Sawadee South - The Islands of Phuket

Yesterday I returned from winter vacation with cuts on my feet, a backpack rash, bites down my legs and absolutely zero energy. That being said, my bout in the south of Thailand was by far my favorite trip, and was worth the stomach problems and coral-induced lacerations. This is going to be a lengthy post, but I promise it's action packed.

My break kicked off upon the arrival of my cousin Kevin, the first familiar face I’ve seen since departing the US of A. Because he works in the travel business, Kevin proved to be a reliable and easy-going travel partner, not to mention he could finally offer some outside perspective on the life I’ve been leading. After putting Kevin through a never-ending Christmas pageant at my school (the nonsensical plays, absurd outfits, and general discontinuity of the entire event proved to be a good introduction to Thailand for him), I took him out for some beers and elephant petting at my local bar.

We spent Christmas day in BKK, then the kooky cousins were on a plane to the island of Phuket by nightfall. Our first weekend was spent in Kata, a less touristy beach town on the southeast side of Phuket. Kata beach was beautiful, but we didn’t do much sunbathing—Kevin and I met up with cousin Steve, my gateway to scuba thus far, and Kevin began his discover scuba training on the beach. On Sunday we took a boat to an island called Ko Racha Yai, and had two relaxing dives, just the three of us. These were by far my favorite dives thus far, with 15-20 meters visibility and plenty of colorful fish. I finally caught a few pictures, although they don’t quite capture the experience of swimming through corals and seeing a moral eel glide a couple feet below my body. With every dive my buoyancy and ease improves, and I’m already scheming to get my advanced open water certification in February.





On Monday we began an island hopping tour, which turned out to be the best way for us to stop on several different islands. The boat provided us with snorkeling gear and snacks, and jetted us from island to island. There’s nothing like arriving at some magical cove, jumping off a boat into the crystalline water with my friends, and just soaking up the glory of the southern islands. Something about islands in this particular region is almost fantastical; the bottom edge of the cliffs are carved out so that the islands look suspended. And below these carved nooks the water glowed like some aquamarine liquid conjured up in a potions class in Harry Potter.




Some of our stops included Kha Nai, Ko Phi Phi, Lo Samah and Maya Bay (famous location of the Leonardo di Caprio’s dystopian paradise in “The Beach”), as well as the Viking Cave, where locals farm birds eggs in nests nestled in a cave that looks straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean.


We spent our nights in an extremely undeveloped island called Ko Yao Yai, in well-furnished beach bungalows along an empty beach. Ko Yao Yai was inhabited by fisherman and a small Muslim community, so there was no alcohol except for painfully overpriced beer at the resort kitchen, and there was certainly no night life except squid fishing off the island’s sole pier. We played volleyball on the beach, went kayaking, went on walks, talked to local fisherman, read books in the sand, and at night made a bonfire. We ate when food was served (a lot of barbequed seafood and curries), and didn’t touch any processed junk food (only fruit for desert). Our awesome tour guide “J” took us to see the island’s rubber plantations, and I had a really intimate moment with a frisky monkey. My other animal experiences were considerably less intense; a little kitten ended one evening on my lap, and fish would circle me for hours if I sat in the water. The tranquility of Yao Yai was perfectly sandwiched between my scuba dives and the ensuing madness of New Years on Patong Beach.



We spent our final evening in Patong after a night in Phuket Town, which turned out to be a pretty neat city with a more local feel. I know I called Pattaya the “Sin City” of Thailand, and I stand by this name, but Patong comes in a close second. The Patong walk street was littered with Eurotrash, silly string cans, Thai women dancing on poles, and dance clubs blasting techno at an almost desperate volume. Everything was overpriced in Patong, and it was the first place I’ve ever been where everyone speaks English (but only for the sake of swindling tourists). Haggling was out of question, and cab prices were set in stone.

Of course, we made the best of our last night in the 2000’s. We went to a concert on the beach and danced beneath the lanterns that speckled the night sky like the Milky Way. Fireworks exploded, silly string hit people’s faces, and we embraced the carnivalesque madness of New Years Eve. If any night reminded us how much we’d bonded over these past few months, the ringing in of 2010 was probably it. I entered a new year in my new life with my new friends, who have become my closest friends in the lovely lunacy that is my existence in Thailand.