We'reOnTheWay: Phuket 13

Patong in Phuket is a fun but crazy place in our opinion! We have often discussed this and would ask ourselves just how and why does this place exist as it is today and what draws people here!! Our intentions were to stay for 3 days before making our way to the islands, however we ended up here for 3 days longer than intended while waiting for suits to be made! Phuket is definitely a market place.

Suit fitting!

Patong can be described as a beach town with a market that has grown enormously selling cheap factory made fake products of designer brands. Each stall is a replica of the last stall the T-Shirts even tell you they are printed with SAME SAME - But Different.
The area is filled with tuk tuks vying for business and tourists scooting around on scooters. Crossing the road takes some skill as drivers only slow down, stopping would result in an accident even at a padestrian crossing. Walking around Patong you will find plenty of salons most with a ladyboy or two sitting outside offering massages, we used to try and guess which ones were as we walked past without making it to obvious. You cannot go 50m down the road without hearing at least one of these - '' You want tuk tuk?'' ''Massage??'' ''Sir, You want suit?'' There is a T -Shirt for this as well stating that you dont want any of these things!

T-Shirt says it all!

Patong Beach, Phuket - this place is a massive market.

We had to laugh at the honesty with this salesman.

Good to know!

How not to get your feet wet!

What we did like was the weather it's hot and not too humid. We even managed to get a run in one morning without passing out from the heat! Its also a beautiful place when its not covered in litter and oily 4 cyclinder long boats, which by the way I think are ingenious how well they work.

We stayed in Patong at a place that had a French influence it was called B-Bossa it was a great place as it was comfortable, safe and the staff were friendly. After being in Singapore it maybe felt like we had arrived in the underworld from being on public transport where eating a chewing gum is illegal to now walking on streets with no sidewalk and being offered a beer or Marijauna while sitting on the beach!

Patong Beach - not the best.

Sunsets were spectacular.

Sundowners on the beach.

Locals selling lanterns and fireworks to light on the beach.

We did find in the local 7 Eleven that they stock toasted sandwiches. They will toast them for you in the store. Genious - the UK should come up with these! And they don't taste too bad either.

Toasties are available at the local 7 eleven

Fishing Trip

We had two days out of Patong on a full day fishing trip and a visit to James Bond Island. The fishing trip was cheap 1000BHT each and included lunch and all drinks. There was a Russian couple on the boat and he said he was a great fisherman. Its not often you meet people from Russia on your travels. When it came to fishing he didn't catch a thing, maybe because it was the hand lines we were all using and this was new to him? He did seem slightly frustrated. We caught a few fish but nothing to really big enough to boast about. The lunch was a local fish soup, called Tom Yum made from some of the fish caught during the day. For 1000BHT for the whole day we were not complaining for a day out on the water.

First fish of the day.


Second fish of the day.

Talking to one of the guys to find out what exactly is going into the Tom Yam soup. No prawns for me!


Fishing lures.

One of the many fishing boats we passed. We were not on one of these thankfully.

James Bond Island

We took a days trip to James Bond Island, where some of the movie for Golden Finger were shot. goldfinger movie review Part of the tour included kayaking through some caves which meant we needed to lie down in the kayak to pass the small gap between the water and cave entrance. The caves were smelly and dark, bit of an airey feel to them. Bats flapped their wings above us, disrupted from camera flashes going off. This is the Thailand I was expecting, the rugged and sheer steep limestone mountains forming the landscape over the ocean. It truly is beautiful. We transferred from our big boat to smaller boats with motors to go to James Bond Island. The small island was over crowded with other tours and was a bit frustrating getting some decent images without your pictures being photo-bombed! It was still interesting to see none the less and a great day out of Patong beach.