GARY'S TRAVEL TALES
  • About
  • Gary's blog
  • Gary's Gallery
  • Contact

Venturing out to Patong

31/7/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
We had looked around earlier on our way back from Danny's for tonight's dinner and almost opposite was a street restaurant which looked very popular, had a great display of seafood out front. We had watched them get it ready while we were having our beers at Danny's place; o.k., choice made.

It looked very busy when we arrived. I guess it was peak hour so we popped back into Danny's for a few beers and we could see when the rush was over. Just after nine all the screaming kids and their parents had left leaving those that live in the grown-up world to enjoy their dinner in peace. I opted for the spicy chicken cooked with basil rice and fried veg; still makes me dribble now, it was so good. My partner had oh um oh well spaghetti bolognese. This was a great meal and less than half the price of the one on the beach. We stayed longer after we finished our meal and had a few more icy beers. I ended up feeding a street full of stray dogs with the left-overs from the restaurant; even the woman working there gave me bits of chicken to give to them, poor things.
Picture
Next morning was the eve of my birthday and two American friends of ours that live in China had flown out to help us celebrate and we did. Started quite early in the afternoon with a few more beers - like you do. A quick wash and brush up after a day at the pool, plus Ting Tong in tow. We got a tuk tuk to Patong. Well, this took me back to Patpong in Bangkok some twenty years ago but this was on a much bigger scale. The moment we got out of the tuk tuk, herds of hands flapping menus of tonight's food and sex that was available. Luckily, we had all seen this a hundred times before, but it still makes me laugh. Drones were hurtling overhead, fluorescent bits of plastic fired into the air: who buys all this rubbish? We headed for a bar in a huge hanger of a place where there were chunks of trees with nails in it. The idea was to hit it right on the head, the winner gets a free beer. Our American friend took on a ladyboy and with one fell swoop he hit home: one free beer won. The ladyboy obviously wanted revenge but, the same again, two free beers. We had worn our welcome out, time to move on.
We headed for the 7 Eleven and stocked up on beers, went hunting for somewhere to eat. Our American friends knew Patong very well and we were soon sat down, going through a huge menu. 
We decided to order about six main courses between us and and share. It was a mouthwatering feast. You just can't beat Thai food: spicy with a fresh clean taste.

Picture
Next a bit of shopping - like you do: an Adidas jacket and day glow t-shirts were our targets. Jacket scored but the t-shirts were all too small. By now the time was ticking away to my birthday so we headed to a bar that was made out of a converted Volkswagen camper van, selling buckets of this or that cocktail; we ordered four buckets full of different cocktails and set about drinking them. Happy birthday rang out at midnight. Cheers, thanks Patong and my company for a first great birthday evening, one more to go.

2 Comments

Toes in Thai sand

26/7/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
I must say the car journey from the airport to Kamala was pretty uneventful. There is not much to see until you climb a hill and catch sight of a long beach on your right. Past Phuket FantaSea, the theme park, which is, in my view, a torture chamber for elephants. FantaSea happened to be around the corner from Kamala Beach, our destination. Passing the usual massage parlours, shops selling flip-flops and t-shirts, both of which I will almost certainly get, before pulling up at our hotel, called the Layalina. In we marched, by now pretty knackered. After the usual information overload on arrival we finally get to see our room. Our room was on the first floor, large enough with a spiral staircase just inside the door, leading to a roof terrace with a day bed and a canopy over; far too hot up there. By the time we left, we hadn't used it. The only odd thing about the room was that the toilet, bath and shower where only partitioned by a Venetian blind from the bedroom itself so privacy, if needed, could be an issue, as it turned out for us it wasn't a problem.
We decided to go for a sleep for a few hours. It is recommended that a cycle of three hours is enough, so that's what we did. I only snoozed at best but when it was time to get up I was ready to go and explore. It was just the right time, the sun being over the yardarm already. Off to ‘7 Eleven’. Armed with a bag full of beers, peanuts and crisps we went back to our room.
Picture
Picture

