Hanging Out on Patong Beach

It wasn’t a total loss when it came to the beach.  We couldn’t sunbathe, seeing as how it was overcast for the whole trip, but that didn’t stop me from splashing around in the ocean like a fool.  I hadn’t been to the beach since I was a little kid, so bad weather or not I was damn sure gonna take a dip!

Luckily, my wife has a waterproof camera so I was able to get these kick-ass shots while out in the ocean.  I’m just glad none of the murky underwater photos showed a big eye or something.  That probably would’ve freaked me out.  I’m always worried about going too far out where there might be sharks and who knows what. It seems like some new weird fish from the depths of the ocean is turning up on shore and being discovered every week.

As far as beaches go, and I’m basing this mostly on what I’ve seen on TV, Patong Beach is average.  It might be great when the sand is dry.  Also, the storms churned up a lot of the silt from the seabed along the shore so the water wasn’t very blue, except on the far right side where we were when we took these photos.

The weather kept us from going to Phi Phi Island to check it out, which we’d planned on doing, so it looks like we have an excuse to go back.

After I took a short dip we walked along the beach for a while and as we got closer to the middle of the bay the water turned an ugly brown and there was trash on the beach.  I can only assume that during better weather that’s kept clean for tourists.  There weren’t too many people on the beach while we were there.

A few interesting things to note are that the beach chairs provided aren’t free.  Someone will come along and try to charge you 100 baht to sit in the chair, so just bring a beach towel.  Also, be wary of the guys renting out jet skis.  I didn’t deal with them but heard they try to rip off tourists, especially with supposed maintenance requirements at the completion of a rental.

The last cool thing about the beach is that it’s literally right along the road.  You step off the sidewalk and onto the beach for most of its length, so when you’re done you can walk to a restaurant in just a few minutes.