Ruby in the Sky

There is about 1.500 km between Chiang Rai and Phuket (I googled it!) – a flight only takes around 2 hours, and you’re there, in a completely different world again. You get an incredibly over-priced and recklessly driven “limousine” taxi through the pouring rain from the airport into the town, and it’s time to start afresh.

People, or at least the ones I met or read from, always say that the North and the South of Thailand are very different. Let me be the one to tell you: this is absolutely true. You will find that people traveling to the South often have completely different purposes for their trips than the people discovering the North do. Where in the North it’s all about culture, heritage and spirituality, the South runs at an entirely different pace, varying a bit depending on location. I visited two places in the South that, despite their small relative distance, could not be more dissimilar: Phuket Town and Patong Beach.

When I first arrived in Phuket, I had a place booked in Phuket Town. To be honest, I hadn’t even considered the fact that just because it was the main town and name-holder of the province, it might not be the most exciting place: I just assumed the main attraction of Phuket was Phuket Town. It wasn’t.

Phuket Town, from what I experienced, was devoid of purpose. While in some places it felt busy, it did not feel like anyone was doing anything, really. A lot of streets were simply empty, the malls – the easiest way to compare cities at this point – looked messy and sad. It was an absolutely beautiful town, with greens and flowers everywhere, but (at least for me) it had nothing going on. The one place I did like, was the Night Market on the weekend. While it was nothing you wouldn’t have found at the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai just as easily, it had life. It was like all the people that had been hiding in their holes the entire day had crept out and found their way to this place together. Although not necessarily the easiest to find in the extensive food area, there was some delicious and filling vegan food available, and overall it was the one place I walked away from with a smile on my face.

After spending a few days in Khao Sok (which you’ll be able to read about next week!), I went over to the other side of the island, to the most popular of the beaches: Patong. Although the contrast with Phuket Town could not have been bigger, this did not make the place any better. Where the streets of Phuket were mostly devoid of life or meaning, the streets of Patong were filled with desperation and loud music. Sex tourism is big here, and personal boundaries are supposed to be left at the wayside somewhere along the way from Phuket Bus Terminal to Jungceylon (you guessed it – a huge shopping mall). While all this did mean a much wider availability of virtually everything – I had a baguette with peanut butter while here – this comes at the cost of any hope for privacy or silence, which makes you appreciate the emptiness of Phuket Town.

The one thing I absolutely loved in Patong was my hostel. It was my first hostel of this trip (don’t ask why, I’ll cover it someday), and the people were amazing. It was small, and I stayed in a room of six. I sat down in the reception area where they had wifi, and before I knew it a sweet old lady and two Philippine girls were talking to me and sharing watermelon with me. We went out to a bar off Bangla road, the Khao San of Patong, where the rats were running rampant, but the music was live and nice, and I had a great time. This was the absolute highlight of my time there, and for that I’m still glad I went, although I don’t think I will ever go here again. But I guess the lesson is that it can’t be all fun when you’re traveling to new places, that’s just part of the deal!

Have you ever been disappointed by a travel destination?

Love, Ruby