Phuket ; Might as well post Something

So, we must first apologize for the major delay in posting; for those of you still hanging in there, thanks a lot and get ready for every-other-day postings as we wrap this adventure up ;) There are still some great yarns to spin, though, and we promise they will all be spun more regularly from now on. So, check back in two days for the story of our time in Bangkok!

Phuket; they supposed jewel of Thailand, and the Rio or Miami Beach of Southeast Asia. Thanks to our experiences in Haad Rin, though, Carrie was done with the crazy party beach scene so we came to Phuket for it's other draw; its world-class snorkeling. Additionally, the fancy-pants beaches were described by our guide book as the most expensive places in Thailand, so instead we opted to stay in Phuket City, the cheaper metropolitan center of the Island. By doing so we were able to stay at the nicest place in town (the Royal Phuket City Hotel) for less money than the average places on the various beaches. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon after taking a ferry boat from Railay, and we explored the neighborhoods around the hotel that evening and took in some good Indian Food. We also tried to take in a movie at the local theater, but regardless of what our guide book suggested, the only movies playing were in Thai.



Our second day was fairly uneventful, as we got in some much needed blogging and email action after the internet wasteland that was Railay. Luckily, we happened upon the nicest internet cafe we've seen our our travels, as you could drink beer in cushy leather recliners while typing away on a brand new, super fast PC (and all for $1.50 per hour). It turns out that Phuket City doesn't cool down, ever, so at 8:30 at night it was still over 80 degrees out., so w did waay too much walking around in the sweltering heat trying to find the live music cantina that our guide book raved about. Turns out eventually that it closed down in the past year, but since none of the buildings had addresses it was hard to figure that one out. We found a cute little Italian restaurant as a potential substitute, but they were booked that night for a special party. The manager mentioned another Italian place in town, but he carefully avoided giving us any review by stating simply they were his competitor. We eventually found the other place after looking for the roundabout, then following the one-way, then looking for a fountain, and then turning left, etc. And wouldn't you know it; it turns out to be perhaps the best Italian we've had on the trip. We've found that if you are patient enough, everything always seems to work out.

After dinner we booked our snorkel trip for the following day to the neighboring Ko Phi Phi islands, an extremely beautiful set of Islands best known for providing the location for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, "The Beach." Unfortunately, the rest of the Phuket seemed to book the same trip as us, as we were soon to find out.

We awake to another blazingly hot day and make our way to the pier. There, we were 'introduced' to the 50 other people that would be sharing our boat (after being told it would be around 20 max). We make our way across the rough chop with our speedboat repeatedly jerking us poor saps in the front of the boat up and down in our seats violently. We eventually make it to the uninhabited Ko Phi Phi Leey and go in a beautiful cove for some snorkeling, only to find it already full of snorkelers (It reminded me of the Seinfeld where Kramer goes swimming in the Hudson River).


After getting kicked in the heads a few times, we headed over to the Beach were they filmed "The Beach." It was breathtaking, and probably the prettiest beach either of us have seen. Picture a beach of perfect white sand with a looming jungle behind it and a beautiful shallow cove of turquoise water in front of it, with everything framed by gigantic limestones cliffs and you've basically got it. Unfortunately, there also were about a thousand people waiting fur us when we got there (I guess the word had gotten out). We departed the boat for about 30 minutes, but neither of us had the heart to go mingle with the throngs.

Luckily, after we got back on board the tour director picked up our spirits by informing us the next stop would be on Monkey Island. Surprisingly, the name derives from the crowd of Monkeys that inhabit the island. The monkeys are quite familiar with strangers, and we saw the naughtier ones snag water bottles, food, and a pouch of rolling tobacco off of inattentive tourists. Unfortunately, there was a mob scene here as well as people outnumbered the monkeys 20-1. The monkeys were quite cute, however, and we enjoyed their antics for about a half an hour before making the trip over to Ko Phi Phi Don for our lunch.

(To the left, monkeys awaiting the crowds, and to the right, they find them)











Not surprisingly, the Thai buffet for 300 people was less than inspiring (but nice and lukewarm at least). By this time the sun had done quite a number on both of us, and we were both more than ready to return home. Luckily for us the last stop of the day was Kho Khai, which means "Egg Island." Kho Khai gets its name from the shallow reef that completely encircles the island, supposedly making it look like a giant egg from an airplane. This reef provides one of the best dive/snorkel spots in SE Asia, and we had a blast checking out the reef and the large variety of marine life that depend on it to live. We saw tons of multi-colored fish, some barracuda, a couple large jellyfish (uhg), and sea anemones and urchins. It turned out to be the best snorkeling that either of us have ever done, and thereby salvaged the day despite the crowds and overbearing sun.

We returned to the hotel that evening very beat. We discussed the matter, and if was determined that our tough deserved some more delicious Italian food, but that neither of us could manage the 80 degree walk (at 9:00 p.m., mind you) with our newly acquired sunburns, so we gratefully hailed a tuk-tuk and were soon enjoying wine and delicious Italian-style pizza.

The next day we had to fly to Bangkok in the early afternoon, so we walked down to our new favorite internet site and booked a couple hours of blog and email time while enjoying some cold beers. We then grabbed a Taxi and sped off for several days in Bangkok, our first big city since L.A. and presumably a real wake-up call from our life on the beach.


(As an extra bonus, here is a shot of how Phuket City waters their shrubbery).