PHUKET
We left the city life on a 17-hour bus ride and were woken up by a screaming Thai at 5:30 am telling us to get off and transfer into a minivan. Since language is in fact a barrier, they mark you with stickers wherever you go and kind of herd you around… it’s a clever invention but it makes you feel a little dumb. Arrived at the bus terminal and then cabbed it to Hat Patong, which is the most popular beach in Phuket. Our hostel was located on the main drag, which is packed 24-7 and was filled with bars with live music, gentleman clubs, lots of girls (and ladyboys) pole dancing, and people offering “free ping pong shows”. To sum it up for those of you who (like me) have no idea what that is, well, it’s a show where the main attraction is a girl shooting a ping pong out of her mmm tuti-fruti… we innocently decided to follow one of the 100 people who offered us to see a free show and we were lead to the very back of one of the bars to a room with a neon sign saying “Secret”. To my surprise, the audience was mainly girls and we were lead in by a girl with a flashlight. As I sat, I glanced to the girl on the stage who all of a sudden started pulling out a sting of flowers our of her lady parts… the waitress told us we had to get a drink to stay, each drink was $30 … and so that was the end of our ping pong experience.
Apart from the crazy nightlife, Patong has more to offer: nice beach, cheap massages, incredible live bands and scuba diving. We booked a 3dive scuba trip; for starters, the yacht was gorgeous! The bottom deck had the equipment and a kitchen, the middle one had tables and an ac-dry room, and the top had pillows and mats so you could laydown and enjoy the breeze and the sun. The highlights of the dives were lots of sing rays, barracudas, eels, blue sea starts, the most chillin turtle I’ve ever seen and a beautiful coral mountain covered with purple anemones that looked like flowers. On our last dive the current was getting pretty strong and the scuba master made hold on to the coral so we wouldn’t get taken away although the safety spot at the end put us 20 feet off the mark.
PHI PHI
When we fist arrived to Phi Phi it seemed like the most laid back backpacker island; turquoise water, limestone mountains decorated with bits of green forest, yellow sand, and the beautiful long boats with their colourful wreaths lined up along the shore. As the sun went down the people stared coming out, a younger crowd than in Patong, no lady boys this time ;) and fire! Lots of fire! I have no idea where so many people and so many bars came out of… the beach was lined up with them, music, drinks, UV body paint everywhere. People skipping over ropes lit on fire and doing tricks, and limbo (my favourite) the only difference was that every time you went you got a free shot. To add to it all, you don’t get drinks, you get buckets as in your drink is served in a sand bucket… it was unreal. Met a ton of people! And, on my way back to the hostel ran into a group of Canadians who started singing Oh Canada. As we sang more and more people came and there ended up being about 12 of us.. we even sang it in French. I think I didn’t get back to the hostel until 5:30 am but it was definitely a night to remember.
RAYLEH
Rayleh was the actual laid-back town… it doesn’t even have a dock so only long tail boats can come into shore. The limestone cliffs have a beautiful red tinge and there is more wild life. Monkeys dominated the peninsula and they go around with their business as if you weren’t even there. Rayleh is also famous for climbing which we did a bunch off. The first day we went to the main viewpoint and the blue lagoon which was about a 40 minute climb. The viewpoint was beautiful and you could see the ocean on both sides of a thin strip of palm trees. The lagoon was also incredible, but much harder to get to. It was a vertical decent of about 80 meters; but we made it. The water was bright blue, and the lagoon was surrounded by the limestone all round. On our second day we went cliff jumping. We jumped off the boat and swam to the bare rock face, up a brief rope ladder and it was up to you how high and far you could get. Our tallest jump was 12 meters above the water, I could have sworn I was free falling. After that we went snorkelling and saw a pink jellyfish and lots of schools of fish that did not mind swimming all around us. On our third day we went kayaking through the rivers connecting to the sea. Went under large caves, through the forest, around bends and saw exciting mudskippers which are a link between fish and amphibians. Finished the day off seeing the chillin bars and the next day explored what Trav described as the Mines of Moria. The darkness here was absolute but we made it to the top to see another great viewpoint. Left later that day to catch a bus back to Bangkok and begin the journey to the north.
Rayleh was highlighted by seeing two friends from back home, through the kayaking, beach walks and dinners we learned it is always nice to know someone in your corner of the world.
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