After a monster 18 hour trip from door to door, we arrived at our destination in Phuket, Thailand on Monday, midnight Sydney time. But the trip was completely worth it! We're both absolutely loving Phuket. Let's start with the temperature. Almost a constant balmy 30-something degrees, water temperature like a bath, and once you exit the water the ambient temperature is slightly higher, leaving one feeling relaxed and warm. White noise - everyone's favourite sleeping medium. We've got breezes, ocean noise, crickets and cicadas, birds, water flowing. We're basically asleep or close to it 99% of the time (Mel = 100% of the time).
The driving culture came as a slight surprise, although we're pretty much used to it now. Motorbikes outnumber cars, and the driving is adventurous. Basically you can do anything on a bike here. Some examples:
- 5 people on one bike - Mum, Dad, and three kids
- Bike as changetable - why not change your baby's nappies on the main street on the bike?
- Ladies riding along, wearing thongs, and with their handbags over their shoulder
- Chicks riding sidesaddle (it's not a horse!)
- The majority of people not wearing helmets (huge death rate apparently)
- Bikes overtaking cars which are overtaking other bikes
- Cops riding two on a little bike (a bit emasculating really) and being overtaken by everyone, including the guys on the pink bikes (quite common).
Tuk tuks are also fun - you kind of hold on as they press the accelerator and not the brake...
The resort is simply stunning - for once the tourist magazines or pictures on the internet don't lie. Located up on a kind of vegetated slope, pools with swim up bars overlook the ocean and there are plenty of sunbeds for the lounge lizards to lie on. The birds are quite pretty and melodious, but they also have indian minor creatures. Mel returned from a trip to the bar one time while Dave had been sitting on a lounge chair. She noted that there was an Indian minor with something in it's mouth and wasn't it cute. Dave replied that it was actually the head of a cicada, which it had been viciously thrashing, dissecting, biting the head off, and basically mangling for the past few minutes. That changed the tone didn't it!
The Thai language is quite soothing also, fairly soft and almost birdlike. They're quite funny sometimes too - you'll be wandering past a shop or through one, and you'll hear a birdlike 'shopping, shopping.' Well, more like browsing really, but thanks for telling me.
We've been on a couple of neat day trips out to islands and around bays. Lovely snorkelling and scenery.
One more story - we've been trying to be good about not drinking any water here except bottled stuff. One night at a restaurant on the beach, we forgot to ask for no ice. Quickly realising it, and making sure the waitress wasn't watching, Mel scooped out the ice and chucked it in a pot. It reminded us of that Mr Bean episode where he gets served raw meat and hides it all over his table!
Till next time.
Dave and Mel
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