Phuket, Phuket all....

Pardon the above title, I couldn't resist. I am still able to amuse myself by making simple Thai phrases or locations into jokes. It's just too easy, I can't resist.

I arrived on this island this afternoon and was immediately scammed into stopping at a tourist center where the 400 employees working at a 12 x 12 office each tried to sell me some type of tour of something I "had to see". Everything in Thailand is a scam, and this is not an exaggeration, not even slightly stretched. If you are white skinned, or a "Phalang" as the locals call us, you have sucker written all over you, and there is no limit to what they will do to sell you something without you even knowing it. It sometimes seems like the entire country is all working together to set you up 24 hours a day.

Right now I'm using a free internet connection from a restaurant down the street from our newest temporary home. The Mermaid Resort is pretty nice, by far the most modern and ritzy place we've stayed so far. Hell, the shower is even separate from the shitter. Phuket is a very touristy area, so I'll consider the next few days the luxury portion of the trip.

We spent a few hours at the beach today after our arrival on the island, and it was pretty insane. The water is beyond warm. Like, as soon as I stepped in, I had to pee. If you looked around, there were mountains in two directions, and open ocean in another. We also got to see the remnants of the destruction caused by the Tsunami just a few months ago. It's pretty surreal being here after having heard about on TV and read about it in the paper. All in all, the place seems to be back to normal, or at lest what I would assume normal would be.

Tomorrow we take a tour of another island called Phi Phi Island. My free internet time is up, so I'm out.