ok, going 180 degrees from my last entry here!
Phuket. Is an island in the south of Thailand that I have only ever once flown into, and once flown out of. as I was just a 2 hour bus ride away, and Next thought I should see more than the airport, I made the trip and realized exactly why the airport had sufficed on my previous visits...
Patong.
the main beach of the area, which I can imagine was once a very pretty spot, is now at best an example of what tourism overdevelopment can do. If anyone coming to Thailand has visions of waves lapping on white sand beaches fringed with coconut trees and quaint palm and bamboo huts, they had better plan to head elsewhere. Patong is like Bangkok. high rise hotels alongside Subway, McDonald's and Nike and all manner of other western things that make one wonder why spend the airfare. Not to mention the traffic.
That latter one I experienced firsthand. Now knowing that Phuket has gotten well expensive, I figured within the hub would be the place to find 'cheap' accomodation. I got a room at CT guesthouse, which is on the street opposite the famous Bang-la, for 800 baht (!). Thankfully that room was shared and thus so was the cost. My other thoughts were, I had also come for the nightlife - and easier to head out in the daylight to other nicer beaches, but be able to crawl home after some buckets in Bangla. So I got a little scooter, and with it managed to check out a temple and a couple other beaches, and not kill anyone/get killed. Kata beach, although still developed, is not anywhere near the level of Patong and is a good swimming beach - a nice place to chill before my company arrived in the form of Malin of Khao Lak fame, and off we were..sort of.
I'd had to sort out one of my usual little..troubles...with being in a new climate, etc and had a wee infection to fend off. At this point I was somewhat thankful for the Patong infrastructure, which includes well stocked pharmacies open till all hours and some hours later was back up and running. This night we just took in the scenery, watching prostitutes run after potential customers pondering which were female and which were...male...
the next night though, went off. Bars, buckets, boys (some of which had nicer dresses than we!). We fell in with some random partying aussies, including one who had a perma-joker grin on his face but they were a right laugh. In the mix of course were the obligatory lady boys, and we carried on in a club til the wee hours, me literally dancing til I dropped, deciding I'd had enough of Patong and promptly boarding the bus back to Khao Lak where I could breathe again (and not pay 250 baht for one bloody chang beer!!!).
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