On Friday morning I got up bright and early and sneaked out real quiet so that I could go on a two-dive trip that I'd booked the previous day. (PS - Sweet sleep-bandana, Axl). ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ bandana ˆ bed ˆ

Walked along the beach to get to the dive shop. ˆ beach ˆ boat ˆ koh phi phi ˆ longtail ˆ

My dive was awesome, but for some reason the flash on my camera wasn't firing which meant that any attempt to take a photo underwater turned out like this. Blarg! ˆ scuba ˆ

Seemed to work fine in natural light, though. ˆ boat ˆ diving boat ˆ ocean ˆ scuba ˆ

When I got back from my dive, I noticed that the side of my torso was killing me. I had a huge, swollen red bump that was really sore. I went to the pharmacist on the island and he hypothesized that it might be a spider bite, but he wasn't positive. ˆ me ˆ bandages ˆ mirror ˆ

He have me some disinfectant, some antibiotic ointment and told me to dress it twice a day. ˆ bandages ˆ

It had begun pouring rain again in the early afternoon, and since it showed no signs of letting up, Meredith and I decided to go out and rent a portable DVD player for our room... ˆ tv ˆ

...and spent the rest of the day hiding out from the rain and reading. Around 8pm we decided to kick off PIRATED MOVIEFEST with The Beach (which you can find on pirated DVD in pretty much every single place that sells anything in Thailand). After we finished the movie, I decided to take a nap - which at 10pm, turned into bed for the night. Hahaha. ˆ dvd ˆ movie ˆ

We woke up on Saturday and it was STILL RAINING! In fact, it had been raining for so long that when we opened the door and stepped out onto our porch, the beach had completely disappeared and the ocean was just a couple of inches shy of overcoming the walkway and flooding our hut! ˆ boat ˆ flood ˆ koh phi phi ˆ ocean ˆ porch ˆ

We said "Fuck it" and went back to sleep until we were too hungry to stay in bed any longer. A little after noon, we got up and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Hippies. ˆ chair ˆ

Afterwards, Mer when back to bed and I started watching Braveheart on PIRATED DVD! ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ bed ˆ

A little before 4pm, the rain FINALLY fucking stopped and despite us both feeling so sleepy and a little bit sick, we decided to follow the beach all the way around the island to another part of Phi Phi Don called "Long Beach." But in order to get there, we mostly had to make our way across rocky, slippery terrain like this! ˆ ocean ˆ rocks ˆ

Here's a picture I took of Phi Phi Ley about halfway into our hour long trek over to Long Beach. ˆ koh phi ley ˆ koh phi phi ˆ longtail ˆ ocean ˆ

Check out how pretty and sea-worn the surface of all the giant rocks were! ˆ rocks ˆ

Homestretch! Meredith's carefully making her way over another huge sprawl of slippery rocks and you can see Long Beach in the background. ˆ meredith ˆ beach ˆ rocks ˆ

We walked around Long Beach for thirty minutes or so, but Meredith was feeling really crummy (just in case you couldn't tell from the face she's making in this photo...hahaha) and it looked like it was about to start pouring soon. So rather than risk having to do the long walk back over slippery rocks in a downpour, we opted to hire a longtail boat to take us back to the beach near our part of the island. ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ boat ˆ grumpy ˆ us ˆ

Almost home! ˆ boat ˆ longtail ˆ ocean ˆ

Sure enough, as soon as we got back, it started pouring. We spent the next six hours stuck inside reading. (Yay, pulpy vacation books!) ˆ me ˆ bed ˆ book ˆ

Around 10pm, we started watching Braveheart on DVD. But about two and a half hours into the movie, the pirated DVD we'd bought totally shit the bed and wouldn't play the last 45 minutes or so of the movie which was total BULLSHIT. Hahah. We didn't really feel like going out so we bought one of these "make your own BUCKET" kits at a local store and hung out on the porch and got our buzz on together. ˆ booze ˆ bucket ˆ

Before going to bed, I redressed my mysterious spider-bite thingy which was starting to look like it was getting better, and then we called it a night. ˆ me ˆ ouch ˆ

We woke up Sunday morning and it was still overcast! But by noon, it started to look like it might turn into a nice day. While the clouds were disappearing, we hailed a longtail boat... ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ sunglasses ˆ us ˆ

...and decided to head back to Long Beach and spend the day there. ˆ boat ˆ clouds ˆ longtail ˆ

The coast en route.

We got to Long Beach and got all set up on the beach. We spent 15 minutes slathering each other with suntan lotion so that we wouldn't get baked by the Thai sun (you have seen how white the two of us are, right?) and about 10 minutes later, clouds rolled in out of nowhere and it started to rain. ˆ beach ˆ clouds ˆ

We got out of the rain and into a restaurant that was right on the beach. After we'd finished our lunch, it was still raining. So we hung out and drank coffee... ˆ meredith ˆ coffee ˆ pretty ˆ

...and read our books and waited to see if the sun would come back out. ˆ meredith ˆ book ˆ coffee ˆ

Most places in Thailand don't have milk for coffee, so they serve it with creamer...

That has this disturbing warning on the back: "Not to be used as a breat-milk substitute." Is it just me, or does anyone else shudder when they think of the lawsuits that led to each warning that you see on product's packaging? ˆ label ˆ

About an hour after we'd finished lunch, the rain finally stopped and we headed back out onto the beach where we made friends with a very friendly, albeit very bitey and very smelly beach puppy! ˆ bite ˆ cute ˆ dogs ˆ hand ˆ puppy ˆ

Delicious people-hand! NOM NOM NOM. ˆ bite ˆ dogs ˆ hand ˆ puppy ˆ

Then, about 20 minutes later, the clouds rolled in AGAIN, and we decided to just give up and head back to our hut and relax and rain before getting caught in a monsoon. ˆ clouds ˆ ocean ˆ

We woke up on Monday to another rainy day. Since another day cooped up in our hut on a remote island in the rain would have likely resulted in us killing each other, we made the executive decision to catch a ferry from Phi Phi back to the mainland.

My mysterious side wound was getting hard and swollen and hurt pretty bad. While I was in our hotel's lobby checking out, I asked the owner, an older Thai gentleman, if he had any antibiotics (you can get them over the counter in Thailand) and showed him my inflamed, red side.

He got really excited when he saw the infection and started yelling out to the rest of his family (it was a family run business) to come and check it out. His wife and two teenage daughters surrounded me and after a brief inspection, whisked my shirt off right there in the lobby and started chattering excitedly in Thai.

While his two daughters giddily poked and prodded my side, miming the universal sign for "we're so going to pop that thing like a huge fucking zit," their father temporarily ran to get an Thai-English dictionary.

While I watched him thumb through the pages, I had to keep swatting away the long-nailed fingers of his two daughters who were getting bolder and bolder in their unauthorized attempts to squeeze the hard lump on my side. Eventually, their father found the entry he was looking for. He proudly spun the book around and pointed to a some Thai squiggles that translated into English as "PUSTULE."

"Pustule? Are you sure?" I asked him. "Yes, pustule!" He answered with a smile. "Now, my daughters will...", he paused while he looked up another word in his dictionary, "lance it!" I reluctantly agreed and the owner and his wife held my hands as his two daughters went to work on my side. After two or three minutes of serious work, I was covered in a sheen of sweat and tried to get the daughters to stop. They told me they were "almost to explode" and went back to work. Sure enough, about thirty seconds later, my side literally exploded and the whole family cheered as a giant wad of pus went everywhere.

The whole family then proceeded to clean my wound and dress it and sent me back to my hut to try to explain to Meredith what had just happened and why it took me 45 minutes to check out. Hahaha. Don't forget, this whole scene happened in THE LOBBY OF THEIR HOTEL while other guests wandered in and out horrified. Thailand rules. Here's a shot of my freshly lanced pustule. ˆ infection ˆ ouch ˆ pustule ˆ

About an hour later, we'd packed our bags and had managed to catch the 8:50am ferry from Phi Phi... ˆ ferry ˆ

...to Phucket! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ ferry ˆ us ˆ

Leaving Phi Phi. ˆ ferry ˆ ocean ˆ window ˆ

I read and enjoyed a delicious frozen coffee drink... ˆ coffee ˆ

...while Meredith napped and rocked out with her Axl bandana some more. ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ bandana ˆ

