Hey Superman - Day 2

Hey Superman - Day 2

The view from our Sunbeds

After a good first day in Thailand we were boosted further by the morning sunshine. Upon rising, in stark contrast to the day previous, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun was beating down on our humble abode and we prepared for an even better second day.

The plan was set, we'd hop in a taxi and soak up some rays on the famous Patong beach, a place with a much more westernised look than the places we'd experienced previously. We couldn't have been welcomed to Patong by a better sight. White sand, crystal blue sea and a quiet beach; we'd finally been introduced to our tropical paradise. We spent the next hour or two frolicking in the sea (as you can see in the piccies below), working on our tans and people watching. Well, that's what we did in between being harassed every few seconds by the forceful salespeople trying to sell us a wide range of goods we had, and never would have any interest in purchasing. It didn't take away from the experience though, was a lovely couple of hours in paradise.

Dan in the sea

Nicola enjoying the clear ocean

That time in paradise didn't last as long as we'd have liked though, as the impending dark clouds of doom loomed over us. It was only a matter of time until the rain hit, and when it did, we were kindly warned in advance by a passing beach salesman. This gave us time to take a little bit of evasive action, but not enough to avoid the passing shower completely. The shower did tempt us to remove ourselves from our sunbeds and venture into town however, which made our Patong trip extra interesting.

As we begun our wander towards the famous Patong strip we began to gain an early idea of what was in store. A walk down Patong strip is one of the most interesting things I have ever experienced. It could be quite a pleasant experience looking around the stores at the knock-off designer gear and crude bracelets, but this is taken away by the fact you have about a 3rd of a second to look at a stall before you're approached by the pushy salesperson, or offered a ride in the renowned Thai tuk-tuks, but we'll get to that later. This pushiness leads to shopping, not one of my favourite pastimes, becoming an even more laborious and difficult task. That and the fact 90% of stalls sell an identical group of items, so you end up wandering around for no real reason.

Despite these negatives, we remained in good spirits, and enjoyed our time in Patong. I lucked out and managed a picture with Ronald McDonald, whilst Nicola basked in thousands of pink items emblazoned with the famous cat in the Hello Kitty store. We also were lucky enough to get some advise on what to do in-case of a Tsunami, with a helpful sign directing us to the nearest Tsunami evacuation zone. Just what you hope to see in a supposed Tropical Paradise! Another enjoyable part of the trip was the comments we received as we walked around. The majority simply shouting "Hey Superman" at me, which made me instantly regret wearing my Superman T-shirt; whilst also being confused for being Australian on more than 1 occasion.

Dan's new best mate Ronald

I don't think the Hello Kitty store Nicola is in-front of is colourful enough

Tsunami warning sign

Once we'd finished up in the town centre, and slurped on our delicious frozen cocktails we decided to head on home. This turned out to be another 'interesting' experience. We decided on this occasion to not just settle for the price offered for the taxi but instead haggle. After having to walk away and be chased down the street by the Tuk Tuk driver, we eventually settled on a price of 400thb, a pretty reasonable price for the length of journey. Then began the journey, in the back of a van which had no windows, doors or any form of security on quite possibly the hilliest road I have ever been on. It's safe to say, we were on the edge of our seats the whole way home, well, I was anyway, Nicola managed to fall asleep.

We arrived back to a familiar setting safely and proceeded to head back to the apartment. After a Skype session with both sets of family members we went for a walk to the 'local' supermarket to purchase some snacks. Our food stocks have now been sufficiently boosted ahead of our training, with the addition of extra crisps and some mini boxes of a variety of cereals, I'm sure you can guess who those are for! We then headed to the hotel restaurant for our meal, which, for 2 drinks and our main meals came to 290thb, which equates to £5.92, not bad! A very nice way to end another superb day, so far we're loving Thailand, and can't wait for our training to begin!

A lovely flower-covered hotel which Nicola insisted I took a photo of