Our cab was booked. The sweet girl at the front desk had assured us we were set and we would have plenty of time. Our ferry across the Andaman Sea was wet to leave at 8am. At 730, we were still sitting with our luggage in the parking lot with another couple who were eyeing their watches with the same amount of skepticism as we were. It only takes ten minutes to get to Saladan, we rationalized to ourselves. At 740 a van rolled lazily into the parking lot and we clambered into the bed of the truck. About thirty seconds into the drive in the correct direction of the ferry port, our driver decided he needed to go the other way. WAY the other way. We were running out of time and we were getting further away from where we needed to be. We were further south on the island than I had ever been and pulling into a deserted parking lot. I glanced at my watch again because it was doing me a lot of good. Our driver decided it was a good time for a smoke break. About two minutes in, and two minutes less we had to get to the ferry, Moozh went up to him and, with the poise and articulation that Moozh does these things, asked if he knew that the "eight o'clock" on our tickets had to do with ten minutes from now. The driver brushed him off, saying he knew and that they were waiting for another passenger who also needed to catch the ferry. Moozh shrugged and retuned to the truck. About thirty seconds later, so did our driver and we left the parking lot without another passenger. Our tickets had told us that we needed to be there twenty minutes before departure, as all tickets do. We rolled into the ferry port, after driving like the Indy 500, at 759. Not only was the ferry not ready to go, there were easily four people checking in ahead of us.
Island time.
While we had opted to stay on Koh Lanta instead of Koh Phi Phi we were still eager to get pictures of the famous island from Danny Boyle's The Beach. Our ferry was scheduled to transfer at Phi Phi before carrying on to Phuket. A perfect opportunity in our kinds to grab some pictures before boarding our connecting ferry. But in Thailand ferry transfers don't happen on land. They happen in the middle of the water, with people leaping over the gap between ferries, and luggage being launched by hand from port to starboard. It provided a better vista for photos in any case and in reality it probably sped up the transferring process. Our shuttle transfer quickly got us to our hotel and within moments we were in the middle of our first tropical spider encounter. I'm not usually one to get weirded out by spiders but of course, being from Canada where the diversity of species has to do with their resiliency against the cold, the largest spider I've ever seen fit within the rim of a drinking glass. It wasn't the size of a bicycle wheel! This one may have not been either but I have absolutely way of deciphering reality from the irrational panic that clouded my vision. I called the front desk and made up some scenario about being locked out of the safe and then shanghaied the kind gentleman who was unlucky enough to be on call.
THERE IS A SPIDER IN MY BAAAAAAATHROOM!
I left out that there was no f'ing way I was touching it but I was somewhat comforted by the fact that even our local Thai rescuer didn't want to either. He corralled it using a patio chair and then, using the bottle opener, flipped it on its back to disorient it long enough to fling it by the creepy tip of one of its creepy legs. With the spider safely out and all of us having forgotten about the safe, he left and Moozh and I resolved not to go outside ever again.
The first thing I noticed about Phuket is that of the signs that are in two languages, easily half of them are in Russian. There are Russian travel companies and tour groups, restaurants with Russian-speaking waiters and serving Russian food. Some of those Thais speak better Russian than I do. Not that that's really saying much. I heard more Russian than I did English from passersby. There must some big tourism incentives in Russia for Phuket because no where else in Thailand did we see such a presence. Koh Lanta is considered a "Swedish Island" because there is a government incentive for residents to vacation there. But Russians?
Seafood is the big draw in Phuket everything from crab to squid to shark and eel. Most restaurants seem to come with the questionable "free salad bar" and are packed from front to back with white people. Right across the street is inevitably a street cart, a smoking hot skillet and a cluster of locals waiting outside. Som Tam is most satisfying when its served up in a plastic bag with a handful of napkins on the side to clean yourself up after you inhale it. The restaurant voted number one in Phuket on TripAdvisor serves Thai food like you would get back home, diluted for western tastes and nothing like what you're hoping for when you've had the real thing. The irony of it is that right across the street, sandwiched between a massage parlor and a Euro dance bar is a small noodle house called the Three Siblings Karon, which produces the best noodle bowls we've ever had and Thai food like it should be. Travelling is always knowing where to look and sometimes looking where you wouldn't normally.
