(this happened on) Tuesday 28/29th December 2010) in Phuket, Malaysia.
Sofia and I had a nice relaxing lie in as the ship was not due to dock at Au Markham Port until 2:00pm.
So, at around 12:30pm we went for a leisurely and to be honest not very good lunch, then we headed to the bar for a quick drink and a to watch the view as the boat glided into port.
We had packed overnight bags and picked them up from the cabin and headed ashore.
The taxi’s at the port were not interested in two people they wanted bigger groups and to do tours and tie them down to a return journey. We just wanted a one way trip.
We followed others who had also been ignored by those taxis and walked out of the port, (just a short walk). Parked outside the port were plenty of taxi drivers but they really did not seem keen to take anybody, eventually we agreed a 500baht fee to take us into Phuket Town, we found out that although overcharged it was not too bad as the usual price is 350 – 400 baht.
We strolled around Phuket Town for a couple of hours, we took a tuk tuk and were offered a discount if we went with the driver to a shop, you know the usual thing driver drops us off and gets a kick back, we did not mind and said yes as he was a nice guy, we walked in to this jewellers shop, watched the driver get his card stamped and we literally walked in, through the shop and out the other end ignoring all attempts to sell to us.
After further walking around town we got a taxi and went to Patong Beach, we had a nice safe drive there and were dropped off in a good position, at the fourth attempt we found a cheap but decent hotel and booked in for the night.
It was called Sheilaghs, a decent room with en-suite for 1000 baht. We dropped the bags and headed straight out.
It was cold beer o’clock. We heard that Patong was a tamer version of Pattaya, tamer definately but the place was heaving and I should imagine there are many more people walking around here than Pattaya.
The good news is that although the Russians have arrived, they are in nothing like the numbers who are busy spoiling Pattaya, I will probably never go back to Pattaya again, sorry I just don’t like Russians, I have yet to meet one I like or would trust.
After lots of shopping and a good few bars I found a roadside stall selling chicken hearts and livers, these were the best ever!
Then we headed into a restaurant called Baitong Seafood Restaurant where I had quite simply the best Tom Yum soup I have ever had by a wide margin, it was amazingly good.
After food we had more drinks and entertainment and we ended up in a bar called FBI Tai Pan, a live music bar that rocked. Nothing beats good live music, in Malaysia where we live many bars have live music but it’s almost always terrible filipino bands usually a few ‘pretty’ girls and a guy on the keyboards, truly awful and nothing does more to drive us away from bars than this.
FBI Tai Pan, A very entertaining music bar
But FBI, just like the Blues Bar in Pattaya was brilliant with great music, a thai band with two guitars, drums, keyboards and two little girl singers who could truly belt out a tune much bigger than they were. A bit later on in the set the girls introduced a ‘Mr Harry” and left the stage, an older shaven headed white dude walked onto the stage and the band started up the music for Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) and I was filled with dread, I love that song. I need not have worried, the guy had a great voice, they seemed to have a rotating cast of singers all highly entertaining.
Here’s the deal, drinks here cost twice as much as a lot of the local bars but the entertainment really made it worth the money, we stayed for more than two hours.
Next we wandered back towards the hotel but when we got there we decided to keep walking to get some more drinks in a quieter bar. Well we found them, we were practically the only people in what was little more than a long narrow street bar open directly onto the street. At the first one we played some games of Pool and Connect 4 with the staff. At the next bar it was Connect 4 and Jenga, these people were Jenga Ninja Masters and in my well ‘lubricated’ state I was not much competition, it was a clean sweep for the staff, at least I managed to hold my own at Connect 4.
At around 3:00am we headed back to the hotel, they were advertising Cornish pasty and Chips so i had to try that and Sofia had a chicken kebab, both were good late night (early morning food). Time for bed.
*******Next Day*******
I woke at around 8:00am and left Sofia in bed and went for a walk with my camera.
I headed down the main streets and onto the beach, I also had a nice but quick (30 minute) oil massage it bwas very good not too strong.
Early Morning on Patong Beach
Back at the room and as Sofia was ready to go we checked out and got a taxi, there was a guy with a sign right outside the hotel, he approached us and we agreed 400 baht to take us to Phuket Butterfly World.
During the journey we came to a deal that the driver would take us to a few places and then back to the port. He wanted 1000 baht, I told him if he looked after us we would pay him 1500 baht (ain’t I a nice guy) so of course he was pleased with that.
At the Butterfly Park, Sofia and I took so many pictures our camera batteries went flat, The Butterfly World at Phuket is very much better than the one at Melaka (Malaysia) that we visited, that seemed to consist of rather too many dead and dying butterflies, Phuket Butterfly World however was supurb.
Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World
Then back to our driver ‘Sunny’ (Mr Sun tel: +668 1273 3660) we went into Phuket town and did a couple of hours shopping and also we had lunch and nice cold drinks in a cafe. Then we went back to the driver at the arranged time and headed back to the port. We had a last look around the little market set up at the port and spent our last few baht. We had enjoyed a fabulous few hours in Phuket and would love to go back for a longer visit.
Back onboard the Costa Classica, the evening was the usual boat fodder, pretty good food, poor table company, bloody bingo bango bingo, not very good music, how many times a week do you want to hear the awful Elton John song Nikita butchered by two different crappy backing track bands within a few minutes of each other. Horrible!!!!!
