Thailand Honeymoon — ฮันนีมูนในประเทศไทย
On the fourth day of our trip with took a shuttle to Patong Beach, which is a very touristy beach city located on the southwestern side of Phuket it is a "C" shaped bay surrounded by mountains. Once we arrived we had some lunch on the beach and then met up with our Tuk Tuk driver. He took us to Kok Chang Safari, where we had plans to do an elephant ride up into the mountainside of Patong. The ride was about thirty minutes long along the winding coastline.
When we arrived we saw a group of Mahouts resting on their hammocks and a herd of elephants close by. Mahout is the name given to the people who train and ride elephants. We never got the name of our Mahout, but he stood about five-foot-two and looked around seventy years old. He greeted us with a toothless grin as we climbed aboard the chair strapped across the elephants back. Once secured with a piece of rope, we started our thirty minute elephant trek up the trail. The trek was pretty amazing. I'd compare it to riding horseback, if the horse was ten feet tall and weighed about four and a half tons. The elephant was really well behaved, only stopping a few times to grab some greenery for a snack and scratch his head on a tree or two. The trek was a nice way to see some of the countryside and enjoy some coastal views from atop a mountain. When we finished the trek our Tuk Tuk driver drove us back to Patong.
In Patong, we spent time wandering the streets and even made a trip down the popular Bangla Road. Bangla Road is the nightlife section of Patong Beach. Here you can find tons of bars, dance clubs, Kathoey (Ladyboys) and the infamous Ping-Pong shows. We walked through the craziness of Bangla Road and found ourselves on the beach looking for the parasailing. Kelly already stated before the trip that parasailing was something that she wanted to check off of her bucket list, so we made our way through the crowds looking for someone offering parasailing rides. I'm pretty sure that many of you have seen the parasailing done in the Caribbean and other coastal places, but what I'm about to explain to you has been the craziest parasailing that I've ever witnessed. The adventure begins with Kelly putting on a life vest and then strapping her into the parachute on the beach. Kelly and the parachute are attached to a long rope that runs into the water and is connected to a boat about a hundred yards away.
As she's standing there, one of the operators (I'll call him Lil' Weezy) began explaining to her that when he says go, she's supposed to take off running towards the water at full speed. While he's explaining the plan, I can see the other operator (Lil' John) laying out the parachute while a smaller Thai guy is holding onto the parachute lines. “Lil' Weezy” gives Kelly the go and she takes off running towards the water's edge. I see the chute starting to take flight and she begins to lift off the ground and running behind her is the small Thai guys still holding onto the lines. Once she's in the air, the smaller guy jumps, wraps his legs around her, pulls himself up into the parachute lines and off they go. Her parasailing partner is known as a "Monkey Boy" and they're in charge of guiding the parachute. The speedboat took Kelly and her ‘Monkey Boy’ for a lap around the bay at sunset and as they circled back, as they get closer to the shore you could see her passenger begin to dangle from one side of the lines. Before reaching the shore, the boat turns parallel to the beach and the Monkey Boy guides the parachute to gently sail over the heads of visiting beach goers. They sail along the beach for about 300 yards before gracefully landing in almost the exact same place as where they took off. “Lil' Weezy” and “Lil' Jon” quickly unhook Kelly from the chute while the Monkey Boy begins straightening out the lines for the next customer. As I went up to see Kelly she was grinning ear-to-ear and telling me how awesome it was.
We quickly thanked the crew and went looking for a place to eat. After walking up and down Thawewong Road debating what we wanted to eat, we finally settled on a seafood restaurant simply called Patong Seafood. This restaurant was located right on the main drag of Patong and originally caught out attention because of the row of aquariums with live prawns, fish, squid and other sea life swimming around, waiting to be some hungry tourist's dinner. We sat at a table pretty close to the front, which gave us a great view of the live seafood market where plenty of customers bought seafood that could be cooked on site or wrapped up and brought back to their homes for dinner. The table also looked out over the rest of Thawewong Road, which allowed for great people watching opportunities. If there was one thing Patong had plenty of, it was tourist and pour tourist fashion. It kind of reminded me of Myrtle Beach with sun burnt tourists, neon colored tank tops and fanny packs. The view entertained us until our food arrived. Kelly ordered a soft-shell crab dish and I had a traditional Thai dish that consisted of chicken wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on the grill. The food was ok, nothing to write home about. Our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up shortly after dinner, so we started walking back to the Banana Walk to wait for our bus. Along the way we crossed paths with a little Thai woman who was selling little trinkets and souvenirs. We looked through her items and the whole time Kelly was fiercely haggling over the price of a handmade wallet, I was eyeing this incredible Thai hat that she was wearing. The hat is made from a northern Thai tribe, called the Akha. They’re known for making these extravagant hats adorned with bells, shells, beads and coins. Once Kelly saw the hat, she knew that's what I wanted, so Kelly and I began to haggle with her for both the wallet and this crazy hat. We bought the hat and the wallet for 500 Baht ($15) and the woman even posed for a photo with me and my new headpiece. After our haggling we headed back to the Banana Walk and waited for our shuttle. The shuttle picked us up at about 10:30 and we relived the excitement of the day as we headed back to the resort.