Thailand journal

The airport at Phuket's quite modern no problems there but it took 1 1/2 hours to get through customs. A, because they move realy slowly. B, because there was no staff on duty. And C, because we were right at the very back of the queue. Once we were through customs we got one of the limo taxis, which was arranged by one of the blokes in the foyer, who took us to our hotel. Our limo driver did the usual trick of calling at one of his mates hotels on the way to the pre booked hotel saying "I just need to call in here to get directions". Of course while he was "getting directions" two girls came out and tried to convince us to stay at their hotel instead. We politly declined all their offers, and queries. I later found out that he shouldn't of done that and could get into trouble for it. If leave through the main door of the airport and turn left there's a normal taxi rank that costs about half the price of the limos. That said it only cost us 650 Bhat to get CC Bloom's in the limo.

We were bound for the Southern end of the island to an area called Kata Beach as we'd read aabout a hotel called CC Bloom's (something to do with the film The Beach) which was really cool. We'd heard about this place through the 'lonley planet' book when we were looking for somewhere to stay in Phuket. When we turned up there was a pool party going on and we were given free drinks and lots of the staff and long term residents came over to say hello and welcome us. Unfortunatly we weren't in the mood to party as we'd been traveling for 6 hours. We dropped our bags in our room and got a lift to Kata beach, in the courtsey jeep, for a bite to eat. Kata beach was really pretty and we just chilled out and watched the sun set while drinking a beer.

If you're going to go island hopping the best way to do it is to go down to one of the marinas early in the morning and ask one of the longtail boat owners if he will take you.

As it turns out, by a fluke, we had arrived about 4 weeks before the start of the main holiday season which was great because there was just enough tourists so it didn't look like a ghost town, and not so many that it was rammed. The weather was great as well and I think we only got caught  out in the rain once. I never found a situation where we had to stay in because of bad weather or we actually got drenched. All the restaurents were open and I had a really good red Thai curry at a place called Natilie's (near the Sugar Palm Hotel at Kata Beach) where they also do damn good bloody Mary's as well. I also had a really crap meal at a place called Oyster seafood restaurent (not far from Natile's). We were paying around 800 Bhat for a decent two course meal with drinks.

Well you can't go to Phuket and not go island hopping. So we went out on two seperate days with two seperate tours. The first one we went on was really nice as we out on a small two engined speedboat round a few islands and to Krabi and back. the crew were dead cool and really professional. Our guide was called Hobi. He'd worked in the industry for years, had a degree in tourism was reall helpful/informative without being intrusive.

At one of the tiny islands we stopped at we all jumped in and did a bit of snorkeling. I should explain here I am well scared of the sea. I mean there are wild creatures in there! You wouldn't go walking in a jungle where there were tigers and dangerous spiders and the like. Would you? Everyone else was doing it so I thought what the hell? It was Quite easy to do and was really cool to see all the fish (that are dead curious of you and swim right up to you) but some of the little cheeky yellow and black ones nibble you if you're stationary for too long. I'm quite a srtong and confident swimmer, in the pool, but I've got to admit I did get a bit of a panic on when I put my head too far under water and breathed in sea water. After 30-40 minutes of snorkeling we climbed out and while we were all getting dried I asked our guide "are there any sharks down there"? In a dead laid back tone he answered "yeah. You get a few reef shark around here. But don't worry. They're more afraid of people then peolpe are afraid of them". Hobi, the guide, was also a qualified dive instructor and gave me a crash course in snorkeling. As it turned out the 5 of us who'd gone out on the boat none of us had done snorkeling before. It's a doddle though and it helped me beat my fear of the sea, a little bit.

The second one we went to Phi Phi islands and was a bit commercial, in as much as....... well there was a few things that bugged me. We were treated a bit like cattle, the boat was very full, the guide was a bit of a muppet (and didn't have the same degree of professionalism of our previous guide For example when he wanted our attention he would clap his hands and making fun of some poor German bloke who was overweight. The islands we went to were all well over crowded, because all the other tour boats (I counted 15 at one beach) all turned up at the same time and disgourged there contents onto the beach. The worst was when I saw the driver of our boat, who was wearing a conserve & preserve Thailand T shirt, feeding some of the wild monkeys on monkey island chocolate biscuits and fanta. Monkey Island is good and well worth a visit but when there are around 120 tourists, some of who were acting like idiots, it spoils it a bit.

If you're going to go island hopping the best way to do it is to go down to one of the marinas early in the morning and ask one of the longtail boat owners if he will take you. That way you can decide where you want to go, when and how long you will stay. Also the money goes to the longtail boat owner and his family and not to some faceless corporation who doesn't care about the area and the community.

The day before I left I went for a Thai massage. I know what some of you lot are thinking but you can forget it. It was all completely professional and above board. I wil be having one of those again. And had I of known how good they were I would of had one every day I was there. They start of by rubbing your back and light stretching of the muscles and end up by manipulating and contorting your limbs in all kinds of shapes. The girl I had was great. She just kept talking to me all the time checking that she wasn't hurting. Sometimes she would fold an arm or a leg into a position and start to pull or stretch and I would think that it would hurt. But it never did. I walked out of there with all the aches and pains, I'd picked up from spending a month on the floor in India, dissipated. You can't go to Thailand on holiday and not have a Thai massage. It's like going to Thailand on holiday and not visiting the Phi Phi islands.