"And the hits just keep on coming...." - Jan 31 (Phuket)
Well, Dan and I are in the 2nd to last leg of our journey here in Thailand (Japan is a mere 7 days away). As soon as we split from Arnie in Bangkok, I'm sure he'll be in econo mode for sure.
I'm looking forward to Bangkok (and looking at Phuket, I'm happy to be here - well, for the non-sleeze factor part anyway). I think Bangkok will be fun! We're planning to meet up with Sebastian and Kimiko from Chaing Mai to catch up on our travels, maybe some dinner, and possibly to do some final weekend shopping before we all split again.
Before we left on our trip, I really needed to get in some beach time, do a trek or two, but mainly just relax. Well, if there are 4 corners of Thailand, we hit every one except the most southern (near Malaysia) and hit almost every beach in the guide book Dan has.
As beaches go, almost everyone we went to was GREAT!!! But now, I'm finding that a month of lazing around is starting to make me go a little squirelly if not downright stir crazy. The guys would disagree with me for their situations, but I'm not feeling like I'm doing much and am looking forward to coming home soon and getting back to my life.
Then again, my life pretty much consists of work, the gym, more work, hang with my friends, and then...did I mention work?? Hmmmm....living to work vs. working to live??? As Robbins puts it, "What's the point of being the richest man in the graveyard if you were not able to enjoy life??" Robbins, you'se is a smart mutha-fucka!! Maybe I should reconsider planting my ass back on the beach ;)
Railay was fairly uneventful. We stayed at a place called the Viewpoint Resort which had an upfront view of Mangrove trees and a big muddy area that would fill in with the tide. It wasn't a bad place to stay, just that "Viewpoint" didn't really mean you had a viewpoint overlooking anything spectacular. Our apartment overlooked another building and a big ditch...MMMMmmmmm...nothing like the smell of a stinky ditch in the morning. I totally got my movie fix here. You name it, I watched it....I have no absolutely life. At least the guys got out and about. We each ended up doing our own things in Railay - not because we were pissed at each other or anything; just because we wanted to.
The trip from Railay to Phuket was mostly uneventful, though it did take most of the day. The driver of the minibus (a van) was a grumpy gus! And a freakin' maniac on the road!!! He would aim for scooters and would pull out into oncoming traffic, play 'chicken', to pass a slow driver. When we got to the first stop, Phuket airport, he started throwing bags off the top of the bus and yelled out "GET OUT!!! AIRPORT!!! GET OUT NOW!!!! MOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!".
Oh boy!!
We then took off and stopped near Phuket town (about a 10min ride) and he gave us a 20min break. I guess this must have been a mandatory break because it was like almost 2.5 hours into the trip and we were 15mins from our stop.
We started again, only to stop, when the driver got out, disappeared for a few mintues, and came back with his lunch from a different place. Huh? I didn't understand that. Why would you stop at one rest stop, tell people to get out, tell them to get back into the van, and go someplace else for your lunch. We're still 10mins from our stop!
That said, he ditched one guy in the middle of Phuket town and we got ditched in the outskirts of Kata beach - we had no clue where we were. What a jerk!
At least we got off the bus...this chick on the bus was starting to scare me. She kept hacking away like she was going to die or something...it was all I could do to sit on my side of the van.
Harvey: "Excuse me miss, could you cover your mouth when you cough?"
Bird Flu Lady: "No..I cough free to the world!!"
Harvey: "Oh ok. Would you mind not looking at and coughing on me then?"
Bird Flu Lady: "NO!! I cough in your eye brown man!!"
Oh God....
We're now on Kata beach, which is supposed to be a nice area (just a stones throw from Club Med Phuket). Patong (20 mins from Kata) is also supposed to be real 'seedy' as we ran into some guys Arnie knew from Ko Phi Phi; they told us it's nasty.
We can see a bit of that Sleeze factor here in Kata; not a lot, nut its here. Hookers on the streets, old, ugly Americans (I'm sure Canadians too), Europeans, etc.. with young, beautiful Thai women. The sex trade is alive and well in Phuket; it wasn't so apparent in the quieter beach areas we travelled to earlier but it's alive here.
