Trip to Phuket, Thailand

Trip to Phuket, Thailand

27 April 2012 (Friday)

We find ourselves sitting at Dulce Café at the CT International Airport departures, having checked in and gone through customs. It was a difficult goodbye for me, leaving my children behind. But they are in good hands with my mom. Taryn has her ballet rehearsal in Bellville, I hope mom manages to find the place without too much stress.

Tim and I are both slightly bemused to find ourselves in this situation. We are excited to fly to a foreign country, and to an Asian one at that. This is Tim’s first time out of the country. We sit trying to work out the exchange rate, ie Rand vs Thai Bhart. (I hope Tim knows what he is doing, I am not paying too much attention to this to be honest – I know it is something like R1 = R3.6 THB – but where do the USD$ come into it??)

Drom sent Taximan to collect us at 09h00 (thanks so much, what a friend) – we are due to leave Cape Town airport at 11h35.

A long flight, we passed through one time zone, so we set our watches by 6 hours ahead. We arrived in Singapore at 06h30 in the morning, having had one stopover at Jhb airport for an hour. I managed to get a few hours sleep, but find it very difficult under those conditions. I had what looked like a Thai pilot sitting next to me. But we did not chat. Tim did not sleep at all – but we were kept busy with movies, reading magazines and books. The service and food on Singapore Airlines was amazing. Singapore airport is huge, and it was a bit daunting hunting for our new terminal to find our flight to Phuket. We are waiting at check-in (where they confiscated my hand cream as it was over 90ml – grrrr.) Sigh – my favourite too.

28 April 2012 (Saturday)

We were collected at a very busy Phuket airport by the Deevana Spa shuttle. Our first impression is one of extremely strict and surly officials, then of chaos, and then – the heat! Wow, we were warned, but nothing quite prepares you for the wall of heat that hits you the minute you step out of the air-conditioned building. We arrived at 11h30, setting our watches back an hour, having passed through another time zone. It was a crazy drive through hectic traffic, tuk-tuks, scooters carrying families of up to 5 at times, robots that everyone seems to ignore, as well as road markings that are treated with disdain. I learned quickly to concentrate on the scenery and leave it to the driver to get us to the hotel safely.

Once I had made the decision to embrace Phuket exactly for what it is, I quickly began to fall in love with the people, the culture and the beauty. It is very dirty, third-world and disorganized. But within all of that chaos is a feeling of relief and de-stressing, as one lets go and relaxes. There is no need to be perfect – just to go with the flow. 

Once we had checked into Deevana Resort, unpacked in our lovely air-conditioned room (with king-sized bed, flushing toilet and shower that works when it feels like it) we went exploring. We walked down to Patong Beach front, only to realize that the sea is not going to provide much cooling relief. The water is like bath water. But the sand is white and soft, and the flora lush and green. There are a number of memorials to those who lost their lives in the Tsunami those years ago all over, as well as well marked evacuation routes in case it should happen again. It seems the memory of that terrible time stays with the locals constantly, as they mention “Tsunami” often. We walked far down our “main road”, eventually finding Jung Ceylon shopping centre. Very weird to find something so modern and like our own shopping centres back home.

We had been told that you must barter with the locals when you want to buy something – and we took on the whole good cop/bad cop approach fairly easily. However we felt sorry for the locals too, something I am very sure they are well aware of and play up to. All in good fun. We learned to say Krab Khu Ka (thank you) and Sawadee (can’t recall) – and had loads of fun pretending to be locals. There are hundreds of stalls lining the roads, with thousands of tourists shopping and bartering with the locals. Phuket is just one big market, with beautiful girls and ladies selling their wares (in more way than one) and so many bars and pubs, many of which were Aussie, Irish, Russian etc.     

We were trying to stay awake till later so that we could try to outlast the jetlag, but we succumbed to an hour’s rest at about 4 that afternoon, and awoke feeling refreshed. We both felt like pizza, not quite ready to tackle the local Thai cuisine – so off we went to find a little pizza joint. Of course it wasn’t the greatest pizza, but then what can you expect when dining in Thailand?

29 April 2012 (Sunday)

We slept for 12 hours straight, even missing breakfast, which ends at 10h30. Wow, both raring to go. The weather is once again hot and humid and the sky is slightly overcast. The first thing we did was hire a scooter. (Turns out this was the best thing we could have done.) We both looked quite the part with our little bucket helmets and canary yellow scooter.     

We were soon flying along the “Main Rd”, amidst a thousand other scooter commuters. At least this way we miss being constantly harassed by the overly-motivated stall entrepreneurs. We needed to find breakfast, Kitty the tour operator and the infamous Bang La Rd.   There are so many one way roads and we took more than one wrong turn, and landed up touring much more than was intended, but we had a ball doing so. We eventually ended up on our way to Katha beach. After asking one of the motorcyclists at a robot we were soon back on the correct route to Patong Beach and our other intended venues.

