The Beach.

I also love the beach.

Sunsets are spectacular.

Pink floaties are available to buy.

The hostel was a ten minute walk to the sea.

No sharks or jellyfish (to my knowledge).

Just a few naked babies (oh, you Europeans.  Please use sunblock).

I'll let the pictures say the rest.

Big Bhudda

One Lonely Planet attraction we just couldn’t avoid falling into is Big Bhudda.

Think the giant Jesus in Rio de Janeiro.  Except Thai people prefer ginormous marble statues of Bhudda, instead.

We started our day in a thuk-thuk cab to Phuket Town,  which allowed us to appreciate our smaller beach town by and far.

We did some touristy shopping then grabbed a normal taxi to Big Bhudda, way up on  a hill. 


(We bargained our taxi to 1000 bhat for a trip from Phuket Town to Big Bhudda back to Kamala, he insisted we help him out by stopping at a shopping center to “look only” for some reason about petrol… After doing a quick look at expensive jewelry surrounded by tourists dressed in actual clothes I figured he was getting a pretty good coupon for gas to bring any tourists there)

The shrine was impressive.  The view was spectacular.

We were lended shawls to put over our bare shoulders and skirts to put over bare legs. 

Then we walked up and enjoyed.

Kayaking

My favorite activity: kayaking.

What better way to enjoy my favorite activity than taking to the Phang Nya bay islands in the Gulf of Thailand.

We used the extremely legitimate company PaddleAsia to be picked up from our hostel and drove to the east coast side of Phuket through villages and different scenary than our touristy hostel town), brought to a pier where we caught a boat taxi which brought us to the islands where our sit-in sea kayaks were waiting for us. 

(Thankfully all drivers/captains/guides wore a PaddleAsia t-shirt...  There were several moments of confusion during the transfers where we were not certain exactly what was next or if we had been dumped far from our hostel as a joke.)

  

We spent the day under cloudy skies and partially rainy conditions, yet it still fits into the “Best Day Ever” category. 

The islands of Thailand are high and rocky, the sea is green and gorgeous even under overcast skies.

My favorite part was the choppy waves the guide led us through as we went around a large island (only on half of the island).  It was like white water kayaking, we even used skirts (which is a fabric that goes around your waist as you sit in the kayak then stretches over the opening to prevent water from going inside and pouring over your legs).  They were needed.

 Best day ever.

Food

I. Love. Thai Food.

Butterfly Cafe Breakfast.

Cafe across the street.  Chicken with all the leftovers from everyone else's meal.

Garlic chicken with black pepper.

Not Thai. 

Breakfast at the German cafe.

Chicken with basil.

Chicken with chili sauce and a lemonade.

Garlic chicken at Popeye's cafe.

Kayak adventure food, including cashew chicken.

Pad thai (I didn't enjoy it, but it presented well).

Corn on the cob on the beach! 

To answer your questions...

Where is Thailand?
Thailand is southwest of China.

Why did I go?
I'm studying abroad in Singapore for January, so I had one week after Christmas to take a tropical vacation in a country I've been wanting to support since the tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004 and the idea that tourism will help them rebuild their home, and since I discovered how great Thai food is.




Who did I go with?
 Three classmates from St. Thomas who are also studying abroad in Singapore.  (In picture: Emily, me, Holly, Sharada)

How long was the flight?
Very.  I don't know.  So many time zone changes...
We went west to go east, leaving Minneapolis at 1pm (local time), arriving in Tokyo for a lay over at 6pm (local time), arriving in Singapore for a long layover at some early morning hour (local time), then leaving for Thailand at 9am (local time) and arriving at 10 (local time), getting to the hostel around 12pm (there's a different blog for that), and I was on the beach by that afternoon.

Do they speak English?
Not really.
But, we get by just fine.

Is Phuket safe?
We're in Kamala beach, and so far so good.  Actually, it's very European family oriented, and none of us have felt one unsafe moment.  The locals are friendly, and men don't do cat calls like Latino men tended to do in Latin America.

What is the money?
Thai bhat.  Roughly 30 baht to 1 US dollar.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was spent on the beach in Kamala. 

First, we bought lanterns from our hostel, bargaining “4 for the price of 3,” told “No, no I can’t do that…   For you I go 200 baht to 150 baht.  Good?”  (This was for each lantern, feel free to do the math and think about the bargain he did end up giving us.)

We walked the ten minutes to the beach, being cheerfully told “Happy New Year” by many friendly Thai folks, and proceeded to light our beautiful lanterns and send them into the night sky above the dark ocean, joining many other lights already sent into the night.

We continued on to a dark, lonely corner of the beach (almost a mile walk) away from the family resorts and typical tourist booths and sat in a treehouse of a bar, run by a friendly Australian surfer.

From here we sat on the deck and watched numerous fireworks displays across the entire beach and throughout the night hundreds of lanterns slowly being sent into the sky.

All in all, a beautiful New Year.

It is about time I traveled again.

Since South America I made it to Montana and Florida (fairly exotic), but I managed to squeeze in one new country before the debut of 2013.

Thailand.

Yes.

Beautiful, tropical, hot, humid, sunny, salty ocean, Thai food Thailand.

Why, you ask?

Clearly, because of the water and the Thai food.

Plus, I am honing my snowbird skills.

Also, because I am about to begin a J-term course in Diversity in Counseling with a class from St. Thomas in Singapore January 4th.  (Oh yeah, I started grad school this year.)

So I left the day after Christmas on a loooooong plane ride from Minneapolis to Tokyo to Singapore to Phuket (Poo-ket), Thailand.