Woke up, we’re in Thailand. Up to breakfast then coffee, settling into a routine. Watched some TV and generally chilled out.
Another cruise ship had pulled up, the Spectrum of the Seas, what they call an quantum ultra cruise ship, it was about twice the size of ours.
There were dozens of jet skis and small boats zipping around the ships.
Decided to go ashore, for the first time we had to get a boat to the shore because there was no pier. It only took about 5 minutes and there weren’t many people on it, but a lot got off coming back to the boat having been ashore most of the day.
We walked down to the beach and immediately smelt sewerage – I wouldn’t want to swim here myself but the beach was packed.
Walked along the front, loads of people everywhere.
I came to Phuket in 2006, and as we walked around I realized this is where I was – Patong beach. It’s changed a lot, but I recognized the layout.
We walked past the shops, most were restaurants, massage places, tours and souvenirs. There were also quite a few cannabis shops – weird considering it was only relatively recently that any kind of drug use in this area would result in a long prison sentence or worse. We did not partake.
We walked past a load of bars where there were some very attractive ladies sitting on their own. I told Song she could go shopping for a couple of hours and I’d stop and have a drink.
There were also some not so attractive ladies with rather large hands.
Carried on walking past all the massage places looking for somewhere to eat, it was very busy with both cruise ships unloading a couple of thousand people.
We found an air conditioned place, Song had crabs and calamari, I had chicken pad Thai and a tiger beer. My food was ok, not much different from what I’d get in Melbourne really.
Walked back to the pier to get the boat back, stopping off to have a smoothie and a fridge magnet.
Went to the room and watched TV (Fargo), then bed.
We think we’ll stay on the boat tomorrow – it’s too hot to do the excursions and besides, I did them when I was here; James Bond Island (Man With The Golden Gun – that was made in the 70s, I wonder how long they’re going to milk that for) and a floating village.
