Greetings From Phuket

(Actually, I had no success getting the hook up, so this is really greetings from the aftermath of my trip to Phuket. )

Writing from Phuket Island, and I am actually typing with my lap-top on my lap for the first time. It works out pretty well.

Phuket and Samui are the big tourist islands in the Southern area, the peninsula area of Thailand. I like Phuket better. Samui is just an island off the coast of the province of Suratani, so there’s really not much there besides tourists and tourist places. Until about twenty five years ago, Samui was nothing but a couple of fishing villages. Phuket is a province, with a long history and all of the commerce and administration that comes with provincial status. Samui has no culture at all, but Phuket has big, long established communities of Chinese and Muslim communities that immigrated from Singapore, India or China.

It’s the usual fun stuff: menus that feature “Curry Egg Horse Shoe Crap and Pineapple;” signs in elevators promoting a dessert hour in the hotel lobby that will feature “Many Kind of Peedy Foods!” Plus beaches, nice ones, and the usual houses-of-ill-repute.

One of my students got me a free ride to Pee Pee Island tomorrow, he works for the tour company. It’s good to be a professor here, lots of respect and some freebies are involved, plus the decent salary.

Pix to follow.