A few things you need to know about Thailand:
1.) They really like their 7-11's
2.) Taxi drivers can never find your accommodations
3.) I'm moving here
We got another lazy start to our morning today but finally coaxed ourselves out of bed at 9:30. Excited to finally see Thailand at daylight we were in our bathing suits, packed up, and calling a cab by 10:00am.
Our taxi arrived shortly there after and we hit the road.
I actually don't know what to write.
Thailand.
(Sidenote: I'm typing from our taxi. Which we've been in for over an hour. Our taxi driver doesn't know where our hostel is. But what's new... I also don't care because I'm basically sitting in the taxi staring at the tropical beaches and palm tree covered mountains drooling and pinching myself back to reality. Somehow this has become my reality)
10:30ish
We passed an elephant getting a bath on the side of the road.
What...
11:24 Karon Beach area, Phuket Thialand
We've been driving in circles for 20 minutes. I can already tell you by memory where the Starbucks is here. And where you can get Thai food, European food, Indian food and burgers all at the same restaurant (it's at every restaurant by the way).
We've turned down a road we haven't been down. Our cab driver needs to reprogram his GPS, which is as lost as we are. The hotels we are by are very fancy. I'm confident we're not in the right place. Though, I wouldn't be opposed to these accommodations should they be the same price as our hostel.
It's Friday morning. Our last meal was 5:00 Wednesday evening. I'm considering ordering Thai food, pizza and a burger all in one sitting.
We have stopped to ask two different people for directions. The people here are nice. But no one knows where anything is.
I wish our driver would stop pulling over beside restaurants with pictures of food.
Some men shouldn't where speedos. By that I mean all men shouldn't, but especially the one who just walked past us.
Does anyone know what Thai people do to tourists who pass out in the backseat of their taxis from hunger?
Our taxi driver asked a third person. He seems more confident now. But it's hard to say. I don't speak Thai. He doesn't speak English.
Just drove past a picture of a T Bone Steak. That's breakfast food right? And we drove past the same Starbucks for the third time. I need a Frappe in my belly.
We've pulled over. Again. Our taxi driver is making a call. Again. I think he called a fax machine. He's still trying to talk to it. I'm trying not to laugh. I'm not succeeding.
Getting hangry.
11:45 we've turned around and are going down a street we've already been on.
Nope.
We've pulled over.
Again.
I want all food.
Our driver is back.
We all laugh.
It stopped being funny like 20,000 tummy growls ago.
You should know, our driver is very young and very precious. And you can tell, very stressed and sorry. We feel bad. Wish we could help. But we're not super familiar with the area.
I started the blog by saying I was moving here because it was tropic and beautiful. Now I fear I'm moving here because I will never leave this taxi. It's become our home.
We've pulled over.
Again.
There are so many restaurants here. Every store appears to sell food. And yet I still haven't eaten a proper meal in 43 hours.
Just sayin, being hungry is a legitimate reason for a 24 year old woman to want to cry.
I didn't actually cry.
But we're still incredible lost
So there's still time for that.
Our driver keeps driving past resorts. I didn't think our backpacks and greasy appearance gave off a rich vibe.
We're about to pass Starbucks again.
I know that, not because I can see it, but because I know where basically everything is in Karon Beach Thailand, except our hostel.
We've turned down a street we haven't been on.
It was the right street.
There's not one at reception at our hotel. I rang the bell.
There's still no one here. Alicia is investigating the accommodations in hopes to find someone. I'm guarding the packs.
There's a cat! Things are looking up.
The cat walked away...
Oh hey.
Alicia found a person that works here.
Oh gosh.
I just heard a rooster.
Not this again.
Please no rooster wake ups.
The lady can't find our reservation.
This day though...
I feel my skin getting paler.
We're in our room
Sitting at the Baan Siam Restaurant.
I've ordered fried prawn red curry.
I'm sipping on a coconut.
They're playing Adele.
Things are looking up.
Things have gotten considerably better.
We swam in the ocean in all of its warm, clear, turquoise magnificence.
We tanned on the pure, soft, yellow gold coloured sand.
We swam. We tanned. We swam. We tanned.
The ocean was a flawless blend of refreshing cool and captivating warmth. The sand instantly coats every surface of your body, clothes, and bag but it's so fine it brushes soft against your skin. The air provides just enough of a soothing breeze that there's no limit to the contentment you feel lying beneath the hot Thai sun.
We went and got a 60 minute Thai Massage which was a unique mixture of excruciating pain and relaxation bliss (but mostly a lot of pain) (I am not as flexible as the Thai think I am)
Now we are sitting at a bar across the street from the ocean and I am sipping on a mojito. So, I thought it was happy hour (cause it is) but I apparently pointed to the wrong photo when ordering my mojito cause when I got my mojito I was handed a bucket. A literal bucket. A bucket filled with mojito.
7:49
I didn't finish the mojito bucket.
We are back at the hostel. Majority of my shower consisted of trying to wash the sand off. I have a mild sun burn. Pretty confident it'll turn into a killer tan in no time.
We went back to the beach after our drink bucket incident and watched the sunset.
I'll let the 50,000 photos I took do the talking.
9:11
We just finished eating dinner. I opted for the safe option of a burger and French fried (that's what they called fries at this restaurant "French Fried").
9:53
That's a wrap on today. We're heading out on a day tour tomorrow which should provide more excellent images of Phuket's stunning beauty.
As always, thanks for following along, prayers for health and safety are always appreciated. I'm sweating it out in our hostel room waiting for the air conditioning to kick in.
-mo
PS. In Thailand there's more cars than scooters so that's nice and gives a stronger sense of security but they drive on the opposite side of the road so I'll have to keep that in mind now.
