Phuket to Bangkok

Arriving at the bus station on the other side of Phuket we soon realised thast is was as coordinated as many things here in the way that there are a few guys running it but with little communication between them and even less to you chaos isn't far off. Eventually we find a bus and pretty much play musical chairs until the conductor finally decides which ones are correct for us and the french couple that had been collected from Patong with us, it seems that although the tickets have numbers these don't correspond with the seat numbers.

The bus leaves and we head north and quite quickly too, especially when you look out side and realise how rough some of the roads are although the seats were quite comfy and you could lean them back quite far. After a few hours of some of the weirdest television known to man - some sort of a cross between “who's line is it anyway” and Xfactor and we arrived at their version of a service station. No burgers and old food here, just loads and loads of small fixed stools selling exactly the same, rice and omlette with your choice of meat of vegetables. After some pointing at signs I had some pork omlette, rice and chilli sauce, yummy unfortunately I hadn't taken into account that although Becky felt ill that wasn't enough to reduce her appetite and I wasn't able to have quite as much of the dinner as I may have hopped. Another 5 hours and we are back in Bangkok a whole 15minutes ahead of schedule. Now pretty much out of Baht it was time to see how readily US dollars were accepted, except for the official taxi drivers working on the meter it seemed all were perfectly happy having any money so some haggling later and back to the centre for some wandering and some breakfast.

Phuket

Another minivan later and we arrive at Patong beach, this accommodation was booked with STA at the start so is actually a hotel, About 10minutes walk from the beach and a little further to the area of down with all the shops and bars. Most our time spent here was spent on the beach although we did have to check out the pool and I think probably for the safer side of things, the sun had been having quite an effect on our pasty white skin, so escaping under an umbrella for the middle of the day gave us some well needed rest for our sunburnt shoulders.

We decided that we had to go and check out the night-life even if we wouldn't go for drinks or such to save some money for later in the trip. Most of the streets seem fariyl ordinary with the standard variation of sports bars at the time showing mostly Manchester United games who are quite well supported here or the tennis. However if you continue southerly along the beachfront road you quickly come to the busy area marked by the yellow lights above the road. Then the whole area and atmosphere starts to change into something else, the streets are lined with bars either side all of which have girls dancing on the tables or on poles. Then there are the black fronted strip clubs and sellers lining the seat trying to sell everything and anything from glowsticks and light up things you might find on fireworks night to lapdances and pingpong shows.
Another morning trying to fill up as much as possible on the breakfast and fill the lunchbox for later and then a few hours on the beach – a coconut for a drink and then back the the hotel to be picked up and taken off to the bus depot.

Phi Phi to Phuket

Fairly sad to leave the island so soon, there is a lot to do on the island ,even though it is very small, and we have barely scratched the surface which seems to be a common these so far on this trip, quickly hopping around does have it's downsides. On leaving the wind has picked up which is a nice change and helps with cooling in the mid day sun, not to a lot but with a big kite and large board kitesurfing between all the islands could be unbelievable. A school here would be amazing especially as there is no competition although I’m pretty sure the wind would be rather light the majority of the time so lots of theory and day one lessons. The ferry crossing is fairly uneventful and calm as expected with only the slight obscurity at the start when a couple of small boats catch us up to bring along those that had missed it at the pier or were being brought from activities that ran late.
A few jam sandwiches and some proper sized pineapple chunks on oversized cocktail sticks later and Phi Phi's great cliffs are fading behind the sea mist into the horizon. Around another small island and Phuket Pier is in sight, looking rather more industrial than the huts perched on a hillside that we have left, it's time to head out of tourist serenity and into the urbanized wild streets and the cabaret shows of Patong road.