28th November 2009 - 30th November 2009:

Apart from beautiful beaches, great weather and delicious food, whenever you think of Thailand you inevitably picture the seedy side it can portray and Phuket - brimming to the seams with lady boys and ping pong shows - seems to be the epicentre of this!!

After arriving at our hostel we decided to check out Patong Beach Road, the main part of town where all the bars and clubs are located, and about half way up stumbled across a pub called Scruffy Murphy's… well it would be rude not to pop in and say hello.

A few drinks later we ventured back out and continued along to the end of the road before turning around and heading for home. However by this time the sun had set and almost instantly, like bats emerging from their caves, swarms of reps flooded onto the streets signalling the start of the infamous night time entertainment. We immediately quickened our pace and tried to keep our heads down ("no eye contact Sean, no eye contact") but nevertheless we were still approached by some very shady characters. It was therefore no surprise that Sean stayed pretty close to Liza until we got back to the hostel for fear of being dragged away to whatever dodgy dealings were on offer!!

We spent our days chilling out on the beach - which was actually more impressive than we had expected given we thought Phuket was just about the nightlife - and a constant stream of locals offering numerous services, from ice-cream to fresh aloe vera massages, meant we wanted for nothing.

Sean has now decided that his 'new thing' is watches and that he has to build up his collection ASAP and given we were able to get purchases at fantastic prices we were now on the hunt for the perfect watch.

We also took in a Thai cooking class - Liza made Green Curry & Sweet Chilli Chicken whilst Sean made Prawn Pad Thai & Sweet n' Sour Chicken. It was great fun but little did we know that we would be making full sized meal portions and eating them between each course. We had untold rice and four dishes to get through but although it was tough (god what a life we are having where this is a tough day!!) we managed to finish them all off.

Sean is also putting Liza to shame by being much more adventurous with trying new food and, along with the Green Curry and Sweet Chilli we made in the cooking lesson, his latest dish is Penne Arrabiata.