Four days in Kata Beach

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Kata Beach, Phuket.

We arrived via Air Asia...we are more and more impressed with this economy airline with each flight...and got a shared van through Phuket Town to Kata Beach, an hour and a half and none too exciting! Phuket Town, or what we could see of it on the 4 times we travelled through it, is not a place we would hurry back to.

But once we arrived in the small town of Kata Beach, we were happy indeed. We were here for a 4 night respite from sight-seeing and cities. As usual, I had picked the Chaba Phuket hotel for its location and budget price. What a great hotel! The service people were so helpful, and the location excellent. Our room was nice too, on the ground floor but elevated above a nice pond and garden surrounding three gorgeous swimming pools.

It wasn’t raining so we went for an evening walk...just one block down the road and then another 500 steps along a rather grubby, tree lined canal, (great for birdwatching) and onto a most beautiful beach. We walked at least a km. along the pure white sand on the shoreline, our feet welcoming the very warm water. Kids were surfing, folks were swimming. The shore is separated from the street by a continuous 5-8’ wall, with our walkway at one end, and a hotel at the other. No street access in between so we were fortunate to be close to one. It couldn’t help but to occur to us that people watching that tsunami rush toward them must have panicked at the thought of having to get to one of the access points. Indeed, we learned later, that many did not make it and were swept to sea. Yet, still there is no access. Yikes. The town was protected, only the Club Med hotel was destroyed, and has now been rebuilt. We had a beer, watched the surfers and the sun go down and felt very pleased with our new location.

Next day, and our last day we were treated to some sunshine. Sitting in very hot sun on cots under our rented beach umbrellas, and playing in the Hawaii style surf was just what we needed. But then suddenly, a strong wind would blow...so strong it ripped the cover off Wally’s book...and the torrential rain would send us back into the ocean, after securing our belongings. When it stopped, we’d come out of the surf and go back to our sunbathing. Fun!

Of course we couldn’t stay on the beach all day, and rain did become persistent, so we had a “fish” pedicure and massage, shopped a little, and found a couple of good restaurants to have dinner, listen to some musicians, and do a little dancing.

So what did we enjoy most about Phukett? No...I want to tell you about our 3^rd day...the day we least enjoyed. Perhaps the worst few hours of my very protected life. We decided to take a snorkelling tour to Ko Phi Phi...a brochure promised a one hour cruise including a tour around the islands,, an hour of snorkelling, lunch, and a one hour return cruise...for about $25 C. each. Sounded great. And indeed, the snorkelling was very, very good in spite of the grey sky and slightly cloudy, but extremely warm water. Many fish we had not seen before, and some we had. Yes, Dad, humunuka’apua’as! And tiger, and neon sitras, and some other truly exotic ones, swimming around brilliant blue and gold coral. A huge school of 6” yellow and turquoise fish surrounded us and pecked at my hands like another manicure. Lovely. And even lunch was pretty darn good.

But...The yacht (What???) was a 3-level ferry, with a seating capacity of approx. 300. There were at least 400 passengers, crowded onto the aisles in plastic chairs, sitting against the walls, and lying in the corners. The weather deteriorated within half an hour of leaving Phuket and the vomiting started 2 minutes later. Wally and I were not sick, but about 50%!o(MISSING)f the passengers were. How revolting. We sought fresh air on the outside deck until the wind and rain and surf became too strong. When we finally ( 1.5 hours) got to Ko Phi Phi Islands, the wind had settled down and we were able to appreciate the scenery. We then switched to a smaller boat for the snorkelling part. I was so glad to get into that warm water..we were first in and last out. By the time we got back to the dock, the monsoon had struck again and we ate lunch drenched to the skin.

We shopped a little to stay out of the torrential rain on our way back to the “yacht”. Wally likes to be early, so we were, by 20 mins. But we stood in the torrential rain, now thoroughly drowned and cold, until we were ushered onto the boat. It was already packed...not a seat...we were handed a kitchen variety armless plastic chair each and ushered into the ...what? hold? Cargo deck? Whatever, there were no windows, just small portholes about 8’ off the floor, there were people jammed in everywhere, only about 50 of them in proper seats with life jackets. We were sent to the back, and I do mean the back, with the luggage on one side and sleeping crew on the other, against the back wall. We were just getting concerned about how much air we would get down here, when the air conditioning blasted cold air out of the wall behind us. Freezing air. Onto our soaking wet clothes.

The vomiting started (not us) 2 minutes after we took off...before the barf-bags were even distributed. The waves were so high that the engines slowed every few minutes as we were rocked and clobbered by another big wave that covered the portholes and sent our chairs flying as far as they could. I wrapped my wet caftan around my shoulders, closed my eyes and chanted a bastardized version of the chant we learned at a temple...”Oman sutra oblagata, Karmen sutra pagliata” I must have repeated that phrase 2000 times but it was the only way I could keep my thoughts away from over-crowded ferries sinking in southern hemisphere oceans and the fact that I didn’t have a life jacket. Wally prayed the whole way, focussing on our incredible blessings.

It took us two hours to make that crossing. I had peaked at my watch after 45 mins...if I had known it was going to be another 75 mins of this frozen hell I would have jumped over-board (if I could have climbed the narrow steal stairway to the next deck!) My teeth were chattering and I was nervous about hypothermia...but we finally docked and got into a warm taxi and OMG!, an hour later we were between our clean, dry sheets in our hotel room.

We even went dancing that night....celebrating life, love, family, friends. And man, do we have a story to tell!

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