Following....

A night at the Phuket market goes like this:

Round 1: "Hey Lady! You shopper? Canada? Aussie? Come look at store! (I simply flick my eyes towards a stand of watches) You want watch? Yes, very nice for you! I give you good deal. Very nice for your wrist. Colourful. Good price for lady. You buy two, better!"

Round 2: "Hey Miss! I make good price for you! Come look at my store! I give you best deals. You want bikini? Jeans? Lacoste? Dolce and Gabana? Chanel? Pajamas? Bikini? Sarong? Tshirt? Dress? I make you best price Miss!"

Round 3: (I walk through, ignoring the calls carrying a big bottle of water) "Hey girl! You from canada eh? What you want tonight? (I ignore) Only water? You shop only water? (He then makes a joke to his friend across the way) Hey! This girl Canada only buy water, no more, just water. She only water shopper. Hey Canada! Come look in my shop!"

This was last night when we did a mini shopping spree at the Phuket market. It gets so tiring! Everywhere here people hassel for suits, taxis, food, everything.
At this market I did manage to pick up some fake lacoste tank tops for $3 each as well as a skirt for the same price and a bikini for roughly $12. Everything looks so real, as if I'm wearing a real $50 lacoste tshirt! ha. I needed some new clothes...the same four shirts were getting a tad old.

Phuket is like cancun except cooler. (not heat wise, I swear my clothes I handwashed and hung on our balcony dried in about 20 minutes flat) Big resorts everywhere, rich americans and europeans line the beaches topless and in speedos( both extremely frowned upon by me and the Thai), expensive restaurants and miles of sand. It's nice, don't get me wrong, but unless I'm staying in the 5 star Hilton on the beach and eating Barracuda every night, then I don't want it! The other night while with our Swiss friends (who we ran into again here), Nadja and Benni, we were stopped and managed (all four of us) to convince a thai guy named Rocky who was trying to sell us something that we were from the Czech Republic and that all three of us girls were dating Benni. We taught him some 'czech' words and everything. He was stunned that Benni had all three of us. It was very funny, and we were very convincing! My pseudo Czech name was Gretchen.

I have made the hard decision to head back to Koh Tao and do some more dive courses, perhaps even my dive master there. Something is calling me back strongly, and since my Chinese New Year fortune cookie that I opened at the YVR airport said, "Follow the advice of your heart," I think I should maybe listen to that little voice telling me to do it....so i am! I leave in an hour, with a 5 hour bus ride, then a 5 hour ferry terminal layover, then an 8 hour overnight ferry... Yippie! Back to the fabulous island where I don't have to wear my shoes inside any restaurants and stores and where the stars are so bright and firedancers are on the beaches at night, and cushions and mats line the sand for people to eat dinner under the moon and the green mountains and scooters and cute stores and jumbo prawns on the beach, and and and ah! ....And of course, the 'world class diving' (as advertised on the lonely planet right now!) Yes, I guess I could say that I'm extremely happy with my descision. It's time for a change and I'm about to make it. Stay tuned!