Phuket did not meet those expectations. Apparently, I'd chosen to start my Siam time in a tourist zone where seedy-looking hotels, restaurants and clubs stood on nearly every corner, traffic glutted every street, and the cleanliness of the sea water looked questionable at best.
Fortunately, I had at least booked in to the lovely Bodega, which had the best dorm bathroom I had ever seen. That's a true, brand-new TUB in the corner, and a granite countertop beneath the actual, full-fledged, clear mirror on the wall!
I decided that if I had to stay there for that first night, I might as well make use of the tourist-friendly facilities and do some much-needed shopping. I restocked most of my toiletries, bought a pair of shorts that barely fit as an inspiration for losing the weight I'd packed on during the trip (perhaps the girliest thing I've ever done), and spent a good two hours milling about the absolutely massive grocery/all-purpose store, the Big C. In the latter, crate after crate brimmed over with every tropical fruit imaginable, from durian...
... to dragon fruit.
When I returned to the hostel, I booked a boat tour of the nearby Karst islands for the following day, a diving trip in the Andaman Sea for two days hence, and the transportation to get me to the latter.
In the morning, I met Simon and Phil, two other solo travelers staying at my hostel and taking the same tour. A minivan picked us up, and we spent an hour driving across the island to the dock.
The large, ugly boat didn't exactly bowl us over, but the three of us entertained each other with travel stories and insights. Phil, in particular, had tips I'd certainly never heard before. For example, "If you stand around naked outside, people think you got robbed and they'll give you cigarettes out of pity." I thought myself unlikely to employ this bit of advice, but I enjoyed getting it, nonetheless. And as soon as we reached the open water, the scenery made the appearance of our craft a moot point.
As we pulled up to one monolith, the crew unloaded kayaks into the water, and we climbed on, two guests and one crew-member/gondolier to a canoe. They rowed us into a cave beneath the mountain.
At certain points, I could have brushed my hand along the cave ceiling. it hung so low.
In the higher sections, dozens of bats hung inverted from the stalagtites.
We soon returned to the main boat, where the crew stackled the kayaks back up in the hull.
But soon we'd arrived at a cluster of islands with a secluded bay at the center, and the kayaks came back out.
Since I had gone with a stranger. on the first occasion, Phil went on his own for the second, and I went with Simon.
This time, the crew members stayed behind, and we rowed ourselves. I craved a bit of exercise, and Simon didn't care one way or the other, so I took the oar. The seascape was truly lovely...
... with lots of little inlets and caves to explore. We went in a few and then looped out around the back of one of the mountains creating the watery enclosure, There we found a large number of small fishing boats some distance away from their larger vessels.
You would have thought the local fisherman had never seen anything so funny as the a white woman chauffeuring a young Asian-New Zealander around in a kayak, the way they would laugh when we passed. "Strong girl!", they shouted. "Expert!"
When everyone had climbed back on board, the galley crew served up a large delicious lunch buffet. As has been my custom while traveling, I tried a bit of everything.
As we ate, the boat sailed along to the day's main event: James Bond Island, so called because of its use in the movie, "Goldfinger."
The setting was postcard-beautiful, but I'd rarely visited such a tourist trap. Stall upon stall of souvenirs lined the tiny beach of the main island, and each of us literally had to wait our turn to get our picture taken in front of the most famous view of the single, improbably shaped limestone hulk just off the main island.
The three of us figured that we'd come all this way, so we might as well get the classic/cliched shots...
... including jumps, of course.
After walking around a bit amd crawling through the only accessible cave, we returned to the boat, where Phil donned the lovely Sunday bonnet of one of our fellow tourists.
One more stop remained. The kayaks came back out, and this time, Simon paired up with someone else, and I relaxed while Phil powered ours to shore.
The small strip of sand at which we'd stopped for the purpose of swimming looked fine from the boat, but upon closer inspection, turned out dingy and litter-strewn, as a result of being one of the only beaches in the bay.
We stayed for only 20 minutes before the crew directed us back and the boat turned back around toward Phuket.
As the last lovely vistas of the karats silhouetted against the clouds passed behind us, the crew put on what I am sad to admit was one of the worst performances I have ever seen. They'd promised one of Thailand's famous Lady-Boy shows; what we got was an embarrassing hodge-podge of lackluster emceeing, some uncomfortable lip-syncing by a normally dressed guy, a brief appearance by a clown-wigged boy approximating a true lady-boy and some half-assed break-dancing. "This is just awkward," I whispered to the boys, as the crowd applauded weakly.
By the time we'd left the boat, driven back across the island, and been dropped off at our hostel, we all felt thoroughly exhausted. The day had been scorchingly hot, and for once, I appreciated the air-conditioning in my dorm. I exchanged info with the boys, packed up my things for the next day, and went to bed good and early.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Phuket, Thailand
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