Rattana Beach Hotel Phuket

... marble that dwarfed the surrounding houses. Further on we entered a much smaller wat, which was just as magnificent in its exterior decoration and there chatted to a monk who was able to offer us directions to the metro station…..yay! Street food once again for dinner proved most satisfying and this was rounded off with a wonderful shake. It was good to be back in the land of the shake!!

The next day we spent the morning taking it easy and then headed to the tour ...

... We checked in and were shown to our adjoining rooms 112/111. 112 facing the beach and is 30 steps from the waters edge overlooking Bamboo and Mosquito Island and Krabi in the distance. Excellent. At the base of the steps was a large stone planter filled with water with flowers floating on the surface and coconut ladle and wooden mat to stand on to wash the sand from your feet. The King size bed was adorned in duel flower arrangements and the bed spread was folded in oragami style ...

... pool, closed two or three bars, and listened to a couple of very dedicated bands belting out rock-and-roll cover songs at the top of their lungs-even at 0300 in the morning! We stopped for some fries at McDonalds and bounced from bar-to-bar until around 0500 when we finally ran out of money and stumbled back to our hotel. After taking a little break and watching some Hong Kong news, we headed out in the early earlies and wandered down to the beach under a ...

... and curvy roads was just way too much for my stomach to handle. After thirty minutes of driving I realized that I just couldn't take it anymore and asked the driver to pull over so that I could get out. I told them they would have to just go on with out me as I ran inside the grocery store and lost my lunch. Upon leaving the bathroom I headed down one of the isles to try and find some water. I eventually found it but only after stumbling ...

... visa run" trips available for around 1800 baht, but even though we knew we could do this same trip for around half of that price on our own, it seemed like a big hassle just to get another two weeks in the Thai Kingdom. Considering that one of those days would be spent doing the trip to Myanmar, we decided to spend only one night in Patong and then start heading to Cambodia. Once we were back in Phuket town, Lisa decided to reserve our bus ticket back to Bangkok in two ...

... of Chinese lunar calendar. Thought of sharing this post to give some idea to the soon-to-travel-to ...

... but it's probably best not to make a fuss until he's handing me a helmet to get on the back of one. We arrive in Patong and OMG this place is giant compared to Kata. There are people everywhere. The beach seems to go on forever and looks like an old school Venice Beach style. On one side the beach with side walk st vendors, umbrellas, and loungers and across a one way street miles of shops that look ...

Stayed here 3 nights, rainy season here too. So our time was spent wading through flood water & holding umbrellas. Good thing about flip flops, the water can flow in one end and out the other! So here we are in Paradise, but just like home the rain does nothing to promote a country! Plenty of mosquito bites also to add a dampner to the already damp weather! Its a cool wee island but I'm sure its a lot cooler when the sun shines.

... with plump, shaking bellies in tight "speedos" parading around with talc-water smeared on their white-red cheeks. Ladyboys strutting in soaked skirts and T-shirts, laughing and splashing onlookers Pickup trucks crammed with families, soaked, pointing waterguns at everone below Teens dancing in the streets to techno being blared out from storefronts 30 year old farang (foreign) men marching around the sidewalks wearing plastic Winnie ...