Oh Thailand. There are so many words to describe you. Most of which are not appropriate for print in this blog. Most should not be appropriate in any circumstance.
If I only had one sentence to sum up Phuket, Thailand it would be “Making Tijuana and Mardi Gras look PG-rated”. Luckily for you, my reader, I have more than one sentence to describe Thailand.
In the interest of time (being that I haven’t slept very well recently and I need to finish up laundry, pack up an overnight bag and rest up for my impending 2 days of liberty), I will not write about everything, but focus on a few key elements of Thailand to whet your appetite until we are haze gray and underway.
Yesterday was our first day of liberty and after 12 hours in Patong Beach I can honestly say that I don’t think I will ever come back. (Don’t worry Dan, we’ll still come to Thailand, just not back to this “charming” town). Basically, any preconceived notion or stereotype you have about Thailand- specially the beach/touristy areas, you can pretty much bet is spot on to real life. Or, it’s probably worse.
After walking through what is called “the gauntlet” onboard the NIMITZ (basically 2 HUGE rows of Chiefs and First Class Petty Officers facing each other, through which all personnel going on liberty must walk through to be “inspected” to ensure their liberty attire is within regulations. I got screamed at because my sunglasses were on my head. Not my face, not my eyes, on my head, like a headband. Apparently that is a way that you can “conceal” who you are. Seriously? Anyways, I digress), we got on a large Thai double-decker “ferry” that shuttled all of the Sailors in groups of 250 from the ship to the pier. Then, we boarded a large coach bus (there were hundreds of them) and took a 50 minute bus ride through the villages and on roads that were clearly NOT made for large coach buses.
Then we were dumped out into a place called “Patong Beach”. Patong Beach is basically like Bourbon Street, but one block away from the beach (a la Daytona) but in Thailand. Imagine throngs of young Thai women, enticing you into their beach bars with good drink specials and American music. As soon as the sun went down, it went from mildly inappropriate to wildly out of control. Basically, a young single Sailor with dreams of joining the Navy to se
e the world and exotic women and warm weather’s version of heaven on earth. I won’t even go into what goes on there at night, as we walked through the closed-down pedestrian streets. However, this sign that we saw during the day pretty much sums up what happens when 3 Navy ships descend upon a Thai beach town. This was for a local establishment called “Rock Hard A Go Go”. Whatever that means. All I have to say about that sign is “You stay classy, San Diego”.
e the world and exotic women and warm weather’s version of heaven on earth. I won’t even go into what goes on there at night, as we walked through the closed-down pedestrian streets. However, this sign that we saw during the day pretty much sums up what happens when 3 Navy ships descend upon a Thai beach town. This was for a local establishment called “Rock Hard A Go Go”. Whatever that means. All I have to say about that sign is “You stay classy, San Diego”.We walked around, pushed our way through the crowds, poked our heads around souvenir stands and shops and I got some clothes made at a tailor shop. This was pretty cool because I brought a few pictures in of what I wanted made (thank you friends and family for sending so many magazines for me to pore over and look through) and I got to pick out from tons of material and then showed the guys how I wanted to change little things about the dress and they sketched away. I am getting: a cute A-line dress with a sweetheart neckline and medium-sized straps from a silk black material with different size and shaped polka dots; a pair of linen Capri pants in a khaki/creamy color; and a linen dress that is button up, a shirt pocket on the left side, rolled up sleeves and a tie around the waist in a watermelon pink. On Tuesday I will go back to have them fitted and then Wednesday I will pick them up for good. It definitely probably wasn’t the quality that I would get somewhere like Hong Kong so I didn’t get anything fancy schmacy made there, but the price was decent, they could turnaround the clothes in about 4 days and it is worth the experience of getting clothes tailored. If anything, it’ll be a good story. I promise to take pics of me modeling all clothes and post later. Like Dan says (the tailored clothing connoisseur of the two of us), it’s hit or miss with tailoring in a random country, but usually worth the experience.
Now, the men who run/work at these souvenir shops and tailors like to hang out on the street and try and get people to come into their shops. Understandable, that’s pretty much how it works at any touristy area in the world. But, their tactics are particularly interesting. At the bars, the petite women throw out a lot of “Hey baby, how about you come in here for some drinks? Hey there, how are you doing today, maybe you would like to come in here and hang out”. And I’m sure it’s a great technique that yields them many an eager tourist or Sailor or guy looking for a good time. However, the men have attempted similar tactics to try and get the women tourists to come see their souvenir shops (I guess they think we feel left out for not having anyone hit on us too?). It was quite laughable and interesting to see how the guys thought that they could use the same advertising on girls to get them to shop as the ladies use on the men to get them to come into bars.
But I digress. The point of this was to focus on 2 things: the ridiculous spa that we found and the ridiculous amount of amazing food that we ate.
My liberty buddies for the day were Nicole (our intell officer, roommate and girl I traveled to Bahrain with and lived with for 2 months on ABOT) and Jean-Ann, an ’07 Suwannee graduate who is a NIMITZ Intell Officer (more on both of them later, but the point is, they’re both really fun, sweet, adventurous, love traveling, love eating and trying amazing food and did not want to patronize or frequent any of the nightlife establishments in Thailand. Could I have asked for better liberty buddies? I think not).
