On the ferry back to Phuket ... I regret Koh Lipe behind me.

I'm showing off in Phuket

Corinne Bourbeillon·
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  Thailand: Islands - February 2009

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic Google translation from a post originally written in French. My apologies for the weird sentences and the funny mistakes that could have been generated during the process. If you can read French, click on the French flag below to access the original text:


fr_FR Français

fr_FR Français

Here I am back in Brittany, after these three weeks Thai. Sunday night, I finally pushed the door from home, and I collapsed directly. Fourteen hours of dodo in a row, to recover from this long journey from Phuket ...

I did not manage to close my eyes on planes (Air Asia + Emirates) nor in the TGV.

At the Air Asia counter at Phuket Airport.
At the Air Asia counter at Phuket Airport.

It may surprise: for my last night in Phuket, I chose to stay in Patong Beach.

Patong is ugly, with plastic loungers and noisy jet skis, Mac Do's and Burger King's, souvenir shops, and girls' bars. And then the place is stuffed with a kind of tourists who does not inspire sympathy.

In short, not at all the style of beach or atmosphere that I love in Thailand ...

Gray sky fitting with my mood this Saturday on Patong Beach.
Gray sky fitting with my mood this Saturday on Patong Beach.
Patong Beach, Thailand. The bar stools girls, without girls ...
Patong Beach, Thailand. The bar stools girls, without girls ...
Souvenir shop in Patong.
Souvenir shop in Patong.

But here, I opted for the facility: minibus connections, taxis for the airport, shops for shopping, wifi connections everywhere, choice of accommodation and restaurants ...

I dug an address that changes 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 dive cruise.

Very good choice. Close to everything, refined decor, impeccable cleanliness, warm welcome and cheerful. The cheapest rooms are from 1800 baht (about 40 €), including breakfast. An excellent deal. For 2600 baht (less than 60 €), I got the luxury of a quasi-suite with mega king-size bed wider than long and jacuzzi ... Argh.

My king-size bed at Baipho-Baithong Hotel (Patong Beach, Thailand).
My king-size bed at Baipho-Baithong Hotel (Patong Beach, Thailand).

Needless to say, I have savored this supreme comfort as it should, after my long recovery from Koh Lipe.

Two and a half hours ferry crossing to Hat Yao Pier, Trang pier, then five hours by minibus ... I got slammed.

Finally, and above all, this stop in Phuket allowed me to meet, in truth, Valerie and Olivier, with whom I had previously exchanged only e-mails and phone calls. It's thanks to their site Asiaqua.com and their advice that I opted for the boat of Eden Divers, one of the few to offer cabins single for the Similan. It was the essential criterion for me, but everything else was up to the task: comfort, crew, supervision, atmosphere, food. And the nitrox was free ... Really a very good choice, again.

I was right to trust Valérie and Olivier on this one. Both divers, they have been on site for a long time, know each of the cruise ships they offer on their site and effectively play the intermediaries when it comes to adjusting various practical details.

We stayed in touch after the cruise, and they came to see me Saturday at the hotel, before my departure, to chat and drink.

With Valérie and Olivier from Asiaqua.com.
With Valérie and Olivier from Asiaqua.com.

It is always a great pleasure, on a trip, to concretize virtual exchanges through a real encounter. Nice epilogue to my Thai stay!

????

  Thailand: Islands - February 2009

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Women and children chao-ley. Koh Lipe. Thailand. March 2009.
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Corinne Bourbeillon
Journalist, diver and underwater photographer, Corinne loves to go underwater to make bubbles with the fish! The beauty of the world and the ocean inspired her to create this diving and travel blog.
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19 Comments

  2. Good return, good rest, good sort of photos, good recovery of taf, and all and everything!

    Idem pour moi, Patong ne m’a pas laissé un souvenir impérissable 🙂

    Thib.