Though the pad thai guy was beginning to know us by name and everyone at our hotel knew us by the lounge chairs we sat in every morning, we figured we should still try and see what there was to see on Phuket. The beaches are the main attraction on the island and thusly most if the "must-see" talk has to do with beach going. Beaches good at sunrise, beaches good at sunset, etc. Phuket popularized the southern Thailand experience so therefore there is not an untouched grain of sand on the entire island. Our nearest beach, Karon, has sand so fine it squeaks when you walk on it. You could walk out for almost two hundred meters and still be able to sink your feet into the sand, water clear all the way to the bottom, even past the buoys. But the heavy hitter of Phuket beaches is Patong. The first beach to get "settled" if you will, Patong Beach is wall to wall beach umbrellas and groomed beach bodies. Patong is the Starbucks-McDonalds-Hard Rock Cafe destination of Thailand. There are gems tucked away beneath all the Western distraction, I'm sure of it but the facade of Aussie bars and leprechaun gimmicks that threatened to convince us that we were not in the Thailand of our dreams and hearts but a cheap Las Vegas knock-off. The quality of the water and sand at Patong is still flawless despite the intensive tourist traffic it sees all year.
Tucked atop a high lookout point, encased in a grid of scaffolding, sits the Big Buddha. From our hotel, the crown of the Buddha's head could be seen in spotlight. When that is one's first glance it stirs a curiosity that is only encouraged by the spiraling road that coils up the mountain, through paint balling courses and past elephant trekking outfits, to the very top where a 45 m high Buddha made of Burmese marble sits, perusing Chalong Bay. A smaller Buddha, a mere 12 m, is seated next to it, made of solid brass at a cost of 8 million baht. It has been independently funded, both locally and abroad, which explains its slow finish. For about ten years the project has been going on, with monstrous red tape to approve the building site and scale of the project and then the uncompromising obstacle of financing. The Buddhas ears still sit in a case, waiting to be applied.
Any promises we felt had been made to us regarding the pictures we would get were somewhat forgotten a out as we rose up through mist to the lookout. Above us was a dense shroud of cloud that was quickly descending. The wind was already whistling. Just as we were thinking about our scooter, about getting back down the mountain, we were wrapped in a sheet of rain. The fog was dense and opaque. Standing at one edge of the lookout, the opposite side became slowly but decidedly obscured. We waited until the rain stopped, busying ourselves at the shrine and standing over the miniature representation of the plans for the Big Buddha site. The fog, however, wasn't going anywhere. We hopped on the bike and warily eyed the slope that hadn't seemed that steep coming up. Unsure of how our tire treads would serve us, we descended slowly. We probably could have walked faster.
Safely at sea level, we buzzed into Wat Chalong. Phuket's most important wat, the central pagoda is believed to have a splinter of the Lord Buddha's bone. Phuket has 29 wats, of which Wat Chalong is the most visited. A large complex of temples, and home to easily two dozen stray dogs, Wat Chalong is also known for two monks who were involved in settling a Chinese miners rebellion in the late 1800's. Gilt eaves and polished red awnings, the complex is glittering, even under the matte haze of rain. Each building is specifically dedicated, a reality that most tourists can't grasp. You end up wandering through, seeing a buddha that you thought was the same as the first buddha. But no, it's a different buddha, and you pay homage to this one in a different way. It is best to remain quiet, make no sudden movements and nod reverently at all times.
