It ain't so wrong

Patong isn't as bad as it first seems. Yes, there are parts of it mainly based around markets, touts, tours and the sex industry, but you can always choose to smile & ignore them. In fact after a while you get recognised so the market seller will chat to you about the t-shirt you bought yesterday and the tout will have a chat with you. You can also amuse yourself thinking up 'witty' ripostes -
'DVD Mister?'
'No thanks - I download'

If you put some effort in there are some interesting things to see as well. One morning I walked out of town into the surrounding hills. It was lovely up there, I was next to the road but occasionally between the sound of trucks, bikes & mini-buses there was some blessed quiet

Another morning I wandered down to the other end of town and the local temple (Wat Suwan Khiri Wong). It says a lot about Patong that there is only one temple in the whole town, but it was an oasis of peace from the traffic outside

'I'm going to the local temple'
'Wat'
'I said I'm going to the local temple'
'Wat!'
'Never mind, I'll tell you later'*

There's always a lot of discussion about finding authenticity when you travel. I think that in many ways Patong is a much closer representation of the life of the majority of Thai citizens (at least urban Thai's) than somewhere like Tonsai. In fact I'm not convinced that Tonsai hasn't been intentionally designed as a 'backpacker resort' for travellers looking for a 'The Beach' experience and to catch the tourists that slip through the nets of Bangkok & Phuket.

*That one's for you Rach :)

Patong

Sometimes it's hard to figure out why I left Krabi to come to Patong

The whole place has a manic intensity to it. Even crossing the road is taking your life into your hands - I overheard someone saying 'it took me a day to figure out which side of the road they drive on' and I'm not surprised.

Back in the day Patong started out around a beautiful beach with fine flour-grained sand facing West - perfect for the sundown

I imagine it was the kind of place hippies would hang out watching the sun set, maybe whilst juggling

but there's no profit in the unwashed hurling balls in the air so the local population soon figured out there was money to be made and lives to lived - and to be fair, why not? So Patong beach quickly became a tourist attraction complete with beach beds, jet skis & parasailing

And what do you do after the sun goes down? Well, Patong developed Bangla Rd. This is the main party street on the island and after the sun goes down the volume turns up.

The main part of Bangla Rd is only about half a mile long but is full of touts & street sellers and is solidly lined with bars on either side. The whole place is pumping with the kind of music that makes you sound like your parents when you discuss it, but if you can cope with the new world of high-volume techno, high testosterone tattooed lads and even more highly pitched young Western female travelers / tourists, you can generally find a seat on one of the bars and watch the world go past with little interference. It's worth doing once or twice - the mix of tourists, working girls & Katoeys is something to be seen. Just try not to obviously wince when you accidentally overhear the next tables conversation. Innit.

Firing off at right angles from Bangla Rd are a number of different Sois (ie streets). These are in turn filled with many many tiny bars, generally with at least one scantilly clad young Thai women dancing on the bar (these shots taken early in the night to protect the non-innocent)

You can't sit at any of these bars and watch the world go past because the presence of a single European male means that you are considered a potential partner for the evening. So you are constantly engaged in polite conversation with pretty young things who want you to take them back to your hotel room.

Things get more lurid at the end of the Sois where there are go-go bars. These are apparently worse than the Soi Bars as the girls are actively parading for business instead of just suggesting it. There are also some go-go bars offering shows such as ping-pong shows, but after pretty much sculling my drink & running out of a Soi bar to avoid a reply that was never going to end well ('no') and never being a fan of table tennis I didn't investigate further.

Not far from Bangla Rd lies a local market with an accompanying outdoor 'foodcourt'. Here you can get awesome Thai food at cheap prices, eaten on steps or on plastic tables with the accompaniment of Chinese music and conversation in many languages

Not sure if it's a sign of my age, but I know where I'd prefer to spend my evenings.....

Voiding your ticket

Although the day at Railay resort was fun, the night was anything but. I woke up at around 2.30 feeling sick and just made it to the bathroom in time. This happened four or five times throughout the night and, coupled with a touch of Thai belly, left me pretty exhausted come morning time.

