What's another word for fantabulous?

Last week I went to Phuket. Did we take the train on the way there? No we most certainly did not. We took the bus. Never again will I willingly take a bus in Thailand for 11 hours without speaking the same language as the person in the seat in front of me. About a quarter of the way to Phuket, someone sat in the seat in front of me, and for the first hour it was fine, until they decided to lean the seat back AS FAR AS IT WOULD GO. I couldn't move. Well, I could barely move. I could move just enough to kind of reach the lever to tilt my seat back. Thank God that Bela was sitting behind me and she is a tiny person. That was the situation for about 9 hours on the rattly and stuffy train. At least I got a couple hours of sleep! Scratch that, I got like 20 minutes of sleep over a two hour time period.

This is pre-train, and makes me laugh. 

 But it wasn't all bad, we had a break at about midnight, which was great because the toilet on the bus... the guy that went before me missed by a bit. Well, more than a bit, and it was gross.

Giant grasshopper or something that we saw on our bus break.

Phuket is absolutely beautiful. We were given host families, and for the first 4 nights I was rooming with Bela. Our host family was absolutely amazing! They asked us what we wanted to do on Wednesday (because we were meeting everybody in the evening and we had all day) and we told them we wanted to go to the beach. We went to one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Ever. However, that does not make falling asleep on the beach without sunscreen a good idea. But it was such a fun morning, the only thing I would change is the sunscreen thing... the lack of sunscreen has impacted my comfort through today.

The first beach we drove by,
our host dad slowed WAY down so we could get photos!

I've seen pictures online of Phuket and it's beaches, but I didn't believe how blue the water was until I saw it first hand.

More of that first beach we saw,
there were alot of boats there for tours, not seen here.

Bela and I's host took us to a viewpoint. Oh my gosh it was gorgeous. It was a clear morning (about 10am) and you could see clouds in the distance, while overhead it was perfectly clear. And the water was beautiful blue. The only downside was that because it was so perfect, it was HOT out!

That beautiful white sand. That's the beach we went to. :)

Just a little island off the coast 

I think it is safe to say that I really want to go back to Phuket. I miss my host family -- they were awesome! And I miss the beaches and cheap shopping. Well, the shopping is only cheap if you know where to go, but since our hosts showed us, we know where to go. But the beach we spent the morning on... that was a spectacle, as were the tourists. What is it with tourists and horrible swim suits? Seriously, is it in any way necessary for an overweight man in his 60s to wear a Speedo? The answer is NO! But they didn't ruin the photo, so that's ok.

This beach +  great friend = awesome day

I take that back, there is a tourist in a bad swimsuit in this photo. Ok, a tourist and his wife. but they don't make me love the beach any less. The water was surprisingly cold actually, and really refreshing after laying out in the sun.

Wednesday evening, all of the inbounds met at a Chinese temple in Phuket. We went to a 2 hour lecture about the festival, and that it's not really the Vegetarian Festival, but the Nine Gods Festival. I know the woman said something about the North Star, and about a secret society thing, but it was really hard to concentrate, and she kept jumping subjects alot. But it was so great to see everyone again, that it didn't really matter too much that she kept going on and on and on, however it would have been nice to see what what going on outside.

I think the temple looks better during daylight hours
when it's not lit by neon lights, but it's still quite a sight

these guys... gotta love 'em!!

Thursday... we spent the whole day all together as a group!!

Good morning Thailand!

These people are awesome

I have about 100 pictures similar to this one...

This is one of my best friends, and I love this hat

Hunter and Sally, this photo never fails to make me smile

All of their personalities captured in one shot?

took blow-up kayak things to this...
dunno what it's called, but it was awesome
oh, and this is all of the inbounds :)

Are these kayaks? Doesn't really matter. Love these guys
(Sam, Dorian, Hector)

A view of James Bond Island. A scene or two from the Man With The Golden Gun
or something like that) was filmed there

I'm going to have to write about Phuket in two different posts. It's almost 12:30am and I'm tired. I also have to wake up on time tomorrow because my host family is taking me somewhere. Maybe I'll have even more photos to post? And my apologies for not blogging about the trip to the Tiger Temple. I have a feeling I might be going back, so I can write about it then. Breakfast tomorrow at 7am, I really hope there's a good reason... luckily I already know what I'll be wearing tomorrow. This is off topic, but whatever, I fit Thai clothes! Well, I found a shirt-dress that I really like, and it fits me, and the bottoms of my new swim suit are too big now. This calls for shopping and spending birthday money, does it not?

More later about the trip to Phuket, it really was awesome, and I can't wait to see everyone again in December. I have music now! Thanks Mom and Dad for the 1000+ song that you sent me! The Barenaked Ladies just started playing, and I'm realizing that the last time I listened to this song, we were on our way to the airport in Phoenix! " 'Kay I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai..."