She woke up two hours later with messy bandana hair (See? That's why Axl got his shit braided in corn rows) just in time for the ferry's arrival... ˆ meredith ˆ ferry ˆ messy hair ˆ

...at the Phuket Ferry terminal. ˆ sign ˆ

Our guidebook recommended a guesthoust in Phuket called the Thalang Guest House, but it was completely full. They directed us to place right down the street called the Old Town Guest House. Here's the view from our room, which only cost 350 Baht a night (about $8 USD based on the exchange rate at the time). ˆ roof ˆ

Phuket is famous for its vegetarian food! As soon as we'd finished dropped off our bags and freshening up, we headed out to get our veggie lunch on at one of the many local restaurants reviewed in our guide book. ˆ meredith ˆ food ˆ thai food ˆ

Here's me about to lapse into a food coma. We both totally gorged ourselves and the whole meal for the two of us came to 60 Baht (about $1.25 USD). After lunch, we walked around for a bit and decided to head back to our room to read and nap until the afternoon cooled down a bit. ˆ me ˆ food ˆ food coma ˆ thai food ˆ

Around 4pm, we were out walking around and we decided to rent a moped and do some exploring! (Moped rental was 250 Baht, around $5 USD, per day!). Thailand is really inexpensive, but Phuket was shaping up to be one of the most inexpensive places in Thailand I've ever been to! ˆ sign ˆ

Here's Mer and me: gassed up, helmeted up and ready to explore. ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ helmet ˆ scooter ˆ us ˆ

We drove around for an hour exploring the city and eventually ended up at the biggest mall in Phuket. Here's the view of the street from the window of a coffee shop in the mall where we... ˆ scooter ˆ street ˆ

...enjoyed some delicious coffee / ice cream drinks! ˆ coffee ˆ

Afterwards, we walked around the mall and spotted a weird store called Music Place that had all these octagonal glass booths. As we got closer we realized they were... ˆ karaoke ˆ karaoke booth ˆ mall ˆ

...private karaoke booths that people were sitting in alone just singing karaoke BY THEMSELVES!?! Part of me thought this was really sad, and part of me realized I was probably only sad because I knew if I lived here I would totally do this by myself. ˆ karaoke ˆ karaoke booth ˆ mall ˆ

Walking around the top floor of the mall, we looked down upon a sea of weird Thai clothing and it was then that Meredith decided we needed to do some gift shopping. ˆ mall ˆ shopping ˆ

If these are the shirts Meredith buys for her friends... ˆ meredith ˆ shirt ˆ shopping ˆ

...you don't even imagine the stuff she buys for people she doesn't like. Hahaha. (Actually this shirt is, quite possibly, the best shirt EVAR!). The giraffe's all "What happened to Boo Ya? I'm totally gonna bring Boo Ya back." ˆ meredith ˆ shirt ˆ shopping ˆ

Then Meredith found her own shirt! Hahaha. ˆ meredith ˆ shirt ˆ shopping ˆ

A little before 7pm, we decided to head back to our guest house and relax for a bit. Here's me trying to figure out where the heck we are on the map and how to get back to our room! ˆ me ˆ book ˆ helmet ˆ scooter ˆ

When we got back to the hotel, I had to shower and milk the wound (*retch*) on my side. My side felt a lot better since having been lanced by hand in a hotel lobby by the proprietor's daughters earlier that day. It looks really red and terrible in this photo, but it's mostly from me squeezing the skin to get all the pus to come out.

A couple months later, back in NYC, I got another one of these EXCEPT ON MY FACE and when I went to the doctor I found out it was a staph infection! Apparently, people always have staph bacteria under their skin, but somethings can cause it to infect a pore and then this happens. My doctor thinks I probably got it from diving in a bunch of wetsuits that weren't disinfected properly. Blech. ˆ infection ˆ ouch ˆ pustule ˆ towel ˆ

After I'd finished with HOME SURGERY, we went out for dinner... ˆ breadsticks ˆ food ˆ salad ˆ

...at a restaurant that was the Thai equivalent of Pizza Hut! Mmmmm...I love you weird Thai pizza that came with corn as a topping! ˆ food ˆ pizza ˆ

After we finished eating, we went and saw The Bourne Ultimatum. It was good, but nothing like the book (which I'd just finished reading a couple of days prior in anticipation of the movie because I am a nerd like that). ˆ movie ˆ poster ˆ

On Tuesday morning we woke up real early so that we could make sure to catch the free guest house breakfast. ˆ meredith ˆ bed ˆ

By the we were ready to head out for the day, it was raining again... ˆ phuket ˆ street ˆ window ˆ

...so we decided to...

