The Thailand post needs to be prefaced with the fact that it is rainy season in Thailand, and we knew this going in.We had all been to Thailand before and just thought it would be nice to be able to relax for a while on the beaches of Phuket. Needless to say there is not a whole lot to report on the trip.Most of the days were spent going to the pool or beach and laying out until rain came.We ate good Thai food, and slept a lot.(We should also note at this point in the trip we have added Misia, another friend from school, Cheryl, Candice's sister, and Cheryl's friend Bach.) There are a couple of activities from the trip worth mentioning though.

One day we decided to go see the famous Phi Phi islands. The movie The Beach was filmed there as well as a James Bond movie and parts of Pirates of the Carribean.Basically they are supposed to be gorgeous, and we were told the weather on the islands tends to be better than that in Phuket and it was suppose to be sunny the next couple of days.So we woke up early to go meet the boat that takes us out on the tour of the islands.As soon as we saw the boat we all pretty much regretted the decision.It was downpouring when we boarded (of course), and we discovered the boat for the day was a small speedboat without a real roof.So within five minutes of the ride we were soaked, not only was it raining but when the boat was in motion additional rain would be shooting in your face.The trip also proved to be choppy, very choppy, the word choppy probably doesn't even do it justice.We were regularly flying out of our seats and a little girl on the boat was sick for most of the ride. And there were about 5 life jackets on the whole boat.We also were so wet and our towels were soaked that it was quite a chilly ride too.We also had a crazy guide (Choy), of course, who spoke very rough English and knew some odd English phrases he liked to use for entertainment?. We finally made it to the first stop, and it was a gorgeous beach/lagoon but it was raining so hard we spent most of the time under a cave overhang.The next stop was a lagoon for swimming, which actually proved to be pretty nice because the water was warmer than sitting on the boat even with the rain, and it was gorgeous.We skipped snorkeling, because you wouldn't be able to see anything and went to monkey beach next.Amazingly the monkeys were out in the rain and they would stand right next to you and eat bananas out of your hands.Then we went to lunch on one of the islands and our whole boat voted to skip the rest of the tour and go home.(note in between every stop were more life threatening boat rides and everything we owned was drenched and everyone was freezing).The ride home proved to be the worst part of the day (though definitely most memorable), the waves were so high it took way longer than anticipated (hour and a half total), the girl puked some more, and one of the men puked, partially on Lauren and Bach, as well as part of the seat and towels.We also ran out of gas in the middle of the ride (luckily they had spare), and all of our backs were in pain from flying out of our seats so much.So our trip to Phi Phi proved to be quite a memorable day.

The other part of Thailand worth mentioning was when we went to Patong beach one night to shop in the markets and go out to dinner outside of the resort.It was a good night until we had to get home.There are six of us so we cannot take one cab, so a tuk tuk driver tried to help us find a van by calling friends etc.He ended up driving into some random neighborhood with a hotel and then got word from his friend it would be ½ hour before the van arrived.So we had the hotel and this guy help us find two cabs eventually.One cab was fine, though the group in the second cab learned that their driver usually drives a tuk tuk and had not driven a car in a very long time, which explained his constant swerving.He had to stop and get gas at one point and was going to keep the car on while filling up with gas until we told him otherwise, and insisted that it was okay to keep the engine running.He also parked the car on the wrong side at first, and then parked it yards away from the gas tank and was very confused as to why the gas would not reach.We all made it home eventually though.

Now we are back in Hong Kong for another five days!