Getting used to the time zone and sleeping better. After our
pancake success and enjoyment of yesterday, we decided to support local
business again and have pancakes for breakfast again. The pancakes are filling as they are cooked
with an egg and banana mix and then you can choose your condensed milk or
chocolate sauce topping. We are getting
into the swing of things boiling and bottling litres of water and always carrying
water with us. So far, no tummy trouble which is good.
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| Thai men loves their birds and often carry them on mopeds! |
We caught the local bus into Phuket Old Town again and
walked to find the bus terminal to investigate booking our next leg of the
journey to Bangkok. Travelling and
stress and heat and humidity tends to bring out one’s basic coping methods: Me:
plan in advance, be prepared but take spontaneous action and seize
opportunities as they arise versus Karl: super cautious, has to research in
detail before committing to anything , leaves things to the last minute. Such was today’s experience when I wanted to
book our journey to Bangkok through an agent near to the Bus Terminus. Yes, there are scams, but on the whole, most
people travel with ease through Thailand.
We didn’t book the train tickets through this agent, and on further
investigation we didn’t have the required 7 working days available for tickets
through an onllne booking facility to be
sent to us, so we have missed out on the anticipated train journey to Bangkok
(from Suratthani). This is a peak time to travel and we can’t risk turning up
to the station with 3 children only to be told that there is no room on the
night train. I am disappointed that we don’t get to go on the overnight sleeper
train. It would have been a great
experience. So we booked nothing, EVEN though we were at the Bus Terminus - Can
you hear my frustration?!! “Further
investigation” needed. When I have
travelled in the past, and those of you who know me well, know I have travelled
extensively, I have never had problems.
I suppose, now, with the event of the internet, we can research ad infinitum whereas previously, the only sources of
information were through a tourist bureau or fellow travellers.
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| Bus to Kata Beach. |
We trekked back to the Old Town, with most of our small
party feeling grumpy. Hallelujah for
7-11 and cheap and yummy ice creams.
Revived, we boarded a bus bound for Kata Beach. The buses are basic with windows all open,
all sitting sideways, breathing in the fumes, taking in the street scenes and
various loads on mopeds. Probably only half of the moped riders wear helmets, despite
public campaign to encourage them to do so.
The journey to Kata was far less interesting than the journey to Patong
and also longer. The highlights of this
journey were 1) stopping for petrol whilst on the bus!...and 2) the driver
pulling up to a food stall, ordering his lunch and then driving off….and we
were wishing we had yelled out our order at the same time!!!
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| We were ravenous on arrival at Kata and no food carts in sight. Aah Pad Thai!
Disembarking in Kata was disappointing: tourists EVERYWHERE,
mostly Russian it seemed, NO food carts and SO commercial. It really felt like the poor man’s version of
Patong Beach. The kids and I was very
hungry by this stage and finally gave in and found a cheap but clean looking
restaurant. Pad Thai (120 Baht), twice
what we paid for similar from food cart, but none-the-less tasty and
filling. We also tried the mango and
sticky rice on Jenika Graze’s recommendation which was indeed superb! Karl, in protest, found chocolate milk from
7-11 – each to their own! Luke and Tim
played Connect 4 whilst waiting for food and it was nice to sit down in
relative coolness. The kids and I had a
short swim in the beach but felt lots of little stings in the water which may
have been sea lice. Refreshed by the
water, we looked around a bit but really, it was not somewhere we would
recommend to anyone. The scenery from
the beach was beautiful, there’s no doubt about that: it’s just that the
tourist industry has also realised this and it is overrun with every bit of
kitsch you can imagine.
 
So, for our day out in Kata, where we hopped on the bus at
the first stop, our highlight was really the journey back. In no time, a little old leathery man
carrying his wares had assigned himself as “boss of the bus” – telling people
where to sit and to put their bags under their seats. The tiny bus got more and more crowded to the
point of sardines, and then it
started to rain, typical tropical heavy rain and the little leathery man told
us to shut the windows. It was sauna
like as you can imagine and then more people got on. Now, you’d never see a grossly overweight
Aussie in Speedos get on a bus. I guess
the Russian culture is different. This guy was huge and perched on the middle
plank seat in front of me. I can tell
you that the view was unappetising. As the journey continued the leathery old
man instructed everyone to either open or shut their windows. The crowd slowly eased off the bus and we
made it back to the Old Town.
The taxi driver who we know as “One Tooth” (as he only has
one tooth) saw us disembark from bus and approached us to take us back to Cape
Panwa. Having previously negotiated our
taxi price, it was great to sit back and be driven home. We knew by now that the last Aquarium bus had
gone and taxi was our only way back. We
picked up some sausages from “Sausage Lady” and walked up to our
apartment. Another lovely swim after
dinner was THE most therapeutic thing …. SO SO SO thankful for the swimming
pools and to have them for ourselves!!!
Annika and I enjoy being “resort ladies” in the robes provided! You can see our apartment is really spacious
and nice.
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