In 2 meals we ordered and devoured: pad thai, crispy wontons, fresh fish co
oked “Phuket style”- right on the bone with the eyes and the fins and the little bones and everything, massaman curry (a-ma-zing!), fresh spring rolls, chicken satay (the best I’ve EVER had), gianormous prawns with lemon and garlic, at least a pound or 2 of steamed rice, duck curry and a glass noodle/chicken/shrimp salad with a spicy lime-y vinaigrette. Here is a picture of the Pad Thai. More pictures of everything else to come soon, thankfully these girls appreciate my joy in taking pictures of food! The spicy/flavorful foods were perfectly accompanied by a mildly sweet and crisp Thai white wine (not pictured).
oked “Phuket style”- right on the bone with the eyes and the fins and the little bones and everything, massaman curry (a-ma-zing!), fresh spring rolls, chicken satay (the best I’ve EVER had), gianormous prawns with lemon and garlic, at least a pound or 2 of steamed rice, duck curry and a glass noodle/chicken/shrimp salad with a spicy lime-y vinaigrette. Here is a picture of the Pad Thai. More pictures of everything else to come soon, thankfully these girls appreciate my joy in taking pictures of food! The spicy/flavorful foods were perfectly accompanied by a mildly sweet and crisp Thai white wine (not pictured).By
far one of my new favorite dishes has actually turned out to be Thai dessert. Dan says “Great, now our Thai dinners out just got SO much more expensive now that we have to order dessert too” :). Last night at dinner, we had lemon grass ice cream (in the words of Nicole “it tastes like the way a spa smells!” which could not be any more spot on) and sticky rice with mango. Sticky rice is just what it sounds like- rice that is sticky. But I think what makes it sticky is the sugar in it. Then it is served with slices of half a mango on the side. This was great, as I had just learned not only how to eat mango the other day, but also the fact that I liked mango. Even better- they already scooped it out for us! I can’t wait to get back out in town and eat more of this amazing food! More pictures to come later.
far one of my new favorite dishes has actually turned out to be Thai dessert. Dan says “Great, now our Thai dinners out just got SO much more expensive now that we have to order dessert too” :). Last night at dinner, we had lemon grass ice cream (in the words of Nicole “it tastes like the way a spa smells!” which could not be any more spot on) and sticky rice with mango. Sticky rice is just what it sounds like- rice that is sticky. But I think what makes it sticky is the sugar in it. Then it is served with slices of half a mango on the side. This was great, as I had just learned not only how to eat mango the other day, but also the fact that I liked mango. Even better- they already scooped it out for us! I can’t wait to get back out in town and eat more of this amazing food! More pictures to come later.After an hour or so of walking through downtown Patong Beach which had a strikingly similar feel of Mardi Gras (complete with girls pole dancing on the balconies of bars- I kid you not), we found a charming spa. Now, I know what comes to mind when you think of a Thai spa. However, we were struck by the sign outside. Rated #1 on trip advisor? Dan will tell you, tripadvisor is our travel bible. We never go anywhere or do anything or see anything without consulti
ng trip advisor. If anything, we get a good idea of what to expect where we stay, travel or eat. In the words of my business-consultant husband, tripadvisor helps you “manage the expectations of your trip”. It’s true. Well, when I saw that this was rated on trip advisor, I knew it had to be good. So, we wandered up to this little spa door and flipped through the brochure. $10 for an hour massage! Unbelievable. Well, it was 10:30 pm, we were tired and did NOT want to be out walking through the throngs of people and the booming of the music coming from the bars so we ducked in. After seeing many signs explicitly staying that they were a “non-shady” spa (for lack of a better word), we were sold.
ng trip advisor. If anything, we get a good idea of what to expect where we stay, travel or eat. In the words of my business-consultant husband, tripadvisor helps you “manage the expectations of your trip”. It’s true. Well, when I saw that this was rated on trip advisor, I knew it had to be good. So, we wandered up to this little spa door and flipped through the brochure. $10 for an hour massage! Unbelievable. Well, it was 10:30 pm, we were tired and did NOT want to be out walking through the throngs of people and the booming of the music coming from the bars so we ducked in. After seeing many signs explicitly staying that they were a “non-shady” spa (for lack of a better word), we were sold.I got an “indulgent foot care package”. What is an “indulgent foot care package,” you ask? Well, for about $30, I had not one, but TWO people giving me a pedicure for an hour and a half. Yes, an hour and a half. I’m fairly certain I lost 10lbs in dead skin cells and cuticles (ok, kinda gross, but true). It was the MOST amazing pedicure I have EVER received!!! Nicole got a facial, a manicure and a pedicure for about $20 and Jean-Ann got an hour massage for $10. unbelieavable! And it was at 10:30 at night! You could faintly hear the pulsing of the music outside, but it was so nice and cool and smelled so good in there. As we were leaving, men, women, couples, anyone really were still coming in for a little R&R and pampering. The ladies who worked there were friendly and nice and spoke very good English, the service was outstanding and I could not have been happier. It is RIGHT smack in the middle of ALL of the debauchery (weird, huh?) so we might go there again on our last night if we need a little more pampering. (that is, in addition to the 3-hour spa packages that we all have booked tomorrow at our hotel in the afternoon :)) When I got back to the ship, I recommended it to all of my friends who were creeped out by the idea of going to a Thai spa but legitimately wanted a good massage.
Well, this ended up being a bit longer than I’d expected so I need to go fold laundry and rest up for my next 2 days off. We are heading back to the tailor so I can get fitted then checking into our fabulous hotel, the Diamond Cliff Resort for some sun, reading, pool and spa pampering, broken up by eating ridiculously more food. I can hardly wait! Hopefully Dan gets this posted soon so you can enjoy and I promise to post more pictures and stories of our next 2 days. I’m going to take my laptop to the hotel so more good stuff to come later, I promise.
Much love and sunshine to you all!
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