March 28th, 2013 - The Sea Cucumber

Topping today’s list of strange creatures: The Sea Cucumber.



We ran across this little guy during low tide at Ao Yon beach. By little, of course, I mean disconcertingly large. Bigger than my hand, smaller than a breadbox—you get the drift. It didn’t do much…mind you, it was trapped in a puddle so I can hardly judge (I’ve done less in a day without being trapped in a puddle, so I think we can give it the benefit of the doubt here).



We are fairly certain after having poked it with a stick (humanely and with the utmost care for the Sea Cucumber’s physical and psychological wellbeing) that this is the bottom of the Sea Cucumber.



Geogirl and I stared at it for a while. It may or may not have stared back, we couldn’t really figure out which end was which. Regardless, we thought it necessary to share these pictures so that you, too, can experience the nightmare/really weird dream-fuel that is a Sea Cucumber.

- LuckyStar

March 25th, 2013 - Storm at Panwa Beach

We took another trip to Panwa Beach today. It was sprinkling a bit when we left, but by the time we reached the beach it was pouring rain. Not pouring rain like it does in Canada, either. This was a torrential downpour. Even our love of rain couldn’t stop us from seeking shelter after a few minutes of getting pelted by it. We waited out the storm in On the Beach, a restaurant at Panwa Beach, and enjoyed some papaya salad and drinks while watching the sea churn in the distance. The Big Buddha and all the lights and hills across the water were almost completely invisible through the storm. It was much more fun to watch from inside, but the ocean during a storm is a beautiful thing to see.

A picture can’t do this storm justice, but trust us, it was staggeringly powerful.

March 13th, 2013 - The Wasp Saga Continues

Our landlord stopped by today to deal with the Wasp Problem for us. Now, I don’t have a ton of experience with exterminating insects, but my granddad (hi grandpa!) has a pretty practical way of getting rid of wasp nests. It involves some very sneaky ninja work, where you take a plastic bag and go out at night when the wasps are asleep (or so you hope) and you knock the nest into the bag and tie it up before they catch on to your devious little ploy and stage a counterattack.

March 11th, 2013 - Land of the Lost Flip-Flops

Have you ever wondered what happened to that flip-flop you lost years ago to the cruel and crafty designs of the ocean? Well, we found it!





Like socks taken as sacrifice by the dryer gods, lost items all have to end up somewhere. Turns out that Ao Yon beach is the Land of the Lost Flip-Flops. We’ve passed by this particular palm tree dozens of times and only today noticed that it is covered in flip-flops.  From the bottom of the trunk to the very top, dozens upon dozens of mateless flip-flops that have washed up on shore have been nailed to the tree. It’s quite a sight. I kind of love this place.



- LuckyStar

March 8th, 2013 - Pancakes at Panwa Beach

We took advantage of the shuttle bus today to visit Ao Yon Beach, which cuts a considerable distance off of the trip to Panwa Beach. Under normal (walking) circumstances, it’s about 3 km, so you can imagine how thrilled we were to avoid that. And because Panwa Beach is so gorgeous, here’s another picture:

March 7th, 2013 - The Free Shuttle Bus

You’ll never guess what our hotel offers: free shuttle bus service.

Yet another example of my unparalleled talent at finding the most difficult possible way of doing something, only to find out much later that there was a simpler solution right in front of me all along.

That’s right, we’ve been walking all this time when there was a shuttle bus right there. In fact, I think we even stepped around the bus a few times on our way out, so intent were we on completing the 3 km roundtrip walk to Ao Yon Beach, or the 4.6 km walk to Cape Panwa Village. Yep, I sure earned that university degree; it serves me well.

Regardless, we were quite thrilled to discover this. The bus comes every two hours and drops people off at Ao Yon Junior Beach (meaning that it is a far shorter walk from there to Secret Cove) and to Panwa Bay Village, where we went for dinner tonight. We stopped at Live India for the second time and had some absurdly delicious masala kofka, mixed vegetable korma, and bombai aloo.