We eventually found ourselves sitting in an Aussie bar (OK, this was not where we were meant to be, but hey, who cares?) and sipping on the amazing Chang beer while the locals challenged a tourist to a game of “see who can hammer a nail into a tree trunk first”. That was worth a laugh, and a free beer when the tourist lost.

A beautiful little Thai girl, probably around 7 years of age, came around selling flower necklaces, with real magnolias on a beaded chain. We bought one and I was rewarded with a kiss on both cheeks. I wish I could take her home with me and save her from what is probably going to become a hard life when she comes of age. I hope not! 

After that, feeling slightly tipsy on a still empty stomach, we walked for ages looking at the stalls, beautiful table cloths and Thai silk garments etc and bought some cool stuff. Eventually we found Bang La Rd, and in it, Kitty’s stall. She wasn’t there, but I took a pic anyway just to show Frik that we were there. We booked a speedboat trip for ourselves to Phi Phi Island for the next day. I am a bit wary as I always get seasick, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Then we made our way back to the hotel to relax in the tepid yet beautiful swimming pool at the hotel.

Later that evening we once again made our way down to the Patong beach front, where we searched for the ideal eating place. We wanted fresh fish, and that’s what we got, together with fresh prawns and the most amazing Thai rice and sweet and sour veg. Yummy!     The locals like to speak about the tsunami and its effects on them. This particular chef had another business that from what we understood, was washed away. He started again and they all seem to take it in their stride. These are lovely, well-mannered people who want to serve (and make money of course) – but a pleasure to deal with.

After that scrumptious meal we took a long walk up to Bang La Rd. What a different place at night. Almost magical with the beautiful lights, music and stunning looking girls. Very Soddom and Gomorra. They have a number of “husband daycare centres” lining the road and the ladies all try to convince you to leave your husband in their tender loving care. My husband is a woes, he didn’t want to go alone LOL!

At night the place comes alive – you no longer see the dirt and grime, smell the drains or notice how poor the locals are. It is a huge party atmosphere and I found myself enthralled by the intoxicating excitement of it all. I am always aware of the sleazy underside of this world – the old European men wandering around with young and beautiful girls and lady-boys, I imagine their wives innocently waiting at home while he fulfills all his fantasies. But this is how they survive, many of these youngsters responsible for younger siblings in terms of feeding and educating them. Catch 22!

30 April 2012 (Monday)

We set our alarms for 06h30, as we did not want to be late for the bus coming to collect us at 8h15 for our trip to sea. After a quick breakfast we set off to collect other people joining us on the trip, staying at various other hotels. It was at least a 45 minute drive to Phuket Harbour, with me dreading it the whole way. I get very seasick and woke up feeling queasy as it is, so I wasn’t sure what awaited me. We were greeted by a very dynamic and very feminine young man who proceeded to brief us as to what to expect. We were warned to hire flippers if we were going to snorkel, to protect our feet . Thankfully we were also all given anti-seasick tablets, which I took immediately. And so we boarded the Sea Angel No 5. It is a large speedboat with 5 x 125 HP engines. My spirits lifted as I realized we would be hightailing it at full speed across the ocean (love speed!!) We were about 50 people on board and we managed to find space right at the front of the boat in the open, rather than in the cabin on benches. Definitely looking more like my kind of action!



Our hostess was “Jennifer”. Difficult to explain.

“She” was a very dynamic, loud and forceful presence on the boat. She definitely took the term “sexual harassment” to a whole new level. No man was safe – it definitely provided for entertainment on our hour or so hectic ride to the Islands. Our first stop was at Maya Bay, Krabi Island, where the movie The Beach was filmed. We first saw a number of tall, yet small islands towering above us, seeming to grow from the depths of the sea, with the most beautiful shrubbery and trees sprouting from every crevice imaginable. Then we powered between two quite large islands only to see a sparkling, flat ocean bay ahead of us and a white beach fronted by a row of about 30 speedboats and tourists combing the island. The captains pilot the boats in backwards, squeezing in between all the other boats where it seems initially impossible to find space. We were then ordered off to explore for half an hour before returning to the boat.

It is just like the movie. Beautiful, lush and green, turquoise water and white sand and impossibly hot. We did some exploring (me desperately looking for a flush toilet with toilet paper – alas, nowhere to be found) and then went back to continue with our journey.

We toured various islands eventually stopping at the famous Phi Phi Island. We all disembarked and had a lovely lunch under the shade of a restaurant under a boma. There is always fresh fruit available after every meal, especially watermelon, and nothing could be more perfect under these warm conditions. I eventually found a useable toilet – but prefer to blank out the memory, it was not pleasant.

