Thailand

Day 13 : Phuket, Thailand

We have been in Phuket for the past few days. Phuket is like Vegas on crack. You can't even describe that place. "Lady Boys", prostitutes, night clubs, shopping....its wild. You see old, fat European men with 2 gorgeous Thai women, (sometimes not woman at all, but they are so close you have to do a double take).Go-Go bars as far as the eye can see. And crammed into the cracks are trinket shops, internet cafes, and sarong and flipflop stands. In every sense it is Vegas, beach style. Scooter and taxi traffic is non-stop and people are everywhere. For some reason – ignorance, probably – the whole of Phuket island has become associated with its most popular tourist destinations: the beach areas of Patong, Kata and Karon.  Despite the geographical beauty surrounding it, Patong, especially, has become a place to avoid like the plague: it’s basically a conglomeration of chain hotels, cheap digs and sex-themed bars and clubs. Not somewhere to take the kids, then.

Phuket Patong Beach
At our little cottage on the beach. It had a little porch, a pool and even AC - dreamy for $35 a night. That's spendy for ths trip.

But the reasons most travellers opt for Phuket is it makes an excellent base from which to explore the surrounding islands and their beaches (which is what brought us here). Patong beach, long and narrow, is lined with umbrella chairs and beach massage stations offering Thai style massage for dollars. The weather was beautiful and we found ourselves a Bungalow right on the beach with A/C and a pool for the three of us to share.

Brian and Ryan hanging out on the patio. That is the pool behind them that I spend every moning treading and floating all by myself while the guys slept in their "glorious-AC", as they called it.

In the mornings the guys are sleeping in, while I spend my morning reading by the pool, with my coffee and bananas. We rented jet skis one afternoon, which was actually our first oceanic jet ski voyage.

 

 

 

 

 

Patong Beach. Still scared from ths whole scene - this is crazy mouse guy. We have no idea what his purpose is - other than to be crazy mouse guy.
The hongs look like Hallow moutains that protrude our of the ocean. They are everywhwrw off the coast in Pganhna Bay. Some are really big - like the one they filmed the movie "the beach" in.
Phangna Bay. This is us on our way to some of the outer Hings to go kayaking. what you need to know if you ever do this is to specify "self paddle" before you book, other wise you have to have someone else paddle you around - and that is lame.
This is the first Hong we kayaked into. They almost look like they are floating. James Bond Island - as they call it, is a Hong in this same bat that they filmed one of the Sean Connery movies at.

We took an all day sea kayak trip into Phang Na Bay. Phang Nga Bay is a remarkable sanctuary of some 60 towering limestone outcrops, some of which have collapsed in the centre to form hongs (huge hollowed rooms with sunlight above) that are usually accessible at low tide. The water around here is emerald green and the whole area is simply breathtaking, even if the scene sometimes resembes a regatta. Speaking for myself, its the coolest thing I've ever done.
We did all sorts of other fun stuff, you can see the pics for that.

 

So, because we got smart and pre-booked a self paddle, we got to get our own guide adn we got dropped off at a searete hong than the rest of the guide boat. A private deal which was sooo awesome.
Depending on the tide, this is how much room you get. This one had an ok opening, into a fairly roomy cave.
Brian and I just inside the mouth of the cave. Now, the hole to get out into the actual lagoon, was a whole other story.
The opening that leads into the lagoon is so small, you have to lay down, turn your head sideways and hope a wave doesn't suddeny slosh through the cave. Our Kayak headed out. You can see just small the damn hole is!
Johnston inside the lagoon kayaking with his huuuge muscles.
Brian and Ryan and out Kayak guide. This is where we pulled ober to wait for the tour boat to come pick us up for lunch and head to another location
Lunch - Holy yum. Fresh fish, rice disned and curry deliciousness. Everywhere we go the food is so freakin amazing.
About the center of a cave.
Depending on the tide, this is how much room you get. This one had an ok opening, into a fairly roomy cave.
Sometimes the holes to get out are even smaller than the ones going in....
This is what it looks like inside of the secret lagoons. The water is warm and pretty shallow and a milky aqua color. There are birds living in here that echo all throughout the hong. And some even have monkeys.
Me inside one of the lagoons. We were hanging out watching the monkeys - as they threw rocks down at everyone.
We made a pitstop to chat with a fisherman on a small beach and to have a snack. This shrimpie is not the snack, but we wished it was!
Jumping off the roof our the tour boat after lunch. No one else did, which is just silly.

We went out a few nights to a mojito joint, where we met Porni- Johnston's new Sweetie. Nights are fun. We'd always grab, food and beer and just hang out playing the nail not he log game. Its exactly that. Nail a huge nail onto a big log. First nail all the way in  wins. It fills the time while drinking and watching the Lady boys, the swingers and prostitutes. Its quite entertaining. Muay Thai Fights are everywhere and we got catch a local fight for free out in the square. That was a cool bonus. 

 

Downtown Phuket. Lines with shops, bars, sex clubs, - you name it.
The guys - out for a nice dinner and drinkies.
Here is an example of Patong Beach night life. Here we have an outdoor bar. There are lots of people havuing fun - and if you look reallyhard - a LOT of fun!
This is an outdoor boxing ring for a yet another Thai boxing match. Always bet on blue
Marisha waiting for the ever coveted mojito - after weeks of Thai beer. This is at a little "Cuban" restaurant on the main strip of town.
Ryan and his new Thai love Porni - yes that is her real name. she works at the Cuban cafe - and because of her and my lve for mojitos, we came here a few nights.
Oh, the log game. The rules are quite simple really: The first ruke of log game, is you don't talk about log game. The second rule of the log game is you hit the old flat head nail into the log with the fewest hits.
Bri kept yelling "you're my boy Blue!" Even though every time he bet on blue he lost. hahahaha

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