Advertisement
Published: June 20th 2012
Part Two Day 2
To start the second part of my journey off I rose early, breakfasted with and said goodbye to the group, caught the ferry to Surrtthani and bussed to Phuket.
The journey in the bus took seven or eight hours. Much longer than I had expected! We arrived at the depot at 6.45pm after having left the accommodation on Koh Samui at 8.30 that morning.
On board were a couple of Australian guys who are in the air force and on holidays. I chatted to Nathan for a while and we talked about our plans. He was really keen to be able to save enough money to spend 5-6months travelling. I think he had the bug. In return he asked me what I was up to and I gave him a sanitized version of where I was at. The journey from Koh Samui had cost 600baht.
When we got to the Bus Depot in Phuket the cheapest taxi fare I could get was 600baht to Karon Beach which was equivalent to the 10 hour journey I had just made. Nathan, Rob and I decided to band together as they were going to Patong Beach
and Karon is only another 5 or so kilometres away. I left Nathan to do the bargaining. He was a big lad of about 25 and commanded respect. I have found as a woman here, they will rip me off as quick as look at me.
After trying to bargain with three taxi drivers we finally got one that would take all three of us for 600baht so that made it 200baht each and of course that included dropping me at Best Western Phuket Ocean Resort in Karon Beach where I am staying for the next 12 days.
In the taxi we got to know each other better and I felt comfortable chatting away as they soon realised I had some knowledge of the area and could ensure we were not ripped off any further. The taxi driver had told us initially that it was 75km to Patong, but in actual fact it is about 25km.
When we got to Patong it was extremely business with the nightlife already well underway. The boys were excited and as they had not organised their accommodation, wanting cheap, they were just dropped off in what looked like the busiest part
of town. I only had a 1000baht note and Nathan the same, so Rob pulled out 600baht and gave it to me and said not to worry about me contributing. Wow! That was a bonus. Hmm. The Australian dollar is 33baht and therefore, they are $3.00 to 100baht, whereas the New Zealand dollar is 22baht and therefore $4.00 to 100baht. The Australians think everything is so cheap, but sadly I do not feel that way. So the bonus was that I met two really nice Australian guys who looked after me as though I was their mother and in the end the trip was quite reasonable from Koh Samui to Phuket.
After realising how much it will cost to leave Patong I have pretty much decided that I will not stray into Phuket town while I am here and stay on this coastline instead visiting Patong Beach when I feel the need to go to the markets. I have had a quick look at Karon Beach and it is a small centre a lot like Katikati, but there is lots of food places and the markets are open later in the day. The beach although not available for swimming
due to the rips at this time of the year, was lovely to go and visit and I might contemplate using it as peaceful place to sit when it is calmer.
I have sussed out the Resort I am staying in. It charges you for everything extra so the internet is about 2baht per minute (10cents a minute), pool tables 20baht (90 cents per game), but I do have a “free” breakfast that is part of my accommodation cost here. When I arrived last night they wanted to put me on the 4
th floor, but said the lift wasn’t working and there were lots of steps and so how did I feel about it? I was too busy orientating myself to where I was and so took longer to answer than they allowed and in the end they must have looked at me physically, decided I was an old lady and immediately said they would put me on the 1
st level. So good and bad!
The noise from the road is quite easily heard. The noise from some of the cars with their music blaring can keep you awake a bit too. I can hear the people in the unit next to me coming and going, but I do not have to walk up and down steps if I want to do anything. After I came back from my 1 hour walk along the beachfront, with quite large waves crashing to the shore this morning I decided to go to the gym on site, and suss it out. It is on the 4
th level. I must have climbed 100 steps to get there, so I am really glad I am on the 1
st level. I have found 2 pools and they are on the 2
nd level so easy for me to get to and so will go for a swim shortly.