      

After looking around at the various stalls we found ourselves on the other side of the island, where friends of ours had booked themselves into the resort there. We did not stay though and sped off to Monkey Bay where you could get off the boat and feed the poor, already overfed, monkeys. Before this you could jump off the boat into the sea for a snorkel and swim. Tim loved this and I took photos of the beautiful tropical fish. Tim even saw a sea snake, a little over ambitious, even for him.

Finally we stopped for an hour and a half at Khai beach – you just see thousands of deck chairs and umbrellas that you hire for 150 TBH. Luckily we had 200 on us – although in the long run we found ourselves just lounging in the sea until we left again for home.

This was a stunning and amazing day – we were very tired when we got back and had a sleep. But we were up again later, touring the town in the slightly cooler evening air.

1 May 2012 (Tuesday)

May-day world-wide, hence a public holiday. A working day nonetheless for the locals. These people work from about 10h00 in the morning till late at night. This is their life – I wonder how it is off season?

We slept late for a change, had a late breakfast and then took off to see if we could exchange some gifts we bought. We then caught an open air bus from the hotel to Central Festival, a large, modern shopping centre on the outskirts of old Phuket town. Most importantly, air-conditioned!

From the outside the building looked a bit dodgy, but inside it was huge, clean and contained all the latest in shopping. They have a large food court and we were happy to sit down to a lunch of KFC – hmmm, true westerners. We did some shopping, finding some goods that are cheaper than at home, and others again that are priced in much the same way. (At least I found beautiful sparkling clean toilets with toilet paper, mirrors and towelettes. Yes, this was becoming a bit of an obsession for me..) We had been told to meet the bus again a few hours later at a place called Coffee Max. We had our little map and initially thought we could walk there.

I put my foot down when I saw the highway leading to our destination, and the mad drivers careening out of control amidst taxis, tuk-tuks and 4x4s. So we hired a tuk-tuk, having narrowly missed a full out barney between an Aussie man and his wife who were lost, and off we were for old Phuket town. Turns out it was a long way to our destination. I am pretty sure if we had walked we would have returned short of one Hayward. For a number of reasons!

Phuket town is old and ugly, but still with its local charm. We sampled some very dodgy juice in a bag (stlawbelly) and possibly cucumber – only to ditch these and eventually sit down to the most amazing kiwi smoothies at Coffee Max.

On our return to the hotel we took our bikes back and then chilled in the room until about 8. We watched a lovely movie, and then took a walk down Patong beach. We shopped for some T-shirts and had some more Chang beer. Tim downed his first so quickly the locals became quite alarmed, but the focus was off us when all the lights went out. Just like back home! It wasn’t long till they came back on, and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll back to the hotel.  

2 May 2012 (Wednesday)

Tim woke me up at about 08h00 (not very impressed, I was getting used to this sleeping late story) – so we had breakfast and then went to re-hire our bike. We decided to take a drive through to Karon beach to see if the Jeppe’s had arrived yet. This is a half hour drive, very pretty, largely uphill. Eventually we found Katha beach and hired ourselves two deck chairs and an umbrella. It was initially overcast but the sun came out and we spent a couple of hours lazing in and out of the warm sea.     

Then we went exploring on the bike, looking for the Jeppe’s hotel. As luck would have it we drove past their hotel as they were entering the courtyard in front, so we stopped and of course there was much excitement as we all said hello. (We never see these good friends of ours, although we all live in CT. So it was such a treat to share this special time with them.)

We joined them at their beautiful pool bar for some drinks and catching up. What fun, lots of laughter. We agreed to meet for dinner that evening, along with their travelling companions Des and Rusta (I worked with Des years ago) and his daughter and fiancé, Nicole and Carlos.

After a few Singha beers in Bang La Rd Gerard took us to a Thai restaurant with very reasonable prices and great food. What a lovely evening, reminiscing and once again enjoying the lovely nature of the restaurant owners and staff. A few of us had Dad Tang, either beef or chicken, while I had Thai noodles and chicken. Imagine my surprise when my noodles resembled flat strips of uncooked dough when I had been imaging a beautiful plateful of spaghetti. Get with it Lisa, this is Thailand, not Italy!

By the time we finished eating the festivities had once again started, and we took a slow walk, gawking and wondering at the brazen goings-on. We were learning to dodge the insistant “madams” and “pimps”, always remember NOT to make eye contact. And so we said goodbye, planning to meet up the next day again.

3 May 2012 (Thursday)

After breakfast (I was enjoying my fruit starters followed by toast or croissants with cheese, while Tim made the most of the full continental breakfasts) we met up with our little biker gang and took a scenic drive through to Karon Beach and on into the hills to a lovely little hidden beach called Paradise Beach. Unfortunately our bike was sounding very unhappy, and battling with the uphills, on our return I ended up walking up some of the steeper hills while Tim tried to get the bike up the hill at about 2km/hr. Thankfully just before I expired from oxygen deprivation Des saved me by coming back for me.     

