Bar girl's beer

Bar girl and Per chatting...

Bar beer waiting to be used in the heat.

Thai massage for 200 Thai Bath

It's impossible to avoid hearing phrases like "Massaaage!", "Massaaage! Miiisteeer!", and "Miiisteeer! Massaaage you liiike!" (one of my personal favorites) if you're strolling around in Phuket's tourist traps.

So, what's Thai massage really like? Is it rough? A handful of violence mixed with two cups of pure rage? Is it true that the massage girl / woman is walking and climbing all over your body making it look more like an expedition to Everest than traditional massage? I had to find out. Since no one - except Per who had done this a number of times already - volunteered, I had to use my own body, roughly 2m of prime Swedish male, for the experiment.

"Ok. I'll go for a one hour Thai Massage. 200 Thai Bath."
"I have one condition though. Must be able to sit upright afterwards."
"Haven't had lunch yet you know. Yes. No. Never tried it before."
"Will like it? Yeah, I really hope so."
"Must be able to sit upright afterwards - Oh, yeah, sorry. You already know. Yeah."

It was dark inside the massage institute. Reminds me of the phrase "It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black"...

Me to the left, Per to the right. No oil, just one tough Thai woman kneading my body like dough.

Aouch. What's this move called? Was it even in their massage instructions?

Almost done. Putting the pieces together again.

Done. One hour. It felt great. At least afterwards. Per told me that this was one of the toughest he'd experienced so far - and it was my first encounter with Thai massage. But I'll definitely do it again. Maybe a two hour session next time...

For reference: This took place at "Hakone Thai Style Massage", one of the massage institutes in Patong Beach, Phuket.

Frog market

Me trying to deal on the local frog market:

Pusher: "150 Bath, special price for you miiiister..."
Pusher: "Special frog you see..."
Me: "Na... You get it for like 10 Bath at your distributor..."
Pusher: "Noooo miiiiister... Not possibleee..."
Me: "Ok, say 15 Bath. I'll give you 30 Bath for a frog. Happy?"
Pusher: "Nooo can doo. Nooo can doo... Not possibleee..."
Me: "The problem is that the market is flooded with frogs."
Pusher: "Eh?"
Me: "They're jumping all over the place..."
Pusher: "80 Bath... Ok?"
Me: "Nooo can doo... I'll give you like 40 Bath for a jumper. Max."
Pusher: "60 Bath? Ok?"
Me: "50, and it's a deal."
Pusher: "Deal!"

Not every frog is worth the initial claimed 150 Bath. I'm not interested in frogs, it's the action dealing with the frog pusher that I'm after, that's what's worth 60 Bath to me.

50 Bath.

I could go on dealing the whole night here...

The Famous Old Dutch in Patong

Anonymously located at Soi Patong Tower, one of the quieter and not-so-crowded side streets in Patong, just off the beach, you'll find The Famous Old Dutch, a small Thai bar and restaurant.

The Thai food at the Dutch is superb, spicy, and perfectly balanced - exactly how Thai food should be prepared and served. Try it!

Introducing Sor Fee, aquaintance from the Similan dive trip, to the delicious food at the Dutch.

Per is trying out one of the hats sold by a local fake-frog-hat-bracelet-dealer. Fake since it's wooden frogs they're selling, not real ones. The dealers (they're all dressed in the same way) circulate around bars and restaurants, trying to make you buy something you have absolutely no need for at all - but since it's so cheap, and you get "special price for you my friend" it's sometimes hard not to... Next time maybe.

An article mentioning The Famous Old Dutch and its restructuring after the tsunami can be found here.

McThai's in Patong

Ronald and one of his Thai-dealer-friends hanging out at the local McDonald's restaurant in Patong. Dealer to the right.

Didn't try it in Patong; McDonald's burgers taste the same all over the world. Almost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's

Billiard

Me and Per playing billiard in a local bar. Had to get some practice before we could take on the local players...

