Phuket, Thailand

Well guys, it turns out Phuket is worth the two days of travel to get here. Overall, it has been awesome!  

Yesterday, we went on a "speedboat" (not really a speedboat) tour of the Phi Phi Islands (pronounced "pee pee," just as Phuket is pronounced "poo-ket"). It was so so.  No, not really. It was pretty much amazing!! Sadly, I do not have pictures accessible for the blog (Don't worry, obviously, I took a bunch of photos with my indestructible camera (thanks mom)), but here is a link to the tour website: http://www.andamanleisurephuket.com/gallery.php 

And yes, it really does look just like that in person.

It took us an hour by boat to get to the islands. Our fist stop was Bamboo island where we went snorkeling and explored the beach. The water was crystal clear and there were fish everywhere (sadly, the coral was a little dead due to "global warming" according to our guide, Mo (or maybe excessive tourism?), but there were still plenty of fish).

Next, we had lunch on Phi Phi island, followed by drive by tours of "Viking Cave" where they used to harvest birds nests for Chinese bird nest soup, and Monkey Beach.  We had to stay on the boat (we were a little sad about this, but I'm not sure if being closer to the monkeys would have made much of a difference... Plus I'm glad they didn't attack us which had happened to our friend, L's husband, when he had gone to Monkey Beach). Needless to say, the monkeys were pretty cute, even from afar.

Our next stop was Pi Leh Cove, which was an lagoon surrounded by cliffs on three sides with crystal clear emerald water.  We all decided to take a swim, which included a bunch of us jumping into the water from the roof of our boat (because, you know, YOMO... Ugh, I'm so embarrassed that I just wrote that, but honestly, J and I said that to each other before climbing to the roof of the boat to take the plunge). This swimming session was seriously SO FUN.  Sometimes basic swimming can be so awesome.

The final stop on our tour was at Maya Bay, which was where The Beach was filmed. The most impressive part of this was the sand, which was possibly the softest sand I have ever felt. Also, I guess the scenery was breathtaking, too.

We had some great people in our tour group including a fun British couple and a woman who looked like a middle-aged version of my granny. Granny decided to not wear any sunscreen and literally looked like a lobster by the end of the day.  Actually, something super striking about being here in Phuket is that 90% (if not more) of people are sporting ridiculous sunburns. It's as if no one has ever heard of sunscreen or skin cancer (I was the cool kid in my UV shirt and big hat in the Phi Phi's). Also, another fun fact is that there are a bunch of European tourists but hardly any Americans here.

So what I'm saying is that the Phi Phi islands were okay (incredible).

Luckily, we made up for yesterday's so-so day in paradise by RIDING an ELEPHANT today!!!! That's right, you guys. We rode an elephant!! And it was super fun!! Our elephant's name was Pancake and she was super sassy at age 18 years old. We mostly rode in the carrier on her back, but we also got to ride on her neck!! We also got to feed her some bananas. Overall, pretty great.

After our elephant ride, we went to a place called Pad Thai Shop, which looked like a random whole in the wall restaurant but was really the source of the best Pad Thai and Pad See Ew I've ever had. The noodles were made right then for us and the flavored were so fresh and delicious. 

We rounded off our day with some reading on the beach.

Rough life.

We are super sad to be heading back to Bangkok tomorrow morning after such a short stay in paradise.