Living it up at the hotel cali..err phuket

So I used my best western points from travelling with work to put me up for a few nights in a
best western here on Phuket. Phuket is thailand's major travel
destination, especially for short vacations and package tourists.
Everything can be booked and done from here, though at a price. It's
probably one of the more expensive places in thailand. They have all
the tours to like the famous james bond island, or the island where
the beach was filmed, or khao sok where I just was, etc, etc. It's
good for the people on short holidays, but for me as a budget
traveller, it's by far cheaper to go visit these places on my own
rather than book the trips here. I'm here mainly to pick up a
package, see a few of the site on phuket island, and mostly some R&R,
which is unique for me. Phuket is also famous for its Patong beach
which is a huge beautiful strip of white sand and also has a lot of go
go bars and prostitution on its nearby streets. It reminds me a bit
of a hawaii or a cancun, or what I imagine the caribbean to be like.
Lots of fancy places and then tourists traps like monkey shows, tiger
shows, fancy thai dancing, atv-ing, zip lining, diving, waterskiing,
sailing, you name it. Anything you want to do here, you can.

I'll probably make my way to see the infamous patong beach at some
point, but I don't think I'll do a whole lot else (maybe splurge on
one of the thai shows which do look quite cool in that elaborate las
vegas way, and I find the thai history and culture of old quite
intriguing and fascinating...possibly due to my enjoyment of the king
and I). Kind of just take in the luxury. I'm at a best western a bit
out of town in the northeastern part of the island. It's incredibly
fancy!! Free drink and fresh fruit on arrival. Two swimming pools
overlooking gorgeous phang nga bay, pool swim up bar, free pool and
ping pong (if only bro were here for our island ping pong matches with
pulled up shorts british style!), staff at your service at a snap of
the fingers, free internet (which has allowed me to catch up on all my
emails, credit card payments, blogging, trip planning), a monstrous
buffet breakfast with thai food, sausage, eggs, made to order omelets,
bacon, wheat bread, croissants, cereal, chicken, fresh fruit, fresh
fruitjuice, MILK, everything. You don't know how good that breakfast
is to someone who has been eating asian food for basically every meal.
My room is awesome too. Aircon (which is a blessing to keep the
humidity down after everything from the rainforest is drenched...even
stuff that never got rained on is mil-dewey and damp just b/c of the
humidity), a huge bed with a REAL mattress and pillows, a large flat
screen tv, a hot shower, and also a separate bath. lights that
actually light up the room, lots of space to throw my junk everywhere
to dry out and reorganize. Lots of fancy soaps and toiletries that I
will be sure to take with me for later use. The manager here, Yusif,
is incredibly nice. As it's the down season here (cloudy, though not
really rainy), I was the only one here the first night, so I have it
all to myself, though now that it's the weekend a bunch of thais from
bangkok have come in. The hotel is up on a cliff with a great view,
and it's a quick walk (or free shuttle) down to a little beach.
Everymorning, they also will take you for free on a boat through the
bay to a cool little island with a beach. It was deserted the first
day that I went, so I had the island all to myself. They also let you
take out nice kayaks for free, which is quite the bonus. It's like
one of those fancy resorts you think of when you think of Hawaii
(think Forgetting Sara Marshall movie resort). The manager said they
are 4 stars, but trying to become 5 stars. The main problem is their
location is a bit far from the happening part of phuket. He was
laughing how I was staying at basically zero star (shared bathroom
outhouse style, no shower just using buckets from the water that is
also used to flush the toilet, lights that don't work, bungalows that
are falling down complete with mosquitos, spiders, a semi sorta
mattress, poop usually on the mattress and sheets (if they give you
any), most likely from geckos, or at least I hope not mice, hot and
stale and humid, not secure, etc (but hey that's part of the adventure
right)) places and much admired me for that. The amazing thing is
this fancy place most likely costs less than the best western in
caldwell (overlooking farm city), and I know that it's half as
expensive as the best westerns i stayed in boston, san diego,
indianapolis, and seattle for my job. So that in itself is quite
amazing. It's way over my budget for here, but for what people would
consider as expensive back home, it is not at all. But regardless, it
is so nice to have a little comfort, cuddle up in the soft pillows to
watch some tv after hot shower (the bathtub is used for my laundry),
swim in a clean pool, and feel a bit like a thai king of old. There's
nothing wrong with indulging in a little luxury every now and then!

The first day at the hotel I did the island tour like I said and then
just enjoyed the two huge and beautiful pools, read a bit, used the
internet for a while and watched the movie jumper on tv. Nice and
relaxing day. The cool manager, who really likes me I think b/c I'm
not like the typical tourist here but am usually more travelling and
living like the locals, wanted to see my pictures, so we went through
some of my pictures from burma and the philippines. He then took me
to a wedding reception for a muslim woman that got married who works
for the hotel. So we got to eat some good thai food. He told me his
sister is engaged to a new zealand guy (he showed me the picture and
he's a chunky balled white guy that looks an awful lot like a sturgis
harley rider while his sister is a cute, young, thin thai), but he's
happy for it. In both thai tradition (as well as muslim I learned at
the reception), the man has to ask the woman's parents for permission.
After they say yes, the families agree on how much money the man's
family will give to the woman's family. Even after the wedding, the
woman's family blocks the man from getting to the woman in her bedroom
until he gives them money and more money before reaching the door. So
Yusif is quite excited b/c in this marriage he is going to get quite a
bit of money, a house, and a car!
The next day I took the breakfast buffet to town and then hung out by
the beach reading and then took the kayak out to explore around the
coast a bit and the mangrove forests in the area. The afternoon I did
a little repairing of some things I needed to with my backpacking kit
in the comfort of the ac room (they let me check out at 5) and then
just hung out reading at the pool, though mostly swimming b/c it was
too hot

That evening I met Yusif in town at the market as we both needed new watches and he treated me to dinner. Then we went out to have some beers with a friend who was the spa manager at one of the nicest resorts on the island and also a lady boy. It never ceases to amaze me how no one even thinks twice about lady boys. It seems to me like back home a 5 star resort wouldn't hire a lady boy, I mean vail resorts even made lucas shave his beard. But here they work everywhere and are just part of the society. Buffet sign in phuket: 200B man, 150B lady boy 100b woman, 70B child. Yusif was very generous and realizing I was on a budget let me crash at his apartment for two nights while I waited to pick up my poste restante package on monday. The next day I picked up my package and then explored a few nice beaches (laem sing, surin, kalaw, then got what I thought was a really cheap beer at the 7-11 to drink on Patong beach. It was called Siam, but it tastes like a mixture of beer, flat champagne and cider. But that's ok b/c it was only 75 cents for a liter. That night yusif treated me again to some thai food and cooked up some omelets and rice at his apartment. The next morning I caught a very to Ko Phi Phi (ko pee pee).