Phuket- Day 3!

Day 3 was our extravagant splurge day! Knowing we had to be out of the hotel by midday yet our flight wasn't until 10pm, we decide to kill a majority of the day on huge boating and snorkeling trip out to the Phi Phi Islands (where the movie "The Beach" was filmed). They were gorgeous!! Some of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen!

We checked out in the morning, left our bags with the concierge and took the shuttle across to Phuket to the marina. From there we took off on our hour long, 40km, speedboat ride. The water wasn't rough but going that fast across the waves sure made for some hard splats against the water. Unfortunately the rocking boat didn't provide for good photo taking opportunities but here's a rough video as we approach Phi Phi.

We took pictures at various stops before having an half hour at the first beach. Then we headed over to Monkey Beach where we weren't allowed to alight, because "the monkeys have rabies" yet they fed the monkeys bananas and encouraged them to come up onto the boat! Makes a lot of sense.

Monkey photos have become a majority of this blog!

From there we went on to our first snorkeling spot. The crew on the boat LOVED throwing bread onto my back so I'd get mobbed by fish. I'd look up and they all were laughing. Other people had bread tossed in front of them- I got this special fish mauling treatment :) From the video I posted a week ago (and below) you can hear me laughing through the snorkel while having fish swim into my legs.

Where Vikings landed

The lagoon our boat was "too big to enter"

First 30 hour stop.

This guy filmed me the ENTIRE trip. Not creepy at all.

After snorkeling, we stopped by a resort and took a nice hour long lunch break. Here is where I discovered my supposedly water-proof camera was not cooperating. It would not turn on! It's back to working now, but for the rest of the day I didn't get to take any pictures unfortunately. The last stop after lunch had some of the best snorkeling I had ever seen!

After about 7.5 hours out a sea, our boat returned to the marina and we got shuttled back to our hotel. Having no hotel room, we took some towels from the pool area and cleaned off like homeless bums at the pool shower then went and changed in the lobby bathroom. It worked, we were fresh enough , and bartered for a cab to the airport.

At about 1:30am I was back safely in my hotel room in Singapore. I was tired the next day at work having only slept a few hours, but Phuket was AMAZING and I would totally recommend it! It wasn't as rough as Bali, it had some of the nicest people, the local folks had a great sense of humor and it had an awesome relaxed beachy feel!

I can't wait to someday be able to explore the other parts of Thailand!!

Phuket- Day 2!

The second day we woke up to rain. Unsure about what to do, we had a long, leisurely breakfast and eventually decided to take a cab to the Big Buddha we could see from our hotel balcony.

Rain  from hotel balcony

We strolled down to the street, bartered for a cab ride and hopped in with an awesome driver named Mr. Lucky. He had a brand new Mazda SUV which was super nice considering the other cabs and tuk tuks we had seen. On the way up to the Buddha he pointed out various sites along the way- snake show, monkey school, rubber trees, elephant rides, etc. I asked him what his favorite type of Thai food was and it was the same as mine! Chicken with cashew nuts! That made me really excited because I thought all along I liked Americanized Thai food; it was comforting to know they actually eat it in Thailand. I asked him if had ever gotten a Thai massage and he said he had. I asked if they crawled and pounced on him and he started laughing and shaking his head. I must have gone into some whack-job scammy parlor!

Local bus

Rubber trees

We made it to the top of the mountain to Big Buddha and suddenly a cloud BURST and it was raining much much harder. Mr. Lucky looked amused as we got soaked getting our umbrellas out. He waited for us as we explored the Buddha. Taxi drivers here (and in Bali) have set prices and will wait for you however long it takes. Kind of reassuring knowing a cab will be there when you come out. We made sure to sign the guest book considering we hadn't seen a single other American yet. I bolded "USA."

Following the Buddha trip we went down the hill to the elephant riding spot. As we hopped out to get our pictures taken with the baby elephant, Janet was getting nagged about paying for an elephant ride- even Mr. Lucky was chiming in. I didn't care either way, because I vaguely remember riding an elephant at a zoo when I was little. Janet, on the otherhand, was experiencing her first elephant rodeo. (I secretly really wanted to but didn't want to pressure her into anything). Eventually we got the price knocked down a few bucks by asking for a "rainy day special" and we soon were clambering up the stairs to the platform loading zone.

Our elephant guide MADE THE TRIP! He was absolutely hilarious! Right off the bat he asked us where we were fun. He then proceeded for the next 30 minutes to shout throughout the jungle "I love  CALIFORNIA!" After about 2 minutes though, he smirked, glanced backwards towards us and grinned while whispering "yesterday I loved Germany...maybe tomorrow I'll love Paris." Haha.

