We were up nice and early at half 7 this morning. We both did not want to get up at all! I was tempted to go for the later boat but luckily Nath made us move! We got everything sorted and checked out of our room at 8. Thank god to be out of that awful place! Let's hope the next one is nice!!
We walked down to the pier and were on the boat by half 8- it wasn't setting off until 9 though. We both tried to get comfy and get some sleep but it really didn't happen at all. We tried for the whole trip until we arrived at Phuket pier at 11am, but didn't get a wink of sleep!!
We got off the boat and had the mini bus waiting to bring us to our accommodation in Phuket beach, dropping other people off in different areas on the way. Phuket Town seemed to look like what we thought. It was a big city- it kind of looked like Krabi Town, just on a bigger scale. We even passed a McDonalds on the way to the hotel! The first one we had seen. The roads were like city roads and had traffic light and were paved properly, not like some of the islands. The islands have all been pretty similar. They have all been very green and the majority made up of Greenland, with small built up areas. Koh phangan and Koh Tao were similar in this way, although Koh phangan was more built up. Koh Phi Phi only really had one main built up area on the island and the rest was built up of trees. Although the built up area was more lively than where we had stayed on the other islands, and definitely more tourists and tacky, abit like Haad Rin in Koh Phangan. Overall so far I really enjoyed Krabi Town to get away from the beach areas for a while and it really had a Thai feel and we got a good Thai experience there. Koh Phangan I think has been my favourite island. They have all had brill stuff about them though it would be hard to say! Koh Phi Phi had a brilliant boat trip and the surrounding islands are the most beautiful, even if the island itself wasn't that great.
We got to our accommodation about 12.30pm, which was down a side street off the main road, right in the corner at the end. They brought us up to our room and it was lovely. It had a nice double bed, some nice wall decorations, an ensuite where you could flush paper down the toilet, a safe and it was very clean! Just what we needed!! The second best place we have stayed, Koh Phangan being the best. So glad it was nice! And looking at the map it doesn't look too far from everything.
We had a walk out to see what was around. It took about 30mins to get to the main part of Patong Beach where all the shops, bars, clubs were, and where the beach was. The beach was massive and was full from top to bottom. They had different water sports that you could do and there were different street venders lining the street. We noticed straight away the difference in the prices from the places we have been already. Phuket is suppose to be the most expensive place and it definitely seemed that way. The prices seemed to have doubled, but then again we were used to paying like 50 bhat for a meal!
We had a walk down the beach road and around up towards all the shops and bars. The main party road was called Bangla Road, but before we even reached that road everywhere else looked pretty mad and busy! People outside shops were trying to drag you in and it was just so busy everywhere, worse than Phi Phi. It was just like a massive holiday resort- didn't feel like travelling, just a holiday. We both felt pretty disappointed by it but that's because we don't like all the hustle and bustle.
We just had a mooch for the rest of the day, had a look in the big shopping centre and bought some snacks and walked back to our room about 5. We had been asking about travel to Bangkok or Pattaya during the day and the easiest way seemed to be by bus. The prices were pretty similar ranging from 1250 to 1650 bhat. It would be an overnight coach and would take up to 14 hours depending on where we wanted to go. We had decide if we wanted to do Pattaya or Bangkok first and then book some accommodation. We spent about an hour or 2 sorting our banks and looking at each place and accommodation but we got a bit too stressed so we had to leave it!
We walked down a main road from our room to the beach to where there were some restaurants and bars. We came across a night market so decided to stop there for some food. It was pretty much the same as the other food markets we have been to but this one did have a stall selling cooked bugs and it had crocodile meat. We tried the crocodile meat which was lovely but didn't have the courage for the bugs yet. We got some sushi and I got rice and chicken, which was a mountain of food, and Nath got a chicken kebab. We sat at the market for a while before heading back to our room later on.
We then eventually made our decisions and decided that we wouldn't go to Pattaya but would go to Kanchanburi instead, which was a town near Bangkok which had a lot of history to do with WWII. We decided we would book the coach to Bangkok, we booked 3 nights accommodation there and then go onto Kanchanburi for 3 nights, which we also booked too! We would then need to go from Kanchanburi back to Bangkok and Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia in the day, which would bring up to the 21st- the day before my birthday! Bangkok cost us 2400 bhat for 3 nights at Tim House, which is £48- £8 each a night! Kanchanburi was even cheaper and cost us 1140, £22.80- £3.80 a night! What a bargain! We would just have to see what it was actually like!!
We planned on getting an early night as we were pretty exhausted from the travelling now, but by time we sorted everything it was after midnight!