Saturday 16th - Tuesday 19th Feb - Phuket
Got a flight from Bangkok to Phuket (1 hr 15 mins) and arrived in Playa la Patong (as we like to call it!)as it is remarkably like Majorca. We thought thailand would be desserted beaches and elephants roaming around but instead there are Irish pubs and blue and yellow umbrellas on the beach! Not knocking this as we are having a fantastic time and have now shares in Molly Malone's Irish Pub! It is a little bit more touristy than we had both expected but saying that everything is kinda cheap (not 20p style though) and indeed very cheerful. The last few days we have been relaxing on the beach, topping up the old tans (factor 30 all the way though - don't worry Sheila x), and enjoying some traditional Thai, opps sorry IRISH cuisine at Mollys. The journey from the Airport to Patong was pretty hair-raising! We think the driver thought he was Nigel Mansell and seeing a family of 4 on a small moped at 80mph is a shock to see! they are mad over here! We have even seen a truck piled with over 20 people in the back - Guiness World Records anyone? but unfortunately we are yet to see any Ox's and Chickens hanging out the back of trucks. We visited the infamous 'James Bond Island' a half day tour with Sims tours. They were good and we would recommend anyone use them for their tours here. We first went to a cave with a temple in which was surrounded by monkies. One of the 'sods' tried to steal Sarah's camera. bless em. We went to see where The Man with Golden Gun was filmed and got into the spirit of things by humming the bond theme tune every 20 seconds (much to the annoyance of the Japanese tourists!), and had our pics done in true bond fashion. We were disappointed not to see any midgets (Jenny - we know you will freak out at this thought but you have to watch the film!) hanging around or men with hats that can cut statues in half!! (yeah, we know it's a different film but keep up here!). Today we had our own chauffeur( a really lovely Thai guy who looks after us and ferries us around for cheap baht!) and went to visit Karon and Kata beaches. They were lovely and alot quieter than Patong. At the moment we are enjoying happy hour at our hostel, opps sorry hotel! A bottle is costing us 70p and WE LOVE CHANG BEER!!!