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Published: March 6th 2009
The plane
From London to SingaporeThought it was about time I set one of these up. Sean and I have just arrived in Bangkok but it's 8 in the morning as we have just got off the night train. We arrived in Singapore on the 2nd March but this was just a transfer but not much to say really! The airport in Singapore is incredible though, they had a 100 inch HDTV and an orchid garden, which I thought Mum would appreciate so I will put some photos up of that soon.
We then get a flight to Phuket, and took a minibus to Karon (about 180 Baht/ 3.60 GBP each, on the west coast. Karon was pretty although full of massage parlours... The beaches were incredible though although Kata Noi was probably the best although a bit upmarket for us. But would recommend it as it seems to have avoided the tourist boom in Phuket better than the other beaches. We did find an awesome bar with a lovely barman and watched the whole Celtic v St Mirren Game on a projector. 'Mon the hoops.
One of the main attractions of Phuket is the surrounding islands, notably Maya Bay, which is where the
Sean/fish/flowers
The airport at Singapore Beach was filmed and 'James Bond Island' where Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed. We decided against taking one of the set tours from around Phuket as they seemed overly expensive and wanted to things our own way.
We took a taxi to Ao Chalong, which was full of the friendliest people you are likely to meet. We are at both a roadside local restaurant (if you want good food it is generally a good idea to see if Thai people are eating there!) and then in the evening bought food from the local market. The curry from the market almost made me pass out because it was so hot. We also stayed in a room above a paint shop that night, which was surreal. In Ao Chalong we walked to the pier (it is the main port in Phuket) and past all the tourist tours and found an old Thai man with a longboat. He told us that he could get someone to take us to an island where there is a beach with just one restaurant and where fish could eat out of your hand. The bonus for this was that we got our own longboat with
driver and the driver just stayed on the beach until we wanted to go back (nice work if you can get it!). The boat for the whole day was 1700 Baht, which is about 34 pounds, but you could fit about 8 people on it if you wanted. The island was called Koh Hae and the beach was named Banana Island, although I'm not sure if that was the local name...
I have attached some pictures of this beach as well. The woman who owned the restaurant may be the coolest woman in the world. When she saw us with our cameras she came running over to point out an exotic local bird. We rented snorkels for about 2 pounds each, and saw hundreds of tropical fish and the beach floor was covered in coral (Koh Hae translates as Coral beach apparently). I think the pictures will explain the beach better anyway.
Getting to Bangkok is a bit of a mission by anyones standards, we took a taxi to Phuket town (100 B/ 2 GBP each), then a 5 hour bus to Surat Thami (180 B/ 3.60GBP) , which is full of lovely local people, although they do
First night hotel
This was in Karon in Phuket. The massesue that recommended it also turned out to be our cleaner. Strange stare a lot, although that may be because I am still ridiculously white. The bus journey was interesting because we got to see a lot of Thailand that is still very undeveloped. There were several small villages with huts and the like and it was quit e a stark contrast from the relative wealth in Phuket. When we were in Surat Thani one woman made the peace sign at us. I hope that is what it means here because she seemed friendly. We then took the overnight train to Bangkok (580 B/ 11.60 GBP), which was surprisingly cold, but they give you blankets and food etc.
We have also just decided to go to Laos, which is pretty ace so will go from Laos to Cambodia and on to 'Nam.
Will try and keep this updated.
Love.
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Paul
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Update
Looks good big man. Not jealous at all. It's about -132 degrees here today, so would much rather be here......not. Will write more tmrw - off to watch the Celts play St Mirren in the cup - shud be easy after the 7-0 on Saturday! Take care and be safe. Paul