I am on sensory overload from our trip to Phuket. A month on the island of doing nothing but diving, teaching, playing backgammon and eating large quantities of curry whilst playing with cute kittens has had the result of making me ultra-sensitive to the chaos of a larger town filled with cars and shopping malls and the screams of “taxi” or “tuk tuk” or “where you going.”
The ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket was a fun-filled rollercoaster ride. It was choppy, the boat was creaking, and I was happy I’d popped my little puker’s little helper. I put my headphones on and listened to Billy Joel the whole way and thought about New York. That sufficiently distracted me for the hour and a half or so it took to get across.
A few dive pros from the island were on the ferry as well. One of them, on his way home to the UK, was scared to death and his girlfriend looked rather green as well. Another commented on how much it was going to suck then she slept the whole way and woke up to comment on how much it had sucked. Ryan dozed most the way and Gee listened to his iPod.
From Reseda Pier we took a taxi to Big C. It was a bit strange being in a car again, surrounded by cars. It struck me as very noisy and everything very very very fast paced.
Big C is just about the Thai equivalent of Target! And it’s inside a mini mall where we hunted around the electronics stores for odds and ends that we needed such as a power adapter for my ear dryer, USB extension cable for Ryan so he can possible scam wifi from the same source from which I seem better able to scam wifi.
Gee was making the trip to Phuket to buy a TV and a DVD player. He noted the prices at Big C and then we went to KFC for lunch. I don’t eat KFC in the US and am not about to start in Thailand, so I opted for some French fries which I have to say were heavenly.
Gee’s TV shopping excursion then took us to Tesco, an even bigger version of Target. There I launched into a bit of shopping myself, even finding A&W root beer. Tesco had a Dairy Queen and we indulged in some post-shopping Blizzards.
Gee having accomplished his mission, shared a cab with us and dropped us in Phuket Town while he continued onward to Reseda Pier to return to Phi Phi. Ryan and I began our hunt for a hotel. We’d been given two names, both of which we easily found and both of which we found a bit pricey. With the time ticking and the Harry Potter hour approaching (remember, that was my main reason for going to the mainland), we decided to lug our bags into the theatre and deal with finding a hotel afterwards.
There are two malls in Phuket – the one next to Big C and the one next to our hotel in Phuket Town. The internet had told me that both were playing Harry Potter in English. The internet lied! Somewhat frustrated that we had to now take another taxi to return to the place we’d just left, we checked into one of the two pricey hotels and decided to return to the Big C mall where Ryan wanted to spend a bit more time evaluating the choices of external DVD players. Then we’d catch the evening showing of HP and then some dinner.
Finally it was time for Harry Potter! With armfuls of popcorn and candy and soda, we entered the theatre and settled in to enjoy two and a half hours of completely satisfying entertainment! We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was a perfect getaway.
We passed on Sizzler for dinner and opted instead for a nice Japanese restaurant. I wasn’t overly hungry after all the popcorn, so opted against sushi, and instead enjoyed some Agedashi Tofu, which is still one of my favorite things on any menu, and some dumplings. Ryan had an Unagi roll and some beef teriyaki.
After pounding through malls all day we were both ready for the quiet of our aircon room.
Monday morning we planned out our day best we could – I wanted to get back to the mall to pick up a few more things, we needed to get a duplicate key of our room made, we needed to go to immigration and Ryan needed a post office. We decided that I would go to the mall while he went to the post and then we would go together to immigration. A tuk tuk driver intercepted us and told us that the mall was closed until 10:30 or 11.
So we changed our plans around. Same tuk tuk driver also told us that for 100 baht he would take us from our hotel to immigration, then to the post office, then back to the mall, then back to our hotel then to Reseda Pier. We got in and off we went to immigration. Ryan went in to scope out whether or not they would give us our stamp while I waited with the tuk tuk. About the time I decided to go see what was happening with Ryan, he was coming back out to tell me that they would extend our visas no problem, we just needed some photocopies that could be obtained, conveniently enough, behind the immigration building.
