Phuket Town, Patong Beach and Ko Samui
The journey to Phuket town was a nightmare. I had a ticket to go by mini-van but spent the first hour of the journey travelling backwards and forwards around Krabi before changing vans and changing back, then being driven to another drop off point and being sandwiched into another van with loads of other people going to various different destinations. We finally arrived on the outskirts of Phuket at a travel agents where they kindly offered to book accommodation - I was not in the mood to be ripped off and I knew Phuket town wouldn't be too crowded so I politely declined. After a large argument a taxi came to take me to my hotel.
As my brother (Steve) was coming out with his brother-in-law (Lloydy) and his friend (Wakey)I chose a hotel a bit nicer than what I'd been used to - The Pearl Hotel. The hotel had a nice restaurant and a swimming pool complete with waterfalls!
The lads arrived and we headed out to an Irish bar. Next day we chilled in the pool before a night out at Patong Beach. Patong Beach is one of the craziest places I've visited on my travels with so many bars and clubs. We decided that we would move from the town next day.
The next few days are a bit of a blur with a lot of time spent at the various bars on Bangla Road and our favourite bar - UK Bar where the beers and whiskies came thick and fast. We randomly met a bloke from Seaham who Wakey and Lloydy knew. Our first hotel was OK but my floor was strange as it had about 10 quiet please hand written notices up on the walls.
As well as the drinking we did find time to have suits made. Generally the tailors are really annoying and come up to you shouting and trying to shake your hand but we decided to buy from one who worked near one of our regular bars - we had just started chatting to him in the bar and we ended up getting an OK deal although we should have probably thought more about the material and waited until Bangkok. After 3 fittings our suits were ready and I was really pleased with the fit - I'm just going to have to watch how many pies I eat!!
One day as a break from the drinking we headed over to Phuket Zoo - this was a terrible place and almost all the animals looked badly treated. The monkey show looked cruel as the monkeys all had big chains around their necks. Half the cages were empty and the cages that did have animals in just had concrete floors. The herd of elephants all looked mad and the only thing any of us enjoyed was the crocodile show. There were two blokes who slung the crocodiles around, jumped over them and for the finale stuck their heads in the crocs mouth - mental.
Lloydy had his picture taken with a big snake on the way out. After the zoo we headed over to the shooting range - wakey decided to shoot a pistol while me, Steve and Lloydy went clay pigeon shooting. As to the outcome lets just say Lloydy is military trained and I didn't come last!!
Half way through our time in Patong we had to move hotels - we had got yet another crap rate through an agent. The girl who worked in the hotel told us the real rate but would not let us have the rooms at that rate as we'd come through an agent so we moved out on principal. This was not the best idea as every hotel and guesthouse seemed to be full. Eventually Lloydy saved the day with the help of his Thai friend and a moped he found us somewhere on the otherside of town. This place had its quirks too as it was run by Italians who didn't speak English (just try explaining over the phone that you are already staying at the hotel but want to book extra nights!!).
From Patong we decided to fly to Ko Samui as we were all ready for a change of pace and a bit of relaxation. We decided to stay at the end of Chaweng Beach. My plan to dodge the accomodation touts at the airport nearly backfired as I told them we were staying at a hotel which when we got there turned out to be a building site. Luckily with a bit of team work we managed to convince the driver he had taken us to the wrong place and got him to drive us back to some bungalows we had passed on the way. We got the last 4 rooms. 2 rooms were standard and 2 were budget (or shacks as we called them). I took one of the shacks as I wanted to save some money but ended up really liking the place. The hotel was called Sea Side bungalows and was set right on the beach.
We spent the first day just chilling out although we did manage to find a good Irish bar later that night.
Wakey also randomly decided to try Chicken Feet and Frogs Legs (still attached to the frog!)
Next day I decided to book a snorkelling trip to Ko Tao as it would be my last chance to do it before heading home. Steve decided to join me at the last minute.
Next morning we headed out early and got taken to our boat. We realised straight away that the trip was really a diving trip with a few snorkellers thrown in to make up the numbers, however they had slightly over-estimated the numbers as the boat was very crowded and with all the diving gear you were always looking for a seat or tripping over someone.
The speedboat journey was pretty smooth and we got to see Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao. We were dropped at the first spot, a bay on Ko Tao - the snorkelling was pretty good around the rocks in the bay we saw some big fish and some squid. I tried out my underwater digital camera Jen had got for me.
After lunch we stopped at another site and had to swim out from the boat. There were still plenty of fish but the coral seemed to be dead/damaged. The second spot was close to a private beach and resort and I was amused to think some people had paid all that money only to see loads of snorkellers arriving by boat each day!
