Advertisement
Published: August 31st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Me Lounging on a Deckchair
Before I lost my sunglasses, as you can see. The homestay in a Muslim fishing village in Koh Panyee was surprisingly uneventful. On the way we checked out 'James Bond Island', the setting of 'Man with a Golden Gun', a movie which I have never seen. The landscape is pretty remarkable regardless.
In the restaurant across from where were staying at Koh Panyee, a woman was dancing Beyonce style to a weird clubby remix of children's songs. Not exactly what I expected in a Muslim culture, maybe she was some sort of black sheep, but yeh, other than that the food was nice, the family business of the place we were staying at was packing dried squid, and that's about it...
Then it was off to Phuket, the last stop on my tour, but all things must come to an end, and goodbyes must be said. On the last full day of the tour I found this fast food store-type place (I wish I can remember what it was called) and it was devoted entirely to bananas and foodstuffs containing bananas. I was flicking through the menu they had outside when Janneka came out to say hi. So alas, I wasn't the first one to find the gem
James Bond Island
Damn, now I've got to go see the movie. It's a pretty cool location for a film. of Phuket Town. But I had some banana spring rolls, with chocolate and sweetened condensed milk (a favourite additive to everything here in Thailand) dipping sauces. Truly divine. I'm making them when I get home, they were seriously that good.
But our hotel room had TV. The first time since Phnom Penh. I couldn't help but watch Fox News (for some reason the only news station they had) until the stories started repeating themselves, and then switching to V and watching video clips. Want to hear something freaky though. Fox News did an item on rabies, and the rabies shot and what to do if you get bitten by a suspect animal. Coincidence? Probably. But still.
The last night together I was a bit of a party pooper. I wasn't quite in the mood to spend large amounts of money on cocktails (or beer) that I didn't really feel like, so I said my goodbyes and had a quick lookaround the Internet, then went to bed.
The next day, I wandered over to the bus station, finding a confused looking New Zealander (who was going to get ripped off at the guesthouse he was trying to find)
Kata Beach
The water was a more beautiful colour in real life, but this gives a decent impression. on the way. We caught the first bus we saw, to Phatong beach. I helped him find a reasonably priced guesthouse (for Phuket anyway). Planned to meet for dinner, but I got caught up on the Internet. Oops. It is good to meet new people though, and for some reason it often seems easier to chat with people you know you'll never see again than with some of your friends. I don't know, maybe that's just me.
So after spending the day getting my life back in order, I went over to meet Janneka at Kata Beach nearby. The first day we spent lazing by the beach, even hiring deck chairs to do so in sandless comfort. It was great, because you can order fruit shakes and stuff that they bring straight to your chair. Thus allowing the oppurtunity to lay under an umbrella on a beautiful Thai beach, while sipping on a banana smoothie, listening to some calming music on an ipod.
After a while though, I got a little hot, so I took a dip in the water. I had no intention to actually go swimming or get my hair wet, so I kept my sunnies
The Deck Chairs
Ahhh, sandless bliss (sort of)... on, because it was incredibly glarey that day. The waves were pretty strong for Thailand, but the water still shallow so I decided to go past the breaking point of the waves. After a few relaxing minutes a freak wave came along, and was about to break right on top of me, so I was forced to dive under. Bye bye sunglasses. Yes, they came free with a magazine. Yes, that magazine cost less than $8, leaving the value of the actual sunglasses at pretty much nothing. But those sunnies suited me, and I liked them. So I was rather annoyed as I trudged back to my deckchair. Not to mention my hair was now eroding from the saltwater now all through it. It is a real testimony to beauty of Thailand that even in Phuket, which is far too touristy for my liking, it was only a matter of minutes of lying in my chair until I was content again. This was furthered by a roadside banana and coconut pancake.
Then it had to go and rain. Pretty much the whole of my second day in Kata beach the weather alternated between raining, and pouring. There was perhaps
Me with Hans Christian Anderson
Always one to appreciate the tackiness and craziness of the world, I could not miss my photo op with a statue of the great man himself. Outside a restaurant in Phuket... a 30 minute gap of 'cloudy' which was enjoyed by the pool (surprising to find in a guesthouse that I was paying about $7.50 a night for). But the day wasn't entirely wasted. Janekka had befriended some men who sold pirated DVDs before I arrived, and so whenever it wasn't beach weather we tended to sit around there asking them about Burma and India (where the men were from).
That night, we grabbed a beer at a convenience store, and in trying to find a nice place to go and drink, we were invited to a Thai woman's birthday party held at a bar. We played connect four for a while, talked to the birthday girl for a bit (she had a lei with 100 baht notes stuck to it, which must be some sort of birthday tradition in Thailand), then excused ourselves to go home as it was getting late.
It started pouring, to the point where I was drenched after only walking a few metres. Suddenly someone jumps out in front of us. It was David, from our tour group, who had seen us running along the street and had gone after us. After the small run he was already drenched. So Janekka and I went back to the restaurant and sat talking with Simon and David before parting ways once again so I could sleep appropriately before the early wakeup to get to Bangkok the next day.
Of course while waiting for the bus the next morning, it started raining again quite hard. I saw Phoebe (also from the tour) in a van that went past, but other than that my buses and plane ride were rather uneventful. And so I was to start another tour...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0234s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb