Italy and Thailand Dec 2012 - Feb 2013

Bangkok Airport

Fri Dec 28-Sat 29:

I am sitting in a cafe in Bangkok Airport at 3.20am by my body clock, or 9.20pm local time, eating yummy little fried vegetable things, and an ice cold Changi beer - strange things to eat at this hour, but the cafe has free wifi, so that trumps fancy cuisine. I can't quite believe I am on my way after the hectic times of Christmas. My packing is rather a hopeless failure as I could NOT get the weight down when all the ski gear was loaded in, and my carry-on weighs a ton, as all the excess was shoved in there. A suitcase of gear required for such disparate touristing activities as two weeks skiing in the Italian Dolomites (helmet, goggles, vast quantities of long johns, etc...), sightseeing and operas in Venice and Milan, and pool-snoozing in Patong does not compute to add up to 20kg! Only another three hours in the airport and twelve more *^%#}**^%^^***on the plane to go to Milan, then the train to Venice.

Venice

Sat 29

Connecting trains to Venice all went smoothly, and no-one stole anything from me in Milan train station. I take back everything I said about Venice and Internet-connectedness - my little hotel has free wifi, so I am a happy little person!! Quite ironic - the internet connection is fine, but it is the phone coverage I am having trouble with - it keeps dropping out as I wander the alleys of Venice. Apparently not a lot of mobile phone towers amongst the palazzos.

I am in surprisingly good shape as the Thai Airways flight from Bangkok was less than half full so I got three seats to sleep across, and I got a good 8 hours of the 11 1/2 hr flight asleep - yay!!! I also discovered what first class people have probably known all along, and that is, that if you travel and sleep with you feet elevated, NO CANKLES!!! My tootsies are a perfectly normal size, instead of the puffy hippo appendages I ended up with last year after my Emirates economy flight home to NZ from Europe.  Since the sun is shining, I am off to take photos while the water is sparkling and the sky is blue - no-one will believe it is wintry Venice, I suppose. (Note any date-stamps on photos are NZ time and date, 12 hours ahead of Italy)

Sun 30 Dec

Jet lag is still with me, so a quiet day yesterday of Mass at St Marco, a siesta, then an audio tour on my phone along the Grand Canal. Went looking for the Venice specialty of cichetti last evening, with average success.

This morning I went to the Rialto Markets to see supermarket shopping Venice style, 

and am now back in my room planning the onslaught on the museums and churches on my Carta Venezia. Still a bit tired so will just take it slowly. I bought the rather expensive 7-day travel card, but it means not only that I can hop on and off boats without thinking, but it also gives me somewhere to sit down and have my lunch!!! I plan to ride the boat to the Lido and back today while I eat my picnic lunch - That will teach them to take away all possible sit-down options in Venice!

Happy New Year

Mon 31 Dec

Well both the weather and the wifi gods must be smiling on me, because I have had the very best of both on my arrival in Venice. Dealing with the wifi first, one of my important travel criteria now is free wifi, and my lovely little Venice hotel has it, which is rather fortunate, as the mobile coverage in the city is rather erratic, bordering on hopeless. The two young receptionists at the hotel agree, as they only get sporadic connection on two different mobile providers, so it is not just silly old me. If I stand on top of the Rialto Bridge, or, strangely, in St Mark's Basilica, I get good reception, but apart from that, the reception bars are invisible, so thank heavens for the wifi to keep me connected.

Weather, on the other hand has been fantastic. Blue skies and clear crisp weather for the last three days have made the city sparkle. This afternoon I rode the boat to and from the Lido at 5.00pm, just to watch the sunset over the lagoon - I hope my photos can do it justice. In fact, it is so sunny that the shadows are a bit of a problem for the photographs - oh, what a problem! I am probably seeing Venice at its best, with the winter sun shining on all the elegant old buildings.

I have been revelling in my slow entry to Europe, planned to give me time to get over jet lag before attacking the ski slopes of the Dolomites. My little hotel in a narrow alley near the Rialto is ideally situated to allow me to skip back for a nap when the eyelids won't stay open any more. I have done the Grand Canal cruise with my iPhone audio tour warbling away, sung Mass at San Marco (hence the testing spot for my mobile phone reception), and have started on the list of churches and museums. Highlights today were the Titian and Bellini altar-pieces at the Frari Chapel, 

and the fabulous Grand Hall of the Scuolo Grande di San Rocco above which is the most amazingly luscious display of Tintorettos on the ceiling and walls. 

