Thailand 2008

We head out on the scooter towards a inviting beach called Friendship Beach. When we get there we realise that it is a private resort and not a beach. We ride to Rawai beach, which is not much of a beach at all, so we ride onto Hat Nai beach, where we had been before.

We settle on the sand for a few hours and grab lunch before riding back to Phuket to drop off the scooter.

Near Phuket town we are stopped by the police. He asks for my passport, which the scooter rental people have, and then my license. I don’t have my licence with me (silly I know) and he issues me a 300Baht fine. Thankfully the police station is just down the road and I ride off to pay it, whilst Abby has to stay behind as a ‘deposit’. To my great delight the police station staff are friendly and quick and I’m back to show the police my receipt, and to collect Abby within 10 minutes. That could have been a lot worse. Abby tells me he stopped several westerners and checked their documents. A nice little earner for the Thai Police.

We get back to the scooter rental place late, but nothing is said.

Abby is keen to get her haircut this morning, after we chopped most of it off on Pulau Pehentian in Malaysia. We find a professional looking place where the lady speaks at least a few words of English. Abby takes some photos from a magazine and is pleased with the result, which costs just 300Baht, a tenth of the cost at home.

I do some online jobs. We head towards the shopping centre, but find it closed, and the supermarket, which is the reason we went to the shopping centre, is very basic. But we get the supplies we need.

I am always surprised that products such as fruit juice are so expensive in countries in Asia. Fruit itself seems to grow everywhere and is very cheap to buy. I guess it is a supply and demand situation, and the fact that few of the local people buy fruit juice, therefore it remains fairly expensive. Breakfast cereal is also expensive so we go without.

We rent a scooter on our way back to the guesthouse. I don’t have my passport on me, so the lady lets me take the scooter to get my passport and return with it. I’m barely around the block when it runs out of fuel. Rental bikes are almost always drained of fuel when they are returned, and I think they went a bit too far this time. Anyway, I’m able to easily push it to a fuel station and top up.

We get out things together and head out of Phuket town towards the beach. The urban area is quite large and it takes us 40 minutes to reach the beaches as the southern end of the island. The beaches there are nice, but still have some of the tourist facilities we were hoping to escape. After a nice swim we have some great Thai food there. The numerous restaurants are big and empty, evidence of the downturn in visitors since the tsunami.

It’s dark when we head back to Phuket town. The lady from the restaurant tells us to drive slowly. We only 5 minutes into our ride when it starts to rain. Thankfully the rain never gets really bad, but bad enough to make it a cautious, wet and bleary eyed ride. We get back in one peace and decipher the parking rules; one side of the road on odd dates, the other side of the road on even dates. Strange.

We relax with a couple of drinks before ending the night with some laptop TV.

We are pleased to leave our grossly overpriced and grotty hotel room and spend the morning relaxing on the beach. He have a bite to eat from the cheap eateries place where we have taken all of our meals (money straight into the locals pockets) and head down to the boat jetty. Once we get on the boat I feel unwell, and then Abs does, but we settle in and get to Phuket without any problems.

My Lonely Planet guide book suggests staying in Phuket town, rather than at the beaches, which are crammed with tourists and related services. Considering we are trying to avoid staying in touristy areas, and have just overdosed on such areas, we decide to stay in Phuket town. We get a mini-bus to the town bus station. We walk a few blocks and find the Talang Guesthouse which is recommended. The guesthouse is lovely, and the sort of price we like to stay. Our moods are lifted as we find real Thailand again, after the disappointment of the overpriced, over hyped tourist factories of the last few days.

In the evening we take a little walk and find a great restaurant selling good, cheap Thai food.

I think we will be staying here and exploring Phuket for a while.

We catch a bus and then a ferry from Krabi to the Island of Ko Phi Phi We pass several small islands and rock formations during the 1 hour boat ride. As we near to Phi Phi we can see how beautiful the island is, and we notice several beautiful small bays, which is the sort of place were we love to stay.

The ferry docks at the jetty and everyone scrambles to get off. Once we are on terra firma Abby minds the luggage whilst I try join the scrum at the tourist information offices. Accommodation is expensive here (1,000 Baht), even more so at the beautiful bays that we like so much. Whilst the island is beautiful this is the home of packaged tourist holidays, the one thing we are trying to avoid on this trip. We settle on an OK looking hotel, pay the absurd amount and take a trek down to the resort.

The room is adequate, although I had expected more for the money.

We feel uneasy here on Phi Phi. The island is covered in package resorts and their tourists. This is not what we had expected or wanted. We head out and stop for lunch. At least we can find good food at reasonable prices.

We go down to the beach and take a swim. The water is very warm and clear, although the reef seems damaged, and we can only assume it tsunami damage, as this island was hit very hard.

After a stroll in the afternoon we get an early night, as Abby doesn’t feel so well, and we avoid the tourist noisy outside.

I book us tickets to Phuket tomorrow. We intend to stay in the town, away from the tourists there too.