Thailand 2007
The First 10 days
Before we arrived in Phuket we spent 8 days in Phnom Penh, I will report on that soon in the appropriate forum.
After a very bumpy landing (but no cracks in the windows) we arrived in Phuket to be welcomed by Richard (and his little supply of drinkies) what a man!.
Richard was in the Toyota Sports Rider 4x4, complete with esky and GPS (maps in glove box), which we would be hiring for the next couple of weeks, this car is a looker that’s for sure, black with windows tinted so dark no one can see in (totally illegal here in Australia) freezing air conditioning.
If only he knew the places that lovely car was going to go!!!
We checked into our hotel, met my sister Angie and brother in law Brett, then off we all went to Nicky’s Handlebar to catch up with Winnie 77 (Wendy & Terry) from Manchester. They were leaving the next day which was a shame as we know we would have all got on and had lots of fun times. Hope Gary’s talk on Cambodia has convinced you to go there!
Eventually Richard had to leave ( this was quite a few hours after he had picked us up, it wasn’t our fault Megumi, honest all we wanted to do was go to sleep as we had been up since 5am!!) We had to walk past Nichao Tattoo’s to get back to our hotel and the guys came running out to say hello, one of them said wait and he went into the shop and came out with a printout their info from my webpage, someone must have given it to them haha. They invited us back to a bbq on the Thursday night and said they would tell all the guys who had met us last year to come as well.
The next 2 days in Phuket were not so good as I woke up with a migraine that didn’t want to go. Never mind, we had the tattoo guys bbq and the Friday bbq to look forward to!
Nichao and his friends put on a fantastic spread for us, they set up tables and chairs on the road, there was a little hot coal bbq on the footpath and there they all were about 10 big heavily tattooed Thai guys with limited English waiting on us hand and foot haha. There were prawns, octopus, whole bbq fish and some of the strangest looking dipping sauces I have ever seen, especially the murky green one which was soo hot my mouth and tongue went numb, but it was so good.
(I certainly paid for it the next day, couldn’t even sit down for a few hours but all is well and its time now for the Friday Night BBQ & Sunshine Bar!!
If you have never been to one of the Friday Night bbq’s that Richard & Megumi organize, then you are really missing out on a fantastic dinner and night. The all you can eat bbq is only 150baht and jugs of chang beer 100baht – cheap as chips.
We started with a few drinks at our hotel, then it was onto the minibus for our trip to Rawai. What a great bunch we had on the bus, Max & Angela who I have spoken to many times on the awd forum, Cath & Ian from Trip Advisor, I am shocking with names and so sorry I cannot remember names of the other couple with us.
This BBQ was the biggest held, Richard called it the
to Phuket Party, there were 63 of us enjoying some of the best food and company ever. There is just so much food and the ribs would have to be my favorite, then again so is the chicken, the potatoes are to die for and the asparagus wrapped in bacon – yum!! It was also lovely to see Megumi again, she is one in a million.
Soon it was time for everyone to be transported to the Sunshine Bar for a fun night of singing, drinking, dancing, drinking, pole climbing, drinking, laughing, more drinking. I’m sorry to say though that this night I was chosen to be on the Safety Committee with Richard, this meant I was not able to attempt the dreaded pole, but that’s ok as I realize it is an honor to hold this position, though Gary, Angie, Brett and many others scooted up quite easily, (with a bit of pushing up from below). There were also lots of kids there this night that all had a ball, they make that pole look sooo easy!
Hello again to all the lovely people I met there and who bought me drinks – alcoholic ones at that – even though I don’t drink much, I forced them down.
Captain Mark was also at the Sunshine Bar, so it was good to finally meet him in person (and drag him out with us later to the bars) Boy, are we looking forward to our day out with you!
Our whole bus load ended up coming with us back to Speedys Bar, we lost Mark but somehow he managed to find us. Poor guy nearly died, he decided to hop over what he though was a small wall but on the other side there was quite a drop, we couldn’t hear him yelling out for help. That’s what you get for not using the toilets Mark, you would never see us do anything silly like that now would you?
