Thailand Part 2: Phuket

Continuing on with my week-long trip to Thailand, this post will be about our time on the island of Phuket (pronounced poo-ket). So after leaving Bangkok and the Prince Palace at around 5:30 am, we got into Phuket at about 7. There were three of us on that flight, so we had to wait about half an hour for the next flight, and the rest of our friends to arrive. Dan and i had signed up for the free ride to our hotel, and we were met with a man holding a sign for us, which was pretty baller. The island turned out to be really big, it took about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to our hotel, the Sunset Beach Resort. Located just to the north of Patong Beach and the town of Patong, we were literally right across the street from a beach on a large bay. Our place was really amazing, it was centered around an awesome little pool. There were palm trees all around it, an upper level pool that had a waterfall, and two pool-side bars. Placed in such a beautiful resort, with really hot weather and an inviting pool, we decided to lounge all day and enjoy our surroundings. After such an early morning the pool felt so good and everyone took advantage of the pool side bar service, drinking a few Changs each. I was starving so I had some delicious Thai chicken noodle egg dish delivered and ate it in the pool, which was amazing. Later that afternoon I watched some TV, which was exciting in and of itself. They had about 20 channels so i watched rugby and Euro soccer, as well as a bunch of American movies; there wasnt anything like that in Bangkok and even in Australia we only have 3 channels so it was a treat to veg out while watching the tube. I eventually ended up falling asleep and got a good little nap. That evening Greg and I decided to go down to Patong and scope out the scene for later, instead of being cooped up in the hotel even longer. We caught a ride into the city and it was CRAZY. There was a few main strips, and they were all like Khao San road on crack. The venders heckled even more and the promoter girls were even more in your face... we walked all around, we would go down a main road with tons of shops and big touristy bars but then there would be little dark alleys branching off that would be completely lined with tiny little open bars. It was clear that most tourists stayed away from these places, since the Thai girls promoting these bars went crazy over us, grabbing our arms and stuff. Ha one even grabbed my nipple, which was interesting. Having our full, we rode back to the hotel and had dinner with everyone. I got some ginger beef with oyster sauce, it tasted exactly like that ginger beef dish that dad makes sometimes.. we ended up eating at the hotel A LOT, since the food was good and cheap, they had lots of nice table areas, and we could put all the food on a tab to be paid later (handy for me as i never had any cash). We hung out in our rooms for awhile before going back downtown, this time with the whole group and looking to hit the bars. Who knows why we picked the one place we did out of the hundreds of bars, but it had 20 stripper poles, all with fully clothed girls dancing on them. Some of our girls jumped up on stage to try their hand and then murph and steve decided to put on a show as well which was hilarious. For those of us not stage/pole dancing inclined, there were some jenga sets laying around so we played jenga. It was pretty weird to be playing jenga in a thai bar with neon lights and pole dancing going on. we stayed out late and went to a few other places before eventually calling it a night.

The next day, wednesday, we had a elephant rides lined up through the hotel concierge but it was not until 4pm so we had another day of poolside relaxing. I ordered my first room service in my lifetime (hamburger and fries... also the first western style food i had ordered in thailand up to that point), and watched some more TV. However I was getting antsy and wanted to see more of the sights instead of laying around all day so i got i took the free hotel ride into the city and checked out the city beach. I had to go by myself but i like adventuring so it was ok.. the beach was more of the same, with vendors walking up and down the lines of chairs trying to sell stuff and so many jet-ski rental operators heckling. It was difficult to find a place to just sit by myself but i did. It was extremely hot tho so i didnt stay for long, and walked down the beach back to our hotel, which took about 40 minutes. There were a bunch of tiny crabs that were burying themselves into the sand so that entertained me on my walk. So finally it was time for our elephant ride, and we were driven out into the jungle to the company.. but on the drive out we got to see a wild elephant off in the distance and water buffalo roaming about which was sweet. we got to pet and pose with a baby elephant, who was also able to do a few tricks like doing a handstand and playing a harmonica through its trunk before we got to ride the big ones. We rode two people per elephant, sitting on a bench strapped to their backs. every elephant also had a driver, who just sat on its head. It was an hour ride through the jungle and was so cool, we crossed rivers, rode through rubber tapped-trees and actually got to drive the beasts ourselves; the drivers jumped off and we took turns sitting on its head. By the time we got back it was getting on in the evening so we ate at the hotel again before going out back downtown, where again we sang on a stage.. I dont know what it was but the Thai bands LOVED for us americans to sing and dance on stage with them.

Thursday, my last full day in Thailand, was my favorite by far. We got up early and were driven to a marina where we were to go on a cruise of the islands surrounding Phuket. I almost missed the tour again but i was able to barely get up in time. luckily on board they had snacks and drinks for us. we got on a big speed boat (probably 25-30) people in all and sped off. The scenery we saw that day was absolutely amazing, even though it was anywhere from an hour to 30 minutes between stops, it didnt matter because we marvelled at beautiful scenery the whole time. There are thousands of islands in the area, ranging from tiny tree-covered rocks to ones large enough for habitation in the area, and the water was such an awesome green-turquoise color and the clouds were so huge and magnificent. Most of the islands seemed to just straight up out of the water with sheer rock cliffs and no beach. Our first stop was Maya Bay, where the film The Beach with Leo Dicaprio was filmed. our boat squeezed through a narrow passage and we were in this awesome lagoon where we got to go swimming and walked back through the forest a bit. Then they took us around to the other side of the island where we snorkeled for a bit. At this stop and all the others there were schools and school of these green fish with blue strips that we could feed bits of bananas to, they would swarm around you and even eat it from your hand. Then we went to Monkey Island, and although the tide was up completely covering the beach, they were able to take the boat in right under a tree where a lot of monkeys were and we tossed them nuts. After all this it was lunchtime and they took us to an island (Ko Phi Phi, pronounced ko pee-pee) where probably the only thing on it was this really fancy resort, where we got to eat a delicious thai buffet lunch. So yummy and so scenic. Our last stop was at Ko Khai (ko means island), where we were given a few hours of leisure time to relax and explore before heading back in to Phuket. We got back around dinner time and that night i went to bed early as our flight back left early in the morning.

After a short flight from Phuket to singapore, a long layover in Singapore, and then another flight south, we were finally back in Perth. Our time in Thailand was great, we go to see incredible sights and do crazy things that we couldn't do at any other place in the world; it was definitely the trip of our lifetimes. However, at the same time it was such a nice feeling to be back in Australia, and back amongst a culture that we knew and understood. Back home in Fremantle we breathed in the fresh clean air and relished being able to walk down the streets back to our dorms unaccosted. The next few days we all suffered from varying levels of sickness as our systems detoxed from Thailand, and a sense of melancholy set in as we buckled down for exams and realized we had a scant two weeks left together in this wonderful land down under.

click the pics

View down from my balcony at Sunset Beach Resort

kate and i on our elephant
bros at Maya Bay
Walking back to Maya Bay

snorkeling
yes, the water was actually that color
Ko Phi Phi, where we ate lunch
niceee
some of us at Khai island