Phuket is technically an island of the South West of Thailand. It's joined to the mainland by a bridge though, and it's pretty big, so it doesn't really feel like an island.We were met at the airport by a mini-bus and a tour guide to transfer us to the hotel, so no taxi haggling was needed. We were staying at the 4-star Andaman Seaview Hotel at Karon Beach. Phuket turned out to be bigger than I expected and the journey from the airport is over an hour long. It was dark already when we arrived so we didn't see very much scenery.
On arrival at the hotel we were given a warmed hand towel to freshen up with and a glass of cool and sweet green tea, which I thought was very refreshing. We were made to feel like welcomed royalty. We were then escorted to our room, which was on the top floor in a prime position overlooking the pool area and out to the sea.
What lovely is that staff in Thailand are very friendly and helpful, but do not (generally) expect to be tipped. They treat you well as part of their jobs, rather than to get money out of you, and it certainly makes a big difference, and everyone behaves very professionally and courteously.
The room was complete with fluffy bathrobes, and slippers, a full mini-bar (but very expensive), satellite TV, hairdryer, safe, and a bathroom with shutters opening onto the bedroom etc. All very lovely.
We went walking around our new beach town and found 2 elephants on display almost immediately. Not sure what they were doing there, as we didn't see them again, but there are elephants all over Thailand, and there is an Elephant trekking spot just a few Km away from there. I think they were being shown off at the Dino Bar that night. They walked off down the road with their owner/trainer a few minutes later.
Everything about Karon is beautiful and lively, but at the same time tranquil. The hotels are lovely and very tastefully and stylishly designed, and remain understated rather than gaudy. The little Buddhist temples all over (almost like bird feeders) are also beautiful, and are decorated with fresh fragrant flower garlands daily and small food offerings, which the birds seems to think are for them, so they actually do become bird feeders.
The local town folk stay up well into the night and parents and children alike man the shops and stalls till at least 12am (later during peak season). If the children are tired they simply curl up and go to sleep where they are, but the family seems to stay together all the time and the children are very well behaved and quietly play and converse rather that demanding attention as ours seem to do constantly.
The shops run as follows: massage parlour, laundry, travel agent, tailor, curio shop, clothing shop, convenience store, pub, motor bike hire, internet cafe, back to, massage parlour etc etc on and on. Some shops are combinations of a few services. There are dozens and dozens of each and then clusters of restaurants and hotels. There are also a several tattoo parlours, who provide real and henna tattoos and piecing etc. And some artists who make amazing and life like pictures from photos and near perfect reproductions of classics.
It's hard to decide which shop chose because there are so many people offering the same services, all with a friendly, encouraging person manning the shop door/stall hoping you'll purchase something from them. We quickly learned the smile, hand up, 'No thank-you' and walk on routine. If insistent resorting to 'Mai ow ka'. Meaning 'I don't want any.' in Thai. See I did my homework before hand!
That first night Richard settled on a little cluster of beer garden style pubs to relax in with a beer, while I decided a foot massage was more to my liking. So off I set for an hour of pure bliss. Sitting in a reclining lazy-boy being skilfully de-stressed and pampered for a full hour at 11:30pm for only R34! Heaven.
We woke the next morning and went down to our first 'American breakfast'. I was still unsure what that implied and was very pleasantly surprised to find that far from the coffee and toast I half expected it meant anything anyone on the face of the planet might ever consider eating at breakfast time. It was a huge buffet of exotic fruits and fruit salad, cereals, yoghurts, 6 juices, cold meats, cheeses, egg 'any way you want', bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, breads, muffins, Danishes, croissants, tea, coffee. That's just the normal stuff then there's: Boiled rice, stir fried noodles, Thai style steak/or chicken, black pickled eggs, fried rice, etc. The minute bananas were my favourite, little cocktail sized bananas the size of chipolata sausages.
We discovered that we were staying on a perfect pristine beach, where the sand is so soft and clean it actually squeaks under your feet. It sounds weird, and apparently has something to do with the silicone content. The sea temperature, in the 30s for sure! I wish Cape Town sea felt like that!
We were met at our hotel by our air-port transfer agent, as she was giving us a free tour of the island. I think she does it as a free service, but then gets commission if you spend money anywhere she has taken you. We were wise to all the tricks though, and she was very nice and seemed quite genuine so we didn't have any bad experiences.
We first went to the Elephant trekking site. Being fairly used to African elephants the Asian ones are not that new or different, so we decided not to spend to much time there, so didn't ride on them. Instead I bought a basket of bananas and fed them –which was quite fun.
We then went to Wat Chalong (a big Buddhist temple compound). This was or first temple and I was enthralled. It's quite new, but very ornate and the attention to detail is often breathtaking. we also saw our first Buddhist monks there, which thrilled me as I find them very inspirational. They are so calm and collected and 'enlightened' for want of a better word. I was careful to keep out of their way though as monks never talk, interact or deal directly with women at all. So although I wanted to get photos of them I tried to stay respectful and kept my distance.
