Just Like Home...

Sunset on the way to Fantasea
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Day 2, time to explore Patong - a place that's made for tourists, where you can get anything you could back home - even Tim Tam's! After breakfast on the beach, Judy and I shopped around for necessities, and somehow - ended up in a suit shop feeling fabrics. The Nepalese sales person was friendly, and even though we didn't buy, helped us find a phone card dealer, who wasn't quite as friendly. 45 minutes later, and feeling pretty drained from the heat in the store, we went back for a massage (legitimate) at Chai Dee sauna, right next to the villa. 250 baht ($9 AUD) gets you an hour massage, which was well worth it - and it was too tempting just to get one every day. The masseuse's laughed at the size and might of my feet, and my inherent inflexibility. But it was all in good fun.

Busy Taweetong Rd
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We ate lunch on the beach (again) and lazed around on our deck chairs (towels on the sand are so passe). The beach is just like another market (as if there wasn't enough), hawkers walking past every 5 seconds to sell you "jetski", instruments, toys, food and drink - just about anything you never wanted. The average sales person looks a bit dodgy - Dark skin, tats, baggy clothes... but then again, every second person here has a tat!

Sex sells and sex is everywhere - it gets shoved in your face no matter which way you turn"

Sitting on an elephant
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For dinner we headed down to Savoey, a famous seafood restaurant, where Judy selected three tiger prawns for a measly 1,080 baht! ($38 + service charge). Satisfied, we headed down to Banglar road - the main night strip - and were overwhelmed at what we found. Although Thailand's most notorious night strip is Pattaya, I can't possibly imagine how much busier it can get than this place. Half naked girls, boys, and lady boys roam the streets scouting punters into bars such as "Aussie Bar", "Crocodile Bar", "Bannana Discotheque", etc . Kids sell cigarettes, while others carry iguanas on their shoulders (much to Judy's dismay) and charge tourists for a photo with them. Sex sells, and sex is everywhere - it gets shoved in your face no matter which way you turn. Some alleys are worse than others, in particular, there was one in which there was about 5 (school) girls to every guy.

Mmm... Tiger Prawn
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The Thai's love the Aussie's over here, as soon as you tell them where you're from there's a "G'day mate" and then a "but your parents are Chinese right?". And the Aussie's love this place - the piss is cheap (especially at 7-11), and the women are plentiful. In one bar, "Katoys R Us", Aussie's are particularly welcome. After buying a beer, a couple of lady boys took to me in particular, despite us telling them that we were on our 'honeymoon'. A few fake tits in my face later, we were outta there.

Judy's Jetstar at beautiful Kata Noi
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Day 3, and seeking something a little quieter we took a Tuk Tuk to Kata Noi, where the water was clearer, the sky bluer, and the air fresher. While the beach was beautiful, the tourists were a little less friendly - Club Med attracting the snotty European tourists. How do you know they're Europeans? Tight shorts, bald heads condescending attitudes, gold chains and a tat on the shoulder. But that didn't stop us though from relaxing in this quiet little pocket. The same friendly Tuk Tuk driver took us back - and gave us a quick tour of the coastline.

While Kata, and neighbouring Karon are beautiful beaches, it's sad to see that a lot of this island is becoming as overdeveloped as Patong. Every second block is a new set of apartments, as if there wasn't enough already.

If Kata is where the Europeans hang, and Patong is for the Aussies, then Fantasea is for the Koreans. At first it seemed a little bit of a joke - we payed to get into an amusement park, where you have to pay to do just about anything else. Dinner in the banquet hall was a little lack lustre, even though it was the "biggest buffet in the world", seating over 4,000 people. But while the dinner and attractions may not have been worth it, the main show certainly was. Fantasea is a modernised tale of the uprising of Thailand, with Cirque de Soleil and Vaudeville style moments lacing their way through two hours of dance - including some very well trained animals; elephants, the stars of the show (and our new love), goats, buffalo, doves, even chickens! It's certainly a worthwhile experience.

Today we check out and head to Krabi, from which we will tour the Southern islands!