Phuket 10/1/9

Phuket 10/1/9

Sorry to hear it's been a bit cold over there. It's lovely here.

In Phuket nearly a week now, having a fairly quiet time including every afternoon on the beach. Some jelly fish in the sea though. The weather has been kind to me after, I am told, much cloud in the weeks before I arrived. I have had maybe 10% cloud except yesterday 50%, rain one evening only.

Went to nearby large town Patong with my friend from previous visits An wednesday evening having been admonished for never going there before. Patong has seemingly thousands of bars, pubs and discos. An took me to a small roadside bar run by some of her friends, then on to an irish pub where there was some excellent live music, and lastly to a wild disco with loud heavy music and a dance floor packed with thousands of revellers having a great time. We left at 2.30am but aparently it would be going on til 4 or 5am.

Friday I finally got to see Phi Phi (pronounced pe pe not fi fi) with An. A one hour speedboat ride got us to the islands by 10am where we see the beautiful landscape of Maya Bay. Huge tree covered rocks loom out of the water forming a variety of beautiful and sometimes grotesque shapes. (the place reminds me of Ha Long Bay off Vietnam although this is not of the same scale)
Then to Loh Samah and Pilch Lagoon, the latter formed by the top of a volcano long since dormant and sunk into the sea except for its topmost rim. We pass by Viking Cave in which there are ancient murals left by pirates (unlikely to have been painted by vikings I suspect).

Next we are taken to 'monkey beach' where monkeys come down from the trees and interact with tourists lured by bananas. They bit at least one tourist while we were there. Got some good photos before going back to the boat for some snorkelling. There are beautiful corals just below the surface and shoals of small brightly coloured fish swimming in packed formation around and through us. I am getting the hang of this snorkelling now, having done it for the first time off Australia. (Still not going right under though.)

Lunch was excellent, a selection of thai dishes with white rice in a beachside restaurant on another fantastically beautiful island. Lastly to Khai Nai Island where we relax on a blissful white sandy beach before returning to the Marina.

A perfect day from beginning to end.

All the Best, John