Patong

Patong is quite an interesting place to visit..
The first day of the excursion didn't start out so well when the guy from the much talked about Cheap Charlie's didn't show to pick me up from the Pineapple Guesthouse where I've been staying. I gave him a call only to find out he was in Malaysia on a visa run he realised he needed to do the previous night.. okay.. I told Steve at the Guesthouse what had happened and he kindly offered to take me there at the same price. Upon arriving at Cheap Charlies I only found more and more things they advertised they didn't actually offer, including 150B dorms and free shuttle to the beach and markets. That's alright, I wasn't planning on spending a whole lot of time there anyway, so I dropped my things and headed in the direction of the beach. I didn't make it that far, impressed by the size of Patong's giant shopping center, which are rare commodities in Thailand. This is where I spent my first day in Patong, looking around in all the shops with familiar brands, selling things I could never purchase on my newfound Thai budget.
In the evening I met up with two Aussie guys I met in my dorm. We spent the night making our way down the very popular Bangla road, where non-stop beer and ladyboys are a bit too easy to find.
The next morning the boys were headed off on a bus to continue their travels and I headed off to the beach. The beach was pretty crowded with tourists as well as something to accommodate their every need, from ski-doo rentals to smoothie stands to thai massages. I spent the afternoon reading and relaxing on the beach before heading back just in time to escape one of the rainstorms that come and go much too quickly here.
I am now back in Karon where I will stay at the Pineapple Guesthouse until after New Years before moving on to Krabi, and from there I'm off to Bangkok!