Seeing your name in lights

I've always wanted to see my name in lights, I just didn't expect it to be at a ladyboy cabaret!
We thought that Anne was looking in need of some kathoey based entertainment so last night headed over to Patong to see the show at Simon Cabaret.

It was a strangely entertaining song and dance cabaret show featuring some convincing and not so convincing "female" performers.

It was all good fun although one "lady" appeared to have a bit too much padding on her hips giving her an uncanny resemblance to Biggles in his flying trousers!

After the show we headed into central Patong to have a night out on Bangla Street. I'm trying to think of a nice way to describe Bangla Street but am really struggling since it is a road that seems to consist entirely of go-go bars, (the infamous) ping pong shows and prostitutes!

We had a very entertaining evening sat at a street-side bar watching the world go by, trying to work out if the various punters realised when they were in the company of a lady without an X-X chromosome pair.

The toilet at the bar had a very peculiar list of instructions of what not to do in the bathroom. Please skip over the next picture if you are easily offended!
To get back to Kata we took a sawngthaew, essentially a boy racer styled, maxed up, open sided, Dihatsu Sooty van with two rows of seats in the back. It was like being on a really scary roller coaster as we careered our way up and down the hills of Phuket back to our bungalows.

Really crazy golf

Apart from teaching Anne the finer points of advanced sunbathing, reviewing the local cuisine and guiding her through the full range of Thai beer, we've also had time to fit in some crazy golf!

Dino Park is a Flintstones / dinosaur themed 18 hole crazy golf course located on the headland between Kata and Karon beaches. The jungle setting around a 30ft high volcano spewing fire and smoke is really spectacular. However, I don't remember Tiger Woods ever having to negotiate stegosaurus poo on the fairway.
The taxi home wasn't much cop either.
I'd like to dedicate my victory to Ben and Kate . . . looks like that golf lesson that you got me with Robert Rock is finally bearing fruit!

Hello Anne

After 16 weeks on our own we now have our first visitor from home joining us . . . say hello to Anne.
Anne flew in via Doha to Bangkok on Sunday and meet up with her friend Grat for an evening in the Thai capital before flying down to join us in Kata on Monday afternoon. She'll be with us for a fortnight while we take in Kata, Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Anne has very kindly been a bit of a mule for us and carried some much missed items from blighty over in her luggage. A Sunday Times for me, a copy of Heat magazine for Liz and most importantly some Maynards Wine Gums!
She also stowed away some little surprises for us from my nieces, Kira and Erin. Thank you very much girls . . . we have missed you loads too!

What with all the stuff she has carried for us and the 6 packs of Hob Nobs for Grat it's a wonder that she has had any room for clothes in her bag.

We had reserved a room for her at Cool Breeze Bungalows where we are staying at Kata but weren't sure if she would like it. After 16 weeks of mainly backpacker budget accommodation we weren't sure if our standards had slipped too far for someone fresh from the plane. Thankfully Anne has quite low standards so we are ok!

Phuket part 1

We're currently on Phuket, which is the largest of Thailands islands, situated on the Southwestern side of the country in the Andaman Sea.

A few people had warned us that Phuket wasn't particularly nice and had become horribly over developed. As we made our way from the airport we feared that the warnings were looking like they may be correct. The first main resort we passed through, Patong, looked like all the worst bits of the Costa Del Sol had been lumped together, transported half way around the world and dumped on the back of the beach. A chaotic sprawl of ugly, characterless, high rise buildings. Patong also has a reputation of being one of Thailands premier resorts for sex tourists and is rammed full of go-go bars, sleazy clubs and of course the odd ladyboy or two.

The next resort down the coast, Karon, looked marginally better but still didn't set our pulses racing.

Thankfully the town where we are staying, called Kata, is much more like it. The beach here is the most beautiful we've been to so far on this trip. A mile long arc of white sand with crystal clear warm blue sea, backed by a small strip of mangrove. After 28 days in Myanmar it feels like we've arrived in nirvana.


Thankfully the town is also a lot more restrained than Patong and Karon, being set back from the beach and blending into the surrounding tree lined hills. The resort is predominantly used by Scandinavian, German and Italian tourists and so there's a different (dare we say nicer), quiter atmosphere than usual. Liz is getting sacred that she's turning into an old fogey being as she is enjoying the peace and quiet so much!

We have 4 days here in total, tomorrow we take the boat across to Ko Phi Phi and then onto Railay. Then we head back here to Kata where we'll meet up with our first visitor, Anne.

Despite the beaty of the resort the new warning signs and a small amount of the remaining rebuilding work that is still underway give a sobering reminder of the tsunami that struck here a on Boxing Day a little over 4 years ago. More than 6000 people died in on Thailand's Andaman Coast when a 15m high wave flattened the shoreline.