been playing around on my iPhone for the past hour or so wrestling with the lofty possibility of getting a decent amount of sleep tonight but the iced coffee and tea I had at the bo(ok)hemian – a funky an eclectic book cafe near my hostel – is driving a formidable wedge in this plan.
THUS, I feel a overdue blog update is needed.
right now I am lying in a bed in the Phuket city backpackers hostel. why Phuket? I figured that after an always rough run with finals…a mini vacation preceding my return to Vancouver and after a mind-numbing two weeks of incessant cramming would very much ‘hit the spot’.
it has – I departed on the 26th evening from hkt..leaving an increasingly chilly metropolitan sprawl entering the humid, tourist-infested and sand-dusted streets of Phuket. the first night we (being a multifaceted group of hku exchange students) stayed just outside of Kata beach at a hotel called serene resort. this place was…franky, a royal rip and the not-so-nice rooms smelled a bit like toilet and the only additional offering I could see was the pool..which no one used because the beach is literally right outside…but regardless…the first night during a brief jaunt to 7-11 to pick up phone cards (Julia) and snacks (me)…we passed by the first ‘ladyboy’ prostitute in phuket…it was heartbreaking and sickening at the same time. the next day we met up with Darren (another friend from
exchange) and then booked a tour to see an elephant show and for an elephant walk. I must note that I’ve never been to a place so incredibly infiltrated by tourists than Phuket….which presents conveniences such as a currency exchange, multiple massage and travel agency centres on every single city block as far as the eye can stretch..but simultaneously this foreign influence had almost rotted the very soul of this tropical reprive from the chaos of Bangkok – prostitutes line the streets far from being subtle with their ambitions to seduce foreign cash while the rowdy roars from the heavy peppering of bars, stripclubs and dowdy joints nearby seem to deafen ad stifle the heartbeat of the city. it is a haven but also a Mecca of unrestrained lust, greed and godlessness. after the tour (which was a bit hokey and I felt guilty indulging in such a touristy activity…the poor elephant was a wee bit tired methinks) we headed to patong where my hostel ‘thai oriental inn’ was located.
patong was dreadful. truly a shame. a sleazy and blindingly neon mishmash of trash. walking down the main tourist hotspot in patong (kind of like khao San road in bangkok where all the backpackers flock) I warily and adamantly resisted the degrading stares and catcalls of the stupified drunks and partiers forming the lining and filling of the streets. literally every other ‘female’ on the street was either a white tourist or a gender-ambiguous street walker strutting around in a few scraps of fabric and sky-high heels. the booming bad music mixed with the incredibly foul smell of sewage cemented my distaste for patong…it was interesting that despite all the glitz and flashiness of the place…nothing could be done to mask the sheer stench of the streets..raw sewage…yum.
