Phuket in analogue: a day of discovery

Taken off my moleskine cahier journal, 12:05 am Thai time 20th December 2008.

There was a different sort of feeling watching the clouds from the windows of our plane, much like puffy cottons floating on the sky. As Azry, who was a flight virgin (no more) was saying, “We are used to seeing clouds on our heads, today we watch as they float beneath us.”

Upon landing on the island about an hour and 15 minutes later, I wouldn’t find anything much different from our place if not for the signboard imprinted in Thai language. The same swaying coconut trees, almost similar road structures, even the people look almost like we do. We took a taxi (in a form of a normal, non-decorated-as-a-taxi-would Vios) to our hotel, Kamala Beach Resort. We were told the journey would take about 45 minutes, but it took sooner than we expected.

Upon checking in, Azry and I were delighted to find our bed was adorned with flowers spelling ‘Happy Honeymoon’ courtesy of the hotel. We have been married for two years and we are still entitled for a honeymoon! We later unpacked, took a quick shower and headed for a stroll along Kamala Beach soon after that for late lunch. Kamala Beach was one of the spots hit by tsunami year 2004, killing about 180 residents (according to a local driver by the name of Pravit). There is a small park with a tsunami monument at the middle of the beach.

We had the chance to taste original Thai food, but the tom yam kung was nothing breathtaking or ‘aroy’ (delicious) and the mango shake Leila and I both ordered was salty we joked they must have scooped the sea water and blended along with the mango. But we finished the meal anyway, us a bunch of starving travelers. 

Despite people saying that there is no need to carry along a Thai phrase book because everybody speaks English over there, I somehow didn’t find it so. Being a tourist spot, we expected the locals would pick up some basic English but apparently conversing with them was rather tricky as they speak very little or no English at all. Luckily, I made myself a basic Thai phrase book out of some flash cards and made Maya decorated the cover. Thais respond to you better when they realized we made an effort to learn their language. What I can muster to remember so far is sawatdee (ka, khrab), khorb kun (thank you), mai pen rai (never mind), cai/mai cai (yes/no), aroi (delicious), mai ow (don’t want) etc.

At 8 pm we left the hotel and took the tuk-tuk to Patong town. It was a whole new experience feeling the Andaman wind blowing in our hair (in my case, my hijab) and it costs us 300 baht (about MYR30). Given the distance, it was a steal. Patong is a small town catering to tourists as a whole – clubs, pubs and escort services were scattered all around. 

But what intrigued Zaki the most is the myriad of huge electric cables adorning the city like Christmas lights on the pine tree. Sometimes I swear you could hear the faint buzz as we walked passed the cables. Leila exclaimed, “Now I knew why the birds don’t hang around on the cables like they do in Malaysia. As if they know they wouldn’t have a chance of staying alive if they do.”

We soon stopped at a nearby stall selling “Malaysian teh tarik” to rest our tired feet, but we ended up having ‘bat thai’ (fried soohoon) and some oysters (4 for 100 baht, about MYR10) at that! They are unbelievably delicious! The owner of the stall is a friendly man from Pattani whose father (or brother?) is from Besut, Terengganu and he speaks Thai & Malay fluently. His brother, who then we found out used to work in Putrajaya a few years back soon drove us back to the hotel.

The first day was a discovery, the second presumably an adventure – as we have signed up for an island-hopping tour tomorrow. Can’t wait! To be honest, I haven’t slept for the past 41 hours and still sane. The last time I checked that is.

Check out the pictures from my Facebook.