Monday the 18th of January was our 11th day in Thailand. We decided to take another trip into a different part of the island city to see the sights and do some local shopping. We took a shuttle that morning into Phuket Town or the old Phuket. This is a very local area where not many tourist go and is more business related.....totally opposite of Patong which is pretty much for tourist and nightlife. I really enjoyed Phuket Town and wish we would have shopped there both trips but I am glad we saw Patong. We hit the jackpot in Phuket Town. The shops were sssssoooo cheap and awesome. I loaded up on some great jewelery pieces and a very classy dress that I can't wait to wear when I get home. I also finished up on some souvenir shopping as did Mia. When the hotel shuttle dropped us off that morning the taxi business owner gave us a lot of tips on where to go throughout our day. He even offered for a small (and I mean small) fee to stay with us all day long and drive us wherever we wanted and wait for us outside. He didn't go but is wife did and she was very helpful. The first place we went to was the biggest book store on the island of Phuket to find Mia a Thai Vogue. She gets a Vogue from each country, but unfortunately Thailand is very westernized, to a point, and they didn't have a Vogue of their own only the UK version. Next, we went to a souvenir showroom that had tons of jewelry. It wasn't the type of place we were expecting but it got the job done and we finished up our souvenir shopping there. Mia collects Vogues and I collect scarves from each country I visit. I started this in Germany. I wanted a good souvenir and I also wanted to start collecting things from the places I had been but I don't like trinkets and things like that so I had the idea of scarves. You can get unique scarves that represent the place you got it at and they are light and easily packable....to me the PERFECT souvenir. So at the souvenir showroom I got two beautiful scarves. After we finished our gift shopping it was lunch time and we wanted to eat at a local authentic Thai restaurant and that is what we got. The lady took us to the Bay Restaurant and we had fried rice, I had fish, and Mia (the American) had chicken. LOL! After our very filling lunch we got dropped off at the center of the main shopping area and were set free to shop till we dropped. Again, we didn't get to shop until we dropped or until we ran out of money...this time we shopped until we ran out of time. There were so many little stores and streets to go up and down we had a hard time deciding where to go. We were enjoying ourselves so much we were going to opt for a later shuttle back to the hotel and see a movie at the nearby theater but they were only showing Thai movies that day. :( That was OK though and we were very happy with all our finds. I highly recommend this area for souvenirs and just shopping in general. Here you will get a taste of Thailand's cheap prices and a variety of shops ranging from local to the tourist but this area is vastly different from it's sister Patong.
Looking out from our table at the Bay Restaurant.
OK, so the whole trip Mia had been bugging me about renting a scooter. I (being the smart one) always told her NO. First, neither one of us had ever driven one, second they drive on the "wrong" side of the road in Thailand and third they drive like maniacs and we would for sure get killed. After our trip to Phuket Town we dropped our goods off at the hotel and headed down to a little restaurant we had been told was down the road a little bit from the hotel. We took out walking and didn't know where we were going but knew it wasn't that far because our scuba instructor goes there for lunch and had described the place to us. We walked about a mile and made it to our destination and the first thing we see are two scooters for rent. GREAT!!!! Mia of course begs me to rent one for an hour or two. I thought this is a bad idea but if we are going to do it then it might as well be here. There was ZERO other vehicles around, there was a looped road that went around a deserted lake so I thought OK we can do this....take a little ride, Mia gets her way and we are all happy. All the while I am thinking this is such a bad idea. Me and two wheeled things DEFINITELY don't mix unless it is a bicycle (something I can control). I mean I had just recovered from my Segway accident in Austria where I had to go to the hospital because I passed out and quit breathing after wrecking...so I know this is a BAD idea. I go against my instincts and rent the stupid bike, grab a helmet, and we are off. Mia is driving and I am riding and we get off to a good start. We are putting along at a slow but reasonable pace around our little lake enjoying the scenery. All of a sudden we come out of this corner in the road and Mia just lets off the gas. I ask her "MIA WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GIVE IT GAS!" Then she started wobbling and we CRASH!!! Mia gets thrown forward and I on top and over her. We jump up and I am freaking out. Mia's elbows and knee are all bleeding and banged up and my hand is missing a lot of skin and my finger nail some how has been ripped back and is hanging. (lets remember Megan has very short nails so this is a hard thing to do). We make sure each is alive and then we start inspecting the damage. The mirror on the scooter is broken and the side is all scratched up but other than that we are good. We push the scooter out of the ditch and back on the road so we can figure our next move. After I get my head on straight I think CRAP NOW WE HAVE TO RIDE THE THING BACK TO THE STORE. This totally freaks me out as we have already wrecked once and I don't think we will survive the next...Mia says she is good to go so we get back on and take off back to the store a bit shaken. Mia is driving back and I am terrified we are going to die. She keeps letting off the gas. She says "I don't want to tip over in the corners". I say "We are going to tip over from NOT giving it gas!!!" I had to constantly remind her to keep giving it gas where we wouldn't tip. Thank God we got back to the store and turned the scooter in alive. All the locals were laughing at us, as it is VERY common that people are always wrecking. There is even a name for your wounds, a Phuket tattoo. We had to pay for the broken mirror and then we got a ride back to our hotel. The whole reason going for down there was to get noodles from the little Thai restaurant but we never even made it that far. LOL When we got back to the hotel they called a doctor for us and he came to patch us up. I was very upset/mad about the whole ordeal but now it is a little bit funny, but not too funny.
