Wild Goose Chase

We got to the Phuket Airport early Wednesday morning. We had about four hours until our luggage arrived so we decided to explore the area. First we got in a van with a bunch of other foreigners that took us to Phuket City for 100 Baht a person. We had a Western breakfast at a restaurant in Phuket City.

Afterwards, we searched for a form of transportation that could take us to Patong Beach, where our hotel was. We kept on asking the "buses" if they were going to Patong, and they kept on telling us to go to the next bus. Finally we found the right bus, which consisted of three long wooden benches that fit maybe forty people total. It was a cool experience because most of the people were locals.

We got to Patong an hour later, and we had no idea where our hotel was. So we went around asking people if they knew the address or hotel. Finally we took an overpriced 200 Baht taxi to our hotel. We checked into the hotel, and the front desk people helped us get a taxi back to the airport.

We took the taxi to the airport, and we picked up our luggage. We waited for about 5 minutes for the taxi to pick us up, but the taxi wasn't in sight, so we took another taxi home. When we got back to the hotel, a front desk lady came to our room and gave us a bill for 500 baht for the taxi ride back with the original taxi driver. We paid it. I guess they are hardcore about getting all the money they possibly can.

Afterwards we headed to Patong Beach which was in easy walking distance from our hotel. It was already three o'clock when we got to the beach but the sun was still pretty strong. We stayed at the beach for a couple hours, and then we went back to the hotel to get ready to go out to eat.

We ate dinner at a restaurant on the beach. It was very nice because I could feel the sand on my toes while I ate dinner. There was also a beautiful sunset which resulted in a spectacular experience. I had a shrimp Thai dish. I am unfamiliar with the names of all the Thai food, since I had only experienced Thai food once before coming to Thailand. While April and I were eating, we started talking to a German guy. We had dinner with them, and then he walked back with us to our hotel. We agreed to meet in an hour, to go out to the bars.

He was punctual, as April had expected, and we all  first went to a place on the sand to have a drink. I had a margarita. Then we headed out to the big strip of bars in Patong. We went to a bar that had all female bartenders that catered to men. The bartenders liked playing Connect Dour with this German guy, and I played a few rounds also. I even talked a bit with a couple of the bartenders, who were really nice, while I was watching the "intense" Connect Four games.

April and I were tired by one or two a.m. so we decided to leave the German boy alone. We walked along the beach before going back to the hotel, which ended up being a night ritual.