Thankfully we arrived in phuket late afternoon and the sun was shining (apparantly for the first time in four days). Got a tuk tuk (which we have actually missed since being on the islands) from phuket centre to Patong beach via a gem jewellery shop which the tuk tuk driver convinced us to go to as he would get paid commision and our fair would be cheaper (by about 25 pence! - you may laugh but 25 pence goes along way over here, haha). Checked into some nice accomodation after haggling with the price and then headed for the beach which was packed due to the prev