the finale.

on the last full day in phuket we hit all the great spots: friendship beach [picture here... it's a view of the bay... not sure which bay, exactly, but a very nice one :)]. friendship beach is a place of swimming, eating, drinking and staring at the bay for the locals.

then we headed to our favorite reggae bar for the sunset. a few too many tourists... after all, it IS an amazing view. funny thing is that you're on a wooden deck over the andaman sea, and after dark, swarms of termites take over the place. did i mention you're on a wooden deck? safety not so guaranteed.

dinner, drinks, and dominoes at the ao sane was a perfect ending. we accidentally ordered the veggies with bamboo and way too many chili peppers, which translated into the taste of 'spicy ass.' nevertheless it was enjoyed.

many many hours of travel tomorrow. i get to live april 27 twice. it better be good.

phuket town

we spent the day in 'the city' today... phuket town has a hilltop park where you can see most of the southern part of the island...


and the monkeys like the view as well--this one is going to give birth any day now, and she was quite excited about the peanuts that humans shared with her. i have to admit that monkeys often freak me out just a little bit. it's that whole 'old man face' thing they have going on. but it was cute today.



oh yeah... and i tried to drive kit today... um, oops. she is injured. you know those big strong cables that are attached to telephone poles? one jumped out right directly into kit's path. her front fender is a bit smashed. i hope she is not too very expensive to fix. we'll find out tomorrow... in the meantime, tami is driving again. i'll wait until i'm home with honda.

rainy season.

so it turns out that there's a reason they call it the rainy season. i think i haven't seen the sun in 36 hours... which is actually ok because my red skin needs a little break.

the picture here is racha yai, the island where i spent last night. it is completely relaxing, out in the middle of the andaman sea. the speedboat journey back was entertaining in that 'my-butt-is-bruised-and-i-smashed-my-vertebrae' type of way. good stuff.

and another island.

sawatdiika.
so rather than cars, we all get around on these motorscooter things. with helmets, of course. our bike is named 'kit.' check me out, i took this pic while riding kit with tami driving... ----->
pretty impressive for however fast we were going, which was not fast i'm sure... although i'm only guessing since the spedometer is actually broken. i guess kit likes to keep her speed a secret. anyway, she's better than a car. and i get to wear the cool helmet. and the thais get to laugh at the 'ferongs' [descriptive word for white folk, especially when we are acting like idiots].

tonight happy hour was on phromtrep cape, which is the southern tip of the island. beautiful place... it's up above the beaches and a perfect location for sunset gazing. my host family here actually stood on the cape and watched the tsunami happen. we were too late for the brightest sunset colors, but this photo will give you an idea of the incredible view:

tomorrow we take a choppy boatride over to racha yai island, afterwhich i will be sleeping off my dramamine. the island has a coral reef and therefore amazing ocean life. it's so clear that you can supposedly see 30 meters down. not that i'll be in water that deep. i'm not sure i can see 30 meters away on land. anyway, it's beautiful and natural and all of those great amazing things that are worlds away from my city life. although i do love my city life...

the geckos say good night.

editor's note.

so i called them altars... but they are 'spirit houses.' [much better, don't ya think?]

as the lonely planet guidebook states, it can cause all sorts o' trouble to have your spirits living in your home or place of business with you, therefore the thai folks got smart and built the spirits their own home. in front of almost every house and business around here are elaborate spirit houses. the idea is to make the spirit house a more enticing place to hang out than the building for the living... hence the flowers, gifts, drinks, etc. in fact, it is apparently so important that if you add on to your home, you have to remodel the spirit house too!

bottom line: you gotta please the spirits.

cultural ed 101

a list of fun facts that i have discovered in the last few days...

1. there are little buddhist altars everywhere, most of them more elaborate than the one pictured here. there is quite a large muslim population here as well.

2. and speaking of altars, the post-tsunami trauma and memory is alive. i've heard miraculous stories of life in addition to tragedy from the folks around here. mostly i've heard people talk of shock and helplessness as they did not know what was actually happening at the time. any current rebuilding is not evident where i've been, although there is the occasional 'that wall was destroyed' reference. interesting stuff.

3. as with most places, there are things i've encountered here that totally surprise me and other things that are more 'expected.' after visiting a spa yesterday for a massage, i heard of one of the women referred to as a 'lady-boy.' there are essentially 3 genders recognized here... the transgender [male to female] is accepted from a very young age, and is relatively common.

4. on the animal front, cicadas provide music all day long on the beach. they are deafening, i have no idea if they're here all year, but they are loud. [lela, will you please ask isaac about such topics?!] and geckos are pretty much cute. they're all over the place, and they make these little froggy barking sounds. the toddler i'm living with says 'gecko' in this fantastic little whisper as though geckos are actually the secret sauce, the kryptonite, and the answer to world peace all rolled up into one tiny reptile.

5. there are no lemons, just limes. lots of them.

the hill(s)

yesterday we saw a marathon in action here on the island near nai harn. we thought it was 'phuket international marathon' but that's not til june. it was, by the way, muggy as hell by 7am, and in the 80s farenheit [read: no thanks]. the name phuket is assumed to be a variation on the native people's word for 'hill'... there is a rather tall hill-- what some might call a mountain-- between here and phuket city. but my point is, that the race we saw involved running over a large hill, twice. ick.

on a completely different note, what i did participate in yesterday afternoon was more joy lynn style. we visited a bar/restaurant on the cliffs looking over kata beach. the wooden deck is built on the rocks to where if you are sitting on the edge your feet dangle over the andaman sea. it's a reggae-themed place with chill music, complete with marley photos hanging about, and their speciality is 'fru-fru' drinks... so we drank the mai tai out of a real live pineapple. funny. amazing sunset views, as the cliff faces west over the ocean.


my thai commuication now officially includes 'hello' 'thank you' and 'yes.' oh, and the word for 'dirty' [i'm living with and 18-month old, 'dirty' is common!]. incredibly advanced, i know. pretty much coming along at the rate of one word per day.

p.s. here's the burmese/thai story i mentioned last post.