Pa Tong Beach and James Bond Island

We'll having beaten all the forces stacked against us (traffic, bus confusion, delayed planes, bomb threats, overall costs), we finally arrived in Phuket. Our goals included eat seafood, go to the beach, and maybe do something else, but we didn't want to make the list too hard on ourselves. Phuket was all about relaxing and having absolutely no plan, as opposed to our vague plan. We slept in, went to the beach, and ate great Thai/seafood. But our experience wasn't without any highlights.  

Our hostel happened to be in Pa tong beach beach, which turned out to be a modern Corinth. This was the place people would go for all manner of bad. And the beach was packed to the full, but apparently most visitors like that. I thought for a moment I smelled bacon but alas, it was just the bodies of Europeans being fried. It was packed from one side to the other. I for one prefer the abandoned, secluded beach even if it means cutting back on optimal swimming areas. I really just want to splash around or talk. And so with a little help from our friend Ae, we got directions to a less crowded beach. Kata Noi. Beach Time, Check.

For lunch we usually dined at the same little shop just outside of our hostel. I made a point of eating seafood, and found it satisfying on all accounts. My seafood highlight had to have been our last dinner there. A large number of the restaurants in Pa tong were meager outdoor things with plastic chairs and tables underneath a large tarp, with the kitchen hastily set up right next to it, all of which is right by the road. The best and worst part is bargaining for your supper. The variety of seafood is sitting out on ice for the passers-by to see and become ensnared by the host who will draw you in with assurances of freshness, and a special price for you. The sad part is bargaining system is such that a fair deal never involves two happy parties. At least not on the surface. After one night of getting slightly ripped off, and finding our special price mentioned was not the final bill, we resorted to a little bit of dirty tactics. 

I started into negotiations with one man because he was the first one I saw with sting ray, something I had wanted to try ever since one of its larger cousins took out the crocodile hunter, Steve Irvin. Anything related to the thing that took don't that crazy guy must taste like courage and raw adrenaline. Anyways, I asked for a special price, and while he was conferring with his superior as to how special the price could get, I was offered a better deal by his rival restaurant host. I leveraged the deal and had him throw in some prawns for a discount, along with a special BBQ sauce he would make for me and I was sold and seated before the other guy knew what had happened. And I dined on sting ray which was delightful. Not fishy, but definitely muscular, not as soft as fish but in a good way. 

The last thing worth currently mentioning about Phuket was the James Bond Island tour. It was an all day tour of the small islands to the northeast of Phuket. It is so named because the movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed on one of the islands. We saw some monkeys, sea-kayaked into a cave, and saw the famous island, all in a day trip. And that was that. Not too much to tell, and the pictures certainly do more justice but, I did fail to take any good beach pictures to show you Pa Tong or Kata Noi. You'll just have to see it for yourself.