Thailand

PHUKET, THAILAND
31 JAN – 04 JAN 2010

Phuket is another one of those places I went to 10 years ago. I remember it as probably the biggest party port we went to back then. Since that’s not really my bag anymore I wasn’t super excited about it. When we got off the bus it was just like I remembered. People selling completely random stuff and won't leave you alone until the next victim comes close enough for them to talk to. They had Zippos and disposable lighters that are about 100:1 in size and weird multi-colored hats with bells and little kids selling some flower necklaces, oh and the tailors are the worst. They’ll try to shake your hand and won’t let go. They are nuts. They will make you a pretty nice suit for about $100 though. They had street vendors with everything from bootleg DVD’s to almost any brand of clothes you can think of and they love to haggle. They will also try and keep you longer than you want to be there if you’re not careful. The funniest part is how they talked to us though. They were apparently told somewhere along the way that we all talk like gangstas. “What up my brotha, I make you a suit” was a very common phrase to hear.

This is near where you get off the buses.


This is a picture of the beach we got the first day. It’s a short walk from where we get dropped of. I did briefly try to surf there last time I was here, but the board that I rented only had 2 of the 3 fins on it so it didn’t go so well. That’s the story I’m sticking with at least.


This is just a nice shot my friend got from the ship when we were about to leave the morning of our tour. Yes we were anchored out instead of being pier side.


This one is from the liberty boat we took from the boat to the pier. It was one of the first things we saw as we were about to go ashore, pretty nice start.


This is from the bus we had to take from the pier to town, and yes it took a good hour to an hour and a half from the time we left the boat till we got to town.


Ok, back on track now.

It was fun walking around and seeing everything, they have a lot of outdoor bars where they have “girls” that will try to keep you there by playing connect 4 or a game where you hammer a nail into a stump of wood. You each get a shot at your own nail until someone hammers theirs all the way in. It’s actually pretty interesting when you’re drunk and great to watch the drunks try to play.

We of course had to make our customary trip to the Hard Rock. This was one of the better ones I’ve been in. I guess it just opened in November. As usual the food was just ok and a little over priced but we know what we’re getting into when we go there.


Alright, enough of that. I was happy to see some of the tours they set up for us here. There were a lot of boating/kayaking trips to different islands in the area and some elephant riding through the jungles. Unfortunately the guys I went out with weren’t too interested in the elephants so we just did a speed boat tour to about 10 different islands. I would have liked to do both but the one we did was incredible. One of the beaches was where they filmed the movie “The Beach” I’m not sure if I’ve seen it or not. I’m going to have to look when I get a chance. They have some of the most beautiful water I’ve ever been in. These pictures aren’t going to do it justice. The sand at one of them was like walking on silk! I would dump a couple inches of that sand on the floors of my house if I could. We stopped at an old Viking cave where some rare birds still go to lay their eggs and people used to go get the eggs and sell them for extreme prices in Japan . The government has people that stay outside the cave 24/7 now with orders to shoot anyone trying to go in. The coolest part of the trip was Monkey Island though. We floated up to a tall island with just a bunch of trees instead of a beach. Nothing seemed too special about it till the branches started shaking around like crazy. All of a sudden a bunch of monkeys showed up on the branches. They gave us a bunch of fruit to feed them. Unfortunately we couldn’t hold them since they are not tame but it was still pretty cool. One jumped on the bow of the boat with a bunch of people sitting up there. I was already in the water feeding some others when that happened though. What do you guys think, any chance I could convince Jamie to let us get a monkey? LOL


So that was my return to Thailand . It was much better and more memorable than the first time. I have a new appreciation for it and understand why it’s such a popular place for vacationing.

I changed my format a little this time. I hope it is a good change. I’ll be writing again very soon. I’m already sitting in my next port, you’ll have to come back to see where that is though.