Arrival in Phuket

Well, I made it Phuket smoothly and safely.  No flight delays, no lost luggage and an appropriately priced taxi ride to my new home (they try to rip of tourists like crazy- I got asked about a dozen times if I wanted/needed a taxi within minutes).  I'm not going to lie- it's pretty scary when you get off the plane and no one speaks your language and you have to figure your stuff out.  Luckily, the people I'm taking my TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language) course with were on top of it and sent someone to  meet me at the airport and briefly explained where I was going and how to get there and handed me a packet of information and tips for being here.  When I arrived at where I am staying, the Roongrawee Mansion, I unpacked and crashed.  After 26-ish hours of transit and going forward 12 hours I was all sorts of jet lagged.

8 hour layover in Hong Kong (where the outlets are different than everywhere else on the planet so no using my laptop....wandered around that airport for way too long)  Here's a plane the size of the one I flew in. It was giant and felt that way after flying in little bush planes all summer.

My new bed :)

I woke up and mustered up the courage to go figure things out.  First stop, finding my school.  It's not far and it's nothing fancy.  As soon as I stepped out to the main road I realized there were no sidewalks and motorbikes were all over the busy road.  You just have to walk on the very side of the road as everyone zooms by.  And I get all messed up when I try to cross a road as they drive on the opposite side.  It doesn't help that there are really no driving rules and people just drive where they want.  I used the internet at my school (didn't know Roongrawee had wireless in our lobby yet) and let people know I made it here.  I then asked where the bank was (using all too many words of course) and all I understood in the response was 'purple sign' and went in the direction I was pointed in.  Found an ATM and was able to withdraw some Thai baht, of which I didn't know the exchange rate at all and just guessed as to what was a good number and picked 1000- turns out that's only like 30 dollars and I get charged a hefty 7 dollar ATM/bank fee.  Won't be doing that again! Large amounts from here on out.  I also had to go get a passport sized photo for my class....  found the Kodak store and how comical it would have been from an outsider's perspective- me trying to explain what I needed.  With lots of pointing and hand gestures, we got it figured out and I got my photo done.  After only completing a couple of chores and wandering around, I needed a break.  I came to back to Roongrawee and relaxed a minute and cooled off in the air conditioning (the humidity is outrageous here).

Here's part of town.... told you there were a lot of motorbikes.

Went back out again... this time via a motorbike taxi.  It's a bit scary but the easiest way to get somewhere quick and for a decent price.  I went to Tesco Lotus which is the Thai version of Wal-Mart.  It was fun for me to see all the differnt stuff- all sorts of crazy fruits and weird things like whitening body wash and seafood flavored chips and things.  At the store I found two of my classmates and hung out with them for the rest of the day.  We found some amazing food for 35 baht (just over a dollar) and while it was hard to figure out how things work (it was buffet style which we didn't realize) but so so delicious.  I'm going to like eating here... so cheap and yummy!

My first Thai meal- spicy but so good

We also went out with some of the other people from our class for dinner at 'BBQ Ribs' which was a sort of comical restaurant in that it serves both western and Thai food but played country music.  After dinner we all went out to a bar here with live music which was pretty awesome.  We have people from all over in our class- Austrailia, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, North Carolina, California, and the list will go on as more people get here.

The next day we woke up and headed out to what we heard was one of the best beaches on the island- Nai Harn and it was fabulous. We took a bus there which only cost 40baht (just over a dollar) but on the downside it was about 40 min. ride.  The bus was also quite funny to figure out- we had no idea what we were doing but we made it to our destination.  Nai Harn beach was as picturesque as can be...

I went with two girls that are here from Canada- Kelsey and Aska.  Kelsey went and jumped in the ocean with me, Aska and I got hour long massages that cost a whole 500 baht (15  bucks), and we of course got some delicious food again for cheap.  All in all a great day. Stayed low key in the evening so that we could get a good day at the beach today.  Just hoping the weather holds out for us!