Day 22 – Phuket, in All Its Glory
My trip started three weeks ago. In the three weeks that
I’ve been away, I have been to two continents, four countries, nine flights and
been sick twice. That’s a pretty decent resume, I guess. I woke up today at the
crack of dawn (6:30), with about an hour to shower, change, eat breakfast and
reach the welcome gate of the hotel to get on the mini-bus that would take us
and fellow travelers on the tour of Phang Nga Bay, one of the various Bays
available to travelers in Phuket. We chose Phang Nga Bay because it involved
the least downtime on the beach of any tour (something that appealed to us), as
well as the brochure had some beautiful pictures.
We went to the ‘Buon Appetito’ Italian Restaurant inside the
Hilton Resort Complex for breakfast. They had a buffet, but still feeling the
after-effects of my bout with stomach illness, I had just two hard-boiled eggs.
The restaurant is located on the bottom level, below the normal walking level,
of one of the side buildings in the complex, with seating over the main lagoon.
It is the most beautiful view that doesn’t include the water that I’ve seen in
the resort. The food was fine, but the whole thing was purposefully rushed as
we needed to get out in pretty quick time. We reached the welcome area around
7:35, and were met by our mini-bus a few minutes later. We were the first ones
in the bus, but far from the only that would be taking it. Seeing as 7:45 is
still well before the time I usually awake, I decided to sleep through the
remainder of the pickups and the drive to the Marina, which was about 45
minutes away. In the end, I awoke around 9:00, at the Marina, in Central-East
Phuket Island. A group of about 30 of us entered into a Speedboat, with our
sights set at Kho Pharak, home of the ‘Diamond Caves’. The ride there took
about 40 minutes, passing many beautiful inlets and tiny, hump-shaped islands
jutting out of the deep blue Andaman Bay. The speedboat stopped near the
coast-line (or, more aptly, coast-side) of the island, where we descended into
the water for the first of many exciting, unique journeys.
We left one boat, and immediately hopped into another,
smaller boat: a thin but long rubber canoe, which would take us through
crevices and caves on the island, canoed by one able older man. The canoe trip
took us first into a dark, but open, river through a cave. The cave had
multiple obstructed openings that lent itself to great lighted views of the
depth of the cave. There were thin stalactites clustered on the ceiling, and large
limestone deposits glistening when we passed. We then emerged from the cave
into a small lagoon, with heightened walls of greenery on all sides, and the
river on the other end of the lagoon, was the entrance to another cave, this
one far smaller a fit than the last. We had to bend down to even enter the
cave. It was well worth it, as on the other end was where we were dropped off,
near another cave. It was low-tide when we reached the low cave, so we had to
walk, which required some quick contortioning to reach the other side. When we
did, we entered another lagoon, without water, with walls on each side. The
real gem, though, in this area, was a pack of 8 or so monkeys running around.
The real sight to see was a Mother Monkey, carrying a Baby Monkey, and then
when people got too close, the Father Monkey came running over and starting
swinging its legs at people from a tree branch. It was all a quick lesson in the
protective nature in the animal kingdom.
We returned from whence we came, and ascended back on the
boat for a quick jaunt over the Kho Houng, another island that looked quite
similar from the outside, but far more open and expansive once you venture through
its giant exterior walls. We entered into the same canoe with the same man
piloting it, and he canoed past the first wall, to where the tour began. It was
a series of inlets and lagoons around Kho Houng, each as stunning as the last.
There were so many picture opportunities that even I, someone who is normally against
taking millions of pictures, took over 50 on that 45-minute tour. When we got
back on the speedboat, we left our handy ‘Canoe Boy’ (their phrase, not mine)
away at the bay around Kho Houng, and we all departed for the most infamous
part of the tour.
Bond Island was the next stop, so named because part of the
Bond film Man With the Golden Gun was
filmed at the island. How much part? I have no idea, since I haven’t seen the
movie. Not seeing the movie definitely made me appreciate Bond Island less, but
that is only because I didn’t know what parts I was supposed to recognize of
the island. The island was still beautiful though. To get to the main area
where it was shot we had to climb up, down and around a rocky hill that was
covered with ferns and flora on all sides, with little shots and the beach and
the waters on the side. The final area was another picturesque lagoon, an area
that allowed me to immediately understand why the Bond people would decide to
shoot there. There was a little cave carved into the rock on the back of the
lagoon that I could climb through. The one sad part was a line of touristy
shops along the beach, but that shouldn’t be surprising given how commercial
the island is – I mean, it is called ‘Bond Island’ after all. We got back to
the boat starving for food, tired from the jaunt through three islands in the
Andaman Bay, each picturesque and beautiful.
