Playa del Phuket
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
7
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
Patong, Phuket,
Thailand
Monday, November 22, 2004
We were all staying at the Erawan guest house. Seems to be about the best value you can get in Patong. Nice rooms and they sorted out all our travel and trips.
Myself and Brian were exhausted after our long day travelling and the others were exhausted after a long day shopping for Christmas presents. After two months in South East Asia they have become expert hagglers that can reduce an initial 900 baht price to 300 baht. We still managed a lot of beer, some tequila and a late night chicken.
We didn't do any shopping in Phuket at all. Brian hates haggling and would rather accept the price quoted rather than spend 10 minutes arguing over 30 cents. I hadn't bought anything for ages before coming away and now that I'm away I don't actually want anything (except for lots of food, drink and accommodation).
We did make one exception and splashed out 100 baht (no haggling) on a plate with our photo on it that was taken when we went on a boat trip. It's the cheesiest thing ever. We spent a few hours debating whether or not to give it to Monkey as his Christmas present but eventually decided we don't dislike him that much. Instead we're using it to decorate whatever room we're staying in. If anyone breaks in to rob our stuff they'll probably just laugh at the cheesy picture-plate and realise that such losers have nothing worth robbing.
Unlike Malaysia there's no Guinness in Thailand. However the Irish influence is still going strong. Bellfire (an Irish group of "Celtic Sirens" practically unknown back home) are currently number one in MTV Thailand's music chart.
Leaving the lovely beach in Patong we headed off rafting one day. I wasn't expecting much but when they didn't even bother to give us paddles I was really disappointed. Luckily enough the boring river cruise I expected turned out to be an exciting trip down a river full of nasty rocks. Danger levels were sufficiently high to keep us happy.
Apart from the lovely beach Patong is sleazy and full of skin-headed, tattooed blokes eager for Thai girls to sit on their laps. Luckily we found one bar that didn't throw in a free lap dance with every drink. Actually there was one other non-sleazy bar but that had the original Thai Elvis performing every night so we gave it a miss. The Harley Davidson Bar in Patong is full of harley-mad Thai guys and bikers. Come to think of it most of them had tattoos and skin-heads too.
Realising we don't quite fit in with the other tourists in Patong we're going to head to Ko Lanta next.
