let's be off: Phuket 01/26

When one thinks of Phuket images of palm trees, white sand beaches, and turquoise water come to mind. Well, Phuket pretty much delivered on all fronts...except in the spirit of true adventure we were also chased by a wild pack of dogs and were in a scooter accident. I'm being dramatic. Nothing bad happened. You can stop your worrying.

Snorkeling beach.

As soon as we arrived we, of course, rented another scooter. It's really the best and most economical way to visit the islands. We scooted through hilly terrain flanked with limestone cliffs and views of jagged, mountainous islands scattered in clear blue waters and found a small, quiet rocky beach where we snorkeled amidst some shoreline coral. The highlight of the ride though, was when we encountered a pack or rowdy dogs that seemed to be chasing motorists and of course they went right for us. We were going slow because the road was downhill and winding but we had to speed all the way up to 60 km/hr to shake them. I couldn't believe they actually kept up with us for at that speed for several seconds.

The following day we decided to take it easy and hang out at Patong Beach, the area where we were staying. The beach here is huge and literally packed with tourists. It's good for people watching and sleeping after a night out partying. Patong Beach is also the place on Phuket island for nightlife and the drink of choice is a bucket of booze. Doesn't really matter what's in it but it usually contains a can of redbull. We explored a bit, but after a full day of sun and exploring, we just can't hang with the partying crowd anymore, much less drink a whole bucket of booze.

Patong Beach.

Peter amidst the throngs of people at Patong Beach.

Our scooter accident occurred when we were headed for the beach that day. Peter was driving and claims to have been paying attention to his mirrors instead of looking straight ahead (He was probably checking out the ladyboys that seem to be everywhere in Patong. Some of them are pretty amazing.). A car ahead of us slowed to turn and Peter broke too late. We didn't hit anything, but due to the sudden break, we toppled over and off the bike. Our knees were bruised and I scraped my toe which was super annoying because it would hurt every time I stepped into the salty water. I stayed away from the scooter for the rest of that day. In the evening, we managed to get some tickets to a Muay Thai boxing match. We only saw the last two fights, but it was still an exciting event.