I will like Patong. I will like Patong.

Monday February 17th

Feeling a bit blue today, but everyone loves Phuket don’t they?  What’s wrong with me?

 

The house of the rising sun

We had a bright and early start this morning and got a taxi to the BTS train station, a train to the MTR line, then a train to the station which connects with the amusingly named Airport Express.  

Snigger snigger

Couldn't agree more

At the changeover at the MTR station, we saw our first sign of any political activity – a small group of people sitting on the ground looking about as threatening as our cat.  We did notice that when the National Anthem played, everyone in the station stopped where they were until it finished.

Wild protests near the railway station

We got on the train to head out to the airport and sat waiting, waiting, waiting until finally we moved.  About 6 metres.  We weren’t going to make our plane at that rate!

We crawled along a bit more then got a bit of a speed up then stopped a bit more.  This was the story for the rest of the journey, but we were only about 20 minutes late and we’d left a few hours spare as we’d heard about the train delays.

We settled ourselves in to a café in the airport to wait it out.  I had a very late night last night and an early start this morning and I don’t cope too well with humidity so this might help to explain my general lack of enthusiasm.

We got to the gate to board our plane, which was supposed to leave at 12.45.  Here again we were waiting, waiting, waiting and boarded just before 12.45.  The delay didn’t matter a great deal as we knew that we could get a shared mini bus to Patong at any time.  The flight was smooth and much more comfortable than one of our earlier plans which was to go by bus (groan).

We got our minibus tickets and were loaded on with our bags in the back.  It took us about 35 minutes to get to the hotel.  As we checked in, it seemed to be taking a little longer than usual but once we found out that it was because we’d been upgraded to a ‘luxury’ room, a giant room overlooking the pool, all was forgiven.  We didn’t waste anytime getting into the pool and spent a few relaxing hours by the poolside once we’d cooled down.

From our balcony

We then went on foot for the grand tour of Patong with the ultimate goal of finding food. 
Dinner ended up being a snack here and a snack there as we wandered around past various street vendors.  There was a very talented young man singing in one of the food court areas so we sat down and listened for a while with a nice cold Coke.  

A happy food vendor who was bopping along to the music 

The grand finale was a crepe made by one of the many pancake-making street vendors – banana caramel for me and banana maple for John.  We sat in front of our own hotel to eat these as a band was playing there too.  There’s lots of music and action and I think the streets get even more lively later when we old farts will be tucked up in bed.

Sounds OK so far, doesn’t it?  On our bus trip from the airport, we past a couple of signs advertising tiger shows and elephant shows which made me feel pretty sad.  Then this evening, we got constantly hassled by the taxi drivers, shysters and people trying to convince us that we needed to buy their stuff.  Think I should have stayed at Lonely Beach.  The final straw that set me off was having sleazy men sticking their advertising for Ping Pong Girl shows in our faces as we walked down the street.  I’m not going to go into the details of this hideous practice here but if you’re interested here’s a link to an article that I read a few days ago which has been festering in my mind ever since  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_pong_show.  So - abused tigers, elephants, girls and women have been at the front of my mind today.  I feel so powerless and it saddens me very much that people provide the demand for this blatant abuse that they call entertainment.  I think I require counselling.

I’m hoping that a good night’s sleep will change my attitude, but going by the fireworks and music going on outside, that can’t be guaranteed.

On the bright side, our room is gorgeous, the pool is huge with swim-up bar and little spa bubblers placed around the edge and the beach directly across the road.  We had a quick look at the beach today, but will spend more time there tomorrow.  I will like Patong.