Day 54: Phuket


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Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Phuket
November 10th 2009
Published: November 10th 2009
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We rode a bus from Bangkok to Phuket. We were told the bus was 15 hours, most of which was overnight. We left at 6 pm so we figured we'd get to phuket around 9 am. But I guess they didn't factor in all the stops (including one at 11 pm and 6 am), switching buses (waiting for 1 1/2 hours in between), so we didn't end up getting in to phuket town until after 2 pm. THEN we had to catch a local bus to the beaches, and we didn't find a place until after 4 pm. It was a long day. But our place is awesome! Best money/value ratio yet. We've got a room on the 3rd floor with a balcony, fridge, tv, private bathroom, for 300 baht ($9) a night. It is in Karon beach, about 5 minute walk from the water.

Our main reason for going to phuket was for steph to get her SCUBA certification. It is one of the more popular places in thailand to get certified. The most popular (cheapest) is Koh Tao, but it is on the east side of thailand, which has different seasons than the west. November is supposedly the worst time of the year to go to Koh Tao, while it is the start of the high season on the west coast.

Our first day in phuket we found a good scuba place that was right on the beach, a 10 minute walk for us, called phuket scuba club (I think). They are very friendly and have decent equipment. Once steph signed up they let us take out snorkel gear for free. Lots of fish. I took out my camera, which is waterproof to 15 feet. Got some good pictures, but my screen went dead towards the end. It still takes pictures, but you can't see them until you load them in to a computer. Old school.

The water is sooo warm - almost too warm. You can stay in it indefinitely without getting cold. On our second day in phuket, steph started the scuba class while I just hung out on the beach reading. I'd have to get in the water every 15 minutes to cool off. We found out later that that was the first day that it hasn't rained - it is officially the end of the rainy season. I almost wish it was still raining though, the sun is brutal. At least it seems to get overcast in the afternoon. 11 am to 2 pm is almost intolerable to be in direct sunlight though.

The day after that, steph was in to her 2nd day of her 3 day scuba class, but I stayed mostly inside, nursing my sunburns from the previous day (putting sunscreen on your own back almost never works). I did let the scuba guys convince me to go diving on steph's last day of certification.

Today was steph's final day of scuba, and I went diving with her also. We went on two boat dives off of Karon Beach. The first was at a random reef off the beach, and the second was at a nearby island. Steph was still learning stuff, so she was buddied up with her teacher on the first dive, but we got to buddy up on the second dive. Both dives were good, but the second took the cake. On the first dive I saw a morey eel and several lion fish, along with the much more common puffer fishes, trigger fishes - we don't know our fish, but there were lots. The second dive had much better coral formations, and more unique fish. Steph an my favorite was a feather star, which looks like a feathery plant until you poke it (the divemaster had a stick) and then it comes alive, swimming around. Pretty weird. We saw a sea cucumber, nudabranks, a harlequin sweetlips (we found it on an ID card later), this huge pointy conch shell-like thing.... again, we don't know our sea life. But it was cool. And now steph is certified!

We might hang in phuket another day, and then we're off to Koh Phi Ph, which has some of the best diving in southeast asia. We're still not sure what comes after that, but we're not too worried about it.

Here's a few pictures on the first day, from my camera before the screen died.











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