Put Put in Phuket

The last couple of days we spent in Phuket, Thailand’s biggest island. We had briefly stopped for one night previously on our way to Phi Phi, but since it was so quick, we hardly had time to pop into a 7-11 to buy some water, let alone explore the city. This time around we were able to soak up more of the local culture and more importantly, savour the local food.

We had read that the best and most dangerous way to get around town was to rent a motorbike. Naturally, that’s exactly what we did. For $8 a day, we experienced Phuket while swerving through traffic with our knees almost touching the cars beside us, all the while trying to navigate around town with Thai road signs and trying to remember to stay on the left side of the road. We soon found out that when it comes to traffic laws in Phuket, there really aren’t any. So even though we tried not to hit anything or anyone, we definitely broke all the driving laws that we knew of as Canadians. You should see the locals though. We passed by this one bike where there was a lady (sans helmet) sitting sideways with both legs swung over the side behind the driver, holding on to nothing except what looked like a bag. When we passed them again, it became clear that it wasn’t a bag she was holding on to, it was her baby. Her baby was also sitting sideways between her and the driver! With that said though, it was a great way to get a taste of the city, and see locals live and interact in their own habitat.

And don’t even get me started on the food. If you’re not too picky about your food, you’ll find yourself in hawker central here. It seemed like on every other street, you’d be wafting in the smells of piping hot deep fried chicken, noodles in soup or stir-fried, and Thai desserts to satisfy any sweet tooth. For example, our dinner consisted of “three courses.” For appys, we had freshly made papaya salad and fried chicken drumsticks. For our main course, we had sweet corn on the cob and a bowl of soup noodles with fish balls. Then finally for dessert, we had Thailand’s version of a pancake, which was a pan fried crepe filled with sliced bananas and a generous drizzling of condensed milk on top. The damage? $7…for the both of us.

 We’re on our way to the town of Surat Thani now. It’ll be a quick stopover until we board our overnight boat to Koh Toa (Turtle Island). The island is world renowned for its diving and that’s where Kevin and I will get our Open Water certification. Even though November is probably the worst month to go diving because it’s monsoon season, diving conditions there are still supposed to be a lot better than most places in the world during their best season. It was really a spontaneous decision actually. Originally, we were going to head to Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand. But I guess we weren’t quite done with the sand and sea as we had originally thought.