First day in Phuket,

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Welcome to Phuket, Thailand. I walked around near my hotel today and found a super market and bought some bottled water. I explored their market/mall for a bit. I decided not to purchase any souveniers yet as I would have to lug them along the rest of my trip.

Tonight I made some friends at Michael’s bar. Two of the staff , Suzie and Dul, spoke very good English and taught me a few things in Thai. I met a waitress, Ja-o, and the owner’s wife. We’ll call her the owner’s wife.

After having a few beers with my new friends in Phuket Suzie, the chef, made me a very spicy but excellent dish. I left around 1:00 am and headed back to the hotel on foot. This sounded like a great idea, it didn’t seen so far on the motor bike taxi that I took. Turns out it was quite far, over a mile, and that is if one was walking in the right direction. I wasn’t. I was “spotted” by two kids on a motor bike in a shadier area of Phuket town. They saw me with my map out and asked me if they could borrow it, like they were lost. After a bit they asked me, in hard to decipher broken English, where my hotel was. I showed them and they said that they would take me for 100 baht. About $3.00 US.

On the way to the hotel, the one in the middle pointed a gun at another motorcyclist while yelling something I couldn’t understand. This unnerved me more than a bit. He brandished the gun again when asking me if I would pay the 100 baht once more on the way to the hotel. Lucky for me he did, I was able to get a better look at the gun and see that it was a plastic replica of a revolver. This came in handy when the duo finally did bring me to my hotel and the middle Thai boy, he was about 18. Tried to take my wallet and run off with it. I just grabbed him and said “no!” a few times. His friend driving said something, the boy let go with just the 100 baht I had pulled out for him. I said “korp khun krap,” which means thank you, as the two of them pulled away.

I leave for Phi Phi early tomorrow so I am heading to bed for some much needed sleep.

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Photos

Phuket Food
My first meal in Phuket.

New Friends
Here are Dul, Suzie and Ja-O, my new friends from Michael's bar.