Thailand - pt. 1 - Phuket

So we're now back in Malaysia after a 15 day excursion through the beaches of south thailand. As we only found out on the border, Polish citizens are only allowed a short 15 day transit visa rather than the standard 30 days. Still, we managed to do plenty in that space of time and it's flooding around bangkok so we saved getting our feet wet. :)

First stop was Phuket after a 12 hour boat and bus journey. I'd promised Kasia it would only be 5 hours at the most so she wasn't a happy bunny when we finally got there at 8pm and checked in to the On-On Hotel (which was apparantly used in the opening scene of the Beach, not that we recognized it) in the centre of Phuket town. The Lonely Planet described the place as 'full of character', an interesting way to describe a slum.. Well, in all honesty, it wasn't that bad, though the dodgy electrical wiring about the place would have made even my dad proud ;)

We got the bus out to the Ao Karon beach described in the guidebook as undeveloped and laid-back. Turned out to be a nice place though evidently alot had changed since my 5 year old 'South East Asia on a shoestring' was published. Accomodation prices have shot up, no doubt in response to the rebuilding investment since the Tsunami which apparantly hit the place quit hard. the place is also full of swaky hotels and spa resorts which I decided we out of our budget.

We spent two nights there in total, walking about the place, eating, getting sunburnt on the beach and sheltering from the intermitent rain.
We also never actually met anyone who worked at the guest house which seemed to be taken care of by the resident american surf dude 'Zack' who'd been staying there for the last 2 months trying to make a living selling photos of sunsets and entering surf competitions. Unfortunately he wasn't doing so well so was ready for his next venture, making a TV documentary about lady boys.