Advertisement
Published: April 14th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Just want to clock in and let you know that I've landed
safely and give you the story so far...
The fact that I'm even sending this from Thailand is an achievement in
itself... managed to avoid 'bottling it' at the last minute and
plucked up the courage to actually get further than my front door this
time, although the pissing rain in Glasgow definitely helped.
Everything was going ok until I stepped on to plane to realise that a
sizeable portion of the arse of Miss Seat 17A (when i say Miss, I mean
she was about 80) was spilling on to my 17B... and it's only the 6
hours to Dubai. Well that was the first lesson of my trip: don't judge
by appearances, as she turned out to be great craic - exactly the type
of person you want next to you on long haul, chatty enough but not to
the extent that you can't get a moment's peace.
The plane itself was out of this world - in fact the entire Emirates
experience was: staff that actually take a pride in their customer
service - it was like they were having a competition to see
who could
be the most friendly and helpful. The entertainment system was first
class too: hundreds of films, computer games and all the music you
like, so I contented myself with that after my new octogenarian friend
had unsurprisingly rejected my motion for a Bloody Mary challenge...
When I arrived in Dubai it was late at night so I didn't get a chance
to appreciate it's glory that I've heard so much about, but the
airport itself was opulent in the extreme. My intention is to return
there to take it in properly on the way home, but I've got a feeling
that intentions on this trip may not always get honoured - more on
that later...
Having been to Thailand twice before, Bangkok airport did seem kinda
familiar, but there were a few things I had forgotten about the Asian
expierence. The most striking was the looks that you draw from what
have to be among the most beautiful women on the planet. Now this may
come as I surprise to you, but I'm not exactly accustomed to this sort
of attention from utter babes. Anyway, it was nice.
Still being reasonably organised at this stage, I had wisely booked a
cheapo flight to Phuket on the internet from where I could catch a
boat to Ko Phi Phi and meet up with Kenny Mc. However, it was pretty
ambitious to expect to pack all of this into one day so I resigned
myself to a night in Phuket on my lonesome. You'll be aware that I'm
definitely not good company for myself so bearing this in mind I said
a friendly 'hello' to a fella at the baggage carousel who looked to be
in the same boat as me. Turned out he and his mate were heading to
Patong which is apparently where you want to be spending a night in
Phuket if you're not hanging around too long so that was a bonus that
saved me a few Bhat in the taxi fare. What wasn't such a bonus was
that in reflection I realised that he and his mate were probably more
than just mates - not in a 'Kenny Everett and Brian Dowling' kinda
way, just in a 'I wouldn't want to spend my first night on the road
with' kinda way. So I thanked them for helping me find digs and moved
on.
Phuket by night is a pretty mental experience. Picture Ibiza Uncovered
on Asian soil and you've just about got it. One of the less pleasant
sights is the prevalence of huge fat drunken old men hand in hand with
dainty little cute Thai girls. To be honest it turns my stomach.
Needless to say most of the accents I heard were English but it would
be unfair to put this phenomenon down to one nationality. In fairness,
the Thai girls know what they're doing - to avoid what would be a
night of tedious and difficult conversation with their catches, they
carry Connect 4 and Backgammon sets which seems to breach the language
barrier quite well.
To be honest I have to confess to a few games of Connect 4 myself and
I am totally ashamed to say that I got gubbed 3 times out of 3. Now
I'm not sure if you call it Songsam or Samsong, but whatever it is,
it's Thai whiskey that knocks the sh*t out of you. Most travellers
seemed to be drinking it so I did a Ron Burgundy and thought 'when in
Rome...' Mistake. It is difficult when the girls keep coming uo to you
non-stop (i can't believe i'm saying this!) so I agreed to buy a drink
for this particularly cute one on the proviso that she taught me some
Thai but because of the whiskey I can only remember the words for
hello, cheers, goodbye and thank you... ha, that reads pretty funny -
innuendo unintentional mum...
Anyway I rambling like mad here - long and the short of it is that I
missed boat to Phi Phi today by a sizeable margin due to partially to
a hangover from hell and partially because I'm an idiot. I can also
vaguely remember 'treating' these Irish girls to 5 verses of The Town
I Loved So Well, 4 verses of the Green Fields of France and a couple
of Spancil Hill but that might have been in my dream.
Taking it easy tonight, meeting Kenny tomorrow and Sabby next week.
It's all good.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0237s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
paddybhoy
non-member comment
patong
hows it going mate, just sitting here in coatbrig watchin the rain batter down and remembering my own time in puket. I know what you mean about all the pedos they are sick bastards most of whom live as respectable pillars of our communitiy but are like rabid dogs when they get over there. Don,t go to coral Island we went and it was utter shit 2 hours by road then a sped boat to a pissy wee beach nightmare. Anyway enough of my nonsense, got the game on sunday to look forward to big billy connelly is presenting us with the trophy then I plan an all day drinking session so hail hail and enjoy the trip..........