Today I travel to Phuket, but I will have about 3 hours in Phi Phi Islands. TKT Travel is providing my taxi transport to the boat terminal in Krabi Town, and I must meet the driver at 8:45 AM. So, I get up about 7:20, and go next door to the breakfast buffet, except that this time I just have pancakes and coffee, 80B! I meet the driver about 8:40 and we are off. The boat terminal is south of Krabi Town, with a fairly new terminal building, and a long pier/walkway that takes you out to the boat. It is now low tide, and I can see why they need such a long pier.
The boat is waiting. It is a typical ferry boat, with about 9 across seating. Instead of airline seats, these are rattan seats with cushions. I find an empty seat in the lower level--I wanted to sit upstairs but the worker waved me downstairs. Later I realize that they just wanted to fill the lower level first. They take my larger suitcase, but I keep my computer bag with me. Later I see that my suitcase is at the bottom of a large pile of luggage. The passengers are a 50-50 mix of locals and tourists, and the boat probably holds about 150 people. A few people are standing on an outside deck, but it is very hot in the sun. I meet two youn g ladies from Japan who are vacationing in Phi Phi for a few days--they only have one week vacation. I go back inside, and a young Thai lady sits next to me, and there is a Thai mother and baby boy in the seats in front of us. The boy is very cute, and he and I play peak-a-boo and he likes to clap my hand. My seatmate is either living in Krabi and visiting her family in Phi Phi, or the other way around. We could not communicate well enough to clarify this. The boat leaves about 9:40, and we arrive at Phi Phi by 11:00.
There are two Phi Phi islands, the larger one to the north, and a small unpopulated one to the south. We put in at the northern island, Phi Phi Don. There is a large crescent shaped natural harbor area and the main boat dock is in the middle. The harbor area is very busy, and there are two other ferry boats at the dock when we arrive. We tie up alongside one of them, and we walk across that boat to the dock when we disembark. I wait for my suitcase to reappear at the bottom of the pile, and walk into the town. Directly in front of the dock there is a luggage service, and so I check my large bag (20B), but carry my computer bag.
I spend the next couple hours just walking around Phi Phi Don, first walking south as far as the pathway goes, and then back north into the main part of town. At one point I stop at a travel service and internet café, where I arrange for a hotel in Phuket (the Phuket Erawan Guest House; a room with fan, no a/c, for 600B), and also briuefly check my email. There are no streets with cars. Not as busy as Ao Nang, and very quaint, with lots of narrow walkways lined with small shops and vendors. There are a couple counstruction sites where new hotels are being built. Similar to Ao Nang there are lots of Europeans, but I also see Japanese. There are lots and lots of people! Yes, it really is high season.
My boat to Phuket leaves at 2:30, with boarding at 2:00, so at about 1:15 I find a restaurant next to the dock and have lunch. Yes, the usual. At 2:00 I retrieve my suitcase and walk out to the dock. There is one boat on the left side, and several boats tied together on the right side. I walk over to the left side boat and say "Phuket?", and they wave me to the right side. I go to the first boat on the right side, and a man takes my ticket voucher and tells me boat number 4--go to the 4th boat in the line-up. So I do that, but when I get to the 4th boat they ask me for my ticket. I explain that I already gave my ticket to a man at the first boat. Apparently this was not the way things should be done, and so I had to go back to the dock and look for the man. Well, there were hundreds of people crowding onto the dock and getting into one of the 7 boats that were tied together. There was no way to find him. However, I did find a lady who was with the man when I gave him my ticket voucher, and she hepled me explain to one of the other ticket-takers on the dock, and I eventually received a yellow sticker which allowed me to get on boat number 4 to Phuket! Whew!
The boat was very crowded by the time I had solved my boarding problem, and so I went up to the outside upper deck. From there I could watch the sea of humanity, or perhaps I should say river of humanity, that continued to pour onto the 7 boats. Where did all of these people come from? We finally pulled away from the dock at about 2:50. I sat on the upper deck for the entire trip, with my back to the sun, and my feet dangling over the side. With the wind from our boat speed it was reasonably comfortable.
We arrived in Phuket Town at about 4:20. It took quite awhile for the boat to unload, and for my larger suitcase to appear. While on board most people, including me, had signed-up for a minibus to their respective hotel. So after getting my suitcase I found my minibus group--a couple, two Thai ladies, and me. We were all going to Patong Beach, the main tourist beach in Phuket. Our minibus is actually a very nice van, with comfortable seating and air conditioning. Well, we must have hit rush hour. The traffic getting out of Phuket Town was very slow, and when we got nearer to Patong Beach the traffic came to a complete stop. We inched forward for about an hour. I remark to the others in the van that if I did not have luggage I would get out and walk--many people were walking past us. Within a couple minutes I was the only passenger left in the van! The others walked! Apparently they knew where they were going. Eventually four ambulances with sirens blaring went the other way. There had been a very bad accident at the bottom of the hill where the highway enters Patong. I had hoped to see the sunset, but we do not get into Patong until about 7:00!
The van dropped me off at my hotel, the Erawan Guest House. It is a smallish place, abut 4 floors, walk-up. I am in room 405. There is no a/c, just a ceiling fan. Oh well. I drop off my stuff and soon head out to see what I can. I am near the north end of town. A half-block west is the main north-south street, and the beach is about a half-mile west of me. I walk down the main drag, thinking about dinner. As I pass a large outdoor restaurant a young lady standing at the entrance invites me in. I ask her if they have noodles, veggies, and shrimp, and she says yes. OK, I guess this will be OK. So I sit outside, facing the street and sidewalk, watch the people go by, and have a nice dinner. 80B, and a Chang beer, 40B.
I continue walking south along the main drag, and soon get into the cetner of town. Yes, this is a very popular tourist town. The streets are packed with people--Europeans, Asians, some Americans. There are lots of tailors that will make a man's suit for as little as $65! I am tempted, but I have read that refittings are very important, and I will not be here in Phuket to do this. Maybe I will do it in Bangkok. We'll see.
As I am walking around I pass thru a couple "entertainment" areas, which are bar-girl bars lined up one after the other on both sides of a center walkway. Amazing. As I walk past the girls all yell and wave and invite me to come to their bar. Eventually I agree and am soon drinking another beer with a bar girl while playing a game of vertical 4-in-a-row tic-tac-toe. She is very good at this, having played it many many times! We play maybe 10 times, and I win a couple. I then wander over to another bar, where I take part in an other popular bar game--pounding nails into a slab of a tree, using the narrow end of a hammer. Each person takes turns, and the person who pounds the nail all the way in first wins. This is actually rather difficult--you can either be more careful and hit the nail each time but not very hard, or you can strike hard but miss the nail more often. At one point there are about 5 of us--3 ladies, me, and a guy from Italy--hitting at nails. I think I win one time. One of the ladies, a lefty, is very good at this. She strikes hard each time, and though she often misses, when she hits it dead-on she really pounds it in far!
The girls are all full of smiles, and some of them are pretty smart and can speak english OK. It makes me wonder why they are working here, rather than a regular job. I ask some of them how long they have been in Phuket, and how they like it. The uniform answer is they have been here just a short while--perhaps a few months--and they do not really like it but it is a way to make money which was not possible in their home town. I also notice that they do not accept every invitation from a man--they pick and choose (at least now, when it is still early). Hmmm, what a strange life.
I finally get tired of missing nails and walk back to the room. I sleep OK, but the fan is not very cooling, and every time someone else down the hall opens or closes their door my door rattles. Ugh.
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