Phuket

The journey from Siem Reap to Phuket went fairly smoothly. Phuket is a large island just barely off the coast of southwestern Thailand. Its baby blue waters and abundant palm trees make it one of the most tropical places on earth. Unfortunately, it is slowly becoming more and more commercialized, but it was nonetheless amazing.

After taking two flights and an hour-long taxi ride, we arrived around midnight and found a cheap guest house to crash at. Patong beach is infamous for being a giant frat party, and we wanted to avoid that, so we spent the whole next day on Kata beach, which many people said was one of the best on the island. I spent most of the day in the water body surfing and just enjoying the perfect temperature, and I paid for it for the rest of the trip. I was delivered the most severe ass-kicking by the sun that I ever had. I didn't even look like a lobster; I looked like a strawberry. Several days later I began to peel and a masseuse commented that I looked like a snake.

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(This album is half Siem Reap, half Phuket. Pay attention to comments for which is which.)

Later that night we were walking along the beach as the sun was setting when we ran into some friends of mine from Korea who were also visiting, and for reasons that will become apparent soon, I think this was the most fortunate part of the trip for me. They told us they were going to Phi Phi island (the place where the movie "The Beach" was filmed) and told us we should come too. Phi Phi is actually 2 islands and you have to take a 90 minute ferry to get to them. Laura and Megan also knew a couple of the people rolling in this new bunch whom they were anxious to see, so we booked some tickets and the next day we were off to Phi Phi.

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