I'm showing off in Phuket
ENHere I am, back in Brittany after three weeks in Thailand. Sunday evening, I finally pushed open the door to my home, and collapsed straight into bed. Fourteen hours of sleep in a row, to recover from the long journey from Phuket...
I couldn't sleep a wink on the planes (Air Asia + Emirates) nor in the TGV.
It may come as a surprise: for my last night in Phuket, I chose to land at Patong Beach.
Patong is ugly, with its plastic deckchairs and noisy jet-skis, its MacDos and Burger Kings, its souvenir stores and girlie bars. What's more, the place is overrun with an unsympathetic breed of tourists.
In short, not at all the style of beach or atmosphere I like in Thailand...
But I opted for the easy way out: minibus connections, cabs to the airport, stores for shopping, wifi connections everywhere, choice of accommodation and restaurants...
I've found an address that's a change from my rustic backpacker plans: the hotel Baipho-Baithong. Recommended by both the Lonely Planet and by Mark, an Australian who was with me on the Eden Divers boat for the Similan diving cruise.
Excellent choice. Close to everything, refined decor, impeccable cleanliness, warm and cheerful welcome. The cheapest rooms start at 1800 baht (approx. €40), breakfast included. An excellent deal. For 2600 baht (less than 60€), I treated myself to the luxury of a quasi-suite with mega king-size bed wider than it is long and a Jacuzzi... Argh.
Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this supreme comfort after my long climb up from Koh Lipe.
A two-and-a-half-hour ferry ride to Hat Yao Pier, Trang's landing stage, followed by a five-hour drive in a minibus... I arrived exhausted.
Last but not least, this stopover in Phuket gave me the chance to meet Valérie and Olivier, with whom I'd previously only exchanged e-mails and phone calls. Thanks to their website Asiaqua.com and their advice that I opted for the Eden Divers boat, one of the few to offer cabins single for the Similan. That was the essential criterion for me, but everything else was up to scratch: the comfort, the crew, the supervision, the atmosphere, the food. And the nitrox was free... Again, a very good choice.
I was right to trust Valérie and Olivier on this one. Both divers, they have been in the area for a long time, know each of the cruise boats they offer on their site, and act as efficient intermediaries when it comes to sorting out various practical details.
We kept in touch after the cruise, and they came to see me on Saturday at the hotel, before I left, for a chat and a drink.
It's always a great pleasure, when traveling, to turn virtual exchanges into real encounters. A nice epilogue to my stay in Thailand!
😎
It feels good king size and sheets that smell good laundry, from time to time!
Good return, good rest, good sort of photos, good recovery of taf, and all and everything!
Ditto for me, Patong didn't leave me with any lasting memories 🙂
Thib.
How small the world is 😳
I also know Olivier, who was a tour leader on a boat during a cruise in the South of France in 2007. At the time he was setting up his website. I chat with him from time to time on Plongeur.com 😀
Damn, I forgot the main thing 🙂
For the title you also had:
- In the wind at Similan
- I'm freaking out on Koh Lipe
- In tong in Patong
and then of course the famous:
- I ban .. in Thailand
but of course…
8)
Ok I ➡
@ Marie-net: Oh dear, yes. Besides, after all the trouble I went through for Rescue, I'd earned this little luxury...
😉
@Thib: Thanks Thib! The recovery is a little rough, back to the gray reality of my little Rennes daily ...
This is the second time I've slept in Patong. The first time was six months after the tsunami. There's not much point in hanging around in the area.
😕
@Alimata: Olivier is still a tour-leader and also an underwater videographer. In fact, it was on Plongeur.com that I got in touch with him... The world of diving, and of diving in Asia in particular, is very small indeed! Otherwise, I vote for “Patong en tong”. What's more, some hairy troll is polluting my posts with dirty rhymes!
😆
@ Wet & Sea Yes, of course, I should write “Lipé” and also “Poukète” and “Kopipi” while we're at it... But I wasn't at all freaked out by Lipé, so I'll leave that one out.
Yes, Olivier is Martinoo... I'll have to open a post on Plongeur.com entitled: “Discover Martinoo's real face”... Then you can come and chat here instead.
😀
Alimata: the internet, we don't have sound so we're never sure, they say it's multimedia but macache, it's mute this bug! 😕
So I'm revising your title which should be “freaked out in Koh Lipe”... which is also spelled Ko Leepae... 😉
Olivier, it's martinoo???? 😀 Ha ba, I wouldn't have recognized him like that, not the same face as on his avatar... I've never seen him but on p.com we often chat (-ait) too.
We need to make cuts, don't we? And after a long journey, when you haven't been able to stretch your legs, get up without disturbing your fellow travelers, you love to lie down, not counting the time, and sleep your heart out! Before getting caught up again in work and everything else.
Did you buy a new camera there, or has your old one been resurrected? A bit of luxury every now and then feels good... 😉
@Nono: Yes, it's good to be a little more luxurious at the end of your stay.
Where I was before, it was clean too (that's the minimum I demand, even in very simple places), but a real huge bed, with real white sheets, and a real fresh mini comforter, and a real decoration, and a minibar, and a jacuzzi, and a powerful hot shower, it's very pleasant when you've spent three weeks backpacking...
The return journey is always a nightmare, and all you want to do is lie down... As for the rest, work has already taken its toll on me.
😡
@ Marie-Julie: As I explained, there was another diver, Régis, who owned an A95. But his screen was dead, with a huge patch of black pixels in the middle. We took it apart and replaced it with the screen from my own camera. The graft worked perfectly! We took two malfunctioning devices and rebuilt a working one, lending it to each other from one day to the next! Finally, I bought back his case, for a modest sum (the equivalent of repairing mine here, I imagine)... I did pretty well on that one!!!!
🙄
Ah!!!! So, you bought his case! I understood the beginning of the story, but I missed the end... 😉
@ Marie-Julie: Yes, I've yet to tell the happy epilogue to this story of a camera out of action...
🙂
When you say you paid the equivalent of a repair “here” for your case, where is "here"? Is it there or in France?
@Nono: Well, since I'm back, the word “ici” means “in France”... 😉
Makes sense. 😆
Wow!
you look like you enjoyed your Thai getaway 😀
Welcome back to you in the French greyness, at least you have a head full of memories... 😡
@Akway: That's right! Every time I go away, I come back wanting to go away again. All these travel memories constantly feed my desire to escape, to discover new horizons. Leaving, coming back. It's a never-ending cycle, a pendulum swing that seems unalterable. For me, a return also means a new beginning. I'm already looking forward to it...
🙄
hello corinne
like you I've been back since yesterday, 10 days on site is short for the philippines, but it was nice, beautiful dives on the wrecks despite a limited view at 10-12m.
What's more, I saw some new slugs, enough to complete my special slug album! 😀
@Laurence: Hello Laurence, welcome back... 10 days really does fly by! Well, I'm going to take a look at your nudibranch album, I love these little creatures, as you know. And in the Philippines, it's a real festival. I'd also discovered a bunch of new species over there that I'd never seen before.
😉