During the past 12 months we have lived 5 months in an apartment at Boat Lagoon Resort while Scorpio has been subject to a major refit. It is very convenient because the boat stands on the hard only 200 metres away. We decided, however, that having a car permanently is necessary because I constantly have to hunt for parts and other stuff all over Phuket.
This is where it gets interesting. Parking here in Boat Lagoon is a difficult subject. At street level the resort’s buildings are occupied by various stores and offices. In front of these is a row of parking spots under the buildings, protected from sun and rain. Half of them are reserved for commercial use and the rest for the hotel’s guests.
Unfortunately, the shopkeepers have little respect for this arrangement. Many of them have a habit of parking in the hotel guests spots because that provides them with more spaces as they can use their own spots also. Often, if I managed to occupy a vacant guest spot, the people of the store facing that spot gave me a sour look. Sometimes they even claimed that the spot was reserved for their business – although every guest spot is clearly indicated by a sign.
Some businesses, like this tour operator (photo above), have put out chairs and tables in the guest spots outside their premises – right under the sign “Parking for hotel guests only”. Others use the spot as a work shop for carpentering, painting etc.
Having been constantly kicked in my ass because of my parking for a couple of months I went to talk to the hotel manager. She kindly decided to give me a designated spot and put up a sign with my register number indicating that this particular spot was reserved for my car only. However, I was not surprised when, during the next days, this spot was almost always taken by other cars. I tried to improve the sign by writing on it in English with a red felt pen: RESERVED – to no avail. Finally, one day when I had to find another spot some distance away, with a lot of stuff to carry, I put a note under the windshield wiper of the car that happened to be parked in my spot that day.
Are you blind, or ignorant or just plain stupid? You are parking in a reserved spot!
Next morning I found a note under my own wiper. There were no words, just a drawing. And it didn’t illustrate just the middle finger but the real thing, I guess. Whoever the poorly talented artist was, he had also torn down my parking sign and stuffed that too under my wiper.
I decided to look at the incident with humour. The resort’s manager, however, put up a new more impressive sign, including the logo and name of Boat Lagoon Resort.
The situation has now improved somewhat. Maybe word has gotten around that I am a problem, who knows, and there may be some respect for me in the area now. But at least half of the time now, my parking space is available for me.
Nonetheless, very soon we had to change the reserved-sign one more time because my rented car broke down and therefore the sign didn’t match the number of my new car.
If it is not one it is the other, said the girl bleeding from her nose.
On the other hand, having myself fined and my new car clamped in my own parking spot would have provided for an even funnier ending of this story.