Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
23/11/2009
It was so nice to arrive at a plush hotel and meet up with Steph's family and the Cargan's. Sandy and Dave - THANK YOU - were kind enough to put us up for a week so we instantly unpacked everything we owned and carried a marathon washing session using the washing machine in our room. It felt so good to unpack and settle somewhere for a little while.
The first day was spent having a few beers and trading stories about our trip so far and their experience of Bangkok. Then we headed out for a nice dinner, followed by more drinks.
The next couple of days were mainly spent relaxing between the hotels 4 swimming pools and private beach recharging our batteries and enjoying some familiar company. The weather was the best weather we'd had during our time in Thailand so it was a great place to top-up the tan. The one afternoon where it was a little overcast we decided to visit the attraction next door to the hotel - Phuket Aquarium. It was really cool and had tons of fish, but was fairly small... until we found the research section out the back that was used for breading fish and turtles and releasing them back into the wild. That was awesome to see them close up and even touch them.
Lee was dying to see the nightlife that Patong had to offer so we decided to all go there for a meal and a few drinks one night! It was scary, ping pong shows and ladyboys a plenty :s It was a good 40 min drive from our hotel so the oldies headed back after dinner, while us youngsters stayed out for a few drinks. It was a good laugh but not a place that we would like to stay.
Dave was keen on doing a bit of sea fishing and Steph and I thought it might be a bit of fun so tagged along. We headed towards coral island with Steph sunbathing and Dave and I doing the man work of catching massive fish. Well, I caught one and wanted to throw it back but the captain wouldn't let me as it was feeding his family for dinner and Dave caught 9 plus a huge barracudda which was an awesome sight. The captain was impressed with Dave's fishing skills because they hadn't caught one for a while so they were all really excited. Steph even got involved in the action by reeling one of Dave's fishes in, then squeeled like a girl when she held it for a photo. On the way back We both had a go at driving the boat, full throttle with Steph managing to get us all the way back, in one peace, safe and sound.
That evening we took the barracudda and one of the other fish to a restaurant where they prepared and cooked it all for us with some rice and salad. It was actually quite tasty and that much more satisfying having caught it ourselves.
Phi Phi
We all did a day trip to Phi Phi, and we knew that we wanted to stay over for the night, Lee and Jack decided they wanted to join us! The day trip was pretty amazing, starting off from Phuket port we sailed to Phi Phi Lei and around the Island, seeing Maya Bay, (where they filmed the beach) and the sea gypsy Viking village in the sea caves. Then over to Phi Phi Don for a lovely buffet lunch and a relaxing session on the beach. Then it was time for everyone else to get back on the boat and head back to Phuket, whilst Steph, me, Jack and Lee found a room for the night. We found on that was fairlt central but a wopping 40 pounds - WOW - expensive but split between us 4 didn't work out being too bad. Us lads headed to the beach, whilst Steph chilled out in the room and watched a DVD after having a little too much sun.
That night we'd arranged to meet up with Gristy, my mate from work, as he was out here on holiday. So we met him by the Harbour after dinner and went for a whiskey bucket, or two, or ten. It was such a good night out. We started off at the Reggae bar for happy hour, then went across the road to Banana bar which was a really cool bar on the rooftops playing live music and ended up on the beach jumping through fire hoops and doing extreme limbo. The next day was spent relaxing on the beach and cooling down in the crystal clear sea. We managed to jump on the ferry back for no extra charge and then get a minibus from the port to our hotel for free. A good end to an awesome couple of days!
Back in the comfort of our hotel we resumed our daily routine of relaxing and messing about in the sea and pool. Eager to explore more of Phuket we all went one evening to Phuket Town, where we heard there was a buzzing night market on. Me and Steph used our time there to try and book onward travel to Malaysia but with no luck, everywhere either seemed to be closed or only go as far as Koh Lanta. The market was really good though and we all came home with a few bags of bargains. Dave picked himself up a fishing rod so the next day we did a spot of sea fishing off the beach and managed, with the help of a loaf of bread, to catch quite a bit.
With Malaysia temporarily out of bounds for us from Phuket, we decided to book ourselves on a ferry to Koh Lanta leaving the following morning. So our last night was spent enjoying a nice meal with the whole gang, before heading back ot Patong as Lee fancied one last blow out, and Patong is about as lively as it gets around these parts. Heading back to a bar we had been to before to start with as it was good and cheap, we wondered around sampling the local drinking holes and some crazy rock club. We ended up getting back to our hotel around 4am, which wasn't ideal as we had to be up again at 6am to catch our ferry to Koh Lanta.
Blurry eyed and extremely tired we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and stuf our faces with our last free breakfast for a while. Dave, Sandy and Pete got up to see us off, which was a bit emotional as we had had a really great time and were pretty sad to be leaving. But... the adventures must go on and Koh Lanta and Malaysia were waiting for us!!!
- comments