Phuket

Before I completely forget my Christmas vacation, here is a description of the last days...

These few days were pretty tame and not much happened, but here it is.

After giving the sailing charter company another 12 hours to charge us for damages, we hired a taxi to take us to Phuket town. We stayed at the Sino Hotel. It had a Chinese theme. The room had two single beds, but it had a lot of room and was clean. The best part was that they brought us breakfast to the room every morning! What a treat.

We wandered around Phuket town. We followed the a walking tour that was on the map. We really wanted to go find a bar cafe that was in the old part of town and just take in the scenery and people. The old part of Phuket has Portuguese architecture. Along the way, I found a cute top and skirt. It was cotton and light. There were a lot of little shops. We just kind of wandered and shopped. We were having trouble locating the bar, so we stopped at a muslim restaurant for some great curry chicken and chicken and walnuts. Man, the food in Thailand is fabulous!

It turned out that the place we had been searching for was next to the restaurant, and had been changed into a bookstore. It was closed at that time. That was okay, because we still ate some great food.

We continued to wander around and just take in the sights. The streets were narrow. There were all kinds of businesses from clothing, to food, to printing. I think printing of flyers and brochures is big business in Phuket.

We walked by a massage place and went in for a foot massage. It felt so good. Afterwards, we were thoroughly relaxed. Around the corner was a bar called Michael's. We went in to get a beer and see if we could access the internet. The internet was definitely down, but the beer was good. Dave even had the chance to try his hand at being a bartender. The girls that worked there were trying to hook up the beer keg and were having trouble. Dave tried to help, but it just kept giving them foam. Oh well...we switched to bottles.

Tiring of peanuts and beer, we headed back towards the hotel in search of late dinner. We ended up at the hotel restaurant which was open air. The menu was a bit funky. All the dishes had names associated with movies. I think I ordered Pad Thai (of course) and Dave ordered a Thai sausage dish. I bring this up because, Dave got sick that night (on both ends) and was out of commission of a couple of days.

After getting Dave through the night, I left him in bed in search of anti-stomach cramping drugs and ginger ale. I also took the opportunity to try the internet again. At this point, no one realized that the earthquake in Taiwan had affected the internet. I honestly thought that it was problems with Thailand's system. My apologies to Thailand. I did manage to get through to my friend Dorinda and my mom for a few minutes on Skype. Then everything just kind of shut down. It was frustrating. Another couple thought it was my fault for being on Skype. They thought Skype was slowing things down. We all gave up when we realized that the internet was just not working.

After getting Dave settled in with some drugs, a bit of ramen soup, and ginger ale, there was nothing for me to really do except watch him sleep. So I headed out for a traditional Thai massage. I went back to the place where we had had the foot massages the day before. The massage was good. Just what I needed. I could have been more relaxing if the two little girls that were playing had been quieter. Thai massage is done on a mat on the floor. This facility had several mats in a large room. Each mat had curtains around it. The girls were giggling, turning lights on and off and kept peeping through the curtains. The grownups who were hanging out in the area, were asleep. I know because they were snoring.

Like I said, a Thai massage is on a thick mat on the floor. The massage therapist uses here fingers, elbows and arms to massage and hit pressure points around the body. She also uses deep stretches. I had been having them in TEDA, so I knew what to expect. In spite of the noise, I came out feeling like I could move again.

I went back to the hotel to check on Dave. We spent the night in the room watching a movie. I ordered room service and we had a quiet evening in.

the next day, Dave felt ready for an adventure. We headed down to the market to catch a local's bus to the beaches. For about $1USD, you could get on a large pickup truck that had a cover on the back with benches. In about 30 minutes, we were at Karon Beach. We found chairs that had a good umbrella and just sat by the ocean for a couple of hours. The nearest bathroom was at a coffee shop. Dave still had to make several trips, but seemed to be getting better. He even went into the water a few times. The most interesting thing were the other foreign tourists who were not as inhibited as I. It was a top optional beach. Now, I can be open to a certain point. But I must say that at a certain age, it is just not right. There was a lady who was easily 70 years old. She never got out of the sun, and was definitly not embarassed by her body. I don't think I could be that brave. I was amazed that she was not burned to a crisp.

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