After spending three nights in Koh Lanta, we took a three and half hour ferry ride to Phuket. We were told when we booked our boat tickets that we would be changing ferries in the water….we didn’t think we understood correctly because of the language barrier, but we did hear right! Half way through our ferry ride, another ferry pulled up beside us and we had to jump over in the middle of the ocean! We had a good laugh about that and arrived in Phuket shortly after. Ryan and Ashley were flying out of Phuket to head back to Canada so we spent our last two days with them in Patong Beach and went out with a bang. We went out to Soi Bang La, which is a busy strip of bars, clubs, pubs and little holes in the wall where you can take in a local “Ping Pong and Resbian Show”. As soon as we stepped onto this street we were bombarded by people trying to sell us “tickets” to these shows. We ignored the first twenty of them and then actually began talking to one guy who told Ashley and I it was free, but 500 baht per beer (about $15) for the guys. We ended up talking him down to 200 baht ($6) each and he took us to his bar. We were a little bit weirded out as we weren’t sure what we had gotten ourselves into and followed him down this alley and into this curtained door which opened up into a small room (the bar) the size of a regular bedroom! He sat us in these stools that lined the bar (also known to some as “perv row”)…little did we know what would happen next. The things we saw, we will never see again in our lives. There were naked girls, ping pong balls, bananas, little birds, and darts involved….you can use your imagination for the rest because it is not bloggable material! Needless to say, we sat there for a short time in amazement before heading back through the curtain only to be bombarded again. Oh, did I mention that Phuket is one of the sex trade capitals of Thailand?
We spent the next day cruising the markets where Clem and Ryan ordered their custom made suits. Clement paid $300 Canadian for two cashmere suits (gray and light brown) and four shirts, which also included the shipping back to Canada. They turned out amazingly!
We said a sad good bye to Ashley and Ryan and sent them on their way to the airport, only to meet up with Matt and Camelia (from KL)!! They had emailed us a week ago telling us that they would meet us in Phuket for the weekend. We were so excited to see them again and spent an amazing weekend with them in Karon Beach (just down the road from Patong Beach). Matt has been to Phuket on numerous occasions and knew the ins and outs of the city. We partied pretty darn hard the first night we met them and took in some even crazier stuff than what we had seen a few nights earlier. This time it involved yet again, ping pong balls and rubber whips! We started the night off at a small beachside bar called “Ocean View Bar”. Matt led the way to this bar and when we approached it, we realized that we had stopped at that exact bar the night before with Ryan and Ashley. The girls remembered Clem and I and ran up giving us hugs and welcoming us again! We spent a few hours there hanging out with Jaja, Mina, Moi, and Roong, who quickly became our good friends. We played many games with them and had a great time laughing at them as they became more and more drunk. Jaja tried to tell me that she never gets a hangover, but when we returned to see her two nights later, she explained that she couldn’t open her eyes and was only able to drink water and “one tequila”. Haha. We have some great videos of our time spent with the Ocean View Bar girls and will upload them when we have a better internet connection. You will all get a great laugh out of them!
We had rented motorbikes for our time spent in Karon Beach for 200 baht per day ($6!). It was great, as we could go wherever we wanted without having to take a taxi or tuk tuk. I have to admit that I was a little scared because motorbiking around Phuket was way crazier than our previous day trip on Koh Lanta where we had the roads to ourselves. We quickly got used to it and had a great time taking in the sights around Phuket. We did hire a taxi for one afternoon to take us to some of the local attractions. Matt and Camelia had planned on bungy jumping in Phuket and while Clem had had his fill of adrenalin in NZ, he decided to join in. Matt, Clem and Camelia all took the plunge and had a great time! We have great videos and their certificates to prove it! We also went to a shooting range where Matt got to shoot a machine gun and a shotgun. We had a great afternoon cruising around on what has been dubbed “Adventure Day”.
We spent a great four days with Matt and Camelia in Phuket before they returned to Kuala Lumpur and we made some plans as to where we were heading next. We had originally planned for between 3-4 weeks in Thailand and were intending to head over to the east coast to spend some time on the islands there (Koh Tao and Koh Phanang). Unfortunately, the violence has been escalating in Bangkok and our only way to travel after those islands would be through Bangkok. We could have come back to Phuket, but it seemed to be an unnecessary cost and at least a couple of days of wasted travel, so we have just booked flights from Phuket to fly up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We have a couple of more days in Phuket and will spend them on the beach before heading up to the cultural capital of Thailand. We plan to spend 3-4days in Chiang Mai where we may take in some elephant trekking and a Thai cooking course.
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