Phi Phi Island - Day 1

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This was a longer trip than I anticipated. I was picked up at my hotel at 7 am and as I was planning on coming back to Phuket I decided to leave the big rucksack behind and just go with the smaller one.

With me, there were a couple of Israeli girls that were picked up at my hotel as well and an indian family from Bangalore that were picked up in a nearby hotel. We were on the road for 1-2 hours, it felt like a long drive due to the traffic, then we got to the pier and there were 4 boats stacked up one after another, we were all wearing a sticker to identify us (nothing like being treated like cattle to feel like a proper tourist) :-)

As soon as we got there our driver who didn't speak much english told us what sounded like, "last one" but I wasn't sure wheather I was understanding him so I jumped on the first boat and the tripulation made signs to me to continue to the next boat, so from the first one jumped to the second and the same thing again so from the second one jumped to the third one and again...everyone pointing to the next boat...once I jumped to the 4th one I felt quite relieved to noticed the tripulation did not ask me to continue jumping boats because the next one would the ocean. Just in case I looked around and noticed a few more people branded with the same sticker I was...so we were all on the right boat or a lot of people made it to the wrong boat! :-)

The trip on the boat also lasted for an eternity, 1-2 hours but it got pretty interesting when we were reaching our final destination, the islands.

It reminded me a bit of Halong Bay in Vietnam...although with fewer and bigger islands but the rock formation on them was quite similar.

We finally made it to Phi Phi and as soon as you step our of the boat they hit you with the revolutionary tax for the island, 50 Bath (about 1 pound), I'll probably have to shell out another 50 on my way out...we'll see.

The village by the pier is a frantic place filled with narrow passages crowded with all sort of shops, diving schools, fast food trolleys, dvds, t-shirts...it's an authentic maze of small streets.

I had book a place last night over the phone and now I only had to find the place, it looked easy on the map I had...it turned out it wasn't as easy as I was expecting. At some point I took the wrong turn and ended up climbing the longest stair I´ve ever seen...hundreds of steps. You can only see half of the staircase on this picture and although at the bottom looks like a ramp. I promise you, they are steps...all the way!

and I was carrying my rocksack, the heat and humidity were unbelievable, I had to clean up the sweat from my eyes every 30 seconds, I wasn't sweating, I was creating a river! After walking and walking and asking a few locals I've managed to find the place...it was pretty hidden.

Anyway, the room is not bad, although it looks nicer on the picture than what it actually is.

Not bad for 800 Bath (about 16 pounds) although it has no air con and after all the heat I had to endure today looking for this place I started to have some regrets on whether I should change for a place with air con. On my long way around I had the oportunity to see some other places, there was one I quite fancied so went back there and enquired about their rooms, prices, etc...There was a nice British lad attending reception and he actually recommended me not to change just for the air con, at night it cools down so you don't really need it he said and during the day you are not going to be by your room so no point, he added.

In the end I decided to follow his advice and give it a go tonight, if I still feel is too hot at night I'll be paying him a visit tomorrow in order to book one of his air con rooms. :-)

As it happens I found out I was sharing my room with a cockroage or maybe two, not sure. I thought I had drown the first one in the shower but then I saw another one so it could be the same one. Nonetheless it turned out to be a good neighbour and stuck to its room, the toilet so I never got to give it another forced shower.

By the way, the bungalow is by the reservoir...which you can tell by the photo it has seen better days.

After this, a went back to town to enquire about diving and rock climbing...I intend to have 4 very intense days before heading back to Phuket. :-)

Finally I went to inspect one of the beaches...

Not bad, eh?, well, now imagine the water temperature at 31C and you'll understand why I had to come here. :-)



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Phuket

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The hotel were I am staying is the C&N htotel at Patong Beach - Phuket

 If I thought the room and the staff were top-notch it's because I hadn't seen breakfast...

Oh my God! no need to have lunch after this ...

You are missing the donought and the croissants which I already dealt with. :-)''

I think I'm going to recover all the weight I lost in Australia. :-) I even have a cook on stand by in case I want something else. How good is that?

I usually do one post a day but in this case, this post will cover the 3-4 days I spent in Phuket before going to Phi Phi island and the reason being is that my intention is to rest and recover from Australia, always on the run, living from a suitcase, eating what you can where you can... well, not anymore.

I'll go to nice restaurants, I'll stay in the same nice room for a few days, and I'll try to do nothing for a few days... I know, it's a very ambitious plan but I'll try my best. The problem with that is that there won't be much to tell about so it's best just putting all the days together in one post.

