From Bangkok we took another unreliable bus to Phuket and scored an awesome deal in a 4 star resort called The Karon Princess on Karon Beach. Apparently it was the last week of the off season.
We had a day trip to Phang Nga Bay & James Bond Island (pronounced Jays Boh eye-lan), which included sea kayaking and an excellent Thai cabaret show starring Johhny Bond, James's Thai cousin!! We also did a day trip in a speedboat (ala Miami Vice) to Ko Phi Phi, Maya Bay (the beach in the movie "The Beach") and did some snorkelling in the open ocean. We had a night out in Phuket town where the vegetarian festival was on. A heap of blokes who were on some kind of spiritual journey paraded down the street while everyone in the crowd, who had previously armed themselved with an arsenal of firecrackers, pelted said people with said firecrackers. One guy even had his hair smoldering but didn't seem to mind. We even got in on the act, borrowing some crackers from a group of locals.
From Karon Beach we moved on to Patong Beach for a few nights, where we tried to go snorkelling on a boat trip, but failed when they forgot to pick us up. Instead we went snorkelling off Kata Noi Beach, which we decided was much better than off a boat anyway. More thumbnails ...
| 
