We’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing since landing back in Thailand; reflecting on the enormous number of things we’ve done this year, and the cracking people we’ve met along the way. I don’t think when we set off blurry eyed at stupid o’clock in the morning in late January that we expected it to be quite as good as it has been. Not to get too hippy about it all but we’ve both definitely grown as people, and it’s put quite a lot of things into perspective. We both have a better idea of what we want from our lives and what makes us happy (spoiler alert, it’s definitely not Phuket which is rubbish).
Our flight from KL to Phuket was a pleasant one, or at least as pleasant as any flight can be. We arrived at the airport a few hours early upon the advice of other travellers who had noted how shambolic KL international airport is. We were departing from terminal 2 which is taken up mostly by AirAsia planes and largely consists of an enormous shopping mall. There was also a W H Smith which was exciting for all of about 3 seconds. As we sat and waited at the gate, I noticed that a huge thunderstorm had rolled in, wonderful. The flight from Siem Reap to Singapore had taken off in a storm and had been really quite scary so an already anxious Katy Boyce was not a happy bunny. Dave did his absolute best to calm me down and attempted to use the last of our ringgit to buy a chocolate muffin, but alas, apparently it was the shift change which means no transactions for 15 minutes, not sure how viable a business strategy that is but there we go. Muffin-less and in a mild state of panic, we boarded the plane and were informed by the pilot that we were going to wait for the storm to pass before we headed off – phew. I’ll take a 30 minute delay over impending doom any day of the week. As it happened, the flight was fine, the pilot did a particularly excellent job of avoiding the bumps and we landed in Phuket only around 15 minutes late. We suspect that the weather radar technology in KL is quite a bit more sophisticated than in Siem Reap. If it’s anything like the rest of Cambodia, their weather radar is probably just a bloke with a brolly going “yeh, bit grey over Will’s Mum’s, might want to avoid that bit.”
We were staying in Karon Beach which is recommended for families and couples, far away from horrible young people enjoying themselves. We were staying in an apartment complex with a pool and a sea view and it was really quite pleasant. Down in the town however, the restaurants were horrendously overpriced, and everything was just a bit…meh. I don’t know what we were expecting from Phuket but it wasn’t this. Still, the pool was nice, and we had a little balcony, so we set about making the most of it, enjoying a little Pad Thai place we found just around the corner and drinking a considerable amount of beer. We also went out one evening and played dinosaur mini golf which was also overpriced but I am willing to make concessions for dinosaurs and it turned out to be quite good fun. The beach itself was really pretty and we went to a temple market as well, it just wasn’t quite what we were expecting. With time to kill and the other islands being expensive to both get to and stay on, we decided to hang around Phuket for another week for some reason. Rather than stay in our nice beach front pool apartment we decided to head further inland to Phuket Old Town, intending to take in a bit of culture. We’d booked into an AirBnB in another apartment complex with a pool, near a big Tesco Lotus. It was a little outside the town, but we figured we’d just get a grab if we wanted to go anywhere, just like we’d been doing for most of the rest of our time in SEA. Oh how wrong we were, the apartment was tiny, it had a leather sofa despite the pictures showing otherwise, the balcony was unusable as you just got blasted from the hot air outlet of the AC unit and, in case you weren’t aware, the taxis on Phuket are controlled by a huge cartel so a trip that would cost around 60 baht in Bangkok (about £1.50) would cost you 290 baht (almost £7) in Phuket. Madness. So, we spent the week catching up on Netflix, once again consuming obscene amounts of beer and trying our best to make the most of it. At least we were saving some money by not really doing very much, and we did get to swim every day. We also found out that the Phuket mob are very anti-begpacker, often sending them death threats, so I suppose every cloud does have a silver lining.
