Traveling to Phuket
With the wedding over a number of us were heading off. I had to get up early to catch a number of transportation methods on my way to Phuket. Luke, Joanna, Kristine, Trent and Allana headed back for a few more days in Koh Samui, while most of Bethany’s family was returning to Bangkok and then home. Assuming things went well I would again meet up with Kyle, Bethany, John, Cindy, Carrie, Adam, Grace, and Anne again on New Years Eve on Phi Phi Don. I jumped in the back of the pickup truck and got one of the workers to take me in to town to catch the ferry to Koh Samui. The ferry included a free transfer via minivan to the airport. I had a few hours back at the Koh Samui airport and enjoyed their complementary orange juice, in fact their orange juice was so much better than ours in the states. While waiting some people were smoking some funny smelling cigarettes from an unrepuatable manufacture inside the terminal, and while it was open air it was starting to get to me, so I ventured out in the heat to walk around. Another flight, meal, and some hot towels and I landed in Phuket. 
Glad I was not on that plane.
From some research on the internet I heard Karon beach was the place to stay so I found a metered cab as I had no idea how far away it was and headed off. I found a nice place to stay right on the beach and then went searching for a way to get to Phi Phi Don the following morning. I’m sorry to say that Phuket has been heavily influenced by tourists. This place is no different than any other beach town, streets lined with theme bars and restaurants. Even the Thai restaurants were fake with bad food even by western standards. And they had fake Tuk Tuks, basically fully enclosed red scaled down minivans that fit four, more like a ride at Disney World then a Bangkok Tuk Tuk. I have a feeling that this all happened after they were hit by the Tsunami, instead of rebuilding in the traditional sense they became more modern attracting families with kids. After checking out the night life I turned in looking forward to leaving the tourists behind as I headed to the islands in the morning.
