Resortmania

I had heard Phuket described as Resortmania before my visit and I have to say that I agree with this assessment completely. It was the ultimate place for someone to go who is looking for lots of beautiful beaches, a plethora of restaurants and tourist attractions, very hospitable Thai people and handicraft shopping galore.

Despite the many touristy elements though, I did enjoy my visit to Phuket. We took a boat excursion to the Phi Phi islands for a day, lounged on the beach, experienced a Thai massage, ate some delicious food, bought a few Thai handicraft souvenirs and just relaxed for a few days.

However, I think I am starting to suffer from over exposure to beautiful beaches. Sounds strange, but beaches that look like they came straight from a postcard and would have normally made my jaw drop are starting to become very familiar. For example, I watched as the other tourists on our day trip to the Phi Phi islands continually exclaimed how beautiful each beach was while I was thinking, this is very pretty but I've seen similar landscape in Vietnam that is less populated by tourists.

I know, I know -- I have a really hard time living in Vietnam as a volunteer getting to experience all of these amazing beaches. In a little while, I will post another blog of the beautiful beach the Hope Center visited a few weeks ago as a part of our quarterly field trip -- not to rub it in, or anything :)