We had the name and e-mail address of a Driver that David had used previously, however having e-mailed him about a week before we arrived we did not get a response from him until after we got home, as such he missed out on our patronage, so if you want to get in contact with drivers in Phuket I suggest you either phone them, or e-mail them about a month before you go!

Not that it mattered, as we ended up booking a brand new 10 seat Toyota Mini Bus and Driver from the hotel, big leather seats individual air con punker louvers, and even a TV screen and drinks cooler, cost us 500Bt and hour, minimum 3 hours, and given it was costing us 250 to 300Bt for a 10 minute ride in a Tuck-Tuck from Patong back to the MBR, I thought it was a good deal, and we split it between our friends.

Anyway we got him to drive us to “The Boathouse” in Kata Beach for lunch, which was excelent, and then to all the “View Points” around the south end of the island, ending up at Rang Hill overlooking Phuket Town, it was a leisurely three and a half hours and we arrived back in time for the 4pm happy (two) hour at the swim up pool bar, half price so two Pina Colada’s for 150Bt, I got stuck into the “Around the World” cocktail I had discovered the night we arrived, consisting of Whisky, Rum, Vodka, and a couple of other mixers which I cannot remember, on ice, for the same price as all the others, 150Bt each or two for one in the HH, could only manage two a night and then ended up with jelly legs!!!!

Did a bit of shopping, mostly for you know who, the Grand Children, two girls 1 and 4, but they have so many cloths that the other Nanna brings back from Bali, and so many toys it is just too hard, anyway got a couple of Thai silk stuffed elephants, which, on our return, the young AQUIS bloke wanted to confiscate for some reason, and a Thai dancing lady puppet in full dress, which he also wanted to fumigate because he could not see the wood body under the dress, anyway an older AQUIS lady he referred to said they were ok so they let them through.

However by warned, I lost a very beautiful picture of an underwater scene fish and coral, that was made like the shadow puppets by punching out the pattern from very thin water buffalo hide, and then painting it, yet despite it being cured and painted, because it was hide they said I could have it if I paid $60 to have it bombarded with gamma rays that would take 8 weeks, so despite it costing me 500Bt, with that cost, and the cost of having it framed it was not worth it, so it went in the bin!

We took a Taxi to the Ceramics of Phuket factory show room, which, despite being in hotels magazines, no one knew where it was, luckily I had found it on a map that I had printed from the internet and laminated to take with us, and showed the taxi driver who took us there and waited for about half an hour or so and brought us back, it was just off the bypass road close to Phuket Town, and only cost 600Bt.

Anyway some unusual ceramics there, lots of big bold colors, but because of size and weight restrictions ended up with some small pieces which “she who must be obeyed” has promptly given away, but I managed to keep the Thai equivalent of a Moroccan Tagine, only it’s glazed ceramic and not terra cotta, and probably we will only use it for serving rather than cooking, anyway I like it and the visit was well worth the effort.

We all went to the Aussie bar and met up with the owner Greg, who just happened to be the brother of one of our friends, and we watched the last two quarters of the Eagles v Brisbane game on the big TV screens and had a few beers.

The Aussie Bar is a “Sports Bar” so you can take the family without being embarrassed by consistently being propositioned, Greg and his staff have strict control on who comes in, so if you feel the need to watch any sport while you are on holidays this is the place to come to, anyway it was just too much football for me and a bit noisy so we went shopping and dinner after the game finished.

Sadly Greg lost 3 staff from the lower bar area when the tsunami struck, they didn’t know what hit them, then afterwards he and his business partner, another from Perth, spent hours helping retrieve bodies from the below ground shopping centre floors and underground car parks, understandably many still will not talk about it other than in general terms.

To be continued, BJC.

BJ ... can you please tell me where the "Aussie Bar" is in Phuket? Im assuming it is in Patong, I think I remember someone saying that. Im heading to Patong TOMORROW and going with my friend and her hubby (who is an avid rugby league fan - actually he used to play for the Steelers!) and he would Im sure love to watch some footy over there!
Thanx ... Kitty

Hi Kitty,

If you walk out of your hotel ,the beach end, turn right and head north, keep walking until you hit Bangla Rd, turn right into Bangla and the Aussie bar is up a little bit on your left hand side. You can go out the front of your hotel also and turn left and then left again into Bangla and then the bar will be on the right towards the end of Bangla.
Have a great time.

Michelle

The Aussie bar is a really good spot for some food and drink and a bit of sport on telly.I was astounded by the DJ,s CD collection he has 10's of thousands of the things.
It's really easy to find once on Bangla Road--we weren't even looking for it.
Thanks for the JBR's good reading
Cheers Laurs

Thanx Michelle for your quick reply - I have put this in my travel diary. Im sure my friends hubby will love the atmosphere of an Aussie pub watching footy!!! You see ... he's not really into shopping, whereas my friend and I will be shopping 3 times a day!!!
Only 23 1/2 hours till take-off!!!!!
Kitty

Hi Kitty, by the time you read this you will be there in Phuket, anyway hope you have a marvellous time.

You got the directions to the Aussie Bar I see, Greg and his business partner, both WA expats, made the conscious decision to make it a “sports” bar, and their staff keep strict control over which of the locals come in so exclude hawkers, timeshare touts and bar girls, which makes it family friendly, mind you, you have to love your sport and it does get a bit noisy, but it’s all good fun.

As you saw we didn’t get to go snorkelling, however I spent some time with a couple of locals casting their nets for fish from the rocks on the MBR beach at low tide, which is was for most mornings we were there, which was interesting, mind you the fish the caught were very small.

Unfortunately the young Thai I spoke to had little English so I could not work out why some fish he kept and some of the same size, about twice that of our goldfish, he tossed back, they all looked the same to me?

One thing though the tide comes in at almost the same rate as that in Broom, one minute I was taking photos of fish and crabs in one of the rock pools next minute I looked back to the beach and most of my stepping stones had vanished below the water, I had to hightail it back as best I could.

I got enough to do an article on Phuket, but mostly on the Touristy things, I will however go back sometime in the future and do an “off the beaten track” type of article, but will do a lot more research beforehand next time.

Regards, Bruce