After wiping out the northern tip of Indonesia, the killer currents and waves of the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 headed for the western shore of Phuket, Thailand’s largest island off the southern peninsula. The tourists and locals at popular Patong Beach noticed the tide coming in at an unusual time and then became alarmed as the water rose to the point where it started flooding the streets beyond the beach. A few minutes later without warning, the sea surged inland with powerful waves sending flood waters into the town as far back as one kilometer. Close to three-hundred people lost their lives at Patong that day with over five hundred sustaining serious injuries and over seven hundred missing including tourists and locals. We stayed in a small hotel in Patong Beach for two days, and there is no evidence left of one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.
We arranged transportation to Phuket through a local company that provides rides to most major destinations about three hours from Krabi. They sent a minivan to pick us up from our apartment and deliver us to their hub where we waited for a late morning departure. The guy that drove our fourteen-passenger van to Phuket was barking mad, and we listened to him laugh, whistle, and talk to himself for the entire three hours we were on the road. When he wasn’t talking to himself, he dialed up friends with whom he loudly conversed even when we motored through a driving rainstorm with the van hydroplaning all over the road. By the time we reached the depot on Phuket island, we were ready to ditch this guy, but in an effort to drum up some side work, he offered us a ride to our hotel for half the price of a taxi, so we put up with him for another long half hour.
The front desk of Golden House Hotel was located inside the Baoli Italian restaurant right in the heart of the Patong Beach business district. The friendly desk clerk got us settled quickly in a large room on the first floor where we discovered after about an hour that the air conditioner wasn’t cooling the room. A new room on the third floor proved to be the solution, and we finally relaxed looking out to the busy street below from our balcony. Patong Beach forms a sandy crescent along the edge of a large lagoon that contains a huge swimming area with luxury yachts parked in the water outside the boundary. The business district extends back into a valley over two kilometers away from the beach, and jungle covered mountains enclose the entire area giving it an exotic look. There had been rain in the area all morning as deep puddles alongside the road attested, and there were still heavy clouds hovering over the mountains, but the sun was out, and Deena and I felt like exploring.
Within an hour, we had discovered the nearby market full of stalls with all kinds of cheap food, pharmacies, convenience stores, and numerous tourist booths selling transportation to destinations all over south Thailand. Our two best finds were the 7-Eleven across the street from the hotel with an ATM right out front and Coffee Mania that served a rich cup of coffee only two doors down. One of the most difficult tasks in all our wandering has been collecting the necessities for survival after long travel days that leave us weary. Where is the ATM? Where can we buy groceries and bottled water? Where is the pharmacy? What about transportation? For the most part, we’ve been able to select lodging near most of those things, but some areas have proved to be a challenge especially during short stays. Phuket had everything we needed within a two-block walk plus one of the most famous beaches in the world about a ten-minute stroll away. There is also a Hard Rock Cafe in Phuket, the presence of which generally denotes the importance of a city in society, and while there’s no denying the quality of their memorabilia collection, it is typically the best place to get the highest priced, mediocre food in the world—meh, I’m over it.
After a late afternoon nap, we walked down to the beach to research lounge chair locations for the next day, and we enjoyed checking out the souvenir shops along the way. The sun was setting, and the sight of colorful parasails criss-crossing the inlet against thick clouds full of pink and purple tints was a treat to watch. Hunger drove us back to our neighborhood market, and we dined on a variety of foods like deep fried spring rolls, baked potatoes with butter and melted cheese, barbecued ribs, and doner kebab served in fresh pita bread. We finished the meal with some chocolate pancakes, and the grand total was less than ten dollars—we love Thailand.
With only one full day to spend in Phuket, we were up early the next morning, and after munching on BLT sandwiches for breakfast and tanking up on hot coffee, we headed out for a morning at Patong Beach. We secured an umbrella and two lounge chairs for the day and were soon bobbing up and down in the warm blue water of the Andaman Sea looking back at the busy business district beyond the shore. After an hour or so, we noticed storm clouds building over the mountains, and we began to prepare for a quick evacuation which proved to be fortuitous as the clouds opened with a drenching rain that blocked the view of the bay. We found refuge in an uncrowded restaurant across from the beach where the proprietor served us warm cheese prata and told us we could stay there all afternoon if we liked, and thanks to the rain, we almost did. Deveny and I did sneak off to shop for a bit and managed to find a sweet pair of Converse Chuck Taylors to replace her worn out three-year-old pair. We hailed a tuk tuk back to the Golden House and called it an afternoon.
The heavy rains moved out of the valley and thankfully removed some of the humidity. The evening air felt cool and fresh as we walked back to the market next door and enjoyed a light supper of chicken and rice. Even with the rainy weather, everyone walking around Patong Beach seemed to be in a good mood, which is a typical state no matter the location in Thailand. Most of the tourists in this area come from European countries like Germany and the Czech Republic mixed with Australians and native Thais on holiday—so we heard a wide variety of accents as we people watched during dinner. Like most major beach areas around the world, the nightlife around Phuket is legendary for its bawdy nature, but we somehow still managed to have fun without visiting the bars and naughty places. We enjoyed ourselves in a place that I’m thankful has recovered from the horror of thirteen years ago.
Another challenge we often face is moving from one location to another in countries where not all options are available on the internet. The bigger jumps can usually be worked out online, but we still have to figure out local buses and taxis for the short trips under two-hundred kilometers. We scour travel forums to get a general idea of how much a trip should cost and then hit the streets looking for purveyors of in-country transportation. We thankfully found such a place just down the street from the Golden House Hotel. An obliging man working a small stall near the river offered us a good taxi rate to travel three hours north to Khao Sok National Park, our next destination, and we set a pick-up time of 10:00 the next morning. After a good night’s sleep and hot showers, we ate a light breakfast, picked up our freshly laundered clothes from the front desk, and boarded a huge air-conditioned van to reluctantly leave Phuket and the friendly tourists and locals at Patong Beach. We’re getting back to nature at place that claims to be the most beautiful national park in the world—we’ll see about that.
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