First Thoughts From Phuket
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
2
11
Trip End
Feb 05, 2005
Kata Beach, Phuket,
Thailand
Sunday, January 23, 2005
It is absolutely amazing here, but also sad... The Thai's are thrilled to see us tourists (I seriously think we may be the only Westerners staying in this area...). The Thai's seem to be very intent on getting back to business as usual...in fact, it's really impressive to see what they've accomplished in just 4 short weeks... There is a lot of rebuilding going on around us - we were at a bar last night (called the Ska Bar) that was just rebuilt in the past couple of weeks
The Kata Delight Hotel
. The bar was great...a sort of off-the-beaten-path kind of place (but isn't almost everything here?) The bartender was a total Bob Marley clone and even had a full shrine on the wall complete with all sorts of pictures of Bob and marijuana leaves.So we all seemed to have arrived safely, but wouldn't you know that on my flight from Bangkok I got stuck in the ass of the airplane. Postively the last seat so that I could have heard any happenings in the bathroom if the plane engines hadn't been so nice and loud.
Upon landing, Steve, Shauna, & I waited for Katie who was on the flight after us, then the 4 of us grabbed a cab to Kata Beach which was further from the airport than I would have thought. Phuket is a BIG island. Our cab driver took us on a little detour as well to try and sell us a tour package through his cousin's nephew's roommate or something which naturally we weren't into. Finally we got to our bungalows at the Kata Delight where Ray and Diane were waiting to meet us. (Sidenote: The only reason the Kata Delight wasn't damaged by the tsunami when everything else around it was, is b/c of its elevation - the Kata Delight sits on the top of a hill on the beach, built into the rocks. Apparently when the tsunami came in, it didn't go up as high as all that and the bulk of its power and devestation was focused on the lower beach areas)
Our Room
. We checked in and got our keys - Katie & I opted to be roommates and Shauna took a single room - then we all met in the Kata Delight "restaurant" (which was really more a cafe) for our first real Thai meals complete with Thai beer and I took my first contented sigh of many to come. We got to meet a few others from the group there as well - Warren, Nancy, Jean, and another Warren (going to have to figure out how to tell the 2 apart). Another guy (Jim) joined us a little later. We're still missing 2 people (Emily & Radu) who had some problem with visas in Bangkok apparently, and have had to go to Singapore to get it sorted out. The hope is that they'll be joining us somewhere along the way.Anyway, I thought we were going to get on the boats today, but apparently that comes tomorrow. Instead, we rented a couple of jeeps and went elephant trekking (literally - I got to ride on the head of an elephant - it was awesome!) and visited a Buddist temple (a Wat) - the architecture was amazingly ornate and colorful. The elephant I rode with Shauna & Katie was named Boon-mi (have NO CLUE how to spell that so that's just phonetic) and our guide told us that she was around 50 years old. When we got back from our elephant trek, we found a visitor in our jeep. We had left our windows open and a monkey had climbed in and was sitting on top of the back of the driver's seat. Initially he had climbed into the backseat where we had left our water bottled and proceeded to lick the outside of Katie's which had condensation all over it.
After the Wat, we took a drive up a high point on the island where there was this gorgeous lookout and a roadside stand where we stopped for fresh coconut (you pick out your own and they chop the top off for you) and fresh fruit
Katie & Me
.Afterwards, we came back to our villas, took a quick dip in the ocean, and then went for lunch. It's been a good day. :)
Okay, so I'm going to wrap this up... I'm dying for another Thai massage before dinner (had one yesterday) since this is the last we'll get to do for awhile. Once we get out to sea, I think that massages will be a bit scarce.
I'll write again when I get some more internet time...
