Beach bound

Tuesday night we met up with an old friend of mine who moved to Thailand about 7 years ago. Ironically we pick "johns place", which was a typical expat hangout. Very apt. I knew we might have a few beers and catch up on the time that has passed, but I wasn't prepared for the session that was to follow. It was my first, and hopefully my last, major hangover of the trip. It was great fun, but I'm not sure Lorna (Tonys wife) is going to let him out with me again anytime soon.

Wednesday morning was like the rise of the living dead. Rachel even went to breakfast solo, so the fact that I missed a meal will give you some idea of how bad I was. Eventually I got out of bed, then it was packing the bags, saying goodbye to chiang mai and off to the airport ........ Phuket bound. We landed on the beach island of Phuket about 3pm. We were dreaming of coconut filled drinks with fancy umbrellas, sun, sand and scuba........ as if it was going to be that easy. Me and Rachel agreed, the next 90 minutes were probably the worst 90 minutes of our life. Out of the hundreds of taxi drivers at the airport, we picked the one that was either high on meth, mentally ill or very possibly both. I can't even put it into words, because however well I describe it .......... it was a hundred times worse in real time.

The first 30 seconds of the journey was fine, then came the cat noises, constant jumping in the seat, punching the steering wheel, screaming to himself, almost getting in a wreck, picking the sores on his face, blaring techno music like we were in a rave, and lots more . What made things worse was that the traffic was awful, and we were stuck with a guy that I didn't want to be within 3 feet of. It was so bad, that I diverted him to the nearest town (patong), just so we could get out ....... have a beer, then once we had collected ourselves mentally, find a sane taxi to take us the rest of the way. We paid up front ....... but he can keep it, we just wanted out.

 We arrive at Kata beach about 6.30pm. After arriving in the party town of Patong, it felt like a couples paradise. Intimate fresh seafood restaurants (with their fresh seafood displayed out the front on ice) lined the main high street. It was seconds from the beach and was a relaxing change from the two busy cities we have visited before. Once we had erased the taxi drive from our brains, we could start concentrating on our objective. Eat, drink, scuba and relax ....... this looked like the perfect place.

 We walked the street market, haggled a few random local purchases, then settled down for an early valentines lobster dinner like no other. We are due to get picked up at 5.45 in the morning to head to our liveaboard boat that will be our home for the next few days. Dive, eat, sleep and repeat is the boats motto .......... sounds perfect......... providing we don't need to take a taxi there. I'm allergic to Thai taxis.