As you will know from my last post I've been to Koh Phuket. Which was so relaxing it was like a holiday within a holiday, or holiday squared, if you will. Unfortunately I've got no photos. I should've taken the camera because it still works intermittently but it didn't occur to me.
The first thing to say is that Dick was an absolutely brilliant host. He drove me around everyday, gave me my own key to the apartment so I could come and go as I pleased and generally looked after me. I spent most days swimming, in the pool and in the sea. In fact I hurt my knee on Thursday because I spent all day swimming. (On the last night, as Dick and I were walking to the car to go to the airport, one of the other residents said hello to Dick. When Dick briefly introduced me the other bloke said "Ah yes, the swimming man.") Here's a picture (not the best view I think but the only one I can find) of part of The Residence where I stayed.
Dick took me on a tour of loads of beaches around the west and south coasts and everyday we went out to lunch. One of the highlights for me was going out on Wednesday night. We went for dinner first and then a few drinks before heading to the gay area, where I saw a few things I won't soon forget. A line up of ladyboys, of various ratios of lady to boy and a sort of gay cabaret show which was both spectacular and bizarre. It started with the prostitution of about 20 young men. They danced in their underwear and it was announced that all of them were available for sex afterwards. It was mostly filled with pervy, presumably wealthy old men although a few people had gone with their girlfriends (I'm assuming they were girls, most of the time you could tell but with some of the lady boys it was impossible to tell until they spoke.) Some of them were farang so they must have been female. Then there was a series of dance routines. Each had a main dancer with a number of backing dancers. They were all of pretty low quality, with even lower miming to the music by the main dancer, but they were all very entertaining, mostly by virtue of being funny. Afterwards we had a quick walk around and met some more of Dick's friends where I gained an admirer who didn't seem deterred by Dick's "he's got a girlfriend" defense. We also saw Paradon, a famous (not that I'd ever heard of him) Thai tennis player, walking down the street.
I found Phuket in general to be a bit weird and frankly in many ways I didn't like it. It was like a cross between Kao San (the main tourist street in Bangkok) and Cleethorpes in some places. In some areas, especially near the coast the tourists outnumbered the Thais several times over. On the beaches it was about 98% tourist or ex pats. That in itself isn't that bad I suppose but I can't help but feel that if I've travelled 6000 miles to go to Thailand I want to be surrounded by Thais, not Europeans. The were other effects to. The first thing I noticed was the prices. The taxi from the airport to Dick's apartment block was 500 baht. One hundred baht less than the full price because I found one with a Thai bloke who wanted to go part way so we shared the cost although I beared the brunt of the cost because he wasn't going far. The distance is roughly equal to Kriang's house from Bangkok which costs around 250-300 baht. The tuk-tuks there are of a variety I'd not seen before. Kriang tells me there are a few to be found around Bangkok but I've not seen them. (Although I did see a rickshaw a little north of Don Muang airport, the only one I've seen outside of Chiang Mai so far.) Here's a picture:
The tuk-tuks are even more expensive than the taxis - a trip which would cost about 40-50 baht in Bangkok costs 150 on Phuket! As Dick explained the reason is because the tuk-tuk drivers have a lot of control over the council and they've effectively banned local buses and limited the car parking spaces. There are a few taxis (car and bike) but otherwise virtually no public transport options for short journeys apart from tuk-tuks. Another effect of the majority tourist population is that the food is much more mild. Few restaurants have the normal selection of dried chillies, chillies in vinegar, chillies in fish sauce and sugar. Instead they have the western norm - salt, pepper, tomato sauce and if you're lucky a bottle of tobasco. Having been eating spicy food for weeks and being a fan of chillies anyway I started to get cravings for spicy food and scowered the menu for spicy dishes. I enjoyed all meals except one, which was some beef dish with old, dry tough beef. I also tried Phuket's signature dish which is a very mild coconut and butter sauce which was nice. On the plus side the hawkers, street sellers and tuk-tuk drivers are used to dealing with tourists who've usually spent a while in Thailand or even live there so they're not persistent in trying to sell things. I presume they're more persistent in Bangkok because it's a lot of people's first destination so they're less likely to have bought stuff already or to know the price for a tuk-tuk journey.
The best parts were the beaches, which (especially the quieter ones) were beautiful, the warm, clear Andaman Sea, the pool at the Residence where Dick and Nat live, the trips to gay town, a couple of the places we ate (on the beach in a few places, Gini's was nice and at another place, the name of which I forget, but it was right on the seafront and the view out across Kalim Bay at night was awesome. The food was tasty too.) and of course Dick's brilliant hospitality.
In short, a lovely place but I wouldn't want to live there. OK, that's it for now...
I don't know why my blog has been mistaken for spam. I'm not advertising penis enlargement, viagra, cheap drugs or fake degrees. (It'll probably be blocked again within minutes of posting this entry now though.) I'm offering a valuable insight into the mind of a(n exceptionally modest) genius while he travels in Thailand, which is of benefit to all mankind. Hmm, thinking about it, those mentions of lady boys, prostitution and sex in my last post might have done it...
