Travel to Live. Live to Travel

Four Phrases that Describe It… Crowded. Touristy. Dirty. Bangkok-On-The-Beach.

The last place we stayed in Phuket was Patong Beach, pretty much the tourist epicenter of Phuket and dear lord does it show. While there’s lots more shops and restaurants to choose from, there’s very little charm. The beach was incredibly crowded and the water quality was pretty poor (compared to the beaches just a few kilometeres away).

The main tourist entertainment strip is along Bangla Rd., which is often compared to Patpong in Bangkok–girlie shows, bars, prostitutes. I suppose some people would find it to be a den of sin and disgusting (read reviews on tripadvisor and you’ll see plenty of people bothered by it), but I thought it was pretty tame and silly. Then again, I’ve never really been bothered by girlie shows or transvestites.

Without a doubt, if you like the party scene then Patong is a pretty good place to stay… but personally, if we ever go back, I’d stay at a nearby beach and just rent a car (screw tuk-tuks!) up to Patong.

Four Phrases That Describe It… Family-oriented. Club Med. Pretty. Expensive.

Sunset over Kata Beach

For our next beach, we decided to head down south from Karon to Kata beach. The difference between the two is pretty stark, despite being only a few minute drive from the other. Kata felt much more developed, but at the same time not in an ugly necessarily. Club Med takes up a huge chunk of the land, but is hidden behind a wall and a line of pine-trees. From the beach, the development is hidden behind the trees which makes it feel more “remote”–but of course it’s not as the endless line of beach chairs indicates.

Being near a Club Med, there were many, many, many more families and children there. As we’re not huge lovers of children, this was kind of a downpoint for us. However, I’m sure this is not a bad thing to most people out there. Despite the children, it was relatively quiet. There was the occasional jet-ski motor sounds, but other than that, not much to report. Sand and water wise, the sand is white, extremely fine, and powdery. The water is quite clear and pretty as well, though the waves were a touch bigger in Kata than they were in nearby Karon. Supposedly there’s quite good surfing there, but we weren’t there during the right season.

Kata also has some decent food options, but they were all quite pricey (remember: we are on a string tight budget so pricey to us is actually quite reasonable.)

In the end, out of the four beaches we ended up going to during our 10 days in Phuket, we thought Kata was the best overall choice if you want a mix of entertainment, food, a beautiful beach, but smaller crowds (but it’s still pretty crowded.)

Here’s a tip we learned after the first two days in Phuket: the crowds absolutely disappear after 2-3pm. So if you have no absolute necessity to sunbake, then going mid-afternoon is a pretty surefire way to have the beach nearly to yourself (all things considering, this is still the premier island to visit in Thailand.) Despite the beautiful daily sunsets, the beach is pretty devoid of people except joggers, romantics, and local Thais swimming fully clothed or playing beach soccer, definitely not a bad way to go.

Four Phrases To Describe It…. Scandanavian. Pretty. Overpriced. Quiet

Karon Beach. Busy yet pretty quiet

Our first destination on Phuket is Karon beach, located midway down the island on the west-coast. While it’s not as built-up as other places in Phuket, it certainly doesn’t feel desolate. Instead, I think it lacks a lot of charm. See, when you go to a place like Patong, when you know it’s going to be all nightclubs and bars and tourist crap, well you expect it to lack charm. However, it usually makes up for that in excitement, nightlife, and pleothera of activities. Waikiki is still nice despite being a commercial hellhole, and so is Cancun. Karon, unfortunately, touristy without much to do (besides girlie bars). However, the beach is very pretty with squeaky golden sand and clear water. During low tide, the water gets too shallow to really swim, but it’s nice to just sit in and enjoy the sunset. Despite the fact the beach is quite crowded, it’s full of middle-aged Europeans who are generally quieter than your typical spring break/gap year crowd so it can be pretty relaxing. There’s also not that many touts on the beach and they generally leave you alone if you want to be left alone, though we find it pretty comical that none of the food stalls have prices on the menus. Judging from overhearing what they charge you, the bigger a dumb tourist you seem (or the richer), the more they try and charge you. Lesson learned: look like a poor backpacker.

One of three Asians seen on Karon beach today =P

Something that was a bit weird was seeing all the topless middle-aged (obese) women. Now, I have nothing against topless sunbathing–I’m no prudish American, and I’ve done it before and thought it was liberating (nevermind the fact I lived in Japan where naked bathing with your friends (female) is matter-of-course.) However, countless literature, travel guides, pleas from everywhere urge people to respect Thailand’s culture and NOT do it here. Yet seeing people flagerantly ignore is kind of sad. We are very, “in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But I guess there’s always people who will do whatever the hell they want no matter where they go.

One last thing–this place is absolutely devoid of Thai tourists, hell, it’s devoid of any non-Caucasian European tourists. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but I have always loved and sought out diversity. Also, I personally think it a bit odd to be in a foreign country, yet the only locals are people you see are the ones serving you pineapple or trying to sell you sunglasses. Yes, I know most tourist beaches around the world work this way–lucky for me, I know a few beaches where locals and foreigners mix pretty evenly. =P This is not one of them, but it’s still beautiful and a nice place worth visiting.

 

beautiful boracay

Originally uploaded by Janelle (Himene).

The Philippines was amazing. For less than the cost of my flight to America (it’s true, in total for flight, hotel, plus 10 days of expenses I spent $1500–75% of which was the travel cost to the Philippines) I and 6 of my friends experienced beautiful weather, hospitality, and wonderful food. Boracay was amazing. Yeah, it had annoying hawkers — but at least they were comical and polite. I’ve been to a lot of places with people harassing you for boat tours, but none of those dudes called you “ma’am” or just laughed when you said “sorry, scared of the ocean.”

Every single day in Boracay was picture perfect and I will have to say this is the best beach unknown to the Western tourist world (and I have been to Cape Cod, Virginia Beach, Miami, Malibu, Maui, Honolulu, Thailand, Bondi Beach, and the Carribbean to name a few world famous beaches–to be fair, I don’t surf and I prefer wave-less tropical beaches.) It wasn’t just the warm, clear water — but it was the atmosphere. Somewhere between a party and a relaxation paradise… oh, by the way, where else can you get a 2 hour massage for $15?

Anyways, discussing my spring break trip during the height of rainy season in Japan is depressing.

p.s. That photo has been touched in absolutely no way using any photo editing device, nor were there any tricks of light… Every single day looked exactly like that photo. It was almost overwhelming.