Phuket

6 February 2006

Let me start by telling you that I love flying these Asian airlines.  Even on short 1-hour flights, they served us food and Bangkok Airways even gave us icecream for dessert!  When we arrived in Phuket, we hopped in a cab and I got my first taste of riding on the left side of the road.  Our driver must have been a Nascar racer in his former career cause he was redlining every gear and passing everything in sight.  It may have just seemed like we were going fast, though, since traffic in Vietnam and Cambodia moved pretty slowly.  We arrived at our hotel in no time and I must say, we were pleasantly surprised by it.  (I had booked our hotels in Cambodia and Thailand ahead of time online and we didn't know what to expect.)  Our room turned out to be a bungalow right next to the pool and we wasted no time changing into our bathing suits.

 

Later we decided to rent a motorbike......at $6 a day, it beat taking a cab or tuk tuk everywhere.  We went to a dive shop and booked a couple of scuba trips.  I was a little hesitant about getting in the water again after getting sea sick in Nha Trang, but wanted to give it another shot.  Also, since I am a novice diver, I had to get further instruction to become advance open water certified so that I could dive with the big boys.  Afterwards found a nice little Thai restaurant for dinner and called it an early evening since we were going diving at 7 the next morning. 

 

We got up at 6 to enjoy the hotel's buffet breakfast and then we were off to go swimming with the sharks.  This time I made sure to take my pills and wear my motion sickness band.  We couldn't have asked for a better day of diving.  The sun was shining, the water was crystal clear, and the sea was as calm as could be.  Our first dive was down about 80 feet to see a sunken ship.  The next one was Shark Point and it lived up to it's name.  We were able to find a 6-foot leopard shark sleeping on the bottom.  We then were served a great Thai lunch on the boat followed by our third and final dive of the day.  We saw moray eels, scorpion fish, lion fish.....the variety and colors were spectacular.  At one point we found ourselves in the middle of a school of thousands of glassy fish that seemed to just float all around us.  Next thing we knew, they were gone. 

 

For dinner our concierge recommended a place that had tables right on the beach (literally on the sand).  The food wasn't that great, but it was fun nonetheless.  Afterwards we found a bar that had some great entertainment featuring traditional Thai dances.

 

The next day we spent on the beach soaking up the rays and reading.  The shore was lined with chaise lounges that cost about $2 to rent.  There were guys who took drink orders and I even saw them moving all the umbrellas throughout the day to make sure you were constantly in the shade.   There were several diversions available (jetskiing, parasailing, waterskiing), but we chose to just relax and do nothing.  I watched in awe when some guys started playing volleyball using only their feet and heads.  At 4 the volleyball nets went up and I got a few games in.  I had to play on the second court because the guys on the first one were just too good (I think they were playing for money). 

 

Our second day of diving was a bit nerve-wracking for me.  The water was pretty choppy so I got a little bit sick.  I also had to get a quick lesson from Shawn on how to use a compass because I was going to get tested on underwater navigation.  I didn't end up exactly where I was supposed to be, but was close enough to pass.  After getting my tests out of the way, we were able to enjoy nice, long dives.  This time we had underwater cameras to try and catch some of the beauty on film.  Since we only had 2 dives, we were able to make it back to the beach so I could play some more volleyball.  We got treated to a really nice oceanfront sunset, too. 

 

For dinner that evening we took a scenic ride up the coast on our motorbike to Rockfish.  It was voted one of the best restaurants in Phuket.  The portions were pretty small and it was a bit pricey, though.  I guess most nice restaurants are like that.  We were really looking forward to some great Thai meals, but I think our expectations were a bit too high.  I think I prefer the Thai restaurants here in the U.S.. 

 

We were too wiped out from getting up so early and diving to go out afterwards, so again we had an early evening and the next morning we were off to Bangkok.