Phuket
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
75
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Phuket,
Thailand
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
We decided to switch to the West Coast of Thailand or the Andamon Coast on Patong Beach in Phuket. The East Coast was paradise but there are very few services. Phuket Island is very well developed. This area was hit by a devastating Tsunami on December 26, 2004. The only signs we saw were occasional bits of rubble here and there. Most signs of the Tusami are felt through the memorials that are held and people's memories. We spoke to one expat American who volunteers at the hospital. He felt the generosity towards the Thai people was overshadowed by corruption and mishandling of donations. He said people working at the hospital would blatantly pocket money or keep food and toys for their own families. Another American told us many Thai people are superstitious and have simply left the area for good out of fear of the spirits.
We rented a room at a guest house
Big Fish
. Our requirements were that it had to have wi-fi and airconditioning. Thailand is incredibly hot in February. A place near Rat-u-tit called Little Buddha fit the bill perfectly. To get to our guest house we took a bus from Ranong, switched to a Songtow (phoenetic sp) in Phuket and finally took a Tuk Tuk to our actual street. We almost took motorcycle taxi's when we arrived at Patong Beach. Apparently the prices for Tuk Tuk's are heavily inflated a touristy place like Patong. In the end we thought the experience of riding a motorcycle taxi should be without the heavy packs.Little Buddha ended up being mostly perfect. There was some confusion at first with the guy in reception. He kept changing our room on us trying to find fit our needs. Not all of the rooms could get wi-fi. Later on the poor guy ended up getting fired. I overheard other guests grumbling about getting switched around. The location was perfect. It was next door to a large indoor produce and seafood market. Dave wanted to take some scuba classes and it was a 5 minute walk away from Seaworld Scuba. The beach was a good 15 minute walk.
We settled in for a month of R&R. Our goals were to try and not overdo or sightsee and just hang out and enjoy the beach and the food and maybe a little underwater life
Blender
. We experimented with different places to eat from the market to the restuarants. We decided our favorite place was an outdoor vendor with a few tables run by someone we call "The Lady." She rarely smiled and was intent on concocting tasty stir frys and soups for her customers. She only charged 35 Bat or around 85 cents for our favorite shrimp curry dish. We became regulars and ate at least one meal there almost every day of our month in Patong. On our last day eating there we gave her a hot water kettle that we had bought to make tea in our room. She broke out into a big smile - the one and only time we saw her smile. She would have had to cook and sell 40 stirfrys to buy the same kettle. We also had a blender that we gave away to another street vendor. Dave would sometimes buy gargantuan shrimp and this guy would barbecue them on his outdoor grill for free. He was a little confused about why we would give him a blender but he did thank us and appreciated it. It is funny in Thailand because sometimes these vendors would not take a 20 Bat tip but the same person might accept a 600 Bat blender. One night we decided to try out the fancy schmancy restuarant overlooking the cliffs and beach. The restaurant was written up in our guide book as a "must try." It was beautiful and delicious and they make flowers out of all of your vegetables and fruit but it cost 20x more than our favorite street vendor and was no tastier. In Thailand you are advised to stick to street food because of that reason unless you are particularly keen on atmosphere
Dave Parasailing
. Beach life was a complete experience in and of itself. You could see just about everyone doing anything on the beaches. A common sight is seeing "Farang" or western men with Thai women. Usually the men are old enough to father their escorts. Topless women and speedo clad men are rampant amongst the older European set. We did take a day trip out to Coral Island and took in some snorkeling. Dave tried parasailing for the first time. It looked pretty easy and they take you up Tandem. There was some confusion and the tandem experience turned into a solo experience. I was a little concerned watching him hang in the air never having done this before. He took it all in stride and had a good landing with ground crew screaming instructions at him. The snorkeling was pretty good but not as good as Sharm-Al-Sheik. We did see parrot fish!
