Thailand part 1: Phuket

We touched down in Phuket, and headed to Karon beach, where we had booked some very nice accommodation. We had a new room with Air Conditioning, cable TV, a quality walk in hot shower and a clean, comfy bed. This place was a little more expensive then we were planning for our nightly accommodation budget (500 Thai Baht, or about NZ $20 for us both), but we decided on a little pampering and luxury to find our feet in Thailand.



The water was just divine here. We hadn't yet been to a tropical beach and this was just great: you could stay in the warm water all day no problem. The surf does push you around a bit though, and so after an hour of dodging the breaks you get at bit tired. The sun at the beach was pretty intense too, we both managed to get just a little sunburnt! Princess especially went rather pink. Naughty naughty!

There were plenty of refreshments at the local shops, all aimed squarely at the farang (Thai for foreigner) market. Outlets looking to sell you booze, soft drink, juice, bottled water or ice creams. Shops selling knock off surf clothes, hats, sunglasses and sandals but unfortunately the product range is limited, because every shop seems to have the same product brands and range!. Restaurants with the same headings: Thai food, pizza, pasta, burgers.

Scooters are the backbone of Thailand's transport. They are simply everywhere. You can hire a scooter from every 3rd shop (and that is no exaggeration) and an equal number of places sell petrol by the liter out of whiskey bottles. You simply pull up to what looks like a boozy lemonade stand, and buy a couple of bottles worth - they tip out the whole glass bottle to your scooter and put the bottle out back for the next refill.

It is common to see 3 people on a single (100cc) scooter - often 3 girlfriends, or mum dad and the kid, standing between dads legs on the scooter floor, looking over the handlebars. It's a little scary to watch, but you soon get used to it as it is the norm here.

We hired a scooter from our hosts, and set about exploring the island. The Thai style of driving is quite different to westerners ideas about the road - things like: keep left, indicate, wear a helmet - these are all just ideas, not rules... Most of the island has low traffic density, so its not really a big problem, just keep out of the way of bigger vehicles (i.e. everything). We did venture into one of the main towns, which made Princess very wary - it takes a while to get used to all the jostling and chaos on the roads.

Cruising the island, we also found an elephant park, and decided to go for a ride.



This was our elephant mahout (trainer) who guided the elephant while we rode him. He spoke only one Thai word for the whole hour - no English, just "Maa" which means "come". His big smile made up for the language barrier, and his hat had been written on in English saying that "tips accepted".



Here you can see Princess riding 'bareback' around his neck. I didn't get a chance to go up front, or, as Princess put it, I was too chicken!



After the ride we got some pineapple and fed it to the hungry elephant. They are very sweet and gentle, politely picking the food out of our hands with their trunk and then placing it in their own mouth.

We scootered around the whole island, seeing the sights and getting burned - our whitey skin had never seen so much sun. Thankfully the UV is much lower here, so by the end of our stay at Phuket we had tanned up, and burning is now unlikely.

We managed to park in the wrong place at Patong beach, and get the rental bike chained. We had to go to the police station and pay the ticket just to get the bike unlocked! Thankfully the ticket wasn't too bad (nz $20). I think they were gentle on us.

From here we took a bus across east to an island known as Ko Lanta...