Day 1:We arrived in Phuket Thailand on Sept. 5th to rain clouds and light drops. Our one hour ride to the hotel was a never ending sales pitch from the transportation company about all the tours they offer. The lady was really putting the hard sell on but I Andrew and I couldn't really look at her maps because we both get car sick. The sales lady made some comment that was meant to be humorous about Andrew's last name and kept saying it's spelled wrong, it should be "L-A-Z-Y," then cackled a bit while Andrew and I just looked at her, like....what? Anyways, she continued with the remarks. Some we understood...most we didn't and then she said something about how she didn't believe us that we were from the USA because of Andrews eyebrows. It was all very strange and we were so happy that we made it to our hotel and could GET OUT OF THAT VAN! (Well, the weird lady one, we booked out boat tickets to Koh Phi Phi , Island with her two days later...)
The drive to the hotel was beautiful and the lobby was gorgeous. All this for $36 a 
night....SCORE! Well, then our elated faces dropped when we entered the room. To say it was outdated would be an understatement. I think the last time this room had been decorated was...well...at least a decade before I was born. The bathroom was the worst...no, the mosquitoes flying around were...no, perhaps the army of ants along the outside wall of the toilet...nope, probably the unidentified worm/caterpillar/slug in the bathtub takes the cake. Oh an within the first four hours we had to call the front for someone to come fix our toilet...TWICE!! We ended up giving up on the whole toilet thing and walked to the pool bathroom instead...it was ridiculous.
night....SCORE! Well, then our elated faces dropped when we entered the room. To say it was outdated would be an understatement. I think the last time this room had been decorated was...well...at least a decade before I was born. The bathroom was the worst...no, the mosquitoes flying around were...no, perhaps the army of ants along the outside wall of the toilet...nope, probably the unidentified worm/caterpillar/slug in the bathtub takes the cake. Oh an within the first four hours we had to call the front for someone to come fix our toilet...TWICE!! We ended up giving up on the whole toilet thing and walked to the pool bathroom instead...it was ridiculous. There is a bright side to the hotel though...the 5 pools were amazing! Well, make that 3.5, the swim up bar pool was under construction and the baby pool only counts as half. But sadly, we didn't get the chance to enjoy the pool the first day because of the rain. So we found something to eat and went back to our room and watched the one English channel we had...Discovery.
Day 2:
Rain. Rain. Pouring Rain. Literally all day. We made an effort to sit by the pool and even stayed out there determined with the umbrella up. We finally gave in and went inside. Not wanting to spend our limited time in Phuket in the hotel, we went to the lobby to 'buy' a Wi-Fi card to look up things to do when it's raining. Well, the lady at the front desk hardly spoke English and what we understood was 
that there was no Internet, or it was too slow to buy.
that there was no Internet, or it was too slow to buy.Being desperate we went to talk to the taxi/car/scooter rental guy to find out how much it would cost to get to Phuket Town via taxi. He says it's about $25...EACH WAY! That's crazy! Especially when you can rent a scooter for $11 for the entire day. When we went to look at the scooters, the guy asked Andrew if he had ever driven one, where he confidently said yes and the man left. I looked at Andrew and was like, "Why would you say that! Now we don't even get a quick run down on how to use it." Andrew just smiles and says, "How hard can it be?" I made him do a few laps around the parking lot before I hopped on. And we were off! (Don't worry Mom, we wore helmets and Andrew drove really safe the entire time.) It was great! We had freedom to go where we wanted and when we wanted. Our first objective was to find a place where we could purchase our Kuala Lumpur plane tickets. (We tried several times a few months ago and even went to a travel agent who couldn't help us, she just said to buy them here, they'll be much cheaper without all of the taxes and fees. They were already cheap at $15 but ok. ) We finally found a ticket place and I almost passed out at the price! Let's just say they were WAY more than $15 a pop because apparently there is some festival that ends the day we were leaving...even the next day tickets were expensive. We had to do it....we were already here...so we bit our lips, used few choice words amongst each other and bought them. On our way back the clouds looked angry again...sure enough, it started raining...hard. The kind of rain that actually hurts a little when it hits you. And remember we were still on the scooter. Well, we made it back in one piece, laughing at how ridiculously touristy we looked so ill prepared when everyone else on a scooter had on a poncho. We then went to a wonderful restaurant, Two Chefs, and called it a night.
