Sun, sand, sea.... two weeks in Phuket

So back in chilly Japan and we are not amused! It really was very nice being warm for two weeks, but now it is back to the reality of living in the cold concrete cowshed. Oh well, the coldest month is yet to come....... Anyway; Phuket! Our 14-hour journey started when we left the flat at 8pm on the 20th December. 5 trains and 2 planes and not much sleep later we landed on Friday morning and stepped out into the warmth. Our accommodation for the first five nights was a secluded bungalow not far from the airport, near the quiet beach of Nai Yang (see map). After checking out our little wooden hut, complete with porch and lizards, we breakfasted at the resort restaurant before taking a stroll to the beach and a paddle in the ocean - warm as a bath. On the walk back we went through a Buddhist monastery, which was surprisingly unkempt and dirty, with a large population of poorly looking kittens and puppies. Since we had had no sleep, we took a nap until 3pm. Once we had woken up we were able to rent some mountain bikes, and rode around to have a look at the area, ending up back at the beach where we splashed about while watching the sun sink into the ocean. When we got back we had out first Thai food, and retired full, happy and warm to our little hut. .. Saturday 22nd. We woke up fairly early, and jogged down to the beach for a swim before returning for breakfast. Kimmy was in need of a nap, so she took care of that whilst I scanned the map and guidebook to get ideas of where to go and what to see next. After we had vegged some more and snacked for lunch, the afternoon was getting on by the time we eventually got out on the bikes. We headed north, stopping at a market on the way, to skirt round the airport and head for the top of the island, and the far end of the Sirinat National Park beach. This is the only protected beach of the island, and the 8km of beautiful shore is pretty much deserted, allowing for the giant sea turtles to come at night to digs holes and lay their eggs in the sand. We were pretty hot and sweaty when we got there, so took a dip before going to dine at one of the many beachside restaurants (as recommended in the guidebook). These little places are well known for their seafood, and we had trouble explaining Kimberly's vegetarianism to them, but eventually ended up with some food that she was able to eat. We then decided to walk back down the beach - yes, all 8km of it (!) - in the hope of spotting turtles. Walking down a tropical beach at night may seem romantic, but 5 miles of it pushing bikes is not quite so much fun. And if we stopped for a rest the mosquitoes descended upon me. Sadly no turtles - think we were too early in the night for them, though we did see signs of their digging from the night before. But the walk was made worthwhile by the cool glowy things we discovered. Kimberly first noticed that the sand was glowing in specks under the pressure of my footsteps. Stamping caused more fluorescent flashes to appear, very strange. But it got even better when we went for a swim - every movement in the water caused a trail of light behind it, each tiny speck of light glowing for a second before going out. Sometimes they stuck to the skin and shone briefly when we lifted an arm out of the water. It was just like magic, very groovy. There were also hundreds of speedy ghost crabs scuttling every which way across the sand as we passed. We eventually made it back very late and very tired to our waiting bed. Sunday 23rd. Same start to the day - run to the beach and a swim, but this time we ate at one of the beach restaurants - much nicer pancakes than the resort restaurant, and cheaper too. The previous night's escapades caught up with us, and we both took a nap and ended up sleeping for four hours! Well, holidays are for relaxing, right? When we eventually got up again, we rode to the beach and lay out for a while before finding another beach restaurant and having really good pizza (something it is hard to find in Japan) for dinner. We then got sucked into happy hour at one of the little bars, so tried a few cocktails while the comedy barmen amused us with card tricks. Monday 24th. Christmas Eve! Not much like Christmas in the sunshine though. Usual routine of run/swim/banana pancakes to start the day. Then we hired a moped to go off and see other parts of the island. Phuket is overrun with noisy mopeds, driven by locals (often with their whole families on board), kids and of course, tourists (who often aren't used to driving on the left). Hardly anyone wears a helmet, and traffic laws (if there are any!) are ignored most of the time. So not the best place for my first motorized bicycle experience, but the easiest and cheapest way to get around - the bike cost five bucks a day. I took our Honda 'Dream' for a spin by myself first to get used to it - four speed, no clutch. Actually quite quick, but with appalling brakes so we went slow! With Kimberly on board (and yes mum, we did have helmets on!) we set carefully off. After looping past Nai Tan beach we headed inland to Ton Sai waterfall. Big contrast to go from the beach to suddenly be in the middle of a rainforest. A local chap attached himself to us unasked, but proved a useful guide, leading us up the rocks very surefootedly in his flip-flops while we slid around behind him in sneakers. We saw huge spiders, tiny bright red crabs and massive trees, as well as the small, but picturesque waterfall. Had a big lunch of Pad Thai and Thai salad for the princely sum of two dollars, then headed on to the next appointment - Bang Bae waterfall. We had a look at the Gibbon Re-hab project (curiously staffed by two British volunteers) at the base of the falls - where this cute picture comes from - before