03.09-06.09: Heading down south

We didn’t manage to convince Tyron to join us for a massage, and it is safe to say that he really missed out. Jono even fell asleep, but woke up a new man. Later we missioned to one of Bangkoks malls where we got over the high prices and the crazy thai people pretty quickly. We decided to go ’western’ for dinner, and ended up at pizzahut close to the OTHER redlight district; Silom. After dinner we went hunting for one of the ever famous ping pong shows. The search led us to patpong where Tyron got a banana shot in his eye, Maja almost died from a laughing fit and Jono had to stash away money in the toilet before we all got angry with the ‘big mama’ for overcharging us and she called the mafia. Yet we managed to end up in a taxi on our way back to the guest house instead of jail. We got up early the next morning to meet Jason for a little electronics shopping spree at Pantip Plaza. After a few hours with screaming Asians we jumped on the skytrain to go visit the weekend market, where you can buy anything from bed sheets to turtles. The guys went crazy over the creepy crawling creatures, while Maja melted over the little puppies and contemplated whether or not it would be worth smuggling one out of there in her bag. Back at Khao San Road we ate a cheap dinner (R 8 per person to be precise… we felt like we had to make up for the ping pong expenses Friday night) and watched Jono getting his hobbit feet ‘massaged’ (more like cleaned) by fish. We packed our backpacks and went early to bed. Tomorrow we have to get up at 04.30 to catch our flight to Phuket.

 

We landed in Phuket, dodged all 

the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and caught the bus to Phuket Town where we had lunch/breakfast at the Onon hotel where parts of the movie ‘The beach’ was filmed. Then we jumped on another ‘bus’ (more like a converted truck) going to the beach. We got off at Kata beach and after a steep climb we checked into a cute little bungalow at ‘Kata on sea’. The guys had a swim in the pool (!) while Maja enjoyed the big bathroom. Later we missioned around to get to know the place. There are very few tourists here at the moment because of the rain season, and raining it is! Just long enough to wet everything before the sun comes out and dries everything just as quickly. Rather pleasant as it cools everything down. After dinner we hired scooters and drove around like mad people for a while, just enjoying not walking. Back at the bungalow we couldn’t get to bed fast enough and we all slept for about 13 hours straight, shaking off the last of the jetlag. Today we took the scooters north to Patong beach. Tyron spotted a baby elephant on the way and we all had to do a u-turn. This elephant was the cutest little thing ever, and we managed to get a hug, a kiss, a massage and a quick song on the harmonica out of him before we headed down the hill towards the beach. Here in Patong we tried to find a cheap place to stay, only to find out that there are none. The cheapest place we could find still had air con, fridge and coffee in the morning! We are paying R 40 per person here, so it’s not bad at all! Now that we have checked in, we are going to head back to Kata to fetch our backpacks. Hope they are still there…. ;)