So, first things first. A visit to my office for the next 3 days.

That's Patong beach, 5 minutes walk from my wonderful hotel. :-) Average Water Temperature: 30 C

It's nicer inside the water than outside. :-)

There are quite a few local markets but the sellers nag you every time you pass by which it automatically puts me off to even look at their stuff... There is also a huge shopping centre with a cinema not far from the hotel.

 This shopping centre is a funny place, each entrance is guarded by a security guy that every time you come in or out gives you a militar salute. They also have a shooting gallery where you can go and shot any gun or rifle you can think of. 

This is the main street

There are hundreds of tiny shops all along the street. The most common shops are without any doubt the farmacies. I'm guessing this is because you can buy knock off drugs that back home cost an arm and a leg for a fraction of the price. Same componds but without the brand...

Then there are also lots of 7Elevens (24h open mini supermarket) and dozens of massage parlours. Now, massage parlours is something you have to be carefull if you don't want to end up with more than a massage.
Usually any place attached to a respectable business like a hotel or a spa should be fine. I suppose that's the reason why the owner of the below independent massage parlour felt had to be clear about it.

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. It was hard to keep the camera still. ;-) Funny enough, there were another two people taking the same picture, we stared at each others and kept laughing...

Right in front of my hotel there is a small local restaurant which is always full, with farangs (that's how they call foreigners here in Thailand) and Thai people, so I decided to give it a go...

They have an interesting mixture of Thai and European food. I liked it. Specially the chilli sauce. :-)

And also not far from my hotel (I am marvelled at how close it is from everywhere :-) ) you can see the Thai boxing arena where you can go any day of the week to see a thai boxing combat (if you go at night) or to see thai boxers training (if you go during the day). There is a car going around town all day shouting...combat toooooonite! with a thick thai accent... it's very funny.

The streets at night get quite lively.

I was about to take a picture of some ladyboys dancing to put it up on the blog but somehow I felt Aída's invisible presence telling me not to dare... so I'm afraid you'll have to do with some street performers. This may bring you back to the 80's, remember breakdance?

The next post will be about Phi Phi island where I spent 4 interesting days.


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Singapore

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The spectacular views from my hotel window, some things money can't buy, really. X-P

The hotel despite of being the cheapest I could find, it wasn't too bad at all.

It was clean, the staff were nice and helpful and their english was good. I couldn't say the same for their signs though... not sure who did the translation but... would you take this lif? Surely you'd rather taking the stairs!

And also another interesting sign that would surprise more than one.

For some reason or another it is quite common to see people spitting everywhere here in asia... never thought they would have to put up a sign to prevent people from doing it in the lobby though...

Anyway, I got up, got ready, did the check out and went to take the train back to the airport.

The flight was very quiet, same as coming from Australia. It was almost empty so I had a couple of rows just to myself. :-)

In Phuket I had a free shuttle service from the hotel so as soon as I left the plain I was in the car on my way to the hotel. I had a scary moment when the driver decided to leave the main road and visit his family...two other men armed with a saw and a big bag got into the car with me (I was in the front seat). I wasn't sure whether the saw was to chop me off or whether the driver was giving some relatives a lift to work...my hand was at the door handle while I tried to decide...in the end I unbuckled my seatbelt in case I had to do a runner but decided to stay...

You'll be glad to know (not as much as myself though) that all my limbs are intact and survived the experience. :-)  

Anyway, the hotel in Phuket, the C&N was fantastic. Free cable tv and internet, a fairly big room for myself with a bed as wide as long, free breakfast, fridge, safe, and a very nice and helpful staff. I may stay here longer than anticipated! This is no backpackers accomodation! :-)

Their signs may also need to be revised though...

Tomorrow is time to go for a nice leisury stroll around town and see what Phuket has to offer.

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Back in Darwin - Day 3

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This was an odd day, as you all probably know by now there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland which has thrown a lot of ashes into the european skies forcing all the major airports to close. All the airlines a clueless about when they'll be able to operate and take passengers back to Europe.

Aída and myself were meant to take the flight from Darwin to Singapore and from there I would flight to Thailand the following day whereas Aída would take the flight to London and then another one to Tenerife.

