Phuket: Thai gold coast

We arrived in Phuket yesterday. We were greeted with pouring rain and strong winds - it's monsoon season! We were lucky in Samui to have got quite a bit of sun so it was very disappointing to get here in such bad weather, it didn't help my first impressions of Phuket - to me it looked like the gold coast (no offense to anyone who lives at the gold coast) but it just wasn't what I after, especially coming from the little tropical coconut island paradise of Ko Samui.

But it is growing on me. Keryn and I went for a wander in the rain and discovered that the shopping isn't half bad, there's a lot more variety here than Samui and slightly cheaper if you bargain well. Keryn and I were trying to pass the time (there's really not that much to do when it's raining) so we decided to pull up a stool in the lobby bar and drink! Vodka & red bull and Capiroskas (vodka & lime) are the special - only 60 baht!! ($2) so we had a few of those and cheered up a little, and had a few more and met some other Aussie girls at the bar as well. They gave us some tips on where and where not to go.

After a few drinks at the beach bar I headed to the net cafe and then couldn't keep my eyes open (drinking at 3pm does that to you) so went and fell into bed. We all had strange dreams and bad sleeps last night - it was kind of eery. The thoughts of the tsunami have been running through our minds and knowing that so many people died here (even in our hotel - which is right on the beach) is kind of creepy. Some of the street stalls have dvds of footage which you can buy and photos of the devastation.

I've noticed that the street vendors here are so much pushier than on Ko Smaui, they are rude to you and were putting on Aussie accents when we told them we're Australian. Although the rude ones actually seem to be more Indian rather than the Thais.

I've also noticed so many Aussies here! They are everywhere. It's weird - there's more Australians than any other nationality and there's heaps of Aussie bars as well. I think we might head out to the bar strip tonight to see what its all about.

Today was finally sunny!! We spent the entire morning sunbaking by the pool. I'm going to look black soon. I'm actually quite red at the moment! It was great though, just what we all wanted to do. We had a wander down to the shops in the afternoon and did a little shopping. The girls ate subway! pfft. I don't think it was that nice. I held off and got some noodles and oyster sauce with chicken back at the hotel restaurant and ate it by the pool.

We watched the most beautiful sunset over the water from the beach outside our hotel. I didn't realise the sun would set in such a perfect spot. I took lots of piccies... it was so.... picturesque!!

Now off for some Capiroskas... ;-)