Thailand - Day Eight - Chiang Mai to Phuket

Awful.

We woke up at 8:30 and ate some breakfast. I only drank coffee and ate some bacon. We packed up getting ready to head to Phuket (beach city on the south side of the country).

At about 10, I realize I wasn't hung over, but still drunk and now I going to be sick. After being "sick" in the toilet, we take a 30 minute ride to the airport.

Once on the airplane, I decided to be "sick" again before we took off. It was rough. After the two hour flight and being in and out of sleep, we caught a one-hour drive to our hotel . The Katathani. It would cost about $400 a night in the states, we were staying for $120 a night. It was beautiful, but I was in no mood to enjoy, so while Lisa was at one of the five pools, I was watching "Casanova," and "Babe." I recovered for the sun set and we ate dinner at Orchid Seafood. Lisa had prawns and garlic, I had a banana shake and a toasted pineapple and cheese sandwich. Lisa ate 80 percent of the food as I was still making the comeback.

Then we watched the insanely depressing "Last Kiss" and slept.

Thailand - Day Nine - Phuket

We ate at Cinnamon, one of the two breakfast places at our resort. Good variety of food and hands down the best apple juice I have ever had, and I'm not normally a fan.

The beach was just over the hill and is considered one of the best in Asia. It was.

There were boobs. Not sure if it was a topless beach, or just this one woman (yes, they were nice), but it was a nice addition. We both applied sunscreen multiple times, but Lisa was going overboard.

The water was perfectly clear, even at six feet deep. Great temperature as well. We spent 200 Baht for recliners with umbrellas and sat, swam and ate for the day. I ordered a burger, no idea what kind of meat or cheese was used, but it was good. Then it was time to surf. We had both done a little in Hawaii on Waikiki Beach. I loved it and felt like I was pretty decent. I caught something like 5.5 out of 7 waves. Here, the waves were much shorter and not as high. But I tried for an hour and felt good about 3 waves.

Then I looked down at my knee (that's a bump five inches below my knee cap). I was planting there every time I got up. Not a great idea.

After a shower we enjoyed the sunset. Lisa had a margarita and me a majito (spelled on the menu, which happened quite a bit during our trip).

Then I finally broke down and went to get a shirt sizing from one of the million suit places. The main reason was Fintan's insistence that I do it after he got a linen suit. Luckily, our guy wasn't too salesy. I picked two patterns, 100 percent cotton, they took my measurements and the shirts would be ready in 24 hours. I left a 1000 Baht deposit for the 2400 total ($80).
Then we hit the Boat House, an high-end restaurant right on the beach. We had a great view and very good meal. Lisa's appetizer was the highlight, my crab cake appetizer was second. The mango and sticky rice was also great.

Thailand - Day Ten - Phuket

The most surprisingly beautiful day of my life.

We had breakfast at the other place at our hotel (not Cinnamon). Fried eggs might have been a mistake. When we were driving an hour to Kayak Phuket Adventures my stomach was sloshing. Feeling nauseous and going sea canoing didn't sound ideal.

First it was a 45-minute boat ride with our group (about 16 people) to a beach. It was fine, but nothing compared to what we had yesterday. After that it was time for lunch, luckily I was feeling OK, and that's how the meal on the boat was... OK. We could see tons of islands in the distance, and were slowly closing in. Lisa thought the islands were amazing, but they didn't really hit me until we were up close. It looked like the islands were trying to escape from the ocean.

Then it was time for our guide to lead us into the lagoon. Mr. Dean sat at the back of our canoe and rows, we sat and enjoyed the incredible views. I had never seen water that was emerald green, and I actually always thought how fake it looked when I saw it in movies. Now I know better. In the center there were crabs and no fish of any substantial size.

The next stop was mangrove cave. Absolutely insane. We had to lie down in our canoe, and then Mr. Dean would get out and partially deflate so we could fit through the caves into the middle of the island. We were doing this during low tide and only then would it have been possible, the caves can't be seen in high tide. At one point I was trying to push Lisa's head against my body to get her lower and Mr. Dean had me move my hand because otherwise it would have scraped the top of the cave. It's the closest to a tomb I have ever been in, and luckily the caves were only about 50 meters long, so it didn't last forever.

Visually, this was the highlight of the entire trip. Mr. Dean was an amazing guide and the trip to Phuket was completely worthwhile based on this alone.

I picked up my custom fit shirts when we got back, and they fit perfect. If anything the sleeves were a hint too long which is a first in my life. For dinner we ate at this tiny place where we were the only customers. Just like Babu, Kata Noi Beer Garden needed more customers. So if you are ever in the neighborhood, go. It's also super cheap. I had a watermelon shake and pineapple & prawns in fried rice. Lisa's green curry was better. And we had more spring rolls.

Then we make a $5 Phuket mistake. Our hotel was having a mango celebration, and so we tried the mango creme brulee. Sounded good in theory, but it came too quickly, which means they probably had one sitting around. The top didn't crack and Lisa was immediately suspect. I realized she wasn't eating much, so I picked up the slack. Then she informed me that I was pretty much eating raw eggs and that was the end of desert.

Thailand - Day Eleven - Phuket to Bangkok

It rained all night. We were very lucky with the very because this was the first rain of Phuket, and it was supposed to be the rainy season.

We watched the Celtics vs Pistons in the morning and then made our way to the airport. It was a quick one hour flight to Bangkok. Here's something nuts... The flight attendant will tell everyone not to get up after landing until the seatbelt sign is turned off. That stops no one. EVERYONE stands up before the sign goes off. Since our luggage was two rows behind we had to play the game. Everyone starts getting up, so Lisa and I make our move, then the brakes are hit and everyone lurches forward and Lisa got tossed into the flight attendant, who luckily caught her.

We staying at the Bossotel, which was recommended to us by Susan from Ireland. The pool was closed, which we were looking forward to, and after some polite complaining, we got an upgrade.

At night we hit the Indian Hut, who's logo looks exactly like Pizza Hut. Quality food, but overpriced.

Then we walked through the most insane mall district I have ever seen. It's what you would imagine Tokyo would be. There were about six giant malls all next to each other and all at least seven stories high.

We decide that we're in the mood for a movie, so we look for something besides "Indiana Jones" which we were saving for when we got back. There were nine theaters within a mile, and unfortunately, we hit all of them. "Indiana Jones" was at 80 percent of the screens. Then there was "Juno" which came out two weeks before, and "Never Back Down" which got released here because of the kick boxing I assume. So, walking to all the theaters turned out to be enough of a time-killers, but then we wrote Lisa's parents that we would be seeing "Indiana" the next day since we had no choice. Since they didn't have to save it, they saw the film immediately after reading the email.