Phuket: The Land of Touts

14/01/10

So today we left the wonderful Rati Lanna resort in Chiang Mai for Phuket. Upon checkout of the hotel, both Emma and I noticed that one of the very respectfully dressed receptionists was named "Poo". We managed to stifle our laughter and retain the proper mature and formal tone that is appropriate in such a hotel.

The flight down was fairly uneventful, except for our seats being changed from what I had reserved online. I wasn't too pleased about this as we went from a great window seat to a crappy middle section seat. I told a flight attendant about this and eventually he got us moved back to a window seat, which made me feel significantly better.

The flight went fairly quickly, and after landing and making it out of airside, two things became immediately apparent: firstly, it is stinking hot in Phuket. Secondly, everyone is trying to sell you something. Even worse than Bangkok.

After our longcat-long drive from the airport to the hotel, we had a look around the Kata Beach district. Much like the airport, every second person is trying to shake your hand and get you to buy something from their tailor or massage parlour. Emma and I theorized that if one was to stop and talk to every single person along the short 500 meter walk to the beach that it would take roughly over nine-thousand years to get from our hotel to the beach, let alone buy what they are selling. Wow, two internet memes in one paragraph.

Kata beach itself is quite pretty, and we were actually able to wade through the knee-high swamp of touts quick enough to see the sun set over the water. That's another thing that I've seen on this holiday that I've never seen before. Now if it only snowed in Phuket...




The water was very pleasant at the beach, both Emma and I agreed that it was almost "creamy" in texture - probably a combination of the water temperature and the softness of the sand.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful... Just watching tv back at the room. We have discovered though that tv is universally weird across Thailand. Especially their soap operas. Imagine Neighbours but with no quality control of any sort. That is one of the better ones. And most of their news reporters look about as interested in their jobs as the people who write the phone books are. Oh, and I just sat through a movie called "Spy Kids 2". If you were to look up "waste of time" in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of "Spy Kids 2". Yes, it is a kid's movie, but with films from the likes of Pixar around, it really is a waste of time. Enough ranting. Time for bed methinks.

Tomorrow: Phi Phi (pronounced "pee pee") Island! Hopefully as funny as it's name!


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