Potti Mouth

I guess I’ve always had a dirty mind; in my adolescent years (which have never quite ended) we used to get a kick out of substituting dirty words wherever something sounded similar. So, I'm still having fun with the names of towns here in Southern Thailand. I mean, I gotta love Phuket, or at least what the American pronunciation of it would be. Then again, they say Poo-get, which at least is still a little dirty-sounding to me. And the heat is making me feel crabby in Krabi – where I’m just a ferry ride away from the beautiful island of Pi Pi (spelled Phi Phi, but pronounced “pee pee”.) I’m in potty mouth heaven! But how could I expect less of a country whose capital is Bangkok!

So I’ve been giggling my way through Thailand, but we did have a seriously lovely stop in a town called Bang Saphan where we stayed three nights in a bungalow about 10 minutes walk from the beach. Despite it being the middle of the new year holiday week, the beach was almost deserted, and we enjoyed long walks, swimming, and hanging out at the small restaurant by the water.

Then we headed to Phuket, because (besides loving the name) we had heard so much about it. But I’m afraid we should have said forget Phuket (or phucket!) – it was much to hot and crowded to enjoy (especially since we didn’t have our own transportation to enable us to escape the mainstream beaches.) Really, it was like Jones Beach or Seaside Heights during July – wall to wall chaise lounges (all full) and no shade to be had. So, after bouts of being crabby to each other, we moved on to Krabi for a nice surprise. It’s still hot here, but the town is mellow and nice, and the beaches are nice and calm, with plenty of nearby trees for shade.

And now we have almost outstayed our welcome in Thailand. Our tourist visa ends the day after tomorrow, so we are heading to Malaysia. Hopefully, we’ll find some nice places to see there. But if not, as Matthias says, we can always come back to Thailand. Our first stop in Malaysia is going to be the island of Penang, which we hear has some great food. Not that we need any more of that…