Diary Patong
7.February.2004
No fun in Patong tonight. All bars are closed.
5.February.2004
Is your memory card full after taking lots of beautiful pictures from Phuket?
No problem, for only 50 baht a internet shop will burn your pictures on a CD.
1.February.2004
There will not be any movie from the Phuket Gay Pride Parade since Sony don't sell battery for my 120,000 baht camera in Thailand.
31.January.2004
Patong beach is very crowded at the moment. I can't remember seen so many sunbeds at Patong Beach before. But there are still several small beaches in Patong area with more or less no people. And I think it will stay that way since those beaches are not so great for swimming at low tide.
31.January.2004
Phuket Gay Pride Parade is at February 1. But this year I will not take any pictures. Instead I hope my video camera are still working. Check out my movie page on February 2 for a clip from the parade. Will at the same time delete some old clips.
30.January.2004
Was not lucky with weather in Phi Phi. Had sun most of the time, but strong waves stopped us from going everywhere we wanted. Bamboo and Mosquito Islands was out of the question. No sane longtailboat driver would go to Bamboo Island on a day when even Ton Sai Beach had waves. But there are always someone that go anyway. So there should be no surprise that there was a accident with a longtailboat at Bamboo Island that day. Lucky it happened close to Bamboo Island and not in open sea. There is a good reason that longtailboat drivers will not go to Bamboo at days with rough sea.
On the ferry from Phuket Town to Phi Phi a woman wondered if the ferry was safe. She looked little bit scared. But the waves was not that high! I wonder how scared she would be on a day when waves are so high that when looking out of the window all you can see is water and you think that any moment now the boat will roll over.
On the fourth day Ton Sai Bay looked quiet and we set out to Bamboo Island. After a very rough ride we arrived at Bamboo where we had the island almost for ourself. Only two speedboats and a longtailboat was ancored up on the east coast. Lucky the sea was calm on the way back to Ton Sai. Next day back to Phuket there was no waves. Sea condition change fast around Phi Phi.
Phi Phi is getting more and more crowded every year. For example is Loh Dalam Beach very crowded in the afternoon with only a small part of the bay sectioned off for swimming. Watersports are plentiful, with even parasailing this year. But I can't remember seeing any jet skies. Loh Dalam Bay is not the peaceful bay it one time was. With speedboats dominating the bay you get a feeling of being back in Patong, except that there are no sunbeds here.
Was shocked to see how crowded Maya Bay was this year. Never seen anything like it on my many visits here. At Noppharatthara Beach (Maya Beach) we had to pay a fee of 20 baht to use the beach. First time for us. Maya Bay is still beautiful, but all the boats in the bay destroy the view. And it will get worse if the prediction of five times so many people visiting Phuket in the next five years is correct.
On Phi Phi Don more and more bungalows are constructed and I can't see any end to it for the next years. Despite that, there was room full signs everywhere.
Lanah Beach is a newly developed area with many new bungalows. Lanah is still a quiet area, but that will not last. Soon backpackers will discover the beach and then taxi boats will be set up to Ton Sai Village so the young can party the night away.
At the moment longtail boats charge 200-300 baht in the day and 500 baht in the night for the short trip to Loh Dalam Beach. Bungalows at Lanah is very basic with only a madras, mosquito net and fan but looked clean. Modern toilets and showers are located in a building next to the restaurant. Whole area looked very nice and clean with lots of palm trees. Price per night is 700 baht (promotion).
Nightlife in Phi Phi Don Village: Two places was very popular. Reggae Bar with Thai Boxing and Carlito's Bar with Fireshows.
28.January.2004
Yesterday there was a accident at Patong hill. This is not the first accident in this area and I am sure it will not be the last. The accident occurred next to the temple in Patong, killing a Thai mini-bus driver.
(Source: Phuket Gazette)
I wonder what happened to the tourists in the mini-bus? Or maybe it was empty?
Lucky for us we arrived in Patong from Phi Phi 30 minutes before the accident.
22.January.2004
I was watching a football match between Norway and Sweden on UBC when we had another power failure. This is so common now that we have flashlight and candles ready just in case. It happen several times every day. A big problem for everyone living in Patong.
Tomorrow we go to Phi Phi Island. Will have many new pictures next week. This may be the last time we go to Phi Phi more than two days. One of my favorite hotels now cost 1,600 baht a night. In Patong we only pay 200 baht for a better room.
