We pre booked accomodation , which seemed a good idea as we arrived about 9:00 p.m. After a nine hour flight, 7272 kms we knew we would be tired. The taxi made quick work of driving the 20 kms or so from the airport to Naga Guesthouse, hitting speeds close to 140 kms in built up areas, but we felt quite safe. The accomodation was not in a tourist area and seemed rather out in the backwaters of town. It was on a main road and was very noisy. We were above a 7/11 store, next door to an outside pub with music and with a cute balcony, copletely taken up with yet another airconditioning unit.
The next morning I was up early and went out walking and exploring. In close to three hours I did not see another western person. There weren't any taxis, buses or forms of transport visible and deffinitely no restuarants with english menus. However as the day went on we appreciated the footpath food stalls who were able to provide tasty food, the market which features in the photos, and dispite the absence of english signs found the nearest ATM and internet shop. A good lesson in getting away from the back packer centres.
After taking several wrong turns and not understanding the map for some time Tom and I eventually got a handle on the lay out of the town, (city?). We caught a local bus to a couple of beaches to see where we might like to move to. However that was not very satisfactory. The beach was kilometres packed with pink umbrellas four deep with sunlounges under each brolly. It was even too off putting to take a photo!! The tourist strip was full of souvenier shops, tailors, travel agents, restuarants taxi drivers wanting your custom etc. We had a quick look and then headed back to Phuket town.
We had expected that their would be a backpacker centre here, similar to Bangkok, but not so in our experience. I think nearly everone is ensconced at one of the beach places.
I don't think we will take it any further to find a suitable beach place on Phuket Island.
