Costa del Phuket

Trip Start Jun 14, 2008
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Trip End Jun 20, 2009


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Flag of Thailand  ,
Saturday, February 7, 2009

Phuket is a horrendous kip, the Thai version of the Costa del Sol, except with more perverts. The three (inexplicible) draws for tourists are the beaches of Pattong, Karon and Hata. We unwisely chose to stay on the first of the three, having booked a place online before we arrived. Big mistake. It's the largest and dirtiest. The beach is a nightmare of closely packed umbrellas, occupied by fat, speedo clad germans with their fag packets hanging out of their arses. Nice. The town is chaotic, the usual food joints and stalls filled with cheap merchandise, motorcyles roaring down the street paying little heed to oncoming traffic or helpless pedestrians. There is also a large strip filled excusively with bars, flashing neon lights and techno music. If we wanted bright lights and chaos we would have stayed in Bangkok, which was alot more entertaining than Pattong. Where were the crystal clear waters, funky beach bars, solitude? Were we being hopelessly naive to expect it, was our image completely off?

We drowned our disappointment on our first night with a Norweigan lady who runs 2 dive shops in Thailand kata beach
kata beach
. She told us how much Phuket had changed and grown over the last few years, and how much of it was rebuilt after the tsunami. Seems crazy to think of all that death and destruction happening so recently right where we were sitting. You can see evacuation signs all over the island warning people which way to run if another one hits.  

We ventured over to the last, quieter beach for a day of sunbathing on our second and final day. It was definitley more peaceful, but still wall to wall with umbrellas and tourists. We had heard from friends that Phi Phi was amazing, and we wanted to do some diving there; so we decided to cut our losses and hop on the ferry in search of a bit of peace and paradise.
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