...head back to the movie theater that we went to the previous night except this time to see a Thai "odd couple cop" movie. It was basically Lethal Weapon except that the Mel Gibson "wacky cop" character was played by a famous Thai kathoey (ladyboy). It was as awesome as it was ridiculous. ˆ kathoey ˆ ladyboy ˆ movie ˆ poster ˆ

After the movie, we went back to the vegetarian restaurant we'd eaten at the previous afternoon and had ourselves another epic feast for less than $2 USD. Man, was that place tasty. ˆ meredith ˆ food ˆ thai food ˆ

Phuket was a little sleepy and the weather was so crummy that we decided we were going to move on the next day. After we'd finished eating, we hit an internet cafe to see if we could book a flight later that afternoon to Koh Samui, but all the flights out of Phuket were booked for the next several days! We went to the tourism authority to see if they could help us book a bus and ferry to get to Samui but the lady there didn't speak any English and our best efforts at pantomime resulted in her handing us a bus schedule to somewhere else. Which, totally defeated, we pretended was exactly what we'd been asking her for. Hahaha. ˆ sign ˆ

But hey, at least we got to see a giant golden dragon fountain. ˆ dragon ˆ statue ˆ

Afterwards, we headed back downtown to wander around... ˆ meredith ˆ helmet ˆ scooter ˆ

...and Meredith did some grocery shopping at the huge, weird grocery store. ˆ sign ˆ

On the way back to our guest house, we stopped at a cool little tea shop and got some tea and played Jenga! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ jenga ˆ us ˆ

Careful now! ˆ me ˆ jenga ˆ nervous ˆ

Getting precarious! ˆ meredith ˆ jenga ˆ nervous ˆ

Later that night, we made ugly faces in the mirror together... ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ camera ˆ mirror ˆ ugly face ˆ

...and then set out to find some famous Thai restaurant. After more than an hour of wandering around (and getting our feet attacked by fire ants when we stepped off the road into the grass on some side street while I tried to figure out where we were on the map), we found out that the restaurant had since closed down! So we decided to just wander around until we found somewhere else good to eat. We didn't end up at HongKong Chinese Restaurant.... ˆ sign ˆ

...but we did stop to marvel at the aquarium display in the window that featured giant weird shrimp (I think they're live prawns).... ˆ prawn ˆ shrimp ˆ

...and crazy-ass patterned eels! We ended up going to an Italian restaurant called Salvatore's. At first I was skeptical because I figured Italian food in Thailand would be crummy, but the placed turned out to be owned by actual Italians and it was one of best Italian meals I'd ever had! If you're ever in Phuket looking to get your grub on, you should check it out. ˆ eel ˆ weird foreign food ˆ

After we ate, we wanted to go out and do something, but like I mentioned early, Phuket is kind of a sleepy town. Walking around, we ran into this place and decided to see if there was anything going on inside. ˆ sign ˆ

We got inside and it seemed like it was some kind of hooker bar. There was a live band playing, but no one else was in the place except us, and 20 young Thai women who were made up and standing on another stage adjacent to the stage the band was playing on. Even after it was established that we weren't there "for a good time," everyone working still seemed psyched to at least have any kind of patrons. ˆ band ˆ

We sung along with the band and clapped after all their songs, they were pretty solid. When the band took a break, the singer came over to talk to us and was excited because we were from New York. After we talked for a while, I asked her if I could sing some songs with the band and she said yes! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ mic ˆ

I didn't know too many songs that were in their repertoire, so I ended up going with a few old classics. Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive and the CCR version of Proud Mary if I recall correctly. Hahaha. ˆ me ˆ karaoke ˆ live band karaoke ˆ

