spectacular.

It was spectacular.

Too spectacular to take the time to post about it along the way, but now worth noting as we head back to normal life.

We spent most of our time at the beach: swimming, walking, running, watching, reading. We visited during low tourist season, which is monsoon season, so the waves were really strong and signs sometimes advised us not to swim. We–and most others–took this as “don’t go deeper than you can touch” advice. In all, it rained one morning and one evening, otherwise providing absolutely beautiful weather.

One day we drove out to the pier, simply because we thought it sounded interesting. I won’t say it was uninteresting, but I don’t think they get a lot of tourists. The guards let us through but looked at us oddly enough. I think the area primarily sees buses bringing in people to load up cruise ships rather than two random people on a motorbike.

So we took a photo in front of the current cruise ship!

Stephen loved the photography opportunities and took advantage at every turn.

I suppose there is an obvious difference between Stephen and I’s photography skills, and clearly this is mine. But one of the things we really loved about Phuket was that it was a little more Westernized than Mae Sot, and we recognized a few logos of some favorite restaurants.  Au Bon Pain is quickly becoming a favorite, but we tried quite a few local places that were pretty amazing, too. It was great to have the variety of Indian, fresh seafood, Italian, Greek, Mexican, and such.

We went for fresh seafood one night, and I went for the crab. I’ve never had it before, and I’m not much of a meat person; but I loved the whole experience of crushing the shells and picking all the meat out. We forgot to bring the camera with us that night, but I wanted a photo of the crab; the waiter did give me a great look when I asked to keep it off my plate.

And there was a Starbucks! We did love this.

Oh, and some fire baton swinging on a beach walk.

We visited Old Phuket Town one day, which had some lovely architecture and colors.

We passed this mirror every time we left our guesthouse. No idea why it was sitting outside of this person’s house.

For our last night, we watched the sunset on the beach and went out for a nice dinner.

And our idea of a nice meal out?  Fancy cheese, fresh bread, and a Caesar salad.

At risk of being self-absorbed, one more picture post to come.