Tacos, Thongs and Donut Thievery!

There is a baby gecko living somewhere in our room. I saw him run under the table, and went to yell "Je-!"...so to save myself from almost taking the Lord's name in vain, I named him Gippetto. I haven't seen him since, but he's welcome in here, to keep Derek entertained and to eat the bugs, if there are any. There is a big toad that lives in the kitchen too. He's yellow and black and bumpy. According to Anne, he comes out each morning, though I've only been up early enough to see him once.

Yesterday, we said good bye to our friend, Anne, as we dropped her at the Phuket airport. We're hoping to visit her again later in the year in Taiwan, where she'll be in school with two of our other new friends, Brandon and Zach. To celebrate her departure, we made tacos with homemade tortillas. We even took the extra dough and made sopapillas! She's an excellent cook. Then, we watched a "questionably acquired" Sherlock Holmes (an excellent movie, if you can stick with it until the end) and "borrowed" some other movies from her vast collection.

We struggled with directions from Gai to get to the massive grocery store in Phuket where the center does its shopping once a month (Tesco Lotus). Derek offered to drive, bless him, because I get so frustrated driving in cities. While shopping, I got a sample of a mini donut they had set out, and grabbed one for Derek too. Like the Garden of Eden, when we walked passed the area before leaving, we took one more sample apiece, complete with frosting, while the girl stared at us in disbelief. We learned from Gai at lunch while recounting our adventures that those were NOT samples, and that we had just stolen 4 donuts - and done it right to their face! We were horrified. In line to check out, I got scolded for not getting bar codes for our fruit, so I had to run back to the area and have a gentleman show me how to weigh the food and print the receipt. Who'da thunk?!

We went to the mall and I finally landed some painting supplies. We saw a tourist with a VERY see-through dress and a very visable thong underneath. It was a bathing suit cover up that she was wearing without anything under it...unbelievable! Did I mention that our more recent trips to the beach have revealed very topless older German women? I'm wondering, especially at that age, what benefit it could be to tan your breasts? Ugh...I shudder to think!

Most tourists here are from Germany and the Nordic states, with very blonde hair. They are ALL a red-tan color, where they've either pushed their tans over the limit, or they all burned sooo badly when they first arrived and by the time their vacation is about to end, they finally turn a sort of red-tan.

And, lastly, I have a huge crush on the mannequins here. They have electric colored hair and the SCARIEST faces you've ever seen. They're like dainty clown women. Observe: