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Published: August 14th 2007
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Well it's safe to say Phuket lived up to ALL of our expectations - it is a dirty, rotten, nasty place. There is surely a limit to how many times one should have to see a 70 year old man (generally balding, with a substantial paunch) with a little Thai girl young enough to be his great grandaughter. We saw a bit of it on the islands, but Phuket is clearly the sex tourism capital of South East Asia (actually apparently Pattaya in mainland Thailand is worse, so I can only imagine how stomach churning it must be). The thing that gets me most is how these "couples" take to parading themselves up and down the beach all day holding hands. Oh please. Give me a bucket. However, despite all of its tacky overtones, we made the most of our two nights in Phuket - we ended up in an Irish bar on the first night, followed by dodgy local nightclub (this place has to be visible from space there's so much neon everywhere), and then got a good day and a half on the beach to top up our tans! The beach isn't particularly pretty, but I actually quite liked
it; it's really long, and the waves are huge. We stayed in a grotty little hotel, which looked promising from the lobby, but our room looks more like somewhere the IRA would have blown up in the 1970s. The only good thing about Phuket was I think it made our final leap from the islands a tad easier!
And so to Singapore.....when we booked this trip, I was quite excited at the thoughts of our stop off in Singapore, it always looked like a cool city. But......not so much. It's supposed to be one of the safest cities in the world (due to the fact that you get a feckin life sentence for pick pocketing NOT because its citizens are saints), and ya know, I think I must miss a bit of crime! It's all a bit too squeaky clean for me; I haven't seen one, not one, piece of rubbish in three days. Not that I like rubbish obviously, but it's a city for god's sake. The city is apparently quite densely populated, but I have no idea where they're all hiding. There are NO packed streets anywhere, no hussle, no bustle. I should say however that it's not
half as expensive as everyone makes out - Dublin is far far worse! On our first afternoon we took one of those splash tour thingies, which went from the land to the sea yada yada. I love these, LOVE them (remember Maverick Boston gals??), but it wasn't great to be honest, mainly cos the riverfront is boooooooooring.
We went to the cinema that night on Orchard Road, and now that was impressive - it's the city's shopping strip, and I don't think I've ever seen so many fabulous, gleaming shopping centes stacked one after the other. Shopping centres full of clothes we can't afford. We ventured into Topshop and emerged with just two pairs of knickers each - HARSH! Day two was a lot more exciting cos we went to the ZOO and the night safari, and they were both fantastic. The zoo is so well laid out, it feels more like you're strolling through a national park; the animals aren't really in any enclosures or in cages, their areas are just separated from the pathways by small streams (and the odd electrical wire, which I chose to ignore). We saw loads of fantastic animals (check out the white tiger!),
and I really felt like I was much closer to them than usual. Then that evening we did the night safari, which is in an adjoining complex. We were all a bit knackered, but it was class; it's designed to show animals at night - you're brought around in a tram with the enclosures on either side, and there are pathways here and there where you can hop off and get a bit closer. It's all done so so well, and the double ticket only cost us about 15 euro. Bargain.
Today we've been at a bit of a loose end, because we have very little money left to spend, and there's not a whole lot to do! We went to see Raffles hotel earlier, which deserves its reputation as one of the city's swankiest spots (it's certainly a step up from our hostel. Which is our first PROPER hostel, I should add. We're coping well, thanks), and now we're just killing time until our flight this evening.........to AUSTRALIA!!!!!!!!!!! It hasn't sunk it at all yet; we're actually going to be in Oz tomorrow morning. I've been having a bit of a meltdown, because we don't have a Lonely Planet
for Australia yet, so I have NO PLANS MADE. Nothing. We're arriving in Cairns tomorrow, and I don't where we go from there. There's a whole CONTINENT to chart, and I haven't even started yet. Me without an itinerary = not a happy camper. Something must be done.
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