The gym is a very small room with a mirror on one wall to make you think it is much bigger. It has three running or walking machines, a weight press machine and another arm press machine. Not really worth the effort and it explains that when I arrived there at 8.30am this morning the door was locked. A Thai lady came over and opened the door and I asked if the gym was open. She smiled and said it is now. So I doubt that it is used very much. It is also attached to a children’s play area, a shop and in another room off from it is a pool table. It is certainly set up nicely if you have children with you and you want to entertain them and yourself at the same time.
The sun came out and I headed for the pool with my new bikini on purchased from the market for 350baht ($14.00). The rest of the day was spent between my room and the pool listening to music on my phone and reading the only book written in English that was available called, “For Matrimonial Purposes” written by an Indian lady who grew up in India but lived her early adult life in America and was still unmarried at 33 to the shame of her parents. A good read.
Day three and another walk along the beach in the opposite direction with the seas quite rough still and the red flags out saying not to swim. Of course not everyone is taking any notice of the flags. The beach was covered in human detritus that made me want to go and get a rubbish bag and clean some of it as it is an embarrassment to think we treat the environment so badly by discarding bottles and plastic bags in particular that do not biodegrade.
The gym had not been used since I was there yesterday. Not surprising! It is a bit small to think you can do a real workout in it.
Last night was great. I cleaned myself up just in case I got to see Elvis of course and headed out early to ensure I got a front row seat. So I arrived around 7pm and was led to a seat with a good view of the restaurant stage. The music was blaring out Elvis from an album he did on tour way back. He had such a lovely deep sexy voice. It was a very reminiscent time singing away quietly to the songs while I ate springs rolls with chilli sauce followed by pad thai with shrimps. The expensive bit was the drinks as food is very reasonably priced if you eat Thai. I had a lovely Italian sauvignon followed by a Black Russian…of course sharing my drinks around the world.
Yes!! Elvis is alive and living in Thailand. He looked very fresh, handsome still and young and strangely enough spoke with a Thai accent. His voice has gone of course as it is now much higher pitched with less volume and quite unclear speech. I wonder if that has anything to do with a change of state? His hip thrusting was a little tepid but he certainly put lots of effort into it when he sang, Hounddog.
Embarrassingly enough he wandered over to near my table asking if Madame had a request. Of course I was gobsmacked and totally went blank with fear that I was being noticed (yes I know not my usual thoughts) and so couldn’t think of a single Elvis song. That did not deter him though, and next thing he started singing, Are You Lonesome Tonight”. Then part way through the song he took my hand and kissed it. OMG. Hmm! It just highlighted the fact that I was alone.
Elvin kept referring to his friend Johnny Cash and of course many of you will know that Johnny died of Shy Dragers Syndrome which is what Ray died of, but no, he was there alright. Elvis encouraged him to come up and sing for us and so he did and he had a lovely strong voice and definitely sounds just like Johnny Cash and maybe even looked a bit like him but I hear he lives in Australia now.
Two Swedish guys, “Pussyfaces” in their late 60’s, were sitting near the stage with their Thai girls in their 30’s and they were invited onto the stage to make absolute fools of themselves. I have to say they certainly did the dining experience well and seemed to spend oodles on alcohol for them and theirs as well as having very healthy appetites, but that was evident in the size of their build and stomachs to boot.
I suppose I left there after managing to slink away about 9pm and headed home having only spoken to Elvis and the waiters today. I did have yet another conversation though before arriving back at the hotel and that was with the noisy frog in the sidewalk pond. I greeted him first and asked him how he was and with that he stuck out his chest and I am sure tried to do a rendition of Elvis? Once that was over and I of course listened intently, I asked if he might sit there long enough for me to get a photo which he duly did. As I walked away I was concerned that maybe I was losing the plot in that my only conversation with a local today was with the frog in the pond.
On second thoughts maybe I should have gone back and kissed the frog!! LOL
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0508s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jennie
non-member comment
I keep wondering what will happen next? Good writing I feel I'm on holiday with you. Jenniexx