Phuket Graceland Resort And Spa Patong

... a nice guesthouse for us. So a couple of beers and all was forgotten. We cleaned up and we went for dinner later that night, were we met up with Dave and his girlfriend. A drink or 43 in his local bar and we went to sleep.

The next day Monday...we woke up with a tiny hangover and thank god it rained a bit !! That meant we could nurse our headache and hang around the pool for a bit. Dave came by feeling fine as well and we talked about the good old times in Spain ...

... same: eat & drink on our little deck area. We did notice something unusual about our neighbors, one of them sleeps outside. They were 3 men from Iran. They brought home a new Thai girl every night, so we were curious about the sleeping situation. Apparently, one of the guys and the girl of the night sleep in the King bed, the other guy gets the cot and the loser gets the deck outside. They are nice though and bring us pistachios ...

... and the water was amazing, definitely one of the nicest beaches i have been to. There were monkeys running around and playing all over the beach and in the trees; they did not seem bothered by the presence of humans at all. After a few hours of watching monkeys and relaxing on the beach we decided to head back. As we walked off the beach and on to the rocks I noticed that all the monkeys were following us. Within 5 minutes there were over 20 monkeys all around us! I'm not ...

... this is the proper touristy side of Phuket and I appreciated how different it was in the part of Phuket that the gym is located - in the middle of nowhere, no distractions, and nowhere near as touristy. From our gym, Joe, my roomate from San Francisco and Jackie, the Korean Champion, were fighting against local Thais and there were 6 other fights between Thais from other gyms. The first couple of fights were between young'uns around 9 years old, but damn they ...

... We finished at just the time our buddies were starting their fights and lucky for us we were able to stand outside and watch everything from outside the place I previously described. There was also Eric from Scotland, who won. Very mysterious, since he's been sick for the past few weeks and looked really slow. The Thai guys we see practicing night and day at the gym lost. Their bodies are total ...

... such an experience. The caves can only be entered depending on the tides, so in some cases we were required to lie flat on our backs in the canoes to pass through. And then on the other side of the caves are amazing lagoons (hongs) carved out of the limestone cliffs. Really amazing. We explored a few caves including the Bat Cave (full of bats and smelly bat poo) and the Diamond Cave (sparkling stalagtites) before paddling back to the boat ...

... area of the village which was interesting and somewhat depressing to walk around. Then the tour was over. We were returned to the jetty where we got back on the minibus and returned to the hotel. I decided to have a quick shower there since it would be about thirty hours before I could have another. Then I went back up to Family Mart and loaded up on snack food for my long night and longer flights. I ordered a cab through my hotel and got a young, fun guy as my ...

Ok, so apparently my name is the Thai word for sex. They find this very amusing. We hired a kayak and some snorkel gear and went up the coast a bit. We must have gone quite far as one of the Thais a few beaches down seemed genuinely shocked that we'd come all the way from Ao Nang. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Everyone - you've got to come here! We had a two day party for my birthday, and have basically spent the last couple of ...