On our way into Karon from the ferry port our first day I had caught a glimpse of a yellow banner reading "Phuket Vegetarian Festival". I got very excited really because more great food but the more I read up on the festival, I realized that it's actually quite an important. Based around a myth regarding the healing of a traveling group when they adhered to a strict vegetarian diet and paid homage to specific gods, the vegetarian festival strives for health for the body, good hygiene and peace for the mind. Adherents dress in white and, optionally, undergo disturbingly fervent acts of body mutilation such as bathing in hot oil, walking on coals or climbing the rungs of a bladed ladder. (That last one gets points for creativity.) There is absolutely nothing to be missed in the food at the festival. During the festival there is no consumption of meat, alcohol and no sex but with all of the beautiful fried noodles, spring rolls and sweets, there is plenty to keep you busy for however long you choose to participate. Also women who are pregnant or menstruating aren't allowed to participate but who better to take in all the food on offer than hormonal women? This festival needs to spread. Aside from our go-to foods, we were introduced to onde-onde, a soft cookie-like sweet of glutinous rice flour filled with palm sugar and rolled in coconut, and Khanom Kai Nok Kra Ta, round balls made from sweet potatoes and fried until crispy. After we were suitably full, or more realistically uncomfortably full, we buzzed around Old Phuket, surrounded by leagues of celebratory Thais, lighting fireworks and incense, a sea of pristine white.
Loi Krathong is a festival in Chiang Mai where candles are lit inside wax paper lanterns and then set aloft into the night sky. Though the lighting of the lanterns began mainly with the festival, the lighting of the lanterns has spread throughout Thailand and throughout the year. I had always wanted to light one, to gently nudge it up into the sky, to make a wish. A handful of time I had seen someone peddling them along the beach as the sun was setting but they wandered constantly, enough that I had never seen them in the same spot. Feet still buried in powder fine sand from watching the sunset, I saw one ascend into the darkening sky. Moozh and I strolled the beach as the squid fisherman pushed out in to the inky black water, lamp lures ready. Just as I was about to lose hope and think that I wouldn't get to light a lantern in Thailand, we came upon a young girl with a handful of them, $7 a lantern. She took us out into the beach and dug a small divet into the sand. I lit the fuse and then we held it over the sand until the hot air began to warm the sides of the lantern. She grinned at me and stepped away. With a nod from her, I let go and the lantern took off into the night sky. No nudge needed. In fewer hours than it would take to fall asleep, we would be on our way to the aiport, to Cambodia. Even by the end, I was still checking every crevasse in our room for a spider.
Things I learned in Phuket:
When picking a restaurant, follow the locals.
Som Tam should be eaten out of a bag.
Spiders should not have hairier legs than your husband.
Bohemian Recommends:
Elephant Café at Karon Beach - Excellent seafood BBQ.
Pizza 2000 - The best pizza on the Island.
Karon Hillside Hotel - Simple, cheap accommodation.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival - In late October, delicious food.
Phuket Night Market - Killer food.
Island time.
While we had opted to stay on Koh Lanta instead of Koh Phi Phi we were still eager to get pictures of the famous island from Danny Boyle's The Beach. Our ferry was scheduled to transfer at Phi Phi before carrying on to Phuket. A perfect opportunity in our kinds to grab some pictures before boarding our connecting ferry. But in Thailand ferry transfers don't happen on land. They happen in the middle of the water, with people leaping over the gap between ferries, and luggage being launched by hand from port to starboard. It provided a better vista for photos in any case and in reality it probably sped up the transferring process. Our shuttle transfer quickly got us to our hotel and within moments we were in the middle of our first tropical spider encounter. I'm not usually one to get weirded out by spiders but of course, being from Canada where the diversity of species has to do with their resiliency against the cold, the largest spider I've ever seen fit within the rim of a drinking glass. It wasn't the size of a bicycle wheel! This one may have not been either but I have absolutely way of deciphering reality from the irrational panic that clouded my vision. I called the front desk and made up some scenario about being locked out of the safe and then shanghaied the kind gentleman who was unlucky enough to be on call.
THERE IS A SPIDER IN MY BAAAAAAATHROOM!