He called himself Brad Pitt and his elephant was Natalie. He started calling me Angelina Jolie but then later switched to Jennifer Aniston (thank goodness!). Natalie grabbed some tree branches and he took the leaves and quickly braided them into fun hats for us. He would lead Natalie to the edge of the cliffs and jokingly scream "NO NATALIE NO" as if we were about to go over. A little nerve-racking but oh so much more exciting. She was so well trained! She kept drinking water from puddles and blasting it through the air. At just 10 years old. Brad Pitt had been training her since she was born. I couldn't believe how comfortable he was. Sitting peacefully on her head, climbing up and down her trunk to take pictures of us, it was adorable.

Brad Pitt kept trying to get me to climb off of the bench and sit on her head. I turned down the offer at first- after all I'm in Thailand, in a jungle with cliffs and trusting some guy who calls himself Brad Pitt. But after we hit the halfway mark I saw how well Natalie was trained so I went for it. We lifted the bar off the bench and I slid down the neck while Brad balanced on the forehead. Brad clambered down the trunk and soon it was me driving the elephant! Brad had her doing the same tricks (going to the cliff's edge, grabbing branches, squirting water). Only once when a motorcycle went by and I was on top, did he look a little concerned. He immediately grabbed his hook and poked Natalie's ear leading her to the side of the road. It was a lot of fun being a elephant driver! Another resume booster :)

Going back up to the bench was a lot easier than climbing down and after about 15 minutes Brad was back in the driver seat and I could relax back on the bench with Janet. Without a doubt, one of my favorite parts of being in Thailand!!!!

This is what you get when you give Brad Pitt your camera...elephant dung photos.

Mr. Lucky drove us back to the hotel and at that point, the sun was popping through and we went down to a different pool and lounged around for awhile. The pool people drop by giving us fruit and cold towels- I could get use to the resort life! We had a super late lunch by the pool, hit happy hour and then went to downtown Kata again. On the way down there we passed people selling those lanterns at the end of Hangover II. I was going to get one on the way back but we stayed out too late to light the candle lantern...next time! Downtown we shopped, sat outside Starbucks and people watched then headed to a place with outdoor band playing a great variety of music (getting some of the lyrics wrong though haha). It was a great day with Natalie and Brad Pitt being the highlight!!!! If you ever find yourself in the jungle of Phuket- I HIGHLY recommend riding and elephant!

Phuket Details- Day 1!!

Hey Y'all!

Finally had some time to actually post about what all happened in Phuket!!

Before I begin, the "h" in Thailand is silent often. So stop being like Alan from Hangover II by saying "Thigh-land" and that I was in "Fuket" and that I visited "Fi Fi Islands"....it's Tyland, Pooket, and Pee Pee Islands....ok let us begin now that you're reading and mentally pronouncing properly.

For starters, we got in late Friday night, checked into the Hilton, and got upgraded to a sweet suite. Neither Janet or I really had a plan for our short weekend in Thailand. We got breakfast, swam in the pool and Indian Ocean and after about 3 hours in the sun decided it was time to buy some sunscreen. (I hadn't packed any since I was doing carry-on and all my bottles are too large).

We strolled into the downtown Kata area where we got our first dose of bartering. Janet wanted a cover-up and hat and I wanted souvenirs.

The bartering works like this. They cling to you the second you look interested in something. They say some price, you cut it in half. They look all confused, whip out a calculator like they magically don't understand your English anymore and you punch in your ridiculously low price. They say something totally not close to you. You walk away. They chase you down and come within 50 baht ($1.60ish) of your price. You buy it and they ask if you're from Australia (like a dozen plus times this happened to me- Phuket not popular destination for Americans apparently). "No siree, you just got ripped off by an American!" hehe ok I didn't quite say that...but let's just say through this little technique I have THE BEST gift ever for Jill when I get home. Please rest assured that I'll post something with it once I give it to her!

After strolling around for an hour, buying our sunscreen and other Thailand emblazoned goodies we decided to cave and splurge on the massages. And by splurge I mean 250 baht ($8.10) for an hour long massage. I considered bartering but the whole alley had this price listed and I already felt guilty for how cheap it was.

