Day 229, Patong, Thailand
We said goodbye to our perch over the city, for the beachier digs at Patong on the island of Phuket. We were going to stay for a week, and the airbnb host threw in a free night, so we’ll be there for nine days. It’s gotten to the point where it’s difficult to remember which airport we’re actually in. If it weren’t for the noodle places interspersed with the McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and Krispy Kreme options in the food court, we might forget where we were. Paul and I opted for a couple of Whoppers, and Cali for a double veggie burger. Madi did McDonalds. Even if it’s not the healthiest of food, it’s still among the most familiar.
Paul researches airlines extensively before we book. First of all he loves everything plane, secondly, he wants to minimize risk to all of us, as much as we are able to by choosing airlines with better safely records. We look for deals but only from airlines with good records. So when we were sitting at the gate waiting for our flight, we were a little taken aback to see our captain and co-captain also waiting to board our plane. And I swear both of them looked 12, maybe 13. They looked like any policeman with decent eyesight would pull them over if they were driving a scooter or car, much
less a plane. I know it’s a stereotype that Asians age well, often are much older than they present, but these guys looked like they only recently hit puberty. Paul and I kept looking at them, and looking at each other. I tried nervously to justify their age by saying, “Flying a plane these days is probably more about understanding computer programs and flying well in simulators like computer games.” We look back at the boy-captains, and the one was looking at an old fashioned
paper map, and the other was playing some game on his phone where it looked like he was driving a car or plane. If we had more sense, we probably should have bailed after that. But we didn’t want to be ageist or bother with booking more tickets.
We took a shuttle bus out to our plane, and on the tarmac was our plane with a huge Asian cartoon character on the side. Then as if to reinforce our folly of actually boarding the plane, it also had the Cartoon Network logo on it. Was the system different here, was this the student driver’s equivalent of a plane? On the side was the huge word “smile,” as in, do it now, it may be your last. I did smile, but only after a hard landing in Phuket. The manboys need to keep practicing that landing on their phones. I know they can soften that up a bit.
The flight was a short hop, a little over an hour to the province and southern island of Phuket. Other than being known for its famous tsunami, it’s also known for its rain forests and beaches. Winding through the mountains reminded us of getting from the City to the town of Panajachel in Guatemala. But the windy roads are a bit more structured in that all the motorcycles and scooters stay in a lane on the left, which is also the side they drive on. It works well. We saw scooter and motorcycles that have side cars with an extra wheel. This side cart is used either as a big basket to haul things or as carts for food. We’ve never seen those before.
Patong Tower, where was are staying, as seen from the beach.
It took almost an hour to get to Patong, longer than we thought the distance would require. Driving through the town, it was so much larger than I expected. I thought it would be structured like most beach towns we’ve seen, one road along the beach and another paralleling it. This was more like a full-blown city, and it was just hopping with people. I was happy to see the famous ping-pong and sexy time shows (as they are called) were confined to a certain area that is easily avoided. On the main roads there are many massage places offering manis, pedis, in big bright, open settings.
Patong Beach
Our host was a friendly Norweigian named Lars who owns three condos in the Patong Towers where we are staying. He works on an oil rig in Norway and is one year away from retirement. He loves Patong, and we understand why. We are on the 11th floor overlooking Patong and the mountains behind it. We are one block from the beach, and the sand is beautiful, white, and very soft. Bonus.
One of the reasons we chose this condo was that it was so central. Once you exit the building there are many streets full of restaurants and shops. We walked through a tunnel of twinkly lights to a smaller pedestrian-only road. We had dinner at Harry’s. The places with broader menus work best for us. This place had steak for Paul, pasta for Madi, salmon for Cali, and spicy authentic Thai for me. Everyone was happy, and the food was great. We sat outside and relaxed, then went up to our balcony and looked out over our new little city surrounded by beach and mountains. Patong has surpassed our expectations.
This is our view from the balcony of Patong.
