Gulliver's Travels...

This trip, by far, has been the highlight of my exchange in Singapore. Aside from the cheap ass plane tickets, the trip was amazing from the cab ride to the airport in Singapore to the flight back from Phuket. The cabbie was quite entertaining given that it was 545am when we left for the airport. He had lived all over the world and told us many stories about Singapore, Bush, Osama, Vietnam, etc. So fast forward, we arrive in Phuket after a 1.5hr flight (I closed my eyes and badaboom badabing we were already landing); we waited at the airport for Xavi to pick us up. The Spaniards and Germans had arrived in Phuket a day earlier and so had booked hotels and cars for us. He picked us up in a brand new Honda Jazz (SiR)! We checked into a homely looking hotel; room per night was 700bhat or 20bucks a night. I shared with Sheldon (but thats a different story ;). The first thing we did was drive to a shooting range/ATV course. Xavi and Sheldon shelled out the 20CDN in cash for a chance to shoot one round with a 9mm. 10 minutes later we were all riding ATVs, it was scary at first as I didn't know how to control the back brakes, and the course was somewhat challenging (going up 70 degree slopes, coming down wooden bridges that looked like there were going to break), but the experience was incredible. I was drenched in sweat and dust cuz I was at the back and those fuckers kept skidding around in front of me raising up a huge dust cloud. So what did we do after getting all hot and dirty? Drove straight to the beach! This beach was the most beautiful thing I've seen. The locals said that it was so much cleaner since the tsunami dragged all the garbage and shells, etc out to sea. The water was crystal clear with sandy floors. That night we went into Patang Beach, where the tsunami hit hard. Many stores were boarded up from the damage, but there were a lot that were open. We ate dinner at a place that sat right infront of the waterfront, it must have been hit hard; the waiters had this lost look in their eyes and were very sombre but we wanted to give our business to them anyway. The next day was incredible. We rented a 400hp Miami Vice looking speed boat for 60 cdn each (8 ppl). Our first island stop was 1.5 hrs away and so the captain put the pedal to the metal. I've never been on a speed boat before so it was scary at first. We were getting tossed around like marbles in a matchbox, my palms got sweaty from holding on to tightly to the rail. The scenes were gorgeous though! James Bond island was nothing great, bought some stuff for my mom and sister. It was a surreal place though, in the middle of the ocean just green and so pure. Lunch was at a water village on stilts, it was crazy! Bought some more stuff for my mom and sister. The later part of the afternoon was where it was at. The island they took us too was probably the size of 4 football fields. It had white, powdery sands and crystal blue water. We went snorkelling, I was a fuckin pansy and it took a while before I was comfortable to swim with the fishes. We also went swimming, I mean just writing about it is putting a smile on my face. I will definately go back before I leave here. That night I just got an oil thai massage (easy Greig, Toops, Sanji, and all you nasty fuckers that go get massages in TO), ate some food and passed the FUCK out. What a weekend!