Lunch was deep inside a Muslim Floating Village, the
conventional lunch spot for tours in this area. The lunch restaurant consisted
of sprawling rows of tables, clearly pointing to how busy a spot this is. To
get there required a winding walk through many different house/shops on the
floating island. Tourism is their only source of income there, yet they seem to
do OK. Anyway, the lunch was a buffet, but I was still a little sick, so I
stuck to Tom Yam Soup (with Shrimp) and some squid paste dish that was also
tasty. We left lunch at 2:00, ready for our last stop.
The last stop on the tour was probably the one that many
people were looking forward to, as it was the stay at the beach on an island on
the way back to the marina. I, being anti-beach, was looking forward to a nice
nap. I considered paying for a jet-ski ride, but since there were negligible
waves, I decided against it. The beach was beautiful, a thin, long strip of
sand with a long row of chairs covered with umbrellas. There was a central bar,
and de-facto bartenders walking up and down the beach. Many speedboats like
ours were anchored into the sand, as this seemed to be the normal last stop on
the tour. One of the highlights for me was seeing two live crabs scamper along
the sand. One of the tour-guides was quick-handed enough to nab the crab, and
let us all get a close look at it. The beach was as relaxing as the tender
coconut water was refreshing, and it was great to spend some time doing what
people normally do when they go to Phuket.
Soon enough, it was time to get back on that boat and head
back to the Marina. The ride back was short, and soon enough we were back to
the marina and headed back in the mini-bus back to the Hilton Resort. We then
headed upstairs to the Panorama Lounge (which actually doesn’t have a full
panorama view, but a gorgeous view of the water) and I relaxed with a Club Soda
(yeah, I ball that way), while my Mom had a pair of Pina Colada’s, and we
watches the sunset. After the sun had finished setting, we headed across the
resort to the outside road and crossed it to the beach. Because of my sickness,
this was our first visit to Karom Beach, and the beach was beautiful. Tucked
inside two hills, the Karom stretch of beach is quite idyllic (it helped we
went at 7:00 PM – when the beach was mostly empty). My mental picture of Phuket
was something like Goa, where the beach becomes a party of shack food at night,
but at least in Karom beach, this was wrong, as the beach was emptying. The
beach is completely dark, with no additional lighting at night, and by the time
we walked one km and back, the beach was close to empty. Empty but cool, as the
sea breeze created a beautiful little isolated patch of livable weather in
Phuket. I thought this weather was just because the sun was down, but almost
immediately as we exited the beach back to the back road, the heat hit us.
Our dinner plans were to go to the one area close to the
Hilton that seemed like the shacks on the beach that I was picturing that I
would find in Phuket. Located about one km away, it was a little area that had
a row of restaurants that all served ‘Thai & International’ food, and of
course, because we looked like it, all the hostesses at the restaurant were
trying to appeal to us through the international aspect of their cuisine. We
weren’t looking for that, but the restaurants were all basically the same, so
we chose the one that had the biggest crowd. Still exhibiting caution (or being
half-forced to by my Mom) I decided to have Tom Yam Soup with Squid, while my
Mom had Penang Curry Pork. Her Penang Curry was good, but still didn’t match up
to the Penang Curry at Tara Thia, a DC-area Thai chain that has the best Penang
Curry I’ve ever had. Of course, that could be because it is inauthentic, and
all these worse Penang Curries are not authentic. Either way, the Penang Curry
was so-so, and I told my Mom that we should make a resolution to never order
Penang Curry in a Thai restaurant again. My Tom Yam soup was like any other Tom
Yam soup, but they put a stupid amount of squid in it, and all the parts of the
squid, not just the ring. Legs and Head and whatever that weird textured part
is. All of it. Considering that this was my first real meal in days and my last
real meal in Thailand, it wasn’t too bad.
We returned to the Hilton, tired, but since I was finally
healthy enough to actually enjoy to hotel, I convinced my Mom to go to the
lobby, or more factually, the Andaman Lounge, where a live singer holds court,
to play cards. We did, and I won going away in Rummy – a real rarity for me
against my Mom – which was another nice, slightly nostalgic, way to end my time
in Thailand. Tomorrow is the last flight I will take that is an hour that
doesn’t require me to stay up really late or get up really early, so I will
cherish being able to get up at a normal time, eat a nice breakfast, and go to
Phuket Airport and hop on a BUDGET (emphasis
mine) airline.