From day one we had our breakfast in the room (the other option was down at the pool), everyday exactly at the same time. The table was set up on the balcony overlooking the pool and beach. A  very nice breakfast it was: tea, coffee, fresh fruit, toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs and cereals: a great way to start the day (if you’re not on a diet).  
We decided to hit the pool. This sounds dramatic; what I actually mean is take two beds to the left hand corner and sit in the shade; low and behold we've got a private pool, in fact we had a private hotel, it turned out we were the only guests at the moment.
Picture
Coming out of the the lovely cold shop we turned right passing Danny’s Place, which we would come to know well over the next few days. Close to the hotel is a local tsunami monument, to which, it seemed, many tours pulled up. On we plodded coming across a BBQ restaurant - highly recommended by Trip Advisor - only to find it was closed till the autumn. Next we headed over a footbridge onto Kamala beach itself and, luckily, found a good few beach bars and restaurants one of which we earmarked to have dinner in later that evening called Smile. By the time we got to the main road, we realised there really wasn't more this end, so we headed back to the hotel having done our first bit of exploring. Time for a wash and brush up.
After a drink in a small beach bar, we went to Smile, to have dinner with ‘our toes in the Thai sand’. Smile has a BBQ at the front with a display of fresh fish, lobster and large prawns, making it very difficult to make a decision. I eventually chose the prawns barbecued with rice and vegetable. My partner went for chili beef fried rice, all washed down with more freezing beer. In hindsight this was to be the most expensive meal we had in Kamala; though we did go back to Smile, I left the seafood alone.
After our yummy dinner we headed off to look for a bar for after dinner beers. Apart from a couple of girlie bars there really wasn’t the kind of thing we were looking for. We quickly learned that just going into any restaurant and asking for a beer was fine. By this time it was well gone midnight and the street was all but empty: time for bed.
2 Comments

Thai Tales: take-off

24/7/2015

8 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Off we go to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam for our flight to Bangkok. Funnily enough, check-in and passport control went very easy, even though there had been time issues a few days earlier; meaning queues of people waiting far too long at passport control. 
So in our case, everything had gone well. You now put your own bags in a machine where it is weighed, you scan your passport, the destination comes up, you confirm this; out pops the tag, put it through the handle and ‘Bob’s your uncle’ or so you hope. I'll come back to this later..!

Schiphol Airport is going through a major reconstruction at the moment. While remaining open you have to keep an open mind as to what it’s going to be because now it's just a mess. Though the sun was barely over the yardarm it was time for a nice cold glass of white wine but all signs pointed us in the wrong direction; obviously, they were fine before the renovations begun, but now rendered useless. At last there was wine at the end of the tunnel. Still an hour to go before boarding. 

I am never interested in shopping at airports; you can normally find the same things elsewhere for the same price if not cheaper. So we slowly sip our small but o so expensive glass of wine, then decide to take a slow walk to the departure gate. 

It looks like the flight must be almost full as the lounge is forcing the majority of passengers to stand but eventually the dulcet tones over the PA system ask ‘would people travelling with young children like to make their way onboard’. I always dread this moment and count how many screaming kids are going on, meanwhile keeping my fingers crossed that none are within screaming distance of us. Boarding took ages for some reason; it didn't seem very well organised. KLM ground staff were quite happy having a chat behind their desks and it seemed to us that their eye had definitely been taken off the ball until someone with four small gold stripes on her jacket got the show on the road.

So here we are, row 16 seat A and B. And oh the joy, doors close and the usual announcements are made, seat belts all the usual except time to destination nine long hours and forty minutes; what I'll be dead before that, the seats on this Boeing 777 are as comfortable as a park bench, numb bum in minutes.

