Day 67: Patong Beach, and we actually arrived

UPDATE: The last blog now has pictures on it from the full moon party. I highly suggest you check it out.

For informations sake: All the pictures in this blog are of us Boogie Boarding today. Fun was had by all, and no further injuries, really just irritating old ones.

Alright, so, I now have another story for all of you. This one isn't as crucial as Nevin losing his passport, but it definitely was more frustrating. Mike was off on Samui taking care of Marie, so Nevin and I were heading off to Phuket on our own. Our boat/bus tickets were purchased and we were all set to go. That's where this story takes a turn for the worse.

Nevin and I made the overly long and up and down hike from our bungalow on the mountain on Ko Pha Ngan down to a restaurant that a taxi could actually get to. The taxi was supposed to pick us up at nine in the morning. Yes, that's right, we woke up at 7 AM, two days after the full moon party. Crazy? I think so. So we're waiting for the taxi, and by 9:20 it still hadn't shown up. I made the walk down to the travel agent that we purchased the tickets from, where she phoned the taxy company and got them to come get us. So we started off 30 minutes late heading for the boat. Made it onto the boat on time miraculously, and journey was officially on the way.

The boat pulled into the pier about 45 minutes to an hour after the projected time, and from there we were shuttled towards any one of about five different buses. There was absolutely no order to which bus we got on, so it was all really a guess as to which one to board. Climbed into a random bus, from which we were driven for about an hour into Surat Thani. The buses all met up again in Surat Thani, and everyone was told to get off in the middle of some big yard. Our gear was offloaded, and we were shuttled onto a Tuk Tuk. The tuk tuk then took about a 10 minute trip to some random restaurant that was apparently the "confirmation office." We ate lunch there, and waited until 4:30, which is when we were told the bus would be coming to get us. At 4:45, another Tuk Tuk arrived, and we were told to board that one. We climbed on, further confused at to exactly what was happening. At least there were some other Canadians to talk Oilers with.

This tuk tuk brought us to yet another restaurant. Only difference from the other one: It was seedier and farther out of town. I'm pretty sure we asked about 20 times when the bus was coming, and everytime we got the same answer: "Five minutes, five minutes." When did the bus actually arrive??? 6:30 PM. In case you were wondering, we were supposed to be in Phuket at 6:00.

The bus showed up, and it already looked pretty full. There was also a very small minibus there. The guides told us that the minibus was going to Phuket and we should get on that. We saw that there was definitely too many people to fit on a minibus, so we waited until it was completely packed, and then we made them put us on a proper bus. Only problem, there was four of us, including the other two canadians we met, and only three seats. This forced the very capable tour guide to grab a stool from the restaurant and put it in the middle of the aisle for one of the other canadians to sit on. A very comfortable journey I guarantee. The bus pulled away from the restaurant around 7:30.

The actual plan from here was to take the bus to Krabi, board a boat, and take that to the island, from where we would grab another bus that would take us into Phuket town. Unbelievably, since obviously this is a very capable bus service, the boat had already left, so we had to detour to take the bridge to Phuket, which added another two hours to our journey. The really great part, which thrilled me straight outta my head, was that the guy I was sitting beside on the bus actually left Ko Pha Ngan four hours after we did, and we ended up on the same bus. I am now the picture of happiness and in no way am harboring any thoughts of extreme physical pain to inflict on the bus staff.

After spending a peachy four hours on the bus, we arrived at another roadside stop, which was, of course, another tour office. At this one, everyone was forced to get off the bus. There was one tour guide, that I guarantee must have almost wet himself from all the people that were two seconds away from pounding him into a pulp. From here, the story gets even better.

The large bus departs, with forty people sitting on the side of the road. Now what's left? one minibus, that can carry a max of 10 passengers. This bus soon departs with the 10 people that are actually going to Patong Beach. The rest of us were told that we were buying tickets to go to Phuket town. The tour guide further tried to screw us around and tell us that more minibuses were coming. What was actually happening? The one minibus that just left would be heading to Patong, then heading back, picking up another load for Phuket Town, and then coming back again, etc. etc. etc. For informations sake, it's a one hour round trip from the place we were stuck to either Phuket town or Patong.

At this, the two Irish guys we were with started getting Furious. It was midnight, and we were stuck on the side of the road, probably for at least another hour or so. The solution, run onto the highway and start flagging down locals. He flags down a truck about the size of a ford ranger, except a bit smaller. The box of his truck has coolers etc. in it already and its pretty full. Still, the guy agrees to take us into Phuket town. Six of us grab our bags, throw them into the back, and climb aboard. I was sitting on the side of the box, holding on for dear life, and Nevin was hanging his feet out the back, and sitting on his bag because we were so crammed in. The driver clearly had done this before, because he had no problem speeding along at about 100 km/h the whole way into the town. The journey was made even beter by the fact that the roads were wet, and my back got soaked by splashes. We arrived in Phuket town, and found a relatively seedy piece of accomodation for about $8 for one night. All in all, if you dont count the cockroaches, or rotting wood in the door frames, it was alright.

So that was our journey. We spent one night in Phuket, and then came down to Patong. Looked around for a place, and found one that you had to walk through a couple bars to get to. It didn't seem like the worst idea ever...yet. At night, the street that our little piece of heaven was located on turns into the biggest palace of sin you could imagine. Nothing but bars with less savoury girls, and guys slightly presenting themselves as girls, peddle their wares. We decided to spend that night pretty much sitting in our place playing cards, taking walks, and chilling out. The next day, Mike was coming in, so we moved into a three person place in a different part of Patong. Much better place, and still really cheap. Neven and I spent the day on the beach body surfing and getting bashed around by the waves. I probably shouldn't be partaking in this, due to the whole rib situation, but I couldn't help myself. They don't really start stinging until the walk back to our place anyways.

Mike arrived that night and joined us at a little pub for a pint or two. We spent today on the beach again, and we bought boogie boards for $13, which we are far from mastering. We're going to stay here for another couple days, and keep hitting the beach and boogie boarding. After that, it's off to Phi Phi to chill out for a while.

One last thing, the waves on this beach are pretty insane compared to all the other beaches we've been on. You really get thrown around on that boogie board. That's about all for now, but remember to check out our last blog, as it now has some fantastical pictures.