After our short stint in BKK, we headed down to Phuket for some beach time. We spent about a week in Phuket, which by the end of it we determined was entirely too long. Phuket was supposed to be a paradise destination and it ended up being more of a city that had a beach. We probably could have ventured out further though, to get away from the noise and city feel. Nonetheless, we took advantage of where we were and spent our time on Bangala Road, where everyone goes in Phuket. It is basically the Bourbon street of Thailand. We met some really great people at the hostel we stayed at and went out on the town, drank probably too much, ate street food that was quite questionable (ie: Rob eating raw octopus from a street food vendor after he dipped in spicy sauce… needless to say he didn’t feel too great the next day).

One of our Phuket days we headed down to a beach that was quite aptly named Paradise beach. The beach had one little restaurant that served cheap delicious food, and the beach out in front was beautiful. Not to come across as a snob, but for a beach to be classified as beautiful these days, it has to have more than just the clear water, sand and sun. It’s nice to have a little landscape as well, such as palm trees and some rock formation if possible. Some coral/marine life underwater also goes a long way towards the beaches aesthetic rating in our minds. Well, this beach delivered on all accounts. Rocks, palms, clean sand, clear water and lots of beautiful fish. We had fun swimming with our goggles, and once we got in, posing for some cheesy modeling shots on the beach and on one specific palm that did the cool leaning to the point of horizontal thing. It was a very sexy palm tree, at least until our goofy poses adorned it. There was also a large bouy tied to a second tree in tire swing like fashion. This was a lot of fun to play around with until it was unfortunately time to go home.

In order to get away from the city feel for a little while and explore the island on our own, we decided to rent a motorbike and go on a search for a very special gift for Rob. 2 days of searching and we finally found it! Rob got himself a speargun! (I see a very nice pair of shoes and maybe a dress to go with them in my future…) Of course he was VERY anxious to take it out for a spin so he spent literally every waking moment reading about where to spearfish on the island and watching spearfish videos, so we headed down to Rawai beach. It is a beautiful beach that was much more quiet than the beaches we had seen so far. So beautiful in fact, that we saw no less than 3 wedding photo shoots during our 3 hours there. Rob went out and within the hour came back with lunch for us! A red snapper! I was so proud of him! We took it across the street where a restaurant cooked it up whole fish style, with thai garlic and a soy based glaze. Tasted delicious and obviously about as fresh as can be! After our meal we went back to the beach to watch a great sunset. Upon our departure, Rob performed a very lame “burnout” on the sand with the motorbike. Well, ok, I tried to act unimpressed, but it was badass. (picture this but on two wheels)