We checked into our hotel for the night just before 10 pm. As luck would have it we had a great local Thai restaurant 50m from our hotel and I can tell you that when they say the food is spicy, it's very spicy. In fact, it was so spicy it looked like I had just come in from the rain. We thought to ourselves let just take a quick walk to the Seven Eleven to get a sim card so that we could tell the folks back home that we arrived safely. As we are fairly familiar with the area from our honeymoon five months ago it was easy to navigate. We headed down this little alleyway and stumbled on this great piece of graffiti.
Half way to the shop we were stopped by a French couple looking for directions to a good restaurant, so we told them about the amazing food we had just experienced around the corner. After we had been to the shop we got stopped by an Irish man, "hey are you guys from South Africa?" I guess accents can do that right. After a nice chat, we decided that we would turn in for an early night. As we got to our hotel door we just wanted to make sure that we were certain that we really know the area and as faith would have it, we stumbled upon a tiny bar and only the owners were in playing some acoustic jams. We figured we're here and they have no one to play for so we joined them for a drink.
A few minutes later a Thai couple enters and then the Frenchies from earlier. One drink became two and before long we had made some good friends. After the bar closed the Thai couple asked if we would like to join for one last drink at a bar down the road that also became two where we enjoyed some more live music.
The bar had to close at 2 am but not before they offered us some amazing rice soup. I never even knew this stuff existed but now I can tell you if you see it on a menu, get some - you won't regret it. All of this on our first night back, so much for an early night... Not only did we meet some really awesome people but my wife even has a potential job offer to teach English here in Phuket. On a side note, this is one of the reasons we are here to look for a potential place to live and work in Thailand. Our experience on the first night just goes to show that Thailand is one of the most friendly and welcoming places in the world and it really lives up to its name.
