Poo-ket

N.B. I wrote a whole post about Kuala Lumpur but managed to delete it by accident before it could be posted. We'll add it in at a later date!

Whilst the correct pronunciation of Phuket is as shown above, we incidentally had a rocky time during our first taste of Thailand. We've broken down our 3 night stay by the highlights (or more accurately low points).

Incident 1

This was on the first night of our otherwise great hostel. It was clean, the beds were huge and the dorms had an ensuite. After sitting in the air con for a few hours to cool down after our journey from the airport, we decided to go to bed. As we were getting ready Joe asked if he should put the carbon monoxide alarm on. I said sure why not and then the worst noise you can hear... The alarm. We checked the manual - we had no symptoms of CO poisoning, so maybe the batteries were going? We changed them... But the alarm went off almost straight away again. If the alarm goes off within three minutes then there's dangerously high levels of CO in a room. Shit. We called the parents - maybe the alarm is faulty? So we test it outside and in the lobby... Nothing. Enter the room... three minutes later BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP... Crap we need to leave now. So down we go to the reception to try and explain to the nice man with limited English that it's a colourless odourless gas that can kill you in a few hours. Obviously he has no idea what we're talking about but agrees to change our room after a phone call with the manager. Then we, along with our two bunk mates, decamped to a room next door which mercifully didn't set off the alarm. A stressful few hours at 1am.

Bangala Road

Now this wasn't actually a low point for us, it's more that this party strip really isn't everyone's cup of tea. We went more out of a morbid curiosity than because we were looking to get wasted with 18 year old Australians. The crazy bright lights, booming music and constant offers for X rated ping pong shows made for a caricature of the 'Thai' experience most backpackers seem to be looking for, and we only stayed for a couple of very over priced drinks (think London-esque prices for half a pint). It was definitely somewhere we enjoyed wandering around, but more to satisfy our curiosity than anything else.

Koh Phi Phi

At this point I should clarify we are not trash talking the Phi Phi islands - they are actually stunning, with white sands and turquoise water, if a little crowded for such a small place. However the reason we were left with a sour taste was because of our day trip package. With the dreamy day of island hopping in El Nido fresh in our minds, we expected much the same from our operator in Thailand, after all they advertise all the highlights of the islands, like Monkey Bay and Maya Bay, and include the price of snorkel hire in the cost. We arrived to make the crossing from Phuket to Phi Phi and were immediately told we would need to upgrade tickets if we wanted seats with windows. What?! An island sight seeing package without the ability to look outside?! The cost of the this upgrade was almost half of the tour price we had already paid again so we made the decision to stubbornly sit in the hold and be angry about being ripped off instead. Much to our surprise however, when we got on the boat, we were seated 4 rows behind the silver 'upgraded' seats that many passengers had opted to take, and ended up right next to a window! The only difference was a sliding door separating their seats from everyone else, which mostly got left open anyway, so was completely pointless. In the end we avoided this scam but remained blissfully unaware that we had in fact already been scammed until we got islands.

We were told we would be transferring from our ferry to another boat to see the islands and pick up our snorkel gear. We were not expecting however to be transported from one enormous boat to an equally large one! We were then told there was only one swimming stop (not at the famous Maya Bay) and that to get in the water we would need to pay an extra 400 baht per person (like before this was pretty much half of the price we'd already paid again). We then shot round the famous sights in about 20 minutes with the boat being unable to actually get close because it was so large. The only redeeming thing about the whole day was lunch which was actually delicious, but overall a complete waste of time and money. Also taking my malaria tablets on an empty stomach doesn't agree with me and I ended up vomiting off the side of the boat (ew!)

Incident 2

The night before we were due to leave on a 7am bus, both myself, Joe and the two other guys staying in our dorm were woken up at about 4am by what can only be described as disgusting noises. The two young German girls (probably about 18, maybe slightly older) had gone out to Bangala Road and in spectacular misjudgement brought back two American 'bros' to a quiet family hostel. I feel like it should go without saying that you don't have sex in a shared dorm, especially when you're not in a party hostel. As one of the guys started whispering about getting a condom, we called time on their liaison because I'm not sitting in a bunk bed while some drunk people have sex above me at 4am. Turns out the girl was absolutely wasted, like almost pass out drunk. Not so much the at least 25 year old American trying to take advantage of her. No he was perfectly lucid when trying to tell us we should accept what was happening because the dorm is shared and that he was just helping the poor girl because she had been sick. His friend at least had he decency to look ashamed when called out and got his things to leave. Bro number 1 however wasn't having any of it and in the end he started getting aggressive with Joe so we called the guy from the hostel to make sure they left. In the morning we realised this creep had stripped the poor girl naked from the waist down and left her uncovered in her bed for the whole mixed dorm to see. We ended up glad we stopped things from going further because the whole situation was very worrying and left us thinking the worst.

It's safe to say that our time in Phuket was pretty far from the island paradise we were expecting. Hopefully Krabi will be better...