Saturday, January 16, 2010

Phun Around Phuket

I arrived to the island of Phuket, Thailand last Thursday afternoon. The plan was to leave for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Friday morning. But after hanging out with a person from the hostel I decided to go to Phuket at about 5 AM Thursday morning. After buying my ticket it was on. I left Bangkok airport at 2 PM and arrived to Phuket at 4 PM. The taxi situation was a nightmare. Luckily I was able to overhear to Aussies going to Potang Beach, where I was headed too, and asked them if I could ride with them since they had an extra seat. They said yes. The ride to Potang from the airport was about 45 minutes. The ride was filled with passing and being passed buy trucks, cabs, and bikes on hairpin turns. When we got to the street where my hostel was the cabbie let me out. Well the Aussies weren't staying there but the cabbie wouldn't take them to their place. I felt really bad since they let me ride with them and now they had to walk God knows how far. But they didn't seem to mind. They were more upset at the cabbie. Potang Beach was almost like Bangkok but in a smaller area and on a beach. There were so many tourists there. Most of them were longer Aussies, Kiwis, Germans, and Canadians there to party all night and morning at the various clubs. I was only able to spend one night doing that. Luckily the beach helps the hurt in the morning. The beach at Potang wasn't that great so on Friday we went south to Kata Beach. The water was clearer and the crowds were less. We decided we didn't really want to stay in Phuket yesterday or today so we decided to go somewhere else for the night. The decision was a small, sparsely populated island of Koh Yao Noi east of Phuket. We took a local long boat from Ban Rong pier to the island. The ride was about 1 hour. We set up on the top the whole time. With the exception of a Swedish couple we were the only Westerners on the boat. It reminded me a lot of remote Alaska but a lot warmer of course. Yesterday we rented a scooter and drove around the island. We spent most of the afternoon lying on the beach and swimming. Last night we watched a local duo play acoustic guitar show at our place. They were amazing. My friend left about an hour ago so I decided to do the internet thing for a bit since it had been 4 days. This afternoon I plan hitting the beach and then leaving at 4 for Phuket. My flight leaves the airport for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at 7 and I arrive at 9 PM. So far the days keep getting better and better. Enjoy the pictures and videos below. Cheers.




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1 comment:

  1. Jared,,,WOW what mosiac designs in the beach sand. I would like a big picture of that. Neat water pictures.
    Stay safe and have fun...

    Love,.
    Mom/Dad

    ReplyDelete