day 12 - phuket, thailand

day 12 was the first legitimately relaxing day i've had this trip, which was a welcome break from the breakneck pace we established early on. pam was up at the crack of dawn for her scuba diving excursion, so i woke up around 7am, checked my e-mail, and caught up on some of the winter olympics i've otherwise completely missed.

i then headed upstairs to the rooftop for my free breakfast - this never gets old, by the way - which was a buffet consisting of BACON, sausages, potatoes, pancakes, some sort of noodle concoction, made to order omelettes, a variety of cereals, and oh did i mention BACON. i think i ended up eating 12 strips, no joke.


on my way down, thunderstorms broke out and it started pouring something serious. i waited it out, grabbed a beach towel, then started walking along the shore towards the beach of kata, which is the next beach south of karon. after maybe a 3km stroll, the beach came to an end, so i started boulder hopping for a good 500m to get to a little private cove where only a brave handful made it to. much more preferable than to sit with the masses. plus, i got to see these two women fish for crab along the rocky coast, and they were quite successful, i might add, if their squeals of joy were any indication.




speaking of the masses, it needs to be mentioned that the quality of uh, talent, shall we say, is pop warner at best in phuket. first off, i'm no adonis by any stretch of the imagination, but around here i can get a pretty good idea of what it must feel like to be brad pitt for a day. second, i typically avoid this type of pointless nonsense, but it's difficult to ignore when it's in your face 24/7. now i'm not sure if it's just this beach (karon) in particular or phuket as a whole, but here's some evidence:

got back to the hotel in the afternoon, dropped off my stuff, then ventured into town for some cheap grub. i was feenin a cheeseburger something fierce, but something tells me that grade A prime and tillamook cheddar isn't plentiful out here. so i opted for chicken skewers w/peanut sauce off a street vendor...

got back just in time to see sunset, so i managed to snap a few pics at day's end:



pam returned from her scuba trip soon after, so we moseyed on into town to satiate her extreme hunger. i had the fried rice w/seafood inside a pineapple shell. and as you can see, somebody was really hungry...



faced with the decision to hang back for more drinks or turn in for the night (we have a 7am pickup for our ferry to ko phi phi), i chose to head back. it's really a strange scene out here with the older euro crowd and it's definitely not as welcoming nor are there an abundance of locals as with the previous stops on our journey.

for sure, the island is absolutely gorgeous in and of itself, but they clearly swung and missed at the chance to reverse their greed and selfishness when starting over after the tsunami. between the ultra-exclusive resorts, the outlandish taxi/tuk tuk fares and exorbitant food prices, one must seriously consider why they choose to visit phuket...