First impressions of Phuket

March 13-March 16
Well, I hadn't slept in about 24 hours -- and was in a really nice hotel, which I booked at the airport, but afterwards realized that I paid a bit too much and could have gotten a place for a bit cheaper. Live and learn I guess.
My initial thoughts while I was driving from the airport to Patong Beach: I was disappointed that I saw a Starbucks, McDonalds and Burger King along the way. For some reason, I always pictured Thailand to be less westernized and wasn't expecting to see all the "junk" restaurants on the streets. Once I was settled into my room, I ended up walking around a bit, seeing the main strip --and the main road called Bangla Road.

I noticed a lot of mixed couples--which initially, I thought was great, but then I started to notice that most of these couples were older white men with young Thai women. I soon put two and two together and recognized that these women are all 'hired,' whether it be for a day on the beach, for the whole day, for the evening, or for the week. I was totally mesmerized by this whole concept and partially disgusted by all these dirty men who come here to pretend to have these young beautiful 'girlfriends.'

These women have perfected the "art of seduction" and know exactly what to do to have a guy buy her drinks, and then hire her for the evening. Pretty much, it's glorified prostitution. I had really good intentions of going out to see what Bangla Road is like at night, but ended up falling asleep, as I was dead tired.