James Bond Island

4 June 2014

Recipe: Thai Noodles with Beef

Recipe: Cashew Chicken with Vegetables

I cannot express just how blessed I have been throughout my entire time abroad.  When Rachel and I arrived into Phuket last night and were dropped off at our hostel on a street called Bangla road, in the heart of the Patong district of Phuket, I thought we were in Las Vegas.  Lights were flashing everywhere, girls in extremely scandalous attire were strutting through the streets and music was blasting from every corner of the glittery streets.  It was quite exciting to take it all in at first, but it soon set in that we were going to have to walk up and down this road with our giant packs to find our hostel and then hope and pray the hostel had incredible insulation to block out the blasting music from outside.  We thought we knew exactly where our hostel was but we were wrong…we had to stop in at a McDonalds and check with the front counter about where it actually was.  We finally found it and were able to slip away from all the noise into a very spacious, clean, and quiet third floor building with dorms for fellow travelers like ourselves.

We were placed in a dorm with a girl from China named Erie.  This was the first blessing that came our way.  Erie had just finished a competition with some of her classmates in Singapore and had arrived just before us in the beautiful yet crazy Patong Beach area.  She was traveling on her own for a few days simply because she wanted to visit Thailand before she went home to China.  After being a bit disturbed that we may have to share a dorm room with a bunch of drunk male backpackers, I couldn’t help but be thankful for such a miracle that occurred in our lives.  Erie was just the roommate we needed, she didn’t drink and she loved to talk to us about our adventures through Asia.  She would love to travel through China just as we are, so maybe we will be able to convince her to join us.

Today was quite the adventure.  We took a tour to a series of islands just north of Phuket in the middle of a storm.  I was freaking out a bit, yet as I looked at all the locals on the boat they went on with their duties just like it was a normal day.  I am not in the United States anymore…

It rained, and rained, and rained more.  There was thunder and lightning, and huge waves!  Rachel ate some exotic fruit that she was allergic to and her body started to swell up…we all thought we were going to die!  Yet, we are still her so it was all worth it, right?  The tour was absolutely beautiful, just a bit wet :).  More to come later.

I absolutely love Thai food.  Just their curries alone are enough to make me go crazy.  Green curry, red curry, yellow curry, Penang curry, and Masman curry are all delicious and are filled with numerous vegetables making them not only great tasting, but quite healthy as well.  Most of the curries are served as a type of vegetable soup with your choice of meat to go in it.  All Thai dishes are notoriously served with rice on the side, welcome to Asia!  Great food and the beach are enough to make any girl happy, so Phuket has been my own kind of Heaven for the past few days.