BootsnAll Travel Network



Paradise Found

As with most things, you get what you pay for, and paradise doesn’t come cheap. But it does go on sale every once in a while. I’m now staying at Bangtao Beach, on the northwest coast of Phuket. The Bangtao Beach Resort is part of the Best Western chain, and was one of the recommended hotels for the Phuket Marathon. It’s expensive by backpacker’s standards, but at $45 USD a night it’s still a steal. And I figured since I’m running a marathon this weekend, the least I could do is reward myself with air conditioning and a comfortable king-size bed. Along with the great room, the resort also has two pools, a spa, a great outdoor restaurant, and is about 20 meters from the beach.

I spent the last week in Phuket Town. It’s inland, away from the beaches, and is the largest town on the island. I kept pretty quiet last week, only venturing out of the hostel a few times, since I had been fighting a cough ever since Hua Hin. I think I’m getting a smoker’s cough. No, Mom, not from smoking, but from all the exhaust fumes I’ve inhaled while walking around the streets of SE Asia. (That’s another reason I’m enjoying Bangtao Beach. It’s the cleanest and least crowded beach I’ve been on so far.) My hostel in Phuket Town, the Phuket Backpackers, was really nice, very “uptown” as far as backpackers go. Definitely the nicest hostel in SE Asia so far, with clean rooms, large bathrooms, air-con, satellite TV and DVD movies, and even a small kitchen. Most of the hostels or guesthouses don’t have kitchen facilities since it’s so cheap to eat out in SE Asia. But it’s still cheaper to buy groceries and fix your own meals. Plus, you kind of get tired of noodles and rice after a while. (I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich this morning, and it was awesome. 🙂 )

I met several other travelers while at Phuket Backpackers. All were really friendly, and there seems to be a sort of natural camaraderie between the westerners while backpacking in SE Asia. Most of them were couples, one from OZ, another from England, and a third from Miami. I got on pretty good with all of them, especially the Ozzie couple. Tim and Elle were from Queensland, and had come to Thailand in between stops in Bali. (Tim is a surfer, and Bali supposedly has some great surf.) There appear to be several couples here at Bangtao as well, but they’re definitely not backpackers and are just here on holiday. There’s a definite difference. Not that one is any better than the other; it’s just a different feeling. I’m enjoying being “on holiday” at Bangtao.

I arrived here yesterday morning on the local bus from Phuket Town. Conveniently, the local bus stop was located just up the street from the Phuket Backpackers hostel. The local buses run from Phuket Town to almost all of the local beaches and cost only 20 Baht, or about fifty cents. It’s really amazing the disparity between fares for a local bus vs. the tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis. The tuk-tuk and taxi drivers have a pretty big monopoly on the island, and the same trip that costs 20 Baht on the bus will cost 200-300 Baht by taxi. And the worst part is, a lot of them will get angry if you try to bargain with them. Phuket is really different than the rest of Thailand that way.

It took me a while to figure out how to pronounce Bangtao correctly, but thankfully all of the local busses have the names of the stops written on their sides in both Thai and English. I found the bus I wanted and got on for the ride to Bangtao. I got immersed in a book for the 30-minute ride, and the next thing I know the bus driver is dropping me off in front of a 7-11 in the middle of a somewhat desolate street. Had I been paying closer attention, I would have noticed that the bus had gone all the way through the town of Bangtao and had dropped me off on the northern edge. As I looked around, I realized I had absolutely no idea where to go from here, but I figured the 7-11 was a good a place as any. I took off my pack and found a couple who spoke English, but he had no idea what “Best Western” was. He did understand that I needed to go to the beach, and told me it was about 2-3 kilometers away. It was pretty apparent I had no clue where I was going, and I think he felt pretty sorry for me since he offered to give me a ride on his motorbike. But I politely declined, thinking that me and my 40-pound pack were too much of a burden. I told him I would try and call the hotel, and he smiled and went on his way.

My next shot was the 7-11 clerk, and she spoke pretty good English, but unfortunately had only been in Bangtao for a month and didn’t know where the Best Western was either. It was at this moment that I realized I really should have written down the address of the hotel, and better yet, I should have had the desk clerk at Phuket Backpackers write it down for me in Thai. Oh well, lessoned learned. I walked back up the road toward town, and passed a post office where a lady out front asked if I needed a tuk-tuk and called one for me. But even then they weren’t sure where it was I wanted to go. I figured the best thing I could do was have the tuk-tuk driver take me back into town where I could hit an internet cafe and get the address. So the driver took me to get the address, and then we were off to the hotel. After about a half hour, I finally got to the hotel and checked in. I braced myself for a huge taxi fare, but the driver only wanted 150 Baht. This was only about $4 USD, and was pretty cheap for all the driving around and waiting he had done. So I gave him 200 Baht and told him I’d call him again next time.

Once I got to Bangtao Beach, the next step was to get to the Laguna Phuket Resort and pick up my race packet for the marathon. This was much easier to figure out once I was at the hotel. Since I knew I would have to make three or four trips back and forth between my hotel and Laguna Phuket for the race registration, the pre-race pasta dinner, and the race itself, I decided I would come out about even if I just rented a motorbike for the two days. It turned out the motorbike rentals here were about twice what they were in Phuket Town, but it was still probably cheaper than the tuk-tuks so I sucked it up and did it. It turned out to be a good idea, and I was able to ride over to Laguna Phuket and pick up my race packet, hit the ATM, and pick up some groceries before heading back to the hotel for a late lunch. I spent the rest of the day relaxing in my air-conditioned room.

I’m still not sure what to expect for tomorrow’s race. I know it’s going to be hot, but the race starts at 5:00 AM and it’s barely light out at that time. I got up this morning and went through my pre-race routine, including a short 20-minute jog. It was about 8:00 AM, at which point tomorrow I should be almost 3/4 of the way through the run. It was definitely warm, but not as bad as I had expected, so I think tomorrow will be ok. After my morning jog, I quickly went for a dip in the pool to cool off, and then got cleaned up and went downstairs and filled up on the free breakfast buffet. (Yet another perk of this great hotel.)

I’m off this evening to the pre-race pasta dinner. I’m looking forward to mingling with some of the other runners and finding out where people are from. After dinner I’ll call it an early night since I need to be up at 3:00 AM to get ready for the race. Hopefully I’ll survive in one piece and will be back tomorrow to tell you how it went…

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The Bangtao Beach Resort

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Bangtao Beach

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