Tag: #phuket

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Can Phuket get any slower?

This is one of the more upscale streets in Phuket town

Covid is still devastating this tourist island. It has been slower such as when I visited last year but it’s still not doing well at all

it looks like they’re doing weddings inside that building on the right
On the local bus. Only 30 Baht
The bus stop is a little crowded. Grab is the equivalent of Uber in the US
Vespa has done well here over the past 40 years selling their motorcycles. Now some England company wants to sell their motorcycles. We know what good quality England vehicles are especially with the wonderful Lucas electronics of the past where the electronics would just go on and off at it’s whim automatically, magically
Almost deserted giant mall but still open
In the end we need to have a nice dinner. Thank you Tik and thank you Kung for coming over from Kata

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Phuket in the Slow Lane

I used to live in Phuket and left 22 years ago. I ventured to the old downtown and not too much has changed but there is a one and a half blocks of improved and very clean places for tourists to sit and also shop. This Japanese MANNEKI NEKO WITH THE DARUMA is a nice addition.
the one on the right used to be a no smoking sign. Times have changed
Don’t forget this.
this old part of Phuket town has not changed much especially where the buses stop
this hasn’t changed either. Every day come on this hill, there are motorcycle accidents
My taxi driver is a fan of …….
The specialty of the restaurant called honeymoon in Patong. Deep fried noodles around shrimp
You must obviously drink blue tea after you have rice porridge for breakfast
Tik (Aunt) and Kung (nephew). Good friends. Hey, Kung, you ain’t 14 anymore.
2 nice smiles and my fake smile (like a politician, ugh)
A wayward Australian also staying at Andaman house add Kenya’s restaurant Honeymoon
Kenya, who I see very seldom nowadays
Part of our dinner. we had TOM YAM KUNG, beef/vegetables in oyster sauce and fish cakes
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Rough Sea Live Aboard – Day 2 & 3

Beautiful places to dive
these islands are very nice dive sites
There they are

The boat started moving and I am wide awake now at 5:30 going for coffee upstairs, dictating my first remembrances on a moving boat with the wind coming at me and hoping I’ll be able to correct all mistaken dictations, completely contorted by the noise of the engine and the wind. It feels so good to get up early as I always did when I had customers on board. Being the first one up I’m able to greet people individually in the galley as they come up the stairs.

It is such a good feeling to be up and ready and waiting for a job I don’t have to do. This is really the first time I’ve been a customer on a dive boat. Comfortable but now i realize there is something about having worked on a boat that never leaves you, the need to always be looking out for something or someone or some situation.

The dives were good, they say, but getting back on the boat today was challenging. Everyone is fine though a few close calls.

The wind is getting stronger so the waves will make boarding the boat more problematic. So the captain just told me the plan is to back to closer islands that provide better shelter around Phi Phi islands. This is a difficult time of year to be diving in the Andaman sea since the monsoon winds are already strong. Strong winds equals big waves.

the towel around the hair trick
Relaxing after the dive
It starts to get rough so we go to the Phi Phi islands and Maya Bay which is famous for the movie “the beach”
Maya bay beach

a typical local boat called a “long tail” because it has a long drive shaft with a propeller at the end
It seems people now have to approach Maya Bay from the other side of the island due to the destruction of the bay from tourism
The larger island is Phi Phi Don and the red area marks the sand spit between the two outcroppings. The Sand spit was completely destroyed by the big tsunami both from the north and from the South Bays

I woke up at six as usual, went upstairs for cups of coffee and then decided to go for a swim. It was still not very light since Maya bay is on the opposite side of the sunrise. I was thinking about going close to the sailboat attend decided since it was quite late and I didn’t see any people up on deck it was probably not a good idea since they might sink I was attempting to orthopod and steal something. You never know.

The first time was at Koh Bida Nok. The waves were not too high so this should be a fairly easy return to the boat.

The wind is getting stronger, should be up to 25 knots later and up to 30 tomorrow with rain.

The second dive is at Koh Bida Nai.

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Rough Sea Live Aboard – Day 1

Start out at Koh Haa
This is about where we are
Dive plan

Koh Haa is our first stop to drive around those small islands. I am not diving since I still have this very painful hole in my mouth from the extracted tooth operation. They didn’t do the famous cave dive, just the coral reef areas. I haven’t been on this boat for 22 years, having worked on her for eight years with customers from all over the world.

I noticed I have my old habits of picking up garbage whenever I see it and rearranging things so they look a little bit better and wanting to carry some things or just generally check things out. I think this is now solidly in my DNA so it’s probably impossible to become just a true lazy customer on a drive trip.

The food is very good as always, some rice porridge and some cooked vegetables with small amounts of meat and some spices on the side. I find myself in the habit of drinking a lot of coffee. I normally don’t do this but it used to be a habit since I needed to stay alert watching the customers and checking for safety all the time. So it’s gonna be hard to take a nap during the day. Well, i tried a nap and got in a few winks.