San Salute, the grand white confection across the canal from San Marco has a fabulous exterior, with a lovely, but less dramatic interior. The fourth church on today's list, San Sebastian, has been moved to later in the week, as my art brain was getting a bit over-loaded. One does not want to be saying, "Oh, not another Titian?"

Tonight is New Year's Eve for us on the other side of the globe, so I shall venture into St Mark's Square to see the reason for the hotel rates in the city doubling or trebling for the days either side of New Year. Luckily, this hotel did not do that, one of the reasons I booked it. I know Italy is in financial doo-doo, but there are certainly plenty of people here to celebrate.

One rather ironical thing is the return to one of the sources of Venice's riches, the trade along the Silk Route to China. A quick, non-scientific survey of the gondolas and water taxis cruising the canals with the select tourists on board (not like me, who does it all on the vaporettos), shows that the large proportion of such higher-spending tourists are Chinese. Perhaps it is part of the package tour they are all on to have the "gondola experience", but it is certainly keeping a lot of gondolier families in New Year groceries.

The other item I should have packed (yes, I know, I was overloaded anyway) is my possum fur jacket, as fur is definitely de rigeur for older Venetian ladies. However, theirs are full length, and were probably a wedding present going by the styling. The younger ones all dress in more-than-skintight jeans, boots and puffer jackets, with artfully disarranged hair, and look depressingly chic. My all-black travel kit puts me firmly in the nonna category.

I have a wonderful week ahead, with more of the delights of Venice, plus side trips to Padua and Vicenza, so the main challenge will be to capture all the memories. Unfortunately many places do not allow photography, despite my sneaky little no-flash attempts, so writing about these experiences for my blog will be my main way to keep the memories for my chair-by-the-fire days..

Venice 2

Tue 1 Jan – Thur 3 Jan

Seven sights /sites today - I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed! My last three days have been a mixture of frantic tourist scuttling (today) and frustration with "Chiuso" (closed) signs on New Year's Day.

New Year's Eve was a message to me to go to bed at 9.00pm in future! St Mark's Square does not allow for the safe egress of tens of thousands of people after midnight, and either the GFC or Italian ineptitude meant that there was zero police presence to get people efficiently out of the square. Result = mayhem, but in a good-natured Italian way, so no-one got too stressed out, and eventually we got home to bed. 

The next day my military-style itinerary went out the window, as EVERYTHING is closed on New Year's Day, plus after three beautiful days, the lagoon was fogged in, so there went Plan B to visit the two island churches. Never mind, lots of walking and getting lost got done instead. I did see the Jewish Ghetto, however, and it is extremely sad, as of the population of 1500, 240 were rounded up for the extermination camps in about 1943 and only 8 returned, so it is rather a ghost town now with only memorials, and a Santa climbing up the outside of one of the old synagogues.

That evening I had "Musica a Palazzo", wich was La Traviata performed in cut-down version in a beautiful old palazzo on the edge of the Grand Canal. The opera is performed in a different appropriate room of the palazzo for each act, (bedroom for the dying-in-the-bedroom scene, for example)

with the audience of 75 moving between acts, fortified by a complimentary glass of prosecco, of course.My pre-theatre drink of excellent wine and dainty nibbles was in a very elegant hotel next door, which, as is often the case, only charged a euro more than a glass of plonk in the tourist traps found elsewhere. Quite a delightful experience.


Sunset over the lagoon.....

 

Yesterday was a train trip to Padova/Padua in steady rain, so I dripped my way to the Basilica of St Anthony

 which is very spiritual, and filled with reverent pilgrims rather than marauding tourists. The town markets are quite an attraction, surrounded by lovely old buildings, but the steady rain did not make for pleasant strolling perusing the produce. The highlight was the Capella degli Scrovegni which is a Giotto jewel - he also did the St Francis Basilica in Assisi. The entire chapel, walls and ceiling, is covered in a series of works showing the life of Mary's parents, Mary, and Jesus. 

