Phuket

We're now in Phuket (which means that we've officially started the Thai Islands portion of our trip - YAY! Definitely ready for some beach action!) Morgan arrives today, which is very exciting! We are staying in Phuket just because of the one day delay between the time Sara and I got to the south and the day Morgan arrives, but we actually happen to have found a guesthouse that's 5 minutes from the airport and a 10 minute walk to a GORGEOUS beach! Yesterday Sara was starting to feel a bit under the weather, so she took a nap in our room after we got settled and I journeyed down to the beach to check it out. I didn't know what to expect because we had heard that Phuket is sort of a dump and not to waste time here. Well I dont know what the rest of Phuket is like, but this beach is amazing!!! White sand streatching in all directions and crystal clear turquoise water and it was practically deserted! I took a swim and then drank a Pina Colada under a big blue umbrella and felt like I was in some sort of commercial for vacations in Thailand. hehe. And it will be far better of course when Sara and Morgan are there. On our last day in Vang Vieng we decided to kayak from Vang Vieng to Vientien instead of taking a four hour bus. It was so beautiful! Sara and I shared a double kayak and we were the only ones to capsize during the one big rapid. It was good fun though and the guides were very good at helping us get all our stuff and gather ourselves onto shore. Then we spent the night in Vientien, which is the capitol of Laos, but not a very beautiful city. It was the day of Obama's inauguration (night our time) and so we were both so excited we went out for a fancy dinner and were cheersing each other giddily with each sip of our beer. There was a huge firework display that night over the capitol fountains and, after asking around and finding that nobody knew why there were fireworks, we are convinced it was in honor of Obama (perhaps a little self-centered American of us, but in this case, I think we might be right). Although the inauguration didn't actually start until after midnight our time and we had to leave for our flight to Phuket at 5 AM, I couldn't sleep and so stayed up watching the speech on our teeny tiny hotel TV until after 1 AM. It was great! We are so happy! OK, well that's all for now. Sara's trying to put some pictures up so hopefully that works. Love, Sarah