Phuket Town...

today Wanda and i went to the health club and did two...count em 2 classes. we are SO virtuous! that means another dessert at dinner, right? except that we did a astanga yoga and a pilates class... and i can barely move my arms. am i out of shape or what? Karel passed on the classes and i was thinking about midway through the second class that she had a pretty good idea about reading and stuff.......

after we came back and showered (it was 85 degrees and 90% humidity) while we did our classes outside...what were we thinking???? a little breakfast, a little coffee...mmmmm, yum!

then on to Phuket Town. and here we were thinking it was a "town", it is a CITY!! we got there on the shuttle and were dropped off in front of a tourist office...how sly are they? then Cha, tried to convince us to take his tour of Phuket Town. in his air-conditioned car. 2 hours for 100 baht or 5 hours for 200 baht ($6 per person?) and we said we had to think about it and went for a walk....for about 3 1/2 minutes and almost melted on the sidewalk because by now it is 102 degrees.....then back across the street to see Cha and there he is with his car all ready and the door open to let in us gringos...oops, wrong language..in.

Basic tour around town...wants us to see all the "shopping sights". we were kinda vague about what we wanted but wanted to see the Buddha on the hill and the temple, and get some souveniers for Wanda cuz she's in the "i need to bring home stuff for people" mode.

so.... he takes us to see Buddha....
after Buddha, we got herded into the Gems Super Store...which was personally guided shopping. I can't believe we got sucked into this tourist trap "shopping experience".Yikes! get me out of here!!...THEN we went to the "locals" shopping mall, where they have all the "knock-offs" and it REALLY wasn't what we were looking for....they really had some fascinating mannequins, however. Just to show you a couple....

a little bit different than we were used to...or expected, however, it was a big huge space..kinda like a convention room with one stall after another of ugly clothing...but at least it was cheap....

we told Cha we needed fruit so we hit some roadside stands and got some awesome fruit.

then he told us we should go see the "marina" area. well, my idea of a marina varies vastly from Cha's. so he took us to this restaureant on the water...well it would have been on the water but the tide was OUT....way out.



but a few local boys found it to be fun. we were going to get something to eat but the restaurant was a tad sketchy so with Karel being our designated worrier..it was a definite NO. so, two beers later, we giggled our way back to the car and the grocery store.

but, on our way to the grocery store, Cha dropped AGAIN at his cousins silk shop where we politely but emphatically told them no, thank you very little, we didn't need or want YARDS of silk. AAAAAARRRGGHHHHH!

on to the grocery store...as luck would have it, right where Cha dropped us off to get groceries, was EXACTLY the store we were looking for. as Ariel, The little Mermaid would say...."we 've got gadgets and gidgets aplenty...we've got whooosits and whatsits galore.....we found souvenooers for everyone...then ran across the street to get groceries in 10 minutes..damn we're good!!

we were hustled outside the store for yet another tour from a taxi driver...all while our man Cha stood holding the door (our door) of his car for us...slightly remininscent of India...

we got back to our hotel shuttle van and luckily were the only ones going back because we took up a little more room with our bags of food, beer and wine and of course, "stuff".

happy to be "home", we had a bottle of wine and mourned briefly for his lost sibling that broke as we were fishing for our key and he fell over in exhaustion and broke...we're talking about wine here.....then we pawed through all our loot and enjoyed a few belly laughs at our adventures of the day.....

Khawp khun kah!