After a few epic nights out in Bangkok, I’m now on Phuket island located in the Andaman sea in Southern Thailand. I visited Phuket on my first trip to Thailand 6 or so years ago, so I was eager to see how much Phuket has changed.
Not much has changed; Phuket is still very touristy, over crowded and fully developed – Not my ideal paradise island. However, there’s no denying Phuket has some great beaches (although crowded), there’s plenty of fresh seafood around and the nightlife here is pretty darn good. As I’m with a bunch of friends, Phuket is serving us well and I’m having a blast! Here’s what I’ve been getting up to:
I’ve been staying close to Tiger Muay Thai Boxing training camp as this is where my buddy has been training for the last 6 weeks. So far I’ve only taken up a Western Boxing class, which was really good (I’m on the far left of the class above). The whole area around the gym is geared towards people learning different forms of martial arts, with cheap places to stay and healthy eating options everywhere.
It’s a cool place to stay as it gives you an opportunity to meet people from all over the world, with most of them staying for months at a time. Matt wrote a good piece on the Tiger gym in further detail here.
Rawai beach – It felt like a really nice relaxed fishing village around here.
Nai Harn beach. This is where I’m moving tomorrow, and is where I’d recommend others to stay. It’s quite, has lot’s of good eateries around this area and is only 20 minutes to the hustle and bustle. Today I found a newly built hotel that had huge rooms with great views for 1,200b a night – I’ll post pictures and more info tomorrow.
Laem Sing beach was a cool place to spend the afternoon. Clear warm waters and great banana smoothies made for a good relaxing day.
Ross, Matt, myself and Mark (a MMA champion) chilling on Laem Sing beach. Boy did I feel out of place hanging with these fit lads with my love handles :)
Me riding the waves! (okay, they were not that high lol)
It pissed down with rain while coming back from the beach and we stopped for cover. Here Matt turned into Scooter Man!
After an excellent day soaking up sun-rays, it was time to hit the red light area. Good times where had.
More adventures from Phuket coming up!
Look funny man. Let Relax next. Now am very busy Dont go any where hahahah.Funny Gang!!.
Thanks Addy! Wish you was here with us man!
Haha! Cheers for putting the scooter man picture up! Lets leave “ladyboy man” off the internet shall we?
Well, I’ve always got the bestiality pics I can bribe you with ;)
Nai Harn beach and the area around Rawai and southern Chalang precinct has one of the highest crime rates in all of Phuket, its the bag snatching and petty crime capital, it may be beautiful but be wary!
Thanks Lloyed for the warning!
cheers
I had my backpack stolen from the rocks on the southern end of Nai Harn beach and my wife had her camera snatched from a passing motorcyclist on the lookout above Kata Noi. Both times when we reported them matter to the police in Chalong there were at least a dozen or more “farangs” reporting similar crimes.
Pity I’m not around after the weekend would have been interesting to catch up and hear you ideas on the future of the web and web based startups and how they differ from my “old school” thoughts (I was once a developer for Netscape in Hong Kong and ex .Com era survivor, many eons ago). Alas back to development work in London, just can’t resist the stupid rates the banks are paying again ;-)