Can you see the little kid excitement in Mia's smile? I can!!!
Enjoying the scenery.
Our Phuket tattoos....it doesn't look like much but we were both missing a lot of skin and if we would of had any skin left we would have probably needed stitches but there really wasn't anything to stitch. My skin on my hand is finally growing back.
Looking out from our table at the Bay Restaurant.
OK, so the whole trip Mia had been bugging me about renting a scooter. I (being the smart one) always told her NO. First, neither one of us had ever driven one, second they drive on the "wrong" side of the road in Thailand and third they drive like maniacs and we would for sure get killed. After our trip to Phuket Town we dropped our goods off at the hotel and headed down to a little restaurant we had been told was down the road a little bit from the hotel. We took out walking and didn't know where we were going but knew it wasn't that far because our scuba instructor goes there for lunch and had described the place to us. We walked about a mile and made it to our destination and the first thing we see are two scooters for rent. GREAT!!!! Mia of course begs me to rent one for an hour or two. I thought this is a bad idea but if we are going to do it then it might as well be here. There was ZERO other vehicles around, there was a looped road that went around a deserted lake so I thought OK we can do this....take a little ride, Mia gets her way and we are all happy. All the while I am thinking this is such a bad idea. Me and two wheeled things DEFINITELY don't mix unless it is a bicycle (something I can control). I mean I had just recovered from my Segway accident in Austria where I had to go to the hospital because I passed out and quit breathing after wrecking...so I know this is a BAD idea. I go against my instincts and rent the stupid bike, grab a helmet, and we are off. Mia is driving and I am riding and we get off to a good start. We are putting along at a slow but reasonable pace around our little lake enjoying the scenery. All of a sudden we come out of this corner in the road and Mia just lets off the gas. I ask her "MIA WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GIVE IT GAS!" Then she started wobbling and we CRASH!!! Mia gets thrown forward and I on top and over her. We jump up and I am freaking out. Mia's elbows and knee are all bleeding and banged up and my hand is missing a lot of skin and my finger nail some how has been ripped back and is hanging. (lets remember Megan has very short nails so this is a hard thing to do). We make sure each is alive and then we start inspecting the damage. The mirror on the scooter is broken and the side is all scratched up but other than that we are good. We push the scooter out of the ditch and back on the road so we can figure our next move. After I get my head on straight I think CRAP NOW WE HAVE TO RIDE THE THING BACK TO THE STORE. This totally freaks me out as we have already wrecked once and I don't think we will survive the next...Mia says she is good to go so we get back on and take off back to the store a bit shaken. Mia is driving back and I am terrified we are going to die. She keeps letting off the gas. She says "I don't want to tip over in the corners". I say "We are going to tip over from NOT giving it gas!!!" I had to constantly remind her to keep giving it gas where we wouldn't tip. Thank God we got back to the store and turned the scooter in alive. All the locals were laughing at us, as it is VERY common that people are always wrecking. There is even a name for your wounds, a Phuket tattoo. We had to pay for the broken mirror and then we got a ride back to our hotel. The whole reason going for down there was to get noodles from the little Thai restaurant but we never even made it that far. LOL When we got back to the hotel they called a doctor for us and he came to patch us up. I was very upset/mad about the whole ordeal but now it is a little bit funny, but not too funny. 
Can you see the little kid excitement in Mia's smile? I can!!!
Enjoying the scenery.
Our Phuket tattoos....it doesn't look like much but we were both missing a lot of skin and if we would of had any skin left we would have probably needed stitches but there really wasn't anything to stitch. My skin on my hand is finally growing back.
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