If Malaysia brought me back to those aspects of Western culture that I love and revel in, and Singapore brought me back to my bored suburban roots, then Phuket served to highlight all the things about Western culture that make me want to move to an isolated island and disassociate myself from humanity.
Thailand is supposed to be a fantastic place to visit. Beautiful people, beautiful culture, beautiful beaches, amazing food... I didn't care for it.
Just like there is no 'real' China, I'm sure there's no real Thailand. That said, there are always flavours of a country that seep through, regardless of where you go, but I'm pretty sure that in a place where the only person of colour in an given restaurant was my half-Japanese traveling companion, I didn't get it. The town of Phuket spreads across the entire island right down to the beautiful beaches marred only by the masses of red-skinned tourists sporting the unfortunate braids found in resort towns everywhere. Rows upon rows of streets full of shops, each touting almost identical shell necklaces, watches designed to stop within minutes of purchase and knock-off Billabong shirts compete with restaurants which serve less authentic Thai food than I've had in Canada. Who would have thought that Pad Thai could taste so much like spaghetti?
And, I caught a cold. It's hard to like a place that gives you a runny nose.
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