Phuket and the Crack Shack

In Phuket Robyn and I stayed in Patong and Karon.

Phuket was more touristy than anywhere else we stayed and honestly I would probably not recommend the area to anyone looking to go to Thailand. It felt like I was on a never ending spring break holiday (or Plett rage). There were half naked, overly tanned people everywhere, wearing neon colors and drinking at 11 in the morning. I am aware that I sound like a granny whining about crowds and partying at the ripe old age of 23 but still... there was something a little seedy about the area. Probably our worst accomodation was the oh-so-lovley "Happy guest house" that we stayed in just off the main Phuket strip. Robyn and I offically named it the Crack shack.

The Crack Shack!!

We dont know what went wrong, the online reviews were good, the price the same as any of the others and it was in a decent location. Yet somehow, we ended up in what looked like a ghetto dwelling.

We politely waited for our check in guy to leave the room before bursting into laughter and looking around the room concerned at the blood stain on the curtain and the damp, smokey smell seeping out of the walls. We sat on the bed wondering whether there would be anything undesirable to be found in between the sheets and considered sleeping above the duvet. There were even a couple of buttered crackers that had been left on the balcony from the previous inhabitants. At one point we both felt inexplicably itchy and weren't sure why. It was frankly a totally dump hahha.

But all was not lost! On our first full day we went to Phi Phi island! We walked around Phuket and asked a few tour companies about their prices. Each time they would say something outrageous like 3 or 4 thousand Bhat before promptly dropping down to just over a 1000 Bhat (R350/ $35) when we began to walk away. Visiting Phi Phi island was a fantastic experience. A speedboat took us out for the day to a number of islands in the bay, fed us a full buffet lunch and dropped us back at our hotel at the end of the day. We got to spend the day snorkeling, eating tropical fruit and tanning on the beach, this was definitely the kind of day you imagine when visiting a tropical paradise.

After a dirty day or two in Patong, we moved a town over to Karon and stayed at a much more pleasant German guesthouse with a huge balcony. The beach was a thousand times nicer as was the general feel of the town. In fact we even got to see luminescent plankton in the water on our last night. Weirdly enough, Karon seems to have a ton of Russian tourists everywhere. In fact some of the menus at restaurants and bars are written completely in Russian. I would definitely go back to Karon again if only to get a better look at the outdoor market!

The main road in Karon.. filled with laid back bars and restaurants.

Our giant balcony

All in all a fantastic holiday away with a pretty awesome buddy! I would hugely recommend Thailand to anyone! Lastly here is a look at some of the Thai food that we ate along the way: