Phuket Jan 2011

The last time I went to Phuket was 11 years ago, in year 2000.  My memory of Phuket remained at the busy and touristy Patong beach, sleazy, full of pubs, prostitutes, street hawkers, drunk tourist, white men with Thai girl (or girls).  Beaches were alright, not exactly white sandy beach, but still cleaner than our East Coast Park and Changi Beach.
I am back 11 years later.  This time, I decided to stay away from Patong, and chose to stay in Karon Beach instead.  I stayed in Pacific Club Resort, a pretty good hotel.  Room was clean and spacious with a nice balcony.  Breakfast was good, with eggs station and toast and some hot food.  Not the biggest spread that I have seen, in fact, you could see that it was catered more to the European/Amercians/Assies  I looked at the guests staying in the Resort, 90% westerners.  Probably explained why.  It was about 10 minutes away from the beach, so quite nice and quiet.  If you want something next to the beach, this place is not for you.

The dining area of the hotel - Pacific Club Resort

 From the top of the hotel (5th Floor).  There was also a pool at the roof top.  Not your olympic size pool, but was decent enough for a swim.  There was a water fall feature which doubled up as a massage place.  Let the water fell on you and relieved the soreness of your body.

Karon Beach.  Lots of beach chairs and umbrella.  You have to pay 100Bhat to rent one, but there was no time limit.  Karon was less touristy than Patong, but still rather busy.  One strange observation was that there were hardly any asian on the beach.  I was one of the few asians, other than those local hawkers trying to sell you things.  Second observation, the local hawkers were amazing in the collection of merchandise that they were selling to sell to the beach goers.  There were ice cream, corns, donuts, elephant lookalike lamp, shawl, towels, tshirts, broom for brushing away the sand, hemlock, hats, shades, keychains, candles....

Ice cream cost 3 times more compared to the shop.  But i guess you had to give them credit for carrying the ice cream in the big ice box to paddle.

Third observation.  Most of the Ang Mo look alike.  Men- Big belly.  Women - Big Boops, equally big tummy.  I had no seen any sexy bods.  So my vote for my favourite beach still goes to the beach in Barcelona.  Sexy spaniards, both men and women.  Anyway, no eye candy in Karon Beach, so I concentrate on my tan.

I wonder why there was a Sweden flag

We stopped at a restaurant near the beach for lunch before heading back to the hotel.  The Tom Yum Soup was supberbly hot and spicy!   The pad thai was equally good! We tried to get a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel, which was about a 10 minutes walk.  The Tuk Tuk in Phuket was a rip off.  Regardless of the distance, they charged 200 Bhat!  We refused to pay and slowly made our way back to the hotel

Steamed fish for dinner.  Average.  Thailand is not the best place for steamed fish.  It was ok but nothing great.

Stir Fried asparagus with prawns.  Mediocre.  Pls avoid this restaurant call Karon Sea food if you happened to be in Karon Beach area.  Service was slow, food was average, and to make it worse, i almosst lost my iphone there.  I will avoid it like a plague.

Day 3:  Patong Beach.

You have to see Patong Beach if you are in Phuket.  Patong is the most touristy beach and most developed one in Phuket.  Do not expect clean white sand.  It is a good place to see how tourism can change the facade of a place.  If you stand on the street of Patong Beach, you probably would take a while to register that you are in Thailand.  Whole street was invaded with western brand, such as McDonald, SubWay, Molly Malone Pub, Burger King etc.  Signs were in English.  Hard to see any locals other than the hawkers.  Shops were selling knocks off, from Rolex to Billabong to Oakley shades.

 Finally i saw one hot bod.

 I had to include the Thailand flag to remind myself it is in Thailand.

 Uncle McDonald localised.

 There were Tsunami warning signs along the street.  I wonder if I would be fast enough to run to the evucation point if the Tsunami really striked.