Kata Beach Re-revisited, Bang Thao Beach and Returning to Reality

READY to head into our last day of the vacation and head off on one of the island tours, we were disappointed to discover that it would have actually required some prior planning for us to be able to book ourselves on one.

The two most popular destinations are Maya Bay which is where ‘The Beach’ was filmed and ‘James’ Bond Island’ which is close to the Phi Phi Islands, near mainland Thailand. Sadly both these tours set off at very un-vacation like times , in fact much earlier than I even get up for work so we decided to spend the day taking in a final twenty four hours of sunshine before returning to Suwon tomorrow.
Although I was disappointed that we missed out on an adventure it turned out to be a nice quiet day which fitted in very well with the rest of the time we’ve spent in Phuket.

We headed out towards Kata beach after discovering that most of the tours had already left and grabbed some food at a restaurant in the main town. We headed back to the main stretch of beach where we’d spent the first day and lounged around in the water and laying on a sun lounger for a couple of hours before deciding to be adventurous.

Although we’ve visited most of the beaches in Phuket during our stay we decided to head to one more before we left, heading towards Bang Thao beach which is just north of Surin and Kamala and about a 45 minute ride away on the bike. Well it only takes that long when like most other places it’s signposted for psycic people who realise that the turnoff is about ten minutes back in the direction they just came from.

After winding our way down a couple of small roads and being able to see the beach through the trees we decided to make a break for it through a hotel car park which seemed to lead to the beach. Luckily there was no-one there to stop us from reaching the beach and we walked down a fair bit of the 8km stretch of beach before deciding that we needed an ice cream and a sit down.

Bang Thao beach might just be the largest one in Phuket and it certainly was one of the prettiest. The water was fairly cold but the sand was perfect and as usual there were plenty of places to grab a seat as we virtually had a km of beach to ourselves. After a rest and a tasty cornetto we hopped back on the bikes and tried to find the invisible waterfall that we were unable to seek out the other afternoon.

Heading down a few narrow streets we figured we were getting somewhere until every single road we decided to go down led back onto the original road that we’d turned off. Deciding to cut our losses and head back towards the beach before the sunset we decided to stop in at Patong to get some dinner and then take one last walk on the beach in the dark. As it turned out by the time we’d had a little bit of a dip in the water and had some food it was still pretty early so we made a beeline for a bar near the shooping mall which had a few pool tables in.

Throwing 200 Baht at the waitresses we managed to get ourselves eleven games of pool and spend about an hour and a half entertaining ourselves before it was time to come back to the room. Well, that’s pretty much all as far as Thailand goes for me but I have to say that this might just be one of the best places I have ever visited and it was an excellent decision to come here as I have loved every second.

It’s always nice to get out of the city and leaving the concrete jungle of Suwon behind for a little while was a wise decision. Sure a week off from work would have been great had we stayed in Korea but it was fantastic to get out and see a different part of the world. I’m sure not all of Thailand is as glorious as Phuket but it truely is a wonderful place to spend sometime and I urge anyone with the opportunity to visit to come here and check this place out.

The beaches are wonderful, the food is fantastic, the weather is unbelieveable and the people are friendly and speak English so you’d be a fool not to. I’m pretty much sure I will be making a return visit in the near future because I have enjoyed it that much and although during our Christmas vacation it’d be cool if we could go somewhere different, I wouldn’t at all be disappointed if we ended up back here because it’s cheap but a great place to be and I consider myself very lucky to be here.

I guess that’s the week gone though and on Monday it will be a return to normallacy and a return to teaching English. It’s strange to be heading back ‘home’ by that I mean that I consider Korea to be my temporary home for the time being and while it’s nice to go away it’s always good to come back, just a bit wierd that I won’t be able to share my experiences with all my friends as I’ll only be a little bit closer to them.

We head out from Phuket airport between 6-8 tomorrow (Kevin still needs to check the ticket!) so most of tomorrow will be spent killing time before we return to Incheon via Hong Kong. I can only hope that things are as smooth in transitioning us back home as they were coming here!

Naithon and Naiyang Beach, Racing the Sunset to Ton Sai Cascade and a Legitimate Massage (Yes, it is possible to obtain)

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.

Trairang Beach, Phuket Town and Why Getting Lost Can Sometimes be Beneficial

FOLLOWING the enjoyment of last night’s Thai boxing, me and Kevin decided to take it easy today by having a lie in and spending most of the morning lying on the beach.
As you can imagine after the last couple of days we are pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to our selection of beaches but we made our way to a different one today deciding to head out to Trairang beach which is just left of Patong Beach, about a ten minute ride from our hotel.

