"Thailand" Thailand by Tayto

Thailand is a beautiful country and the people are genuinely the most friendly people I have ever encountered. We were in Thailand and more specifically in Bangkok for New Year's Eve and the fireworks and celebrations were excellent. This is a city that knows how to party.

After three days in Bangkok we spent 2 weeks in Phuket and it was so relaxing and peaceful. It was very sad to see the horrendous images of the sunami particularly in Phuket and made the suffering all the more real for having been there. Some of the images shown across the world were taken from the Amari Coral Reef Hotel which is on the West end of the bay at Phuket. Although it is on a headland the pools and restaurants are at sea level and the images showed the water rising right up to hotel lobby and completely submerging the lower parts of the hotel complex. The picture shows Phuket taken from the small coral beach in front of the the hotel (see photo).

Phuket is not as crazy as other resorts in Thailand and though Soi Bangla has some bars, clubs and the customery transvestites show it is comparably tame compared to other areas. It closes at 2.00.

The best place to go in Phuket for a night out is Scruffy Murphys Irish bar. When we were there the reseident band were called Mad Dog McCrae and they were brilliant. If any VT'ers come across them please let me know if they are still in existence.

I regret that I did not get to see Chang Mai when we were in Thailand...but still it give a reason to go back to this fabulous country in the future.