Scrovegni commissioned it in an effort to buy salvation for his father and himself for their sins as usurers, or moneylenders - maybe the GFC should give rise to some HUGE chapels in New York and assorted other places. Only 25 people at a time get their allotted 15 minutes to gawk and gasp, which I duly did.

Today was my marathon of seven sights as mentioned above, but it actually all flowed very smoothly as the crowds have left town ( Hallelujah) and these were all very close to each other, or easily accessible by boat. The Doges Palace was first, and I worked on my "hide the camera under the coat on "museum" setting" technique to capture a visual record. The photos may be slightly off balance or out of focus as a result, but they will be mementoes for me, nevertheless.

The Correr Museum next door was next, and this is perhaps the pity of the riches of Venice, that a museum with works of great quality such as this should be largely overlooked, and usually rushed through, as I did, as an add-on to other visits.

St Mark's of course, is fabulous, and so long as you did not use flash, no-one seemed to be policing the use of cameras. I had timed my visit for the hour that the lights are turned on in the domes to illuminate the glorious mosaics, and with no crowds to hustle one forward, it was possible to just quietly stand and stare for as long as one wanted. Which was quite a while.

The beautiful weather has returned, and the lagoon was sparkling, so I headed for the vaporetto stop for San Giorgio Maggiore, a beautiful Palladian church just across from San Marco. The contrast of this wonderful classical white marble exterior and interior with the San Marco lush baroque and Venetian Gothic is quite remarkable, having just come straight from there.

One island along, on Giudecca, is the Il Redentore church, also by Palladio, so that was my next stop, and this one even legally lets you take photos without flash. This gave my sneaky technique a bit of a rest. 

A little trattoria full of locals beside the water looked tempting for lunch, so I ventured in. It was so "local" that there was no printed menu, just the food that they have decided to cook today, but the confusion arose over my only wanting ONE course, since Italians - or at least the locals who frequent this place - are expected to eat at least three. Many disbelieving looks later, they agreed that I could have just pasta. I could hardly make my way through what I was given, so three courses would have had me sinking the return boat.

Two more churches awaited, one at each of the next two boat stops. Note the stored platforms seen by all the boat stops in case of the "acqua alta" which plagues Venice.

The Gesuati 

(again, allowing photos!) had a fabulous ceiling by Tiepolo,

 and a wonderful Crucifixion by Tintoretto.

 I ran into trouble, however, at San Sebastiano, where I got told off twice for doing the sneaky photo thing. I had been caught in the main church, and looked suitable penitent, but did not realise that the (I thought) out-of-sight sacristy had security cameras.

 Clattering heels announced the arrival of the door lady to tell me off AGAIN. So I had better not pray to St Sebastian for anything.

Two more days now to visit a couple of museums, and see if I can fit in the trip to Vicenza for yet more Palladio.

Don't worry, my future reports will not be this long, as I soon head for the mountains, and there is only so much you can say about ski runs.

Fri 4 – Sat 5 Jan

Two busy days to end my wonderful Venice stay, then off to the mountains tomorrow. Friday was an excursion to Vicenza to see the classic buildings of Palladio for which it is renowned. But silly me!! I imagined that he would have conveniently lined them up for me to see in easy strolling distance. Instead, he thoughtlessly put them all over the middle of town and made me burn up the shoe rubber finding my way around them.

Even more thoughtlessly, he let people build around them, and put some on narrow streets so I could not get a good photo angle. 

Really! What was he thinking? Nevertheless, they are grand sights and I burned off many calories.

You also find great things in unexpected places. One of the Palladio palazzos, Palazzo Leoni-Montanari,  is now a museum that had two great displays with absolutely nothing to do with Palladio. A photo exhibition showed the great sites of Italy as they REALLY look with tourists crawling all over them, or the ever-present scaffolding, or the detritus of celebrations in great piazzas. The floor above had an amazing display of Russian icons - apparently one of the best anywhere, displayed very evocatively with ? Russian ecclesiastical music playing moodily. 

And on a much more mundane note, the Vicenza train station cafe had the best pizza I have had for ages! According to the advice from my hotel receptionists I am also being very local, saving lots of money travelling on the regional trains - 5.20 euros to Vicenza instead of 15.50 euro. It takes a half hour longer, but I just read my guide book for the extra 10 euro each way!

