Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 6 - October 9th 2008

We didn't have to be ready for our tour this morning until 10am so I did a workout on the exercise bike prior to breakfast. Our tour today was to Patong Beach in Phuket town. The only thing to do at Patong Beach during the day is shop for copies by bartering. By night it is apparently pretty lively as a bar scene. I'm not good at bartering but Miky is. I didn't look forward to the experience at all. Miky would look them straight in the eye and say, "Give me your best price and I'm going to check other shops." Many shop owners didn't want to give her a price after that.

Rather humid in Phuket, as you can tell from the photo.

Humidity removed and the scene returns to normal.

Interesting sign - Take a Bath. But where do you take it?

Petrol price compares well with Australia - about 25 baht to the dollar.


We found some salt and pepper shakers in the shape of animals and talked the guy down from 200 baht to 180 baht. A lovely cushion cover was offered to us for 450 baht. The guy wouldn't deal with Miky after she asked for his best price for four of them but in the next shop she managed to talk the owner down from 250 baht each for the same cushion covers and 500 baht elephants down to a total of 450 baht. It was difficult to find something that you wanted to buy in several shops as they all seemed to sell different goods. Miky got one t-shirt down from 300 baht to 120! And it appeared to be reasonable quality too. Bangla road had lots of shops to visit.

Tuk tuks. Everywhere. Bothersome drivers.

Bars in Patong, Phuket. This place must be alive at night time.

Every man and his dog owns a motorbike in Patong, Phuket.


Miky wanted to visit the shopping centre to buy cosmetics and lunch. We ended up having sushi and Pringles for lunch. With only an hour after lunch before we had to be back at the bus, we had three and a half hours in total, we went wild and spent all but 17 baht (about 75 cents). I was quoted 100 baht for a 250 baht kids t-shirt, but not in a market stall, but when I came back they wanted 200 baht. Miky ended up throwing the money at them and taking the shirt. A deal is a deal. We got the salt and pepper shakers for 170 baht in the end. The stall owner still had a smile on her face afterwards.

No safety for welder. This dissapoints me to see a lack of worker safety.

Construction workers must be thirsty - they have a drinks truck just for them.

I'm not too keen on electrical work.

Crazy wiring.

This wiring is a real rat's nest.


Made the bus with less than five minutes to spare but couldn't find our stickers that we required, sort of like a boarding pass, as Miky had them and she wanted to spend the last of her money. Sat next to Westley and Shelley, the performers, on the bus and talked about all of the places that Westley has toured, how he is friends with Konishiki and Akebono, etc. Looked at the old bombers at the port before having afternoon tea. Yu-Jin wanted to go to child care and so I headed to the sauna room for a dry sauna followed by a steam sauna. Lovely.

Shelley and Westley.

No idea what these signs mean.

Markets at the port.

Some old planes at the port, Phuket.


Got dressed for tea at the Ocean Palace restaurant onboard - pretty swanky, posh place. No wonder your shirt had to have a collar. Great service and great food. Yu-Jin ate very well which isn't like him at all. Just finished in time to see some entertainment in the form of the Mr & Mrs Game (how well do you know your spouse?) with John and Val who'd been married for 56 years, Peter and Lyn for 17 years and Paul and Donna-lee 25 years. Very amusing.

Swank restaurant onboard the Superstar Gemini.

Couple after a hard days shopping.

The Boy after being dragged around shopping all day.


"This is it!" was then performed by the crew. There was cross-dressing, striptease, singing and dance - the show had it all.

Don't ask me what my finger sign means. I was just getting down with the homies.

Hot babe.


Changed some money for the Langkawi cable car tomorrow as they didn't accept credit cards. Went to write my diary in the Bar Gemini and ended up chatting with Rosemary, Brian, Rod and Liz (they only work 6 months a year and holiday the rest). Late night, great day.

Going back to the cabin and Miky thought that I had gone to watch the crew show again because I was gone for so long. We went for a walk around the ship and bumped into the two Malaysians we'd met earlier, Mr Ng and Mr Tan. Chatted with them for the next hour and a half. Upon returning to our cabin Miky discovered that she'd lost her access card. I retraced our steps but there was no sign of it. I went to the reception area to cancel the card, as there was a S$1000 limit on it, when Miky came to me. The Malaysians had brought the card to her. Thank goodness for that. Bed at 1:30am.