So I arrived Christmas Eve night in Phuket. It is hot and muggy. I miss Chiang Mai. My transport car doesn’t arrive…. so I go to the booth and get a transport paying my Baht for a voucher. After a 20 minute wait several of us get put into a minivan…. I’m not sure how he knows which hotel we’re going to…. when we arrive at a tourist office… where we all have to sit at individual desks with attendants who ask us which hotel which they write down and at the same time asking us if there are any tours we want to take and how long we’re here for…… I get up and wait by the minivan as soon as I have my hotel name written in Thai. The van drives around and I get off at my hotel.

It’s an OK hotel however there is a cost for everything. I left a handtowel on the balcony and they missed it in their count and tried to charge me 200 Baht…. they never refilled the soap or shampoo dispensers… when I tried to check out and wanted a couple of extra hours. The first time I asked it would be 500 baht an hour vs Bangkok where it had been 120 Baht an hour extra. When I asked the front desk 6 hours later it would only be 400 Baht an hour….. I paid the amount because the thought of hunting around Phuket for 5 hours without air conditioning was horrible. 

Phuket is a tourist town – lots of British/German/French/Indian/Chinese tourists. On Xmas day I went to the beach, had breakfast at a restaurant. After dinner I strolled through Bangor (sp?) street. The cries of cheap beer, adult entertainment filled the air. I will write a different post on that. I did visit Phuket beach.

On Boxing Day I took a half day tour to 3 islands near Phuket. I booked it through the lady next to the hotel which the hotel told me they had no affiliation with. There are lots of tour operators here and the air reeks of the shadiness. The islands were very…. commercial with booths setup, the service wouldn’t let you keep your bags on the boat but you could buy a beach chair to make sure belongings protected. The water was clear for snorkeling with some good fish but with the tide going out….. on the last island the fruit and sandwiches turned out to be a bun with chocolate in it, a piece of pineapple and a piece of watermelon. 

I am not unhappy about leaving Phuket behind. I enjoyed Bangkok and loved Chiang Mai but phuket is just a tourist town with a lot of hustlers. You can see those in the USA.