The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Thailand

After a relaxing few days around Koh Lanta and Koh Rok we arrived back at the Phuket wharf and got a taxi back to Patong. Unfortunately our taxi driver from Coral Tours had no idea where our hotel was even though they said they did, so we ended up getting out of the taxi quite a few blocks from where we wanted to be. The walk was horrible as it was midday felt like about 40 degrees.

This time in Patong we decided to stay closer to the beach, and booked a room at the Silver Resortel. The room was not as big as the Royal Crown nor the facilities as good, but the room was nice, bathroom nearly new and the hotel was only a few hundred metres from the beach.

After a quiet afternoon we headed to Bangla Road (if anyone knows Patong they will know Bangla Road) to meet up with Ben and Lee. We started at the Aussie Bar with a few drinks and ended with a typical Bangla Road show in a club. Not having seen Bangla road before it was amazing how many people were there even during low season. The road was packed and lined with bars, clubs, pubs and strip joints. Unfortunately the drink prices weren't as cheap as we had experienced elsewhere, and the one club we went to before Ben and Lee bailed on us, Seduction, was fairly empty.

We had a quiet day after our night out, which included heading to the beach (which was unfortunately quite dirty I am guessing due to the rain they had been receiving). This was much needed rest after the travelling and going out the previous day and night. We headed to the Phuket Post Office to try and send some things home, but it was going to cost us more than the stuff was worth. So it ended up just being a leisurely walk carrying things.

Our third day in Patong involved looking at some of the local markets, which were unfortunately quite expensive... just like everything else in Phuket... and then finding that the 7-Eleven outside our hotel sold $1 beers, which we bought and headed back to the hotel with.

On our last day back in Patong we headed into the shopping centre and saw the movie Battleship... a very corny, yet enjoyable action flick - and the seats were excellent, for about $15 for both of us we got a reclining double couch. Our main aim here was to kill some time without getting to hot and exhausted before heading to the Phuket airport to catch a late night flight to Bangkok.

The trip to the Phuket airport was quite long as we took the cheap mini bus rather than a taxi, and it seems like we drove around the whole island before arriving at the airport. The latest bus was 6:00pm and got to the airport at 7:00pm, which left us with about 3 hours before our flight was due to leave. The seats in the departure lounge we plentiful and much more comfortable than other airports we had been to, so it was quite a decent spot to spend some time, and it would be easy to sleep if necessary.

The plane ride to Bangkok got in about 11:30pm. The international airport is amazing. It is like a small city, with its own roads, buses and even traffic lights. We met up with out pickup from our hotel and headed off to finally get to bed about 1:00am