Tash and I had heard mixed reviews about Phuket so we decided to go and check it out for ourselves. I flew from Bangkok and arrived at our hostel earlier than she did, so I headed out to do some exploring. The streets were alive with people. Tash met up with me around 10:30. We walked all around Phuket, and finally headed down a sidestreet to a pop up tiki bar for drinks. The girls working at the tiki bar were super friendly and wanted to chat with us in english, which is what we ended up doing for most of the night-- minus me trying to get a few thai phrases in here and there.
The girls were really fun and kept playing games with us and betting our drinks on them. Lucky for us we got multiple free drinks out of it :)
Phuket is known for its surf, so Tash and I were planning on surfing while there. However, because we weren't able to get bamboo tattoos like we had originally planned, but instead had to get traditional needle tattoos a week prior, we weren't yet cleared to go in the water. We were initially pretty bummed about this, however, the weather on Saturday was quite gloomy-overcast and rainy for most of the morning- so it wasn't conducive for surfing anyway. Instead, we opted to sit in a mexican restaurant overlooking the beach while eating tacos and drinking margaritas.
Once the rain finally let up, we made our way to the beach where we rented chairs and read in the sand.
That evening, we experienced the "patong nightlife" (bar after bar after bar of young thai prostitutes on display beckoning anyone and everyone to come inside) This definitely was not our scene, so we kept wandering and finally came to a bar with live music. This was more our style. We played our signature game, 'what're the odds', which led to Tash taking test tube shots, rubbing limes under her armpits and eating a whole bowl of peanuts in one gulp. It also led to me having to allow a stranger to apply my lipstick in the middle of the road... who had it worse? I'm not quite sure.
After the band finished, we decided to check out a Phuket night club. It was huge. But the thing I remember most: suckers. There were a bunch of people eating suckers. Maybe this was code for something? A new drug perhaps? I never did get the answer. To this day, I still believe Phuket is just riddled with an exceptionally high population of dum dum enthusiasts.
Sunday was our last day together in Phuket. The weather was overcast but we headed to the beach one last time to soak up the [not so sunny] sun and the sand. Tash and I were saying goodbye for the last time. A girl I had known for less than a year but had shared enough experiences with to last a lifetime. She was one of the first people I had to say goodbye to on my journey, and it was a pretty weird feeling. Maybe because I didn't know if I'd ever see her again? Maybe because I knew that this was the beginning of the end of my time in Thailand? Maybe because I relied on her to plan most of my travels and now was going to have to go at it on my own for the next month? Who knows. Either way, I'm better off having met this left of center, small town, big personality, texan.
No comments:
Post a Comment