Phuket

Okay okay mom... here we go. So we left Bangkok early wednesday morning to catch our flight to Phuket. It was pretty uneventful we took a taxi to the airport and got all checked in with about an hour to spare. The flight to Phuket was nice, only about hour and a half and we flew over all the different islands. When we landed we were expecting to take a taxi to our hotel which we were told would cost about 500 baht (about 15 dollars) but when we came out we saw that we could take a minibus for only 150 baht. So we bought our ticket and when out to wait. Waiting for the same minibus was this older Belgian guy who has traveled all over the world and he was telling us some good places to eat and things to do in Phuket. After about 15 minutes he went and asked the people how much longer it was going to be. They told us they had to wait until they had 6-8 people to make the trip so they were waiting for other flights to come in. Great. So we continued to wait and in the mean time, this guy in his late 20's from seattle joined our group. After about 45 minutes we were over it, so these two guys went and bargained us a taxi, got us refunds and all 4 of us and our luggage piled into this little taxi. Turns out all of our hotels were within 5 minutes of each other and it only cost us 200 baht! Our hotel is the Centra Ashlee on Patong beach and it is really nice. Patong however is not my favorite. All the reviews and guide books said Patong was really touristy and was like the party beach so we thought it would be fun... not so much. It is lined with all the shops and all of the irritating people inside the shops, you can't even look inside without one of them beckoning you inside, and if you do go inside they are right behind you handing you things within one second. So we braved Patong our first day and we went to this shopping center which looks like it could be anywhere in the states it is super nice. It rained all day, like torrential downpour, so we avoided the beach. We were so exhausted from Bangkok and all our traveling that we literally slept ALL day. We got back to our room at 4:30 and slept until 9. Then woke up for like 20 minutes and slept the rest of the night! The next day we woke up well rested and went to book an elephant trek. A lot of these treks and tours come with 3 or 4 additional activities like monkey caves and snake shows that we have no interest in, all we wanted was the elephants. So we found one for a good price and we booked it. That afternoon the guy came to pick us up in his tuk tuk and off we went. This elephant trek was like 20 minutes away on Karon beach which is so so pretty. We decided that we would have to visit Karon since Patong was not so nice. We got to the place, and they loaded us onto our elephants and off we went! It was in this jungle/rain forest and it was really cool. The guy driving our elephant was really nice, and funny and we could almost understand him! About half way through he got off and let Elle and I drive the rest of the way! In the beginning we were in the little seats on it's back but by the end we were riding in bareback which was awesome but I was so hot and sweaty that when it went downhill I thought for sure I was just going to slide right off. The rest of the day was pretty chill we just hung out, looked around, and I fell asleep at like 6. I don't know why but I am banking like 15 hours of sleep a day! Yesterday, we decided to make our trek to Karon beach. The tuk tuks are the only ones approved to transport between beaches so they can charge ridiculous prices. They wanted 500 baht to take us to Karon beach so we decided to walk. We asked all the front desk people how far it would be to walk and they just laughed and were like oh no, very far, very far... whatever, they were just trying to get us to buy their taxi, or they just thought we were lazy americans that didn't want to walk. Wrong. It was very very far. But we didn't know that yet so off we went. The first 2 miles or so were straight uphill, literally, and keep in mind it is like 95 degrees and so so humid. After about 4 miles we came to a beach and it was so so pretty. But we couldn't figure out how to get down to it. We saw an entrance that was literally like through someone's house and of course all the people that lived there were sitting there staring at us. But it was either that or another enormous hill so we just went for it. Just walked right through their yard and to the beach. We were the only ones there (because everyone else could read the no trespassing signs) but that's ok. It was a beach resort, and we blended right in. We ate lunch there and I discovered these amazing pina colada smoothies (I may or may not have had 5...) and just hung out at the beach. We had literally sat down for 3 seconds and the worker boys were there telling us we had to pay for the chairs. They let us have 20 minutes free and after that we decided to venture over to the other side of the beach. We went to the front desk to ask for directions and this is when they showed us the map of where we were. We weren't even half way to Karon beach! I thought for sure we had made it but we were barely off of Patong. We hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way. The beach was nice and we just hung out by the beach, got a couple more smoothies and just relaxed. It rained once and we hid under our umbrella til it stopped. The second time though we decided that was enough and we snagged a taxi back to Patong. We got ready and looked around at the shops, went to dinner, and I was asleep by 9! It's an exciting life I lead. We were going to take a tour out to one of the islands today but they are so expensive and they are all laced with monkey caves and fish watching and we're not really into that, so instead I think we are going to hit up the weekend market and I am going parasailing! We leave early tomorrow morning and head back to Bangkok for our flight out to Cambodia.