    Reply

  3. Comme le monde est petit 😳
    Je connais également Olivier qui était tour-leader sur un bateau lors d’une croisière dans le Sud en 2007. A l’époque il était en train de monter son site Internet. Je papote avec lui de temps en temps sur Plongeur.com 😀

    Reply

  4. Zut j’ai oublié le principal 🙂
    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 ➡

    Reply

  5. @ Marie-net: Oh yes, yes. And then, after how I drooled for the Rescue, I deserved 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 sleep in Patong. The first time was six months after the tsunami. Hanging out in the area does not have much interest, indeed.
    😕

    @Alimata: Olivier is still a tour leader and also an underwater videographer. It is indeed on Plongeur.com that I made contact with him ... The world of diving, and diving in Asia in particular is actually very small! Otherwise, I vote for "Patong in tong". Missing more than a hairy troll pollute my posts with salacious rhymes !!!
    😆

    @ Wet & Sea Yes, that's for sure, I should write "Lipé" and also "Poukète" and "Kopipi" as long as we are there ... But I was not freaked at all in Lipé, so I dismiss this title.
    Yes, Olivier is Martinoo ... I'll have to open a post on Plongeur.com entitled: "Discover the real thrill of Martinoo" ... Then you will come here to discuss instead.
    😀

    Reply

  6. Alimata : l’internet, on a pas le son donc on n’est jamais sur, on dit que c’est du multimedia mais macache, c’est muet cette bestiole! 😕

    Donc je révise ton titre qui devrait être « flippée à Koh Lipe »… qui s’écrit ausi Ko Leepae… 😉

    Reply

  7. Olivier, c’est martinoo???? 😀 Ha ba, je l’aurais pas reconnu comme ça, pas la même tête que sur son avatar… je l’ai jamais vu mais sur p.com on discute (-ait) souvent aussi.

    Reply

  8. We need to make cuts, right? And clean sheets, that feel clean have an incredible flavor! And also after a long trip, when we could not stretch his legs, stretch, get up without disturbing the neighbors-travelers, we love to lie down , do not count the time, sleep all his drunk! Before being caught again by the job and all the rest.

    Reply

  10. @Nono: Yes, it's good to play it a little more "luxury" at the end of your stay.
    Where I was before it was clean too (it's the minimum I need, even in very simple places), but a real huge bed, with real white sheets, and a real mini-quilt very fresh , and a real decor a little neat, and a minibar, and a jacuzzi, and a powerful shower and hot, it's very pleasant when we spent three weeks at the backpacker ...
    The return trip is always a nightmare, you only dream of one thing: to lie down ... For the rest, the job has already caught me.
    😡

    @ Marie-Julie: As I explained, there was another diver, Regis, who owned an A95. But his screen was dead, with a huge patch of black pixels in the middle. It was removed and replaced by the screen of my own device. The transplant worked perfectly! With two devices failing, we have thus reconstituted one that works, and we have lent it from one day to the next! Finally, I bought her case, for a small fee (the equivalent of a repair for mine here, I guess) ... I managed well, on this one!
    🙄

    Reply

  13. When you say that you paid for your repair the equivalent of a repair "here", where is it? It's there or in France?

    Reply

  16. Wow!

    t’as l’air d’avoir bien profité de ton escapade Thaï 😀

    Bon retour à toi dans la grisaille française, au moins tu as la tête pleine de souvenirs… 😡

    Reply

  17. @Akway: Eh yes! At each escapade, I come back with the desire to leave. All these memories of travel constantly feed my desire to escape, other horizons. Leave, come back. It's an endless cycle, a pendulum movement that seems unalterable to me. For me, the return is also synonymous with a new beginning. I'm already thinking about it ...
    🙄

    Reply

  18. hello corinne
    like you I've been back since yesterday, 10 days on site it's short for the Philippines, but it was nice, nice dives on the wrecks despite a visit limited to 10-12m.
    En plus j’ai vu de nouvelles limaces, de quoi completer mon album spécial limace! 😀

    Reply

  19. @Laurence: Hello Laurence, I wish you a good return so ... It's true that 10 days, it goes at full speed! Well, well I'll go take a look at your album nudibranch, I love these little beasts, as you know. And in the Philippines, it's a real festival. I, too, had discovered a bunch of new species there that I had never seen before.
    😉

    Reply
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