuket’s “trapped” Perth tourist medivac to NZ paid by mystery donor.

· Perth travel agent stabbed on Kata Noi beach which is dominated by 5 star hotel and over hill from Kata beach. What is it about tourists from Perth?

· 2 more tourists drown on Phuket beaches taking total to 8 since 18 May, 2 of the 8 were staying at the same hotel!

· 12,000 road deaths per year in Thailand mostly motorcycles.

· Sydney woman jailed for 2 weeks for false rape claim, caught out by CCTV cameras showing her walking home. She admitted making up the story because she was afraid her boyfriend would be angry about her staying out late. OMG – time to get a new boyfriend!

· SEX sessions lasting up to three hours leave squid so exhausted that they have a reduced ability to swim. Really, what interesting research.



Food – We found food prices not much different from Ao Nang, although you do need to search for the cheapies, restaurants can range in price from NZ$5 to NZ$10 for main course and can go up to NZ$20 for a steak. Buffalo Steak House NZ$4 cooked breakfast is fantastic so are the curries, and there is 3 across kata and karon beaches. Also Wine Connection is delicious, more expensive but fantastic pasta for NZ$7) and they even have a glass of champagne for NZ$7 – a real treat. Behind wine connection on Kata hill is MODs a little cocktail bar, go for a different cocktail and support this one man business. He has fish in a TV screen.

Accommodation

Tropical Resort, near South end of Kata, we had Pool Access room, very relaxing, except for visit from roach, great location. Should clean their pool more often. Good price on Agoda. http://www.phukettropicalresort.com/.

Lae Lay Suites – up on the hill behind Kata Hill, 10 minute walk to Kata Hill or Karon. Advertised as luxury and only NZ$40 we thought we would get a steal cos its up the hill away from the beach. Bathroom was tiny and pongy, and I thought cleanliness just lacked a bit of polish and deck was small. Carl thought it was good, I just got used to nice rooms recently. Staff amazing. Took me in their tuk tuk to local market to get mint and limes for my attempt at mojitos! http://laelaysuites.com/



Nai Yang Beach

We decide to move closer to the airport for a couple of nights to a nearby beach and finally found dining on the beach! We thought this beach was great with restaurants and beach shacks on the beach. It was a small village and gave us the feeling of a great place for backpackers, but was full of tourists waiting for flights. Only issue was rubbish washed up on the beach, they never raked it away. So we dined on the beach with white table cloths, candles and watched the sunset, fireworks and tourists light sky lanterns into the sky.

We got our room upgraded for the first time…closer they said…obviously felt sorry for the old people. We could hear the guy in the room next door, he was so sick we could hear him throwing up in the loo, never came out of his room, do not disturb on his door the entire time. Poor bugger obviously too sick to fly!

Accommodation – Nai Yang Beach Resort. Large resort with heaps of rooms, 3 swimming pools and a tortoise enclosure. We booked standard but got next room up and it was huge and clean. Agoda NZ$40. http://naiyangbeachresort.com/

We decide to do our visa run a week early (only get 30 days on entrance into Thailand). We book a flight to KL and spend the night at a hotel in the middle of nowhere by the airport, room size of a shoe box and get up at 3.30am to catch our flight to Chiang Mai in Thailand.

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Very informative blog...
I'm enjoying your adventures.