I left out that there was no f'ing way I was touching it but I was somewhat comforted by the fact that even our local Thai rescuer didn't want to either. He corralled it using a patio chair and then, using the bottle opener, flipped it on its back to disorient it long enough to fling it by the creepy tip of one of its creepy legs. With the spider safely out and all of us having forgotten about the safe, he left and Moozh and I resolved not to go outside ever again.
The first thing I noticed about Phuket is that of the signs that are in two languages, easily half of them are in Russian. There are Russian travel companies and tour groups, restaurants with Russian-speaking waiters and serving Russian food. Some of those Thais speak better Russian than I do. Not that that's really saying much. I heard more Russian than I did English from passersby. There must some big tourism incentives in Russia for Phuket because no where else in Thailand did we see such a presence. Koh Lanta is considered a "Swedish Island" because there is a government incentive for residents to vacation there. But Russians?
Seafood is the big draw in Phuket everything from crab to squid to shark and eel. Most restaurants seem to come with the questionable "free salad bar" and are packed from front to back with white people. Right across the street is inevitably a street cart, a smoking hot skillet and a cluster of locals waiting outside. Som Tam is most satisfying when its served up in a plastic bag with a handful of napkins on the side to clean yourself up after you inhale it. The restaurant voted number one in Phuket on TripAdvisor serves Thai food like you would get back home, diluted for western tastes and nothing like what you're hoping for when you've had the real thing. The irony of it is that right across the street, sandwiched between a massage parlor and a Euro dance bar is a small noodle house called the Three Siblings Karon, which produces the best noodle bowls we've ever had and Thai food like it should be. Travelling is always knowing where to look and sometimes looking where you wouldn't normally.
Though the pad thai guy was beginning to know us by name and everyone at our hotel knew us by the lounge chairs we sat in every morning, we figured we should still try and see what there was to see on Phuket. The beaches are the main attraction on the island and thusly most if the "must-see" talk has to do with beach going. Beaches good at sunrise, beaches good at sunset, etc. Phuket popularized the southern Thailand experience so therefore there is not an untouched grain of sand on the entire island. Our nearest beach, Karon, has sand so fine it squeaks when you walk on it. You could walk out for almost two hundred meters and still be able to sink your feet into the sand, water clear all the way to the bottom, even past the buoys. But the heavy hitter of Phuket beaches is Patong. The first beach to get "settled" if you will, Patong Beach is wall to wall beach umbrellas and groomed beach bodies. Patong is the Starbucks-McDonalds-Hard Rock Cafe destination of Thailand. There are gems tucked away beneath all the Western distraction, I'm sure of it but the facade of Aussie bars and leprechaun gimmicks that threatened to convince us that we were not in the Thailand of our dreams and hearts but a cheap Las Vegas knock-off. The quality of the water and sand at Patong is still flawless despite the intensive tourist traffic it sees all year.
Tucked atop a high lookout point, encased in a grid of scaffolding, sits the Big Buddha. From our hotel, the crown of the Buddha's head could be seen in spotlight. When that is one's first glance it stirs a curiosity that is only encouraged by the spiraling road that coils up the mountain, through paint balling courses and past elephant trekking outfits, to the very top where a 45 m high Buddha made of Burmese marble sits, perusing Chalong Bay. A smaller Buddha, a mere 12 m, is seated next to it, made of solid brass at a cost of 8 million baht. It has been independently funded, both locally and abroad, which explains its slow finish. For about ten years the project has been going on, with monstrous red tape to approve the building site and scale of the project and then the uncompromising obstacle of financing. The Buddhas ears still sit in a case, waiting to be applied.
Any promises we felt had been made to us regarding the pictures we would get were somewhat forgotten a out as we rose up through mist to the lookout. Above us was a dense shroud of cloud that was quickly descending. The wind was already whistling. Just as we were thinking about our scooter, about getting back down the mountain, we were wrapped in a sheet of rain. The fog was dense and opaque. Standing at one edge of the lookout, the opposite side became slowly but decidedly obscured. We waited until the rain stopped, busying ourselves at the shrine and standing over the miniature representation of the plans for the Big Buddha site. The fog, however, wasn't going anywhere. We hopped on the bike and warily eyed the slope that hadn't seemed that steep coming up. Unsure of how our tire treads would serve us, we descended slowly. We probably could have walked faster.
