GO CROATIA GO!!!!!

I have to admit, I'm not as positive about tonight's game as I could be that's for sure.. I am certainly trying though to stay positive and hopefully Croatia will give me a reason to go and celebrate on Bang La road!

So right now my lovely lady and I are nestled comfortably in a small inn off of the main stretch in Patong Beach.. it is in the Southwestern part of Phuket Island, and one of the many beach residences strewn out in the area. Other stretches of beach are Kata, Karon, and one that is now eluding me. In any event, much to our suprise, we've discovered that this area has so much more to it than Puket town.. We almost struggled to find a place in Phuket Town, and you would figure that a city like atmosphere would provide more options. This place is a whole other ball game. I've seen more aussies, germans, chinese, and thai he-shes here than anywhere else. And lemme tell you, when they shut down Bang-La road from traffic, after 10pm its a brew-ha-ha-ha0oooooooo-ha.. the streets are littered with people walking all over the place, merchants selling their wares, and people falling over onto the sidewalk drunk as skunks.. quite amusing..

At first I was a little concerned as to how a whole bunch of people that pack these little bars could stay ruly.. apparently its not too much of a problem.. everyone seems to be having fun and lettin the good times roll. The aussies went completely bonkers last night with the late 3-1 victory over Japan.. whatta game!! Maria's already getting fed up with me and soccer, but to her I simply say "PSH".. Its WORLD CUP BABY!!!!! :D

We've really enjoyed it here so far at Patong, and we're really finally starting to feel a lot more comfortable here in Thailand. Mia's even started to eat more Thai food, which I was sketipcal would happen at first. Not that she doesn't like the spice, more just that she's not a huge meat fan. However, lately, we've had some of the best meals that 5 dollars can buy. Yes, we've had meals like whole crab in green curry paste, fried rice and mixed vegetables, and chicken and red curry with sides of rice and beer for .. get this.. 7 dollars. And though the food is cheap, it is nothing short of completely and utterly delicious.. smelling fingers after 7 hours and they still smell like curry is a treat I will surely miss.

We feel a little bad that we hadn't figured this out sooner.. "eat where the Thais eat" is our newly discovered mantra. The food is fantastic, and we constantly are finding new places to score awesome dishes.. Dad, the squid is plentiful, and when they serve it up simmered with Garlic and Pepper, you'd think you died and gone to heaven. YEOW!

Also, since we've been here, we finally have caved and decided to do a little shopping. We had planned to save this until we got to Chiang Mai, as they apparently have the best wares, and we beleive, best prices. While walking around town, we discovered the "Paradise Market".. now, most of these shops all carry the same sort of things.. if you want plates, shoes, billabong shirts (oh my god.. enough with the Billabong). We decided to go and take a look at one of the 1,576,392 Tailor shops that line the streets of Thailand, to see what kind of stuff we could get tailor made for us. I'm proud to announce that I stood my ground in the face of high prices, and decided not to succumb to the temtation of paying too much for a couple shirts and/or an overcoat. Unfortunately, I couldn't save myself and Maria at the same time... I had to let her go. And GO SHE WENT!!.. Check this.. she managed to grab a *custom made* blouse, pair of pants, and overcoat, made with silk/cashmere for $100 Canadian. Moms, you have to hand it to us.. that is a smashing deal. We just came from fitting #1, and we have to go back at 10:30 tonight for the fitting of the pants. Mia's super excited, and I am too because she is going to look stunning in these new threads. For me, I found another tailor that boasts on the front door "5 shirts - $70". I'll be making a stop there on the way back from here to "do business", and hopefully I won't be paying $70 ;)

Oh, and I almost forgot.. as someone who has never really gone surfing or boogie boarding, I've never had the privilege of playing at a beach where there is a lot of surf crashing in constantly.. well that all changed today when we headed for the beach about 2 minutes from our room.. man oh man, I didn't think it could be so fun splashing around like an idiot in the water, but today I found out that I still have a whole lotta kid left in me.. and I'm turning 25 this year?? Bah.. can't be true.

Anyways, I will be posting pics again in the next few days once we get to a computer that I can do so on. To sum up our upcoming travel, we have booked our tickets from Phuket Airport to Bangkok for this Saturday, and plan to spend about a week in Bangkok. From there we have also booked our flight to Luang Prabang in Laos, and are totally stoked for yet another change of pace. After that, we will be making our way back to Thailand, and head lastly up to the North to Chiang Mai, which we're also very excited about. Once we finish there, we head down to Bangkok, and on the 15th of July leave this wonderful place to go to another wonderful place.. GREECE!!!! YEAHH!!!!!!! Maria's been getting me hugely excited about the Acropolis which I'm absolutely DYING to see, and to eat all that the Greeks have to offer.. thank god for my abnormally high metabolism!!!!!

Aight, I think that should suffice for now.. hope everyone is doing so well, and thanks again for following along with our travels.. it truly makes our day every time that we log on and see all the comments.. keep em up!!

Much Luv & Fisherman's Pants..
Vlad & Mia