We checked out another beach and I made a mental note to try and stay on Ko Tao when I come back to Thailand.
Back on Ko Samui we had our last night out before catching our plane late in the afternoon to Bangkok.
As my brother (Steve) was coming out with his brother-in-law (Lloydy) and his friend (Wakey)I chose a hotel a bit nicer than what I'd been used to - The Pearl Hotel. The hotel had a nice restaurant and a swimming pool complete with waterfalls!
The lads arrived and we headed out to an Irish bar. Next day we chilled in the pool before a night out at Patong Beach. Patong Beach is one of the craziest places I've visited on my travels with so many bars and clubs. We decided that we would move from the town next day.
The next few days are a bit of a blur with a lot of time spent at the various bars on Bangla Road and our favourite bar - UK Bar where the beers and whiskies came thick and fast. We randomly met a bloke from Seaham who Wakey and Lloydy knew. Our first hotel was OK but my floor was strange as it had about 10 quiet please hand written notices up on the walls.
As well as the drinking we did find time to have suits made. Generally the tailors are really annoying and come up to you shouting and trying to shake your hand but we decided to buy from one who worked near one of our regular bars - we had just started chatting to him in the bar and we ended up getting an OK deal although we should have probably thought more about the material and waited until Bangkok. After 3 fittings our suits were ready and I was really pleased with the fit - I'm just going to have to watch how many pies I eat!!
One day as a break from the drinking we headed over to Phuket Zoo - this was a terrible place and almost all the animals looked badly treated. The monkey show looked cruel as the monkeys all had big chains around their necks. Half the cages were empty and the cages that did have animals in just had concrete floors. The herd of elephants all looked mad and the only thing any of us enjoyed was the crocodile show. There were two blokes who slung the crocodiles around, jumped over them and for the finale stuck their heads in the crocs mouth - mental.
Lloydy had his picture taken with a big snake on the way out. After the zoo we headed over to the shooting range - wakey decided to shoot a pistol while me, Steve and Lloydy went clay pigeon shooting. As to the outcome lets just say Lloydy is military trained and I didn't come last!!
Half way through our time in Patong we had to move hotels - we had got yet another crap rate through an agent. The girl who worked in the hotel told us the real rate but would not let us have the rooms at that rate as we'd come through an agent so we moved out on principal. This was not the best idea as every hotel and guesthouse seemed to be full. Eventually Lloydy saved the day with the help of his Thai friend and a moped he found us somewhere on the otherside of town. This place had its quirks too as it was run by Italians who didn't speak English (just try explaining over the phone that you are already staying at the hotel but want to book extra nights!!).
From Patong we decided to fly to Ko Samui as we were all ready for a change of pace and a bit of relaxation. We decided to stay at the end of Chaweng Beach. My plan to dodge the accomodation touts at the airport nearly backfired as I told them we were staying at a hotel which when we got there turned out to be a building site. Luckily with a bit of team work we managed to convince the driver he had taken us to the wrong place and got him to drive us back to some bungalows we had passed on the way. We got the last 4 rooms. 2 rooms were standard and 2 were budget (or shacks as we called them). I took one of the shacks as I wanted to save some money but ended up really liking the place. The hotel was called Sea Side bungalows and was set right on the beach.
We spent the first day just chilling out although we did manage to find a good Irish bar later that night.
Wakey also randomly decided to try Chicken Feet and Frogs Legs (still attached to the frog!)
Next day I decided to book a snorkelling trip to Ko Tao as it would be my last chance to do it before heading home. Steve decided to join me at the last minute.
Next morning we headed out early and got taken to our boat. We realised straight away that the trip was really a diving trip with a few snorkellers thrown in to make up the numbers, however they had slightly over-estimated the numbers as the boat was very crowded and with all the diving gear you were always looking for a seat or tripping over someone.
The speedboat journey was pretty smooth and we got to see Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao. We were dropped at the first spot, a bay on Ko Tao - the snorkelling was pretty good around the rocks in the bay we saw some big fish and some squid. I tried out my underwater digital camera Jen had got for me.
After lunch we stopped at another site and had to swim out from the boat. There were still plenty of fish but the coral seemed to be dead/damaged. The second spot was close to a private beach and resort and I was amused to think some people had paid all that money only to see loads of snorkellers arriving by boat each day!
We checked out another beach and I made a mental note to try and stay on Ko Tao when I come back to Thailand.
Back on Ko Samui we had our last night out before catching our plane late in the afternoon to Bangkok.
posted by Phil at 8:53 PM
1 Comments:
That is one crazy pic of the aligator with the guys head in!
The underwater pics look really good - what a good present! ;-)
Love
Jen
x
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