Saturday was the last big dose of culture at the Accademia and Ca Rezonnico and it was a fabulous day that quite overdosed my art brain. The Accademia is just full of the most amazing works that have you gasping, and it is set in a beautiful building worthy of work of art status itself. It covers Venetian Art from the end of the Byzantine period through the Renaissance and is just amazing with Titians and Tintorettos and Carpaccios and Bellinis just everywhere, plus other amazing artists that little philistine me has never heard of.

Ca Rezonnico is a glorious palazzo that has been set up to show how the rich Venetians of the 17th and 18th centuries lived, with the furniture and art displayed sort of in its natural settings. 

So of course, more gasping. The top floor, (view from the window, above) however, really showed me what an ignoramus I am. It is the donated private collection of a 20th century art historian who gathered Venetian art from artists both great and unknown. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of paintings, any of which I would not be able to differentiate from a Titian. Particularly since a large proportion of them are nudes or luscious fleshy apparitions ( - see the whole wall of them below, repeated a few times).

 The other proportion is heavily populated with Venetian scenes which may not be as good as Canaletto,

 but are pretty darned amazing.

One last day cruising the canal.......

My last evening was Mass at San Giaccomo et Paulo (not the apostles, but two obscure early martyrs) which is yet another of the many amazing churches in Venice. 

It is the home of the Dominicans, and is just enormous, with many Doges buried there, and the usual array of great works of art. I meandered my way there across canals and down little alleyways,, passing three other lovely churches along the way. The upkeep of these must be a serious problem now that they do not all have large devout congregations. The Saturday evening Mass I was at had about 50 people in the enormous space, so I suppose the 3 euro entry fee which is now pretty standard across Venetian churches except for San Marco and a few others, is essential for their maintenance. And it would be a tragedy if they were allowed to deteriorate.


I am now doing early morning packing ready to depart for the mountains, so the next report will have snowflakes on it.

Arabba, Dolomites

Fri 11 Jan

My charming Arabba hotel! We will have a week here, then set off "on safari" for 6 nights around the Dolomites.

Just take it from me, the Dolomites are just the most amazing collections of linked ski resorts that you could imagine. Some are physically connected in that you can ski directly from one to the other using lifts and assorted versions of cable cars. Others are linked by free ski buses that run anywhere from every 10 minutes to a few times a day - local knowledge is essential for this. Others are miles apart and must be reached by train, such as the San Candido area next to the Austrian border where we skied one day on our "safari", but the DolomitiSuperSki Pass works on all of them. The cost of this pass for our  12 days worked out about $50NZ per day, which is considerably cheaper than Whakapapa! There is also an enormous array of accommodation and eating options for all budgets, and with the depressed European economy I think there are some good deals to be had. Our hotel in Arabba was nearly empty apart from the NZ tours going through there.

The people actually on the slopes seem affluent and are eating and drinking well at the restaurants, but perhaps there are many who no longer take their annual ski holiday. The Italian guide (married to a Kiwi), after a few wines, had a very jaundiced view of the Italian situation, and the difficulties for the working people who are actually paying their taxes. There is now a very strict control on the flow of money, probably to try to combat the black economy. He is limited with the amount of cash he can withdraw from his account every month, regardless of the balance, and he must pay a lot more of his bills electronically, probably so that the people who get the money have to pay tax on it. The rifugios that we stayed at often wanted him to pay in cash, probably for this reason.

The skiing here is marvellous, though it does not count as a very good snow year for them. Each day we put more km under our skis, eat large quantities of food, and admire the fabulous scenery. One of my best days was skiing the 14km down off the Marmolada Glacier.

 The group is all Kiwi, led by an Arabba native ski instructor (front left) and his Kiwi wife (front right). That is me, fourth from left .

Evening entertainment included a ski-mobile trip up the mountain to be entertained by dancing Tyrolean skiers!

We did the Sella Ronda route in both directions, plus other marvellous places such as Val Gardena, Corvara and San Crocifissio.

and included some low-tech approaches to ski lifts! Very picturesque being pulled through a forest, avoiding any horse poo ....

Tomorrow we take off from Arabba on our six day safari to different rifugios high in the mountains (see map below), so I will be out of email contact during that time but will send some texts to report in.

Mon 14 Jan

I am high in the mountains at Lagazuoi after three fabulous days on ski safari. The photo below is of a fine day, not the blizzard we were in!!

