Chapter 4, Thailand

We said goodbye to Singapore, which was lovely and hot and HELLO to rainy Thailand. I can't say I have ever arrived at a destination where its been raining so hard you can hardly see out the aeroplane window until the day I landed in Phuket.

It must be one of the worst feelings when you arrive on holiday and it's raining but determined not to get down about it we plodded on through the airport and out of arrivals. It was very hectic outside the arrivals gate, I was so glad that a colleague from work had given me the advice to make sure that I walked past all the chaos right outside the terminal and to walk round the corner and there I would see a taxi rank which was set prices and a lot cheaper than the quotes from the Thai men outside arrivals. We quickly jumped in a taxi and began the 40 minute journey to Patong Phuket's busiest tourist resort, I must say it was a bit of a culture shock starring out the window looking at how the people in Thailand live, but the they were so nice and helpful and also it was very safe to walk around the resorts.

We stayed in a very cheap hotel in the back streets of Patong about 15 minutes walk from the beach and I must say it was lovely! I could not believe that for 900 Thai Baht (£20) a night we could get a room as nice as that one, see pic's below

So after we had checked in, sorted ourselves out and been to the bar to get a cocktail we decided to go for a wander. It was a bit daunting at first walking along the road no pavements trying to dodge the scooters, and every other shop was a massage parlour with Thai girls outside saying "you want massage" which after a while became too much and we gave in and decided to have one, well you can't exactly say no when its only 250 Thai Baht (£5). An hour later after the best massage of my life I was feeling rather relaxed, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner and of course to go and check out Thailand's famous nightlife.

And what a shock the nightlife was, although I did expect more lady boys haha! After a nice Italian dinner we walked down to Bangalore Road It was crazy, hectic and buzzing. I don't actually think I can describe it you need to experience it for yourself.

The next day the weather was still a bit cloudy so we decided to go elephant trekking, It was amazing I had never been on an elephant they are so timid lovely animals.

 The elephant carried us up a hill to an amazing viewing point overlooking the sea it was spectacular

I also got to feed a baby elephant they had some milk, so cute.

By the afternoon the weather still had not picked up and as we were pondering around the stools and markets I walked past a scooter hire shop. Obviously my first thought was NO WAY I HAVE NOT GOT A DEATH WISH! but then I thought to myself "when in Rome" "when in Thailand" why not! So on we jumped I even had a pink helmet, which my friend who I went with Nicola then proceeded to call me Lady Penelope for the rest of the day.

It was extremely funny driving around on the scooters I must admit I did get rather scared on a few occasions and I had a near miss with a car when I went a bit too wide going around a corner, we drove all over the island that afternoon and found a lovely beach resort called Kata Beach.

We stopped and watched the sun go down on the beach and decided that we liked the resort that much that we would come down and spend a night there before we moved on to Phi Phi Island.

Next up Chapter 5 Kata Beach and Phi Phi Island.