Day 76: Phuket

Trip Start Sep 21, 2006
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77
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Trip End Jun 01, 2007


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Flag of Thailand  ,
Thursday, December 7, 2006

20 hours. It took 20 hours to reach my hotel in Phuket. What with wandering around Banglamphu for other passengers, waiting for the bus to turn up through Bangkok's gridlock, being kicked off near Suri Thani at 5.30am (as I was finally starting to nod off), waiting two hours for a cramped minibus to arrive, sitting in that for five hours, and hanging around a tourist agency for the next connection. I need sleep and a shower, and a massage.
Typhoon Durian, after laying waste to the Philippines, is passing close by and I've arrived in torrential rains. Great.
I'm meeting my sister and her brood here for a fortnight's intermission of a family holiday. She will love landing at the airport through cyclonic storms and missing the beach due to heavy downpours.
I didn't book the rooms, so they are 10 times the price of what I usually pay, with beds the size of my budget bedrooms.The staff at the Central Karon Beach Resort, of which there are many, are embarrassingly polite. I feel a stain in their manicured and polished reception, arriving with my backpack and salty T-shirt after a day travelling rough. They let me check in, however.
Disinfected, I wander to the damp beach. It's a long strip lined with sunloungers. There are prominent signs from here, through the shopping arcades to higher ground. These mars the tsunami escape route. Two years ago this coast was wasted and debris washed right up to the road. Unlike neighbouring islands, such as Ko Phi Phi, few buildings were damaged. I know my niece is nervous coming to this area. Despite their use, these signs are bound to spook her, along with the rubber gecko I'm sticking above her bed.
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