Relaxation in Patong

After yet another delicious breakfast at our hotel, Thavorn, we packed our backpacks and hopped into a tuk-tuk to Patong, which is just a bit north of Karon. It’s only about 6 km between the two beaches, but the tuk-tuk ride still costs 300 baht. They’re definitely used to tourists with deep pockets on this island. In Patong, we’ve booked a hotel called Bel Air. It sounds a bit fancier than it actually is, and it costs 1400 baht, breakfast included. Patong is absolutely packed with restaurants, bars, shops, massage places, and travel agencies. The high season kicks off today, and they say tourists will start pouring in from the very first day of the season. There are tons of bars and restaurants proudly displaying Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish flags. It’s a bit odd that people travel so many kilometers by plane just to eat Danish food with other Danes... Down at the beach, you can try all sorts of activities. We went paragliding for 850 baht per person. What an amazing experience to soar high above the water! We were strapped to a parachute and had to run along the beach towards the water until the parachute filled with air, and a speedboat zoomed off with us. A local guy, known as a monkey, jumped on the back just before we took off. He sat there without any safety lines, steering us so we could land in the right spot. Before dinner, we went up to the tallest hotel on the beach to enjoy the view over a drink—Pinacolada and Long Island. We found a restaurant that looked like it was carved out of wood, with tree trunks standing in the middle like columns and intricately carved animal heads, like elephants and lions. If you want to party, you definitely need to head to Patong Beach. The town is absolutely wild. In the evening, a street gets closed off at both ends with tuk-tuk taxis, so no traffic can come through. It’s packed with bars, which are filled with Thai ladies of the night and very eager male tourists. There are couples like us too, but we definitely don’t dominate the scene in this part of the island. We even visited an Australian bar run by a Dutch girl who had fallen in love with a Thai guy. She had been living here for three years and was managing the bar. Her Thai boyfriend rented out jet skis on the beach, where he spent his days drinking and smoking weed. She seemed pretty happy with her life choices...