As all the airports in London were closed we didn't know whether she should go to Singapore or stay put in Darwin until the situation clears up. According to the news, there were already 7000 people stranded in Singapore without accomodation, all hotels were fully booked since most flights to Europe stop at Singapore and there were no flights to Europe. Luckily I had booked mine one day before the problems started so I had no problem with finding a place to stay in Singapore while I wait for my flight to Thailand.

Alan was having similar problems trying to flight back to London. He was supposed to start working on Monday but the way things were going that wasn't a posibility and the airline had given him a provisional date of 26th of April, i.e. in one week.

So he had to go to the airport to talk to someone there and see what he could do about his flight but the shuttle service to the airport is quite expensive so he decided to find out whether there was a bus to go there, in the meantime I was trying to phone Quantas to find out what was happening about Aída's flight.

After 25 minutes on hold, Alan came back saying there was a bus that would leave him 15 minutes walk from the airport so as nobody was answering the phone (probably half of the world was calling the same number for the same reason we were) so Aída and I decided to tag along with him and go to the airport. It's always better talking to someone face to face.

The trip to the airport was more than we had bargained for. We asked the bus driver whether he could let us know when we got to the our stop. The driver was a nice old chinese man who didn't speak very good english but after repeating the same question 3-4 times in many different ways he managed to understand us.

In order to see the map we were showing him he took his sunglasses off and put the reading glasses on, when we paid for our tickets he took the sunglasses and asked me whether they were mine and I obviously said no but I asked Aída and Alan just in case if they were theirs to what they said no as well, I returned them to the driver and he said...oh! but those are my glasses!! :-?? He forgot what his glasses looked liked? It didn't inspire much confidence...

Then in one of the stops a group of aboriginals boarded the bus and they were all visibly drunk and shouting all the way, so much so that by the time we reached our stop the driver had to get off the bus, walk all around it and get back in through the back door just to let us know that that was our stop, we couldn't hear him with all the noise.

We were supposed to walk for 15 minutes or so according to what we had been told...it turned out we walked for about 30-45 minutes under the scorching midday sun, with our flip-flops (standard shoewear in Australia) and without any water... we walked and walked all along a very busy motorway.

Not exactly a relaxing walk in the woods...

We almost cried when we saw the terminal in the distance

We got inside the nicely air condicioned airport, run straight to the first stand we found and bought a nice and cool drink...the first half a litre went down in lest than 2 minutes...but at least we could talk again. :-)

So we went to practice our newly recovered ability to talk with the lady at the Quantas desk and pretty much told us there was nothing she or us could do at the moment. Aída would have to stay put in Darwin since they don't allow you to flight to Singapore unless you have a connecting flight somewhere outside Europe. Offered to pay her for 2 days accomodation in a nearby hotel but Aída declined prefering to spend her time with the rest of the gang, Sharon, Alan and the Austria team instead of being stuck at an airport hotel for 2 days. As soon as they open the airports in Europe, she would have to either call or go to the airport to get her flights changed.

In order to get back to our hotel there was no argument from anyone when we all decided to get a taxi...there was no way we would be walking back to the bus stop with our flip-flops in the middle of the this punishing  sun again...

We made it in time to spend a couple of hours by the gorgeous swimming pool, then we said our farewells and I went back to the airport to catch my flight to Singapore.

After spending 3 months travelling with Aída it's going to feel a bit weird not having her around now. This trip throughout Australia wouldn't have been the same thing without her. She's been a great travel companion and a lot of fun.

Who is going to tell me off now when unadvertely I start walking on a regeneration area instead of walking on the clearly marked path?
or when I start taking pictures from other people's parties?
Who is going to keep me on a leash now?


The flight to Singapore was practically empty, once at the airport I took the train to the city and walked for 10-15 real minutes up to my hotel...

This was the cheapest hotel I could find in Singapore, but I just wanted a place to sleep before taking my flight to Tailand tomorrow.

The room isn't too bad, it's small but big enough for me. Judge by yourself.

I've been in worse places...at least this one is clean which is all I need for one night.

Tomorrow I'll be going back to the airport to take my flight to Phuket (Thailand).


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Back in Darwin - Day 2

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I have no photos from this day except perhaps from one street I found interesting enough to photograph. :-)

The reason why there aren't any more photos is because esentially, we spent the day in the swimming pool...all day... :-)

At night we went back to "the Vic" again for dinner (they had a very varied menu, we never ate the same thing twice). Played a few games again and that was the day.

At this point, the volcano in Island was starting to cause problems in the European skies, that made our next day far more interesting. :-)
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