Day 6 - Phuket — Wayfaring Abroad

We had originally intended to use our last full day in Phuket to take a trip to Phi Phi Island. However, we found ourselves tired and ready for a relaxing day. We woke late, finally being able to sleep past 5 am and emerged from our rooms at 9 am for breakfast.

We still discussed if we thought it was possible to go to Phi Phi Island and see some more of the natural beauty that Phuket had to offer but found ourselves moving too slowly for that. Intead we decided that making our way to Tri Trang Beach and possibly back to Freedom Beach sounded like a good day.

We set out walking hoping to enjoy a leisurely pace to the beach. Unfortuantely, the beach is cut off by a resort and the route around the resort is an additional distance we didn't have interest in making. Instead we grabbed a tuk tuk and rode off to Tri Trang beach.

Tri Trang Beach is down a dirt road past construction on both sides of the road. It appears that a new resort is being built, or one is using the open space for expansion. The beach itself was a decent length with a resort, restaurant and massage parlor at the end closest to Patong. The other end had nothing but sand. The water was a clear teal.

We found our spot right near the dirt road. We chose it since it had the most shade and a good sized tree with over hanging branches. We all laid back and relaxed. I took the opportunity to read and enjoy the view.

The view when laying down at Tri Trang Beach.

After a little while, I went into the water where I swam and crawled my way down the beach towards the restaurant. We wanted to see if it looked any good so we could decide if we wanted to grab lunch there.

What we found was a Russian oasis. The menu was in Russian, the signs were in Russian and most of the people nearby were Russian. In the end we decided to head back to our towels and enjoy a little more time watching the water lap onto the shore.

After spending around 3 hours relaxing on Tri Trang, it was time to move onto Freedom Beach. Instead of grabbing a tuk tuk or taxi we walked the mile there. The heat had been mild while sitting in the shade on Tri Trang but once we were in the open we found the oppressive heat to be quite exhausting.

Once we got to the Freedom Beach parking lot we found it to be considerably different than two days ago when we spent our time there for sunset. There were many people at the hut by the stairs to the beach. Some were drivers and they were asking for 200 baht per person in order to let us down to the beach. We stood for a bit, watching others talk to the woman in charge and attempt to negotiate the price down or not pay all together. There was a couple who were there for the first time trying to decide what to do. We told them that it was a beautiful and probably worth it. On the other hand we decided not to pay the money and instead to go back to our hotel and relax before sunset and dinner.

Our hotel is partnered with a hotel directly next door that has a pool on their top floor so we decided to go up there to watch the sunset over the beach and the city. We got up there a little late into sunset but go to see the tail end and all the colors cascading across the clouds.

From there we had planned to go near the beach for dinner but along the way we spotted a market. How we hadn't noticed this market before now is a mystery to us but we decided to check it out.

The open air market had stalls lining the space all selling noodles, soups, fried foods, grilled meats and fishes. We wandered through the aisles before decided to stay and grab dinner here. The market seemed like the right way to end our last night in Phuket.