First task for the day was to arrange a cab to take us on our next mission. Our plan, shopping in old Phuket Town, to see the golden Buddha at Wat Kao Rang and to have lunch on a floating restaurant like the hob-nobs do.  We ran the gauntlet of drivers eager for our business and got a fair way down the street before we were happy with the price.  Once the drivers see you leave a flash resort they assume you are made of money and they are happy to help you spend it.  We ended up enlisting a Chinese/Muslim couple who offered to take us wherever we wanted all day and wait for us and be our private drivers for the day.  So we told them exactly where we wanted to go and they were happy, the price settled and away we went. All smiles, love and hospitality. The lady’s English was really good and the old fella was full of laughs but English was a bit limited but he chattered away anyway.

First mission shopping, I wanted to buy some clothes and the concierge at out hotel had told us that there was a day market in old Phuket town that was cheap and all the locals shopped there. We arrived and our driving duo said they would wait for us and to take our time. It was stinking hot so I was pleased it was indoors and air conditioned. So in we went. Well it was correct that the locals shopped there, we definitely didn’t see any other westerners shopping in there but also didn’t find any clothes that would fit an Aussie sized woman, everything was size 10 or under as Thai people are tiny.  So I abandoned the quest for clothes and decided to look for souvenirs etc. got a few bargains but basically I was disappointed. I don’t know how long we were in there but we were getting hungry so off we went to find the dynamic duo and there they were waiting.  We had asked to go to floating restaurant where you pick the fresh fish straight from the ocean where they are held in netted enclosures. Robbie explained where it was and the couple said yes, yes we know, we’ll take you, except they didn’t take us to where we wanted to go, they took us where they wanted to go which was a restaurant by the bay, not one on the bay. It was off the beaten track but no matter what they said to try and sell it to us, it just wasn’t where we wanted to go. They stopped the car and before you could blink we had a waitress leading us inside to pick our lunch from the concrete ponds. It was obvious that the couple were getting a free lunch for bringing us here because they high tailed it over to a hut and started chowing down. We were ushered to a table & we told the waitress we didn’t want seafood so we looked at the menu but still we weren’t happy, we had been kidnapped and taken to this place. It was pretty, there was no denying that but we wanted to sit on the ocean and select our lunch from the ocean not a bloody concrete pond! So we had a Pepsi and just wandered around until our drivers had finished lunch. Robbie had to take a hard line with them and insist that they take us where we wanted to actually go. They tried to get more money from us saying it was a long way but seriously, nothing is far way in Phuket so Robbie stood his ground.

Even though we were hungry, we decided to visit Wat Kao Rang first, a golden Buddha which was on a back street and up a hill somewhere in old Phuket town. By this time it was the hottest part of the day so the couple stayed in the car in the air con while we ventured out in the heat to check out the Buddha. It was pretty impressive there was no denying that.  It was a little hot underfoot with the shoes off as the tiles surrounding the Buddha were definitely well heated in the sun.There was also a well-established monastery there and Monks doing there monk business and devotions. Robbie was invited into the monastery to check it out. I could have gone in too but I didn’t feel comfortable going in, I don’t know why, just a feeling I had.

Robbie said they were so welcoming and he got to see how they live, eat, sleep & just hang out. They were happy for him to take pictures so at least I got to see what it was like in there from the photos. From inside the monastery he got to go next door to the temple, so I missed that too. Buggar me and my funny feelings, lol, but I never go against them when I have them!  The pictures he bought back from the temple were very impressive I am spewing I didn’t go with him.

Robbie was wandering around in there for ages and I just sat on the steps watching the world go by and smiling at the tourists struggling up the hill in the blazing sun to reach the Buddha, sure glad we were driven up.

When Robbie returned he asked the driver and the missus to take us to the floating restaurants & they said they didn’t know what Robbie was talking about, they had never heard of it. Robbie knew exactly where it was as it wasn’t actually a common tourist spot and was mainly frequented by very rich Asians as the seafood is noted in the good dining circles as being the best/freshest that money can buy. The driver insisted he needed more money & that it was a long way away but Robbie knew we were very close so he stood his ground, that’s the benefit of having a living GPS with you. Finally the duo gave up muttered something in their language and listened to Robbie as he explained were they needed to go. The driver did a very illegal u turn in order to save petrol (his words) but it was only about five minutes away from where we were but the driver and his missus still grizzled about extra petrol.

