We have spent the last three days at different beaches along the west shore of Phuket. We have been to Patong Beach, Karon Beach and Lamp Sing Beach. Each one is different but the same. All the beaches seem to rent chairs and umbrellas. All the beaches have vendors offering you cold water, pop, fresh fruit, ice cream, nuts, chicken kabobs and other food. All the beaches have a couple jet skis, banana boats, parasailing and long boats for rent or hire. Every beach has clear, warm ocean water, with soft, sandy beaches and fishies.
I love to people watch at the beach. There are tons of different languages going on. There are many tourists here from Europe and Australia, more than from the United States, probably because it is easier and less expensive for them to come to Thailand than other places for holiday. Some of the ladies from Europe go topless, even though the Thai culture does not approve. There are many older Caucasian, men with beautiful young Thai women. There are all kinds of bathing suits and all kinds of bodies. There are a lot of tattoos and piercings. I put on my dark sun glasses and watch all the people.
At Patong Beach, Molly went on a jet ski with Will, from Paris. All three of us had lovely massages in the outside air. We bought fresh pineapple and ate it off the stick. At Karon Beach, we went for a long walk the length of the beach, had pomela fruit got sunburned. At Lamp Sing Beach, we bought nuts, saw a monkey and I got stung by a jellyfish. The Thai locals rushed to help me, bringing fresh lime to rub on the sting, which really wasn’t that bad.
That is the way of the Thai people. Helpful, sincere, kind and most with big smiling grins. We have seen that with the tuk tuk drivers, the shop keepers, the masseuse people and even the street vendors (most of the time) and directly with our friend Kai. She has been wonderful in showing Molly and I around and sharing the country that she obviously loves. She has bought us little gifts, arranged travels for us, suggested activities that are good, taken Molly out to hear music and taken us to Phuket Town for the night market. She doesn’t seem to want anything in return except our friendship, which she has definitely won hands down. I want to do something nice for her or buy her something, but I also know she is very proud and does not want my money.
The Phuket Town market was something. Like a vision out of foreign film, I was overwhelmed by the activity, the noise and the action of the place. First we walked thru rows of vendors, selling more of the same stuff, but even cheaper……lots of crap actually…..but some fun bargains. A lot of knock off stuff, mixed in with some possibly real seconds, I couldn’t tell. Molly was in heaven……she proudly found more crap to buy. Me too, but not as much.
The food area was more interesting to me. Everything was there to choose from. Piles of meat on skewers and piles of deep fried chicken parts (like talons). Lots of stuff: live soft shelled crabs, cockles and mussels, tiger prawns, octopus, squid, pig heads, cow tongues. Fruits I had never seen before and lots of sugar cane, pineapple, pomela, strawberries and bananas. There were huge oil pots and grills where things could be cooked to order. Big pots of soup, woks frying, noodles boiling. It was amazing and incredible….I wanted to stay and try all kinds of things (but not everything).