And then we walked home. Because that’s what sandy-feet do. They walk. Even when they don’t have to.

- LuckyStar

March 4th, 2013 - Panwa Beach

Panwa is just a tiny corner of Phuket, but it has plenty to offer. After having explored the main areas of Panwa (primarily Cape Panwa and the Ao Yon beaches), we’re now pushing out a little further to see what else we can find. It’s a slow process, mind you—we are going to be here a while so we’re trying to draw it out as much as we can—but a worthwhile one.

Today we wandered up the hill, then up a few more hills because wow this place is hilly, past Ao Yon Senior and Ao Yon Junior beaches and all the way up to Panwa Beach. We’re talking a 40 minute walk, at 3.1 km one way, so a good trek but not unreasonable.

Wandering past Ao Yon beach.

February 26th, 2013 - Pancakes, Storms, and Possessed Air Conditioners

My pancake addiction is unrelenting. Geogirl and I went to Secret Cove this morning for a delicious pancake breakfast and enjoyed a brief but pleasant walk along the beach—brief, due to the heat.

It was 33^oC. I’m used to insane temperature changes at home—sunny one moment, freak snowstorm  the next—and I barely notice most of the time (only enough to complain about it, naturally). But here, three degrees higher than usual seems to make a huge difference. It was positively sweltering today, even though it was overcast. And, of course, we walked the 3 km roundtrip to Ao Yon and back, which includes multiple hills, so by the time we returned home we were both exhausted and in desperate need of air conditioning.

February 16th, 2013 - Chinese New Year Festival in Phuket Town

It’s the year of the snake, and we’ve just returned from a fantastic evening in Old Phuket Town! Phuket’s Chinese New Year Festival for 2013 is being held from February 15^th-17^th in conjunction with the 14^th Annual Old Phuket Festival. This is all taking place along four main roads: Thalang, Krabi, Dibuk, and Phang Nga. For the first time during our trip so far, pedestrians actually outnumbered vehicles—by a lot. The streets were teeming with people tonight.

A shot of one of the streets, before the festival had even really started.

On Leaving - Geogirl

The worst things to happen to people in life are not acute but chronic. The things that aren't visible, the stuff that takes place entirely inside yourself. There's no beginning, no point that you can see where it started, but somehow you've reached adulthood having given up on all your dreams. No one tells you straight out that your dreams are impossible, but they don't need to, do they? You get the message loud and clear without ever hearing the words.

February 15th, 2013 - Panwa Bay, Live India, and Walks Along the Beach

We took a long walk up to Panwa Bay Village and along the pier today.

The Pier.

Panwa Restaurants - The Captain's Bar and Lounge - 1/5 Stars

Meeeeeh is the only way to describe this place. Like the Moon House, it's attached to a small hotel/guest house, but it's far more up-market. The Captain's Bar rises above the ground on lovely slate stairs, and enters an open air lounge that has excellent views of the harbour. They seem to play a few Michael Buble CDs on continuous repeat (I think he's really big in Thailand). It's very clean, and is the closest to a North American-type restaurant as we've seen here in Thailand. For one, there's actually a cash register like you'd see in a McDonalds, with a neatly labelled screen of menu items (I think. It was in Thai.)


With all that going for it, you'd think it be a winner, but unfortunately, the Captain's Bar seemed determined to disappoint us.

1) It's only open for breakfast (6 to 9), lunch (12 to 3), and dinner (6 to 12?). Scheduling your meals around that isn't particularly easy.
2) It serves cocktails in what I believe are double shotglasses. Tiny for the 140 baht price tag.
3) The food was the first flavourless thing that either of us had managed to eat in Thailand. Bland and expensive, my pineapple fried rice came with very pretty garnishes and was served inside a hollowed out pineapple, but it had little flavour other than a touch of curry. Lucky Star's Pad Thai seemed to have been cooked without seasoning, leaving it about as flavourful as a sock.

All together, both LuckyStar and I agree that this place is DEFINITELY not worth visiting. It gets a 1 out of 5 on the Regrettable to Edible Scale of Restaurant Judging.