Patong Beach #Day5

Started the morning with, you guessed it, foot massage! Also we wanted to use their wifi to go through the million different island day trips that are on offer. 

We booked our first snorkeling trip to Similan Islands for tomorrow which I’m so excited for! 

We went for a swim by the pool and had some lunch. 

Patong is really all about the night life. There’s nothing much on during the day apart from swimming and massages. All the markets and a lot of restaurants don’t open until dark!

We had another massage and an early dinner. My Pad Thai cost me a grand total of $4 and was delicious. 

Then we got ready to see a show! 

The show is called ‘FantaSea’.

It is this hugely advertisers show all about Thai culture and elephants. 

We got picked up from our resort at 6:30pm by a maxi taxi which drove us 30 minutes to the venue. 

The show didn’t start until 9pm but our ticket lady assured us there was plenty of games to do when we got there. 

We arrived to basically a huge Themepark! 

There were shops, games and lots more to see. 

We tried our shot at 5 games and lost every single one of them. Very disappointed we didn’t get a soft toy.

The show entrance is magnificent! 

The whole show went for 1 hour. We had great seats only 7 rows from the front. The show was full of circus tricks, acrobats, elephant tricks, lights and dancing. They displayed through dance different aspects of Thai culture.

The show was amazing but I couldn’t help but feel bad for the elephants! 

We got back at 11:30, probably our latest night yet haha 

Time to rest up for a 6am start tomorrow. We have a full day on the speed boat stopping from island to islands snorkeling. Can’t wait. 

Patong Beach #Day4

We had a bit of a nothing day today but it was verrry relaxing. 

We found a new massage place, which was great! 

Then we headed to the beach for a few hours. 

Pineapple juices. 

We lounged by the pool for a little bit before having a super early dinner before a night of shopping! 

First we went to a huge shopping centre called Jungceylon which had a pirate ship inside it. 

We went and got a pedicure and massage to simply escape the heat! After an hour the sun had finally almost gone down so we headed to where the real shopping is at- 

The Night Markets.

Endless arrays of stalls to barter away. 

I found some really nice little bags! 

We grabbed some ice-cream and headed to bed.

I don’t know how we could possibly be more relaxed! 

Starting to get used to this massage, swim, eating, shopping thing. 

Patong Beach #Day3

Today we were off to do some sight seeing! 

After asking around we found our private taxi driver for $1000 baht which is $40aud. We managed to get this cheaper than any of the tuk tuks! It is an air conditioned modern van exactly the same as the one from the airport and he drove us around for 4 hours. 

We drove past the next beach down from us, Karon beach which had a completely different vibe to Patong. Not as busy and much more laid back. 

It’s still crazy to see the way people drive as it is nuts but at the same time it just seems to work as no one is impatient and they wait there turn without any traffic lights. 

First our driver took us to the Big Buddha! A huge statue on top of the hill, 45 meters high built in 2004.

On the way in you get given scarfs to cover your shoulders and skirts to cover you legs to be conservative and respectful. (I was okay in my long skirt and t-shirt) 

Beautiful views from the top of the hill-

Monkeys!! 

From here we went to Wat Chalong Temples. A collection of different temples worshiping Buddha:

We went to a jewlery shop where I’m sure our driver got a commission for taking us there. Of course all we could afford was the sterling silver! 

My suspicion got confirmed when we went to a food store and yet another jewlery store even after insisting on taking us back to the resort. But we eventually made it back in time for the resorts pool party which was good fun! 

We ordered room service from our tv for dinner, so nifty. 

Paradise Beach #Day2

This morning we slept in, had breaky and our foot massage (I think this is going to be a daily event) and headed out to the bussling streets. 

I’m quickly learning how to barter, knowing that whatever the asking price is you almost always half it.

We took my first tuk tuk to Paradise Beach, 20 minutes from Patong. 

The journey there was great seeing beach views and the jungle greenery along the way. 

Our tuk tuk dropped us off at the top of the hill where a free shuttle bus took us down to the beach. Paradise Beach has a small entry fee but it was worth it. 

Picture perfect swing. 

After a few hours here, we headed back up the hill to discover a free shuttle bus that took us right back to our hotel! 

We had dinner at the same restaurant as last night, the view is just too good. 

We finished our night heading down Bangla road for a drink and live music.