The Last Days

Phuket III – The Last Days

Wake up at 8, how much I enjoy sitting outside in the early morning, listening to the waves breaking on the shore (now every day a little bit louder as we are nearing full moon).

Late breakfast, we decide to go to Patong and as there is no shuttle today we take a taxi for ourselves (costs 1’400, the shuttle would have cost us 1’200).

We are not impressed with the new (for us) huge shopping mall JungCeylon and do not buy anything except at Boots where we shop hair conditioner and aroma therapy stuff.

Cigarettes at 7-Eleven only cost 78 B. But the pictures on the packet are really horrible.

Give it up!

Nice taxi driver in a slightly battered Volvo, drive takes abount 30 minutes.

Afternoon spent doing nothing on the beach, a swim in the sea, the waves are getting bigger, nice. It is very warm.

A walk along the beach to a restaurant Kittipon has recommended, we have Yum Wan Sen (glass noodle salad with shrimps, very good, with lots of celery and sugar, no coriander) and Tom Pak (vegetable soup, very nice and light), two cokes and we pay 320 B. Seems like a storm is brewing, but in the end it stays with lightning and super coloured skies.

Finally make it to the lobby, Rebecca arranges our vegetarian meal on the flight back and I work on the wedding posts, in the end (2 ½ hours) I realise I have used the old blog address, Great, but we manage to fix it.

We order room service, lovely prawn spring rolls, Rebeccca has a rather doughy pizza Margherita, we want to watch a movie (Due Date), I fall asleep after 10 minutes.

Wake up at 8 (must have had about 10 hours of sleep), c + c outside, working on my diary and pictures. For me this is not work, I love what I am doing.

Breakfast, today I start with red curry with chicken and rice. Watching the birds fighting over bread, they have a strange strategy, it looks like wrestling, the winner is the one not lying on its back! The pictures I took do not show this are not good.

Writing postcards

We go to Canal Village, talk a long time with Alice, a lovely girl from the Northwest who is working on a commission basis trying to sell holidays to the resort guests. She receies 300 B (not even CHF 10.00) per guest who shows up on a 90 minute promo event. The guest receive a 100 $ voucher! Too bad she only gets the commission when people show up!

I find a pair of lovely trousers at Jim Thompson for Sandra in a deep red, her colour not mine, I chose pink. Rebecca buys some more postcards, she is now at no. 12, good girl.

Back to the hotel and off to the beach, nice surprise visit of Sasi and Patrick, they bring 991 picture prints! They stay at Kata Beach with his sister and family. Lovely to see them, they add such a sense of liveliness to our group.

We later have a drink or two and some nibbles (gai satay, seafood salad, deep fried calamari, sandwiches and fries) at the Casuarina’s.

The happy bridegroom

The happy bride

The happy brother in law

Back to the beach, swim some and read the newspaper. Sad news all the time from Japan.

Shower and relax on the balcony.

At 6 we leave with Valérie for Patong. Joseph is our driver in a modern Toyota SUV, he tells us that 35 % of the island inhabitants are Muslims.

An orange sun is setting as we drive into Patong. We quickly have a look in the Ocean (at one time the only bigger shopping center in the area!), it has changed a lot, gone are all the kitschy things, it has become mainstream. Pity!

Outside there is a stall with sunglasses, I buy two pairs of fake Ray Ban at 200 B each.

The vendors have become more aggressive and every 2nd person is saying „lovely tattooes“, give me 10 B for every remark and we could spend a whole year in Thailand.

Rebecca discovers a lovely little shop with the horrible name „Mafia“ in a side alley where she finds her style of jewellry, mostly brass and enamel. Mafia seems to be quite famous, it is not my age group. She buys a lot, also birthdays gifts for Patrick, I buy a ring just because I like the inscription „imagination is more important than knowledge“.

Dinner in a side alley again, we like the waiter (could be the son of our maestro) and pity the cats, a mother with three babies who have happily installed themselves in the restaurant, plenty of food, water, plants. They will be deported to the temple tomorrow (?) as they cause damage and leave ugly stuff all over the place. Dinner for about 700 B.

Last Supper

Instead of a golden heart I buy a minute Buddha to go on my chain. I asked for a magnifying glass to check out his facial expression and I am very happy with my good luck charm.

