Okay, so there I was at the Connect Guest House in the Paradise Complex, registered at Reception, and then was taken to my room where my suitcase was already waiting for me. In the room were a king-size bed, wardrobe, desk, fridge, TV and safe. The en-suite, a wet room with shower, a western style toilet and a trendy round wash basin made of steel. The room itself had a door leading onto a small balcony, from where I could peer down at the soi below filled with host bars, a disco, a go-go bar and a massage joint, it was quiet out there but it was only midday.
After unpacking and showering, I ventured out into the streets of Patong, heading towards the beach I was constantly being offered a taxi, a massage and an invite to someone's wonderful emporium of goods and chattels. I noticed that although it was Sunday, the opticians were open. It was my intention to buy a pair of variofocal lens glasses anyway, so after checking out three opticians, I settled on a pair of Rolex half-frame eyeware, negotiated a deal to my satisfaction and would collect them the next Friday.
20th October 2008
After a late breakfast, a feast of scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, potatoes and toast, orange juice and coffee I sauntered out to find the dentist with whom I had made an appointment online a few weeks earlier. I was to have a deep clean, root canal treatment on one tooth, a bridge, some fillings, one extraction and a metal denture for my back teeth. That, I thought, should keep me busy for the next three weeks. At half past five I returned for the deep clean and extraction, that evening I remained in my room biting on gauze.
21st October 2008
A little excursion around the town buying a couple of polo shirts and a pair of light cotton trousers, that evening it rained hard and I kept to a couple of bars nearby my hotel.
22nd October 2008
I was not enjoying Patong, I'm not a beach person these days (all summer long I only lay out on the beach twice at home in Torremolinos). I was longing for the city and had left Bangkok with many things still to do there. I telephoned a friend in Madrid, spilled my heart out to him and decided at this point to forego my trip to Pattaya planned for December in favour of city life. I went out, feeling better for having spoken to someone and within 20 metres stumbled upon Colin and Stephen sitting outside The Flying Handbag. Colin and Stephen, you may recall from an earlier blog, were two Mancunians I met in Bangkok. Since I last saw them, they had been up to Chiang Mai and were telling me all about their experiences including a day elephant trekking. The next day they were going onto Krabi for the last stage of their holiday. We ended up watching the show in the Boat Bar and dancing fuelled pleasantly by alcohol, this I must say is the best and friendliest hassle free bar in the Paradise Complex. A few hours later we said our goodbyes and I returned to my room and slept happily.
23rd October 2008
It was back to the dentist for my root canal treatment, it rained somewhat in the afternoon and that night I took it fairly easy and was asleep before 2am.
24th October 2008
Dentist again at midday, this time preparing for my bridge, 3 hours later my mouth was thrilled to bits when I got up from the dentist chair, it felt like forever. That evening was the Freedom Party being hosted by Club Lime on the beach road and the Boat Bar, I had my ticket and was all ready for it but the rain fell persistently that evening so I never ventured beyond the Boat Bar.
Earlier that evening, I arranged to meet someone I had been chatting to online, it was 11pm and I was early arriving at the Boat Bar and took a seat at the outside bar and ordered a Bacardi and Coke. Suddenly I was taken by surprise as the receptionist from the Om Yin Lodge in Bangkok greeted me from the next bar stool, small world eh! Anyway we chatted; he introduced me to an Australian friend of his, David who apparently had been staying at the Om Yin during the time I was there. The evening went quickly, watched the two shows inside and then my online friend appeared. A little after 4:30am, I went to bed.
25th October 2008
This day started as a blur but a good blur or was it that I was up so late after the previous night, hmmm. Best asked me if I liked to go bowling, well it's been a few years since but I agreed. Off we went to Jung Ceylon a shopping and entertainment complex in the heart of Patong, where he beat me two games to one. Next to the Bowling complex was the cinema, we decided to go and watch a film, Body of Lies, starring Leonardo di Caprio. Not one of my favourite Leonardo films I must say, the whole thing was a Ridley Scott epic at its worst.
26th October 2008
It was 11am, whatever possessed me to be there at that ungodly hour, I've no idea but I was sat in the waiting room of the dentist. 40 minutes and several apologies later, it seemed that there was a fault with the equipment in the dental surgery and so I escaped having my filling done. I returned to the Connect to find Best sat at one of the tables on his Sony Viao. I brought down my Toshiba Equium and joined him. We discovered that the new James Bond, Quantum of Solace was opening on the 5th November and we reserved a sofa seat. What to do next, the weather was very dull so it was another phone call to the cinema to watch Max Payne that evening. This film was a little better, Mark Wahlberg starred, but it wasn't that good.
27th October 2009
Best had to go to Phuket town to get his car exhaust and rear camera repaired following a minor shunt he had previously received. I said that it would be nice to see the town and went along for the ride. Now Best has a one year old Toyota Vios, this was an insurance job but if you think it would be a simple matter of popping the vehicle into the Toyota garage for repair, then wrong, wrong, wrong! We went to one little back street garage, after an inspection we were off to another back street garage to get the exhaust fixed, twenty minutes and 150 baht later, yes that's all he was charged to fix the rear exhaust pipe, we went off to another place to sort out the camera and re-fix the nearside skirt that had come loose in the middle. Another little garage in a remote place later, the nearside skirt was fixed with silicon and its offside partner got a similar treatment for good measure. Best was happy, with his exhaust repaired the Vios purred rather than growled. Now it was time to show me the architecture of Phuket Town.
Muang Phuket or Phuket town's most interesting sites are its historic colonial-style Sino-Portuguese shop houses built well over one hundred years ago by Chinese merchants, together with a couple of rather grand mansions, banks and a clock tower occupying its own island, they make the town an interesting place to visit.
Next we drove a few kilometres south-east to Wat Chalong. The temple is beautifully ornamented and is associated with three revered monks of Luang Pro Chaem, who helped the people of Phuket put down the Ahngyee - Chinese Coolie, Rebellion in 1876 during the reign of Rama V.
We headed back into Phuket town and to the Central shopping and entertainment centre and guess what, our third film in as many days. This time it was City of Ember, produced by Tom Hanks – this was the best film so far, which was not difficult really but it was enjoyable to watch.
After, we drove back into Patong, arriving around 6:30pm and headed straight to Mio, a bar belonging to friends of Best. From the bar we ordered some excelent food from the restaurant next door, washed down with a couple of beers. Best appeared not to be in any hurry to leave and I moved to the bar and started talking with his friends. I had been drinking Tiger beer, nice but gassy and so two was enough, I didn't know what to have, Best ordered a gin and tonic, I took a sip, enjoyed and ordered one myself. Several g & t's later, bar snacks were flowing in the shape of crisps and nuts and the atmosphere was like a party, I decided to take a look at one of their rooms upstairs. It was a little larger than the room at Connect, very clean, well equipped, a king size bed and much cheaper. I arranged to spend my last week in Patong there and reserved the room from Saturday. Now this wasn't the only thing I changed while I was in Mio, the subject arose about my dental work, one of the clients of the bar was a dentist at Bangkok Hospital and convinced me to have the rest of my treatment there at a much lower price. Eventually, a nicely fuelled Peter was transported back to his room, took a shower and went straight to bed.
28th October 2009
I awoke sometime after midday, got up and was surprised how clear my head felt. I cancelled my appointment for the fillings at Sea Smile on the next day and went downstairs and ordered a green curry soup for lunch - I had missed breakfast. After we drove just over a kilometre to Mio where I confirmed my booking for the room. It was a lovely day and I decided to walk back along the beach.
For what remained of the day, I spent studying English grammar and working on my pre-course task, something I had been neglecting far too long.
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