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Day 76 11th feb
Well... Joining them certainly helps the sleeping situation... Having a couple of drinks also helps... All in all, it was probably the best nights sleep we've had on the island that never sleeps...
We leave for Phuket today and have booked ourselves onto the 14.00 boat from the pier... We have also been permitted a later check out time than normal so we have a very relaxed morning, either in the hotel room, or downstairs in the resultant area...
As time gets closer to our departure time we remember that we've not seen the tsunami memorial building.... It's located along the same path that the hotel is on so with 20 mins to spare we wonder off for a quick look...
Upon finding it we're not really sure what to make of it... 9 years after the tsunami it's still not finished, although I don't know when building work started on it... It's also graffitied which strikes us as strange.....
The building itself has a large external stairway on the side that leads up to an entrance into the building on an equivalent hight to the third floor, there is a large ground floor entrance in the centre of the front aspect that leads into a large double hight open plan room that takes up the whole of the ground floor space but it has no doors yet...
The buildings structure looks largely complete and I'm sure it's look great when finished, but it's a long way off at present....
We get back to the hotel and shelter from the sun for 5 mins before helping to load our bags into the hotel transfer trolley and off we go... It's the same little Thai guy pushing the trolley again and he's in a hurry... The trolley is huge and the paths are narrow but somehow he manages to leave us behind again... He just shots "beep beep" to the people in front of him, and fearing for there angles they quickly get out of the way but not for us... We do catch him up again at the pier and board the boat... The bags all get stacked into huge piles on deck and we choose to site inside again... Far from being cooler it's actually really cold inside the boat... The air conditioning certainly works well... It's a three level boat and it takes an hour for everyone to get onboard, who are not helped by the narrow pier entry....
The boat ride is around 2 hrs long... It's nice to just kick back and watch the shoreline disappear into the distance... On our way out of Ko Phi Phi around 150 meters off shore the top of a very recently sunk boat juts around a meter above sea level.... Several ribbons, and flags have been tied to it in an attempt to draw people attention..... I'd imagine most people would of just swam assure....
We arrive into Phuket harbour on the east and board a minivan for the beach town of
Pa Tong with is on the west coast....
We pull up in the minivan about 200meters short of our hotel to allow others leave so decide to get out and walk the remaining part of out trip... We are not familiar with the area but the phones satnav says its a few mins walk and it's never let us down before....
The hotel " My Thai Guesthouse" is a tall narrow building that has a small front courtyard area... Outside of this courtyard are street restaurants... The street restaurants operate on a roadway that runs next to the main road with a pavement that separates the two, it's about 10 meters wide and 150 meters long and is all under cover... There are many street restaurants competing for the same work with menus and ice filled fish displaces everywhere... It's a real hive of activity... Each street restaurant has its own fully operational out door kitchen which are stocked with everything the chief needs for a menu with 50 dishes....
It's the kitchen areas that draw your attention the most... There completely open and are fascinating to watch.... Our room is on the first floor at the front if the building so we spend 20 mins just watching is all happen... Big flame balls shoot up into the air when certain dishes are cooked.. Lobsters and other sea food get chucked into hot pans..... Ice is getting smashed up into manageable sized pieces, there's water getting splashed everywhere.. And we have a ring side seat.. We soon head down and take a seat on one of the many white plastic chairs and order some food... As is always the way in Asia, all your plates of food turn up whenever there cooked so I've almost finished mine by the time Shiree's has arrived, but we are totally used to it now....
It's getting late by the time we are both finished and the sun is beginning to set, so we head off towards the beach area....
It's a short walk through a couple of busy streets that are lined with shops and massage parlours.... Maybe a 5 minute walk.
Pa Tong beach is a gently curving 3 kilometre long white sand beach, and judging by the amount of beach umbrellas and deck chairs that are getting staked away gets very busy during the day... We walk around in the beach for a while, getting our feet wet in the wash and taking photos of the sunset over the water... We have arrived to late to actually see the sun, but there's still colour in the sky and a large cruise ship is anchord in the distance and is lite up like a Christmas tree against the darkening nights sky....
As we walk back to the hotel we're passed by the little Honda 125cc motorbike towing three jet skis down the road with Thai guys in them, then a modern pickup passes with huge wheels towing 8 behind it....
We end up passing our hotel and continue to walk further along the road.... We are just really looking for somewhere to go for breakfast... We can see a restaurant just up the road and once there, whilst viewing the breakfast menu we can see its a restaurant with a difference.... The owner likes motorbikes as there's loads around this place.....
With a destination for breakfast found we head back at the hotel and simply watch the street restaurant performance below before heading off to bed...
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