venturing up into the jungle. The track kept going past the falls, so we did too, sweating our way up through the bamboo and rainforest. After a bit of a hike we found an amazing swimming hole, and it was very cool and refreshing after the climb. Going down was rather easier, then it was back on the bike to Ao Po beach and an ice-cream break. Kimberly then had a go at driving and we headed back to Nai Tan beach for a swim before dinner. After driving back to Nai Yang and getting changed, we went back to our beach for Christmas cocktails. Tuesday 25th. Up late, and so skipped breakfast - eventually got to the beach about midday in time for brunch - pizza and glass noodle salad, mmmmm. By the time we had relaxed on the beach for a bit, then each gone for a run and a swim, it was dinner time already! More yummy Thai food, and that was Christmas day - our first proper beach day, and our last day at Nai Yang. Wednesday 26th. After breakfast we got a taxi for the hour's drive down to Karon beach. This is the second most developed area on Phuket, after nearby Patong. Bit of a shock to the system after the peace and quiet of the North. But nice to find supermarkets and a much larger selection of restaurants. We went to a fairly upmarket pizza place for dinner. They managed to get our order wrong, and whilst we were waiting for the right pizza, the manager came and lavished praise on Kimberly's sweet eyes and mouth, and said I was handsome (!), Thai version of an apology I suppose. Anyway, I had booked the hotel over the internet, and not only did they fail to tell me about the main road outside the window, but more importantly also failed to mention the ridiculously loud Thai karaoke bar opposite that blared out-of-tune singing until 2am.... Needless to say after no sleep we weren't going to stay there another night. Thursday 27th. After a practically sleepless night, I got up at seven and headed out to try and find somewhere else to stay, whilst Kimberly tried to catch up on some sleep. After an hour and a half of running around the area, I had five possibilities with two looking suitable. We vegged until check out time, as you can see from the picture Kimberly can never be warm enough, even on a tropical island! Then we took a taxi down to the dead end road at Kata Noi beach where I had found a possible room. Turned out to be perfect - big airy room, set back from the main hotel, with balcony and surrounded by trees. Right on the beach too, complete with coral reef so we went swimming with the fishes inbetween lazing on the beach. After watching the sun go down we dined on tasty Thai curry before taking an early night. Check out this flyer for a mountain bike tour company - must've been written by a comedy genius! Friday 28th. Kimberly still suffering from lack of sleep, so she went back for a nap after breakfast. This gave me a chance to write some postcards, before having a quick swim. Kimmy had been craving Mexican food ever since arriving in Japan, and got very excited when we found an advert for a Mexican restaurant in Patong. So we rented another moped and trundled over there. Patong is a crazy place, but fun to visit, knowing you can escape when you want! We bought some fake Oakleys for ten bucks, then pigged out at the Mexican place, very nice. Arriving back at Kata we met another American, who happened to also be on the JET program in Japan. He was a juggler, so he taught me to pass, then we went out for a drink with him and two American chicks, nice to socialise with other people who speak English (well okay, American, but near enough....). Saturday 29th. I woke up early and snuck out for a run whilst Kimberly was still asleep. Then after breakfast I offered to run the American dude into Patong on the bike. Unfortunately I cocked up a u-turn and drove the thing into a restaurant.... (novice moped driver alert). No injuries but had to pay for breaking a plant pot, got off lightly and learnt to keep my foot on the brake when maneuvering! Came back to find Kimberly getting burnt on the beach, then after lunch it started tipping it down, so we retired to our room. The rain just about stopped later, and having spied an Indian restaurant the night before, we headed back to Patong for more international dining and more shopping! Very strange when all of a sudden all the shops closed - all the shutters were very rapidly pulled down, think there must have been news of a police raid or something - all the goods were rip-offs, the guy who sold Kimberly a 'Gucci' watch even admitted he had been hit by the cops the week before! Sunday 30th. Pretty lazy day today. Went into Karon on the bike, and Kimberly managed to burn her leg quite badly on the tailpipe as she dismounted. We iced it at a bar, but it still blistered. Otherwise we ate a huge delicious Thai lunch, played cards a bit, and then had our first really disappointing meal for dinner. Monday 31st. Last day of 2001! Today we moved on to another hotel - I had booked something more upmarket for New Year's, four times the price of previous accommodation at 80 dollars a night! So after a run and a swim and breakfast, we got a taxi and were taken to the other end of Karon, to a new development called Aroona Karon (the street pictured). This wide, open street looks like something out of a Wild West movie, but was back from the main road and had vicious speedbumps, so was relatively quiet. The hotel had only just opened, as had all the shops and restaurants there to support it. Most of the taxis are little red trucks with open sided bench seating in the back, known as tuk-tuks, but on this occasion we were in an old Beamer, that ground painfully over the speedbumps. When we arrived at the Old Phuket Hotel, our suite wasn't ready, so they put us in a standard room