On the way home we stopped in a convenience store to pick up some snacks and to catch up on the latest Thai gossip. I was really interested in reading up on the HOTTEST BIG MOMS... ˆ magazine ˆ

...and Meredith was stoked to get Squidy with some "crisp and delicious baked cuttlefish. Mmmmmm! (Anyone who shuddered reading this that also eats beef jerky, needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror.) ˆ meredith ˆ excited ˆ squid treats ˆ treats ˆ weird foreign food ˆ

On Wednesday morning we packed up all of our stuff and prepared to head out for another travel day. ˆ book ˆ

We returned our rented scooter... ˆ meredith ˆ scooter ˆ street ˆ

...and then walked to the bus terminal to catch the 10am bus from Phuket to Surat Thani. ˆ bus ˆ

Who's a tired one? ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ bus ˆ us ˆ

This one! While this sweet child o' mine slept.... ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ bandana ˆ bus ˆ

...I read and watched the Thai landscape and ate weird Thai buns filled with chocolaty creme. Mmmmmmm. ˆ treats ˆ weird foreign food ˆ

Almost five hours later, I woke this one up... ˆ meredith ˆ bus ˆ sunglasses ˆ

...because we'd arrived in Surat Thani. ˆ street ˆ surat thani ˆ

We hung out for a while at the ferry terminal for about an hour... ˆ pier ˆ

...and then caught the 4pm ferry from Surat Thani to Koh Samui. Here's the ferry leaving the mainland behind. ˆ ferry ˆ ocean ˆ surat thani ˆ

An hour and a half later, we'd arrived at Koh Samui! I wanted to stay at Charlies Huts, the place I'd stayed last time I was in Samui, but it had since closed down and been turned into some sort of fancy luxury resort. Next we tried a place called Munchies, but they wanted 1,800 Baht per night...which is only $42 USD, but was still a little pricey for our "taking a month off" budget. So we ended up at a rad place called... ˆ ferry ˆ koh samui ˆ pier ˆ

..The Chaweng Garden Beach Resort where we ended up with an amazing private hut right next to the beach for only 1,000 Baht (~$24 USD) a night! Check out our huge king sized bed! ˆ bed ˆ hotel ˆ

The place even had a tv and a mini-bar (the first we'd seen in Thailand) that was stocked with reasonably priced drinks and snacks! As soon as we got there, Meredith was like "Let's stop traveling and just stay here until we have to go home." ˆ meredith ˆ excited ˆ hotel mini bar ˆ tv ˆ

The next day we got up nice and early and after breakfast, decided to hit the beach. Here's a view of our awesome beach hut! ˆ hut ˆ porch ˆ

On our walk to the beach, I almost stepped on a teeny tiny lizard! At first I thought I'd totally smashed him to death... ˆ feet ˆ lizard ˆ sand ˆ

...see? Doesn't he look so smashed and dead? ˆ lizard ˆ sand ˆ

But after I picked him up, he totally came to life and was fine. He even kissed my finger so I'd know he wasn't mad at me. Thanks, lizard. ˆ hand ˆ lizard ˆ

Tragedy averted, we hit the beach.... ˆ beach ˆ chaweng beach ˆ koh samui ˆ ocean ˆ umbrella ˆ

...and proceeded to relax the fuck out of it. ˆ beach ˆ chaweng beach ˆ koh samui ˆ ocean ˆ umbrella ˆ

Later that night, me and this hungry one went to some weird restaurant nearby... ˆ meredith ˆ

...and ordered a plate of potatoes au gratin that came out looking like a Pizza Hut deep-dish pizza. They were marvelous. ˆ food ˆ

Seriously. Mar. Vel. Ous. ˆ merdith ˆ food ˆ

After dinner, we decided to hit the party section of Samui... ˆ koh samui ˆ sign ˆ

...and grab a couple of drinks.

Couple. Drinks. (Swoon. Who's luckier than me?). ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ pretty ˆ us ˆ

Right before we called it a night, we ran into two of the four English girls we'd shared a songthaew with from the pier to Chaweng Beach. ˆ random travel friends ˆ

I hung out for a song or two and danced and then called it a night! ˆ crowd ˆ party ˆ