Typically the beach was in perfect condition and with no threat of rain this afternoon it was a case of: Sunshine, Check; White sand, check; Beautiful blue water, check. I really think we have been totally spoiled for choice since we’ve been here and each beach we seem to go to only seems more beautiful than the last one!

We spent about two hours on this beach lying under an umbrella, taking some pictures and enjoying the water before we decided to go for a bit of a ride and head towards Phuket Town. We’d bordered the town in the last couple of days but not managed to venture into it as yet and after an hour or so of riding around we’d probably explored every street that Phuket Town had to offer and decided to find ourselves a restaurant.

As peaceful and tranquil as the rest of Phuket is, Phuket Town was probably somewhere that you wouldn’t want to stay if you came here. There was plenty of traffic on the road and not seeing the beach for about two hours or so was surprisingly depressing. With so many more buildings and shops the temperature, even on the bike, was about 10F hotter than it has been the whole time we’ve been here. We eventually managed to find a restaurant which boasted itself to sell ‘Thai and Chainese’ food. Despite not being a big fan of eating jewellery we decided to head in and in the end the food turned out to be very good and very cheap.

Stepping back on the bikes we headed for back for home but with our excellent navigation skills we managed to find our way to about seven dead ends including one which simply seemed to be the end of land with a road heading that way. Yet again Thailand came through in the clutch with it’s road signs...not.

As it was the lack of signs didn’t hinder us too much as we somehow found our way to Phuket Bay which is one of the southernmost points of the island. We arrived there just in time to watch the sunset and just around the corner we watched the rest of the sunset by the waters edge which is just near the town’s aquarium. I’m not sure we could navigate ourselves there again if we tried but it was certainly worth taking a few wrong turnings or so.

Eager to hit the water again (or at least get our feet wet before we returned to the hotel) we decided to head to Patong beach and take a walk across the sand before getting some dinner. Standing in the water looking out on the waves in Phuket is a truly amazing sight and one that I wish everyone could see (or at least that I could capture on my camera) It’s such a contract from the bright lights on the opposite side of the road, I certainly know which one I would prefer to experience.

Sadly to get some food you have to take the gauntlet down the road whilst people try and sell you fake goods, offer you a taxi or women offer you a ‘massage’ (yes, in Thailand we really do know what that means.) We found ourselves at quite a delicious restaurant with a live band and some good atmosphere so we were pretty happy to finish off yet another enjoyable day and night in style. We then took a ride back to the hotel to rest up and decide what we shall do tomorrow.

Why TLC were right not to advise chasing waterfalls, riding our bikes in the wet and front row seats to see children fighting.

OUR third day in Thailand began with us going to get some breakfast/lunch in Karon whilst we decided what we were going to get up to throughout the rest of the day.
Stopping at a restaurant about five minutes down the road we decided to head towards one of the beaches which we hadn’t visited, Kamala.

After riding about ten minutes down the wrong road realising that we were heading back towards the cascade we visited yesterday, we hooked a u-turn and headed back the way we thought it was going to be!

Riding up and down, left and right and seemingly round and round we seemed to be chasing an invisible beach! If there’s one complaint I have against Thailand it’s that they don’t exactly signpost things efficiently! Signs will all of a sudden disappear and then five minutes later you’ll see one on the other side of the road to let you know that you’ve gone completely the wrong way!

Thanks. For. That.

In the end we decided to head for Kamala beach as that was one of the ones we hadn’t ‘hit’ on our last couple of days in the country. Kamala beach proved to be as difficult to find as the other three that we’d been looking for and it took about fifteen minutes of searching and driving down the wrong roads before we finally found it.

As it turned out Kamala beach turned out to be pretty hidden away but pretty nice (despite the sign which boasted ‘beach 280m’ I think it was a little further but it was worth finding) The beach was pretty long as and as is standard came with beautiful blue water, plenty of palm trees and perfectly soft sand.

Spending some time swimming in the water I took a walk down the beach but just as I returned to my seat to get comfortable we started to feel some spots of rain in the air. We started walking back towards to bikes to hop on them and try and find a place to shelter ourselves from the rain, but as it started to come down pretty heavily we headed to a restaurant and got some food while the weather calmed down.

