Traveling to Thailand at the end of March

A detailed eight-day travel diary of Bangkok, Phuket and Phi Phi Island in Thailand, including the experience of sightseeing, shopping and sightseeing.

Space is limited, so here is a one-day itinerary. For the rest of the itinerary and pictures, please click on the link:

National Day Thailand Tour (2) Arrive in Phuket, take a break at Patong Beach, and have a ladyboy show

The next day

At six o'clock, just after dawn, I reluctantly got up from the bed. After washing up, I went to the hotel's buffet breakfast. I met an enthusiastic restaurant waiter who pointed at some freshly fried dishes and spoke a lot of English that I didn't understand. Later I found out that the dishes he pointed out were all vegetarian, so I guessed Today may be Ramadan in Thailand, so we were specially asked to taste the hotel’s vegetarian dishes. This was confirmed later in the tour. There is a Lent festival in Thailand every six months, during which time everyone must fast for three days.

After a quick exchange of words, we CHECKOUT and left the hotel. We hailed a taxi downstairs and took us to the airport. After some calculation, I found that the taxi from the airport charged about 100 more plants yesterday because the meter was not used and the price was negotiated. It seems that it is better to make a watch in the future. But safety comes first when going out. Sometimes I know that the other party is trying to knock someone off, as long as they don't seek wealth or death, that's all.

After arriving at the airport, I exchanged Hong Kong dollars for some Thai baht and found that the interest rate was indeed very cost-effective. The RMB discount was about 1:4.9. I found out that it was because the Hong Kong dollar was the currency in circulation, so the exchange rate was good. If you exchange it directly with RMB, it will only be about 1:4.2, which is a big loss.

The flight to Phuket was booked with ASIA AIR. Because it is a low-cost airline, there is no first class or business class. The plane was a 737-300 and looked relatively new. What's interesting is that all seats are leather, maybe this is the difference from ordinary airlines. There is a charge for meals on board. For example, a piece of instant noodles costs about ten yuan. We had just finished breakfast and naturally didn’t ask for anything, so we fell asleep until we landed.

Phuket (PHUKET, PUKET) is the second largest province in Thailand. It is a large island connected to mainland Thailand through a bridge. The island is surrounded by dozens of beautiful beaches, making it a famous resort. A beach where foreigners often gather is called Patong Beach (PATONG), and the hotel we booked is also in Patong's Sunset Hotel (SUNSET HOTEL). However, Patong Beach is not the most beautiful. We have visited all the beaches on the west coast and recommend KATA Beach to everyone. Phuket was hit by last year's Indonesian earthquake and tsunami, which became severe on the east coast. There are still a lot of scars left by the tsunami on the island.

When we arrived in Phuket, it rained heavily, which dampened our mood. Fortunately, our hotel provides airport pick-up service. We safely got on the bus and enjoyed the beautiful island scenery along the way. Although it is said to be beautiful, it is actually messy and the plants are not as dense as expected. Some places are bare, and there are some dilapidated houses on the roadside from time to time. Some of the newer ones seem to be budget hotels.

It takes at least nearly an hour to drive from Phuket Airport to Patong Beach. We just realized how big this island is. After arriving at the hotel, I found that the hotel is located north of Patong Bay. To get to the center of Patong town, you have to take the hotel's short-line bus that runs every half hour and it takes ten minutes to get there. So big!

The color of the sea here is really beautiful, even in the rain, I can't help but give it a thumbs up to praise it.

The outside of the hotel is quite shabby. I wonder if it is related to the tsunami. When I walked in, I found that the interior was very unique. We booked a two-room suite with a balcony. When we open the French door, we can see the sea. It's so cool! The room was very clean and had no smell at all. It feels like four or five stars. Since it is the off-season, the price we booked was pretty good. According to information online, prices will increase after the end of October, probably because it is the rainy season and the weather will be better starting in November. Prices at Christmas are the highest and will be three times higher than what we rent now.

We put down our luggage and took the car to Patong Town. After coming down, I found that it was quite similar to places like Shangxiajiu + Yanjiang Road in Guangzhou. In addition to shops, there were various bars. At first glance, it’s a place full of people and money. However, the pornographic industry is not as developed as expected, at least not like some sections of Tianhe in Guangzhou where people stand on the streets until 8pm.

Breakfast was too early and everyone was hungry.

