Phuket

This is the van we drove down to Phuket in for 4 hrs....nice
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Here we are ...eventually...after 12 hrs of travelling in Phuket. Our journey here consisted of :

6 Am pick up for taxi to pier

7 am - ferry leaves port....2 and half hrs...

9.30 am - arrive at Donsak pier. Get crammed onto a coach to take us to Surat Thani - and they dont provide enough seats - some people think theyre still in school where you can 'save seats'..what the fook.. ! rude europeans pushing past to get a seat - couldnt believe it. This takes an hr.

First night storm !
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10.30 am - arrive in Surat Thani. We actually get dropped off at a wat in the middle of nowhere.. then try to charge us to take us to the correct travel agencies...dont think so. End up again stuffed onto a minivan type thing. End up wating around at this travel agents for about hr and half...

12 pm - our carriage awaits... unbelievable - wait until the pics are uploaded..we have to spend 4 hrs in basically a 7 seater sh*t heap that would NEVER pass its MOT..and the driver looks dangerously like gary glitter... he decides that after driving for 5 mins he needs a break..and stops at his mates for a drink. We all have a go at him so we get back on the road.

Tried to capture the lightening...
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After 2 hrs we stop off - toilet break..sorry make that lizard and spider infested hole in floor that makes anyone undignified doing this ! driver has his lunch...we sit around.. then off for the final stretch.

4 pm - get dropped off at another travel agents type place who try to rip you off to book you into guesthouses..NO THANKS. So make them drop us off in Phuket town. From here we get the local bus (25bht each) to take us to town of Karon - this is one down from Patong where most people stay. We have to drive the longest way possible round the south of the island but manage to get ourselves into a guesthouse by about 5.30pm...phew...what a day.

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This place isnt actually too bad - we're on the top floor (penthouse) so hopefully not too many bugs..we're above some shops though where a very loud bar plays til silly hrs..ah well..cant have it all - at least we have a fan and hot water and a fridge.

Go into Patong first night... dont see a great deal - think the worst is yet to come of the aparent girly bars...get our first storm aswell last night - absolutely bucketed down !

Also - apparently 3 days ago there were 31 earthquakes about 50 km out to sea from here..the tsunami alert system was activated in Bangkok but no volcanoes erupted or anything so apparently all was ok.. christ ! the travel agencies werent telling us anything though as they dont want the bad press.

On our last day we hit Patong Beach and splash out - we hire sunbeds !! Cannot believe it..we feel like royalty ! ha. Spend most of the day just splashing out...oh and then we decide for an ice cream..and I loe Haagan Das. so we go sit in the shop - i get one ice cream lolly thing, Dan has 2 scoops of ice cream and 1 bottle of water... and oh my god !!! it costs us a whopping 450 bht - our dinners dont ever come to this much !!!! Me and dan are absolutely gobsmacked!..what a rip off - AND they charged 40bht service charge!! what the heck for - ooh hard work scooping out this ice cream... i mean come on ! I think this pretty much sums up Patong for us - overpriced, over-rated, poor quality stuff ! Even the tuk tuk drivers wont haggle... whats that about!