About an hour later the rain had eased up and we decided to make the brave step of getting back onto our bikes in the wet weather. Eager to do some more exploring we decided to head to one of the other waterfalls on the map. Unfortunately we had some problems with directions again and after riding up and down several hills we’d ridden about as far as we could and got no closer to either of the four waterfalls that we’d tried to find. They can’t be that hidden surely!

As we rode along and navigated the wet patches on the road we decided to head back towards home as we were heading towards northern Phuket which was probably more than we could handle in one day.

It took us about an hour to get to wherever we were back to Karon and once back to the hotel we had a shower and rested before an evening of Muay Thai fighting which we’d both been looking forward to.

Now I’m not a big one for violence but Thai boxing is one of the countries proudest national sports and like karate or Tai Kwan Do it’s full of strict rituals and is mainly about self defence and respect. Knowing absolutely zero about the rules of Thai boxing I decided to take in an evening of fighting to see for myself what it was all about.

Before we headed to the ‘Biggest Fight of the Month’ we decided to get a taxi down to the arena. Hoping to get into a tuk-tuk (special Thai taxi) we were disappointed to discover that we were given a lift in a minibus but at least we made it there. The Muay Thai boxing arena wasn’t as far away as we thought it would be and as we arrived a couple of hours early we decided to head for some food, and finding an ‘Irish Bar’ in a shopping mall just off Patong Beach we had some food, a couple of drinks and played a game of darts on, for once, a real board.

Having been turned away the first time we tried to get into the stadium for being there too early we took another walk around the mall and came back as the repetitive announcement told us at ‘9pm’. As it turned out when we got there, what it needed to say was that doors opened at 9pm and action wasn’t to get underway till an hour later. Apparenelty not everyone had been told that and some people sat there with us for the next sixty minutes wondering when the action was going to begin.
The arena that the boxing was being held in was a lot more ‘advanced’ than I thought it would be. I figured it would be in some underground Fight Club-esque arena but there was a reasonable sized ring and plenty of seats around the outside. Having picked ourselves up some ‘VIP’ seats we were extremely close to the ring and as 10pm arrived things got started once everyone had got to their seats.

The night’s bouts started off, rather awkwardly, with the 60lbs category, which basically meant that the first fight was between two eight-year-olds. As the people around us were about 55% women, they were even less impressed than we were to be watching two kids so young battling it out. To be fair to them, the two kids held their own quite well and although the one from the blue corner probably landed more punches than his opponent, we didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of a knock-out or one of them getting cut.

We were lucky enough in the second flight to see a knock-out in our second fight as a European fighter, I think he was from England knocked out his Thai opponent in the first round. We had a couple of disappointing fights to sit through next as two women battled it out and then two Thai fighters basically battled out a draw. The next one we saw reminded us how close to the ring we were as a guy from England got a cut on his eye and the programme we had sitting next to us got covered in blood, as did everyone in the row in front of us. The guy eventually gave up after he stopped being able to see which I figured was probably-wise.

A few fights later we got to see the ‘Amco’ title belt change hands as some showboating old man fighter, who spent about five minutes before the beginning of the fight dancing around and taunting his opponent got knocked out within the first round and after his showboating a big cheer went up when he ate the canvas in under two minutes.

The ninth, and last fight we saw was probably the closest as some guys who came down to the ring with money wrapped around their neck were obviously fighting for some kind of prize fund and were reasonably closely matched so even though both of them went down once neither of them gave up until the last round and in the end the guy who we thought would win from the red corner took a narrow victory.

I personally had a great evening watching the action and although the fighting was pretty brutal it was interesting to watch and there certainly was some adrenelin pumping when people were landing punches and kicks on one another. As I was in Thailand I figured it was a one time only thing and unlike some people in the crowd I wouldn’t be taking my ten-year old kids to watch!

Impounded Vehicles, Big Buddha, a Beautiful waterfall and the beach by sunset

THROUGHLY enjoying our first days stay in Phuket Kevin and I woke up this morning wondering what the day would have instore for us. By the time I am now writing this blog entry, the answer is a lot more than I expected. I’m pleased to say though that once again Thailand managed to astound both of us with is truely amazing nature and fantastic scenary.

Waking up at about 11am we decided to go and get some brunch at a restaurant in the Karon area and then head on to a waterfall and then perhaps to a beach we hadn’t visited yesterday. As it turned out the morning was spent somewhere neither of us wanted to end up, the police station!

Fear not though, it was through no fault of my own!

