Phuket, Thailand
To kick this page off, i am starting with Thailand. Thailand is the first out of country place i travelled to, and a beautiful one at that. My lovely partner bought me a ticket for my birthday and we jetted off about a month after i turned 24, so june/july-ish 2016.
I am going to start off by detailing what to expect when you get to Thailand. The flight from Sydney took about 9 1/2 hours, and we received one meal i believe.
Upon arrival, we were tired and jet lagged. The Phuket airport was small and packed out as well as hot , sticky and musty. People lining up everywhere, and at first look we were a bit confused about where to line up, as there were may different lines for people coming from different places, with different types of passports.
Once we figured out what line we were meant to be in, we waited impatiently for our turn. We watched as guard began to pick people out of the crowd and call them over. Curious, we watched to see what they were doing. We soon discovered that they were asking people for cash in exchange of a bump to the front of the line. We continued to notice people in the line make eye contact with the guard, and the guard coming over to them. Eagerly, we checked for cash and were disappointed only to remember we hadn't gotten any money out. Due to this, we waited in line for about three hours to progress to the front, not to mention our taxi (which was arranged by the hotel) was waiting to pick us up at a designated time.
When we finally got the the front of the line, we were asked to hand in a card with all of our details, including job description and such, (that we were asked to fill out on the plain) to the person at the desk, as well as our passport. We were asked to stand still for a photo, to which we were then allowed through to the next part of the airport which led outside. Once outside we were greeted with a sign with our names on it, along with the strong stench that i could only compare to the smell of fruit and vegetable markets back home. This smell was throughout most of Phuket, yet not out into the outskirts, only in the main town section.
Our drive to the Andaman hotel was long, I would say about 40-50 mins. Upon arrival, we were asked to give a bond which we didn't expect and therefore were not prepared for, so make sure that you discuss this with your travel agent, as ours didn't inform us of this. The staff didn't seem to know much English, and when asked questions outside their basic training they become confused, so keep this in mind when conversing with them.
We were exhausted by the time we had reached the hotel, so after talking with the ladies at reception, caught the elevator up to our room. Our room was spacious enough, with a bathroom surrounded in glass walls as you entered. We fell asleep pretty much straight away and slept well through the next day. Lucky for us, they had a late breakfast which consisted of many fruits, only two of which i had seen before (dragon fruit and pineapple). I will never forget, (and wish i took a photo of) they had these odd marshmellow looking things they were a kind of sticky consistency and were filled with either custard or a fruit jam. They were both nice and strange at the same time.
For lunch and dinner, we went out of got room service each of the days. Upon trying many foods, we ended up sticking to either Starbucks, Mcdonalds, or this place called the 'Globe' bar (i think) ,which i would highly recommend , which funnily enough had all foods we could get here. We just didn't want to chance getting sick as we heard many others had before us. I will note, meals at the McDonald's are bigger than here, for example, we ordered a small meal and got a large so keep that in mind also. Funny thing, on one of our first nights, we thought we would try ordering something in to our appartment from out in the town, everywhere including mcdonalds, advertised that they delivered althought we tried mcdonalds and the number never worked strangely enough. Anyway, we ordered in domino's, which i was excited about because i missed normal food, and you would not beleive what we recieved... we recieved peice of flat bread with some sauce on it.. we were left both shocked and dissapointed.
The pool at the hotel was lovely although i will leave a suggestion with you, for both around the pool and at any time. Please wear (especialy if you are a girl) appropriate clothing. I wore a bikini, and even shorts at other times with a tshirt and i got stared at by men like i was a piece of meat. It is a very uneasy feeling. So please keep that in mind also.
On our first day we went down to the beach, to which i was surprised by the empty coke bottles and rubbish everywhere. Among this, there were people with tents set up and services which tried to grab us and make us come to their tent, which i wasn't really expecting, yet it was still a nice experience and the weather was nice too. We walked along the water and watched the many sky gliders.
On the topic of people grabbing you, you have to expect this and be prepared because they are absolutely EVERYWHERE. As a few days go by, you will get over it and begin to not notice them, as harsh as that may sound as they are in fact human beings, you just tend to drown them out. It very much reminded me of those people that stop you in the shopping centre and try and make you buy stuff, yet they are everywhere, every step you take, there they are, waiting. What do they try to sell you , you may ask? Well, anything from club tickets, shows, clothing, rides to places, day trips, the list is endless.
Now for the night life, i know alot of people that go to thailand want to experiance the night life, and it is something alright. The first thing you will find, is that the people trying to sell you stuff multiply by 100, and all the clubs are kind of dirty and there are ladie boys everywhere, as well as exotic dancers ect. The funny thing is, i was really surprised by the men staring where i wore shorts, yet they have women and lady boys in literally underwear walking around and no one bats an eye. That is not it though, they actually have women trying to pull men into massage parlors that say "NO SEX" on them, yet it is for exactly that. Interesting isnt it?
Once we went into one of the clubs in phucket, which i beleive is called the tiger bar, -which is awsome by the way- We were greated with ladies handing us drink menu's. Now here is where you have to be careful. We heard from good sources not to drink from bottles that are already open, or drinks that are made at the bar as they are usually mad with very toxic chemicles. I however, mistakenly accepted a tequilla shot, to which the lady gathered other waitresses and they all 'oo'd and arrr'd' over my attempting to drink it, which yes should have been warning enough. Yet, i drank it anyway to which is hit me like a heavy train, and my partner ended up having to all but carry me back to our hotel. That is after one shot people, let my lesson be a lesson to you.
The next day we went in search of a cigar (because why not?). After much searching we managed to find one, a little one, but still cool, in a little store tucked away near the tiger bar (from memory). So if you are after one, make sure you check out the little servo's around there. Oh and even though they are like servo's, they don't serve petrol, they do however sell alcohol (to minors) hmm.
After our previous experiences the days before, we decided to see some of the less crowded more cultural parts of Thailand, so we went on the hunt for day trip deals. Now when looking for day trip deals, or anything for that matter, make sure you bargain down with them because they can and they will bargain down the price if they think you won't buy. They will also try to rip you off, so compare prices with different places.
After all our bargaining, we decided to go for an elephant ride and bath (with an elephant), and a day long snorkelling trip.
After taking a rickety 'took took' (this is what they call their little car type things, and what they repeatedly yell at you as you walk through the streets each day) to the destination, we soon found that these beautiful Elephants were chained up and some of them had their tusks cut. We were appalled as we were told these elephants were treated with no cruelty. As we were at our destination, and there was no going back until the tour was over, we decided to make the best of it and give the elephants the most love that we could by treating them with respect and love we could. We watched carefully on our tour and did not see anything that alarmed us in the way of cruelty.
After our ride and bath with the Elephants we headed back to the hotel, with the next day being all about the snorkelling trip. Heading out early, we were taken out to the bus, where we drove to the destination of our trip. Once we had reached the destination, we sat and listened to instructions from 'pretty' the tour guide. She humourisly told us that we had the option of old snorkel mouth peices, if we didnt mind sharing spit with many others that had used them, or the option of new ones for a small price. They had many add on items that cost money, including the complusery flippers if you wanted to swim with the fish, which is what most people go there for. So just be mindful of that if you wish to swim.
The trip was an all day one which included lunch and many stops to differant islands. Although as the weather was bad they didnt stop at 'monkey island', which was one of the main islands on their tour broucher. Good thing we didnt though, as they later told us that every person that had been there lately had gotten bitten by a monkey, and there was no health insurence, haha. So alas, we watched from a far as we pulled up to view monkey island which was 99% covered in water, there for trees gasping for air and covered in monkeys.
To be continued
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