We went to a restaurant and ordered Tom Yum soup, a fried shrimp, a fish, and a plate of green vegetables. It cost more than 1,300 baht, which is not expensive when converted into RMB, but it is quite luxurious here. The food in this restaurant is pretty good, especially the shrimp dish. However, the serving speed is relatively slow. After eating we walked around the street. I inquired about going to Phi Phi Island and booked tonight’s transvestite show (first-class tickets – first row, 500 baht per person) and car rental for tomorrow. I also sat for a while at a bar called SANDY on the beach. Watch a few foreign children building sand sculptures like Western castles on the beach. Everyone felt a little sleepy and went back to the hotel to take a nap.

I woke up at seven o'clock in the evening and went to the hotel restaurant to order Tom Yum soup, seafood hot and sour soup, curry chicken, fried vegetables and pineapple fried rice. However, the food served at the hotel was extremely slow. As soon as the food was served, the car that took us to watch the transvestite show had already arrived. So we had to ask the hotel to put the dishes away and we could eat them when we came back.

The ladyboy show we booked is the only large ladyboy show company in Phuket. The location is south of Patong Town. The car that picked us up passed by Rauti Road (RAT-U-THIT 200 PEE ROAD), and we discovered that the streets of Patong Town were much more prosperous than we imagined, with bars, banks, supermarkets, and handicraft shops all available.

When I went to the place where the transvestite show was held, I realized that it was still early, and it took a while for the first show (which started at 7:30) to end. People rushed outside to take photos with the ladyboys. It was bustling with people and monsters coming and going, and it was so lively. After a while, we entered the venue. Since I was in the front row, I picked up my camera and took photos of the whole process of the transvestite performance. The size and facilities of the performance hall are comparable to those of the Cinema City in Teem Plaza. There were more than twenty shemales I saw, and some of them looked quite beautiful on the stage. There are about ten male actors, who play small roles in the middle. Only one of them looks a little star-like. Xiaohe said that he looks like a certain Korean actor.

The performances of transvestites are all singing and dancing, and the content spans China and the West. There are two Chinese programs, one is a Taiwanese minor tune, and the other is a dance with the theme song of Feng Baobao's Cantonese version of "Wu Zetian" as the background music. There are also many Southeast Asian songs and dances as well as European, American and even Egyptian dances. It can be seen that designers have gone to great lengths to cater to the tastes of various places.

Because I sat in the front row, I took hundreds of photos of shemales. So today, the word "transvestite" is no longer an abstract concept in my mind, but has become a vivid, flesh-and-blood character that even has some artistic content.

To be honest, my mood was a bit complicated when I saw them. Because I saw a piece of news on a Chinese website some time ago, saying that several young men in China were deceived into Thailand in the name of performing and were transformed into transvestites without their knowledge in advance. There are also comparison photos of him before and after on the website. It's a bit chilling. I wonder how many sad stories there are behind so many charming smiling faces in tonight’s performance? And nearly half of the audience present were Chinese. How many people realized that their happiness was based on the huge physical and mental misfortune of their compatriots?

However, when the show ended, I also forgot the original intention of volunteering to educate the shemale yesterday. Like most tourists, I took a photo with a shemale and gave the shemale a tip of 20 baht. BIRD jokingly calls it a sleepover (fee)). Afterwards, I felt very sad about this incident and regretted it deeply.

Back at the hotel, we asked the waiter to bring the unfinished meal to the room, heated it up ourselves (just because we booked a suite, so there was a stove), and then ordered a cup of Thai iced tea. Eat a big meal and go to sleep satisfied.

TIPs for the next day

1. There are no taxis available everywhere on Phuket. If you book a hotel, it is best to choose the hotel airport pick-up service.

2. Travel agencies can be found everywhere on the island, which can provide various services such as boat ticket booking, group tours, shemale performances, taxi transfers, car rentals, etc. It should be said that the services you want tourists need can be provided here. But prices vary, and you can haggle (this is a big feature of Thailand), so don’t forget to do some shopping. Some girls may recommend you some expensive and unsuitable travel routes or products, so it’s best to do some homework before contacting them to avoid spending too much money and not having a good time.

3. Phuket has a dazzling array of tourist souvenirs, and the price is not expensive when converted into RMB. However, please remember that it is 20% to 50% or more more expensive than Bangkok. If Bangkok is included in your itinerary There are some free markets (described later), so you don’t have to spend time shopping in Phuket. The first few T-shirts I bought from Pingpu were from 200 plants (cut from 450 plants), which cost about RMB 40, and the quality was excellent. However, they only sell for 100 to 150 baht in Bangkok, and there are also T-shirts for 70 baht!

4. There are two transvestite performances every day, and there are buses to pick up and drop off from various hotels, one at 7:30 and one at 9:30. You can book tickets and your preferred location at Travel Agency. Video recording is not allowed here but photography is allowed. Personally, I think it's better to sit in the first few rows. Drinking fruit ice at the bar by the beach