Patong

We arrived from Ho Chi Minh City with a direct one-and-a-half-hour flight with Thai Airways, on time, in Bangkok. We had assumed that we could easily take the train further south to the island of Phuket, where we intended to stay, but after some (too) late research, that option was a no-go. 12 hours on a night train plus a bus ride to get to the actual island was for Véro not feasible. Be aware that immigration in Thailand, at least for us, was very strict about knowing the exact address where we would stay. We lost half an hour and it took a phone call from the immigration official to the apartment owner to be allowed to enter Thailand. So make sure that you have the complete address with house number.

Instead of taking the long route, we opted for a 6 hrs layover in Bangkok before taking a domestic flight to Phuket international airport. The layover we used wisely by wolfing down a Whopper and fries at the airport’s Burger King’s franchise, some shopping and a beer at the domestic terminal’s pub. We arrived after sunset in what is no doubt known worldwide as Thailand’s party island. A taxi took us from the airport to Patong, a touristy beachfront town on the western side. And for once, a taxi was actually cheaper than a Grab (800 instead of 820 BHT). Unfortunately, within sight of our destination, our taxi had a flat tyre, adding another 15 minutes to our journey. But hey, 15 minutes is still very fast to exchange a tyre. No doubt it wasn’t the first time it happened to our driver. After that small delay, we ended up at our stay: a complete apartment booked through Airbnb at a prime location in Patong. It’s always a surprise to see if the pictures you saw online on the booking site are corresponding to the reality, but in this case it was certainly the case. A beautiful appointed one-bedroom apartment with separate toilet, a flat-screen TV with Netflix and a sofa big enough to host the both of us. It was also located on a quiet dead-end street parallel to the main thoroughfare of Patong, making it quiet. We thought. The disposable earplugs on the nightstand next to the bed would prove it: the beats coming from the night clubs on the pedestrian street, known as Gay Street, not really kept us awake, but or the beats or the load music would start and stop at the weirdest of moments in the evening or night.

But hey, we were more than happy we had booked this accommodation for five nights. It would be the longest stay in one place since the start of our trip. So we bought some fruits from a local street vendor, bought some granola and snacks in the 24/7 7-Eleven on the corner and went to bed, happy to be able to wind down.

On Saturday, we went out to get a delicious local noodle soup for lunch, went exploring Patong’s megamall, did some more grocery shopping for the next days, bought some vegetables and fruits from the daily fresh market and settled down in the sofa to binge watch some Netflix in the afternoon. But since it was Saturday and we had noticed the party-town mood already, we decided to go out for dinner and have a beer afterwards. We ended up having a delicious steak with french fries at Street restaurant, flushing it down with a beer (me) and Mai Tai (Véro). Not too expensive and right opposite Bangla Street, the place to be for going out and partying in one of the numerous nightclubs. We decided to do some people-watching over another beer (me) and Mai Tai (Véro), or two, at Aloha bar. By that time we were already fairly drunk-in, so we decided to move to somewhere halfway the street and have another round of happy hour beers (me) and Mai Tai (Vero) at the Dragon Bar.

On Sunday more of the same, but with the tinniest bit of hangover from my side: since we didn’t have a stove, we were limited to cold foods to prepare in the apartment, so we went out in search of some cheap Phad Thai, which due to tourism isn’t really cheap in this town. But we did find it for 120 BHT in a small restaurant on a side street, so with our bellies full we were happy to get back to the apartment to do some more binge-watching of Netflix. Not coming out at night though this time…

Also on Monday we just slept out, but prepared ourselves around noon to get to Bangkok Hospital in Phuket to get a (new) fit-to-dive certificate for Véro after her diving accident in Indonesia. We arrived at the outrageously chique hospital on time to see a dive doctor. Or no, a heart specialist. No, a dive doctor. We thought. Apparently some mixup and miscommunication between us and the hospital, so they thought Véro needed to do a PFO-test on her heart anyhow, while we thought that we first needed to see a dive specialist to confirm whether or not extra test were necessary or that just a new certificate could be issued. So no, in the end we paid 2600 BHT for knowing only that we needed to see another doctor in another hospital on Thursday whom would be able to issue the certificate. We took a Grab back to Patong and went to sleep early again, since Véro had developed over the last few days a nasty cold and was giving up more snot than the handkerchiefs could handle.

