Travel Log #4: Trip to Phuket, Thailand
My monthly Airbnb stay in Bangkok ended on October 2nd and I had a reservation for a flight to Phuket and a room at Alfresco Hotel here in Patong beach on October 2nd.
I am staying 10 days in Patong Beach doing what I usually do, which is a lot of nothing! (I'm an expert at it!) I don’t have much of agenda in Phuket as I’ve been here before a number of times. And also I’ve been to Koh Phi Phi, Maya Beach, Krabi which are nearby and really gorgeous.
This time of year, Phuket is not that busy with tourism, although I feel it ramping up slowly. I think that I see prices creep up here too. It’ll be a madhouse in Dec., Jan., and February. I would not enjoy dealing with those big crowds at all. But now, it’s mellow. The past few days, I’ve written some blog posts on Gulfcoastcommentary at Blogger, some that aren’t posted on Substack yet. I copied a couple of them to Substack just a few minutes ago. It’s not a big deal.
The Alfresco is a pleasant surprise. I booked it through Hostelworld dot com and got my usual single (private) room with bathroom. It’s NICE! I’ve really enjoyed my stay here. My reservation included breakfast buffet—which was a pleasant surprise. For $20 per night, I thought it was quite good—with a giant king-sized bed and daily maid service and b’fast. There is rooftop pool, but I didn't use it. It's hot up there!
The beaches are the big attraction here on Phuket, but the entire town area is very crowded with massage businesses, restaurants, clubs, weed shops, street vendors, bars, hotels and really any and all touristy business that you can think of (plus more!). There’s and a Hard Rock Hotel and at least one Marriott. I can just imagine how this place is very crowded with tourists during peak periods.
I’m noticing large number of Indian tourists here. India is having an economic boom now and I think the number of Indian tourists reflects their increasing prosperity. I think many businesses in China are relocating to India (and other SE Asia countries)—fueling the boom there and here. There are plenty of Chinese, European and Russian tourists here as well. A large family of Russians are staying at Alfresco hotel. I don’t know their story. Maybe they are fleeing Russia? Fleeing a military draft?? Or maybe they intend to start a business here? I’ll try to find out before posting this. There are very few North Americans here—a few.
After having breakfast and doing some blogging, I usually head to the beach in the afternoon and take a seat in the shade or under an umbrella where Thai people are ready to serve you fruit shakes and/or beers (always in a coozie). Everyday here, there’s been a nice wind from the West on the beaches so it feels good. This is the rainy season here, so a few days here it’s been cloudy with rain showers off and on. Those rain-cooled days are nice too.
I’ve had some great food here, both on the street and in local restaurants in Phuket.
I have just one more night here remaining and then a flight to Kuala Lumpur tommorrow (Oct 12th). I have 3 weeks booked in an Airbnb in KL until Oct 31st when I fly to Katmandhu, Nepal.
One thing to mention. It’s possible to buy SIM cards in foreign countries. This is very handy because, even for walking trips, you can find your way using Google Maps with local phone network (internet) data. In Mexico, they call them: Chip (pronounced ‘Cheep’). ‘Sim card’ is understood everywhere else (I guess). I would recommend you buy your Sim card from some young person who has time to install it for you. I would be prepared to offer $10 to someone who can install your SIM, to set up your phone to make calls, send text messages and use 2G or 5G data. My Samsung A20 phone has a dual sim facility but it’s not 5G compatible. My laptop is 5G compatible. Usually, I have data once I install the new Sim card, so just having internet is a nice benefit.
When searching for directions on Google Maps, select the “Walking” method of travel and Google will select the best route.
Google translate on your phone is also helpful. Once you have phone data, you can have a chat with someone in a different language. That app even ‘speaks aloud’ what’s translated. I saw a young Russian kid using Google Translate (or maybe a Russian Translate program) and was able to talk with the receptionist here in Phuket and she could reply in Thai and it would translate into Russian. It was so nice, touching really. I think the kid was probably 12 years old and it was great that he could talk Russian into the phone, Google (or another service) translates it to Thai language and “Says aloud” (or just text) what is translated. Remember, Russian uses Cyrillic characters and Thai uses 42 characters (that look like they were derived from Sanskrit to me-but I don’t know anything!)
Here’s some pictures of Phuket—mostly beach pictures but a couple of pictures of the tourist streets:
Talk with you later!