Patong, Day and Night

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Patong is night and day different from my last stay. Some call this place “Little Bangkok,” because it has many of the same qualities. Last night I made my way down to Bangla Road. The street closes to all traffic and is open for walking/stumbling around. Bangla Road is famous for its nightlife, it is a place one can go all out if you’re looking to party. You can find all kinds of entertainment, from girls to beers to live music. One thing you can’t do is walk without being pestered. There are vendors everywhere, selling trinkets, food, cigarettes, and I am sure there is harder stuff to. Girl are dancing around poles, engaging in banter, and trying to coax customers to play simple bar games like "Connect" or "Hammer the nail.“ The music as you walk down is almost deafening in some of the bars and nightclubs, there are several restaurants, discotheques and shops that resonate down the side streets from this center.

After taking a brief stroll down the length of the street I made my way to the Muay Thai arena where they had a title fight going on this night. The event was a sight to be had, especially for a fight fan. (Here is the Wiki link if you would like to learn a bit about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muay_Thai. Otherwise I will just give you this brief description from the site, “Muay Thai is referred to as ‘The Art of Eight Limbs‘, as the hands, shins, elbows, and knees are all used extensively in this art.”) There was about a half and half mix of locals and tourists in the arena, which made for some interesting people watching. The first fighters where a pair of Thai boys about 12 years in age, and they go full contact. There is no way this would be allowed to go on in the states, outside of the backstop at Northward Elementary School in Superior, NE. There was were a few pretty exciting knockouts which I thoroughly enjoyed. The championship match ended with a devastating head kick, from the title holding Aussie, that left his contender out for nearly two full minutes, even with the aid of smelling salts. I was actually a bit disappointed. For one, there were a ton of Australians in attendance and they kept doing that effing chant, “Aussie, Aussie Aussie!” “Oi, Oi, Oi!” So that was irritating, but the main reason was this Thai boxer attempted a jump kick on the champ while he had him backed into the corner. I have always wanted to see that work. I mean it was totally effective in Double Dragon on the NES, why wouldn’t it be in real life?

Once the fights were over I made my way back to Bangla Road. There were many more people this go around and I couldn’t walk ten steps without hearing “handsome man, where you going?” They were even so bold as to just walk out, grab my arm and try to pull me into their respective establishments. When I refused, and I always refused, they would ask me if I like Thai Lady Boy. I had heard the warnings of the Thai Lady Boys, so I was prepared for it, but I was still amazed. Most you could tell were totally dudes just dressed in drag, others, you might say, could pass as an ugly chick. There were a few though that may keep a person guessing. As I was passing the largest group of them, I was trying to take photos of them discreetly as possible, as discreet as a flash going off on a dark street allows anyway. They noticed me taking photos so they called me up there and a little helper guy told me, “I take photo. You tip girl.” I answered in the affirmative and got into place. These girl/guy things are not shy at all, one took my hand and put it straight to her boob, yeah some of them even had implants. Effing crazy. They things I do for these pictures. That incident was enough for me I headed back towards my hotel. It was only about 12:00 at that time so I decided I would have a beer before bed. The hotel bar was closed so I went to the place next door.

Next door I found a nice couple a Brit, Scott, and his Japanese girlfriend, Yeen. They own a bar down the street and felt like venturing out. They asked me to have a seat with them so I sat and chatted with them for a bit. After a couple of beers and some good conversation I headed off to bed.

I slept in until 7:00, remember I had been getting up at 5:30 so it totally counts as sleeping in. After getting ready to head out for the day I came down and talked to Tim a bit, rented a motor scooter and headed out for this day’s adventures.

The riskiest thing was just driving. The Thai people are really pretty dangerous drivers. Couple that with narrow roads and things get a little bit tricky. First on my agenda was going to see Phuket’s Big Buddha, it is exactly what it sounds like. The drive was amazing. I stayed along the coast and enjoying the view as motored up and down the hills. On the way there I happened upon an elephant crossing sign. Obviously something that we don’t get to see in the States, but then about fifty meters past the sign a group of elephants and a trainer. I stop and ask him if I can ride the elephant, he says yes, and I went on a jungle trek on the top of an elephant. It was a pretty amazing thing going through the jungle, up and down the hills and getting to see the views of the countryside, as well as the foliage the jungle had to offer.

Off the elephant and back on my trusty scooter I got back on track to go see the Big Buddha. The Buddha is located at the top of the highest hill on Phuket Island and faces East. One can see it the whole way around the Southern tip of the island. The real problem comes in finding it. Once you get around to the East side of the island the locals have erected big signs that let you know “Big Buddha” is this or that way. The trek up this hill a tiny mountain “road” was a whole other story. At the top the views of the island are incredible. I was at the highest point on the island so I could see in all directions, pretty magnificent view. The Buddha is 45 meters tall and about 25.5 meters wide, I know this because the statue was under construction and there was a prerecorded message playing on loop. I really wanted to get my photo taken with a monk, but there wasn’t ever a good opportunity to do so. What a pity right?

After I had a look around and enjoyed my surroundings for a bit I made my way back down the hill and towards Phuket town again. The plan was to do some shopping where I wouldn’t be hassled, like in Patong, and I wanted to stop in and see my friends from Michael’s Bar. And that is exactly what I did. I wandered from shop to shop finding things that I wanted, haggling for price and buying things I thought offered a fair value. It was kind of a fun time to be there, Phuket town was celebrating a Vegetarian festival. Yeah, sounds crazy right? There was incense burning everywhere, kids were lighting off fireworks, all in all it was pretty entertaining. After a bit of shopping I stopped into a very small open air restaurant for some Pad Thai. Just in the nick of time too. A cloud moved in, dumped rain for about five minutes and then moved on its merry little way.

Michael’s opened at four and I just stopped in for one beer, tell everyone hello, show them this blog where I have a photo of them up. Dul and the owner’s wife were there to open the pub, Ja-O was on her day off, but she came in after they called her to let her know I had stopped in. I thought that was pretty sweet.

Once my beer was gone I settled up and headed back to the west side of the island to catch sunset before heading back to hotel. I am leaving Phuket tomorrow, so I plan on taking tonight pretty easy.

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Photos

Post Aussie Head Kick
They guy is still out and they are raising his hand unbelievable.

Buddhist Monk
Late entry, but I got my picture taken with a monk on the way to the airport.