The runs are just amazing. For example I skied 4km down a blue/red run at Kronplatz with my pack on the way to the train to San Candida which is 8km from the Austrian border, to ski at Mount Elmo. 

The runs there included 4km red runs and I even tiptoed down a 2km black run which seemed to go on forever. The first two hotels were quite plush, while tonight is a lodge at Lagazuoi very high in the mountains and a bit more basic but still very nice.

Today we skied Cortina for the morning and after a heavy snowfall I have skied my first ever real deep powder and only did one face plant. I actually got the “sitting on the back of the skis” thing going for a while on one great run that we repeated three times at the end of the day. Fantastic!!!!!! These resorts are all just so wonderful and then there is another one around the corner.

Fri 18 Jan

We are back from safari and back into Internet and phone connections which were pretty non-existent in some of the mountain places we stayed in. We are all fairly exhausted after a very long day today covering a considerable distance on snow and by ski bus. We left Lusia this morning, skiing down to the chair with our packs, up a chair, down on a cable car, then by ski bus to Buffaure, up a gondola, down a 7km run, then by little toy train through the town of Pozza

 to the chair to Vigo with several runs there before a 4km run down to the road, back onto the toy train, back up Buffaure, across country by chair to Ciampac, down a cable car, onto a ski bus, up another cable car to Belvedere, a few more chairs, then the 5km run down to Arabba! See what I mean?

We leave Arabba at 8.30am tomorrow morning so should be in Venice by midday, and onto a train to Milan to get there by late afternoon I hope.

The ski trip has been amazing and I am so grateful to have survived with only minor bumps and bruises. I seem to have an inordinate number of photos of snowy trees which have been just so beautiful after the recent two days of heavy snow. Coming back to civilisation will seem very strange.

Off to repack my bag yet again.

Milan

Sat 19 Jan

I have arrived in Milano to more snow!! What is it with me, Milan, and snow? I am very tired After the ski trip and getting here today from Arabba, so will have a quiet night. I even confess I may eat at the McDs on the corner! My hotel is clean and basic, but well situated. The lobby is the flashiest aspect with nice marble and couches, but the room is a bit spartan. Never mind, it has a bed and I get free wifi, so I am happy. Tomorrow I have the Last Supper viewing at 4pm and my other plans depend a bit on the weather and when I can visit Katy.

Love to all, and off to the Golden Arches.

Sun 20 Jan

The big gap in my correspondence is due to the 14 days spent on the Dolomites snow which is fascinating to skiers, but tends to cause a general glazing of the eyes for non-skiers after the first paragraph of raving over fabulous snow and runs that go on for miles. So after my departure from Venice until my arrival here in Milan, not a whole lot of interest to non-skiers has happened. 

So, I survived almost in one piece and am now in Milan, about to start my culture attack on local sites. The weather is rather snowy, which seems to be the story of my trips to Milano - the time before last I spent 24 snow-bound hours in the airport, including sleeping on the floor in front of the check-in counter. This morning I went to a sung Mass at Sant'Ambrogio, a very, very old church started in the 4th century, and sort of finished about 600 years later. 

This afternoon is my visit to the Last Supper which, similar to the Capella degli Scrovegni, is a 25 person, 15 minute, pre-booked visit. It is a fascinating work recently meticulously restored, with such delightful details as Jesus' feet having been cut out by an abbot who wanted a doorway there!!

Mon 21 Jan – Wed 23 Jan

In the last days in Milan I saw a wonderful array of marvellous churches and now the number of photos on my camera of snowy trees is rivalled by the plethora of shots of the stonework around the roof of the Milan Duomo. In order of visitations, I did the Milan Duomo on Monday,

then after a walk through the Galleria, and lunch at the nearby department store, Rinascenti,

and the roof on Wednesday (due to ice closing it on Mon),

 the Certosa of Pavia (just fantastic!!) on Tuesday,

 plus other Pavia churches, the ancient Saint Eusebio, 

and the beautifully restored Duomo.

and San Michele with an ancient silver crucufix from the 10th century by Teodote.

