PaTong Beach/Phuket, Thailand
March 4th – 18th 2017 (14 days)

Today the exchange rate and value of the Thai Baht (THB) converted to USD & CAD it would appear the USD is getting a much better bargain than CAD.
Firstly, $1.00CAD=.75USD, and 100B=2.86US, 100B=3.82.
So the American & Canadian both enjoying a cup of coffee together one pays converted to his currency, $1.70 and $2.30, big difference on a 1000B room, $28.60 and $38.20 a $10. difference for same room.

This is a very happening and lively place as it should be for a popular tourist spot, and being such accommodations are relatively high. Unfortunately for me I was to arrive in Phuket from Langkawi about 8:30 pm give or take a 1/2hr, not at 12:30 am, then a 1/2 hr ride to PaTong beach at 1 am to look for accommodations as what happened to me. So I grabbed what was available no cheap dormitory room for me, a single room double bed, air con, tv for 700 BHT a night: Patong Rose Guesthouse. I stayed at PaTong Rose Guesthouse for the most part, but I found out and it was too late that just a few doors down from, well right beside Patong Rose there was a box style dormitory room available for 300B a night, which would have suited me fine, I looked at the place and yes I would have preferred this for the savings, it is called Sonya’s Residence and for the price and location you can’t beat this if your on a budget, I highly recommend this box style dormitory.
———————CAUTION ALERT ————————-
Now the next day I did find dormitory for 190 BHT a night, which is a great deal and probably the cheapest anyone will get, called Patong Studio Apartments. I went there is was about 1:30pm they had dormitory available so I paid for one night, then expecting key, password for wifi and to see room, I was told all that will be given at 2pm, so I had to wait a half hour for this highly secretive information. Came back after 2pm and arrived in room, but wifi was not connecting, went to office reported wifi was not working to the ladies at front desk, then a man from behind another counter pops up and says, not working where? I say everywhere…..anyways it eventually led to this owner being Nick Eastwood of Patong Studio Apartments threatening to assault me, harm and injure me, and raping me, as he did not wish to refund the money when I did not use the bed or any of the facilities. I was very surprised by his aggressive and shocking behaviour to threaten potential customers, in the end I got the full refund as I said thank you, now was that hard and he just kept telling me to shut up and mumbling other negative name calling. This is the first time ever in all the travelling searching for accommodations that I ever confronted such abusive threatening verbal assaults of threatening to harm me physically. Of course I cannot and will not recommend this place and I highly warn those that wish to stay here be very cautious and aware of what I experienced, be safe travellers and aware of this place and threatening man.

So many tourists here walking the streets or strips, in the many eateries and on the beach. On the beach many are soaking up sun-ray’s and jet skiing or parasailing, now I saw prices for parasailing 1500 BHT ($57. CAD) I thought ok until I watched them go up and down for like 3 minutes, so it is a very short parasailing ride. But so many on the beach and in the water having fun and relaxing. I like seeing all the fun on the water with jet skies and parasailing and some very nice looking luxury yachts and a big cruise ship anchored in the background a very picturistique tropical view indeed. Unfortunately when I walked the sandy beach as the sun was setting, I noticed much litter left behind, many glass beer bottles, plastic water bottles, styrofoam containers, plastic bags, why? Tourists at a beautiful tropical destination on a popular beach resort, enjoying the beach, then walk away leaving litter behind, I just do not understand this. The positive thing about this is the next day the beach area is cleaned so I guess people are hired to keep it cleaned.

On the streets so many eateries again whatever your taste buds desire you will find, I found this place all you can eat salads, bonus for me, as ate a fruit platter for breakfast and salads for dinner, nothing wrong with that. Clothing shops, souvenir shops, and if you do not like the prices the vendor will come down and negotiate with you. Travel/tour packages available and many, many massage spots, to my surprise I also found that there are just as many tailor shops, because there’s so many much, much competition and one can go get a custom fitting made shirt, pants, jackets, dresses of own design and material such as Italian cotton, Thai silk, and have a dress shirt for like 1000 BHT made out of such or any fabric of choice. Also noticed ‘clinics’ I guess having so many massage places, that will give ‘happy endings’ there are a many tourist clinics for those that need a shot for …. I don’t know, low energy, a dripping nose.