17.January.2004
Early closing Protest On Patong Beach
They are digging up Patong Beach at the north end
16.January.2004
Will update my photo tour pages tomorrow. Hopefully I can start to answer my e-mails too. Sometimes I am very lazy. And I plan to update lots of beaches the next week. Phuket change every year and it's difficult to keep up with everything so long I don't live here. Nui Beach will also be updated tomorrow.
16.January.2004
Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura backs earlier closing time
There will be a protest against earlier closing time near the football field on Patong Beach 3 PM Saturday. I will be there to take some pictures.
Last time there was a protest against earlier closing time on the same spot it didn't change anything. Only tourists can make a difference in Patong.
There are many tourists that hate 2 AM closing time. But we only spend 200 - 300 000 baht on holiday in Thailand, so why should the Thai government listen to us?
13.January.2004
Patong still have problem with power failure. Save your work on the computer often since you never know when you suddenly will sit in front of a dark screen.
10.January.2004
Today I saw a policeman helping tourists over a busy beach road in Patong. Amazing Thailand!!! That would never happen in Norway. Police in Norway is not very helpful. All they know about is writing out a fine if you speed 5 km at a down hill. Hopefully Thailand will never be like that.
31.December.2003
We are counting down to the new year.
In a few hours Bangla road will explode with firecrackers on the street while fireworks will light up the sky.
Picture is from Patong Beach earlier today.
30.December.2003
Strong wind gusts had parasols flying at the beach on Laem Singh today.
But it didn't stop people to arrive in big numbers as Phuket is preparing for New Year celebration.
In the afternoon there was no more deck chairs available for tourists that was still coming down to the beach.
Laem Sing Beach has been very commercialized with many beach vendors walking around trying to sell everything from peanuts to Thai silk. One of the vendors walked home early is he said "very bad business today". Not strange with the high prices they charge.
11.December.2003
7-Eleven next to Sand Inn together with many other shops has been demolished to make room for a new project called Jungceylon.
A large shopping complex on Patong Beach expected to be finished late 2004.
Extract from Phuket Gazette:
A giant retail and entertainment center, now being built in the heart of Patong at a cost of almost 3 billion baht, is expected to create 2,000 jobs and boost Phuket tourism.
The three-story Jungceylon development covering 55 rai on the east side of Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd – currently occupied by Patong’s grubby night market – will include a 500-room hotel with serviced apartments, bars and dance clubs, 10 film theaters, a 30-lane bowling alley, a 1,000-seat cabaret theater, a supermarket and a food center, plus parking for 120 buses and 1,400 cars.
28.August.2003
Phuket to be anti-piracy pioneer
PHUKET: Phuket will become one of five pioneering provinces as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pursues a government campaign to obliterate the manufacture and sale of fake goods in Thailand.
Imitation brand-name clothing, watches and CDs have become something of a traditional attraction for tourists to Thailand. But the PM plans to replace the cut-price fakes with something genuinely traditional: goods from the One Tambon One Product scheme.
A crackdown on the island since mid-June has seen vendors of fakes prosecuted and their goods crushed and burned. And yesterday PM Thaksin ordered a meeting for Bangkok on September 1 to discuss ways of intensifying the campaign.
His desire to rid Thailand of its imitation labels will be carried out by Ministry of Commerce officials in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Songkhla and Bangkok, then extended to other provinces.
Tharadol Thongruang, Deputy Director of the Phuket Commercial Affairs office, told the Gazette that some Phuket vendors had already switched from selling illegal goods to truly traditional Thai products.
While acknowledging that tourists often enjoyed buying fake bargains, he said most of those he had spoken to said they would probably be happy with other kinds of souvenirs.
Since mid-June, 34 people have been arrested in Phuket and 187,872 fake items with a street value of some 50 million baht have been seized.
(Source: Phuket Gazette)
16.August.2003
Countdown to APEC THAILAND 2003?
BANGKOK: Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont has declared war on obscene shows and striptease at entertainment venues across the country.
 |
| Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont |
Mr Pracha said he was not worried that tighter controls on obscene shows would affect tourism. Tourists visiting places providing indecent shows were of low-quality and Thailand did not welcome such visitors.
-We do not want them here.
-They spend little money and look down on Thai women and Thai people, Mr Pracha said.
Mr Pracha, who personally supervises the social order crusade, said he inspected Nana Plaza on Sukhumvit road on Aug 8 and found 27 entertainment outlets were hosting obscene shows.
He gave police and the Klong Toey district office one week to get all operators at Nana Plaza to obey the law.
(Source: Bangkok Post)