Day 3:
Rain, RAin, RAIn, RAIN!!!! Pouring, ALL DAY trapped in our crappy room. There is nothing to tell about day 3.
Day 4:
September 8th, (Happy 21st Birthday Jill) it was actually gorgeous outside...NO RAIN! But we were boarding a boat bound for Koh Phi Phi Island, about 1.5 hours from Phuket. Concentrating on not getting sea sick, Andrew and I tried our best to go to sleep. It worked and I wasn't too woozy when we arrived. Phi Phi is so small that motorized vehicles aren't even allowed on it. Bikes only. It's all sandy beaches and really narrow walking roads full of street vendors. We liked the vibe compared to Phuket and just prayed for good weather. Our 'hotel' is the Ivory and is about the size of a dorm room but very comfortable and perfect for us :)Day 5:
B-E-A-UTIFUL weather today! We had sunshine and just a light sprinkle in the afternoon...aww, this is the gorgeou
s Thailand island that I pictured. Walking around with our towels in hand, Andrew and I were off to search for a beach with water. A beach with water? Confused? So were we, another rookie tourist mistake. When we arrived, we noticed that the water was really far from the beach and it looked like the water had dried up. There were boats in the distance just sitting in the sand where water should have been. Well when we walked by that beach again today, the tide was so high up the beach, you would never know it was barren just 18 hours earlier. Well, what we later realized is that during the morning until about 2pm, the water comes high up onto the beach but then after 2pm it recedes extremely far...quite an interesting site. It looks like two different places! After a relaxing day of reading on the beach, we got a bite to eat and tried to figure out which excursion we wanted to go on while we were here.
s Thailand island that I pictured. Walking around with our towels in hand, Andrew and I were off to search for a beach with water. A beach with water? Confused? So were we, another rookie tourist mistake. When we arrived, we noticed that the water was really far from the beach and it looked like the water had dried up. There were boats in the distance just sitting in the sand where water should have been. Well when we walked by that beach again today, the tide was so high up the beach, you would never know it was barren just 18 hours earlier. Well, what we later realized is that during the morning until about 2pm, the water comes high up onto the beach but then after 2pm it recedes extremely far...quite an interesting site. It looks like two different places! After a relaxing day of reading on the beach, we got a bite to eat and tried to figure out which excursion we wanted to go on while we were here.Day 6:
Life's rough...see Day 5 :) Oh, but instead of just reading on the beach, we played catch today too!
Day 7:
Today Andrew and I booked a half a day boat tour where we would see Monkey Beach, Viking Cave, Pi-leh Bay, Loh Samah Bay, and Maya Bay where the movie "The Beach" starrin
g Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed sum eleven years ago. We arrived at our location at 8:40am like we were told and then departed the port about 9am. There were two other couples, one from China and the other one from Israel in our group. We rode in a what they call a long tail boat, but it was more like a Lewis and Clark canoe with a small motor. Sea sickness was inevitable but I'll get to that a little later. Our first stop was Viking Cave where we just rode past it, snapped a picture or two and then we were on our way to the next stop. Why it's called Viking Cave I'm not to sure, our skipper didn't speak English. We then pulled into Pi-leh Bay where we were given some snorkel gear and had the chance to check out some of the marine life. There wasn't a large variety of fish, but the ones we saw were so vibrant and their colors were amazing!
g Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed sum eleven years ago. We arrived at our location at 8:40am like we were told and then departed the port about 9am. There were two other couples, one from China and the other one from Israel in our group. We rode in a what they call a long tail boat, but it was more like a Lewis and Clark canoe with a small motor. Sea sickness was inevitable but I'll get to that a little later. Our first stop was Viking Cave where we just rode past it, snapped a picture or two and then we were on our way to the next stop. Why it's called Viking Cave I'm not to sure, our skipper didn't speak English. We then pulled into Pi-leh Bay where we were given some snorkel gear and had the chance to check out some of the marine life. There wasn't a large variety of fish, but the ones we saw were so vibrant and their colors were amazing!After some snorkeling 
we rode a little further to the main event...Maya Bay. Our guide anchored the boat in front of what looked like a ropes course. He gave us no instructions but to swim to the steps. Well, not realizing the purpose of the ropes until I was swimming with them and witnessed the power of the ocean water as it smacked again the rocks. Without hanging on that rope, we would have smashed our heads in to the rock cave. Once we made it to the stairs, the other side was a bit dangerous. The water would come through the holes in the cave quite powerful
ly and kind of knocked you around as you walked over the already unstable slippery rocks. Once we finally made it through, beautiful scenery awaited us. The perfect spot for a movie location. However unlike the exclusive looking beach in the movie, this beach was PACKED with tourists! It was a gorgeous beach with sand that was so soft it felt like we were walking in cooking flour. I have never felt anything like it. I wish there w
asn't so many people there and we could have spent the day just soaking up the beauty of it all.
we rode a little further to the main event...Maya Bay. Our guide anchored the boat in front of what looked like a ropes course. He gave us no instructions but to swim to the steps. Well, not realizing the purpose of the ropes until I was swimming with them and witnessed the power of the ocean water as it smacked again the rocks. Without hanging on that rope, we would have smashed our heads in to the rock cave. Once we made it to the stairs, the other side was a bit dangerous. The water would come through the holes in the cave quite powerful
ly and kind of knocked you around as you walked over the already unstable slippery rocks. Once we finally made it through, beautiful scenery awaited us. The perfect spot for a movie location. However unlike the exclusive looking beach in the movie, this beach was PACKED with tourists! It was a gorgeous beach with sand that was so soft it felt like we were walking in cooking flour. I have never felt anything like it. I wish there w
asn't so many people there and we could have spent the day just soaking up the beauty of it all.After Maya Beach, Andrew and I became a bit sea sick. That little boat felt every wave and I was doing everything I could think of to get my mind off the sickening feeling. I don't have too many pictures after Maya beach because I couldn't do anything but sit, in fear of vomiting. Our next stop was Monkey Beach, and it is what it sounds like. A little island filled with old man looking monkeys. Didn't get to really enjoy it in my current state.
Our last stop was Loh Samah Bay where luckily we got to get out of the boat and swim a bit in hopes of getting rid of the sea sickness. We swam for about 10 min before retuning to the dock. As soon as I got back in the boat from swimming I lost it. I was that tourist that was puking over the side of this little boat in front of all the other tourists parked in the bay. I only had to make it 10 more minutes, but I couldn't. With a bruised ego, I did feel better on our short ride back to Koh Phi Phi.
The rest of the day we stayed out of the sun because we got a little bit burnt the day before but we were also feeling quite queasy from the boat ride. We enjoyed a nice dinner then rested up for our last full day on the island.
Day 8:
Today was our last day. We woke up to pouring rain but it cleared within the hour. We
spent the whole day reading at the beach and enjoying our final hours in Thailand. That evening I got another manicure and Andrew relaxed with a foot massage. We reflected on our time here and hope to someday make it back when it isn't rainy season!
spent the whole day reading at the beach and enjoying our final hours in Thailand. That evening I got another manicure and Andrew relaxed with a foot massage. We reflected on our time here and hope to someday make it back when it isn't rainy season!Tomorrow we leave for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...and the adventure continues!
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