A sweaty sa wat dee from phuket

After our first discussion involving some gentle NO's from the first taxi driver we met as we walked out of the airport and eventually catching the bus and then a sweaty walk to the backpackers, I now know why they say pack your bag and then halve it.. MAN ALIVE are these bags heavy and overflowing!

Our room is definitely luxury, with AC and an ensuite toilet (with a short person door - which I bashed my head on as usual) - from here on it is dorms pretty much only to keep to the budget.

We have spent some time walking around phuket town and taking in all the smells and sights...it reminds us a lot of Zanzibar and we were both saying that Zanzibar prepared us for all of the chaos of bikes, people and street food...Lisa did not even flinch as we went past the fish on the floor market!

We walked a little out of town today up to a restaurant with a great view of Phuket, where we blew our budget for 2 cokes...toast and jam tonight !

It's been interesting seeing peoples houses here; their houses have little curly details on the rooves, which are 'naga', which is a mytical sea serpent thought to protect them. And outside peoples houses are little miniature fancy houses on a stilt, which is a 'spirit house', the purpose is to encourage the spirits to live independently outside of the house, and the family will bring food, flowers and water (sometimes even sprite cans!) to put on these stilts to keep the spirits comfortable!

Hopefully tomorrow we should get our first taste of the famous phuket beaches...