'Phuking Phuket'

Vech Guesthouse
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23rd Oct

The crazy frog is an undeniable bane on all our lives, and trying to sleep on an island off the coast of NW malaysia, one would think we could escape it...BUT no - together with karaoke versions of the equally teeth gnashingly aweful cheeky girls theme, i began to wonder if 1) there was any part of the world saved from this and 2) if id get any sleep 3) why i felt homicidal...

Exactly what it says on the tin, 'ibiza in thailand'...like Blackpool but with decent sand.

Patong Beach
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Contrary to the advice of our travel agent, there was in fact no need to be at Penang international airport at half seven and thus no need for me to be up at 6am yet again. instead i was munching on airport snacks (after finding a new fortune of euros in my wallet which was legal tender in the airport!) and riding the skytrain backwards and forwards between terminals to entertain myself. To get to Phuket - which had the nearest airport to Ko Phi Phi, we had to double back on a urine-smelling flight to KL before flying into Thailand.  The whole affair was over in around 3 hrs.

Deck chair Posse
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V Rainy and humid on arrival and got a ride in a packed shuttle bus to Vech guesthouse at Patong Beach which is the main area to be in if you like the party... we were actively disgouraged from staying in Phuket town which would had made getting off the island via the pier there to Ko Phi Phi a lot easier.  There's clearly still a lot of visible tsunami damage in the island's interior and it was a bumpy ride to the recovered coast, not without a commission stop of course.  Though as most of us genuinely had reservation, they were visibly pissed.  Straight onto Thai food under the guidance of Olivia, and had my first ever Pad Thai which was plain lush!

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Phuket is like blackpool, lots of overweight Brit men, lobster red by too much sun; hanging in Heineken labelled bars, fish n chip shops, burger kings, numerous kodak shops, KFCs and Boots. However, the more disturbing thing is the number of thai girls inexplicably hanging off them; must be the promise of wealth or a passport out of here? Plenty of Premiership action on tonight too. this place was designed for brits prob by Carlsberg, but what is undeniable is that the beach here is stunning even with the amount of people there and the number of touts wanting us to jet ski. There's plenty of other stuff to do here like elephant trekking but i wanted to get out and go straight to Ko Phi Phi where i knew (without any special reason) it would be better. Bit pissed off though as my camera decided to pack it in and call it a day on the beach, Could be because of the abuse its received with dropping it a few times...

For dins, i had an excrutiating spicy soup called Tom Yum Thai (i think), which spoilt my main course which was a tasty thai green curry, as it became too painful to eat. Had a few drinks at the guesthouse bar in front of Chelsea vs Everton and fell into an alcohol induced slumber under a haze of Brit pop dance music and street murmur.