Advertisement
Viewpoint
Over looking Kata Noi, Kata and Karon BeachesWe arrive at Phuket and make our way to Kata which was one of the places we liked on our 1st visit. We are staying at the Sugar Palm Resort (or Sugar Plam as it was spelt on all the towels - bet someone got a rollicking over that). As it is classed as low season at this time of the year, we are only paying 1100 Baht a night, which is fantastic value really as we could see that some people leaving a we were checking in were paying 3000 Baht a night. The weather although more cloudy was still very warm and you could tell the humidity was building up and often it rained for about an hour at around midday. Kata is probably the best place to stay on the whole Island, it has the best beaches and there are plenty of good restaurants and bars. We found the best beach was at Kata Noi, which for us was a short scooter ride away, yes we just had to hire one and at £3 a day who could blame us.
We took the local bus to the main town of Phuket one day which costs around 50p
per person, however don’t expect to get there quick as the vehicles are probably about 50 year old and only manage to do about 30mph, well ours did anyway. Once we were in the town we visited the main market which was full of the usual crap, bought nothing there so went to the main shopping mall where more western goods could be bought for almost the same price as back home, it isn’t cheap out her anymore.
We spent most of our time exploring the rest of the Island visiting nearly all the resort type places. Patong is by far the biggest resort, it is also the sleaziest but a fun place to visit for a day. But its at night when it really comes alive, there is a main strip which is pedestrian only and it is jammed packed with bars to suit all tastes. This is where you see the nice Ladies or Lads as you really cant tell the difference, well you can but they do put up a good performance, and if you are single there is a good chance you might cop off….lol
On our travels there were numerous operators offering elephant
Not quite biking weather
Karen in one of my spare condoms.... trekking, however some of the conditions the animals weren’t quite as good as others. Just outside of Kata as you head for Phuket, there is one place where they really do look after their animals, so much so they even sleep in the same room at night, bit like Karen (thought I‘d say it before someone remarked). We had to have a go, I know - poor elephant, but they managed superbly even with me on its back, anyway Karen makes up for most of my bulk. Its amazing sitting there as you wander off around the jungle. The track is not easy and there are times when there is only a couple of feet of walkway for the elephant to use, one wrong step and it would have been curtains as the drop was huge. I think if Karen could have swapped me for the elephant there and then she would have. A little further around from the elephant trekking is Promthep Cape, which gives the best vantage point of the sun setting and is well worth a visit.
The sea was not as clear as the sea in Australia, but it was still a lovely turquoise colour
Dancing Ladies?
Daryl enjoying one of his rare nights off? and very warm but becoming rougher by the day. It went from almost perfect swimming conditions upon arriving to not being able to use the sea at all at times as the waves had now reached about 10 feet. I was messing about letting the waves take me back to shore one day and clean knocked Karen off her feet, upon trying to wash off the sand which was covering her she was swept away by a huge wave and arose less the sand but also less her bikini, much to the amusement of all the lads in the sea. Sorry chaps, was not quick enough with the camera.
One of the main reason for returning to Phuket was to visit the Phi Phi Islands which we had missed earlier. The Island is infamous for the film The Beach and it lives up to expectations. There are 2 main Islands - Phi Phi Don which is where everyone stays, and Phi Phi Lee which is where the film was shot and is now a National Park. We were only on the Island for 3 days so wasted no time in booking a snorkelling day trip on a long tail
Phi Phi Lee
One of the hidden gems.... boat, 450 Baht each for a full day including equipment and lunch, bargain. We were delayed by 30 minutes as obviously getting there for 11am was a little difficult for one girl, I would have left the b…. behind. Anyhow, we finally set off, a dozen of us and within 20 minutes we had reached our 1st snorkelling point, we were hoping to do 6 stops in all. The water is bath temperature out here following the summer, so it was actually warmer in the sea than in the boat as it was a coldish rainy, cloudy day. As we entered the sea and put on our equipment, I could not believe my eyes as I popped my head under the water, there were literally hundreds of colourful fish swimming within inches of us, I quickly told Karen to look and she was as gob smacked as me, it was fantastic. We were only stopping about 30 minutes per site so we were soon heading back for the boat, and to our surprise, 5 people had not even swam? We were soon to realise that they didn’t like it, the wet weather I presume and wanted to go back, so
Local Market
all very fresh and cheap.. we wasted yet another 30 minutes or so dropping them off, and yes you guessed it the one who was late was one wanting to go. That now left only 7 (6 Brits and one Russian who we later found out did not speak any English) on the boat and on the bright side we could now have a bigger lunch….lol
We only managed 1 more dive prior to lunch and that was not as spectacular as the 1st but still very good, I think this was because we were now on the beach and you could simply swim out to the coral and fish. After lunch (rice again) it was time to head off for Phi Phi Lee which is only a few hundred metres away from the main Island. As we drew closer to the Island you could see a massive hole type cave built into the huge mountain type rock face which was unbelievably habitable by a few men who had based themselves there to collect either bat shit or birds nests, not sure which. The conditions they lived in were extreme, only the odd hammock here and there, fresh water and gas stove to cook
View from our Hotel
Nice place to wake up on Phi Phi... with, we would not last 5 minutes. The island itself is very mountainous with the odd bay type lagoon, we managed to somehow make our way into one such lagoon which was a fete in itself as there could only have been a 18 inches of water at the deepest point, still we were over the moon we had as the pictures we have in our heads will stay with us a lifetime, stunning. We were now on our way to the scene of the shooting of the film the Beach, however to get there it was a case of risking life and limb (exaggerated a little) climbing over slippery stones and rocks, making your way through a tiny caves (was for me anyway), and finally reaching the beach. You could instantly see why they choose this place, we had imagined it to be really crowed and busy, however in reality we were the only ones, there was some compensation for the poor weather. The whole place is truly breathtaking and well worth the effort. The sea as mentioned earlier however was now in low tide this meant no snorkelling so we made our way back to the boat which
All Aboard
Full house on deck en route to Phi Phi was moored slap bang in the middle of a coral reef, again the marine life was in abundance. The weather had now taken a severe turn for the worse, we were later to realise that we were in the tail end of the cyclone Nargis which has truly decimated Burma. Our trip would have to be cut short and as we headed back to base. We all sang jolly songs and laughed as the waves tossed our boat from pillar to post and drenched everything and everyone. It was great fun and we would definitely recommend everyone visiting Phi Phi to do this, I think everyone does anyway but this is what you do in these bloggy things apparently, give out tips.
Sorry to go on so much, but in all it is a magical place and everyone who visits Thailand simply has to visit. It's back to Oz now to stop over for a night prior to making our way to Hawaii, another 20 hours of flying, we are so loving that bit. Thanks for reading and keep the comments coming.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0438s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
