Day 1 – Travel
It was time to leave Myanmar and head back to Thailand for a
proper look around. We were picked up
from our hotel and driven to Inlay Lake’s very small airport.
After a very basic check-in where you were given stickers to
wear to indicate what flight you should take instead of a ticket, we went
through a minimal security check and into a fairly small waiting room.
The smoking room was interesting as it had open windows that
you could get in/out of the airport!
We
waited anxiously as there were no screens displaying flight information, what
happened was someone would open a door and flash up hand written board with a
flight number briefly and that was it.
We had to keep checking that people with the same coloured stickers on
were still waiting around too.
Eventually a board with our number was flashed up and we just went
through the door onto the runway and boarded the plane.
The first flight took us bank to Yangon where we had to wait
for around 4-5 hours for our next flight to Bangkok. As there was very little
to do in the airport I spent my time catching up on the blog whilst Shelley
read a book, and of course the flight was delayed!.
Because of the delay it was a bit of a rush to catch our
next flight so we rushed to the carousel in Bangkok to collect our bags and
mild panic started to build when all the bags came through, minus ours!. We tracked someone down who then
informed us that our bags had been separated and were on a totally different
carousel to our flight as they were labelled differently for international baggage, bizarre!,
we collected our bags and made our way to the Phuket plane with moments to
spare and then found out this flight was now also delayed!.
Arriving at Phuket we negotiated a price with a taxi to take
us to our studio apartment. Which, with a days traveling we were looking forward
to. We arrived around midnight and were shown to our (very poky) apartment so
downed our bags and went in search for refreshments.
The first bar we came to was a really cool Bikers bar, Nicky’s Handlebar, which was blasting out Ozzi Osborne and
serving cheapish ice cold beer in pint pots. The walls were adorned with lots
of hells angel patches and various motorbike paraphernalia (even the ashtrays
were pistons).
Unfortunately it closed at 1am so we decided to check out a
seedy looking go go bar across the street but could only manage one beer as we
couldn’t stomach watching an old westerner guy practically molest one of the Thai
girls… a bit of a shock to the system after Myanmar.
We headed a bit further up and found a bar with some live
music. The band were pretty good playing reggae and rock covers but
unfortunately the numbers were ruined by a rather drunk German guy prancing
around and grabbing the mike and singing badly. When the set finished the
singer came over and we sympathised with him for putting up with the guy. 3am
we decided to head to call it a night and headed back to our pokey studio via a
pit stop on the way to pick up breakfast goods for the morning.
Day 2 Nicky’s Handlebar (again!)
Waking late, before getting ready to hit the beach I decided
to make us some breakfast only to find that the eggs we bought the previous
night were actually hard boiled. So we ate those crushed up on toast together
with our 3 in one coffee sachets which we brought with us from Myanmar, Gordon
Ramsay watch this space!.
Stepping out of the apartment we were faced with blistering
heat!. We managed to crawl around the corner where lo and behold there was
Nicky’s handle bar waiting for us with ice cold beers so we thought we would
just have the one before hitting the beach, then 2, then 3 then…
We got chatting to a couple next to us, a guy from the UK
with his Thai girlfriend of about 7 years. Nick and Mae. We ended up sitting
and chatting with them till the sun went down so no beach but we didn’t care,
it was hot and the bar had a really cool vibe with loads of bikers and Harleys
and even a fantastic loo!.
We persuaded Nick and Mae to join us in the music bar down
the road, after ordering our drinks I heard the first few bars of
Nirvana’s ‘lithium’ and decided now was
the right time to tick off an item from my bucket list: Singing with a live
band!. I felt it was going well and I didn’t sound too bad but being quite
drunk, I could only remember 2 of the 3 lyrics that made up the entire song (Id
forgotten that I didn’t have a gun!)
Feeling pretty smug I returned to my fans at the table and
had another beer. Unfortunately a short while later I heard the first strains
of Guns and Roses ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ so decided to give that one a bash too.
A bash would have been okay but I completely murdered the song sounding like a
strangled cat, Shelley, taking pitty on me, even got up to join in to try to rescue
me!. I slunk back to the table rather embarrassed and I think we left shortly
after that, Rock career over!. Even the German guy from the previous night
sounded better than me!.
We went home so I could lick my wounds via a noodle shop
which neither of us could remember much about.
Day 3 So that’s where the beach is
Determined to make it to the beach this time we headed out
again into the overwhelming heat and turned right only to find ourselves in
Nickys Handlebar again!. We got a few pats on the back from the bar staff for
our sterling drinking efforts the previous night, even Nicky came up to shake
my hand. However we set ourselves a 2 pint limit and went in search of Patong
beach.
Arriving, although it was stunning with powder white sand
and clear blue water, it was packed with paragliders, jet ski’s banana boats
etc. We had a go at sunbathing but it was sooo hot that we were in the water
more than out, not much space in the shade we were dying!.
