We found a great guest house in Phuket town, got cleaned up, handed them all our washing to do, and went out for a a nice quiet evening of a couple of drinks and some food. It was quiet alright. Phuket town really didn't have much going on. But we didn't mind, had a nice chilled evening and got the best night's sleep ever. Although me and Vikki left the air con on a bit too low so our room was like a freezer when we got back. The first time i'd actually felt cold in a long while! The following day we packed up our lovely clean clothes and headed out to find the sawngthaew (open air us type thing) that took us to the other side of Phuket - Pattong beach. It wasn't long before we had settled in a new room, got ready and got ourselves down to the beach. Bliss.
The beach was golden (I was convinced it actually had bits of gold in it but Vikki didn't believe me) and the sea was warm and the sun was bloody hot. That's not a complaint by the way. And we still hadn't escaped the constant pestering. One day on the beach, they were actually coming up to us in 3's, selling either aloe vera (some of which an old lady clumped a big blob on Vikki so she was slimey for the rest of the day), dresses (to which Kimberley and I eventually gave in to and bought one each), 'massaaaaages' (they tend to hang on to there words out here), or pipes (the musical kind - i was almost tempted by this as I'm missing playing my clarinet, but it just wasn't the same). The next few days were made up pretty much of beach, food and evenings out. And just to clarify mainly to my mum and dad, that it's not all a drunken blur, ok!! When I say we went out for a few drinks, it just means a few. It doesn't mean we're out 'on the lash' all the time. Just wanted to clear that up because I know exactly what you're thinking!! :)
Apart from the beach, the nightlife wasn't too much to boast about. I was pretty sickened by the amount of middle aged 'falang' men (white men) who obviously came here on their holidays purely to get their wicked ways with the ladies... and lady boys. I'm not naive about these things, but it's actually everywhere and right in your face. Not discrete in any way at all. I just didn't like it. One evening we found and irish pub though and had a good giggle in there. They had live irish music which is always good, and Kimberley and I had a bit of a jig. Oh and we ended up getting KFC on the way home, which we have now vowed not to be doing any more. Yuk...
... but that didn't work as the next evening we ended up in McDonalds. Doh. It's just too easy!! This was followed by a late night dip in the sea (with clothes on of course). That was funny though, as were the looks we got from people walking back to our hostel with wet sandy clothes. I actually ended up throwing away that top because it was far too sandy to wash or put back in my backpack. Makes a lighter backpack though!
Anyway back to the real stuff. So a few days of holidaying. Oh yes and the last night we found the Saxophone pub, obviously at my request. I loved it in there. They had a live band playing classic jazz songs. Couldn't really understand what the woman was singing but the music was good and we played some pool. I let Stephen win coz I can tell he's a real bad loser.
Another amusing part of Phuket were the random signs we saw. A couple we got pictures of as above, and that t-shirt. We all want one because it really does round up what you get hassled with every other step you take! Another funny sign was one on the beach advertising the water sports. Before it gives the prices it says "Good Luck". Needless to say I didn't fancy doing any. This also had something to do with the rastafarian swinging on the ropes of the parasailing. Funny to watch but I wouldn't fancy him jumping around and swinging on it when I was up there.
So anyway, really back to the story. At this point it was time for us all to part. Vikki was flying home in a few days so she had decided to make her way back to Bangkok for a couple of days of shopping and a luxury hotel. Kimberely had friends who had arrived in Phi Phi so she was heading that way, and Stephen and I had decided to venture on to find the new project we kept threatening to do. This was another 2 day decision by the way. I'm hoping the decision making will get better. Maybe we should just play the dice game. Anyway we had decided to head back up north a little to Khao Lak (on the map above). In our books it explained it was the worse affected area from the Tsunami, and there was a Tsunami volunteer centre there. "We must be able to find something there." So Monday morning we all went our separate ways, sob :(
We jumped on the sawngthaew back to Phuket town, lost about 3 stone walking with our backpacks to find the bus station again, and got on a bus to Khao Lak.
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