Phuket

It's a seedy bastard place, bit like Bangkok but worse. The night life on Bangla road is fun for like two nights for partying - if you're on a girls holiday or 'lads on tour'. There's loads of bars, great fresh fish restaurants, Go Go Girls, ping pong shows, weird hat people and of course chang beer and buckets.

We stayed in this dodgy hostel down an ally way above a "massage parlour" called Patong Backpacker Hostel. Every time we walked passed the young girls touching up their makeup asking us if we wanted a massage.. - every time.. to which we politely declined. It was sad how young they are, working in a place like that, Being exploited to make money in this 3rd world country that tourists take for granted.
It's so easy as a tourist to get caught up in all the lights and shows, but the poverty is heartbreaking and so close if you open your eyes as to what is around you. Thailand taught me not to take things in life for granted. Be grateful for what you have and how lucky we are in our country.


Well done our hostel!

We also visited the Tsunami Shelter to see where we would have to go given the imaginable were to ever happen..
Well, it's better than nothing.


I was still hauling around two backpacks at this stage while Crystal hobbled around on her poor foot next to me, the poor soul. How unfortunate. Me with two broken toes strapped together, her with her foot all bandaged up, wrapped in a plastic bag on the beach. What are we like? The walking wounded lol.

Patong beach was nice enough and a short walk from our hostel but it doesn't compare to the quality of the beaches we lounged on on the islands. 2 days here was more than enough for me. It was great because everything was on your doorstep here, a short walk and a wrong turn leads you down a road fully of bars filled with old men and young thai girls, lady boys on the corners, questionable massage joints and other seedy things your eyes wish you never saw.. - why did we end up down this road?

Bangla Road is the place to be at night, a short walk from Patong Beach where you can remove yourself from the madness when it all gets too much.
We found ourselves in a great bar with false grass and live music. There was a man playing the sax along side charts music that absolutely rocked the place. Chang beer was on the cheap, more latino dancers, seedy old guys but good vibes.

We went onto to a club called the White Lion, hidden down a road on Bangla which was great fun. We stayed there until it closed, leading to a lock in upstairs where you weren't allowed to take photos because it was Top Secret (oops secret's out). There were pool tables, dancing, more music, shifty looking locals, people buying us drinks, the night was great! Finished off with a good ol' 24 hour maccas before returning to our unconditioned sweat box of a hostel before heading back to Bangkok to fly to Chiang Mai.