At 5 PM after the last day dive we stopped at a very calm place so I just went for a swim with fins and tried a few skin diving tricks to try and get my breathing partially back to where used to be so I could go down and see some 5 meter corals and sea life.

The Thai customers are very quiet and considerate. I was expecting they might start Karaoke but they didn’t. I think they just preferred some quiet and joyful talk. They’re from the same dive club, brought their own instructor to be divemaster l. I would have chatted more with them but I have my own issues with the painful hole in my, able to eat only on one side very slowly. I didn’t want to bother them with my affliction.

In the evening I just took some extra strength paracetamol and watched a few television episodes I saved on my iPhone, finally going to sleep at 8 PM.

The Park Rangers came to get their fees
some islands look like they’re about to topple over
the dive schedule for the day
You can love ScubaPro if you want
The view from my front window
About to descend
The cook
And her food
very nice
This indicated the lunar condition

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Love aboard a Live aboard

airport restaurant lineup buzzer also reads out table number
Expensive, mediocre food at the airport
This is one treat
You have to be a smart dresser to get in

OK, so it’s time to get off the plane in Phuket and prepare for the journey, a live aboard dive trip south of Phuket along the coast islands of the Andaman sea

Seeing Tik after 1 year
I stay at the hotel owned by friends I used to work with in Phuket. They also own the boat I will be on the next day.
Facebook page

For hotel in Patong, before you depart, you can book at their hotel Andaman House. their dive shop and swimming pool are there as well.

Clever bureaucrats figured a way to put, not only a signal light but also a conduit sticking out with wires going to the signal light blocking the walkway. This is definitely one idea.
The new pier in Chalong Bay is very long
And there is the boat I used to work on for eight years
Tik (boat owner and close friend) is next to me and at the end is the captain, a good reunion after 22 years
The cook is in the middle
The cabins are very nice with private bathrooms And air conditioning
The other customers will soon arrive
We are about ready to cast off
But then a boat docks behind us and the anchor destroys the dive platform frame
While they settle the damage issue amicably I look around
A nighttime pleasure cruise offloads passengers
A very noisy evening cruise
Another evening cruise disembarks
My room is ready. Actually, it’s the best room on the boat. I have connections. It’s on the lower deck in front with the window looking out the front.

I should note here that the lower deck is more comfortable than the upper deck cabins since the boat rolling sensation is much less on the lower deck. So the crew sleeps on the upper deck. OK, so now we depart. Talk to you later.

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Day 6 – Phuket here we come

Day 6 – 300 km

The only goals were to get to Patong Beach in Phuket and try to figure out what to do with the stuff in a friend’s locker, the sole purpose for driving 1,400 km to Phuket. I had the key for the locker but without access to the locker area I would have to work with management to get in. 

USB stick movies for sale
great to chose sugar level

The drive was tough but beautiful. With all the road construction, hazards for motorcycles were prevalent. Caution was the key today. 

deserted streets in patong

But we made it to Patong Beach and the storage facility just before closing. All we needed to do was find who was minding the store. After a few calls i found who was supposed to be at the closed facility and we had access to see how much stuff was stored. It wasn’t much so the next day we could sort through everything.  

not much stuff
my old house in need of repair

For dinner we stopped to see Kenya, a good friend, at his new restaurant, Honeymoon, and got a description of what are the recent Political and Social goings on in Thailand. The food is great and the service is excellent, as it was with his previous restaurant, Sea Hag. 

With Kenya at his new restaurant in Patong
sorry, Paul, your big mac has gone to factory food heaven
not more than a few vehicles in patong
even the lights on the sign’s letters left town.
the whole abandonment seems like an illusion. This used to be Soi Eric but taken over by some monster club of some kind.
with Tik to chat at Andaman House, a great place to stay in Patong
deserted
atong babysitter
philosophy board
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The Smoking Hot Pot

Yesterday I bought a small hot pot to heat water for some hot beverages in the hotel room. It cost around US$9. I plugged it in, let it heat up the water and the area around the electric plug started smoking. I thought it might be just some new material that was not cleaned off when it was put in the box for sale so I tried it again. The second time it started smoking and smelling like some kind of plastic material burning. I looked more closely at it and it was the plastic bottom just above the electric outlet on the pot. The plastic was also starting to bubble which indicates it was getting way too hot.

I took it back to the shop and they pointed to the little sticker on the side of the pot that said that the electric connector to the pot has to be pulled out at a certain time or the pot will start smoking which is not a problem. But another problem was that the pot was making a popping sound as well which indicates that the plastic was burning. So I told him I didn’t want it because it was actually dangerous and after giving them another US$3 I got a more advanced hot pot which doesn’t smoke.