Reunion in Phuket

Met up with Gavin and Rebecca in Phuket (pronounced Poo-khet), on the evening of the 22nd May as planned. I was a little surprised to be there on time, as 27 hours earlier I was still in Chiang Rai, and that's about 27 hours away ! I'd stayed in Chiang Rai a little longer than anticipated and only left there the previous evening around 18:00.. I intended to spend the day at least, maybe a night, in Bangkok but despite it not yet being quite 6am when I arrived, I decided to head across town to the Southern bus station, found there was a morning bus to Phuket, leaving in about 30 minutes and decided to continue the journey right away. A top up of water and snacks from a 7Eleven and only another 14 or so hours on a bus to go and I'd be there.

So despite the bus breaking down on the way (they managed to fix it within an hour), there I was in Phuket a couple of hours before Gavin and Rebecca arrived, relaxing in the hostel lounge with a beer and Snatch on DVD when they walked in. It was great to see familiar faces again after a year away. We had four days in Phuket:

Day 1: Thai breakfast in a local muslim cafe, sangthaaew (a kind of truck/taxi) to Kata Noi, found a nice places to stay, lovely room, nice terrace, nice staff, to the beach and lunch by the seaside, chicken and mango spicy salad for me. Picked up some lovely fresh pineapple and papaya to go with the beer and watched the goings on at the seaside. . Out again in the evening, dinner, foot massage and searched for a bar that was showing the UEFA Champions League Final. Avoiding the falling coconuts and ladies offering sex on the beach, we found a bar still open by following the noise of chatter and TV and after watching the match got home around 4am..

Day 2: We hired motorbikes, drove up the coastline as far as Patong, the crowded, overdeveloped, backside of Phuket island. It looked ugly on the outside so we headed off in a new direction. Visited Wat (temple) Chalong, went to the Southern most part of the island, where fishing seemed the main trade, small stalls lined the harbour front selling fresh fish and various crustaceans.. The quiet, tree-lined seafront at Rawai with beautiful views of the water and nearby islands was aglow as the late afternoon sun drifted towards the horizon. The drive back was green and hilly and fortunately we didn't bump into any elephants on the road, always a risk here. The evening we had dinner and a few drinks by the seaside and Rebecca experienced hallucinations of monkeys on the beach, maybe it was the heat.


Left: Water Lillies at Wat Chalong.
Centre: Fishing boats at Rawai village on Phuket.
Right: Boat and karst hills at an island stop.

Day 3: Happy birthday to Gavin today! After a champagne breakfast, we left Kata and went to stay at Chalong Bay, a quiet harbour with a different choice of cafes and restaurants to eat and drink at. In the evening we decided to check out Patong's nightlife, so as it was Gavin's birthday, today seemed the day to do it. It was busy, packed with tourist bars, tourist restaurants, tourist souvenir shops, tourist hotels and all things touristy from A-Z. It's an OK place to drink, eat and in some cases shop and after the eating and shopping we continued the drinking while watching some live music on an open stage, before eventually heading home. Fine for a night out, but glad we didn't stay there.

Day 4: Day trip by boat around Phang Nga bay, whose many limestone (karst) hills rise sharply out of the emerald water, creating dramatic views. One of these islands is now famous for it's part in the James Bond film 'Man with the Golden Gun' and seems to have forgotten its real name, Tapu Island, the large rock next to Khao Phing Kan, is simply known as 'James Bond Island' these days. Hmmmm. Using inflatable sea kayaks we were guided through small tunnels, caves and into large interior lagoons in the centre of the hills, amazing scenery with sheer cliffs rising all around, mangrove trees growing in the low waters and above, a crystal, blue sky. Fish and chips for dinner, last night in a local cafe over a game of scrabble and as Gavin was leaving the next morning, we let him win.


Left: Tapu ("James Bond") Island.
Centre: DJ Barnee hanging around on the boat trip.
Right: Fish for dinner.

The next morning Gavin flew back to Singapore for work commitments, it was a fine few days in Phuket and as always with Rebecca around, every moment was a joy ;). Something of note there was the emergence of tsunami alert signs, showing an escape path, apparently procedures are now in place for evacuation in case it should ever happen again here. There are still signs of what happened although generally most of Kata and what little I saw of Patong seems to have been rebuilt again and things are back to normal again, however it still seems there is a lack of visitors, there are plenty there, but far fewer than there would have been this time of year before December 2004. I have spoken to many people arond Thailand about the relative lack of tourists that appear to be visiting, there are obvious signs such as many cafes or bars for sale, guesthoses almost empty where before they were full. There are many various responses as to why; the tsunami, the terrorist bombs in the south, these have scared people away, there is the recent military coup, the government's new restrictions on foreigners of 90 days in the contry every six months, there is also the increasing tourism trade going to Laos, the huge number of travel agents all over Thailand promoting Laos helps this, as well as similar trips to Cambodia, maybe the emergence of China has also take many away to this new exciting option, one old timer even suggested it was because the Thais are becoming rude, arrogant, *****, well, some are certainly annoying and they aren't as friendly as maybe the Lao, but I can't totally agree with that one though. Most people I met around Thailand, especially in Central and Northern parts have been as warm and friendly as ever and I look forward to going back.