We pulled up at a restaurant called ‘The Little Mermaid’ had some breakfast and planned to get some gasoline for the bikes before heading off. As we approached Kevin noticed there was a white piece of paper sticking out between his handlebars. On closer inspection we noticed that it was a parking ticket and eventually realised that we had parked in an area which on a sign further down the road wasn’t supposed to be parked in. (For some reason in Thailand depending on whether the date is odd or even you can either park on the left of the right hand side of the road. Sadly neither of us knew of this law and had we known, neither of us actually knew what date it was)

Anyway, putting the tickets in our pocket we decided to deal with them later and carry on with our day. Sadly it didn’t quite work out that way when we realised that our bikes had been chained together (presumably to prevent us from disappearing without paying the ticket, but more likely because we were forgeign) Unaware of who had ticketed our bikes, and also how we were actually going to get out of the situation we trooped back to the hotel in the boiling midday sun and explained what had happened.
Thankfully the lady behind the desk willingly voulenteered to take us to the Police station to pay the fine which was 500 Baht. After a twenty minute drive to get to the station we found the ‘Pay Fine’ desk, filled in a form and handed over the money (which rather entertaingly and sumwhat unsurprisingly ended up in the ticketing officers top pocket)

The guy radioed for someone to come and unlock our bikes and by the time we’d been dropped off, walked back down to the bikes and had a quick drink with the bikes in view we’d had them unlocked. We returned to the bar to finish our drinks and then got the shock of our lives when we went back to the scooters only to find that they’d been moved from where we put them! Both of us figured that they’d probably been picked up by the same police officer again for some other stupid reason but we were soon informed that they had been moved by someone who was trying to reverse their car out from behind them.

In the interest of not losing our bikes again we got some gas and hit the road down to Kata beach which is just south of where we are staying. After out visit to the station we both felt we needed to cool off and while Kevin took a swim I walked down the beach and took some pictures of yet more picturesque background. I’m pretty such that I have taken a lot of ‘computer background’ photos while I have been here but someone the ones I took this afternoon on Kata beach really some up this island paradise.

With much of the afternoon left to spare we decided to hunt for the ‘Big Buddha’ which sits on a hill somewhere in Phuket and following the road a bit further south back towards the police station we soon discovered a few signs and headed north (as in up) towards the Buddha. The road was pretty steep at some points and I wasn’t entirely sure that my ‘hog’ would make it up the hill but after a lot of windy road and some more spectacular views we finally got to the top to see the incredible sight that is a big marble Buddha on top of potentially one of the highest peaks in Phuket.

We walked through a temple which was decked out with many of the things we’d seen on Buddha’s birthday back in Suwon and then we ascended up a few more steps to discover a 45ft statue of Buddha with people all around continuing to work to finish off the statue of their God. We stood and marvelled at the views for half an hour and I took plenty of pictures which you will be able to see on my photo gallery. The view from up there of the whole of Phuket was a truely amazing view and I can liken it only to the view of Paris which I got from standing on top of Tour Monparanase. Just this time it was views of beautiful beaches and clear blue water.

Heading back down we decided to go towards food and after driving on the open road for a little while we headed back towards Patong Beach where we’d spent some time yesterday. We got a nice little pizza from one of the places by the beach and then decided to sit out on the sand under an umbrella for a little while as our food settled. I watched a couple of people go out jet-skiing which I have to admit looks very fun and I was also lucky enough to see a couple of people go up parasailing which also looks like a blast. Not sure I would have the daring to do either though!
Sitting for about an hour or so on the beach we caught our breath from the excitement of the morning and decided to get on our bikes once more and head towards a waterfall which we’d seen on the map. We’d been pointed in the direction of the nearby mountain by one of the guys we brought gas from and eventually after a ten minute ride or so we reached the bottom of the fall.

Climbing up a few thousand steps we were soon at the top of the waterfall which provided us get again with some terrific views. As we climbed further and further up, it was more like being in the jungle as the humidity got much greater and also the trees started to become much thicker.

Me and Kevin got to the top, dipped our feet in the water and tried to take in the beaufitul sight of a waterfall which we pretty much had to ourself. It’s incredible to think that there is a river running right through the mountain and we weren’t even able to climb to the top of it but it was an amazing sight. The water which we put our feet in was so cool and clear, the sounds all around us we very atmospheric and it was a sight like I have never seen in my life. Certainly not one I’ll forget in a hurry.
It’s strange to think that with all the beaches we have seen, we are essentially in a third world country which along time ago was all jungle. Seeing the virtually untouched waterfall helped bring that back to me and I realise how lucky I am to have been able to see such a sight on my journeys.

