Jet Lag Madness

Our first stop in Thailand is on the island of Phuket. If you have ever seen that movie "The Beach" with Leo Dicaprio, most of that was shot around Phuket and surrounding areas. We are living on Patong Beach, which isn't exactly the most picturesque place on Phuket island. It is well known for its nightlife, and the prostitution here is rampant.



Elisabeth and I arrived a little after midnight to Thailand, and our airport transfer to our hotel that we were expecting was not there. We had to pay a little extra to get a van ride out across the island to our guest house. We finally made it to Patong Beach, and were much too excited to get any sleep, even though it was nearly 2am. We spent most of the morning in the lobby of our guest house, watching people pass by. The guest house has a garage door style opening to the street, and we kept ourselves entertained by watching the unending number of hookers and motor-bikers pass by in the pouring rain.



Several times we saw 4 hookers crammed onto one motorbike. Another downside to us visiting in May is that this is the very beginning of the monsoon season, and May is supposedly the wettest month of the year.

We waited around for the local bank to open, and we headed out to exchange our US cash for Thai Baht. The exchange rate is 33 Baht to 1 US Dollar, so we both had thousands of Baht on us. We came back and rented a motorbike from the guest house, and headed out to explore. About ten minutes into our ride, it started raining, and didn't let up. I put the backpack with the camera gear on Elisabeth, and put my poncho on her. Nevertheless we had fun on our ride and saw the beautiful jungle scenery on the southern part of the island, which was much different from the Patong area. Came home and fell asleep at about 2pm. Jet lag sucks.