Action shot. One of the local bar girls loosing a game to me. Didn't happen that often though - they're very skilled plus it's not normal billiard rules that apply, you're supposed to play a Thai version which you'll have to pick up as the game is being played.

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

No, no, no, ...

I guess most authors are being pushed, either by their inner selfs and greed or by a publisher's dream of more gold at the end of a plausible second rainbow, to mechanically generate a number of stories that can be released onto the market while it's hot, after coming up with a bestseller like The Alchemist.

It's unfortunate that a good story by itself in many cases lacks the possibility to generate any revenue worth mentioning in book shops. Instead, it seems to be the author's name that's the most valuable asset in the book business nowadays. It's the author that sells, not the story in the book.

The Devil and Miss Prym, which I got just to have something to read on the beach, seems to be just like one of those stories, gaining a crowd (yes, I admit that I got it myself since I had read a few of Coelho's previous creations) only because of its author's popularity. It's definitely not one of Coelho's greater ones, I got through it quite fast since nothing really stood out.

Dive log; Thailand, Phuket, Koh Dork Mai

Fun dive; guide (Stephanie), Scandinavian Divers.

20.8m, 43 minutes; Suunto D9 dive log.


http://www.asiadivesite.com
http://www.scandinavian-divers.com

Dive log; Thailand, Phuket, Anemone Reef

Fun dive; guide (Stephanie), Scandinavian Divers.

24.1m, 44 minutes; Suunto D9 dive log.

Emptied the cylinder; used Stephanie's octopus during security stop.



http://www.asiadivesite.com
http://www.scandinavian-divers.com

Dive log; Thailand, Phuket, King Cruiser

Fun dive; guide (Stephanie), Scandinavian Divers.

25.8m, 38 minutes; Suunto D9 dive log.



http://www.asiadivesite.com
http://www.scandinavian-divers.com

Diving Phuket sites with Scandinavian Divers

After a few days on Phuket's sunny beach in Patong we we're in desperate need of some action. You just can't lie on a beach staring into the sun for too long, it gets boring. At least for me.

Patong is flooded with diving firms selling equipment, one-day trips to nearby dive sites, as well as liveaboard experiences to more distant locations. We spent a few hours window shopping to get a feeling for current price level on one-day trips and seriousness of the firms.

Finally settled for Scandinavian Divers which had its shop just a few hundred meters from our hotel, located between restaurants and bars in a busy soi on Bangla Road. It's not just named Scandinavian for nothing - it seemed like all Scandinavian countries were represented in the firm; shop people, dive instructors, dive guides, etc.

Early the following morning we were picked up by the firm's Thai guy responsible for quick-and-bumpy transport to the pier, ...

... had our names called out and quickly replied "Yessir!" to get in the water as fast as possible, ...

... and then eagerly boarded the designated one-day trip boat together with a number of other dive addicts.


Happy divers taking a break between the dives. Some preferred the sun deck - I tried to hide from the sun though, didn't want a sun burn. The Thai boat crew made sure that there were coffee, tea, and fruit (papaya, pineapple, etc) available the whole time.

Trip manager; made sure everything ran smoothly on the boat.

Stephanie, our dive guide for the day. Thanks for letting me use your octopus during our second dive! I used a lot of air during that dive and my indications to her didn't get through. We were at around 15 m when I finally swam to her and switched to her octopus - my cylinder was empty.

Sun deck; not that sunny at the moment though.

Same type of boat as we were on.

Last dive for the day done. It was time to head back to the pier and Patong again.

All in all a great one-day trip.

http://www.scandinavian-divers.com

Elephants at the nightly Patong market

Everyone is trying to sell something at the nightly market.

Even though the sign indicated with both text and a nicely painted animal that this was a boutique for elephants we sadly didn't see any.

You'll get the meaning of the left t-shirt after having spent a few minutes in the area. Take one step and you'll get one new offer; tuk tuk, suit, massage, etc. It's always "special price for you my friend".

Didn't buy the shirt though - I actually started to bargain just for fun and kind of liked it... Weird.

Interesting. Rip-off of the Swedish Dressman brand. Proud owner posing in front of the boutique.

Most male salespeople in the area run the handshake trick (con?) to get you into their boutique. Basically they try to shake your hand while asking where you're from. It's seems polite at first, it's after all just a normal handshake isn't it, but when the salesman won't release the grip and instead tries to pull you into the boutique the similarity with the normal greeting procedure is no longer apparent.

Per didn't have a camera in the right hand. You can guess what happened...

Tip: Place something (e.g. a camera) in the right hand. That way a salesman will have a harder time to run the trick as long as you avoid initiating handshakes with the left hand.

Thai women in our sideboard

First line support team at Rico's Hotel in action. It's not exactly what it might look like though...

The safe in our newly constructed hotel room didn't work so the receptionists replaced it with a new one.

Patong Beach, Phuket

We spent a few relaxing days on the Patong Beach studying the Thai beach culture, reading books, bathing, eating fresh fruit, having a few beers, interacting with locals, ...

Action shot of fresh fruit just-in-time delivery on the beach. It's a heavy load - they carry not only the fruit but also a lot of ice to keep it cool and fresh. I'm sweating just lying there reading a book in minimal bathing shorts (no, not that minimal) and this woman is walking around fully dressed, carrying two heavy baskets. It's impressive.

"Freeeshhh fruuuiiittt miiisteeer?! Mangooo?! Papayaaa?! Only tweentyy Baath! Piiineapple?! You want Mangooo?!"

If you're not up for fruit there are plenty of other business opportunities; t-shirts, ice cream, beer, water, wooden elephants, umbrellas, "Lolex" (it's basically a fake Rolex, but Thai people have difficulties to pronounce the R) clocks, cotton hammocks, massage, ... The list is endless.

So, if you're about to spend a day on the Patong beach prepare yourself for a day full of "1500 Bath?! Ok, how much you pay?! Nooo, can not! 1000 Bath?! Nooo, can not! 500 Bath?! Noooooo, can not!"

I bought myself a cotton hammock after the guy had been bargaining with himself (a lot of "Nooo, can not!") going from 1650 Bath down to 150 Bath. A deal I just couldn't refuse.

"No thanks! I don't need a big black t-shirt right now. I'm sweating just lying here..."

Breakfast at the end of Bangla Road

It's morning in Patong and Bangla Road is almost deserted. A few Tuk-tuks and mopeds slowly pass by on the road that's opened for traffic during day time. It's a totally different view compared to the night before.

Intersection at the end of the road that's closest to the beach.

We found a silent (and fan-equipped) restaurant just around the corner from the intersection that served breakfast until 2.00 PM.

An interesting observation was that if we got to the restaurant before 11.00 AM they would serve a simple breakfast, most likely directly from their hotel breakfast buffet. If we got there after 11.00 AM, the same breakfast order would generate a meal that was so much better - bigger fresh fruit plates, etc. I guess they closed the buffet around that time and therefore couldn't just pick from it.

Photographed by Per.

Rico's Hotel in Patong, Phuket

The taxi driver from the airport dropped us off at the end of Bangla Road in Patong. Per, who had been in Patong before the tsunami in 2004, had problems to establish a fix location point since he only recognized a few buildings - they were still patching and rebuilding all over city's central area.

We hadn't arranged for a place to stay before arriving to Patong. Didn't know for how long we were going to stay in the area. When we reached the beach with our backpacks two guys tipped us about Rico's Hotel, an "almost opened" hotel on a small Soi to Bangla Road.

Found out that "almost opened" meant that the construction of the hotel was just about to be finished. We were the first guests in the room we got - a really nice one!

Bangla Road isn't the most silent road in Patong. There's always something going on (e.g. a dragon dancing by) and its night life defines the area, it's busy and noisy. Had no problems to sleep though - the Soi Bangla Square that the hotel was located on was really quiet.

Part of a dragon in motion.