(Sorry I'm so behind on this but I am so busy with the new job starting)
Having 3 weeks off between jobs was great. Enabled me a week of rest, a week to travel, and a week to get a bunch of errands done that I had been putting off for a wee. The middle week was spent in Phuket, Thailand. I woke up and took the plane from Tokyo to Bangkok, a 6 hour tour. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the...sorry, that's another story. Once in Bangkok, I waited for the 1.5 hour connecting flight to the island of Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is an island off the middle, left side of Thailand facing and exposed to the Indian Ocean (the vacation would mark the first time I've ever touched or swam in it!). Phuket is a basically a top vacation spot in Asia, known for its nice beaches and its high quality, yet cheap living (for what us westerners are used to).
As I met my chauffeur from the hotel outside the airport, I prepared myself for a wild ride. Richard, who was meeting me there, had arrived the day before and prepared me for the crazy ride from the aiport to the hotel. He said to expect a lot of zipping up and around, lots of close calls, lots of tailgating, lots of cars and motercycles passing in any lane, etc. I got all that and more. I saw motercycles in back of pickup trucks with guy on top of them sitting and reading while someone in the front of the pickup truck drove and zipped in and out of traffic. I saw trucks with 25 people spilling out of the back. I saw cars pass other cars with no regard for what was coming at them. I saw no regard for traffic lights or other rules of the road. I saw normal-sized motercycles with 4 passengers: 3 adults with one holding a child. I didn't see any traffic accidents, though. I guess everyone is considerate that others are in the same predicament they are so that they all take care?
I got to the hotel which looked amazing at night. All lit up and looking great. I was handed a complimentary drink as I signed for the room key. Went to the room and explored while waiting for Richard who said he'd be back to meet me there. The view from the balcony was great. After seeing the bathroom, I thought a shower would be great before going out, and did that. The shower was a huge stone stall with a tall ceiling. Really nice!
That night, the first thing we did was to go out for food. But, before that we had to apply copious amounts of mosquito repellent. They still say there is a slight chance of getting malaria (or Dengue Fever) in the outerlying regions of Thailand - however, any heavily travelled region is fine, but it's still better to be safe than sorry and I don't want normal bites either. Richard reviewed everything he had learned in the last day (since he was there a day earlier than me). That day he had gone out in a rented jeep with two Australians he met at the hotel and just explored the remoter parts of the island. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I ordered too much food. But, the other problem was I was used to Japanese portions AND Japanese prices. The portions were huge in Thailand and the prices were anywhere from 10-50% of what I would pay in Tokyo for comparable food/amounts. I also order my first fruit shake (watermelon), which would become a staple of our meals. Throughout the week we had banana, coconut, kiwi, mango, orange, watermelon, etc. They just take huge amounts of the fruit, and crushed ice and blend it up - so delicious. Banana was the best. I think we had two a day for the 7 straight days.
After dinner, we wondered up and down the main road near the hotel. All lit up and lined with outdoor and indoor stores selling things from knickknacks, homemade crafts, really nice suits and shirts, normal clothes stores, luggage stores (to carry home all all the extra stuff the travelers end up buying since the prices are so cheap), illegally copied DVDs, convenience stores, bars, restaurants, moped rentals, and massage parlors. Furthermore, almost every price is negotiable. After wandering in and out of of a bunch of stores, we went tot he one place that seemed out of place on that street: A full bar/restaurant/miniature golf course modeled after the Flintstones. Also, the golf course, was also of a dinosaur theme. We went to go play golf, but were informed that it was cheaper if we bought a drink at the bar first. Quite weird, but it turned out it's like a dollar cheaper to have a drink and play miniture golf than it is to just play miniature golf?!?! We got a drink at the bar (I got a huge coconut fruit shake in a real coconut) and then went and played miniature golf (like so many times in Lavalette). After that, on the way home that night we stopped in one of the only open massage parlors for a foot massage. You get an hour for about 8$. Quite a deal. It felt great. About halfway through Richard poked me and I just thought, stop bothering me. But, later he informed me that his masseuse was a "Ladyboy". She looked like a women to me. We would see many ladyboys throughout the week. But, regardless, there was no funny business at these massage parlors. They were so relaxing. That night we fell asleep late but planned to wake up as early as possible to get as much as we could get in that day.
The next day, we woke up too late to get the free, all-you-can eat breakfast that was included in the hotel charge - I mean c'mon, we were paying a whole 120$ total for the week to live like kings at this luxary hotel :) So instead, around lunchtime, we went out and got a normal western breakfast of eggs and toast and stuff for about 2$. You can't spend you money quick enough in Phuket! There only 16 hours of waking time a day. Richard had plans to go to a shooting range with the Australians from the day before, and I needed to take care of all the paperwork with an apartment I was applying for in Tokyo. I quickly learned that the phone and internet technology in Phuket is quite behind the times. Oh well. (Editor's Note: It turns out I couldn't get the apartment, but I applied for another this weekend so we'll see about that next week). After we had both finished our tasks, we met up again and walked around again. I think we went and got a massage at a different parlor, then went swimming in the ocean at the beach which was right across from the hotel. The water was absolutley beautiful. Perfect temperature, totally clean (no seaweed or jellyfish), and bigger waves than what I am used to from the NJ Shore. Plus, almost empty, hardly no one on the beach at all. I really need to go back to Phuket. That night we went out for another great dinner anf played miniature golf again I think.
The days quickly melted togther into the same day. Richard would wake up an hour before me and go and get a massage, I'd sleep an extra hour. We'd have great breakfast, walk around the town and shop. We'd go back to the hotel for two hours in the middle of the day when it was hottest to stay out of the sun and use the internet from our room. Around 3 or 4, we go and get a massage then head to the beach for an hour or two. Then, return to the hotel pool for a fruit shake served and drinken while in the water. Then, back to the hotel room for a shower, apply mosquito repellent and get ready to go out for the night. Then, a nice dinner, shopping, get a massage, and go to bed. That's what a vacation should be: relaxing. None of this, wake up early and go and look at history and rush around everyday :)
Some other things we did while there: Shopping for suits, Going to Phuket Beach for a night, renting mopeds and driving all over the island.
First, the suits. You can get really nice, high-quality fabric, custom-tailored suits for like 50$. Tehn, they'll also custom-tailor your button down shirts as well. Richard and I both got fitted, chose patterns and fabrics and ended up buying 5 shirts, 2 ties, and 2 fuull suits. Additionally, Richard got a new leather coat custom built for his body. Everything was amazingly cheap and really nice. For my first day at work in another week I would wear one of the suits I had made there.
We took a taxi (tuk-tuk) to Phuket Beach one night. Phuket Beach is what Seaside Heights is compared to Karon Beach (where our hotel was). It's bigger and louder, but has all the same stuff, but also a lot more stuff. We ended up just walking aorund a lot, shopping, eating, drinking. We passed by Ladyboy shows where all the male transvestites were on stage dancing and flaunting their new "wares". Quite a sight.
Lastly, we rented mopeds for two days to tour the island. This is a must. We had so much fun driving around. First time for me on a moped made it fun enough. On top of that, the roads were all windy (lots of turns not lots of wind) with hardly any cars at all. We drove all around the island, up and down the costs, and even drove on main roads in tons of crazy traffic with lots of big trucks going by. The trucks were scary. The rest was fun. At one point we road about 30 or 45 minutes into the middle of the island to a normal shopping mall that almost felt like it was from America.
We did so many other things but I can't remember it all. Also, in the pictures you can still see plenty of construction going on from the big tsunami they had there last Christmas.