to start with. Then we went out for a look round. One of the most unexpected things about Phuket is that almost every other shop is a tailors, and very pro-active tailors - they stand in the street and greet you, ask you where you are from and how long you are staying, before inviting you in to look and offering you a very good price on a suit. We had laughed at this from the start, not understanding who would buy a suit on a tropical island, and of course they were out of luck with me, who has never owned a suit and has no intention of doing so. But when we actually did get sucked in for a look, it occurred to Kimberly that she has never had a pair of pants (she means trousers of course) that fit properly. So since it was so cheap (assumedly the reason there is enough business for so many tailors), she decided to have some made. After choosing some cashmere/silk mix material, discussing the style and having measurements taken, we were told to come back in five hours for fitting - now that is service! And sure enough they fit properly and for thirty bucks Kimmy had some posh new pants. Splendid. Upon our return to the hotel we were moved into our suite, complete with jacuzzi on the oversize balcony! So after a swim in the rooftop pool and a nap, we tried out the hot tub, along with a bottle of champagne, then got ready to head out for New Years. We kicked off with excellent Thai food at a local restaurant, then took a cab to Patong to find some action. After wandering for a while we found ourselves in the middle of it all. We were seated at an open bar area, thronging with people, and our seats happened to be right in front of the podium where the local prostitutes were dancing to attract punters. As the evening went on this got more and more risqué, with underwear being removed and people putting money in various places. I didn't know quite where to put my eyes! But the music was good, so eventually we just got up and danced, even though there wasn't a lot of room. Not long after eleven, whole strings of firecrackers started to be let off in the street, and continued pretty much non stop until gone midnight, very noisy and smoky - those close to the road had fingers in their ears. And there were fireworks going off from different directions too. Certainly a lively bunch the Thai folk. After seeing 2002 in, we managed to extricate ourselves without getting blown up, and got a cab back to relatively peaceful Karon. Tuesday 1st. Some of the Thai use of English is almost as comedy as in Japan. My favorite from the hotel was the following: "If the hotel property decayed to be over confident hotel will charge in list below." Just brilliant...... Lazy recovery day after the previous nights festivities, but we did a bit on the hotel exercise bike and swam in the pool. Wednesday 2nd. We were due to check out today, but we were enjoying our stay in luxury and couldn't be bothered to pack again, so decided to stay another two nights. The pictured delightful furniture was at the Lily Cafe down the street, where the Thai food was awesome. I thought Kimberly was going to explode at one meal though - she asked for it to be spicy and she definitely got that! Anyway, today we headed off for a walk in the woods. We ended up on an almost non-existent trail climbing through the rainforest. Fun, but mosquito overload - we had to turn back and I found about thirty fresh bites afterwards! After finding some more open trails, and having had lunch of bread and cheese (nice to be able to find half decent cheese, they just don't get it in Japan!), we headed back to cool off in the pool, before watching the sunset from the roof. Walking down the street on the way to dinner, Kimberly inadvertently stepped on a dog that was lying in the shadows; there are stray dogs everywhere in Phuket. In reflex the dog nipped her ankle, just breaking the skin. We were rescued by a friendly Indian tailor, who took us into his shop to clean the wound, and went off to get medicine for it, and wouldn't accept any payment. He also got me to show him which dog, and he said that it was okay - not mad! That saved us a lot of hassle, otherwise we would have had to go to the hospital, you never know with strange animals. I had found another Mexican restaurant in Karon, so we went there for Kimberly to get another fix! Thursday 3rd. Eventually got up and walked across town to the Post Office - incredibly busy and also very expensive to send a parcel to the US. Saved having to carry it home though (present for Kimberly's sister). On the walk back we decided to play mini golf at Dinoland, as something different to do. Overuse of fibreglass to create caves and dinosaurs, but fun. Walking back down the beach, we saw some parasailing. Kimberly had fancied trying this when we saw it on Kata beach, but the boat never appeared there again. So now was the time. She survived the experience, despite being worried about being blown out to sea by the strong wind! Check our the pictures here. Relaxed back at the hotel in the pool and sauna whilst the jacuzzi filled. Very nice soaking in a bubbly hot tub whilst outside watching the sun go down. Friday 4th. Our last day; used the pool and sauna for the last time before packing and checking out. Our flight wasn't until the evening, so we looked round the shops and lazed on the beach before having an early dinner. We then said goodbye to warm and sunny Phuket and took a taxi to the airport. The traveling was tedious as ever, but we made it back late Saturday morning, very sad to be back in the cold! But it was a good holiday, although we both felt it was too long to be without a bike. I think a week on the beach is doable, but longer than that and I really need to ride! We'll just have to get Kimberly a Bike Friday too......