Phi Phi and Phuket

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It was Blair's birthday on the 28th on Phi Phi island. The day before we had a great day snorkeling and swimming but this day we decided to try and walk to the main beach on Phi Phi. One of the girls from our snorkeling trip had walked back from the main beach from our hotel and was told it should only take 20mins, but instead took her 2hrs as she got lost. So she warned us that there wasn't much signage but that it was possible if we took the right route to get to the other side. We started our walk up a very steep hill and found the track wasn't very defined and was very dense to walk through. Anyway we continued on up the steep hill, followed by a swarm of mosquitos (lucky the deet bug spray was working as we never got bitten!). I made Blair walk in front of me most of the time as he makes more noise when walking, hoping that if there was anything in front of us, it knew we were coming and move. I was wrong..... as we were walking in the bush Blair noticed a bright green stick....which then started to move! It was a green snake that when it saw Blair, reared up and hissed at Blair, then slithered back into the bush where we couldn't see it anymore. We looked it up later and we think it was probably a Red tailed Racer, which is venomous but can't harm humans as it has no fangs. Anyway we had to keep going so we past the snake and kept walking. Not long after the track started to head down again.....where we ended up on the beach next to us, not on the other side of the island where we had intended. So instead of going back up the track to pass the snake, we gave up and walked 5 mins along the beach back to our hotel where we started. After that event Blair had a beer and then we walked back up to our room to cool down in the air conditioning before going for a swim later in the day. The other couple that we met the day before said they would attempt it later in the afternoon, which we later found out they had also failed as they were being attacked by mosquitos so turned back almost straight away. Later that night we had a massive electrical storm. We opened up our curtains overnight so we could watch it until we fell asleep. Anyway I don't think Blair will ever forget this birthday....the one where he encountered a snake!

The next day we left Phi Phi and made our way to Phuket. It was a very long day of traveling with a 2 hr ferry and a 1hr and 40min drive in a poorly airconditioned taxi van. By the time we got to the hotel it was 2.40pm (we had left our hotel at 10am). We were so dehydrated and Blair was starving. The place we are staying at is a very fancy resort filled with mega rich people. Coming from a chilled out hotel owned by the locals to this is a very big change! This place has two pools, a tennis court, is right on the beach, has multiple activities during the day, a gym and 3 restaurants....and we've got lost multiple times initially trying to find our room because it's so big. For some reason (thanks David!!!) we have access to a privileged lounge and restaurant where we get free food and drinks. So as soon as we arrived we went there as we were starving. We got the feeling that we didn't quite belong in this place as people were very dressed up just for afternoon tea with the small children independently going up for more food using tongs to individually get more biscuits.....I don't think I knew what tongs even were at that age! And then there was Blair and I who probably should have showered and changed but instead went straight for the food. If you know Blair then you know he has a bit of an appetite, so I may have gone up multiple times for him to get more sandwiches so we didn't seem like he was eating everything. Anyway we ate too much and were on a sugar high for a while as they had lots of nice sweets which we are not used to having (we've only had 2 or 3 desserts while here as we are always full from dinner/thai curries). After our free afternoon tea we went back to the room to unpacked properly and found our room had been made up for the night with flowers all over the bed and petals in the bathtub. We then went to another free cocktail and canape tasting and a small dinner after.

Today we had a relaxing day at the resort where my eyes we bigger than my stomach at the buffet breakfast. I wanted to try little bits of everything but for the first time I couldn't as there was too much food. Blair and I then had a lie down while we tried to digest everything, then decided we'd try out the gym to try and work off what we'd indulged in over the last day. We went for a few swims in the pool and then went to afternoon tea. I wasn't hungry but Blair was so we filled up on food again. Unfortunately, and I don't know how it happened, but I was swallowing a piece of fruit when Blair made me laugh and this very loud burp/snort/gasp of air sound came from my mouth which made him and a few other people look at me in surprise in this very posh lounge. Then I couldn't stop laughing and ended up choking on my coffee, by which point we decided it was time to leave. Then we decided to get a massage at one of the massage places nearby where we ended up paying a third of the price we would have paid if it were at the resort. It was right on the beach and was only 300 Baht ($13.02 nzd), for an hour thai massage!!! Tomorrow we have a big day so will blog about that in a few days time. Talk to you later 😊

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