Woke up pretty early but the torrential rains kept me inside until nearly eleven. Walked around town a little then had lunch and caught a bus to Patong - the most developed resort area on the island. Patong was a bit strange it felt a lot like Cairns, almost not at all like Thailand.
I spent the afternoon evening wandering around shopping for a live aboard dive trip to the Similan Islands (up north, near the border of Burma). There aren't that many options as most of the charters don't start running until next month. Plus I've been thinking I have nearly two weeks to get back to Bangkok, while when I sat down and looked at the calendar it's really just one week, so I need to find a 3 / 4 / 5 day trip leaving in the next couple days. There were several options, so since I didn't really have any recommendations I went with the longest one for the least amount of money per day. After finally booking the trip I found a travel agent and purchased a flight back to Bangkok for the 30th. That will give me a couple days to shop and hang out before I fly to Tokyo. While doing all that walking I also did some shopping - and bought sixteen CDs! Can't beat under $3 each.
I had dinner then started waiting for the bus. I really wasn't sure where to catch it, so I waited on the street where I thought I'd seen it go by earlier. After waiting 45 minutes I decided that it must not run at night, so I hired one of the golf-cart like taxis to take me back to Phuket Town.