The guards at the entrance of immigration are all Anglo of some flavor - I’d venture to say from Oz. They helped us fill out the necessary forms and ushered us to the appropriate Thai officer. One stamped our paperwork and passport. The next one collected our money (1900 baht each) and ushered our passports to another officer at a computer. And a forth one signed our extension stamps. I was absolutely thrilled that we were able to do this so that we don’t have to return to Phuket at the end of August, unless of course, we have other reasons to do so.
We left the immigration building and went in search of our tuk tuk. Our tuk tuk was gone. He abandoned us at immigration (and hadn’t gotten paid, so we got a free ride to immigration). Three moped taxis across the road offered us a ride. In this scenario, I’m pretty sure Ryan and I were both getting on the same moped with another grown adult AND not wearing helmets. I said no f’ing way! And we decided to walk back. It wasn’t far – took us all of 10 minutes and on the way we found a place to get our key made.
Our plan, now sans tuk tuk, proceeded and Ryan and I split so he could go to the post office while I went shopping in search of a jean skirt and a pillow and the grocery store. I found my mini skirt. Then I found a great cup of coffee and then Ryan called to tell me he was on his way back from the post office. We joined up and went to the grocery store together where we spent about $40 on cereal (in lieu of the big box of rice krispies I was hoping to find, I got five little boxes at 40 baht each – same size box is 100+ baht on the island), Ryan got some chocolate, we found some apples and decided to splurge big time and each get a coffee almond crunch hagen dazs bar. And Ryan got some Hee Haws. That boy is a candy freak!
We had just a few minutes left to hit Robinson’s (a hoity toity Macy’s type store) to find me a cheap pillow and pillowcase and get back to the hotel to check out by noon. (The reason I “needed” a pillow is that at our bungalow, our pillow allotment is two – that’s one each. I’ve been able to change a lot of my behaviour since our arrival, but I still have trouble falling asleep with only one pillow – 12 bucks later and I have a good night’s sleep!)
I’d already negotiated us a 100 baht ride to the Pier and loaded up with all the goodies we’d bought, we found Tony, the taxi driver and were on route to the Pier.
We were told that there was only one ferry going to Phi Phi and I prayed and hoped that it wasn’t Chao Koh which is a small skinny ferry that in the conditions we’d faced coming into Phuket would have been an unbearable ride.
We were escorted to the ticket booth where the nice lady selling tickets said “600 baht each.” My reaction must have told her not to mess with me. That’s double what we paid both times we’ve been on or off the island. I was so shocked that I didn’t even leave her room for bargaining. I flatly said “No, it’s 300 baht each” and gave her 600 baht. To this she responded, “Oh, you live on Phi Phi.” Nice save lady!
Ryan and I were discussing this afterwards. If I didn’t know better, I’d have forked over 1200 for a 600 baht ride. Which led us to wonder where the extra money goes. Does it get pocketed by whoever sells the ticket? Does it go to the ferry company and the employee gets a big bonus for extorting loads of extra money off of unsuspecting farang? The ferry was full and I can’t help but wonder how many people paid 600 baht. I love this country! Nothing has a set price, you can bargain your way out of pretty much anything.
Gee told us a story of a guy he knew who’d spent 8 years straight in Thailand without leaving. He finally returned to the UK and the customs agent at Heathrow took his passport and said there was a problem (Gee didn’t go into what the problem was). The guy was so indoctrinated that his gut response (and the one he gave the British customs agent) was “How much is it going to cost?” They had what must have seemed to the agent, the most insane of exchanges, as the agent was baffled at this Brit who kept insisting that he could pay his way out of it. But in Thailand, that’s how it would work. Not sure what happened to the poor Brit – there is the distinct possibility that he’s rotting away in some jail for attempted bribe of a British customs agent.
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