Thailand- Phuket & Phi Phi Don Island

Phuket Town

My first stop in Thailand was Phuket town. I arrived at Phuket airport after a long two days of travel and an overnight sleep in the Brisbane airport (not as bad as one might think!) I arrived at 8pm so I was a little worried about finding a cab into the city at night. I was a little wary of non metered cabs but to my dismay they were all gone when I walked out of the airport, so I had to take my chances with a non metered taxi (although I wouldnt exactly call it a taxi...just an old man offering rides into the city-or wherever you needed to go) We agreed on a price before I left ($400 bht ($12) for a 45min ride) and we were off! I was relieved when we actually did pull up to my hostel 45min later...but not after a stop at a travel agency and much persistance saying that my hostel was full and I should go to this or that hotel. I think I lucked out with my hostel...free internet and very clean and modern....which i was very thankful for since I have heard many horror stories of thailand accomodations. Phuket town was an interesting place to stay....there were very few tourist around...I could walk all day and never see a western face, which was a nice relief from just being in Australia. The town is alive with energy of tuk tuks, moped and cars (the only cars i saw were pimped out trucks or suv's...obviously owned by westerners or the really wealthy, but I couldnt tell bc all the windows of these cars were always tinted???) anyway...it was an interesting first couple of days in Thailand!

near my hostel in Phuket town...it was very interesting walking around the streets...with mopeds racing by and the hustle of normal day life.

round-about in Phuket town

fruit market, Phuket town

outdoor market in Phuket town

Phi Phi Don Island

Phi Phi Don island was so amazing. I spent 5 days and 4 nights here. It is pretty touristy but nice. It was hit really hard by the tsunami. One of the residents here told me that something like 800 people were found dead and 1600 were never found, just washed out to sea. It took them months and months to clean the ocean and they moved thousands of pounds of debris off the ocean floor. stuff like fridges, childrens toys, bicycles, lawn chairs etc all littered the reef and ocean floor. I stayed at a guesthouse here called "the rock" and luckily the tsunami waters just reached the base of the guesthouse. The Rock is cool, it is actually built into a rock and it looks very different to the new developed hotels and guesthouses. It has a lot more thai charm. Living in Thailand has some getting used to....things i take for granted at home arent available here. Clean water, hot showers and flush toilets do not exist. But there are ways to manage...bottled water is only $.30 and its ice cold so very refreshing since it is so hot here (getting into the hot season now). And since it is so hot...who needs hot showers? But the toilets took me awhile to figure out. I searched and searched for a flush button...but found none. Finally after a couple of days I realized that the bucket of water sitting next to the toilet was a sort of "manual" flush! haha I should have know. The smell is also something to get used to...I could not stand the smell when I was in Phuket...it made me sick to my stomach. I had originally thought the smell was bc of the dirty surroundings in Phuket but I have come to find out that the smell is that of the Thai street food...with that said...I have yet to try thai street food. :) But all in all I am loving my time in Thailand so far and it hasn't yet been a week!

near the pier on Phi Phi Don Island

view of Phi Phi Don island from the lookout point. before the tsunami the strip of land between the two bays used to be covered with palm trees, so much you couldnt even tell there were buildings but now thats not the case.

thai boy using a cooler as a boat....so cute!

Maya bay....where the movie "the beach" was filmed. truely gorgeous beach!

there were these crazy/amazing rock formations surrounding the islands

this is a thai longboat...the main way to get around. they all have colorful scarves and garlands of flowers decorating the front of their boats...i believe its to pay tribute to Budha.

view from monkey bay...yes I saw monkeys but those pictures I am saving for my "wild animals" post.

cool bar on the beach- you can rent those beach chairs for $2 per day! what a steal!

they are still trying to clean up from the tsunami. the thai government put restrictions on the rebuilding stating that all new buildings and business have to be at least 51% thai owned, which is good so that foreign investors dont over take the island.

the town area in Phi Phi....great shoping and bargaining. no cars just bicycles and walking...a nice relief