end of the weekend holiday to Thailand

Our Happy New Year photo

View of our side of Phuket from on top of big hill.
Vanessa at our mates hotel, by the pool.
View from our friends balcony at night (bit blur)

Still in Phuket, but we're flying back to KL in a few hours. It's been a really nice relaxing few days so far, lots of swimming and a fair bit of driving around seeing the island. I never got to go around that much when I was here before, I was just stuck in the tourist hell of Patong Beach, but now that we got transport and a guide (in the form of Kim) and friendly places to go visit then it's all a hell of a lot nicer. In fact, nobody has propositioned me for verous nefarious acts at all yet, which was the biggest pain of my last visit here. The house we've been staying in is absolutely amazing, Kims mum is a big property owner over here and has set herself up in a phat pad at the top of a hill overlooking the bay. It's a really swanky and lovely spot, with a very peaceful veranda where we've sat and watched the city lights most nights. Yesterday we went off on a dive boat, Van and Kim went snorkelling (but they both got seasick and didn't have the best of times) I did 2 dives, which was rather nice - good to get back into the water. The first dive was a bit tricky cos I haven't done it for over 8 months and the visiblity was prettty low (around 5 or 6 metres sometimes). We didn't get to see that much in the way of big stuff, but the instructor pointed out some very bizarre creatures on the bottom. I was very pleased cos I spotted a Devil Scorpionfish - which looks an awful lot like a rock, so ain't excactly easy to spot. They're good and poisonous, so you don't wan't to step on one cos they inject a venom from their pointly barbs. Nice and harmless to watch mind, they only get pointy if harassed or in danger. We also say a few Rays, big Triggerfish and other sorts of sea life. There was a very odd artificial reef on one dive site, made of big, hollow concrete cubes. That was a pretty surreal place to be.

Marvellously dangerous firecrackers. Fun

The weather the last 2 days has been a bit overcast - which is kind of nice, cos there's a bit of sun here and there but the temperature is nowhere near 40 degrees (it's nice and fresh, at around 29C today; positively chilly even, I should have brought me jumper).

Mexican Stand Off

On Saturday Kim took us for lunch at one of the most bizarre places in Thailand. Yes, you can tell Phuket is a white mans tourist town (slightly akin to the Costa Del Sol I'd imagine) because a guy from Essex decided to make a Million Pound replica of his local pub, The Green Man. It's a very surreal mock-mock tudor affair, with a really nice beer garden (but I doubt the one in Essex has palm trees or bamboo growing there). You could get a pint of Draught Bass, or Old Speckled Hen but it cost more than a Pint of Guinness, and more than a whole jug of Tiger. Strange indeed. They had every detail of a truely quaint English pub down to a tee, except for the fact that the food was well presented and tasted excellent - and easy mistake to make. I had Gammon, Egg, Chips and Peas. Proper A fetching little shrine indeed.