We're in Thailand!!!

So we made it to Thailand! It was one heck of a journey to get here! Our flight left Perth at 9:30 at night, exausted from very little sleep from the previous 2 nights, we contorted ourselves into all kinds of positions to get comfortable for a little snooze on the plane. I don't think I ever actually fell asleep but I did manage to drool on Kates hip. We had a 4 hour stopover in the Singapore airport, had heard that this was the most fabulous aiport in the world so we were very excited to see what the fuss was about, and we get there and we are in the budget terminal and there's nothin to see. Went in a few shops, got a snack, bought a book, watched "Alf" in the lounge. I don't know how people ever liked that show, it was so not funny!  We had another 2 hour flight to get to the island of Phuket.  We had attempted to prebook accomadtion , but it just didn't happen so we just figured we'd rock up and see how it goes.  Just booked a place at the tour desk at the airport with no problems. 

street in phuket

We stayed at the Royal Palms Hotel right on the beach in Patong Beach. A nice hotel, modern with a Thai feel, and it a great location, close to all the bars, restaurants and shopping.   The beaches are just idylic, postcard picture perfect. Unfortunatly for us, the sun gods have not shone down upon us, we have yet to see even the tiniest bit of sun!  It rains everyday, sometime pours down. It's still the rainy season here, there are only two seasons, wet and dry, this is definetly the wet.  It's warm though and humid, not suffocatingly humid, but enough to make you feel a little sticky.  This part of Thailand was hit really hard by the Tsunami, there are still a few signs of recovery, but for the most part you'd never know the extent of damage. Our hotel had a wall of photos of the damage, its so sad to see how the city and the people suffered through that disaster.

first foot massage in thailand

We spent most of our time wandering around the streets filled with vendors selling there stuff, they all heckle you to come in there shop, i even bought some things and bargained with them, it's all in good fun with the Thai's, and they don't say things to make you feel guilty like how poor and hungry they are, like they did in South Africa!  They have really good shopping too! Full of knock offs of everything, all the designer labels of bags, glasses, watches, clothes like Billabong, Lacoste, Deisel, cd's and dvds... so much junk i want to buy but my backpack is bursting at the seems and I can barely lift it onto my back!!

We took a day trip tour out to the Phi Phi islands, another tour filled with non English speakers and no other backpackers! All couples from Spain. They had to have an interpreter, so the little tour guide girl explained everything just to us, she was the sweetest thing, always smiling and so friendly.  All of the Thai people have been fantastic, so so kind and hospitable.   Anyway, so we stopped at Maya Beach first, made famous by the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio.  We had a few minutes to snap some photos, along with the other couple hundred tourists!  We stopped a couple more times at the islands and got to  go for a swim and snorkel. The water was a perfect tempurature! The snorkeling was actually better than what i saw at the Great Barrier Reef (although i think they took us to a crappy reef that day).   We saw Parrot Fish, Angel Fish, sea urchins, anemone that opened and closed up when you got too close, a barracuda and little sea snakes.  Lunch was a really nice buffet at a 5 star rest. on the beach.  The whole day was great, besides the gloomy sky and occasional downpoor!

phuket at night

We had dinner at a really nice Mexican resturant, and I know your all thinking that it was probably gross but it was actually pretty good!! It's kind of hard to find places to eat with Kate being a vegetarian, she eats nothing with meat or anything made from any kind of animal, eggs only gets if their free range, no jello or jelly candies, doesn't use soap or eat margarine (both made from whale fat), I'm sure there's more, she's a strange one, but I like her alright!

Phuket was great, and imagine it would be even better with good weather. It was time to move on after a couple days here, and we went to talk to the tour desk.  A young Aussie guy was talking to the guy and asking him about the Full Moon Party, we happen to over hear and interupted and ended up booking a trip there instead!

sad face for rainy day

patong beach

tsunami warning sign

spontaneous random bus ride

first tuk tuk ride

kate wanted me to buy this sooo bad

gaint diapers on display!

maya beach

me and kate at maya beach

im out there by the rock

me in the water

just got slammed into that rock

maya beach

phi phi islands

swimming around phi phi islands

phi phi

monkeys in tree

phi phi island where we had lunch

chillin

my toes