We then got taken to one of the 'Duty Free' shops, full of stunning jewellery, but again we weren't taken by it, and though it was gorgeous stuff and at good prices, it was just not on our budget. There are also too many stories of 'gem scams' in Thailand, so we didn't bother.
After that we went to a t-shirt shop, where we got a few souvenir t-shirts and then on to Patong beach, the main tourist Mecca of Phuket. It's a busy bustling beach town, albeit a bit run down and dirty. Not quite as pristine and stunning as Karon, but certainly more of a party town. It is also known for the infamous 'katoeys' or lady-men.
The katoeys range from quite stunning to rather masculine and aggressive. We found then fairly easy to spot as most have the give-away protruding Adams apple. They dress and act very seductively, and can come across as a bit scary I thought. We were warned that the modus operandi of some of them is to get you alone, after which they take out a knife and mug you, so we steered clear for the most part. We reckoned they probably go unchecked for the most part, because who is going to report to being mugged by a lady, who actually turned out to be a man, when they are married in any case! A bit of a pickle.
The sex trade there is quite amazing. It's very prolific and out in the open, but I think it's largely more holistic than here, and dare I say is healthier in a sense. Because the girls make themselves available as companions and accompany the fellow while he enjoys his holiday. Enjoying meals, swimming in the sea, island cruises, sight seeing, cocktails etc with him, and I am sure he gets whatever he wants in return. I am not sure if, or how much, money changes hands though. I do know that often the women claim to be poor and wanting to go to university and 'fall in love' with the guy, and really work their magic on him, managing to fleece him of half his life savings to 'better her life etc', and promising undying love to him. She of course moves on as soon as he has to go home. Apparently some of these guys return late, but either never find their great love again, or just fall deeper into her money grabbing deception. Sad and pathetic I think. Another thing you see is big, fat, ugly, hairy, sunburned men (normally Brits) with gorgeous little Thai girls (about the size of the 13 year old SA girl). Men, who would probably never even get a date in their home country, can pick and chose between little Thai beauties.
At one restaurant bungalow we went to one night we realised that out of the 8 occupied tables we were the only 'normal couple', all the other tables were western guy - Thai girl couples. So it's very prolific.
At Patong beach you can get henna tattooed or get a massage right on the beach. There are also hundreds of tuk-tuk taxis vying for business. But oddly the tuk-tuks are really expensive, in fact the only really expensive thing in Thailand and they refuse to bargain. They have a set price and they remain largely empty. You can actually bargain a little with a car taxi, so you can get a comfortable air-conditioned car, and pay less than for a bumpy tuk-tuk ride. There's simply no logic to it...?
While the actual beach at Patong is nicer and sportier, we felt it was a bit crowded and spoiled, and with the jet skis and speedboats around the water was emanating a distinct diesel smell. Detracts a bit from the idyllic image. All in all we found Patong interesting, and might have been a good nightlife spot, but we were glad we weren't staying there. In fact we decided we couldn't think of anyway to improve our spot, which was just perfect for us.
We had walked and walked so much by then that my blisters were starting to get blisters. So I quickly found a sandal shop, and I luckily found some simple leather sandals that miraculously fit comfortably *and* avoided all my blistered areas. I simply had to buy them, and pretty much lived in them for the rest of the trip. Richard got a size 11 pair of 'Diesel' slip-slips too. Both cost R120. I would have paid much more though :) We were getting quite good at the bargaining thing too.
About half the locals speak a little English, but every single vendor has a calculator so you simply bargain by putting a price on the calculator. They laugh at you and then put their price in. This goes on until you agree to a price somewhere in the middle - or you walk away when the price can suddenly drop by magnitudes!
Depending on how ridiculous their starting price is you can get 40-80% off their original price with a bit off effort. I found that shopping around a bit allowed you to get an indication of how much things should cost, and then you decide what you are prepared to pay, and go with that.
We found you can bargain all bought goods and services except, food, massages or tuk-tuks, and taxi's only allow slight bargaining, and there are some fixed price shops. So if items are properly price tagged, than that's the price. But at all the stalls they look at you, suss up how much money they think you have and how gullible you are and how much they think you want something, and you get your very own personalities inflated price *LOL*.
Examples of general prices to expect (converted):
Can of coke R2.15
Plate of Thai style fried noodles and chicken R4 - R8 - from street vendors/bungalows.
Beer in a pub R8 - 12
Beer at 7Eleven R5.8
T-Shirt R16 - R30
Sarong R16 - 25
Men's T-shirt R20 -R35
Full day trip to an island (by speedboat with lunch, snorkelling, and hotel transfers) R270
Coconut cooler cocktail served in the pool at the pool bar R16
125cc motorbike hire for 24hrs R25
Tuk-tuk ride from one beach to another R50! <--- See what I mean?
It's actually amazingly affordable once you are there.
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