We decided to go for a walk along the beach but cut it
short, (too bloody hot!) so went in search of some food, the hottest Tom Yang
Kung soup we have ever had!. After we had a mooch around the shops as we wanted
to pick up a Thai travel guide and a sim card (they do sims packages especially
for tourists here)
After our brief (too hot!) shopping trip we turned the
corner and there was Nickys Handlebar with cooling fans and ice cold beers!. So
we thought it would be rude not to have a beer before heading back to pokey
studio to watch a film.
Day 4 – Kata
Today was our last day in Pokey studio, we had decided to
head further along where we were told the beaches were nicer and not so many
seedy go go bars.
After breakfast of eggs on toast (my specialty) we headed
out to say goodbye to Nickys Handlebar (if you are ever in Phuket check this
place out) and negotiated a tuk tuk to Kata Beach.
After Pokey studio Shel had done her homework and we checked
into a really nice airy and cheap room for the next 3 nights which just
happened to be above a bar and opposite Kata Biker Bar (lots of Bikers in
Phuket!)
We went out to explore the area, better than Patong but had
a real family package holiday vibe to it. It was so hot that we shortly
returned back to the bar below us which happened to have the cheapest beer we
had found. We had some pretty average food there and drinks and then headed out
again.
Around the corner from the hotel we found another Gem, a Thai
Elvis impersonator Delvis!. He wasn’t bad, had all the moves but later in his
set he started to involve the audience, this time it was Shelley’s turn to be
in the spotlight!. Delvis sidled up and sat next to her, shoving a mic under
her nose and they proceeded to do a duet together!. To be fair, Shel nailed
it!, unlike my Guns & Roses experience!. Elvis is alive and well and living
in Phuket!.
From there we headed back home but decided to check out the
bikers bar opposite our guest house. We got chatting to a bunch of Bikers,
really nice guys from Norway, most ex pats. One of the guys only had one arm
(which we didn’t realise until he got up to hug us to say goodbye), he said
that when asked he says he lost it fighting a crocodile in Oz. One of them had a boat
and despite Shelleys efforts of trying to blag a trip on it, we had to settle
for some tips on the best beaches we could reach if we hired a motorbike
instead. We headed back to our nice airy room for a good nights sleep.
Day 5 – Kata Beach
After a really rubbish breakfast at our guest house {their
eggs are just not up to my standards} we headed for Kata Beach. It’s a pretty
beach but once again it was swarming with Jet Skis and package tourists. We
spent a few hours swimming walking and laughing at some girl dramatically
posing for snaps with her boyfriend. It was still too hot for us so we headed
back to the guest house around 2 so that I could catch up on the blog and Shel
did some research into our next destination. We had decided Phi Phi was the
place to head to next and had booked with a highly recommended diving school
for our Open Water PADI’s
Wanting an early night we ate locally and headed back to
watch a film so we could be up early, h- ire a bike and go exploring.
Day 6 Get your motor running….
Finding a Bike place and being asked rudimentary questions
about my bike skills, her: Can you ride a bike?. Me Yes, Her, heres they key,
bring it back with a full tank.. We headed off in search of nice beaches which
took us up and down very steep and windy hills. I was driving like a pensioner with
Shel on the back to ensure we stayed safe with loads of tourists whizzing past
us. Kata Noi was the first beach we came to (Kata beaches little sister) which
was a stunning bay but again very crowded. Deciding not to hang around we went
for a soft drink in a nearby restaurant before heading off in search of Larn
Kha which we think was a beach recommended by our biker friends a few days
earlier.
We passed a stunning viewpoint along the way where you could see all 3
bays, Patong, Kata, and Kata Noi which made a nice pic!.
Arriving, the beach itself was no great shakes, more a
fishing village but it had a cool vibe with lots of hippy chill out restaurants
with low seats so we stopped for some Pad Thai and bbq’d fish sitting under a canopy on mats whilst watching the
long tail boats casting their nets.
Refreshed, we then headed to Rawai beach (we think} which
was one of the nicest beaches we had come across. Small, crescent shaped,
perfect sand, rock formations, nice!. We
decided to hire some matts and shade and spent the afternoon swimming, rock
pooling and drinking coconut milkshakes.
As it was getting close to dusk we decided to head back via
the viewpoint for a drink to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the prices were
outrageous so we settled on sharing a sprite before heading off again with me
still driving like a pensioner.
We rounded a very steep hill to find a bike in the middle of
the road which had crashed into a jeep!. Police were already there and the
casualty had been whisked off to hospital but judging the size of the dent in
the jeep it was pretty serious. At this point I went even slower!.
Dropping off the bike and still in one piece we headed out
for food and popped in to say goodbye to our Norwegian friends before heading
home,
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