Phuket Vacation

Finally, the beach! So little did I know until I came to Thailand, that beaches are actually supposed to be warm happy places where the sun shines, you can wear your bathing suit, and where the water is warmer than the air!  All of my previous experiences with the beach have been the Oregon Coast, which don't get me wrong, is a wonderful beach and one of my favorite places, but every time that me and my family were there, it was always hailing, raining, or snowing.  So to have it be 95 degrees and sunshiny, was incredible! I literally ran screaming into the water because I was just so excited to swim in the crystal clear blue water and jump around on the white sand beaches!  Best vacation of my life gotta say. 

The first beach we stayed at was Patong Beach.  Little did we know it has a bit of a reputation for being "cough cough" A little sketchy, but it was nice because we didn't see too many creepy clubs or nastiness because we had a hard time just getting off of the beach haha

The beautiful beautiful white sand! so soft! 

More pictures of Patong Beach, just simply gorgeous! 

Our hotel was literally across the street from the beach.  I was standing on the sidewalk of the other side of the street from out hotel when I took this picture.  

There were so many places to eat and so many cool things to look at! There were a whole ton of Russians, Austrailians, French, British, Chinese tourists, literally, every nationality you could think of.  It was fun walking around trying to guess where everyone was from.  I wanted to just start talking in an english accent because hey, who would know? but I really stink at accents so I gave up.  

Oh you know, just sipping some fresh coconut juice on a beach. Yup, it was the life.  

They have tons of natives walking the beach trying to sell you stuff while your just laying there, so it gets kinda annoying after a while, you just have to wear your sunglasses, stick in your I pod and pretend your asleep so they don't come over to you practically begging you to buy their very obscure fruit baskets.  When would I ever use that? They sell the weirdest things.  But anyways, one of the things they were selling was Henna Tattoos.  A henna is a small tree that people in India would grind into a paste and use as a skin dye, or temporary tattoo.  It stays for about 2 weeks, and is a very common tradition in India for new brides to get their hands and feet tattooed with elaborate designs of Henna before their wedding ceremony.  I got a little turtle on my back because I wanted a little tan line, but my turtle tan line just looks like a blob of leprosy on my back now.  Great.  But it was cute while it lasted! 

My sunglasses were so reflective! 

Only 9,043 miles that way? Lets go! Day trip! 

So many massage and spa places around there! this was a fish foot spa, where you dip your feet into the fish tank, and these little guys eat all the dead skin off of your feet! Yeah it tickled super super bad! But it was fun to finally do it.  Massage Therapy is HUGE in Thailand, like you can't walk down any street with out getting bombarded  by everyone telling you to come in for a nice relaxing massage! Ok, first of all, I don't know if you guys have gathered it yet, but it's hot over here, so me, already all sweaty and gross, being rubbed down by a stranger with coconut oil, doesn't sound too great.  I don't want people touching me! I don't like people touching me in the first place! Plus, I got one massage when we first got here in Chang Mai, and honestly, I have never had a more tense experience.  It tickled for one, and I spent the whole time trying so hard not to laugh, and then I was freaking out that she was going to bend my bad knee the wrong way the whole time, and I had to stop her a couple times, so all in all, not really something I'm dying to do again.  

Why do all the old people (and at Patong, there were ONLY old, fat, leathery people) think it's ok to wear speedos? Or the grandmas think it's ok to wear the skimpiest of bikinis? You know what, I shouldn't be that way. Good for them actually, they are super super comfortable in their own skin, I applaud that, but I shall applaud with my eyes closed because I don't want to see it! The old dude wearing the leopard print thong totally photo bombed my picture! 

gorgeous sunset on our last night in Patong

Our next beach was Kata Beach, we got there in the evening just in time to enjoy this beauty.  

On day, we decided to take an excursion to the Phi Phi Islands! Very famous Islands in Thailand.  We took this giant cruiser out there.  It was incredible.  I saw flying fish jumping out of the water beside us! 

My feet outside the boat! 

Captain! Phi Pi Islands ahead! 

Never have I seen water so illuminating and vibrant! 

These were the actual Phi Phi islands, but just a couple of the uninhabited ones that we drove around for a bit.  

check out that water! 

Our beach we finally stopped on.  This was Long Beach, a little stretch of beach that literally had about 30 people on it, 20 or so of whom came on the boat with us.  It was our own private little beach.  We got to go snorkeling! BEST THING OF MY LIFE! What i would have given at that point for an underwater camera.  It changed me, it really did.

The cute little fishing boats.  We got to go out on one when we went snorkeling 

My legs have never ever in my life been this tan! so exciting! 

Meh, thought it was pretty artistic :) 

Classic footprints in the sand shot 

Dang, I miss it already and it has only been a week.  

On our way back to Phuket, a massive storm rolls in, turning the water an even more vibrant turquoise color! 

Sitting on Kata beach, Reading Fahrenheit 451, and enjoying my fresh mango smoothie.  I'm spoiled.  

Our hostel we stayed in at Kata Beach.  Most fun Hostel we have stayed at to date! We sang Karaoke, and they always had really interesting music playing and I loved it all.  We met some really cool people including a super talkative Australian roommate who for Halloween one of the girls painted the joker on his belly, two of the nicest british girls ever who were so cool and interesting, and the owner of the hostel whose name was Rick.  Rick used to sing in Vegas as a performer and has a great voice! while we were singing Karaoke, he even offered for us girls to come and sing in a gig with him in January.  Sadly we had to decline since we will be home by them, but I figure if I ever get stuck in life, that will be my fall back plan.  Go back to Thailand and become a singer there.  They don't care if you can sing or not, your white they love you anyways.  

The food was INCREDIBLE and super super cheap, which wasn't good because then I felt like it was ok to order a lot of it.  I did eat so much food on this vacation, I had three huge meals a day, along with nonstop snacking in-between.  It's just so hard when it's so much cheaper than the states, and you haven't had anything besides Thai in so long so you just go crazy when you see pasta and pizza and hamburgers and steak and waffles and pancakes! I gained so much weight. :( And spent so much money :( 

At Kata beach, we could walk about 15 minutes and we would be at another beach called Karon beach.  It was by far my personal favorite.  The sand was perfect for running on, and I had a nice little beach run (to reduce the amount of guilt I felt toward becoming a complete food glutton) and the waves were so huge! They would literally topple you over and I was almost tempted to rent a surfboard that they had there, but I knew that it would just be hours and hours of me realizing how much of an uncoordinated, unbalanced human being I am.  Surfing isn't one of those things that looks easy and then you find out it's hard, It just looks plain hard so, not worth it.  

Last night on the beach.  :( well I know where I want my honeymoon to be! 

Awesome, Awesome Awesome vacation.  Everyone should visit Phuket, Its an incredible place.  

Super Smile!