Paradise Beach is small and you also need to pay to be there – but it is very worth it. The water was slightly cooler than Patong Beach, very little waves and it was just awesome. We had such a good time lying under our umbrellas, sipping on coconut milk. We all sustained injuries as there were some treacherous outcrops of rocks just below the surface, so if you did not keep your legs up you scraped and bruised your feet and ankles. There were also jelly fish making their rounds. Mandy suggested that my blue toenails were responsible for attracting the creatures. (I had been for a divine pedicure two nights previously, and loved the turquoise colour they offered.) In hindsight the colour turquoise was a big attraction for me as I bought a dress, T-shirt and hat in the same colour without planning to.

We then all took a long ride back to Patong Beach and out the other side to try to make it to Surin beach. It began to rain and although that didn’t phase me too much, I was worried about our bike making it there and back under these conditions. So eventually we said goodbye and turned around to go back to our hotel.

We were drenched by the time we returned, and while I lazed on our lovely king-sized bed my loving husband went out in the pouring rain to find me a cup of Star Bucks coffee and cheese roll. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and although our hotel is amazing, they cannot make coffee. Thanks my babe!

That evening we bartered for a new suitcase and Jimmy Choo handbag with one of the stallholders down the road from our hotel. We had so many gifts to bring back we needed the additional packing space. Some of these guys take you to their special room hidden from general public, where you close the door and spend time looking at the merchandise. I found it all very confusing as there is so much stuff to choose from. Give me fewer choices and I am better at making one. Anyway – I think we were all happy with the outcome, until we got back to the room and hubby asked me if I liked my Jammy Choo handbag. I asked him what he meant and he said that was what was on the label on the bag. Psych! That got my stress levels rising!

That night we had what were probably the best pancakes ever, just sitting on the sidewalk watching the people under the stars. Mine was chocolate and banana, Tim had coconut and chocolate. We also had what they called “kebabs”, but were actually more like Schwarmas. Mmmmm…

4 May 2012 (Friday)

After breakfast we swapped our bike for one in a slightly better condition. (I think next time we should shop around before hiring.) We decided to ride out to Katha Beach again, then through the town and out the back to find Big Buddha. We had seen him on top of a large hill from a distance and wanted to get closer. The village and scenery was still lush and beautiful, and we came upon a group of elephants that one can hire to go for a ride through the forest. I would never do so, these animals should be free.

Tim rode on higher to find Big Buddha while I hung around enjoying the scenery. There were two brides who either got married on elephant back, or were just there for their pics. (I thought they looked stupid, but hey, that’s just me.)

We found a little convenience shop on our way down and stopped for ice-creams – the best ice-creams I ever had.  Then we followed the signs to the Temple. I was so glad to have made the effort. The temples are quite gaudy and decorative, but in some ways quite beautiful. We got caught in a horrific storm and by the time we got back to the hotel were once again drenched. The storm came out of nowhere and the wind was gusting, something we had as yet not experienced. Thankfully with two of us on the bike we managed to keep it on the road. It was a hair-raising experience, taking into consideration the other motorists, the weather and the long journey. But we made it and I felt quite proud of us.

We popped in at Subway in Patong Beach and had lovely chicken/mayo rolls and then went for a short stroll. When we got back I began reading the only English book I could find in the hotel, an autobiography on and by Debra Byrne. It is a very sad book, I think meant to be inspirational, but I eventually gave up on it.

Hubby took me out for dinner at one of the local restaurants and we had such a lovely meal. I was so mad as I forgot to photograph it, as I had other similarily amazing meals. I loved my Thai rice with prawns – these were whole prawns, and they are not shy either. We drank Singha beer and strolled around for one last time.

5 May 2012 (Saturday)

I am quite excited to get home now and see the kids. We had to check out at 12h00, and the shuttle was ready to take us to Phuket airport by 14h00. Checking in is quite a process. The airport is quite small and totally crazy with foreigners from all around the world waiting to fly somewhere. I was nervous of the customs officials again, especially with our suitcase full of gifts. (When we arrived at the airport Tim weighed our bags and realized that the one was over and the other way under. So I suggested we sit in some surprisingly empty seats and swap some of the heavier items for lighter ones, and so spread the weight. It was only when we got up that we realized there was a large sign over our heads saying “Monks only”!      

It was a long flight, with another hour lay-over in Jhb again. Then on an almost empty plane we flew to Cape Town. Our friend Drom had once again gone to trouble and had his taxi collect the kids, so that they were waiting for us at arrivals. We were all so happy to be reunited.

I feel so very blessed to have shared this amazing experience with my husband, a really romantic second honeymoon !