Now don’t get me wrong we are always fair with drivers and negotiate a decent price we never try to rip anyone off but we told them exactly where we wanted to go and they gave the price so it wasn’t like we were being demanding but gee they were not happy.

We found the street that led to where we wanted to go and they dropped us at the jetty to get a longtail boat out to the restaurants. I could see that they really hadn’t been there before but I bet it was added to their list of places to take people. They told us they were going to go to their daughters as apparently she lived around the corner so we asked them to come back in two hours.

There were a number of restaurants floating on very rustic pontoons out in the bay and the boat driver didn’t speak English so we just had to go where he took us but luckily it was exactly the right place. We had seen this place on some highbrow cooking show so we knew it was the right place ‘finally’.

We were greeted by staff as we got off the longtail boat and asked where we would like to sit, so we found a nice shady table to sit at. There were only a few tables actually occupied so we were feeling very special.  There was a large group of Chinese looking businessmen having a meal and they were all drunk and taking the piss out of each other. They looked like they had been there awhile but they left laughing and joking as they jumped back on the boat to head for the shore.

The waiter went and got us a nice cold Singha beer and some ice and told us to wander around and select what we wanted for lunch. We were on a large floating pontoon divided up into netted pools directly in the bay with different seafood in each pool with wooden floating pathways surrounding them so you could pick what you wanted to eat.

One even contained a selection of leopard sharks, you name it, if it came from the ocean it was more than likely there, I am sure if we asked for dolphin we could have had it, but we decided on tiger prawns and snapper. So no mammals were harmed in the making of our meal!

The prawns were the size of a lobster they were huge so we got one each and a snapper big enough for two. They were caught and taken away to cook. It was a lovely spot so we wandered around watching the long tails coming and going and checking out the seafood pens it was like being in Neptune’s garden. Then we sat down and enjoyed the cold beer and soaked in the atmosphere.

When the food arrived it was insanely delicious and oh so fresh, I really can’t explain how good it was. The prawns came back BBQ’d in a garlic sauce and the Snapper was steamed in some Thai type herbs. We enjoyed every single morsel of it and it was well worth the effort to get there. We paid for the meal, yes, it was very expensive but worth every single baht and that sort of eating experience really is something that we will remember for a long time to come.

When we had finished and paid for our meal and the long tail arrived to take us back to the mainland. We had been on the pontoon for about two hours and when we headed back to shore, the tide had gone out which posed a bit of a problem reaching the jetty.

We could see the jetty and where we had to get off, but there was no water near it and nothing but smelly mangroves between our boat and the jetty. Our skipper couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t speak Thai so communicating how the hell we are going to get off the boat just wasn’t happening. There was a heap of Asian people on the jetty all dressed up to the nines waiting to get a boat over to the restaurants. So after much confusion and perseverance by the skipper, he got his boat in behind another boat that was stuck in the mud. He gestured for us to climb over on to that boat, which we did and that got us slightly closer but still not close enough, so a lot of conversation between all the boat skippers that we couldn’t understand and motors starting and boats inching closer to the jetty in the mud.

So we clambered from boat to boat until we were nearly there and we were about a metre off the jetty, that was it, there was no way to get any closer. The Thai skipper very proud of himself jumped from the front of the boat onto the jetty smiled and gestured to us to follow. I looked at Robbie with a ‘WTF’ look on my face and he knew straight away I could never make it. It was also a metre higher than the boat so I looked at the mangroves and thought ‘shit’ looks like a mud bath for me. I could see no over alternative.

From the crowd waiting to get on the boat a couple of large well-dressed men came forward and leaned right out and gestured to me to take their hands, Robbie was also there ready to help.  So basically I just put my trust in them all grabbed on and jumped towards them and they pulled me in and up on to the jetty. It was like hauling up a big sack of rice. They took my full weight and hauled me up. I was feeling very embarrassed but no one battered an eyelid at me, they just smiled and nodded and started helping women and kids down onto the boat, seems I was the only one that thought this was a problem.  I am such a girlie girl.

Our driver and his wife were there waiting as promised but we weren’t worried that they wouldn’t be as we hadn’t paid them yet. We got them to drop us back at the beach near our hotel we paid and thanked them and it was now time for sunset. We hung around to get some pictures on the beach and even though it had been a big day. We went and dropped our cameras back at the room had a shower and headed out again for dinner and drinks up Bangla Road.