The city of sin in the daylight - Patong Beach

The beach at Patong
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There is a small seaplane approaching your island...yes, its a guest I am expecting - no, he wont be leaving..."

Classic lines from the film where I got my first glimpse of Thailand. Remember Roger Moore and Christopher Lee back to back on Scaramangas island in 'The Man with the Golden Gun'? They filmed it in the seventies on Kai Ping Shan in Phanga Nga Bay with its exotic limestone karsts and pinnacles doubling for the seas off Communist China.

I wanted a look at the nightlife to see if it is as awful as rumoured and poked my nose into the go-go bars and nightclubs

I signed up for the tour tomorrow but the bad news is that I have to head back up to Bangkok. The return Finnair flight is booked up for Monday and Friday so I have no alterantive but to catch Wednesdays flight. Part of me is upset as I would have loved to have seen Phang Nga Bay. But on the other hand I am tired by nearly three weeks of travel. I've got bad sunburning from yesterday. My upper chest,back and arms are red raw and painful. I cant sleep on my back or side. But mainly it is pure exhaustion and last night I kept thinking about 1998 and a past relationship.Never a good thing to do when you are in a foreign hotel room on your own.

First thing this morning I had an American breakfast at one of the dive cafes. The breakfast is small, it caters to Thai stomachs and I was tempted to have two of them. Seafood is the speciality here in Kata - I had blue crab and lemongrass last night on a bed of rice - absolutely delicious.

But this morning I thought I would have a look at the infamous Patong Beach. The tuk-tuks in Kata are shiny, bran new and very expensive - 200 baht into Patong. But this one took me north past enormous Karon Beach. The road weaves around the coast blanketed in jungle. The sharp switchback roads gave good views of the headlands and beaches. We pulled onto the main road in Patong opposite the beach and after nearly three weeks in the realm of the backpacker it was amusing to be in package touristland. The Torremolinos of Phuket - Patong Beach is often the only Thailand tourists get to see. Imagine no mangy dogs, stinky canals and sweaty jungles. Everything is laid on for the tourist in spic airconditioned hotels with swimming pools and tennis courts.

Thaweewong Road is paralell to the beach with resort hotels, nightclubs, souvenir stalls, go-go bars and Austrian and Indian restaurants. This is where Swedish and American accents outnumber the native Thai. And where tourists think they are getting a bargain of a watch for treble the price they would pay in Chiang Mai. Soi Bangla was covered in stalls selling watches, sarongs and mohoghany statues overlooked by German and Italian restaurants. An huge Irish bar stood next to the Pink Palace resort inhabited by shaven headed men wearing Liverpool T-shirts. The foreign earning potential of Patong must be enormous. I wanted a look at the nightlife to see if it is as awful as rumoured and poked my nose into the go-go bars and nightclubs where most were sleeping off the effects of a hard nights debauchery. Somehow this doesnt tempt me over from the friendly bar scene of Kata Beach.

I succumbed to the smothering arms of Patong and sat down and had an icecream at the Irish pub and watched the world go by. The tourists wandered past - Aussie pensioners, Danish families in sandals, even a few burnt English here and there. Its easy to mock them because they havent crouched over a squat toilet or been the object of fascination on a Thai bus but they are seeing the Thailand they want to see. Will all Phuket be like this one day? Kata and Rawai are more diving centres then Patong. Patong sucks in families and sinners in an uneasy truce.One can imagine the Danish family covering their childs eyes from the hostesses leaning from their bars in the evening. And before I get too patronising I must remember this is our creation. And I must admit, I was having a good time..

The saving grace of Patong has to be the beach. A great expanse that stretches for a curving mile and is flanked by jungly headlands. A phalanx of sunloungers arcs in a great line - behind these are the Thais ready to perform massages or sell cold drinks. The only sound is the swish of the waves as the Andaman sea rolls in. I took off my boots and socks and strolled where the waves broke. I kept to the shallows and allowed the water to wash over my feet. People bobbed in and out of the sea then climbed out to shake themselves free of water over their sunloungers. I even saw a topless woman lying back on her sunlounger. I wonder what the muslim Thais make of that?

Then a tuk-tuk back to Kata and an extraordinary sunset this evening. The monsoon clouds had burnt away and the sun was sinking in the West. the horizon went blue, yellow and finally a firey red. it silouetted the nearby palm trees in black - it certainly is beautiful here..