I don’t know how regular these updates will be, partly because I don’t know exactly what to talk about and also because I haven’t quite got the pictures to back it up. We arrived in Phuket pretty late last night, our flight had been delayed by an hour. The flight itself was uneventful, going through Customs at Sydney was also an experience because of the ‘odd shape’ in my wonky luggage that cause a number of searches. I don’t know what the odd shape was, only that it stressed me out. Arriving in Phuket it also took us about an hour or so to get through Immigration. The queue not being quite as organised as in other locations. Customs though, well, there was no one there, so that was a breeze. We took a taxi from the Airport to our hotel, and started our somewhat successful though insignificant bartering. You know it’s a good sign when you’re going down the street to your hotel and the taxi driver points outside, goes ‘look, ladyboys’ and then the whole group share knowing laughs.
Our initial plan was to go around the hotel and just have a couple of drinks. We ended up finding Bangla Road and spending a little bit more time out than initially planned. The drinks were not as cheap as I’d initially anticipated, being pretty much on par with Japan prices. Those prices still beat the costs back home, but it wasn’t as inexpensive as I’d thought it would be.
The biggest thing I’ve noted here is how much we have been (perhaps literally) manhandled. Walking down some of the side streets, or even the main streets, ladies (?) will actually grab you and try to drag you places. They’ll converge on you and have 2 or 3 grab you at a time. They may actually attempt to grab where it would be normally deemed unacceptable. Travelling with a group we were able to shrug this stuff off and not feel too concerned, but it’s a much more full on approach of touting than other places I’ve been like King’s Cross in Sydney or Kabuchiko in Tokyo. It’s…an experience.
Today (which started late, we missed our included breakfast) has been pretty laid back, spent the day wandering around a little bit, having lunch and then hitting up the hotel pool. Let’s see where the night and other days take us. Thailand, it’s not like anywhere else I’ve been.
Moshi Moshi! Daniel Desu. 