Day 14- Friday 14th March- Phuket, Thailand

After yesterday's all-day laze by the pool, we decided that some exploring was in order considering that we'd seen barely anything of Thai culture or sights. We saw, on a map that we'd picked up at the airport, that Phuket town had a few shops and Thai temples. We agreed that this would be a good dose of culture.

Outside the hotel, we asked a guy with a tuk-tuk to take us to Phuket town. He said it would cost 500 Baht and we agreed, although we later realised we could've got it much lower. He took us along a route that included small towns, lovely views and then finally Phuket Town. First he tried to drop us off at a large shopping mall in the middle of nowhere, but we told him to go further. Eventually he stopped in Phuket Town and we got out and paid him. Immediately, we were approached by taxi drivers offering to take us to see sights. One dodgy looking guy told us there was nothing in the immediate area, but he would show us temples and souvenir shops for 10 baht each. We agreed and hopped in his dodgy looking car, which pretty much goes against everything we were taught as kids, made especially worse by the fact we were in a relatively dangerous country. He really did look dodgy, with crooked teeth, bloodshot eyes and a ponytail, but we got in his car nonetheless.

First he took us to a temple in the centre of town. it was kinda cool, with gold painted bits on the roof and dragons and buddhas all over the place. It was kinda small though, and it was closed so we could only walk around it and then back to our driver.
Next, he took us to some kind of department store. The staff immediately pounced on us, opening doors for us, asking how we were and showing us around. They asked where we were from and led us into the main room of the store where other tourists were being shown around. The shop attendants were nearly as bad as the ones in India, showing us stuff while we browsed and telling us why we should buy it: 'good present for mum!' they'd say, and 'England very cold! You buy scarf!'. The difference between them and the Indian shops was that we could browse to a degree whereas in India, we would be seated and presented with items we might like in a rehearsed display. Aother difference is that Thai attendants can take 'no' for an answer, whereas in India, 'no' is just the beginning of your shopping experience.
We didn't buy anything and hopped back into the car. Next, our driver (we never learnt his name) took us out of town to Chalong temple. It was a long drive and every minute I got more and more convinced and worried that he was taking us to his Mafia hideout to be killed. We did eventually arrive and were greeted by an impressively tall, shiny temple which made the previous one look like a portaloo. We had to take our shoes off before we entered the temple, and Hannah was refused entry due to the shortness of her shorts. Inside the temple were hundreds of Buddha statues. They all looked like they were made of a really tacky gold plastic, or Caramac, but all together looked pretty cool. Some people on the top floor were worshipping what looked like an eggcup in a glass case. From the top there were some amazing views, and it was incredibly bright and the floor burned our bare feet.
Back outside, there was a sudden burst of loud bangs. I genuinely thought it was gunfire at first, and our Mafia driver had opened fire, but upon further inspection we realised it was a weird wicker shell with fireworks in it. They would go off every ten minutes or so for some reason.
We explored the nearby market stalls and bought some souvenirs. I bought mum a gold fat-bellied Buddha and bought myself a cool wood necklace, proper traveller stylee. We also bought some much needed ice lollies.
Back in the car, we asked our driver if he would take us back to our hotel for 500baht. He tried to get more and we eventually settled on 600, with one last stop. I hoped that this last stop wasn't his Thai mafia base. First we stopped at a nice viewpoint atop a hill and took some awesome photos overlooking Phuket town, the ocean and some cool little islands in the distance. Next we stopped at a pewter shop much like the first store earlier that day. This one had a cool little museum about Pewter mining before the shop itself. It was about the size of my Blockbuster store back home, but we were the only customers- all day by the looks of things. Hannah bought a small wooden elephant for 130baht before we left and head back to the hotel. We paid our man his 600baht and I gave him a 'thanks for not killing us' smile before we went back up to our room and felt like we'd had a good day exploring. Then we realised it was only 2pm!
We decided to have lunch next. Since we'd run out of Green Wing to watch, we resorted to watching strange Thai TV over lunch. Hannah fell asleep shortly afterwards, so Sarah and I went to the pool.
Down at the pool, I dipped in quickly. I formed a bit of an obsession for being underwater- it felt like flying and I loved it. I was in the pool for nearly two hours before going back to the room.
Later, we decided to go see Mr. Dingh play some more music whil we ate. I had a spaghetti bolognese (which had mushrooms in- grrr) and I ordered a white russian to drink and the waiter laughed at me. I remembered that Louis had recommended white russians after I watched the Big Lebowski. I realised after ordering that I don't like vodka or milk, so it was a bad choice really. Mr Dingh loved us so much more this time that he asked where we were from before flicking through his songbook and playing Wonderwall. Half way through, the mic went crazy and feedback filled the room. He soldiered on acoustically though. Legend.
After dinner we went back to the room and watched Nanny McPhee, which was good. We began watching a film called 'Robber Bride', but got completely lost in the plot and fell asleep.