Days 11, 12, and 13

Our last day in Chiang Mai was pretty uneventful but this was largely due to Jamie being down in the dumps over the loss of his 'hero'. We were catching the plane that night down to Phuket, and although we were sad to leave Chiang Mai we were looking forward to some beaches! We arrived at midnight in Phuket after a 2 hour flight and met the taxi man (who's car we nicknamed 'the ricky taxi' as he obviously had spent alot of money to do it up) and he took us to our hotel, Artha Hotel and Mally's Bar in Patong. On arrival we were greeted by a room full of burly expat manc's watching the footie (very intimidating for me, but Jamie went all masculine trying to bond- Brownhills style ). Our room however was clean, secure and quite big.

The following day we decided to have a walk to the beach and around Patong. Having walked around in the blazing sun for the previous two weeks, and complaining about not getting brown, we were both alarmed when we went for a dip in the sea to find that we had perfect 'towers' tans. The main Patong beach, although nice, was very busy and touristy (reminded us a bit of Benidorm), and like the rest of the town was full of old, wrinkly men with potential thai brides at their side (cringe). We did however enjoy being able to swim in the sea. Patong is the most expensive place we have come across so far and according to the guys from the hotel is the most expensive in the whole of Thailand. As we were once again sick of rice/noodles we ended up having Italian for dinner, Pizza and Pasta mmm!
Our final day was our most enjoyable in Phuket, as we got a taxi to a Laem Sing beach (not in Patong). The path down to the beach was a killer, but it was worth it when we got there as the beach was much quieter and very picturesque. The sea was clear and warm which was good for snorkelling, and we had our first dose of proper sunbathing That evening we booked our ferry to Koh Lanta via Koh Phi Phi, and we were told to be ready for 7am!!!! So we had an earlyish night, but due to the increasing number of mosquito bites plus the constant Thai karaoke outside, I didn't sleep well.