Phuket
This post was from yesterday, today I woke up sick and have been coughing bloody green and yellow shit. Nothing that bad, I feel ok and Mum’s remides are really keeping me in check. Going to unlock my phone today and call some folk, so if you have been nice to me lately, you *might* get a call :O (lol, what a pratt :D)
Phuket is interesting, very tourist driven and the locals take a longtime to walm to you, a lot of Muslims and really a massive village on an amazingly beautiful Island - like AMAZINGLY beautiful!!
Today I rented a motorbike for 150bht a day for two days, which is about half the going rate. I had a great conversation with IM the day before and her family have lived on Phuket their entire lives, she has run the hire/tour company for over 18 years. Was one of those moments I wouldn’t have experienced if I weren’t traveling alone, we chatted at length about everything from Burma, to the tsunami, Buddah and Western culture. Was really refreshing to see how on the ball these guys really are and she was great to haggle with. At first I wasn’t sure but a little pushing and she opened right up, great lady! She wouldn’t let me hire a bike and ride at night in the wet and to be honest I can understand why. Tonite will be fine, but the rules are a little different here.
It’s scary as fuck to be honest, the drivers will randomly pull out on you and have no care for whether you want to go past and they certainly don’t know what a mirror is for, that said it’s still slightly ordered chaos. Overtaking a truck around a corner with another car coming was a near fatal experience as he just shut me out - elseware in Thailand - even BKK they’d let you past - lesson learnt and a scary one at that.
I rode the coastal towns of Phuket and went up to the Big Buddah, a 45M high Buddah that’s being constructed and overlooks the entire Island, really something quite special.
I didn’t get any rain today, until about 5 mins from home when the heavens really opened up, it’s getting a little rough and tonites ride down to Kamala Beach will certainly be interesting to say the least. Stuart has a meeting with a client there and we’re having dinner after - no drinking as Stu is hard at work doing his Muay Thai training. So in preparation for the Wet madness ahead I’m sipping a Heineken before I go.
Had the funniest experience earlier this afternoon chatting to Hunney, the lady who run’s the resort’s wife. I cannot be 100% sure but I’m fairly sure the 21 year old was hitting on me, sounded like she’s been prepped by her mum somehow. Was really cool to just sit and talk Muslim, Thai language and about what we do, she’s such a natural conversationist and I really enjoyed talking with her. She’s 4th year at uni studing English and French, she can also speak a little Malay as well as some Arabic. Fairly good going I thought, but she really was a sweetheart. I booked another night and noticed she’d changed the date on the white board that I would be staying until, I then noticed she started drawing two love hearts with little eyes above each one to make two smiley faces, what a classic.
It’s interesting to get a flavour of the average lifestyle around here and what her schedule is. Basically work and study, she’s told me some great place to check out on the Island and a place I must go to eat. All the do is serve Mangosteen dishes and every restaurant/hawker stall serves Mangosteen related dishes. Sounds like a treat to me.
Ok I better scoot and get some dinner before I head south, but I can tell you, no shortage of potential love/wives over here and I’m doing quite well with the locals and getting myself deals on everything. They all think I should be a student and about 25, which is really funny to me 
Later peeps :D:D