Rain or shine, we still had a blast in Phuket

Saturday, October 25th

Zombie that I am I decided to give up on sleep at 7:30am, despite the fact that I only slept at 1:30am the previous night. So only 6 hrs of sleep. I went on the free internet for a few hours to search for some accommodation in Australia.

The weather in Phuket was not accommodating. It was raining cats and dogs, so we were basically stuck in the hostel until it cleared up. Good thing we were in a backpacker hostel with a conversation inducing environment and meeting friends is one of the main objectives of our journey. Our new friends are: Stuart from Scotland with an injured knee so he was limping everywhere. Ben from England who loves diving, snowboarding...and cooking (he was a chef in France). Tim a German who works in Singapore and didn't check the weather before coming to rainy Phuket for the weekend. Rome from Australia who lives in Melbourne and is looking to find herself on this trip.

It felt like home, chatting around the living room while Bourne Ultimatum was playing in the background. It's really amazing how easily backpackers bond. We all have the mind set to meet people and experience the world. Sharing our experiences made time pass quickly even though the rain kept on coming down. Eventually it tapered off and Steph and I went to grab a quick lunch. We ate Thai as we probably won't have Asian as often in Australia and New Zealand. I also got a tasty watermelon shake.

With our new friends, we headed to Patong beach even though it was drizzling. Getting transportation anywhere is never a simple task, especially with six of us. Originally we planned to take the public bus for 25 baht each ($0.75), but it wasn't leaving for another 45mins. So we decided to splurge and get a big tuk tuk for all of us. The going price was 500 baht ($15) total. After stiff negotiation we got it down to 400 baht ($12) with a promise to go into a tourist shop for 5 mins. Supposedly the drivers get free gas when they bring tourists to certain shops. Steph was keeping track of the time so we only spent exactly 5mins there.

Patong beach was disappointing and nothing picturesque. The week of rain had made the ocean brown and the sand erode away. So the brown ocean waves were crashing into the granite colored beach. From postcards, the beach is supposed to be clear water and white sand. We walked on it for 10mins, just to say we did it. The next logical stop was the local bar.

70 baht ($2) for a small beer sounds ridiculously expensive to us these days. That was the price at the first bar we stumbled across. We all had one drink there. Some picked Chang, others picked Singha...and a few of us did Thai whiskey which is the same price as beer. Stuart alerted us that Chang was a better bang for your buck because the alcohol was 1% higher. We are true backpackers. It was too watered down for my liking though. Steph and Rome came up with a female James Bond movie. Shockingly the Scottish boy had never watched a James Bond movie. We also spoke about scuba diving, which I need to do at some point in my life. Totally on my things to do before I die list. Koh Phi Phi is supposed to be the place to do it. I need to organize a trip there one day. Ben just came from Japan and it sounded amazing. I'm also adding it to my list of places to go. With all this traveling you would think I have more places to cross off, but I seem to add more places for me to explore. Life is too short.

Since backpackers can't afford luxury 70 baht drinks, we moved onto a happy hour bar that cost 40 baht ($1) a beer. There we had a few and spoke about the sex industry in Thailand, especially the ladyboys. Unfortunately there were two ugly ladyboys sitting right next to us, so we felt a bit bad about our discussion. The girls confirmed it's hard for a guy to over look the snip snip...no matter how pretty she/he is.

Our bladders, especially Stuart's, couldn't hold in all the liquid, so we had to use the public bathrooms a few times. Each time it cost us 5 baht. Everyone paid except me. There was no one there, so I just walked right in and did my thing. When I walked out, a white dude came in and pointed at the money jar to indicate to me he paid. He thought I was the bathroom lady! That's when I got nicknamed the pee pee lady. Sigh!

The rain started to come down again, so we took a tuk tuk back to the hostel. Without much negotiation, we got a ride back to Patong town for 350 baht ($10) with no tourist stop. We asked the driver to play some music (linkin park and thai songs - including one that we heard crazy sing in Chiang Mai). We were totally pimping in the tuk tuk with the red interior lights.

After a short break at the hostel, we reconvened with our new friends for some Thai dinner. Tim wanted to go to a place he went the previous night. It was really good. I had delicious Indian curry, while Steph had noodles. We were all quite satisfied. Because it's low season, there weren't that many people around. So the bars were pretty empty, and we gave it a miss even though Stuart the Scottish guy really wanted to go to one. We ended up going to 7-eleven to pick up some booze to drink back at the hostel. Stuart and I shared an 18% alcohol wine (it tasted like arbor mist) that cost us 25 baht ($0.75). Good value? Others bought beer. Stuart also got us tim tans, which are chocolate wafer cookies from oz. It was gooooood.

Because of the rain, there weren't any dry seats in the garden. So, we sat on a dry table in the hallway. The receptionist came a few times to tell us to move since we might be disturbing the people with hallway rooms. We checked out the roof...but as stuart puts it "it was dark and wet." So we asked the people sleeping in the hallway rooms if we were disturbing them. They didn't mind us being there, so camping there we were. Steph was banging the glass bottle on the glass table causing a lot of noise at first. She didn't realize how strong she was, so the receptionist gave us a towel to cover the table.

After some chatting, Steph and Rome decided to go watch a movie, while the rest of us went to replenish our drinks at the 7-eleven. By the time we started back again, Steph had fallen asleep on the couch. Tim kept on informing me that she was snoring in the tv room. Of course she was. Don't you think I know by now after traveling with her for 3 months? Wow 3 months have passed already. Time flies when you are having fun. Anyhow, I wasn't going to go wake her up.

At our hallway gathering, we picked up Kim, Adam and Sarah to join our circle of fun. We played a game called f the dealer, then asshole (everyone thought it was too complicated - humph!) and then kings. Kings was fun, but lots of drinking. Some rules were the 21 game, ducky fuzzy fuzzy duck, categories, bust a rhyme, questions, and waterfall. It was good quality time.

Eventually the crowd faded away, as we all had an early start the next morning. Ben was going to the James Bond island. Tim and Stuart were going to Koh Phi Phi. Steph and I were flying to Singapore. Oh it was 3:30am when we decided to go to bed and we had to wake up at 6:45am to shower and pack. Fun times! It was a true one day bonding experience.