A Glimpse of Patong

Day 2

After a quick buffet breakfast session (I shall describe the buffet breakfast menu on my next post) we were off to church . We knew the address and it was 30 mins away but we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time in case our taxi driver got lost. The heavens opened up though it didn’t faze our driver who motored through the streets like he knew exactly where he was going. “I hope the rain eases up soon”, I said to myself noting to pray for sunshine later that day. We arrived an hour early which was fine except we had asked the driver to wait for us until it was done. He was nice enough to wait… nearly two hours. I think what we paid him was worth the effort.

Upon returning to our hotel, the rain stopped and the sun blazed up the sky. It was time to hit the town. Kalima Resort had a free shuttle service to Patong, which was very handy indeed as we had spent enough money on taxis that day. It was a massive tuk-tuk (Thailand’s version of a tricycle), chrome plated inside but had four wheels instead of three as it could fit more than 30 people inside. It quickly filled up with guests who had the same idea as us, most likely to visit the town for some lunch and a bit of shopping.

The shuttle stopped at Jungceylon Shopping Mall. First thing we saw were lines of souvenir stalls swarmed with tourists, testing their bargaining skills against the street smart vendors. Wifey and I went straight inside the air conditioned building to escape the heat. First on the agenda was to find her a pair of swimming shorts which she found at the Big C supermarket inside. Dunkin’ Donuts stopped us in our tracks as it was our favourite doughnut store back in the Philippines and they didn’t have it in Australia. Walking past the vendors, I persuaded Wifey to purchase a sun hat to wear on our island tour. Her haggling skills were on point, slashing 100 baht off the ‘recommended retail price’.

The doughnut was clearly not enough as our hunger lead us deep beneath the building where a charmingly decorated food court caught our attention. Food Bazaar, it was called. The tables and chairs were coloured red, green, yellow, blue and pink and the food stalls the same. Oriental lanterns hung from the ceiling. The food prices were even more attractive. For around $5-$6 you could get a decent single meal. Once again it was prawn pad thai for me (I love pad thai) and Khao Kha Moo (braised pork knuckle) for Wifey. The pad thai was nice, on par with Pan Yaah. We washed our food down with sweet lemon iced tea (we never learn), hunger was finally satisfied.

As the sun was at its peak, we refrained from venturing outside in the streets, exploring the rest of Patong had to wait another time. The shuttle bus returned at 2pm and took us back to our hotel. The driver took the scenic route where we finally had a glimpse of Patong Beach. One of the busiest beaches I had seen. It was so close to the road lined with restaurants, shops, taxis, tuk-tuks and scooters. The beach was full of sun bathers and swimmers, a little bit chaotic.

We waited until around 4pm, when it was slightly cooler due to the clouds rolling in, to go for a dip in the infinity pool. Wifey joined me this time. A couple of hours later, we were back in our room for a nap before dinner.

We were to have dinner in Patong but overslept and missed the last shuttle service to town and so for the third time on our trip we had Thai cuisine courtesy of Thai Taste Restaurant within Kalima Resort. I did not order pad thai this time and instead got some salt and pepper squid and some red curry beef. The squid was tender but the hero was the garlic sauce that smothered it. It was delicious!

A full on day with a relaxing end, it was an early night in as we had an island tour to look forward to in the morning.

Cheerio,

Jeeps