Michelle and John: Phuket

A new colour for you! From now on green is the moped list. Thais are very fond of their scooters/mopeds/motorbikes, and we have seen a few oddities we thought we should report back on!

Top of the list is the sheer number of them - ten's of thousands around Phuket.

Second, is the sheer number of people who don't use helmets - seeing how everyone drives, this seems like madness to us.

The rest of the list covers the variety of things we have seen on these.

A family of four.
A family of five. (Man driving, child in front of him, woman behind with a child on either knee)
Two women and a stack of stools.
A man, a woman and an ironing board.
A man and a crate of eggs.
A family of four and a dog.
Two children (the older one about 12). This was in an isolated area, with very little traffic, but still...
A few with no mirrors.

Last Thursday we left the Western World to arrive in Thailand. It is very different to anywhere else that we have ever been. We spent our first few days in Phuket, a large Island, that is connected to the mainland by bridge.

Thailand is chaotic with mopeds and scooters everywhere. (the country would have some serious traffic issues if all these people had cars). The towns are full of narrow streets that twist in odd directions, meaning it’s nearly impossible to know where you are, and you have to watch out for swerving bikes. On larger highways, lanes appear to be meaningless, with cars and bikes winding and weaving all over the place.

We were picked up from the airport and brought to our guesthouse in Patong. It was very nice, especially considering the very small price we paid for it. I got a Thai Massage on our first evening, which was very nice, except the girl kept trying to chat with me, but I couldn’t understand her attempts at English! But we got by. We wandered around at different times in search of our meals. There are loads of places to eat, most offering Thai food, with some other options thrown in. Food is amazingly cheap, and so far everywhere we have eaten we have gotten lovely food. Fortunately both of us like rice, because if we didn’t we might be stuck.

On Saturday we went on a tour of the Island. We had booked with a travel company, but we were surprised to be the only customers, making it a private tour! We saw some interesting things – the worlds biggest jewellery store for me, and a cashew nut factory for John. We also got to ride on a elephant (which I didn’t really like), and we went to a monkey show. They had the monkeys trained to do some really cool stuff – I was most impressed with the monkey slam dunking the basketball. John held a monkey, but I was a little scared to, and contented myself with taking pictures. Monkeys seem to like shiny things because this one went for John’s glasses! The best part of the day for me was when we went on a long boat to a monkey Island. Our guide, Mana, on the boat had great English, and a great sense of humour. He was full of chat, and laughter. (And when he laughed, he sounded exactly like Rafiki from the Lion King). He also explained to us why Thailand is “the land of a thousand smiles”. It’s because Thais do not speak much English, so when foreigners come they just nod and smile! Mana also cooked us lunch – a curry, which was really yummy.

On Sunday we went to Koh Phi Phi, a small, but very beautiful Island off the coast of Phuket. It’s a popular place for tourists, with plenty of night life and an abundance of beautiful beaches. We were charged a cleaning tax on arrival, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to be put to use as there is some rubbish lying around. Walking around the Island we were constantly asked if we wanted a boat boat. I think the double word comes from the habit of taxi drivers calling out “Tuk tuk”, to tourists.

Yesterday, Monday was our first real experience of local travel in Thailand. And it was an eye opener. We used a travel company to book tickets to Koh Tao, an Island on the other side of Thailand. We were picked up by a mini bus (We went on three different tours, and all three of the buses picking us up were late, in spite of the fact that we were given a time range to be picked up rather than a specific time.) The driver was late, but he had actually driven past us a few times looking for us. He drove us to the bus terminal, and directed us to a coach to get to Surat Thanai. The coach was different – The front window had loads of cat teddies in it, the driver sat down lower to the road, and the curtains were fancy pink and blue silk affairs. The driver drove like pretty much every other Thai – crazily! (None of the buses or mini buses we used offered seat belts). In Surat Thanai we were picked up in a pick-up. I was lucky enough to sit inside. John got to sit in the trailer with the bags. It is very common here to see people in the back of a pick up, and many of them are fitted with benches. We were brought to somewhere to get food (as we had a few hours before getting the ferry). The food was the cheapest and best we had eaten so far. Then we were brought (in the pick up again) to the ferry terminal. We hadn’t been told what to expect on the ferry, and we got a bit of a surprise – one cabin with two rows of mattresses. Each mattress had a number, and that was our place for the night. The mattresses were very narrow, so it was all quite close packed. We had a few hours before the ferry pulled off, so we went outside to get a drink to give us a better a chance of sleeping! We got a drink from a stand at the side of the road, and sat on the pier sipping away, while watching an elephant walk down the road. As you do!! It even had a warning light. Surprisingly, we slept ok on the ferry, and got to our hotel in Koh Tao early this morning. We are staying here for a few days, and I have decided to a diving course. I did the first session today which was all theory, and I even have homework to do.