Phuket
12th May
We left the resort at 6.30am to catch a ferry to Surat Thani. We then got on a coach to go to Phuket. When we booked the tickets, we checked they were first class as they had air-con. The first bus we got had air-con but not brilliant! After about 30mins on this coach we stopped in the middle of nowhere at some bus terminal. We were then directed to a little vehicle that resembled a Tuk Tuk. It looked a bit like a pick up, with seats on the back. About 15of us were pushed into the back, 2 people had to stand on the end holding on to the roof. There was no air-con here, just open windows! We were on this ‘bus’ for about another 30mins then we stopped at another bus stop! This time we were all taken off and told to sit and wait. A man who spoke a little english told us we then had to pay an extra amount of money to be taken to Phuket! Elliott was fuming! We thought we had paid the lot, the man said if we didn’t pay, we weren’t going anywhere and we had no clue where we were! After everyone paid we were put into little mini buses and taken to our hostels. The trip took 10hours altogether! It was a long old day but we got to the right place in the end.
Patong Beach were we stayed was a lot more touristy than any other place we had been, but it was very nice. We had dinner with 2people we had met on the bus. Elliott finally managed to get a hot thai green curry! This was the night Elliott took me to the hospital! I had to have my ear syringed. It wasn’t very pleasant, especially with Elliott taking pictures. When my ear cleared I could hear EVERYTHING! I couldn’t sleep that night, all I could hear was the air-con, fan and traffic outside, at least I weren’t in pain that night!
13th May
The weather was overcast so we went and had a stroll through the mall and booked our tour to Phi Phi Island. We ended up going to the cinema to watch Star Trek. The cinema was the best we both had ever been to and so cheap. A ticket cost 2pound 80p each! We went for a walk down the beach as well.
14th May
We hired another moped again today. We wanted to do some elephant trekking and heard it’s cheaper if you turn up rather than booking through a tour operator. We found one site, and rode an elephant called Dochra, it was great fun! The elephant owner took tons of pictures of us on it…in between looking at the rest of the photos on the camera and taking phone calls! We did get eaten alive by gnats though! The elephants were lovely but they are chained to trees when they aren’t being ridden. Quite sad really! We then found a waterfall, which was running this time! We had to climb about 150m of stairs to get to the top. It started to rain as we were coming back down, and when it rains, it rains! There was also a thunderstorm, we managed to get back in time to avoid getting wet. We went bowling and to Burger King with the people we met on the bus, Katie and Dan.
15th May
We had another 6.30am wake up call to catch the ferry across to PhiPhi. We snorkelled at Monkey Bay. We were warned by the tour guides not to go onto the beach as the monkeys are very aggressive! There were some idiots that went onto the beach and were soon chased off by the monkeys. We decided to stay clear. There were tons of fish and the guides fed them around you, alot of fin flapping! We then moved on and thought we were stopping at Maya Beach (where The Beach was filmes) but we just went round the island, we were so disappointed as when we booked thats what we asked for. We had some lunch and stayed on the beach at Phi Phi Don, it was a fab beach! We both got burnt as it was the first bit of sun we’d seen in a few days so we thought we’d make the most of it.
That night we went to Rock City and had free cocktails and beer till 11pm. We then went on to Banana Club with a few people we had met.
16th May
We woke up feeling very sorry for ourselves this morning. We spent most of the day in bed, as the weather was dull again! We went to see Phukets Fantasea in the evening. It was a show about the history of Phuket, they had performing elephants, which we felt sorry for. We did have our picture taken with a baby tiger though, that was great.
17th May
The weather was overcast again today! Elliott got a packet of sweets which after he had opened them and had one he realised they were full of ants! It was hilarious! Then his flip flop broke when we were walking around the shops! So we had to find him a new pair. That wasn’t easy, imagine trying to search for a size 13 flip flop, when you are in a country of tiny men! It was very funny though watching El explaining to the shop assistants that he needed ‘big flip flop’ haha. We tried to lie on the beach as it was our last day in Thailand but it started to rain again, so we went to the cinema again to watch Wolverine.