We're going to Patong tonight to see whats what. A few days here and we leave on the 3rd to Bangkok and to finish the final leg of our trip in Thailand.
Harvey
I'm looking forward to Bangkok (and looking at Phuket, I'm happy to be here - well, for the non-sleeze factor part anyway). I think Bangkok will be fun! We're planning to meet up with Sebastian and Kimiko from Chaing Mai to catch up on our travels, maybe some dinner, and possibly to do some final weekend shopping before we all split again.
Before we left on our trip, I really needed to get in some beach time, do a trek or two, but mainly just relax. Well, if there are 4 corners of Thailand, we hit every one except the most southern (near Malaysia) and hit almost every beach in the guide book Dan has.
As beaches go, almost everyone we went to was GREAT!!! But now, I'm finding that a month of lazing around is starting to make me go a little squirelly if not downright stir crazy. The guys would disagree with me for their situations, but I'm not feeling like I'm doing much and am looking forward to coming home soon and getting back to my life.
Then again, my life pretty much consists of work, the gym, more work, hang with my friends, and then...did I mention work?? Hmmmm....living to work vs. working to live??? As Robbins puts it, "What's the point of being the richest man in the graveyard if you were not able to enjoy life??" Robbins, you'se is a smart mutha-fucka!! Maybe I should reconsider planting my ass back on the beach ;)
Railay was fairly uneventful. We stayed at a place called the Viewpoint Resort which had an upfront view of Mangrove trees and a big muddy area that would fill in with the tide. It wasn't a bad place to stay, just that "Viewpoint" didn't really mean you had a viewpoint overlooking anything spectacular. Our apartment overlooked another building and a big ditch...MMMMmmmmm...nothing like the smell of a stinky ditch in the morning. I totally got my movie fix here. You name it, I watched it....I have no absolutely life. At least the guys got out and about. We each ended up doing our own things in Railay - not because we were pissed at each other or anything; just because we wanted to.
The trip from Railay to Phuket was mostly uneventful, though it did take most of the day. The driver of the minibus (a van) was a grumpy gus! And a freakin' maniac on the road!!! He would aim for scooters and would pull out into oncoming traffic, play 'chicken', to pass a slow driver. When we got to the first stop, Phuket airport, he started throwing bags off the top of the bus and yelled out "GET OUT!!! AIRPORT!!! GET OUT NOW!!!! MOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!".
Oh boy!!
We then took off and stopped near Phuket town (about a 10min ride) and he gave us a 20min break. I guess this must have been a mandatory break because it was like almost 2.5 hours into the trip and we were 15mins from our stop.
We started again, only to stop, when the driver got out, disappeared for a few mintues, and came back with his lunch from a different place. Huh? I didn't understand that. Why would you stop at one rest stop, tell people to get out, tell them to get back into the van, and go someplace else for your lunch. We're still 10mins from our stop!
That said, he ditched one guy in the middle of Phuket town and we got ditched in the outskirts of Kata beach - we had no clue where we were. What a jerk!
At least we got off the bus...this chick on the bus was starting to scare me. She kept hacking away like she was going to die or something...it was all I could do to sit on my side of the van.
Harvey: "Excuse me miss, could you cover your mouth when you cough?"
Bird Flu Lady: "No..I cough free to the world!!"
Harvey: "Oh ok. Would you mind not looking at and coughing on me then?"
Bird Flu Lady: "NO!! I cough in your eye brown man!!"
Oh God....
We're now on Kata beach, which is supposed to be a nice area (just a stones throw from Club Med Phuket). Patong (20 mins from Kata) is also supposed to be real 'seedy' as we ran into some guys Arnie knew from Ko Phi Phi; they told us it's nasty.
We can see a bit of that Sleeze factor here in Kata; not a lot, nut its here. Hookers on the streets, old, ugly Americans (I'm sure Canadians too), Europeans, etc.. with young, beautiful Thai women. The sex trade is alive and well in Phuket; it wasn't so apparent in the quieter beach areas we travelled to earlier but it's alive here.
We're going to Patong tonight to see whats what. A few days here and we leave on the 3rd to Bangkok and to finish the final leg of our trip in Thailand.
Harvey
posted by Harvey at
3:34 AM
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