The two boys or sons came here to Phuket Thailand to visit their dad, I’m happy that they’re here with me having fun and exploring. Now to get around and explore we decided the fastest, easiest and cheapest way was to rent scooters, surprisingly they have a lot of power and easy on the fuel too, and for 300 baht a day it’s worth it as we went to the Big Buddha, Wat Chalong Temples, Kata Noi Beach, checked out street side markets as we spotted riding. Big Buddha is big one can seem it on top of a small mountain from a distance, in fact when we were at Wat Chalong Temples we could see the Big Buddha on the hill. When your on the hill next to the Buddha there is a wonderful view of a marina with many boats and the town below looking at the main road through town leading to the marine, beaches and cities are all exposed at this height, and if you have a drone as the youngest son did, the video he captured was unreal, he got high above the Buddha and one could view the entire area, the villages, the beaches and see what the Big Buddha sees and having that high angle looking down at the Buddha spectactcular. At this time being at the Big Buddha there was much construction going on.

Wat Chalong Temples oldest and most important, with many statues. The Kata Noi beach what a secluded spectacular beach, the beach has the shape of a very wide, short u, but the big rocks to sit on for a beautiful photo or the trees along the beach with hotels all make for a beautiful picturistique setting and photos, there’s even parasail happening and wave action. Also the youngest son had a vacation package with one of these 5 star hotel resorts, so we stayed at the Marriott’s Mai Khao Beach resort for a total of 3 days, which really is not my style because it was like having a luxury house, this room we had was furnished with a living room, kitchen, washer and dryer, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, one room having king size bed, and two double beds in the other room, with three tv’s, a view of the pool area, it was very nice but for tourists, not for travellers wanting to explore and get immersed with the local culture. This resort was a family resort for people with lots of money, but don’t really get to experience Thailand at all. I did have a chance to wash the clothing with washer & dryer provided so that was a bonus.

Well I spent two full weeks at PaTong Beach in Phuket, Thailand. The beach was full of sun bathers darkening their bodies, the odd time I’d see a topless gal but not that often, the water was warm and lots of activity in the water with swimmers, jet ski riders, parasailing, being pulled in a floatation device behind the boats, and many luxury yachts and cruise liners also being anchored. So there was much to view both on the sandy beach and on the waters.

Now on the main street being called Beach Street with all the restaurants, massage parlours, tailor shops, fruit stands, taxi stands, clothing outlets, currency exchange kiosks, it was always busy with tourist walking up and down enjoying buying and looking.

I found the best way during my stay was to rent the scooters, I managed to negotiate a better deal and rent at 250 baht per day and I was able to cruise just about the entire island, it enable me to get to Old Town Phuket, Koron Beach, Kata Noi Beach, Wat Chalong temples and to see the Big Buddha, also a few lookout points, it is very cheap transportation considering what these taxi’s want and allows for so much freedom to travel when and where you wish, besides the oldest son was in the hospital and having the scooter made it so much easier visiting him daily. The boy was staying at Bangkok Phuket Hospital and very near is a night market called Chillva Market, it is a very exciting market for food, clothing and just about anything else you can think of, but the foods seem to be the big draw, very colourful and a variety from fruits, to bugs or insects. Then with the clothing, shirts, t-shirts, shoes, dresses, and then toys, souvenirs, sunglasses, electronic gadgets, many people eating and buying, but with all the lights, the lighting looks real cool here too, and it appears at times they may even have musical entertainment with a band, as there is a band shell but I only heard music playing from speakers set up. Apparently there are a few nighttime markets, unfortunately I only visited Chillva Market. Old Town Phuket was a spot I would have liked to stay a little longer taking photos of the buildings as I like the architecture and how colourful the buildings were brightly painted, and in this area things were much cheaper compared to Patong beach. I bought a Mango slush doing for 60B, but she used the entire fresh Mango in that slush drink, well worth it I thought as it was so flavourful and cold, it hit the spot, and I bought the daughter a nice Batik style summer dress to wear for like 200B, this again is a bargain compared to Patong beach area.

Now after I returned the motorbike, I caught a city bus for the bus terminal now theres two bus terminals, the #2 bus terminal has all the buses going in all directions, so this was a total cost of 40B with 1 bus transfer, much cheaper than the 600B cab fare, but it also took a good hour from PaTong Beach to bus terminal 2. Now I am heading back to Kuala Lumpur to pick up a package that is there for me. The plan is to take this bus to Hat Yai cost 255B and a 6 hour bus ride, then transfer to train from Hat Yai to KL Malaysia. I will decide to continue on to Bali Indonesia or stay in Malaysia for awhile.