My complaints fell on deaf ears as his Thai was telling me via his sign language that no way was he going up there, it was so steep it would damage the bottom of his van... Off he drives with some choice Thai from me, not sure what the literal translation is, but it was along the lines of "yu fuckee thy bastar" - I was quite proud of my accent as, I think, were the four people left in the van. Even they looked shocked, but whether that was the result of the driver leaving this poor old dear stranded in the pitch dark with no hotel in sight, or my language, I'll never know! There was a little grocers nearby, but no english spoken here. I then find a phone, but a passing local guy informs me, "phone finish".... I was about to crack open the duty free and camp till daylight, when my Thai saviour came in the form of a female taxi driver called Sao. She was so nice, and with limited language skills on both sides, she grasped my problem - big suitcase, on my own, vertical hill, pitch dark and no sight of hotel. She tries the phone, and as luck would have it it wasn't "finish" and she duly barks orders to the hotel to come and fetch me. She waits until their tuk tuk arrives. How nice to find such kindness when you feel you've just been ripped off. At least it gives me the excuse to go straight for the limo in future....
The hotel is the Baan Yuree Hotel and Spa and is beautiful, big, stylish rooms, a three tier pool and amazingly cheap. But I guess the old saying location, location, location may have a lot to do with that.
It's not far from the beach area, but far enough away to be quiet which suits me, and would have an amazing view of the sweep of Patong Bay were it not for the huge condo built right in the way.... And the hill really is quite steep... But they provide an almost hourly shuttle to and from town. The hill is fairly long and steep but it did look (and is, have walked it a couple of times) a lot better in the daylight!
And the hill provides their USP, they proudly announce on the website that they are safe from tsunami's, but at this rate with the amount of rain around, it's landslides that could be more of a problem!
Patong itself really is an awful place, but I actually quite like it. The beach has more chairs more close together than even the most naff Mediterranean ones. Cruise ships moor out in the bay, the stalls are full of the same tourist tat, but it has a real buzz and life about it. So not a place to come for a peaceful two week holiday.... A few Ozzies and a huge amount of Russians again so Moscow hooker is the look du jour.... The beach road is the usual collection of stalls and restaurants and taxi touts. The traffic is apalling. But on the road back from the beach there is a huge, very attractive shopping mall, the Jungceylon Mall, which has everything you would ever need. All the usual suspects from McD's to Starbuck's, Boots, a micro brewery and a huge Robinson's Department store. Loads of great restaurants in semi open air, which is really useful. Those halo's were right, it rains a lot now and the thunderstorms occur on a regular basis, in fact one is doing its thing right now as I sit in the shelter of my balcony writing this....
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