Hitting the road again we rode our bikes around in a square and hitting speeds of up to 100km/h we were driving along some main roads alongside other cars which was a very auxillerating ride. We headed back towards Surin Beach and despite thinking we’d missed out on finding it after a thirty minute ride we eventually found a side street which led us to the beach.

Arriving at the beach we were just in time to watch the sunset on what I reckon is definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. Whilst I was in Barbados I saw some fantastic beaches but this one was out of this world. From ear to ear all I could see was white sand and gentle waves turning over in the sea. The sunset made the view even more fantastic and as we walked along the beach with no-one around we ran out of superlatives to describe how amazing the scenary was. The sand on Surin beach was perfect, the water was warm and completely clear. No litter, no seaweed, no nothing, just perfectly pure and clean water perfect for swimming in. We walked out towards the farside of the beach where I was able to climb on some rocks and get a better view of the fantastic sunset.

Feeling hungry we headed back to land and stopped at a nearby restaurant. I had some delicious sweet and sour chicken which was a perfect way to end the day. Feeling tired (and no doubt eager to blog about what we’d just seen) the pair of us rode back to Karon Beach via the usual chaos of Patong and I can say I am very much looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Hopefully we’ll remember to park on the right side of the road....

Hiring a Scooter, Breathtaking Views and Elephants ‘parked’ by the side of the road

WAKING up after a good nights sleep and getting rid of all the tiredness from flying half way across Asia yesterday me and Kevin got up this morning fully ready for exploring.

Kevin had read that the best way to get around in Thailand is to use a scooter so we enquired about them in our hotel and found out that they were only 200 Baht which is about £4! Crazy I know. Now the thought of being on a scooter in England is a little intimidating but being on one in Thailand is an even more intimidating thought.
After I’d finally worked out how to start it up and filled it up with some gasoline, which incidently is sold on old wine bottles at the side of the road by most vendors, we were ready to go. Kevin needed to get some sun cream and I needed to get some flip flops so we headed to the nearest town we could and got hold of what we needed and once we’d got the scooters going we realised it wasn’t quite as difficult as it came across, probably because there wasn’t much traffic on the road.

Kevin was slightly more confused than I was because despite his greater experience on the scooter, driving on the ‘English’ side of the road provided him with an extra challenge!

We decided to head towards a nearby beach and following some signs we rode up and down some hills and on some windy roads. We stopped off at part of Patong Beach which is one of the most reputable beaches in Phuket. We dipped our feet in the water, sat for a bit and then decided to find some food. We rode a long way across Phuket it seemed without finding a restaurant or anything that looked like a restaurant for around 45 minutes. Eventually we pulled up at some form of roadside cafe and picked up a nice meal for around 400 Baht (or about £7) Looking for a new beach we rode the scooters back towards Karon and continued down the west coast reaching the next beach along the coast which was called Kata.

Clear blue waters, white sand and an amazing amount of sun the pair of us were already beginning to shown some signs of redness and we decided to head into the water to cool down. The water wasn’t quite as clean as it was at the bit of Patong beach we went to earlier today but it was perfectly temperate and the sand was so soft and nice that for those couple of hours, being there was nothing short of being in paradise and I sat in the water for quite a long time thinking about how amazing it was that I finally made it to Thailand having wanted to go there for so long.

Me and Kevin rode further up the road beyond Kata beach finding another small beach called Kata Noi and then we rode even further up the coast to Ravena Beach which actually turned out to be more of a pier than a beach. On the way there we stopped off at Kata viewpoint and saw some of the most visually stunning beaches I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully you’ll enjoy looking at them on my photo gallery to see what I mean.

Just when you think you have seen everything we were driving along the road, I caught sight of a couple of girls who were riding in front of us wildly swing half way across the road. Thinking that they were just poor drivers I looked down at the ground and noticed that their swerviture was likely because a snake, which was now on the road, had jumped out of a tree and aimed at them.

We decided to travel back towards Patong to get some dinner and after a 30 minute ride we finally made it there both feeling starving. We stopped off at a Mexian restaurant, had some dinner and watched the sunset, which again provided us with some amazing views. We walked up through Patong a little while before decided to head back to the hotel because we were nakered!
Riding the bikes back in the dark was a little difficult, especially when someone decided to steal my helmet and I ended up riding back with just a baseball cap on to protect me.

