Phuket - Crazy Nails & James Bond Island

So I left for Phuket on Wednesday morning. I almost missed by flight because my alarm didn't go off, but Mr. Thai taxi driver dude put the pedal to the metal and got me to the airport just in time. It was kinda scary because there weren't any seatbelts in the cab.

And then I arrived in Phuket. I'm usually a planner when it comes to my travels. I always know where I'm going to stay, what I'm going to do, but I couldn't decide where to stay in Phuket, so I just showed up. I ended up checking in at Duangjitt Resort in Patong Beach, which turned out to be a mistake. Patong Beach, famous for the prostitutes, is horrible. It's so crowded and city-like which was not what I wanted. I was thinking I'd do city stuff in Bangkok and lie on the beach and read books in Phuket...get a tan, you know. Patong is a shitty version of Bangkok that is next to the beach. The hotel was also horrible.


The shore.

So I just walked along the beach, walked around town, and found a place to get a mani/pedi because I desperately needed one. Thing is, it's not as cheap as you'd think. Acrylics cost about 1000 baht, which is about $30. In the U.S., it's only about $20! You gotta appreciate our Vietnamese nail people! They might talk shit on you in Vietnamese, but they get the job done cheap and quick! So I opted not to do acryllics and just got a regular mani/pedi.

And look what I did:

The girl asked me if I wanted "flower on my nail." And it didn't cost extra like it does at home, so I thought, why the hell not, and then she put little flowers on EVERY SINGLE TOE AND FINGER! Hahahaha. It looks so super tacky, but I love it! It's so Phuket.


Don't be hating on my super cool nails. You know you're jealous!

The next day, I got out of Patong as fast as I could and relocated to Kata Beach, which is further south. Crazy thing was, it was pouring rain in Patong, but while driving to Kata Beach, we cross this one point and suddenly, it wasn't raining. The clouds were just directly over Patong Beach and Kata Beach, which is about 10 minutes away, was bright and sunny. The hotel I picked in Kata was so much nicer, right next to the beach, and about half the price. Kata is also a lot quieter and beach-like rather than a shitty Bangkok on the sand.







I spent the day laying out in the sun by the hotel pool. And then the sun moved so I moved with it to the beach and fell asleep on the beach. Went for a quick dip in the ocean, which was fantastic. And then just strolled along the beach and stuff. Then got a massage where a little Thai lady who was much stronger than she looked bruised the shit out of me. Overall, it was just a really nice, relaxing day...the way beaches should be. There are no pictures because I was running around all day in a bikini, which I would never do at home, but here, I don't know anyone so I don't care. But yeah, I would NEVER impose the sight of me in a bikini on my loved ones, so you'll never see that on this site. Rest assured.

Today I signed up to go on a tour to some place called "James Bond Island." I had no clue what it was, but I read online that it's a must-do and figured what the hell since it was raining and so couldn't lay out of the beach anyhow. So I went on this bus tour that took us to the mainland of Thailand to a place called Phang Nga Bay.

First they look us to Wat Suwannakuha, which is another Buddha. So many Buddhas and Buddhist shrines and shrines to the Thai king all over this country. This Buddha is in this crazy cave and there's monkeys in front of the entrance.


Entrance to Monkey Temple.


Yet another Buddha.


Me in the cave. It smelled in there.


Monkey eating a banana I gave him. It's so cool how they peel them.


Me and another monkey. Monkeys still remind me of John Hyun to this day. It's funny how you end up correlating certain things with certain people.


Then we got on this boat and went around the bay towards James Bond Island. Phang Nga Bay has all these little mountain islands...









And then we stopped at this fishing village for lunch.


Koh Pannyi fishing village. This place is like a series of poorly constructed buildings on stilts. It smells SO bad in there and it just looks so improvished, but it's so cool.


There's chickens running around on the ground below the buildings. I think my lunch came from there.




I think the village had to be rebuilt after the tsunami. The tour guide said something about the tsunami and this village, but his English was really bad and I couldn't understand.


And then we arrived at James Bond Island where we were charged 200 baht to sit on a bench under a thatched roof to avoid the rain. There was nothing here except this little island


And this leaning wall.

I think it's called James Bond Island because one of the old James Bond movies had some scenes here or something. They played the movie on the bus, but I didn't really watch it.


This is some grotto we went under.

YAY! So I'm caught up with my blogging. I'll try to stay on top of it over the next two months of traveling. Stay tuned.