We landed in the evening and by the time we got to Graceland Hotel at Patong beach we were buggered from flying.
The hotel was old and loved, but well maintained. We had more than enough space in our room for four and had a beautiful view over one of the pools. The hotel had three main pools which included a sky pool and two swim up bars. There was also a good sized gym, the usual restaurants and even an eight lane bowling alley.
On our first day we explored the shopping centre and then made our way down Bangla Road. This is certainly an experience with every second person asking you to come and see a ping pong show, it is an amazing sight all lit up at night, bustling with people and lady boys!
My dad and sister both got suits made at Aussie Tailor on Bangla Road and we are very impressed with the quality and cost. Only time will tell us really how good the quality is though.
Not much was cheaper at the shops than in Perth and the things on the street were more expensive that Bali. They were much better quality though and had more technology. We did well with our shopping.
We went to FantaSea which really is an incredible place. There is so much colour and most of the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It was quite over the top, but not too much to handle. We had a buffet dinner and I was amazed at the range, quality and quantity of food they were churning out! The show itself was spectacular, it taught you a little about Thai culture and it had animals! The animals were well cared for and there was no hint of cruelty which made me happy.
We took a boat, one of those double decker ones, to Phang Nga, or more commonly known as James Bond Island. This trip was great, the crew were really good and they took a liking to us Aussies. I think part of this was due to the fact that we understood their sense of humour. The lunch on the boat was also really tasty. At one point we stopped and hopped into inflatable canoes and got taken around these lagoons and through some caves. All the scenery was incredible. We stopped at the big pointy rock made famous by 'The Man With The Golden Gun' and went for a walk and took lots of photos. To get to here we had to take a long boat which also took us to the floating village. There was a school here and it was amazing in that we could just walk through while the kids were learning. The trip finished off with swimming and canoeing at a sandy beach.
After two attempts we were lucky on the third time to go to Phi Phi Island by speed boat. After being post phoned there was no way the tour company was going to cancel the trip, even with four metre swells. Normally I can handle the surf, I'm always at the beach and I love roller coasters, but this was rough. It was an hour of being thrown about and getting soaked by sea spray before we were able to get out. This was not must relief because we got out to snorkel and we were still getting thrown around. There were a lot of pretty fish who weren't afraid when you got up close. After this we arrived on the beach at Phi Phi and celebrated dry land! We had lunch and went for a walk but didn't get to spend much time on the Island because the travel time was much longer in the rough conditions. The island was very beautiful. We then took an even rougher boat ride to another island where we could swim and snorkel or sleep. On the way back into the marina it was incredible to see how drastically the tide had changed.Over all it was an incredible, fun experience.
