Wild weather forecast, heavy thunderstorms, flooding and landslides – great start.  Of course like many forecasts it was not that accurate – no landslides or major flooding where we were – plenty of rain though.

As usual in the first days we always pay too much for something. Steve was determined to have a jeep (as he had really enjoyed hiring one back in 1992). Not cheap though as a normal hire car through budget was less than half the price.  So our waste of money in this case was the Jeep hire car.  Given the weather situation this was a daft idea as it was open to the weather.  Every time we went out we had to empty the seats of the puddles so we were constantly wet.  At least it was warm. 

Steve took a couple of days to get used to the mad driving (far more cars on the road now). Personally I am not game to even try –  anything goes, few rules seem to be followed.

It is surprising at how expensive Phuket is now, although part of this is the abysmal Aussie dollar currently.  We used to get 30 – 33 baht to the dollar and now it is down to 20.  Typical, we always seem to go places when exchange rate is against us.

After a few days we found some great eating places with very reasonable prices so that really helped.

HINT – If you can, look at a place before you book as the advertising these days is very clever and many things are very different to expectations from the photos and description. This can result in disappointment or outright arguments.

While we had the car we drove around the island, well at least all of it South of Patong where we were staying.  Some stunning scenery but very quiet in the way of birds and wildlife. We did see a Painted frog in Patong itself, very pretty.  Few birds are around (apart from Myna and Sparrow) but there are many many more butterflies of varying colours and sizes – some bigger than small birds.

A trip to Kathu waterfall provided a good bit of exercise with over 400 steps up.  Great variety of birds here which was exciting.  Walking up the trail, the steps were covered in obstacles – fallen trees and giant spiders across the path to name a couple.  Getting lots of exercise.

Old Phuket is well worth a visit, lovely old buildings and quaint streets.  Easy to lose a few hours wandering around here. Shame that some of the buildings were falling into disrepair.

Leaving Patong we moved to Naiyang Beach, staying at the Touch Green.  Now this was an interesting place.  Having wanted to book one of the bungalows set in the forest but unable to we soon found out why.  Reality was that they were all closed up and falling down, eaten out by termites.  The grounds were full of birds (maybe the ruins actually helped, less people, more natural vegetation).  The swimming pool was set in front of the ruins and next to a large lake.  Stunning.  We saw over 25 species of birds in the grounds.  The hotel was also only a 5 min walk from the beach with some lovely places to eat.  The hotel also had a roof top bar (in ruins), walkways at tree height and large sitting areas at tree height – none of which were maintained, but great to wander and look at the views and birds.

Being more sensible for this part of the journey we had hired a normal sedan for less than half the price of the jeep (and less than one return journey of 7km in a tuk tuk).  We explored the top half of Phuket, going to Tonsai waterfall first.

The waterfall is small (but empty of people) and there is a nature trail of 600m or 2 km if you do all of it.  Of course we planned to do the whole thing.  Anyway firstly we had to find it – after a couple of wrong tracks we found the start and off we trot.  First thing we see is a Pangolin about 1 metre from us.  Amazing, had never expected to see one in the wild so very excited. Unfortunately it was quite dark in the forest and it moved fast so only a very blurry photo that does not even really show what it was.  Seeing it so close though was really great.  Continuing to the junction of longer and shorter trails and start off to complete the rest of the 2km.  After about 200 meters on this trail at the head of another waterfall the trail just disappeared, we tried to find it but it was impossible so back we went.  None of the National Parks are well maintained outside of the main picnic area.

Another waterfall in the top half is Bang Pae. This is a bigger drop than the others and again the nature walk had some obstacles but appeared slightly better maintained than Tonsai.  We saw here one of the areas highlights a Crested Agame Lizard.

There is a Gibbon Rehabilitation Project situated at Bang Pae waterfall – they have done an amazing job and are still doing so.  In the 1980’s there were no Gibbons left in the area, the project started with 2 rescued pets.  Since then they have bred and rescued more and there are now over 30 gibbons and 9 generations living wild in the forest.

Phuket is very hilly – since we have been here we have had so much exercise with all the steep slopes, tracks and steps.  Hopefully this has been really good for our bodies.

Next stop off Phuket to Phang Nga.