Wed 23rd June - Shiera's 30 day visa was up today, so we crossed into Thailand through the Sadao border crossing. My third time through this border. 8:30am pick-up from the Star Lodge and crossed the border by noon quickly with the standard 15 day visa. Change of timezone back one hour to GMT+7. The first stop on the Thai side is the transport hub of Hat Yai. For most it is just a passing place and I have spent too much time there already. We were dropped at a travel office to await the connection to our main destination of Phuket. We had about an hour, so had time for a quick lunch at a nearby cafe. Shiera's first exposure to real Thailand. Menus with almost no intelligible language, and staff that didn't speak much English. We had expected a bus for the next section of the journey, but it turned out to be another minibus, albeit a fairly comfortable one. The route went through Trang and Krabi. The whole journey cost RM73. Phuket is an island and not just a town and getting from the bridge that links the mainland to Phuket Island to the Phuket town took about an hour. Arriving late in the evening is a bad time to find accommodation, and so we had to stay in town and get out to the beach the next day. Luckily while we were plodding the streets looking for somewhere, a guy wearing a signed vest came over to us and showed us where the hotels were. He couldn't speak English, but i guess he was part of a tourism service. RM500 for a reasonable aircon room at Joe's Mansion Hotel. Straight out for a meal before it got too late, and ahhh...Thailand and the land of flamethrower curries. Ordered my favourte Red curry and my lips were on fire for about an hour afterwards.
Thu 24th June - After a great night's sleep and waking to another hot day ahead, time for breakfast and plan the day. We had BBC World News for the first time in ages. It is so apparent that we haven't been keeping up with world news, and it all seems a world away from our lives now. Apart from the obvious FIFA football mania that you cannot miss, considering the noise from the TV sets as you walk any street, the rest of what is going on in the world is a blank. Need to spend some time catching up. First though we moved on to Patong Beach by local bus from the market area. 25Bt each as opposed to the 300/400Bt that the taxis and Sawngthaew wanted to charge!
Didn't take long to find somewhere to stay, at the Same Same Guest House above a hairdressing salon, owned by a Swiss guy and really good standard. As we thought of staying for a while, they agreed to 450Bt per night.
Fri 25th Jun - There are a couple of big shows to see here, and the more wallet friendly one is the 'Simon Cabaret'. with 2 shows at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. We went to the late performance. Similar to a show I had seen in Bangkok, it was the over the top flambouyant ladyboy (Katoey) show. Where from a distance, you cannot tell with some of them if they are or aren't. Miss California 2010 was there with her crown/tiara which added for some extra photos at the after show photoshoot. An excellent show with some wonderful costumes representing every Asian country. One difference here was the tactice they use if you want your photo taken with any of them. They were actually a bit too hostile in some ways. One grabbed my shirt and pulled me when i had a photo taken and they almost crowded on me. It was chaos and they weren't that pleasant about it. It was agood show though and tried not to let it affect that.
Sat 26th Jun - Had booked a half day tour with Sim's tours to 700 Baht each to Phang Nga bay and James Bond Island, where 'The Man with the golden gun' was filmed in 1974. Bond's objective was to recover the Solex Agitator. With Roger Moore as Bond and Christopher Lee as Scaramanga and the lovely Britt Eckland adding a pretty edge to the movie. From when we got on the bus the movie was playing, so no excuse for not knowing the plot.
Before the Boat bit of the tour, a stop off to see the Wat Suwan Khuha cave. Also know as the Monkey cave temple, with its 15metre long sleeping Buddha. Cute monkeys prowl around visitors eyeing up the options for a quick snack. One tugged at my shorts as a hint. Many were carrying babies...so cute.
Bus stopped at Surakul pier followed by 20 minutes by longtail boat to Visit the 'Sea Gypsy' fishing village 'Koh Panyee'. Reading about this place after getting back tells of an interesting story. All of the families are related to the original settler Toh Baboo and a small number of families who left Indonesia to find somewhere new to settle, where there was plenty of fish. The one who found a suitable place for them to settle would raise a flag for the others to see. Hence the name Koh Panyee means ' The island of the flag'. Nowadays it exceeds 315 familes. Being of Indonesian descent means the whole village is Muslim. It has its own school, Mosque and Health Centre. Nowadays tourism has taken over from the original dedication to 100% fishing, and figures now suggest that only 40% is now fishing. The stilted island now has a growing number of bungalows for accommodation and is blessed with electricity, fresh water and also Internet. At the entrance to the main pier a rule board dictates fines for many transgressions, answerable to the Community leader.
The tour was advertised as the 'Twilight' Tour. And it lived upto its name as we were treated with a beautiful time without the hoards of tourists swamping the views.
Sun 27th Jun - Extended our stay in Patong again for another 2 nights, so will move onwards on Tuesday to Khao Sok National Park. Time for some domestics...has to be done!
That's it for now...Off to the beach soon...
