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Phuket

Phuket is still tying to find its place in the tourism market of Thailand. It was known in the past by foreigners as the place for beautiful beaches, backpacker heaven, and where they filmed James Bond's famous beach scene in The Man With the Golden Gun. It does have incredible beaches and little island hideaways where you could spend weeks without ever seeing another living person. But increasingly it is becoming known as the second Pattaya both by foreigners and Thais alike.

The local economy has seen a large increase in sex tourism and a large decrease in "normal" tourism. The Phuket government is attempting to bring back "normal" tourism (as is all of Thailand) by really cracking down on the sex industry. They have made some major closures of well known establishments and deported some well known expats. All this lends itself to looking over your shoulder to see what's next.

Because of this, added to the fact that Phuket is the most expensive location in Thailand, we cannot recommend this place. You can find better sex holidays elsewhere, you can find better "get away" holidays elsewhere and no matter where else you go it will be cheaper. If you want sex, go to Pattaya: the women are cheaper with a much larger selection. If you want a beach get away, get a lady out of Pattaya, then take her with you to Trang. That would be our recommendation until Phuket decides what it wants to be when it grows up.

With that said, we still feel that we need to do a complete section on Phuket, because it is still the third most visited location in Thailand, behind Bangkok and Pattaya.

The upside of coming to Phuket

Sun, Sand and Sex! Clear warm water, white sandy beaches, many little islands where you can be alone and relax, absolutely a beautiful location. Even with the huge influx of tourism over the last few years, Phuket Island is still a very nice place and is still very beautiful. Due to the number of expats that call Phuket their home, you will not feel out of place in Phuket. There is not a place that you can go in Phuket that you will not see a foreigner there as well. It doesn't matter if you're German, French or American, you will find a piece of your culture somewhere in Phuket.

Patong Beach's entertainment district today

Phuket is very safe for the tourist. Very rarely do I hear anything about a mugging or murder here (among foreigners). Most deaths that I hear about are auto/motorbike accidents or expats who killed themselves after their Thai girlfriend left them when their money ran out. (What's the number one rule? Have a great time, make friends, and let it all out but take it for what it is and don't fall in love with these ladies (non working Thai ladies excluded)). You just don't have the crime that you do in Bangkok or Pattaya against foreigners here. When I go to Pattaya I am always careful and never get too drunk or out of control, but in Phuket I never have felt uncomfortable and believe me I have had some major drunk fests here and always no problem. They have great places to see and stay within the Phuket area once you have hooked up with just one lady (or two for that matter). If you stay for awhile you always end up hooking up with one lady, the nice part is that here in Phuket there are islands and places that are quieter and not so crazy. You can take them to be alone and really get your groove on.

The other good part about Phuket is that you can pretty easily get into the Thai side of the sex industry. There are places in Phuket town, that we tell you about later, where you can get short times for 200 to 400 baht (5 to 10 dollars). These places normally cater to the Thais, but foreigners are welcomed as well.

The downside of coming to Phuket

Cost. This is by far the most expensive area in Thailand. The girls here during the high season (Dec, Jan, Feb, being the peak) seem to be out of control. I have heard that some are asking for as much as 3,000 baht or more a night, and getting it. If the lady is outstanding in appearance she wont negotiate at all, why fuck 3 times for 1000 when you know that some fool will pay you 3000 for 1 fuck, even if that takes her two days to get it she still makes out. Most of the ladies never have to wait that long during high season and some even pull in two or three a day. Do the math, these ladies can make some serious cash while in their prime here in Phuket.

Limited amount of ladies. Phuket has about a third of the amount of ladies that Pattaya has, and of course in Bangkok, who knows how many ladies are there. Too many damn expats, I don't know about you but when I travel I like things to be a little different, a little adventure, but here there are so many scruffy looking dudes with blond hair and blue eyes, I thought I was in California at times. You know you're in Thailand but its almost like a Twilight Zone Thailand, halfway between the west and the east.

The women seem a little harder here then elsewhere, even more so then Bangkok. It seems that this is where they go after they learn the trade in Bangkok and Pattaya and find out that Phuket is the land of milk and honey for bar girls. And yes, every bar girl says, "I only do this for one month, what you don't believe me," as tears begin welling in her eyes.

Bottom Line

If money is not an issue and you want to have both a great location, sun, sand and water with a Pattaya type of night life then this might be the place for you. Especially if you're the outdoors type that enjoys doing outdoor activities during the day rather then sleeping off the binge from the previous night.

Patong Beach

Right off the bat, don't come to Patong for the beaches. Come to Phuket for the beaches, yes, but not Patong. In a few short years Patong's waters have become very dirty and will soon be no better then the beaches in Pattaya which are unsafe to swim. So lets get that out of the way, you are coming to Patong for sex. I find Patong to be a little too much and do not like to stay here. I feel that the Thais here are very jaded and corrupt and get the "lets fuck this farang for as much money we can" attitude way too much. I like to stay outside of Patong and when I am looking for the pumping night life I can take a Tuk Tuk for a few baht and be there with in minutes.

Patong is way overpriced during the high season. Phuket has a definite high and low season with the peak high occurring during Jan-Mar, and the low starting about May and continuing all the way through early December. The girls and bar owners make all their money or profit during high season while just breaking even if not losing money during the low season. This is why the prices soar during high season. If they don't make enough during this time they might go under during the low season. During the low season things seem to come back to reality and more in line with Bangkok or Pattaya. During high season Patong is packed, while during low season I have been to Soi Bangla and only seen other expats in the bars.

The Unpopular Truth: Somebody Has To Say This

On another note regarding the tragedy in the far east, there is something that must be said that NO major media has mentioned in my hearing so far. I'm not going to be popular for doing it. I didn't start this blog to be popular, so here goes, but if you'd rather not be disturbed--by the facts being avoided or by my mentioning them, skip this one, okay?

You might have noticed coming through the reports that there have been a LARGE number of dead tourists from Germany, Scandinavia and other Western European countries among the victims of this disaster, especially in Thailand and its beach resorts. The fact you are NOT being presented with is that these are predominantly MALE victims, and that this area is, or rather has been, the hotbed of child-sex-tourism and child-sex-slave prostitution in the world, mostly going on because "civilized" males from "civilized" ( not to mention UN"stingy" nations) have the cash and the desire and finance it with their criminal and immoral lusts.

No child's death is a blessing--all children and all human beings have a right to dignity and life and opportunity and a future, but if there is a sad, bitter, hard-to-talk-or-write-about lining of silver to this dark, terrible tragedy of nature and nature's God, it is that for the poor children who have lived their short lives as the prey of sick, rich, immoral and amoral Western sex tourists from Old Europe, their torment is over and their tormentors have paid a terrible price for their obsessional evil.

I told you it wasn't pretty or easy. I hope you appreciate the need to note it as I did. I'm not calling this "God's wrath" or anything like it. I don't think the Lord is that kind of cut-with-a-wide-swath deity. But surely if there is any justice in the Universe, at least a small part of it was done amongst the horror and carnage of this huge tragedy....AND the world has been given a shot at making sure this sickness does NOT rebuild, regroup, and resume as the cleanup begins.