On Tuesday we ate a curry and pineapple fried rice in another street vendor’s stall and continued to check up the numerous tour offices in the streets to check for an appropriate day tour we could book on Wednesday or Friday. Almost all tours went out to either the “James Bond” Islands or Phi Phi Islands but were also quite expensive at 3900 BHT (about 100 EUR) per person. Luckily we had seen already that there was a dive shop at a side street, so we entered, checked out the dive watches, decided they were still way too expensive, and just booked a trip on a dive boat for Wednesday for the both of us.

Since on Wednesday we also had to check out from our lovely apartment, we packed our bags early in the morning and were at the shop for our pick-up transfer at 07:15 AM. Via some other hotels to pick up other divers, it went to the Ao Chalong Pier at southern Phuket. Arriving at the pier, you stand between throngs of other tourists waiting to be ferried first to the pier’s head by small pink tuk tuks. You have to almost literally barge your way into the arriving tuk tuk or you might have to wait a long time… I was wondering already if these crowds would also be present at the Phi Phi Islands. Luckily for us, we boarded our Mermaid dive vessel with only about 20 other divers, so crowd-wise it was OK, since the vessel was double-decked and therefore spacious enough to accommodate everybody. The ride took two and a half hours, so we ate breakfast and relaxed some in the top-deck lounge before I prepared myself alone (as in without Véro) with my co-divers to jump into the water at Turtle Rock. Visibility was rather poor, but we still managed to watch two turtles eating at the corals. After this first dive, we went into Maya Bay to have a delicious lunch on board. Although I was so ravenous that I really didn’t care what was being served, but still, the Thai spicy chicken with French fries, the spaghetti and the fresh fruits tasted pretty good. The second dive was at a small island / rock in the national marine park of the Phi Phi Islands, but much more secluded and therefore less busy, but visibility was equally bad. Even worse was that two of the divers in our group were so clumsy (already at the first dive) and were so ill-prepared to go into the water that we drifted off too far on the surface to go under, had to be picked up again by the vessel and dropped off in another location around the rock then originally intended. I was pretty pissed-off about that. In the meantime, Véro was snorkelling away at the original dive site and spotted a black-tipped reef shark from very up close. After another surface interval and a relocation of the vessel closer to Phuket, we went out in the water again at a very small outcropping strutting out of the sea, named Shark Point, but without the sharks, where the visibility was vastly better thanks to the currents. Here both Véro and I were thrilled to see abundance of underwater life, and to be able to take pictures of it: stingrays, cuttlefish, lots of soft corals, crabs and lobster. This was definitely the best dive / snorkelling spot of them all. Exhausted after a full day of fun and water adventure, we returned to Patong. We still had to collect our bags and walk one kilometre to our next stay: Aspira Prime Hotel Patong. A basic chain-owned hotel, it was a long way from our previous apartment, but hey, it’s only for two nights. Since we were ravenous, we went out in search for some food, which we found at the Otop Night Market: non-pretentious Thai streetfood, served in open air, so you can sit back, nip a beer, enjoy a satay or pad thai and watch others pass by…

On Thursday morning, it was once more an early rise to get once more to Phuket, to see Dr. Chachadapon, a dive specialist. This time in the Vachira Hospital, an all-Thai one, which became very quickly clear since everything was in Thai instead of Thai / English. Luckily, we received help from their international customers department in locating the doctor, and after a few test Véro was declared fit to dive again! Whoehoew! We took a Grab back to Patong and went in search of a celebration: Thai food and a shopping spree in the Central and Jung Ceylon shopping centres. A new T-shirt and sneakers for Véro and new shorts and socks for Jens. We ended the day, and our stay in Thailand, with another round of street food at Otop Night Market and sipping a beer at Lanta Bar before heading to bed and our outbound flight to Malaysia tomorrow!