After a couple of hours at Speedys Bar drinking again and playing pool it was time to leave. Brett had already staggered home so now it was up Gary to help me and Angie home. We stopped at the soccer stadium (about 1.30am) to see if any games would be on, how disappointing – no one else turned up, so there we were up in the grandstands (god knows how we managed to climb up there) with Gary down below telling us to get down, be careful and stop being silly.
Anyway we eventually made it back with just a couple of rest breaks in various pot plants and gardens along the way.
The next day was a lazy day spent recovering in the pool, couldn’t overdo it now could we.
Sunday morning Richard picked us up to have breakfast with him and Megumi at Chao Khun Restaurant at Rawai, it was a delicious buffet brekky for 140baht, the buffet has all the normal breakfast foods plus German meats and cheeses etc.
Great little spot, needless to say we gorged ourselves again.
Then it was time for us to do the paperwork for our hire car and we were on our own. Filling the car up was an experience, we are used to doing it all ourselves, but not in Thailand, we just sat there while someone did it all for us, then washed the windscreen, just like in the old days, 1500baht for 60 liters – not bad.
Big day tomorrow (Monday) as we are driving to Khao Lak for 3 nights.
The drive to Khao Lak was lovely, we went along the coast, then inland, lots of lovely places to stop like Mai Kao Beach, not far before the Sarasiri Bridges
We stayed at the Similana, fantastic place on the edge where the jungle meets the ocean, you certainly get a workout staying here, lots of steps. The chalets are perfect, looking out over the ocean and we were lucky enough to have a lightening storm one night and the way the rooms are designed with windows everywhere, it was an amazing sight to lay in bed watching and listening to the storm. It was extremely quiet in Khao Lak being low season and many places were closed, though this did not bother us. We spent a day driving through the Khao Sok national park, stopped at Rainbow waterfall and had a swim, it was a perfect day as the place is beautiful.
Next day was canoeing down the Sok River, it was a scorching day and no relief at all being on the water, but still well worth doing.
First swim at Khao Lak was a bit of a disaster and a painful one at that as I had an encounter with the tentacles of a jelly fish, there is photos of some of the welts on my photo link below. Haven’t been back in the ocean still due to that, maybe next week!
We had some great meals here so I will include them in my foodies report with prices, photos etc separate to this report. I will also do the same with shopping etc.
Had a huge night when we arrived back in Patong on the Thursday, we only went out to have a watch repaired and think we came home about 7hrs later. Somehow we ended up at the Lion Bar having fun drinking and playing games with the bar girls, it’s also a good place to people watch.
We certainly paid for it the next day but the sad part was it was another Friday Night BBQ, well we couldn’t cancel could we, so on went the brave faces and off we went again. Brett was to sick and had to stay back at the hotel. The food went down well but the thought of a drink was tooo much, so there we are at the Sunshine Bar drinking pineapple juice all night, Angie did us proud and managed to get down a few Bacardi breezers, then it was straight back to the hotel.
In between all this there has been a bit of handbag shopping, we have been to Jungceylon, not that fussed on the place but it has a good supermarket. Went to Central Festival and bought my Husky’s bag there, as the Thailand Sales are on theres lots of good discounts here. Bought some dodgy runners at Big C for the Atv Tour.
Now – The Deli Supermarket. This place is brilliant, if you like wine there is a massive selection of wines from around the world including lots of Australian wines, Gary was in is glory when he saw all the imported cheeses, all those smelly rotton socks types, lots of different meats, they also have a bakery selling Australian pies etc. The Deli is number 31 Rat-U-Thit Rd.
Well that’s enough for now, next will be our drive to Cape Panwa, the Elephant & Gibbon Centre at Kata and our big day out today at Surin and Bang Tao beaches, Ton-Sai waterfall then on to Laem Hin and the floating restaurants at Koh Maphrao.
Here is a link to some of our photos
Picasa Web Albums - Cathy