Unfortunately I'd already booked & paid for boat tickets for that day and a hotel in Patong for that night, so if I stayed where I was I would have lost a chunk of cash. After a very cautious breakfast of a can of coke and some Imodium I decided that the worst had passed and that I would risk the journey. No pictures - I had a long tail boat ride, a 2 hr ferry ride and a 40 minute minibus ride to get through and my mind was in my happy place for most of it. Luckily for both me & my fellow travellers I made it to the hotel without vomiting or voiding, and after checking in & a quick call to Liz I curled up in bed for the afternoon. I only left the room once to get some water, paracetamol and a few more cans of coke. Walking around Patong for the first time at night when you're not feeling 100% and you've only had 3 cans of coke all day is a very bizarre and not very pleasant experience.....

It took me another day to get on top of whatever was affecting me, and it struck me how sick I'd been when I realised that in two days I hadn't eaten any street food or taken a single picture.....in fact 3 days later I still haven't fancied eating rice! 

Resort luxury

After 6 days of feeding the local insect life in Tonsai we decided it was time for a change, so we relocated to Railay. This is a small town on the other side of the same peninsula which has such luxuries as an ATM, concrete paving and a couple of air conditioned shops. I was only staying for one night so wasn't really worried about where I lay my head but the others wanted a touch of luxury for a few days to regroup before heading further North to the jungle, so after some wandering around we decided on the 'Diamond Private Resort'

This was located at the top of a huge flight of stairs, but it was worth it as there was an awesome over the bay from the end of the patio that the pool was set into

All this, air conditioning, insect-free rooms and all for 1000 Baht (approx $30) per room per night!

After settling in we were all keen to hit the pool, even Freya who at 3 years old is more confident in the water than I am now

Fortunately the pool had a child-net so we could relax at the other end in the way that adults do best

Andy is better at holding his breath so took a better underwater picture, although he's not so good at holding his drink......

The nicest thing about the resort was that it wasn't only for the tourists - there was a wedding shoot taking place in the gardens, and as the afternoon progressed some of the local kids joined us in the pool as well. No-one seemed to care, and everyone just got on with enjoying themselves......

Sawasdee!

Greetings from Thailand! Having fun over here but it's been very much a holiday of two halves.

Initially we stayed on the Krabi Peninsular on Tonsai beach, a beach lined by cliffs and only accessible via long-tail boat or a mountain trail through mosquito-infested jungle. Even getting there was an adventure - we had to transfer from the ferry onto a long-tail and then jump out of the long-tail into knee deep water

Our accommodation was a 15 minute walk up a dirt path - although having said that, every path on the beach was a dirt track. This is the main street in Tonsai

and this is the cabin - the skeeter defeeter paid for itself on the first night (I did have a mosquito net in the cabin but one of the families I was with had less nets than they had family members so we moved it). The fan was invaluable during the night but not much use during the day as we didn't have electricity between 9am & 5pm (and it was around 34 degrees with high humidity). 

So why were we there? The guys I was with were old climbing mates from the UK and they wanted to sample some of the local rock. Alas my knee prevented me from joining in (which is fortunate because otherwise my total lack of fitness would done the same thing in a far more humiliating way). Still, it didn't stop me enjoying the scenery.

 

 
So what do you do on a remote peninsular when you can't actually do what you went over there for? Mainly relax, swim, drink beer and hang out at some of the many sea-shack bars on the beach, who seemed to be tailoring their activities specifically for me

Some of the bars were well positioned to watch the climbing, although I was disappointed that my mates didn't give this wall a go whilst I shouted encouragement around a big Chang

They redeemed themselves during a deep water soloing trip. It looked hard enough climbing up there, for me jumping off would literally have been one step too far

I didn't get to climb but we did see some amazing beaches

This one had caves where people had built cairns. I built two, one for me and for Liz so she could be with me at least in spirit

Stay tuned for more.....