Today we had plans to go to Patong Beach. It wasn’t really that far away, about 12 kms, but it always seem to take a long time to get anywhere over here. We were going to figure out these buses.

Last night we picked up some Greek yogurt at 7 Eleven and some fresh fruit, (pineapple, watermelon and cantaloupe) from a street vendor. I was still hungry after my fruit and yogurt so when we went downstairs to leave, Doug grabbed a coffee and I decided to try a slice of bread toasted. I must have been really hungry as it was delicious. So delicious that I had a second slice. We also booked our ferry for the 25th to take us to Koh Phi Phi.

Back on the street in search of that pink bus. Yup the same bus we never found yesterday. We paid more attention as we headed into the old town in search of the bus stop and finally found one a good km from the hotel. Thought we would wait a bit and see if the bus showed up. To our surprise it arrived in a couple of minutes. We climbed aboard, paid our 15 baht each and were on our way to the beaches bus transfer point. We did know where this was as we had found it yesterday.

It’s a local bus so takes you all through the back streets. We arrived at the beaches bus stop in about 10 minutes, hopped off the pink bus and went in search of the blue bus to take us to Patong Beach. A couple of men gave us directions to the bus and it was easy to find. We climbed aboard the blue bus. Had to pay again as there are no such things as transfers here. You pay every time you get on a new bus. Well actually some you pay when you get off. Think it depends on the distance you go, but not sure. The road to Patong is very hilly and curvy. The bus really struggled on some of the hills to get up, but we made it. This is not our bus. A very scenic drive though.

We arrived in the Patong Beach area. It really reminded me of Old Orchard Beach in Maine intensified a million times. As Lonely Planet says, Patong is the ultimate gong show. We were dropped off at the quiet end of the beach so walked along the beach for a bit. As you walked further the beach got insane with people.

There were people offering massages every few feet. I just can’t imagine getting a massage out in this heat. The thought of it grosses me out, but there was a booming business going on

We crossed over from the beach side to the shops side and walked some more. I spied a Burger King and by now it was going up for 1:00 and I was getting hungry again. Maybe I really just wanted some nice cold air conditioning. We decided to gab some lunch. I am still shocked at how expensive fast food is over here. I had the chicken strips and Doug got a cheeseburger. They asked if he wanted the small or large burger. Since we had no idea of the sizes he went with large. It was massive and came with a massive price. The photo doesn’t show the size of it. You will just have to take my word for it.

After lunch we continued to walk around and take in the sights. Not sure if I have mentioned it before or not but fast food restaurants do not have washrooms. There was one on the beach but I can’t even being to imagine what the inside would be like and I was not about to find out.

Found a cool bar, Tiger Night Club and decided to grab a Chang, but not before asking if they had a washroom. They did but you had to pay 10 baht ($0.45 Cdn) to use it.

There was no toilet paper in the stalls. You had to remember to get it before going in.

As we sat here enjoying our not so cold Chang we admired their hydro lines. Many are really low.

After our Chang’s we continued our walk around what we think was the main streets taking in the sites.

We have a restaurant back home that also hangs the Husband Day Care sign. I’ve also seen it in other cities. Seems to be quite popular.

We have seen many many many massage places while in Thailand but this was the first we had seen with this notice

There seems to be Thai Boxing everywhere you go here. Looks like Canada is even involved.

By now it was going up for 3:00 pm and we were tired and hot so decided to head to catch the blue bus back to Phuket. We made it back to the Beach busses transfer point but had no idea where to catch the pink bus back to our hotel. We walked along the street heading back and couldn’t find any bus stop. By now we were near the coffee shop from yesterday so decided to stop in and grab. Smoothie each.

No pink bus stops to be found we ended up walking back to our hotel. I can’t believe I made it back! Down our dismal non air conditioned hallway. Good thing our room is bright and has A/C

Since we had had a big lunch and later a smoothie neither of us were that hungry. Found these at the 7 Eleven and decided to try them. They were surprisingly good. There may be more of these in our future.