We rented a moped to ride out to the eastern side of the island to Naama Bay. It was a beautiful ride. There were some twists and turns around mountains with great views and calmer areas along the beach. We got pulled over along the way by a cop on foot. He held his hand up and waved us over at a busy intersection. The moped came with one helmet which I wore so Dave got a ticket for no helmet. At first I had that sinking feeling you get when getting pulled over by a cop. But after going through the experience and observing how things operate in Thailand I realized one might look at this as a "tourist tax." The fine cost around $4. The Thai people don't wear helmets very much and have figured out how to avoid these check points. The laws are funny in Thailand. The driver must be the one wearing the helmet not the passenger. Helmets are only required before 6pm. Another moped experience we had was a taxi that loaded all 3 of us onto the bike
Fruit!!!
! We met an British expat in Naama Bay and visited his home. He was a very interesting fellow who had sailed to Thailand from England alone decided he liked it and made it his home. He briefly was married to a Thai woman and had the Thai mafia after him. Now he leads a quiet retirement as an artist and a writer.Dave focused his free time on diving by taking some classes and he spent some time on board a "live aboard." I skipped the live aboard experience. I get motion sick in the worst way on boats. This has me concerned about diving in Australia. It is one of my dreams to experience the Great Barrier Reef. I think it is going to have to be lots of dramamine or those little acupressure wrists bands. Instead of diving I took a few spa days which included massage, pedicure, dental visit with a teeth cleaning, and even a float tank. More importantly I worked on the planning the remainder of the trip. I still had not figured out how we were going to get to Australia and then home. Also, once we get to the US we plan to take some time with Dave's dad travelling around. Dave was only gone one night which I spent talking over Skype to his Dad to work on planning. Upon his return he came in tow with a dozen red roses (for Valentines) and I had figured out a few things for the remainder of our plan. All in all it was good. I didn't have to get seasick on a live aboard and Dave got the chance to experience one of the top 10 dive sites in the world
Kim at the Restaurant
. Our plan for Australia/New Zealand is to get around the country doing camper van relocations. Many of the relocations are free or essentially free. Some of the larger motor homes have a higher fee associated with them but still a fraction of the cost of full price. The company charges some token fee of $1 per day. Some of them pay for gas or a portion of the gas. I scheduled us for 2 relocations that would take us around Southern Australia along the Great Ocean Road and up through the middle to Darwin. We also bought a plane ticket from a travel agent in Phuket for around $400 each. The plane ticket included a stop over in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We decided to use the stop over as an opportunity to see a little of Malaysia. The travel agent was able to extend the stop to a week for us. Tickets back to the US would have to be bought in Australia once we arrived. We felt the most excited since starting our trip. Next stop Malaysia! (additional notes from Dave)
Thailand was terrific all over. Everything is so cheap! The culture seems to revolve around "taking it easy" and there were many conveniences. Little things like the fruit vendors would happily chop up the fruit for you or how you got to take a number for a long queue. People were friendly and everyone had free time to talk to you or help out.
Mean Dave
The best thing was the food! I've always loved Thai food but I had never experienced some of the fruit available. Oneof my favorites was the rose apples (or maybe water apples). The look a little bit like an apple and taste like a watery apple but they have no seeds or core so you can eat the whole thing. They are crunchy and satisfying but light. Another favorite was something that I called sweet potato fruit. It was easy to peel and it revealed a fruit that looked and tasted much like a very sweet sweet potato. Another good one looked like a prickly cherry and had a yummy fruit inside. Pomellos were another favorite. They are just like huge grapefruits. There were various other wonderful exotic fruits and of course plenty of pineapples and coconuts. We made lots of virgin pina colada and sticking a straw into a baby coconut was quite yummy.
Of every country we visited Thailland was my favorite. There were some downsides that expatriates claimed but we didn't seem them. Apparently there is a lot of corruption. Also farang (foreigners) don't have as many rights as citizens. They love tourists but it is difficult to buy land or work there. Also farang don't have as many legal rights and I was told that in a car accident between a Thai and a farang the farang is always "at fault" even if the accident was caused by the Thai running a red light. The thinking is that the farang doesn't really belong there and if he hadn't been there the accident wouldn't have happened in the first place. Still I would strongly consider living in Thailand for a while and explore the country and the neighboring countries better.
