Goodbye Thailand...

Goodbye Thailand, hello Singapore (for the third time). Thailand has gone by in a whirl. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in Thailand in a vacation sense, not a backpacking adventure sense. I spent the last week on Ko Phi Phi which is on the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea which is where the 2004 tsunami hit hard. Ko Phi-Phi was nice... lots of time spent lounging on the beaches, people watching (all foreigners, hardly any actual Thais), reading, and eating. Very relaxing. Thailand is a very nice country but is incredibly Westernized, so I would recommend it to people who are looking for a nice vacation, but it was not my favorite place for actual "backpacking." Anyway, after Ko Phi Phi I spent a day and night in Patong which is the beach town adjoining Phuket. If I could describe Patong in one word: debauchery. That about sums it up. Over the top, extravagent, flashing lights, GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!, booze, tight clothing, loud sounds. Patong is a place I would not go back to. As far as I could tell it is a place to see and be seen (for farangs, which means foreigners in Thai). It is also the sex tourism central of southern Thailand. The only place that I think surpasses Patong for sex tourism would be Pattaya, which is just a bit south of Bangkok. Anyway, I flew out of Phuket on the 3rd for Singapore and had to be up early. I went out for a cup of coffee at 6:30 AM and was met with an ample amount of lady boys messing with their hair and smeared make up, drunk men stumbling around with bottles of beer in one hand, and what looked to me like 15 year old Thai girls clutching their other hand. Music still blarring, parties still going. Debauchery would be the word. Anyway, departed Phuket and am back in lovely Singapore where I arrived to be surprised by the rains and actually (relatively) cool weather.