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Karan Beach, Thailand Place: Karan Beach, Thailand Tags: thailand, Phuket |
This entry is part of a map titled: "Seattle to Thailand and Back".
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We decided to spoil ourselves to some airconditioning and checked into a hotel for 2 nights at Karen Beach. The boat is anchored just south of here at Kata Noi Beach.
We got online yesterday and booked into the local Best Western on a website called Phuket-hotels.com. And oh what a glorious catastrophe it was. We got to the hotel and the had not received our booking and even though the hotel said they had 20 rooms available they said they were completely full. BUT... they have this little room that we can stay in because they understand we have nowhere to stay. Would we like to see it? Sure I said.
We get led outside down the street and to this little room that makes the grimiest hostel I've ever stayed in (which was pretty grimy) look like blessed luxury. FYI we booked a room with a king-size bed, aircon, balcony and sea view.
So I tell the bellboy no thanks as politely as I can (why kill the messenger when you can murder the manager) and I go back into the hotel and get the manager on the phone who is at home. And we get into the mother of all arguments. If you have any red-head friends or family (I'm a red-head) you know what I'm talking about. Don't mess with the red head. Sandy, deep down inside I know you're a red head too. (my crazy sister in law)
Anyway, so I'm explaining to her that we have a booking, bought and paid and they authorized the website we booked with (which is local) to take the booking and now they won't honor it and are trying to charge us for the best room they have and put us in a little cave down the street etc...etc.. and all this just isn't getting through. None of it. She isn't budging. Until I ask her name, first and last and the spelling because I'm going to get hold of the Best Western hotel head office in the states and we're going to have a little chat about her performance. That got through. Now she wants to find us another hotel that has rooms and next thing she actually has a room for us, and lo and behold folks, it's the best room they have to offer.
Groovy, so we have a room. Next couple walks in, they've booked with a large online travel service, and surprise surprise, they can't find their reservation. I chatted to the guy and told him the "get the manager to spell her name" trick and apparently it didn't work because I saw them this morning and they stayed at another hotel down the street which wasn't so bad.
Moral of the story: If you book using phuket-hotels.com or stay at the Best Western in Karon Beach, Phuket, get your war face on because you're going to need it to get past the lobby.
Moving swiftly on.....
Once you get inside (which took us 90 minutes) the hotel is actually not bad. Nice view, nice aircon, clean rooms, nice pools if a little crowded and the breakfast is great.
To complicate matters, we're technically not supposed to be in Thailand because we checked out at immigration because we didn't expect to leave the boat until we get to Langkawi in Malaysia. So we're illegal. And of course once we got a room and were signing in they wanted to see our passports to record our visa numbers. So I just blagged it (as the brits say) and used the language barrier to my advantage for a change. Pulled out my Washington Drivers license, AAA card, costco card, library card and put on the blank thousand yard stare. He gave up after a while.
We needed some spoiling after all that stress so we went down the street and bought 11 movies for $30. Yes officer, the nice man who took us into the back room with the padlock on it said they were all perfectly legal. What do you mean there is no Zone 9 for DVD's?
Seems like about 30% of them are screeners (filmed with a camera in a cinema) but the ones that aren't are pretty good.
We're sitting at Andaman Coffee Company, the Starbucks of Phuket which has the fastest wireless internet we've found, the best airconditioning and their espresso frap rocks my world.
We're back on the boat tomorrow. We've decided to skip going up to the Similan islands. It's 60 hours of sailing for a day or two of exploring and - ok I'll admit it - the run back up to Phuket from down south had us both a bit seasick, so we wussed out. Instead we're taking a two day break and then taking a nice slow ride down to Langkawi.
Lots of love to all our friends and family. See you back in California on the 10th and then Seattle about the 15th of March.
Mark & Kerry.
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