Arrived in Surat Thani at 6.30 am. Waited there for half an hour and then did the final 6 hours arriving in Phuket at 12.30pm. The journey was 16 hours of hell, but of course Claire slept most of the way (with her mouth wide open!!!). I got about 4 hours sleep. We shared a taxi with an English couple from Preston, Howard and ? to Patong, the resort we were staying in. Took a shower, much needed after 16 hours on a bus!! The hotel were staying in "Thara Patong" is lovely with a great pool
Patong Resort on Phuket is great, but there are loads of touts selling anything and everything, you just have to ignore them.. Being adventurous as we are, we thought we would experience some local culture in Thailand and headed straight for Molly Malones Irish Bar!! It had a great band and we spoke to a fella from Newry and two girls from Gloucester (no relation to Fred West and they didn't know you Owen!!). The beer is 2 pound a pint, steep enough. You can get suits for 50 pounds so if anybody wants one just send me your measurements. Postage and packing in 49.99 !!!! One of the fellas selling thesuits used to be a professional kick boxer and fought in Co Tyrone.
Chilled by pool when we got back to hotel. Im trying to lose the farmer tan!!! We met up with Francis again.
Wed 30.05 - Booked bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL). 20 pound each, 20 hours, definitely numb bum syndrome! Lay on Beach for 3 hours and got burnt to a crisp. Patong Beach is absolutely beautiful, a large bay enclosed by hills on either side. At 7pm we went to Molly Malones for dinner, tasty if just a little expensive. Met the Preston couple again. Met up with Francis and Paul again. Francis took us to the lady-boy area of town. Absolutely frightening. Freaky. One of them sat at the table with us and asked "How are you?" in the deep voice. We didnt know where to look. We tried to ignore him/her/it, and he/she/it eventally left. Some of them were absolutely beautiful with very feminine figures. I was so glad I wasn't here as a single man and really really drunk or you might have the worst hangover you could ever imagine!!!
Thur 31.05 - We were able to stay in room until 2pm so we slept until 1pm. Meet Francis and 3.30pm at Gonzo's and set up his email address. Played pool for a while and Thai girls taught us how to say How are you in Thai. Said our goodbyes to Francis, got dinner and driver picked us up at 8pm. Totally crazy driver. Little did we know the night we had in store!!