Now in Phuket Town

For those that are keeping up, I am now out of the red light district of Patong and staying in Phuket Town.

For something a bit more wholesome, tonight I saw a large number of Indonesian School Children walking in uniform down the street with 'Music' printed on the backs of their shirts. It turned out they were competing in the 2012 Asia Cantate (http://www.vca.com.sg/asia-cantate) against other choirs from around Asia including Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China, Singapore and others. Tonight was the opening night, so I got to see the full selection of countries performing their number one pieces.

It was a very up-market hotel the performances were happening in, the finest hotel in Phuket Town, so I asked one of the teachers of the Indonesian school girl chior (strict Muslim upbringings it seemed) if the students were all staying in the hotel. In a rather embarrassed manner, he explained that when they tried to book, all the accommodation on the island was full, so the students (between 12 and 16 years of age it seemed) were all staying in Patong near Bangla Road. I couldn't help but feel incredibly sorry for this poor Muslim school teacher, carefully shepherding his impressionable young things past the open air bars, panty clad go go dancers, and touts advertising ping pong shows in Bangla Road and the surrounding area.