Phuket Dec'06 - Day 4 - 6

5th – 8th Dec, Tues – Fri – Patong Beach, Phuket.

My stay at Patong at the Patong City Hotel melded from one day to another. They were filled with days of tanning and nights of fabulous eats at the roadside stalls or al frescoes. But there was an incident – my otherwise idyllic stay was marred by an overt racist episode.

Good Eats!

I love the fantastic array of simple and affordable food everywhere along the streets of Patong. I had myself a plate of roasted chicken and pork rice that costs only 30 baht on the first night at Patong. Subsequently, I went back again to try their savoury glass noodle soup with an assorted meat mix. I was also at a roadside stall and tried their noodle soup with dumplings and pig’s blood curds (it tastier than it sounds, really!), also 30 baht each. Great stuff!

Too bad Baskin Robbins pulled out of Singapore. I was on an ice-cream binge at the outlet on Rat-U-Thit Road. I know I won’t get it when I am back in Singapore.

I had a night cap every night – vodkas and bacardis downed with tapas of grilled kebabs from the roadside stall outside the hotel.

Ahh… good nights.

Great Shops!

Then started my second phase of shopping. I just knew that one hour is simply not enough. Sure enough, on this second visit, I ended with a whole slew of merchandise at prices way cheaper than Singapore.

Strabucks – products that are NOT available in Singapore; an assortment of chocolates and candies and other merchandise.
Addidas – 5 to 10 dollars cheaper.
Geox shoes – about 50% cheaper.
Nautica – a few dollars cheaper – might as well.
Nino Cerruti – not even available in Singapore.
Estee Lauder and Clarins toiletries – even when compared with DFS for selected products!

Racist Snobs :-(

It was on one of these shopping trips that I experienced racism firsthand. I was on the shuttle to bring me back to my hotel when the driver turned around and asked, “Excuse me, where you going (sic)?”

“Back to my hotel…”

“Show me your key card…”

I was asked to prove my tourist identity while other passengers plied onto the free shuttle service and the driver didn’t even bat an eyelid at them. Suddenly it became clear to me that I was the ONLY Asian on board, all the others were Caucasians. It became clear that I was asked to prove my identity because of my skin colour. My identity was suspect because of my ethnicity.

In fact, there was a handful more Caucasians who jumped on board as the bus moved off. Not only did the driver not bat an eyelid or asked for ID, he even smiled and nodded at them. Well that just stank.

It did not feel good. Throughout the journey back to my hotel, I felt angry, upset and uncomfortable. The experience sucked, big time.

I was reminded of the many times I passed by tailor shops, the keepers would call out to all the Caucasians passing by, but none would give two hoots to me or any other Asian for that matter, especially the darker skin variety (I was just tanned).

It was the same at the restaurants – even though my friend and I would normally order more than any other fair skin diner in there, the waiters would still fawn over them like lovesick puppies while we wait to be serviced. And these are only a couple of the louder incidents.

It’s sad that I can only come to the conclusion that it was a racist incident, but there really isn’t any other explanation that I can conjure to excuse the whole scenario. Perhaps someone else can. In the meantime, I have been awakened to the fact that Thailand, well, at least Phuket, is not only a land of many races but also many racists. They may claim to be a land of a thousand smiles, but behind each smile carries with it a baggage of prejudices and ignorance.

So will I go back to Phuket? Well, I am already planning to visit Karon again on my next holiday. But I go there purely for geographic reasons – the natural beauty of the locale is breathtaking. However, the culture of Phuket’s economy-driven moral prejudices mars the vista. Big time. But I guess, I can go there with my blinkers on for a purely nature appreciation trip.

It’s beautiful, but blue.