The options to get from Bangkok to Phuket are essentially a ~$20 overnight bus ride or a ~$60 flight. Though I was often willing to take the bus over a taxi in Bangkok to save a whopping $3, I'd done enough of the long bus rides in Australia to decide that the flight was worth the extra $40. I flew AirAsia again, but because I booked at the last minute I couldn't preorder any of the hot food, so again no picture comparison. Eventually though, it'll happen, and all the lawyers can start drafting their complaints for a false advertising suit. I almost missed my flight because my flight left from gate "B1C" and I went to gate B1 (which had multiple gate doors, so I figured one of them was "C" even if it wasn't labeled as such. Having heard no announcements about my flight, I waited until about 10 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave and well after it was scheduled to board (no idea why I waited that long), and then finally asked someone. They informed me that B1C which could not be seen from B1 was a separate gate, which was down some stairs and not very close to where I was. So I sprinted over there and luckily the flight was delayed a few minutes and had just started boarding - whew, close one.
Phuket is actually the name of a large island in southern Thailand as well as a town on that island. The town is on the east coast of the island where there isn't much of a beach to speak of, and it isn't really a tourist destination. The tourist destinations are mostly the west coast beaches of the island, Patong Beach, being the largest in terms of development, which was where I was heading, because I had read that the other beaches tend to be quieter destinations mainly for families and couples.
After 7 days of sunshine in Bangkok, I was a little disappointed to see clouds and rain when I arrived in Phuket. I was even more disappointed when I pulled up the weather forecast and saw that it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy for the next several days. April is the transition from the dry season to the wet season, so I guess the rain shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
When I arrived in Patong, I unfortunately found it to be quite similar to Kuta in a lot of ways- kind of a dirty over-commercialized beach town. But like Kuta, I was very pleased with my accomodation (A1 Island Guesthouse), where I had a large clean private room with king bed, hot shower, refrigerator, cold A/C, balcony and fast free wifi for less than $20. After settling in and getting some food, I ventured out and explored and found that while there's definitely a robust nightlife in Patong, the number of go-go bars and other such prostitute-filled establishments seemed to significantly exceed the number of "normal" bars (for lack of a better term). And from what I could tell based on my time in Patong, it has to be a world leader in terms of ladyboys per capita - ladyboy being the most oft-used term from my observations, which is based in part on an all-you-can-eat buffet that advertised prices of something like $9 for men, $8 for ladyboys and $7 for women.
Day 89 - Friday April 20
It was cloudy and raining when I woke up friday, so I spent most of the day just relaxing in the hotel room - reading and trying to figure out plans for the rest of the south of Thailand. After the rain stopped, I headed down to the beach to check out that area and catch the sunset. The beach in Patong is nice, though it did have a fair amount of trash. I ended up meeting some British girls while I was down there, who, like me, were a little shocked at the lack of "normal" drinking establishments in Patong.
Later I ended up meeting up with the same girls for drinks and a couple of Russian guys they had met as well. Not long after we met up, it started raining, and then raining harder, and then raining a little harder, and then the streets outside the bar looked like this:
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| From Thailand - Phuket |
We waited for a bit to see if it would stop raining, but eventually gave up. Because the main street with a lot of the bars gets blocked off to car traffic at night time, getting a taxi didn't make any sense, so we set off in the rain and got soaking wet, as you can see in this picture from the next bar:
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| From Thailand - Phuket |
Day 90 - Saturday, April 21
Feeling like I had seen what there was to see in Patong, I figured I would head over to the Phi Phi Islands for a few days to check those out, but after being out until very late Friday night, I had little interest in waking up early on Saturday to try to check out and get on a boat in the morning, and I hadn't booked anything anyway, so Saturday was another low-key day where I slept in, researched things to do and places to stay in Ko Phi Phi, and generally just relaxed, spending a lot of the day reading(I've been engrossed in the Game of Thrones series since finding the first one in a book exchange in Sydney, though they are a bit too fantastical for my taste). Didn't venture out into the nightlife because I was planning to head to Phi Phi early the next morning.
When I was trying to figure out where to stay on Ko Phi Phi I read one review where someone had booked a room online at a discount from the regular rate and then extended his stay without negotiating the rate for the additional nights. When he checked out they charged him the regular rate rather than what he had paid for first night(s). I realized that I had done the same at my guesthouse in Patong and was a little worried they might try to do the same thing. I was very pleasantly surprised, however, when I checked out and they charged me even less than I had paid for the first night. Good to know some people aren't trying to get every last cent out of tourists and take advantage of situations like that. I was very pleased with my stay at A1 Island guesthouse, which served as a nice refuge from the hot, smelly streets of Patong.
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