 There is such an incredible richness of fabulous architecture that I cannot decide on my favourite, but the Certosa di Pavia has to be pretty close. Its position in the countryside approached through an avenue of poplars, and the still-functioning monastery next door, adds to its special charm. For these I was also lucky to have two local guides, Katy Hannan and her daughter Anna, who lead me around the beautiful old streets of Pavia which is rather what tourists imagine an Italian town should look like, with a picturesque river, 

lovely winding cobbled lanes that are death to high heels, but Italian women still manage. They were able to give me the local background and personal touch to all of the sights, plus a special yummy pizza lunch at a lovely back-street restaurant – thank you  both.

Wednesday, after my awed wanderings on the roof of the Duomo, 

was dedicated to getting a ticket for Falstaff at La Scala. There is an incredibly convoluted system of queuing at 1.00pm to go on a list, then returning at 5.00pm to be given a numbered ticket related to your position in line earlier, then at 5.30 buying your ticket, to return at 8.00pm for the opera!! I think this is designed to limit the process to keen, if impecunious, opera buffs. Thus it rather seemed worth it when I bought my 13 euro ticket alongside some people who had just bought online for 250 euro. Admittedly my line of sight from my seat in the lower gallery was half of the left wall of the stage, but like everyone else I just stood up and got a great view. Even some of the expensive seats have limited visibility, as in previous years it was more important to be seen at the opera, than to see the opera. Falstaff is not my favourite opera, as it has none of those great " Oh yes, I know that one" arias, but the experience was worth it to see the beautiful opera house, and the singing and staging were faultless, right down to the real horse munching real hay in a box during one of Falstaff's laments on his sad situation, and the 50+ orchestra supporting it all.

The next morning was an early scurry to the train station for the Malpensa Express, then on to the plane for Bangkok and Phuket. Ho hum - no spare seats this time, just large, slightly whiffy seat companions.

Phuket

I have just arrived in Phuket after a lovely five days in Milan and environs, to an enormous climatic change. Milan had snow and rain and Phuket is all balmy tropical air. I can hear the waves breaking on the beach from my hotel bed as I type.

Initially the island of Phuket is a bit underwhelming, as the airport is over an hour away from the beach area, and you wind through interminable traffic jams that seem to be getting you nowhere much. But over the hill to the beach area it all falls into place as a tropical beach paradise. My hotel is very nice, just across the street from the beach, and, hallelujah, at the quieter end of town. My balcony overlooks the pool, 

across to the sands and those breaking waves, so I can watch the passing parade of alarmingly tanned older people, of that deep walnut shade we seldom now see in New Zealand, plus gorgeous young girls, probably Russian if all the menus in Russian outside bars are anything to go by. The pool loungers seem to be colonised by a species of brown lizard, who drape their towels over the chairs proprietorially through the heat of the day, but fortunately retreated to their rooms by 3.00pm so I could take over. I have not explored far yet, beyond some piña coladas at the pool, but within a 100m radius I can get massaged by half the female population of Thailand. Relaxation at the beach or pool is the order of the day, and I plan to investigate some snorkelling options - quite a change from the snowy Dolomites and Milan. I will have a sunset cocktail for each of you, so that should keep me going for the week.

Phuket lends itself to lazing on one of the many hire loungers on the beach,

 because after the obligatory boat trip to PhiPhi Island, there is not a whole lot to do apart from lie in the shade by the pool. I am keeping out of the sun to avoid the crocodile appearance of many of the other inhabitants. Shopping is mostly ghastly tackiness, but I shall venture to the night market to see if there are any little treasures. There is a sign up for A. Armani suits, so maybe.............. I will also choose my massage venue this evening. I am lucky with my hotel at the quiet end of town, as there are some truly ghastly areas of blasting music and super-tacky bars. There does not seem to be a word in Thai for "low volume".

My trip to PhiPhi Island yesterday was very pretty in parts, 

but some boat stops were shockingly over-run by tour boats with crowds resembling Blackpool Bank Holiday. Everyone was on the beach taking photos of other people taking photos, almost obscuring the sand! 

Not quite the tropical island I had in mind, though we did visit some less crowded areas later. The snorkelling is pretty average as the tsunami has killed lots of the coral, but the striped and luminous fish were pretty.

Every paradise seems to have its darker side lurking somewhere, and in Phuket its visible presence is the Tuktuk mafia. Thailand is a beautiful country with genuinely happy lovely people, but corruption is clearly a way of life that could not be imagined in New Zealand.