The crew made an odd announcement, saying that drinks would only be served if you’re in the seat you were allocated, and also one drink at a time. Never heard this before. Cost-cutting measures?
I found myself wandering around the cabin aimlessly trying to avoid sitting down again for as long as I could, ended up at the galley at the back of the plane where the crew go down stairs to sleep and just stared out the window watching the white fluffy clouds slowly pass by. But what next? So decided to have a chat with the crew and having worked for KLM we had colleagues in common and this chat passed a good half an hour… only seven more to go. It was time to be fed again, but this time, whatever they gave us, defied description. Mine went back as it came minus the juice and water. “If it's not sealed don't eat it, if it is, think twice”.. A good rule of thumb.

After another arduous six hours we finally arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Now, getting back to check-in in Amsterdam, which is as I said self service, which is fine except the KLM crew announce that if you are on a forwarding flight - as we are - your bags will be automatically  forwarded. But how, we ask, nobody asked us at Schiphol, so how can our bags be forwarded? The crew didn't have an answer to this and advised us to pick up our bags for the flight to Phuket, and then check-in again. Cutting down on check-in staff doesn't always give the paying passengers the service they require.

So one and a half hours to kill in Bangkok airport, but to be quite honest it's not a bad airport. I prefer this to Singapore’s Changi Airport with that smelly humid carpet. So we wonder around aimlessly for a while and decide to head to the gate for our Bangkok Airways flight to Phuket. 

Luckily, it's quiet and very few people. I stare out of the window at the comings and goings of incoming and departing aircraft and eventually ours arrives on the stand. We hope it's a quick turnaround. I was surprised how busy the incoming flight was. Being low season, I expected a lot less but it looked to be almost full for all of a sudden our lounge filled up so it was going to be the same heading to Phuket.

We were sat just at the beginning of the wing on this Airbus and we were hoping that the middle seat wasn't taken so I plonked in the window seat, my partner in the aisle seat. Unfortunately, a first time flyer armed with a camera and his iPad had the window seat; he was desperate to sit there, which became all the more obvious as we were taxiing from the terminal. He was taking photos and was filming everything that moved, started filming with his iPad the moment we got to the end of the runway ready for take-off and didn't stop until we only had minutes till we arrived in Phuket. Poor people who will be invited to watch his holiday films. The flight went quite smoothly. It felt just like a flying taxi ride but with food and drink thrown in which I flung back.

The plane taxied to within spitting distance of the terminal building of Phuket International Airport, but still we had to go by coach to the building. Finally heading to the band where our bags would be arriving. Waited and waited, the only thing on it was a bag with a tag for Sydney Australia and the date was three days previous, so some poor soul looked unlikely to ever get his bag back and we are beginning to feel the same as the minutes were ticking away; still nothing. Eventually, one lucky soul got his bag and fled through the nothing-to-declare exit and their holiday had begun. Ours took a good ten more minutes, but both arrived safe and sound.

Picture
8 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Agra
    Amsterdam
    Australia
    Bali
    Bangkok
    Barcelona
    Bel Air
    Beverly Hills
    Brighton
    California
    Cape Cod
    Chinatown
    Christmas
    Cornwall
    Cotswolds
    Delhi
    Downton Abbey
    England
    Florida
    Gili Trawangan
    Hanoi
    Highclere Castle
    Hollywood
    Hua Hin
    India
    Indonesia
    Jimbaran
    Kamala Beach
    Key West
    Koh Samui
    Lands' End
    Lombok
    Los Angeles
    Malibu
    Malta
    Manhattan
    Maritime Museum
    Massachusetts
    New Delhi
    New York City
    Oberoi
    Patong
    Phuket
    Provincetown
    Qawra
    Rajasthan
    San Francisco
    Sanur
    Seattle
    Seminyak
    Spain
    Sydney
    Thailand
    Ubud
    Udaipur
    Uluwatu
    United Kingdom
    USA
    Valletta
    Vietnam

    Gary

    Born in Chiswick West London, grew up in Royal Berkshire, currently living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.