Yeah, what a great idea to live in a country where I don't speak the language. Seriously - I speak three languages - I couldn't have pick a country I could communicate in?!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the last leg of our trip: the beach.  We flew into Phuket and took the bus into Phuket City. From there we decided to take a tuk-tuk straight to the beach. The nearest being Patong. We checked into a fabulous 4-star hotel with a balcony, bath tub and luxuries we didn't have before. After settling into the hotel we went straight to the beach in a tuk-tuk. It was fabulous. I had some fresh roasted squid, naturally salted by the ocean and watched families play in the surf. From there, we went for dinner then back to the hotel to get ready for a night out on the town.

 

We headed into town on the back of a motorcycle... who knew three people can fit on a motorcycle?!! And I had too many piña colada's while walking around the street.  We ended up going up and down the main street and made some friends along the way... some were men dressed as women (prostitutes) while others were simply foreigners enjoying the sights. We met up with a bunch of French guys who spoke absolutely no English and told me how difficult it was to get around not knowing the language. After a night of sweating in the night club it was time to swim in the ocean under the moon and stars.  What a night!

 

The next morning we took a very early bus ride back to Phuket City, from which we hopped on a boat to get to Phi-Phi Don.  It was about 45minutes to this paradise island and well worth the trip. It was extremely hot and since there are no cars on the island we had to walk all the way down the beach looking for a place to stay. We finally found a cabana and headed to the beach to enjoy the sun. The water was so salty and clean, it was quite amazing. But it wasn't very deep so we had to swim out quite a way to get past our belly buttons. Late in the afternoon I went for an oil massage and a pedicure along the beach. AAAAAAAAAHHH... how fabulous!  That night we went into the "town" to eat and drink - again we saw some Thai boxing. The music they play is completely mesmerizing and you end up like a cobra watching the action. We then walked back along the beach to the hotel and found a really cool place just outside of a local bar. There were torches in the sand and some mats to sit on to look out over the horizon. The stars were so bright and we realized how important it is to take all this kind of stuff in.

 

The next day we decided it would be a good idea to head back to Patong beach and enjoy the night life yet again. We checked out of the hotel and started walking down the beach after getting some breakfast. We were stopped by a long-tail boat driver offering us a tour to Phi-Phi Lei.  Hmmmm.... tempting. Let's do it! We had only a couple of hours before the last boat left for Phuket so we made it a quick visit. There was a cove on Phi Phi Lei that is a beach during certain parts of the day because of the rising tide. It was amazing and breathtaking. From there we went snorkelling and I was able to touch coral and see all the colourful fish swim around me. Amazing! I couldn't believe this was the first time I had tried this - I think it's going to be my new hobby, I enjoyed it so much.

 

From there we heading back to Phi Phi Don but our boat got stuck in the surf out about a kilometer away from the beach and we had to walk back to the shore. We grabbed our things, said goodbye to this paradise island and prepared for our trip back to Phuket on the last ferry of the day. Once we got to the harbour, our paradise island quickly turned to shipwreck island because we were told we missed the last ferry! WHAT?!!  Well, how do we get back to the main land?!! We asked around to see what our options were:  a 2-hour boat ride to Krabi then a five hour bus ride to Patong, the garbage boat to Phuket or a really expensive private speed boat.  Hmmmm... well, it turned out we missed the last boat to Krabi and there was no such thing as a garbage boat (or that they wanted to admit!). So we ended up sharing a speed boat with a girl from Israel who needed to get back to Phuket as well.

 

The speed boat was great! We stopped in the middle of the ocean to fill up on gas and watch the end of the sunset over the ocean's horizon. The stars came out and soon the city lights of Puket were in sight. But we also noticed the city lights were to the left and we were heading right.  We ended up parking at a harbour outside of the city limits where we had to climb over three boats to finally get on the pier. PHEW! How dangerous was that! From there, we hopped on some motorcycle taxis and headed into town for a tuk-tuk ride to Patong. There we found a hotel and headed out for a night of fun.

 

The next day we flew back to Bangkok and stayed at a really great guest house that some Canadians we met in Ayutthaya had recommended. We took a taxi to the airport and were on our way back to Korea.  Our Thai adventures had ended and I knew that my time with my dear friend Zain was coming to an end.

 

What a wonderful time we had - I'd like to do that again soon.

 

  Anyone care to join me?!?