The lady at the door kept saying "Thai massage?" so I asked what it was...she said whole body so I figured it was like the one Melissa had in Bali. Janet chickened out and went for just a foot massage while I was led upstairs to a room full of hospital curtains blocking off little mats on the floor. As a laid down little did I know about the assault that was coming my way! It seemed straight out of a movie- innocent tourist gets walked, crawled and pounced on by local masseuse with anger management issues. The walking on me was ok as she was quite petite. But when she decided to crawl on me and dig her elbows into my shoulder blades while grinding her knees into my butt checks I got a little concerned- and then things got weird. She flipped me over and it was like I was doing yoga while a petite Thai woman was trying to wrestle me. At one point I had my left knee by my right shoulder while she had both hands pinned down and a knee on one thigh and the other uncomfortably close to my crotch. She kept whispering "relax relax" while I was wondering how that was humanly possible and freaking out about what pose was ahead. At the end she redeemed her assault with a pretty incredible neck and head massage but for next time....I will be MOST DEFINITELY PASSING on the Thai massage. If any of you want a demonstration, I'll cut you a deal and only charge 4 bucks :)

After the attack we hit the much needed happy hour at the hotel before our show that evening. There are two shows people told us to see while in Phuket- Fanta Sea which is an elephant show with circusy acts and a lady-boy cabaret. We chose the Simon Cabaret. Conveniently there was a round-trip shuttle from our hotel. The show banned filming or videoing of any sort but to sum it up- transvestites in the most elaborate and glittery costumes POORLY lip-singing to a mixture of American, Chinese and Thai songs. They danced (some so lackadaisically it was like warm-up rehearsal) but I still enjoyed the entire thing!! The sets were elaborate, it was totally unpredictable and I was amused about how bad their lips were off. Plus the whole time I was in awe that they were dudes. Below is a video of the cabaret I found on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qel4U0nmQOI

After the show the whole cast lined up and you could pay 40 baht to pose with them. I passed. But I did manage to sneak some photos on the way back to the bus.

They LOVE (?) their king. Shrines to him are everywhere.

Proof I was there and that I don't just steal these awesome stories

The no video warning...the price is in US money

Some are a little more obvious that they're boys...

Awesome first day in Thailand....and the trip only got better from there!!

Phuket Photo Preview

Hey! It's 2am here and I just flew back from Phuket. Thought I'd share some pictures now and add some narrative later. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THAILAND.

I went along with a lady I met on base here (Janet) and to sum up our trip: pool, beach, souvenir shopping/bartering, hotel happy hour, massages, lady boy cabaret, Big Buddha (largest Buddha in Thailand), elephant ride, trip to Phi Phi islands...all were great. Stories to come!

Haircut, Chijmes, Holland Village

Hello all!!!

Nothing too special to report here, I've just been having another great week! Monday I was a mute, but finally towards the end of that evening my voice was back! Tuesday night I did laundry over at the SBT house.

Wednesday my boss left early since she got in at 2am so she could call DC...which meant I left early too! I ended up going to a mall that had endless nail and hair salons. I haven’t gotten a haircut since my Vegas trip so it had been awhile and this humidity and rain has made it a tangly mess some days. I thought I’d get just a trim so in case they screwed up, I'd have hair left. I strolled the 3 floors of salons, scouting prices, trying to find a place where the average hair stylist did not have a funky do. A really popular haircut here is where they shave around their ears and then cut it all jaggy around the sides. No bueno.

I eventually found a place that was only $28 Sing for a shampoo and cut. Seemed like a good deal. The stylist had a long normal hair cut; I was hopeful! The shampoo smelled amazing and she massaged my head for at least 15 minutes. I was nearly asleep. Then she started cutting it and asked how long. I said “one inch” then she scrunched up her face all confused. Dangit I should have said it in metric! Well then she just started chopping and I was sitting there nervously thinking I hope she approximately knows what one inch is. I didn’t know if I should chime in and say “2.54 cm” but then was worried she’d add it together! Plus I was feeling kinda nerdy for knowing the exact conversion...

Well luckily, it turned out great! She blew it dry and proceeded to curl it with a straightener- so “it would look like it does everyday.” Ha- like I go through all that work daily! It ended up looking amazing! Good thing I had plans for later...

That night I went out to a few places with this fellow, Paddy, I had met the previous week. We started off at a spot called Alley Bar that reminded me a lot of the way Gaslamp in San Diego feels. We ended up at Chijmes. I will surely miss it when I leave. Wednesday nights shouldn't be so fun.

Last night I went out for some Mexican food with friends in Holland Village. Of everything from back home, I’m badly missing Mexican food! I wasn’t expecting the most dazzlingly delicious Mexican food, but it was pretty good. I’d return to El Patio.  The chimichanga my friend ordered came out rectangular. Weird. Holland Village is this outdoor area with lots of shops and bars and sidewalk restaurants. It is very nice- different from the rest of Singapore. I'm sure I'll return sometime and get some photos.

Tonight I head to Phuket, Thailand so I won’t be able to post until next week. I’m stoked!

Stay warm my friends!