Joseph waits for us, nice and smooth ride home, nightcap at the beach, the tide is coming in and the crabs are running around.

Wake up early: 7 am. Enjoying my first coffee outside, watching the gardeners gently working and watering. Balmy air, birds twittering and calling each other.

Last breakfast, I feel rather sad to leave, I could use another week, it would be beneficial for really recharging my batteries.

Finish packing, everything stowed. But those suitcases are really heavy.

Down to the beach, lovely spot under the trees. I read the Bangkok Post and then we go for a swin in the sea. As usual, the stingy feeling on the skin, but so far have not seen any jellyfish.

Spend the afternoon at Kittipon and Walti’s place, everything in slow motion, we love the baby elephant who receives ton of fresh fruit and corn from us. Wet vacuum like kisses again, this time he also gets John!

Sweet sweet dumbo

Shower in the room of John and Valérie. One last shopping round at the Canal Village, when I want to walk back to the hotel, the sky opens up and releases tons of water, what a lovely experience, thunder and lightning, beautiful skies. I make it back to the hotel in a shuttle bus, but I am wet all the same.

Water water water

While waiting for the shuttle I observe a Russian family, parents and three children, they look like out of the proverbial picture book, hardly any English and when the father asks the Canal Village bodyguard (or whoever this uniformed man should represent): „How many kilometres Thailand is from Japan?“ that poor guy answers „the bus it comes in 5 minutes“.

Back in the hotel we all slowly gather in the lobby, have a drink and some snacks (focaccia with tuna and fries). We are picked up at 7.30 to go to the airport. Christina asks Kittipon something about transvestites, it is all very hilarious and I guess she would have preferred not to have asked as the description starts to get rather detailled.

What a farewell!

Smooth checkin with Kittipon’s help (we now have both 25 kilos) and last cigarettes outside the airport building. Sad farewells, Kittipon and Walti stay until the next Friday. Custom officer rather unfriendly with protective mask „stand back, look into camera“, wait, wait, wait for boarding, we are late.

I fall asleep on the flight from Phuket to Bangkok, hurry, hurry, hurry. No time for more shopping, Rebecca is relieved of her whitening suncream (in Phuket it passed the control, strange and inconsistent system) and angry. Wait wait wait, all we can do is watch the other passengers. Change into travelling cloths, thanks to C. I now wear supporting knee socks.

And then Michael Jackson resurrected appears: two protective masks, sunglasses, white cap, plastic boots to the knees. Little did we know that she (also not clear at the beginning) would sit in the same row and behave like a lunatic and is apparently deadly afraid of flying.

Boarding, our seats are just behind the kitchen gulley, plenty leg room but screen is some distance away.

Long wait again on taxi run, when we are ready for takeoff, there is no takeoff but the captain on PA „sorry, we have some technical difficulty, we have to turn back to sort it out, will only take 10 – 15 minutes“, more like hours, we loose close to an hour, some men stand around the wing and look rather concerned, by the way the wing is just to the left of Michael Jackson who throws another fit.

And when finally we are really ready for takeoff, she wants to leave the plane! The Swiss sitting next to her cries out „I cannot take this any longer“ and luckily finds another seat just across the aisle from mine. Obviously the two protective masks serve the purpose of hidding her own body odour from her delicate nose.

At some time in the night we wake up again after a comatose wine induced sleep, good: only 5 more hours to go!

Waiting for breakfast, no big surprise: more tofu. Obviously, not such a great idea to order Asian vegetarian food on the plane, I still remember the great meals they used to have 10 years ago.

We land with 30 minutes delay in Zurich. Smooth sailing again, but we would not have anything to declare anyway. Or?

John offers us a lift to Basel, great, we appreciate it (the next train would only be at 9.04) and we arrive in no time, no wonder with his driving skills and respect for speed limits.

Overjoyed to see Chica again and of course, my mother. We show her the pictures and she seems pleased with her Thai presents (beautiful silk cushion covers, wooden puzzle).

It has been a very very lovely and stimulating holiday, sometimes rather taxing and sometimes rather funny. Group travelling is not my thing, but we have done well. Hard to get used to the daily routine again but the memories, fragrances, warmth, colours linger.

We will be back!