Today we started by just exploring the town and the beach. It is very clean here. Phuket is Thailand's ricketiest providence and unfortunately very touristy. After booking an island trip for tomorrow we ate lunch. The food and lodging here is very cheap. We are paying $10 a night for a great room and about $2 to $5 for each meal (total for the two of us). After lunch we hired a taxi for four hours to take us around the island. We checked out all the beaches and even found a bird pet store and a fish/pond pet store. We visited one of the world greatest sea shell museums. They had some very expensive and rare shells in the gift shop. There is very little tsunami damage left, but in the poorer parts of town it is still fairly obvious that something bad happened. Our cab driver spoke very little English, but we had a great time. Every night they have a farmer's market type thing down the street from our hotel. It has fantastic Thai food. For dinner we had banana waffles, and sticky rice with mango, it was great.