When I booked my hotel, I looked at the map of Phuket, and saw a line of beaches down the western coast, with my beach, Patong sort of in the middle of them. I then Googled possible snorkelling sites. No problem, there were several north and south of here, so I duly enquired at the hotel tour desk how I could catch a bus to one a few miles south. Answer: “There are no buses.”  “What?” I said.” A line of coastal resorts with no connecting bus?” They looked a bit embarrassed, but said that there were buses into Phuket town to the east, over an hour away, then I could catch a return bus to the beach I wanted, over an hour back also (the beaches are about 15 mins apart....). I could then repeat the process, if I managed to make connections. At least five hours on a bus - hmmmm, not an ideal holiday occupation.

“OK, then, what is the alternative?” Knowing of cheap Asian taxis, I imagined a fare of maybe $5-$10. No, the only alternative is a Tuktuk, with fares starting at about $16 each way to the closer beach, and $20 upwards each way for the next beaches. This starts to make a day snorkelling look rather expensive!! The staff looked embarrassed again, and just said "Tuktuk Mafia". 

Apparently whenever anyone tries to introduce competition, or set up an alternative or bus service, they disappear. So there is this bizarre situation of no connecting transport down the whole western coast except that provided by the monopoly which must be paying off officials at assorted levels. Bar-hopping tourists probably do not notice, and rich Russians only come to one resort to bake themselves, but it makes travel for a solo penny-pincher like me rather fraught. Also, my sense of righteous indignation makes me not want to line their pockets, but I may have to relent if I want to move beyond Patong, so the next day I paid up for a trip past Karon (enormous Club Med) to Kata (lovely beach - my pick for next time).

Heaven knows how a local Thai who lives in one area can get a job in the next resort - it would be impossible. So corruption carries on........

I am so lucky that my hotel is south of the "action" that Patong is famous for, and the early morning walks on the beach are gorgeous. This morning had the extra attraction of a crocodile of several groups of 40 Chinese tourists dropped at one end of the beach by their bus, busily trotting along to reconnect with their bus further along. That must be the "visit Patong" bit of their tour. There always seems to be a big white cruise ship parked in the bay as well- I presume it is a different one that changes over at night, but they all look the same.

I also love the Buddhist approach to creatures - sitting in my hotel restaurant last night, I saw two mouse-sized cockroaches approaching across the terrace floor towards me. I called the waiter, and vigorously mimed him stomping on them - he rushed off and got a whisk broom, and gently swept them off into the plants on the side of the terrace. I spent the rest of my dinner nervously watching those plants.

The Russian presence is everywhere, from the menus in the restaurants, to the language on the streets to the baked bodies on the sands. Roasting to dark mahogany must be de rigeur if you want people back in Murmansk to know you have been on holiday. I inadvertently chose a "Russian" restaurant for dinner the other night, and was the only non-Russian in the place. I also struck my first surly Thai waitress, but after watching the other tables, I think I would be surly after a night working there too. Rude demands for litres of iced Stolichnaya were the norm, and no apparent please or thank you was part of the process. I made a point of being very pleasant in contrast.  I suppose we English speakers cannot complain about menus in Russian, as we often expect an English translation to be available, especially if the alphabet is one we cannot read such as Russian or Greek or Arabic.

Massage salons of every persuasion are everywhere, so I started with the beach version Thai massage to be completely safe. A manicure in a glass-fronted salon also seemed very respectable yesterday, so I shall do the foot massage this evening. It seems that if you want to steer a bit clear of it, the "other side" of Patong need not intrude too much. Even a walk down Bangla Rd had less obvious titillations on view than in many other places. I am sure that a few steps inside places, or down side streets would find plenty on offer, however.

The prospect of my own bed is looking vey appealing now, and even the ubiquitous 100 baht ($4) cocktails on offer may eventually pall. I actually think they keep the price so low by a very light hand on the alcoholic content. Well, that is what I rationalise to myself as I order that piña colada for my lunch.....

Sun 3 Feb

Phuket was a pleasant place to rest and recuperate after my busy Italian itinerary, but flying in over the sparkling Tasman, with the crashing waves of Piha’s black sands below, then the dense green of the Waitakeres, it is fantastic to know that I am home.