I must be honest and say that today that was an absolutely fantastic day and I saw some incredible views and riding the scooters made it all the more pleasureable. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some more exiciting adventures and having invested in those things for the rest of the time we’re here, we’ll see what we can get up to.

Four Countires, Three In-Flight Meals, Two Unnecessarily Filled Out Health Declerations and One Swine Flu Hosing Down...

AFTER the long wait and the weeks slowly drizzling by, Saturday morning came around for me and Kevin, meaning it was time to head to Thailand. We’d arranged a ‘call van’ to come and pick us up at 5.30am to get us to Incheon Airport in time for our 8.30am flight which would take us to Phuket via Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Despite not going to bed until about 1am because of playing on my Wii and messing around on the internet by the time the van got to Talkster, my suitcase was packed and I was ready to go. As we were driving all the way to Incheon the weather was pretty miserable so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing that we were leaving Korea for a week.
We managed to get our plane tickets and get through customs with little problem, neither of us had checked in a bag so we didn’t have to mess around with any of that nonsense at any of our three stops.

Amazingly the first of our three flights was on time and we took off from Korea to travel to Malaysia on the first of three flights which was due to take five and a half hours. The first of our flight meals arrived just as I decided to wake up and it was very much needed as already I was starting to flag! It was still early after all!

We arrived in Hong Kong to a torrent of rain to spend the next couple of hours in the countries only airport. We tried to find our way to the ‘transfer desk’ of the airport and after kindly being pointed in the right direction by a sign we got to the desk to discover that we’d been pointed in the wrong direction. Getting to the second place we were pointed to the queue we were in to get through customs decided to back-up and we were soon told that due to a ‘malfunctioning door’ we’d have to go back to the original desk we were pointed in the direction of. Heading back there we discovered another ‘door problem’ and were then marched halfway across the airport to a door that appeared to be working! (We never did discover that the problems with the ‘door’ were but we figured that was a code for someone trying to bring someone through the gate that they shouldn’t be.

Speaking of which when we did get through passport control and had our bags checked the few women in front of us decided that they were going to try and bring a drill box full of plants through which did hold things up a little bit but with two and a bit hours to spare it wasn’t exactly a serious problem! Taking off from Hong Kong to get to Malaysia, the weather had eased and soon we were on the four hour flight between Hong Kong City to Kuala Lumpur.

On the flight between the two countries we had a bit of entertainment on the plane and not just the choice of films there was to watch. For the second time in two flights the pair of us were told to fill out a health declaration form which was basically checking that you weren’t carrying swine flu. Presumably to ensure against the same thing there was an announcement just as we were about to land that the plane we were on was going to be sprayed to ensure that everyone was ‘clean’. I can’t remember exactly how it went but it wasn’t very re-assuring to be told that if you were wearing contact lenses then you simply needed to close your eyes for 30 seconds and you should be fine. Luckily I was wearing my glasses and I was able to see the ridiculous sight of four members of the flight staff spraying what seemed like air freshener whilst walking backwards down the cabin. Me and Kevin just lucked at one another concluding that the world had gone mad.

We arrived in Lumpur feeling pretty jaded but having only a couple of hours to get onto our flight in the comfort of reclining chairs it wasn’t so bad. Boarding our one hour and ten minute flight to finally get to Phuket we were given some pretty good food including some Ferrero Roche and actually had to fill out a worthwhile health form as we were actually entering the country not being confined to the space of the airport. We touched down in Phuket at about 6.30pm and both of us were feeling pretty tired.

We managed to get ourselves a taxi to the Karon Living Room Hotel where we were staying and after changing our Korean Won into Thai Baht we headed out in the direction of the south coast of the country. As ever when you arrive in a place late at night, things seemed pretty surreal and it was pretty difficult to pick any noticeable landscape features out in the cover of darkness.
After about an hour we got to our hotel and checked in. We decided having travelled all this way that it was time to head towards the beach and then get some food. Even though it was stupidly dark and we weren’t able to see very much of Karon Beach it was pretty obvious that every second of the journey had been worthwhile. Kevin decided to go and check out the water whilst I took in the fact that it was still 90F despite being pitch black.

Both of us as usual were hungry so we headed towards a nearby restaurant and grabbed some traditional Thai food. We took a bit of a walk around the main street of Karon and decided to call it an evening and head back to our hotel after the travelling had worn us both out.
We did have one little shock late at the night when I decided to turn on the light and wiped out all the power to our room by blowing a fuse but we survived through the rest of the evening to enjoy our first day in Thailand.