Our Thailand Adventure: Chapter 4- Patong, Phuket

"We have just returned home from Patong. We spent 4 hours there and heard alot of this:

Where you from mate? DVD? Got a big showroom. Ping Pong? massage, massage? You speak English? One lady even took me by the arms and tried to pull me into her shop."

Patong is a 15 minute bus ride from Karon. Our hotel had a free bus that would go back and forth from Karon to Patong during the evenings, this was very handy indeed. We ended up spending 3 evenings in Patong. It is an absolutely CRAZY place! It's all about shopping, bars, and Ping Pong shows. 

On the rickety bus to Patong

Straight way we got off the bus people started annoying us, we were constantly hassled, and I didnt dare make eye contact with a stall holder or they would start trying to sell stuff to me. At first we found this really hard, but by our 3rd visit we just went with it, and had a bit of fun with them. One hint, don't wear a superman t'shirt. Todd did and it just attracted attention and comments the whole time! On our first evening there we found a quiet bar that sold 99 baht cocktails and then escaped the craziness by going to watch the sunset on Patong beach.

Enjoying my 99baht Pina Colada. I was very very hot at this point, I edited heaps of the red out of my face :0) The place would be so much nicer if it was 10 degrees cooler!

Patong beach at Sunset

We had to do the Tangled thing and let a lantern go. Todd did this one and I did one later in the week at Karon Beach. These things get really hot!! I wonder where they all end up.

 Next stop Bangla Rd, it was lively, loud and ummm what can I say, interesting.
People continuously come up to you trying to get you to come to  Ping Pong shows. Todd kept telling them he was allergic to Ping Pong shows.  It is so gross!!! It was sad actually.

 We held these cute little things.

 

The next time we were in Patong I was even sillier and got a photo with this ladyboy. Todd got one too but it's a secret and im forbidden to show anyone the photo :)  sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

We had fun playing 'spot the ladyboy'. If you can't see them, you can hear them, they have a unique voice.  Id watched a documentary about them so I was intrigued for sure!

I think the reason we went back a few times was to shop for presents. Todd got pretty good at bargaining and getting t'shirts cheap. He'd just walk off and they'd often call him back and take his offer. They say, "How much" and you say some ridiculously low price.  They look at you as though you are ridiculous and come back at you with a much higher price. We were stubborn and didnt budge much from our first offer. We tried to deal with one lady and she argued with Todd that there is no way she could sell the top that cheaply... it went on and on and we ended up just walking off. The next night we went back and she recognized us ( don't all Australians look the same?). When she saw us she said, "You made me cry last night". She didn't try to sell us anything this time. I do feel sorry for them. They work so hard to make a living, long hours, day after day. We are so blessed in Australia, so so blessed. 

 Here are a few happy snaps from Patong

 

I had fun. I enjoyed it even though I was sweating like a hog, or as a good friend once told me, 'glistening'. You sort of get used to being red and wet.

If I never go back to Patong, I don't think i'll be that sad about it. But I love that I have been and can add it to my list of experiences :)  My advise, as was advised to me,  if going to Phuket, dont stay in Patong (unless you want to party all night long) It is a lot more relaxed in Karon or Kata or further out :)

Our Thailand Adventure: Chapter 3: Karon beach, Phuket

"My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone." 

Diana Arbus

On day 3 we arrived in Phuket. This is where our luxurious part of the holiday began. 

This blog incudes lots of entries from my travel journal (the italic parts). I thought i'd let my past self, the holiday Bec, write lots of the blog post, seeings as she was there and all ;)

"We have just arrived at our resort, The Horizon Karon Beach resort. We are in our room relaxing after our crazy drive from the Phuket airport. I thought we were going to hit so many cars-and couldnt say anything or act anxious. They drive so fast!! And some people on the motorbikes and scooters don't wear helmets- crazy people! I know the damage a hit to the head can cause so not wearing a helmet really scares me! Anyway, we have our pool access room and I think we are about to have a swim. TIME TO RELAX AND JUST CHILL."

Here is our room and our own personal deck chairs overlooking the pool. The cool thing is that we were in the adults only wing so there were  no noisy kid splashing around in the pool... just big kids like Todd and me :) It was so peaceful and relaxing sitting on the deckchairs.

"Now this is nice. I've just been for a swim and now i'm sunbaking on my deckchair. Im feeling extremely relaxed- this is what I have been waiting for. The water is warm and luxurious and there are frangipanis floating around. Oh the serenity. Bliss. Total bliss. Heaven. It is so amazing just being able to do your own thing- no time restraints- noone to take care of,  just us :)

After our swim we walked down the hill to Karon Beach. It was dark as we walked onto the sand and i couldn't really see much but I remember feeling so happy that I was finally standing on a beach in Phuket. I just couldnt wait to come back in the morning and see it in the daylight!! As we walked back up towards the main road I could see rats scuttering along the grass and just like that the moment of wonder was gone! Agghhh rats!! Then I noticed all the rubbish along the side of the road, agghhhh tourists. But in defense of the tourists I must say, where are the rubbish bins?? It was hard to find a bin, no wonder there is rubbish in the gutters. It's ok, by morning the rats were out of sight and the rubbish was cleaned up :0)

Karon by night :)

We had a yummy tea in a little restaurant over the road from the beach. I had a chicken and cashew dish, mmm. Toddy enjoyed listening to the happy little guitar playing man :)

 

 

Here is a short clip of the restaurant.

 After tea we walked towards Kata and we came across this little elephant! Ohhhh he was so cute! I fed it some bananas and discovered that i LOVE elephants!  The highlight of my evening for sure! A great 20 baht spent ;) 

 

and of course, we found Starbucks!!

The next morning we walked down to see Karon Beach in the daylight. We walked along the beach and paddled our feet in the warm water, id never experienced warm sea water before, it was fantastic! I was wearing a little dress and i felt so overdressed! Most people were in bikinis, and speedos, it was an eye opener for sure. Big people running around in bikini's eeekkk!! Another thing that was funny was watching all the people pose for photos. Todd and I just laughed, people were lying at the waters edge, trying to pose like models, if you thought i was bad, you should see these Europeans! 

Todd joined in with the posing. I think he posed even better than those Russians :)

As we were walking back along the road to our resort we stopped and had our feet eaten by little fish. 

Nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble. This was something I just had to do while in Phuket. I'd always wondered what it felt like, and now i know... it didn't tickle, it was more nibbly. It was weird but  I liked it. And afterwards my feet felt so nice, soft and clean. 

After this we went back to our resort and made the most of the Privilege Club Lounge- where we could get free snacks and drinks between 12-2pm everyday! Todd was loving the free Gin and Tonics!

"It does not smell nice in some parts of Karon, you will be walking and suddenly there will be an awful smell and my tummy churns slightly. I guess the heat doesn't help the sick feelings"

Well that snippet from my journal above could also refer to Patong, which is our next stop.Im so glad we chose to stay in Karon and not Patong. I'll tell you all about it in my next blog post.

Thanks for reading xxoo

Hello Evie, photoshoot

My lovely sister in law Renae and hubby Leigh have just welcomed  their second baby, Evie, into their lives. They are now a family of 4 :) Nae Let me come and take some maternity photos and also some photos of Evie when she was 5 weeks old. Nae is so gorgeous, and I loved photographing her and her super cute family :)
I chose a few photos to share with you, I took HEAPS but these are a few of my personal favorites. Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed these

Love Bec xo