Welcome to THAILAND!!

Well we are here!! There is so much to say about what we have been up to the past week! It is absolutley amazing here....we are staying at Patong Beach. Phuket is actually a big island and there are many many different "sections" or beaches that people ca stay at. It has been so different travelling this past week then it has been the past couple monthes in Australia. It is so different here and the culture is so different then what we are used to. Thats probably my favorite part though, I love seeing and learning about their traditions, culture, etc. The markets here are crazy! They are everywhere and the people are so friendly. They actually speak arabic here so sometimes it has been hard tryig to communicate, but everyone thinks we are australia so we walk by and everyone yells "G'day Mate!" hehe. There was a big Tsunami that hit here not long ago and Australia sent over heapes of supplies for them so they all like Australians. We have had so much fun bartering with everyone too, they try to rip you off so much here. But luckily we had a friend come here about a month ago so she was able to tell us how much we should be paying for everything. Food has been so good....and so cheap! We both ate at the mall food court which was all these little Thai food huts for $1 each and that was a noodle dish with coke. Crazy! Everything here you can barter down and get it so cheap! We have went on two different tours since we have been here for only $40 each, in Australia we would probably pay $200 each. The first one we went to "James Bond Island" which is where they filmed a Bond movie about 10 years ago,so that was cool to see it. We also got to to to a floating village where we got pictures with MONKEYS!! They are the most adorable things ever...one of them was even wearig a diaper! We had lunch at a really nice restaurant then headed back to land where we got to go Elephant Trekking. That was nuts you literally sit on the back of a huge elephant and walk through the jungle! Its a really bumpy ride though. Then we got to watch a baby elephant do some tricks in a show which was so cute. Then we also got to watch a monkey show as well. So that kept us busy for the day! The second tour we went on yesterday and toured around all the different islands. I think I wrote before about the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo Dicaprio, its about this perfect little island...well we got to go there! I don't think we have ever been in a more beautiful place in our whole lives. It is in this little like bay and has the whitest sand, palm trees, we can't even explain the beauty of it...you just have to see it. We toured around some more islands and did some snorkeling. The water was so picture perfect blue. Sometimes we would just look around and be like are we really standing here! It was almost unbelievable. Then we got to go to "Monkey Beach" where the monkeys are so used to people you can go and feed them and they are really friendly...well most of them. I was having so much fun taking pictures and feeding them and I saw this so cute baby one in the tree eating a banana so I though ohhh what a cute picture so I go near it to snap away and all of a sudden I could feel these things jumping up on my back and scratching my legs...it was pretty scary! haha. So I quicikly ran towards Tandri and they fell of and everyone was just staring at me like are you ok?! After I realized what had happened I was like woah....I just got attacked by 2 monkeys in Thailand, how many people can say that! hehe. So for our last stop we headed to this tiny little island that takes only 5 minutes to walk around the whole thing. We did some more snorkeling and sat on the beach chairs and had these so cool drinks where they actually cut a fresh pineapple or coconut open and you drink out of them. So as you can tell we have been doing so much here! We still have 4 more days here so we are going to do some more travelling around the island and getting in as much as we can! Only 13 more days and we are home!! We are getting so excited, we have to not think about it too much or else I cannot sleep! We will keep you updated about how the rest of our trip goes! Talk soon!
Tandri and Brittni