Phuket

Phuket has to be our favourite spot in Thailand so far. We loved everything about it – the hotel, the beaches and the people. We stayed on the island for two days and had an absolute blast.

Our bus journey to Phuket was great. It was meant to take around 7 – 8 hours, but in the end we arrived in Phuket a couple of hours early (a bonus from booking on the VIP bus). Again the bus tickets were an absolute bargain at around £8 each.
When we arrived in the centre of town, at the station, we decided to take a taxi to our hotel as it was about 16 km away and we didn’t really want to get on another bus. As soon as the bus pulled up to the station, the taxi touts began to circle! Somehow, we’ve developed a knack for selecting the nice, genuine taxi drivers, which comes in handy! In the end, there was no haggling involved as the station had a board displaying the prices for each of the main areas on the island, which is great for tourists. In the end it only cost us £10 to our hotel.
 

Our hotel was based in the Karon beach area of the island. We read up on the different areas beforehand and Karon was meant to be a quieter, less manic part of town (especially in comparison to Patong, the party beach).
We stayed in the Bamboo House Hotel and it really lived up to its name (there was bamboo everywhere, even the furniture was made out of bamboo, it was very funky). It was a fantastic hotel. Not only were we greeted with complimentary drinks on arrival, we also had an Apple Mac in our room and fantastic views on the city. The hotel also provided a beach bag with beach towels, each day. It was fantastic.

We dined each night in the hotel restaurant as it served great food (the restaurant had lots of bamboo everywhere too and coconut lampshades). It was the most varied menu we’d seen so far, of Thai and Western food. We made full use of our time here and sampled lots of the fresh seafood and traditional Thai stir fries. The food was really great value for money – you could have beautifully cooked lobster for £8.

We spent our first day in Phuket lazing on Karon beach - a beautiful, long beach, lined with deck chairs, parasols and a few beach hut bars. We paid £4 to hire a couple of deckchairs for the day and had a really lovely chap bringing us bottles of beer every now again. It was great.

It was so warm on the beach, we were thankful for the shade from the parsole. It was so hot in fact, that even the small sparrow like birds were walking around with their beaks open!
In the afternoon we hired a jet ski and had a fun filled half hour bombing around on the water. 

Phuket is a big island with around five? different beaches and resorts, so to see if properly, we decided to hire a scooter for the day. Again it was dirt cheap to do so. It was only £4 to hire a scooter for the day. The lady was very lovely and friendly but you had to ask to get a helmet (most locals don’t wear them, despite it being the law). They didn’t have a great selection of helmets, so the lady actually leant Arran her helmet to wear as the others were a bit worn out!

We had such an amazing day whizzing around the island. It’s amazing how much you can pack in when you’re on a scooter. We went to a couple of great vista points for amazing views of the island; fed a couple of elephants, visited Kata Beach and Patong.
After handing the scooter back, we ended the day on the beach with a couple beers, watching the sun set – bliss!
 

Our highlights from Phuket

•    The beautiful beaches
•    The amazing seafood
•    The people – everyone is so friendly and helpful.
•    Stopping at small shacks at the side of the road to fill up the scooter – the gasoline was decanted into olive oil bottles for hand pouring into the engine (it was about 50p to fill up the tank, which can last up to a week!)

 

•    The cocktails – Phuket Paradise drank quite nicely!
•    Feeding the lovely elephants

 

•    Having to proof read suggested text for a barmaid’s new tattoo – on our last night we went to a really lively local pub and the barmaid mentioned she was getting a quote in English tattooed on her back. She asked us to check the grammar and spelling!
•    And a couple of primary school pupils asking Emily if they could take her photo – Not many people have seen blonde hair over here!

We are now in Bangkok (we decided to take a cheapish flight, as opposed to the 10 hour bus journey). We are currently witnessing the most dramatic thunder and lightning storm from the safety of our hotel room!
We will be in Bangkok for the next two nights before we depart on the last leg of our adventure - an organised group tour of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and finally Laos.