Phuket - Patong Beach

We checked out of our accommodation in the morning and were picked up by a minibus to take us to Phuket. When the bus arrived it was already really full with people and everyone's bags.  We were told to just climb over the back seats, squishing a poor guy in the process, and the driver rammed our bags in around us.  Thankfully this was just the bus to the bus station where we would catch another minibus to Phuket. Although I did quite enjoy my wee cocoon on the first bus I think it would have been a bit uncomfortable for 4 hours.  After a wee wait at the bus station we were shown to the minibus that would be taking us the rest of the way.  The driver asked myself and Kay to sit in the front two seats as we are small and wouldn't take up much room.  The journey wasn't great as we after both convinced the driver was on drugs.  He wouldn't stop touching his face the whole 4hours and was driving very erratically! We arrived in Phuket unscathed around 5pm.  We had booked the capsule hotel which is right on the main drinking street at Patong beach. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe but even though I collect the glasses we decided they were just too expensive to justify, they were roughly the same price that you would pay at home.  We went for some dinner at a nice Thai place and while we were there the heavens opened and so we ended up staying for dessert too.  On the way back to our accommodation we picked up a small bottle of Sang Som which is very drinkable Thai rum so that we could have a few drinks before we headed out. 

While we were getting ready we met a lovely Australian girl called Liz who was also travelling with her equally lovely sister, Anne.  The four of us ended up going out along with an American guy called chase that they'd met earlier that day.  Our night consisted of cocktails, dancing, drinking games, more drinking and lots more dancing. Phuket is a great night out but i think it would be the end of you and your liver if you stayed too long!

The next morning we spent a little time on the beach and went in search of the post office but never actually found it.  We had both decided that although we had a lot of fun, we didn't really much like Phuket. It was really loud, brash and very very westernised. There were Starbucks and KFCs on every corner.  We decided to book a bus back up to Bangkok for the next day and from there we were going to sort visas and head to Myanmar (Burma)  for a wee visit since we were starting to get a bit sick of the crowds in Thailand and wanted to get back into backpacker mode.

The next day we met Anne and Liz for some lunch, they had checked out of our accommodation the previous day as it was just too loud for them.  We were all headed to Bangkok that day, myself and Kay by bus and Anne and Liz were flying and then catching another flight to Vietnam for the last leg of their trip. We were picked up at 4pm and taken to the bus station where we got on a coach for our first overnight trip since arriving in Thailand.  The buses here are amazing, we were given water, a snack (a whole packet of biscuits each) and a blanket. Although the buses are a million time more comfortable that the citylink ones at home, we still didn't manage to get a very good night sleep.  The seats did recline but it was still difficult to get into a comfortable position to sleep. They also pulled over at a service station around midnight so we could have dinner.  Myself and Kay opted to just stay on the bus and try to get some sleep.  Back to my beloved beloved Bangkok.