So you remember those waterproof trousers I mentioned? I felt foolish at packing them you will recall? Well this weekend I really could have used them.
This was the first weekend we escaped the neatly boxed efficiency of Singapore for more exciting climes. We went to Phuket for a long weekend and it rained almost without cease. Some other friends went to the nearby Krabbi for the weekend and spent the weekend in their hotel room. We got wet.
I had actually put out our waterproof jackets in my proposed packing selection but the DFP waved them away, "oh, we won't need those" he said. Famous last words.
We watched the rain thunder down over breakfast on our first day and then set out. The DFP started looking at places to hire a scooter. I had read the lonely planet's comments about scooter fatalities and gently suggested that it may, perhaps, rain again over the course of the weekend. But it turned out not to be a choice open to discussion. A scooter it was. It did rain again. And again. And again.
So on day one we headed off for Phuket Town on the scooter, me on the back. It's across the island from Surin beach where we were staying in a beautiful hotel paying less than half what you would pay for a travel inn in the UK but unforutnately with a similarly enthusiastic staff.
http://www.manathai.com/phuket/index.html
It has beautiful teak floors and a bar area with inviting sofas and huge ornamental jars with water trickling over them. It all felt very post colonial chic.
Phuket is a refreshing change to Singapore. It's low rise. You can see the poverty contrasting sharply with the luxury holiday accommodation for the tourists. Lush greenery (no prizes for guessing why), amazing beeches with white sands and while we were there at least, wild foamy waves, though on season endless blue. We did go swimming, red flag flying. It's exhausting. You have to keep diving into the waves and then by the time you've recovered another huge waves is on it's way towards you. Swimming isn't really an accurate description of what you have to do. Plunging and recovering is more accurate.
We visited Patong which is really, properly nasty. It makes Torremolinos look like a classy joint. It's full of drunken people, mainly Australian drunken people, but generally caters to drunken people of all nationalities. It's where you can meet the famous Lady Boys. They come out touting for punters for their shows in their finery all of them with figures you or I would kill for.
They're on a scale between sad and nasty. We saw money openly changing hands between them and men who'd just seen a show. It may be jumping to conclusions, but it did seem fairly clear what was about to happen. If it were just dressing in beautiful spangles and mining to pop hits and seemed a positive, feisty life choice I would cheer them. But it seemed more like a tawdry tourist attraction. Flesh rather than overpriced cocktails.
I tried to have a chat with one who seemed less aggressive than some and tried to ask a few personal questions but s/he clammed up immediately, or didn't understand, or didn't want to understand. S/he explained that she was a real lady boy and had had breast implants and a nose job "like you" she said to me touching my nose. I said, no I hadn't had a nose job and that if I had I would have gone for something something much smaller than this.
Anyhow, even though it poured down, if felt like a break. And the food was fantastic. Side of the road stalls selling fish cakes and barbecued meats on skewers. And on the whole very friendly people happy for us to shelter from the downpours under their porches and give us directions.
I always start to wonder what it is we go travelling for. For most people it's got beyond just having some time off work and lying by a pool reading a good book, though of course that's a part of it. We search for something new about ourselves or to add something new to ourselves through experience. Through something we see or someone we meet. We want the untouched, unspoiled experience, though ideally still with a beautiful hotel on hand or at least a flushing toilet with loo roll provided. And what is that something more we're reaching out to find in ourselves? And what do we expect it to do to us if we find it?
This was the first weekend we escaped the neatly boxed efficiency of Singapore for more exciting climes. We went to Phuket for a long weekend and it rained almost without cease. Some other friends went to the nearby Krabbi for the weekend and spent the weekend in their hotel room. We got wet.
I had actually put out our waterproof jackets in my proposed packing selection but the DFP waved them away, "oh, we won't need those" he said. Famous last words.
We watched the rain thunder down over breakfast on our first day and then set out. The DFP started looking at places to hire a scooter. I had read the lonely planet's comments about scooter fatalities and gently suggested that it may, perhaps, rain again over the course of the weekend. But it turned out not to be a choice open to discussion. A scooter it was. It did rain again. And again. And again.
So on day one we headed off for Phuket Town on the scooter, me on the back. It's across the island from Surin beach where we were staying in a beautiful hotel paying less than half what you would pay for a travel inn in the UK but unforutnately with a similarly enthusiastic staff.
http://www.manathai.com/phuket/index.html
It has beautiful teak floors and a bar area with inviting sofas and huge ornamental jars with water trickling over them. It all felt very post colonial chic.
Phuket is a refreshing change to Singapore. It's low rise. You can see the poverty contrasting sharply with the luxury holiday accommodation for the tourists. Lush greenery (no prizes for guessing why), amazing beeches with white sands and while we were there at least, wild foamy waves, though on season endless blue. We did go swimming, red flag flying. It's exhausting. You have to keep diving into the waves and then by the time you've recovered another huge waves is on it's way towards you. Swimming isn't really an accurate description of what you have to do. Plunging and recovering is more accurate.
We visited Patong which is really, properly nasty. It makes Torremolinos look like a classy joint. It's full of drunken people, mainly Australian drunken people, but generally caters to drunken people of all nationalities. It's where you can meet the famous Lady Boys. They come out touting for punters for their shows in their finery all of them with figures you or I would kill for.
They're on a scale between sad and nasty. We saw money openly changing hands between them and men who'd just seen a show. It may be jumping to conclusions, but it did seem fairly clear what was about to happen. If it were just dressing in beautiful spangles and mining to pop hits and seemed a positive, feisty life choice I would cheer them. But it seemed more like a tawdry tourist attraction. Flesh rather than overpriced cocktails.
I tried to have a chat with one who seemed less aggressive than some and tried to ask a few personal questions but s/he clammed up immediately, or didn't understand, or didn't want to understand. S/he explained that she was a real lady boy and had had breast implants and a nose job "like you" she said to me touching my nose. I said, no I hadn't had a nose job and that if I had I would have gone for something something much smaller than this.
Anyhow, even though it poured down, if felt like a break. And the food was fantastic. Side of the road stalls selling fish cakes and barbecued meats on skewers. And on the whole very friendly people happy for us to shelter from the downpours under their porches and give us directions.
I always start to wonder what it is we go travelling for. For most people it's got beyond just having some time off work and lying by a pool reading a good book, though of course that's a part of it. We search for something new about ourselves or to add something new to ourselves through experience. Through something we see or someone we meet. We want the untouched, unspoiled experience, though ideally still with a beautiful hotel on hand or at least a flushing toilet with loo roll provided. And what is that something more we're reaching out to find in ourselves? And what do we expect it to do to us if we find it?
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