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Published: January 30th 2010
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The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket was ok (although I felt pretty uncomfortable after getting really superstitious about things - crows squawking and birds inside the terminal building...never mind), and after we collected our backpacks, we got a minibus into Phuket Town which we reached at about 10pm. Cate was pretty convinced that our plane was going to crash, with many a very worried look on her face.
As Phuket is aimed towards people on package holidays and thus isn’t really a backpacker haven, we decided that we would only stay one day before hopping to another island. It’s so much more built-up than I expected; I wasn’t exactly expecting it to be an unspoilt island paradise, but there are as many 7/11’s as in Bangkok and tourists everywhere! We decided quite early on that it wasn’t the place for us and that we wanted to get back onto the “backpacker trail”.
We walked around for a while in Phuket town, which incidentally was dead - not what I had expected, and after looking at a few hostels, we settled on a newish hostel called Pop hostel, where we were offered 3 bunk-beds (a dorm to ourselves) with airconditioning for 400baht (£8) a night. The place was actually really nice, clean and new. The following morning we got up early and set out to get some laundry done before heading to Kata beach on the West side of the island. We found a laundry shop just around the corner from our hostel and the lady who was sitting in the living room at the back (typical Asian business/home in the same room) came to show us her new baby - I assume it wasn’t hers but maybe it was her granddaughter. This kid was gorgeous - four days old apparently. It did amuse me that the lady kept nudging the child who was sleeping heavily and trying to get her to smile for us. Yes smile, at four days old.
Once we had completed that task, we walked over to get a pick up truck that transports people to various places on the island for 30Baht. We were heading over to the West side to the beaches Kata and Karon. After seeing the Buddha on the hill and the sea in the distance, we knew we were close and soon we got off the truck and walked onto
the beach. Beach Kata and Karon seemed pretty similar at a glance although Kata is smaller. I wasn’t overly impressed - it was a beach with loads of parasols and sun loungers, hundreds of people lined up sun worshipping and could therefore have been anywhere in the world. Maybe it’s our own fault for believing that every Thai beach would be as deserted and beautiful as they are in the movies, but it was just like being in Majorca or Lanzarote but with slightly better weather.
We decided to give into our stomachs and found a place to eat. Matt had his first Thai Green curry since being out of Thailand and it was really lovely. My tuna salad however was pretty disgusting.
Good job I ordered fried potatoes with it! This has been one of Cate’s regular food orders in Asia, a nice healthy salad with a portion of chips, never fails to make me chuckle.
On the way back to the beach, we had quite a strange moment when an Indian guy who I think was from a business we were passing started heckling us. He and his mate started calling out “Gooday mate” amongst other Australian lines. Baffled, we turned to tell him we weren’t Australian, so he replied by asking us if we were from New Zealand. Wrong again. Muppets.
Arriving at the beach again we saw that the views weren’t that great but we paid for a sun lounger each (after a move away from where we had set up on the ground in the shade of a tree because of ants attacking me) and Matt read his book for a while and I just lay there. Doing nothing. I had no book or iPod so could only just people watch, dreadfully unprepared, and I thought teachers were supposed to be organised!
. Actually I had finished my book the previous day and there had been nowhere to get a new one, and I left the iPod behind in the hostel in case it got nicked while we were splashing around. Cheek. The water was a lovely temperature and clear but had a strong undercurrent which tried to pull us out to sea as we waded back up to the beach. I’ve often heard people say that the sea in Thailand feels nice and warm like bath-water, which isn’t quite true (particularly with
how hot Cate has her baths!) but it was still the warmest sea we’ve ever been in.
There were many people walking up and down the beach trying to sell things like lamps, sand brushes, kimonos, kaftans, sarongs, nail kits etc but this one guy came right up to me and had what seemed to look like maybe a menu in his hands. I thought he might have been from one of the small food/drink units that had been set up but instead of asking if I wanted something to drink, he asked where I was from. I told him I was from England and he tried to find out a sheet from the many he had, that had been written in my language. He was collecting for some charity but didn’t quite understand that people from ENGLAND need to read the ENGLISH translation script. No, not the Italian. People from England speak English. No, not the German. People from England speak English. I think this must have been what his mate told him when he called him over to ask which translation he should give to a person from England. He scooted off pretty quickly after that, probably from embarrassment.
It was strange to think about there having been a tsunami at that very place five years before. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the poor people in that place. Yeah, it’s a pretty sobering thought as you walk around and see all the tsunami evacuation signs, but if it wasn’t for the signs and the fact that the majority of the buildings are all really new you’d never know it’d happened.
Before we knew it our brief stay in Phuket was over and we’d booked a ferry to Phi Phi for the next morning ... quite a built-up place as well apparently, but we’re using it as a stop on the way to Koh Lanta ... and will probably try to go and see Maya Bay (where they filmed The Beach) while we’re there.
Over and out,
Matt & Cate x
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