Phuket - Day One (11/13/07)

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Sean and I just got back from our trip to Phuket Thailand recently. Wow, that was so much fun. We only wish we could stay longer. Four days is definitely too short but we already decided that we would go back again next year.

Will try to do some recap here...

Day One

We arrived at mid-night and got picked up right away. The driver from the agency was like driving racing car. Well, good, that kept me from feeling tired. Got to our hotel around 1am. We stayed at Patong Resort, right on the busiest spot on Patong Beach. It's right near the beach, the mall and the busy busy street Bang-la road. We were put at the old building's delux room, but the first thing I saw in the room was a cockroach. The room was dark and smelled moldy. I was very disappointed. Didn't feel like sleeping on that moldy bed so much, so we decided going out for a walk first. As it was already late, all money exchange places were closed and we needed some Thai money. We tried a few convenient stores and the girls there were very friendly but they still couldn't change money for us. We finally found a different hotel where we managed to change some money - but not great exchange rate at all.

Although it was already after 1am, streets around our hotel were still busy, not to mentioned Bang-la road. Ladyboys/hookers were everywhere trying to make eye contact or talk to male tourists. Street vendors were everywhere too trying to sell flower rings, cigarrettes, flash lights, etc.. Homeless dogs were lying here and there sleeping on the middle of the road. Loud noisy music was from every bars where the go-go girls were busy dancing. We sat down at one of the small open bars under Tiger disco for a few beers. The local beer here is Singha. 80 bahts for one. It is very strong taste though. That was the first thing we did after arriving in Phuket - sitting in the bar, drinking our beer and watching all these go-go girls/ladyboys dancing in their bikinis and trying to drag male tourists to dance with them.. One our table one white chubby guy even jumped onto the pole and gave everyone a very disgusting dance where he took his pants half-way down and allowing the local girls to stick their hands into his pants in front of everyone. Yuck!!! Honestly I was shocked and a bit overwhelmed by this crazy scene. Where is the beach, where is the blue sky, where is the praradise like how people describe Phuket?? As we were starving already, we decided to head out of the bar scene and got some real food. We stopped at the pizza place right across Tiger disco and got a bite to eat. It was unreal that in the middle of night, this pizza place was still busy inside and outside fully packed by customers. A homeless cat jumped on each table when customers left and licked up the dishes. Oops.. we only hoped she didn't lick ours and the chef thought it was clean.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at 7-eleven and got our sun protection. Sean kept asking me to go for a lower SPF and we got 12. Oh yeah, laugh about us later on this!

Back to the hotel, we didn't even feel crazy to jump to shower - tired.. a bit scared to use the bathroom after seeing the Bang-la road scene.. Sleep sleep.. everything would be better tomorrow..

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We woke up and the room's electricity went off. I had my shower in the dark. Called room service and found out some some maintainance work was taking place. Anyway, went to breakfast first. Patong Resort's breakfast was not bad though. It was facing the main building's swimming pool. Phuket certainly looked so much more lovely in the day time with deep blue sky. The hotel looked gorgeous from the outside under such blue sky, however, we still decided to try to make some phone calls to switch hotel.

We called the agency and found out all the hotels we wanted to switch to were all booked out. We had to go back to the front desk and told the girls there that we were not happy about our room. Surprisingly they told us for the same price they also had new modern rooms at the new wing. We were soon taken to the other side of the hotel where a big garden and swimming pool were surrounded by three two-story buildings. The room was gorgeous here. Big walk-in closet, seperate shower room from bath tub. Big balcony facing the garden, although it still smelled moldy. But well, we were happy and quickly moved into this room.

We wasted no time after that to go across the backstreet to take a look at the beach. Now my scared feeling from the first evening was all gone. I fell in love with the beach scene right away and couldn't wait to jump into my bikini and lay flat on the beach chair. All kinds of activities going there. Jet-ski, parachute, thai-massage right on the beach, banana boats, etc.. But that was the moment we realized we needed to go get Sean his new bathing suit first. Darn! As it was our first day in Phuket, we were nervous about shopping with local stores as their prices were ridiculous and I was warned not to bargain too hard before the trip. We decided to go to the mall instead where you didn't have to bargain. And that's when I started to love our hotel by realizing what a great location it was. We quickly ran to the supermarket in the mall and found him the bathing suit.. we were so tempted to shop around in the mall - it is a huge mall and has got everything in it.. but we didn't want to waste any time in the mall, although we finally couldn't resist the ice-cream store and had to go in to get a bite. And that had become our daily place in Thailand since then.

We spent our whole afternoon on the beach. Rented the beach chairs - 160 bahts for two, no time limit, no bargain either. Great service - they came from time to time to sweep the sands off the chairs. One occasion my flip flop was gone with a wave and they ran quickly to get it back to me before I even realized it. It was lovely weather with the breeze. Local people came up from time to time to sell you things. They were not pushy at all though, when we politely told them no, they just walked away. Sean wanted to buy one shirt for me from a woman who was carrying a big heavy bag of clothing for sale. We cut the price from 700 bahts to 250 but then realized we didn't have enough thai money. We offered to pay USD and she was willing to take it but we only got big note and she couldn't change it. Finally Sean went with her across the street to change money and pay her with thai money. The whole time she was patient with us and always talked gently with smile. It was so great to jump into the water too and felt the waves, although there was a risky moment when one parachute almost landed right above my head!

Sean started to get me back to the hotel around 4ish to get change and come back for sunset. Well, Phuket's sunset's famous and it couldn't be missed. Despite of how unwilling I was to leave the beach, we went back to shower and change. We walked along the beach road to the south - all the way till we reached the bridge. Shops are everywhere along the street into the alleys. They pretty much sell the same things and they were all very aggressive. Once you started to take a look at anything, they would approach you and started to show you more things. Even on the street, tuk tuk drivers tried hard to sell you day tours, or guys holding brochures trying to get you to the tailor shops or sell you watches/bags. They would grab onto your arm or shake hands with you and wouldn't let go. We tried to be friendly but that wouldn't work. Once you showed any friendiness or started to answer their questions about where you are from, they would go on and on and wouldn't let go of you. So we'd learned.. the best solution is to go ahead without even making eye contact with these guys unless you seriously want to buy from them.

When we hit the end of the beach we realized we made a big mistake as the sun was going down behind the big rocks and we were too close to the rocks to actually see the sunset view. However, we still got the colorful sky, not perfect but we hoped to walk up to the north instead of south the next day for a better sunset view. One thing we were thankful about heading along south was that we found this romantic restaurant for buffet. It was held outdoors at the Sea Side Terrace. Steak buffet, but it had everything, including western and local thai dish. 500 bahts a person. Live music and dance... So many choices on the buffet menu and we had to laugh about how much we ate that night. Originally we were planning to go for a thai massage after dinner, but after we realized how much we ate, that was definitely a very bad idea to go for massage.

After the first day experience in Phuket, I had already loved it here.. Only wished time would slow down for the upcoming days in Phuket.

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Photos

Bang-la road at night
sorry, not very clear as my hands shook too much...