Our experience in Phuket wasn't as awesome as I had hoped it would be, but that's mostly our fault. We went during rainy season. We just didn't expect there to be so much rain. There were a few moments when the sun peaked through, and it was beautiful.
Upon checking in, we headed for the beach! We were expecting pristine beaches, maybe surfboards for rent, so we were really surprised by what we saw when we got to the beach. There was so much trash -- plastic, glass, rubber, and so many tiny pieces of bright white styrofoam. Oddly, most of it disappeared the second day and never came back the rest of the week. My best guess is that the waves carried it all back out to sea, but it's possible that trash pickers cleaned it up. Either way, it's pretty damn sad, and it's made me much more aware of the enormous amounts of non-biodegradable waste all around me.
On a brighter note, temporarily setting aside frustrations about ocean pollution and our inability to rid the world of it overnight, we signed up for a cooking class! The chef/owner had owned a restaurant on Kata Beach, but now solely runs the cooking school. The menu included a great lineup of Tom Yum Goong, pad thai and green curry with curry paste made from scratch. We thought that her recipes were terrific, and the ingredients were very fresh. I'm not really used to flavors such as lemongrass and Kaffir lime, but I've discovered that I really like them. All of dishes turned out great, and we were quite full and happy and ready for a nap by the end of it!
Another fun excursion we did in Phuket was exploring the sea caves and lagoons of Phang Nga Bay. The coolest part was definitely seeing bio-luminescent plankton for the first time in the waters of a bat cave! Another activity we did that day was assembling our own Katong, a Buddhist offering made of flowers and banana leaves, to release it on the water. Traditionally, this is done to rid away bad energy and spirits, and make a wish for the future. People also pluck a couple of their own hairs and place them on it, which symbolizes a part of them being carried away with it. Hopefully I got lucky and plucked a couple of the grey hairs that I'm starting to have, and hopefully our wish comes true!
Despite all the rain, we accomplished our goal of recharging for the second half of the trip. Can't believe we'll be home in less than a month!
