After a journey of pushing on for 24 hours and almost the same period of time without sleep, I catch my first glimpse of Patong Beach. I have to say that I never before have taken such a dislike to a place before in my life - high-rise blocks, McDonalds, Starbucks - not my kind of place at all.
I had booked into the Lamai Appartments, but there had been a mix up with the bookings, so they 'upgraded' me to the Lamai Inn.
Even though I was shattered, I still wanted to head out and check out the daytime action along the Bangla Road. Walking down Rat-u-.... Road every ten yards I was greeted with "Hellooo Maaasage", "Tut-Tut", "Taxi" which pushed my stress levels even higher. I turned into Bangla Road around mid-day and thought 'surely this can't be the famous Bangla Road?'. I walked up and down a few of the Soi's to only see one group of girls, who were sitting down to eat. They just looked at me like some kind of oddity, so it was back to the hotel for some shut-eye.
It's amazing what seven hours of sleep can do for you. It's 7pm now, and the previous hawkers that irritated me, now get a friendly smile and a wave and I have some good banter with some of the girls stopping me to offer a massage. I stopped off at Rat-u-.... Road and experienced my first 'real' Thai food. That with a few Singha beers and I was ready to head down Bangla Road again.
Boy, Bangla Road really comes alive at night! The previous desserted bars were now filled to the rafters with cuties. I headed down one of the Soi's - it felt like I was running a 'Soi Gauntlet'. However I was momentarily distracted at one of the bars which was showing the Six Nations Rugby - too late the oldest and ugliest bar girl pulled me in. I bought her a 'girl drink' out of curteosy (even though she didn't actually have the drink) and tried to make small talk with the cute girls at the bar - but they didn't respond. Is there some kind of unwritten rule that says one bar-girl doesn't steal the man off another?
Anyway, I made my excuses and left. I headed down Soi Seadragon (I think?) and got about half way down. I spotted a cutie the same time that she spotted me and I was willingly whisked up to the bar.
'Noo' told me that she was from Isaam (I was later to meet many girls who said that they were from Isaam, I dunno if this is some kind of 'in joke' amongst the bar girls or that the majority of bar girls come from region?). Anyway, we have a couple of drinks and she wipes the floor with me at Connect 4, we agree a LT rate (1500 baht), pay the bar fine and we're free to go bar hopping. We have a drink down Soi Crocodile (damn those Ladyboys are hot!) before heading back to the hotel.
The whole thing of taking a girl back to the hotel was one of the things that I was worried about, but it was no problem; I asked for the key, my girl slipped her ID to the Receptionist and with that we were walking up the stairs. The only thing that I had to contend with was the jealous stares from those drinking in the residents bar! The rest of the night and the morning went pretty much like every session I've had in Thailand - shower - Poor BBBJ - Sex - Sleep - Wake up - Shower - Sex - Shower - Wondering what time she'll take the hint and leave, whilst overall making you feel like a million dollars.
After a couple of days I was done with Patong, so I moved down to Karon Beach - this presented less P2P opportunities, but there were still around 10 bars with working girls in, although IMO not to the standard to Bangla Road. Perhaps the best of both worlds is to stay at Karon beach for the relaxed atmosphere, but take a taxi back to Patong for the night life?
I'm in Pattaya and finding it more relaxed (or maybe I have aclimatised myself to Thai beach resorts?) and are even enjoying the fact that I can get myself a Big Mac and a coffee from Starbucks.
Overall, I would say that Phuket is great for a beach holiday (got to be the best beaches in the world?) with a bit of puntering on the side, but if your after girls, girls, girls head to Pattaya.
Thanks to everyone that helped make my trip to Phuket a success.
Best Wishes, BillyBob69
PS: If anyone wants any info on the Amsterdam scene, PM at this forum.
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