SETTING off from the hotel this morning me and Kevin decided that we were going to spend the day hitting one or two of the northern beaches of Phuket and having accidently ridden in that direction during our first day on the island, we didn’t think that they would be too difficult to find.
The day started off with us getting some beach on Patong Beach and after avoiding some woman who wanted us to pay money to park our bikes in a certain spot we found a restaurant around the otherside of the beach to eat in reasonable peace. It’s amazing the difference between Phuket at night at during the day, most of the time before dark you can walk down the road without being hassled to purchase a suit, get a ride in a tuk-tuk or eat at a restaurant. Where at night you run the gauntlet between being forced into buying one of those things, and many more.
I guess during the day most of the hassle you receive is on the beach where people want you to buy things which are probably more usless than they are trying to sell you on the street!
Anyhow after some revitalising food we hopped onto our bikes and headed north towards Naithon Beach. Arriving there we saw the white sand and blue sea which has become a common theme of our stay in Thailand but stepping out onto the beach for the first time we noticed that Naithon was absolutely deserted. There was literally about eight people on the beach including ourselves. Most people head to Thailand, and paticulauly Phuket in the winter I realise but a perfect beach in absolutely perfect condition deserves better.
We didn’t mind though and soon we were swimming around in the water and making the most of the hot weather. Naithon hasn’t been my favourite beach of the stay in Phuket so far but it did have some lovely powdery sand which squeeked when you walked on it. There were also some fantatic views into the distance and plenty of the little white sand crabs we’ve become very familiar with scuttling up and down the beach.
Hopping back onto the bikes we decided to head a little bit further up the road to the next beach along the west coast which was Naiyang. Now Naiyang may have had exactly the same qualities as all the other beaches we have visited but the sight of it going as far on as you could see and having the view of a couple of islands out at sea made it extremely beautiful.
I just stood at the waters edge for a long time taking pictures and marvelling at everything that the beach and it’s scenary had to offer.
Again Naiyang like Naithon was pretty deserted but there was a little restaurant where we decided to get some food. Fully refreshed from eating the daylight was starting to come to an end so we decided to head towards a waterfall which I had seen signposted on the way. Hoping it wasn’t going to be invisible like Manik cascade that we’d tried to find the other afternoon we were both pleased to discover that the place was actually quite well signposted and we found it fell before sunset had completely set in.
Unlike the waterfall at Kathu, Ton Sai was much less visitor friendly. Although there was a path for a nature trail much of the exploring we did was climbing up rocks which probably shouldn’t have been climbed and following paths that probably weren’t paths. Still, the waterfall was as impressive a sight as I have seen during my time in Phuket.
It’s amazing to think about the contrast between a beautiful waterfall and then the picturesque beaches we have spent much of our time on. Doing things like seeing the cascase really reminds you that you are essentially in a tropical jungle resort and that some untouched areas like this are as beautiful as the man made areas which we have visited so frequently.
Climbing up the waterfall as far as our legs (and the path) would allow us, we headed back to the bottom. Because you’re essentially heading into the dense jungle it is ridiculously hot once you start climbing up the hill and although I feel I am able to tolerate hot weather pretty well, the humidity as you started climbing into the trees is unbelieveable. Getting back on the bike and letting the wind blow across our faces was quite a relief.
With some daylight hours still to spare we decided to hit the most beautiful beach we’d visited in the last couple of days which was in Surin. Light had started to fade quite badly by the time we got there but we were definitely in time to see the sun disappear into the sea. A beautiful sight it certainly was. We decided to eat dinner in Kata this evening but before that we also decided to try a Thai speciality, a massage.
Now when you think about Thai massages I’m sure you all have an image in your head of some skinny Thai bride-to-be using her massuse skills to seduce a middle aged old man into marrying her. If you wipe that image out of your head completely and think about what two twenty-something boys were looking for in a massage, the two were quite different images!
Getting a massage in Thailand is about as easy as it gets. From morning to night, ‘girls’ sit outside their parolors and in the same distinctive tone say ‘hello, massage, welcome’ to almost anyone who passes by. We saw some massuses in the beach the other day which would have been the perfect open aired experience we were looking for.
However now that the sun had disappeared it began to look as though we were going to have to work this one out for ourselves. And by that I mean judge the shadyness of each massage place we walked past on it’s own merits. Avoiding the obviously dodgy places with attractive ladies outside and nobody inside (not quite the sign of a good business is it?!) we looked for safety in numbers and headed back down the road we’d come in to see if we could find a massage place where there were already a number of people inside.
Thankfully about ten minutes down the road we found a nice place which was extremely legitimate and got ourselves two Thai massages. I’m not quite sure I have ever felt so relaxed and even when it felt like the woman massaging me was going to re-break my injured foot the pain didn’t last too long and I’m pretty sure I could have fallen asleep while we was at work.
Ending the evening as usual with a meal we walked back down to where we had parked out bikes and had some nice food at a place called Bufalo Steak house. Seems like we made the wrong choice though as the restaurant across the road seemed to have people crowding around it. Only when they stepped back and made a little space between them that we noticed that there was a huge crowd outside it because there was a baby elephant standing out in the street with it’s owner who was allowing people to buy peanuts and feed it.
Admitedly we’ve seen quite a few entertaining sights in the last few days with people showing off monkeys, iguanas and all sorts on the street but a baby elephant is quite the attraction! Although we were tempted to down our cutlery and head over there we decided that it would be best if we didn’t, mainly because there would more than likely be some kind of fee involved to feed it and/or have your picture taken with it.
Dodging the gauntlet of bars with Thai women trying to woo you in on the way back to the bikes we made the short journey home and prepared ourselves for whichever tour we decide to take tomorrow.
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