This morning after getting to watch the sunrise for the first time ever on the ship, I did a small work out with Dylan before eating breakfast and then taking a shower to get ready for the day. Today we arrived in Thailand!! The SAS trip I was going on got off the ship first at about 9:30. We then took a two hour drive to the Bangkok airport to take our flight to Phuket. We were at the airport and at the gate four hours early. We were all confused why it was necessary for us to all get off the ship firs then. But either way I bought a book at the airport and did some reading while I was waiting for our plane. Erica, Jeff and I also maybe did a little exploring of the airport on the walking sidewalks while attempting to moonwalk to pass the time.
By the time we arrived at our hotel it was dark and time for dinner. Everything we needed was in walking distance from our hotel which was nice. I felt as though I was maybe in Hawaii everything was very tropical and resort like, and we definitely weren’t the only tourists walking around. So Erica, her roommate for the trip Carolyn and I decided to walk down the street and find a Thai restaurant to eat at. We walked maybe two block and noticed that there would be a night life in phuket. It was nine o’clock and there were street vendors, spas, massage parlors and many restaurants open.
After about ten minutes of walking and stopping to look at clothes and other things street sellers had, we came across a restaurant called the Oasis. The price was good and it had outside seating so we could enjoy the warmth in the air as well as all that was going on around us. The three of us each ordered pad thai a must in Thailand!!! It was sooo good and we enjoyed a long dinner talking and enjoying our food.
After dinner we decided to do a loop around the town, we had a map and knew that the main street we were told had clubs and bars met up with the street were on and that we could essentially walk in a circle to get back to our hotel. We weren’t that tired and wanted to explore a little more. So we continue up the street to only find what I guess I could describe as a swap meet although they are open every day and until 2 am. We walked up and down each isle, looking at dresses, shirts, cds, dvds, knock off sunglasses, purses, and much more. Although in the center of the market there was a circle of bars out in the open. I was surprised to see the bars although after a while it seemed normal and I realized we were in such a big tourist area it kind of made sense.
In Thailand it was the first time people weren’t really sure where we were from, which was a nice surprise! Most people thought we were from Australia, or maybe even French. If we said we were from America they said north or south and if you said north they said Canada?? I think everyone really enjoyed this because it was the first time we weren’t labeled as being American right away, which seems to not have the best stigma associated with it. At the end of the night I started going along with it and pretended I was Australian getting to practice my Summer Heights High accent.
We finally made it around to the main street or “Patong Street”. This street was blocked off the cars and was basically 4 or so blocks of bars, clubs, go gos and I am not sure what you would call them perhaps strip clubs with sex shows?? The street was also lined with prostitutes up and down the street. We walked down the street in awe of everything going on around us. It was like a mini Vegas/ Amsterdam redlight district all wrapped together. It was really sad to see the number of girls who were prostitutes and looked so young, going off with really old white men. While walking down the street I even overheard a negotiation going on between a man and two women. The one older woman is the woman who looks over the girls and negotiates things for them. The girl who was the prostitue looked so young and it was a sad and disturbing sight to witness all this. We continued walking down the street taking in everything and decided tonight we would just head back to the hotel, although not after buying a CREPE!!! ( yes a crepe they were all over the place being sold by street venrdors). We then had go to sleep as we have to be awake at 6:00 tomorrow morning and we were slightly overwhelmed with the many things we saw on Patong Street.
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