Finally, the day came for us to leave and after one 5 hour bus journey, a short one night stopover in Surat Thani, and a 4 hour train ride, we arrived in what turned out to be one of the best places we’ve stayed in our whole time in SEA – the delightful Prachuap Khiri Khan. It sits at one of the narrowest points in Thailand, just 10km from coast to the border with Myanmar and is home to a Royal Thai Airforce Base. As such, it was one of the earliest points of invasion by the Japanese into Thailand during WW2. With a population of around 25,000, it’s also perfectly sized, and is a popular holiday destination for Thai people. We were staying in a guesthouse run by a tiny Thai woman and her Dutch husband, who also owned and ran a café just down the road. There’s a small expat community here, mostly Dutch and German but we ran into a Canadian fellow as well, and there’s a restaurant run by Aussies. After Phuket, it felt like heaven. Our first night there we walked along the seafront, out up onto the pier, enjoying the sea breeze and the lack of white people. We weren’t hassled for a Tuk Tuk or by people trying to sell us anything or get us to come into their restaurant, it was just heaven. For the two full days we were there, we rented a scooter and whizzed down through the Airbase where you sign in with your passport number and have to drive across a runway. The first time we drove across, we got to see one of the planes attempting an aborted landing manoeuvre so that was pretty great. Once we were allowed to cross, we carried on down about 5km south to Ao Manao bay and its accompanying beach. The beach is that lovely grey yellow of volcanic sand and is peppered with deckchairs and umbrellas. Parking up, we settled down by the sea where we paid 20 baht for the privilege of a chair and some shade, and enjoyed a day of doing nothing but swimming, reading, drinking beer, and eating amazing Thai food. There were only about 10 people in total at the beach on our first day, and perhaps 15 on our second, the vast majority of them Thai. Perfect. I even befriended a local dog, as is tradition. Oh, and Dave got stung by a jellyfish, but not badly, and he’s fine now, or at least as fine as he was before.
It’s always a little odd returning to the place where you started travelling. When we got back to Lima after 3 months in South America we were surprised to find how much more confident and comfortable we were, just sort of milling about. The same can be said for Bangkok, although we’d chosen to stay a little outside of the city centre this time, seemingly in the middle of nowhere for now, but near the soon to be opened extension of the blue MRT line. We had already seen the majority of the tourist attractions on offer in Bangkok anyway, with the exception of the Royal Palace, but there was no way we were paying £15 each for that! Especially when it’s probably just another immensely impressive collection of imposing intricately carved facades and towering golden buddha statues, with grandeur and opulence at every turn – yawn. I wonder if publicly refusing to visit the Royal Palace falls under the lèse-majesté law. Regardless, we decided that the immense Chatuchak weekend market was much more up our street, with over 15,000 stalls spread across several acres just one MRT stop away from our AirBnb. We spent the afternoon getting entirely lost in the rabbit warren of stalls, corridors, food shops, and massage parlours, enjoyed a particularly yummy pad thai and also picked up some souvenirs for our friends back home. We’re usually the sort of people to spend about 10 minutes shopping and then getting bored but we spent a good 4 hours wandering around, most of the stalls were very different from each other, and sold a lot more than your standard tourist rubbish. There was also a section selling puppies, guinea pigs, kittens, and all manner of reptile, but that left us feeling rather sad, so we hurried on back to peruse the more inanimate offerings instead. Picking up a few souvenirs and after a particularly yummy pad thai, we headed back to the apartment.
One thing we were adamant about doing before we left Thailand was a cooking class; there was no way we weren’t learning how to make pad thai properly before going home. We booked into a class via AirBnB Experiences, something we’d never used before so we were a little sceptical, despite the excellent reviews. Our fears were quickly alleviated however as we were greeted at the MRT station by a delightfully exuberant chap who told us that we could call him Jay because his actual name had more than 20 letters. We were joined by a mother and daughter from Korea and Jay led us off to the local market where we were going to pick up ingredients for our cooking class. The market itself was everything we have come to love about South East Asia – all food is fresh and delicious, and whilst not kept in the most hygienic of conditions, you’re going to cook the heck out of it before eating it, so it’s not too much of a problem. Jay pointed out the various different ingredients and happily chatted with the stall owners as we went around. We saw everything from giant onions to live frogs to cow intestines and pickled radishes, as well as a very cute kitten and its mum.
Ingredients purchased, we hopped into a tuk-tuk before pulling up to a traditional Thai home, heading in through the gate to the outdoor kitchen. We prepared the ingredients as a group, chopping, slicing, crushing, and sampling as we went. We cooked Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai, Masaman curry and mango sticky rice and were also given a recipe book at the end so that we can cook all the dishes we learned back at home. Jay was a great host and we had a really good laugh mucking about with him while making delicious food. It was really fab to do something like this on our penultimate day, ending our trip on a high.
And that dear reader, is pretty much it. Other than another market visit and a very long and tedious journey back to the UK. We’re currently sitting in a hotel just outside Heathrow airport having just enjoyed a long 12 hour sleep in a very comfy bed. So, I suppose it’s back to the real world now. Thanks for sticking with us along the way. It’s been a year we’ll never forget.
Katy and Dave Avoid Adulthood 