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Published: December 7th 2007
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We were up early to catch our boat which turned out to be a big old rust bucket of a thing, very different to the cat we were on previously but thankfully it meandered its way accross to the mainland through the calm waves which was actually quite pleasant. Once on the mainland all the westerners were bundled on a bus headed to the local town where we would all be split up onto yet another coach headed to our respective destinations. We were dropped off at a local tour company and encouraged to buy an overpriced sandwich whilst waiting for another minibus to take us to our big bus. We waited a couple of hours and eventually it turned up to take us the 400metres round the corner to where the big bus was waiting. This is where it got a bit confusing! As we hadn't planned on getting to Phuket for another few days we realised we hadn't done any research into where we were going, so when asked where are you going we said to Phuket. The response to this was yes, but where in Phuket? We had no answer. The guy tried to help us by saying
the big bus was going to Patong beach (where all the other younger westerners were going) but would cost us an extra $8 so we said no way (sensing a scam) and said we bought a ticket to phuket, so take us to Phuket. So he closed the door on the minivan and off we went, me, Lisa and a Thai family all headed to Phuket in the minivan. This was actually a blessing in disguise as it wasn't cramped, they were very friendly and gave us oranges but best of all helped us in our decision of where to go on Phuket.
We arrived in Phuket and the sun was shining, whoopie, and we were dropped of in Kata town which we heard was popular with couples and families. We followed signs to the beach to start our new trick of leaving lisa with the bags on the beach whilst i head to find us somwhere to stay. Once at the beach we were a mixture of happy and sad. Kata beach is gorgeous with beautiful sand and clear water and with the sun just starting to drop it was quite a sight, however you have to share
this with about 10,000 other people, super resorty!!! Anyway we dropped the bags and off i went, there was a realy nice resort just off the beach which instantly was too expensive for us. What i didn't realise was this was THE resort on the beach and i had to walk 2K to reach the town where i was confronted with few places to stay and all extreemly overpriced!!! I was at a loss and it was starting to get dark so i headed back to the beach to give Lisa the bad news. So we hooked up our backpacks and headed further inland to see if we could find anything more affordable away from the beach. Instantly we settled on a place that was clean and tidy and on a nice lake. Paid more than we wanted but well worth it as we were now dripping with sweat and starving.
The next morning we awoke to thunderous rain, great! we had heard it may rain in the morning then clear up and thankfully it did. We headed down to the beach and settled on the quieter end away from the resort, grabbed a couple of sunloungers and spent
the day working on our tans and swimming in the clear water. All in all it wasn't too bad, not what we had expected of Thailands "deserted beaches" but pretty relaxing and the people watching is always worth a laugh.
We did this for a couple of days and started to settle into Kata, the sun was shining all day now which helped. However we realy were paying too much for our accomodation so we headed out to find cheaper digs. We started out down a road which didn't look like it lead to much until we turned the corner and realised what i found on day 1 was not the town, now we found the town bustling with restaurants and loads of places to stay, DOH. We saw a sign which said room for rent above a bar wich looked quite nice so we decided to check it out. The owner turned out to be Dutch and he took us to see the apartment which was indeed above the bar but the entrance was round the back, up what looked like a dodgy alleyway and it all felt a bit wierd. We went into the room, which was
actually an apartment, just renovated with air conditioning, lounge, balcony, realy nice. We had a look round and casually asked how much? The price was just more than what we were currently paying so we told him it was too expensive but thanks anyway. They he preceeded to tell us he had the apartment let out from 25Nov to Middle of March, and that it was empty until then so asked us how much we were looking to pay? I gave him a realy low figure, less than what we had paid for any room in Thailand and for some reason he accepted it. What a bargain!!! We checked in the next day and this was to be our home for the next week. Just like to say a big thanks to Kent for letting us use his appartment sooooo cheaply so here is a plug for his bar, Its called CafeDelMar in Kata and is a family orientated cocktail bar...Go there its great!!!!!
We spent the next few days just chilling on the beach and indeed topping up our tans. Feeling realy settled we decided we had to get out and do something so we put our diving
skills into action and booked a days diving. The diving was expensive but we guessed diving in Phuket is some of the best in the world so must be worth it. Up early and taken to our dive boat which was capable of taking about 20 divers with a lounge, top deck etc. realy nice. We were all put into small dive groups as some people were doing qualification dives and we were in a group with a japanese guy, and our dive master was a realy friendly guy from Canada. We arrived at our sight, kitted up (all at once which was a bit cramped and silly) then blub blub blub we were in. The 2 dives we did were excellent, we saw many different types of fish the rarest being the bent stick pipe fish and a frog fish. We also saw 2 turltes and a baby blue spotted sting ray, ahhhh cute. The corel was a bit batterd from the tsunami so wasn't so colourful but nice non the less. We headed back to land whilst sunbathing on the boat and back to our apartment for a well earned beer (which was realy cheap as the 7/11
was 30sec walk away and we had use of our balcony). When on the boat we had been telling our divemaster our plans and if he has any recomendations, he told us Phi Phi was nice but realy built up and that we should head to Au Nang and Railay beach as they are not so developed and in amoungst beautiful cliffs. Our LP book backed up his claim so we decided to leave Phuket (before we got too settled) and take the 2hr cruise boat trip to Au Nang beach.
Kata beach in Phuket was realy nice but having to share it with 10,000 people wasn't so good. We guess we will never go back there just because it is so commericial and to be honest the beaches in Greece are just as nice.
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