Safely at sea level, we buzzed into Wat Chalong. Phuket's most important wat, the central pagoda is believed to have a splinter of the Lord Buddha's bone. Phuket has 29 wats, of which Wat Chalong is the most visited. A large complex of temples, and home to easily two dozen stray dogs, Wat Chalong is also known for two monks who were involved in settling a Chinese miners rebellion in the late 1800's. Gilt eaves and polished red awnings, the complex is glittering, even under the matte haze of rain. Each building is specifically dedicated, a reality that most tourists can't grasp. You end up wandering through, seeing a buddha that you thought was the same as the first buddha. But no, it's a different buddha, and you pay homage to this one in a different way. It is best to remain quiet, make no sudden movements and nod reverently at all times.
On our way into Karon from the ferry port our first day I had caught a glimpse of a yellow banner reading "Phuket Vegetarian Festival". I got very excited really because more great food but the more I read up on the festival, I realized that it's actually quite an important. Based around a myth regarding the healing of a traveling group when they adhered to a strict vegetarian diet and paid homage to specific gods, the vegetarian festival strives for health for the body, good hygiene and peace for the mind. Adherents dress in white and, optionally, undergo disturbingly fervent acts of body mutilation such as bathing in hot oil, walking on coals or climbing the rungs of a bladed ladder. (That last one gets points for creativity.) There is absolutely nothing to be missed in the food at the festival. During the festival there is no consumption of meat, alcohol and no sex but with all of the beautiful fried noodles, spring rolls and sweets, there is plenty to keep you busy for however long you choose to participate. Also women who are pregnant or menstruating aren't allowed to participate but who better to take in all the food on offer than hormonal women? This festival needs to spread. Aside from our go-to foods, we were introduced to onde-onde, a soft cookie-like sweet of glutinous rice flour filled with palm sugar and rolled in coconut, and Khanom Kai Nok Kra Ta, round balls made from sweet potatoes and fried until crispy. After we were suitably full, or more realistically uncomfortably full, we buzzed around Old Phuket, surrounded by leagues of celebratory Thais, lighting fireworks and incense, a sea of pristine white.
Loi Krathong is a festival in Chiang Mai where candles are lit inside wax paper lanterns and then set aloft into the night sky. Though the lighting of the lanterns began mainly with the festival, the lighting of the lanterns has spread throughout Thailand and throughout the year. I had always wanted to light one, to gently nudge it up into the sky, to make a wish. A handful of time I had seen someone peddling them along the beach as the sun was setting but they wandered constantly, enough that I had never seen them in the same spot. Feet still buried in powder fine sand from watching the sunset, I saw one ascend into the darkening sky. Moozh and I strolled the beach as the squid fisherman pushed out in to the inky black water, lamp lures ready. Just as I was about to lose hope and think that I wouldn't get to light a lantern in Thailand, we came upon a young girl with a handful of them, $7 a lantern. She took us out into the beach and dug a small divet into the sand. I lit the fuse and then we held it over the sand until the hot air began to warm the sides of the lantern. She grinned at me and stepped away. With a nod from her, I let go and the lantern took off into the night sky. No nudge needed. In fewer hours than it would take to fall asleep, we would be on our way to the aiport, to Cambodia. Even by the end, I was still checking every crevasse in our room for a spider.
Things I learned in Phuket:
When picking a restaurant, follow the locals.
Som Tam should be eaten out of a bag.
Spiders should not have hairier legs than your husband.
Bohemian Recommends:
Elephant Café at Karon Beach - Excellent seafood BBQ.
Pizza 2000 - The best pizza on the Island.
Karon Hillside Hotel - Simple, cheap accommodation.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival - In late October, delicious food.
Phuket Night Market - Killer food.