In Phuket!

Hi everyone! I am safely arrived and settled in in my hostel.  Could not be more relieved!! It's like every bit of fear and worry I had building up week before this trip is just gone! There's just no more anxiety.  I'll give a little play by play for how the rest of trip went for those who are interested.  Basically after that horribly long flight, I landed in Taipei and was feeling a little bit anxious because I hadn't slept and really didn't know what I was doing.  (Still haven't slept...but you go through phases of being functional and disfunctional..) I got some beef stew for breakfast because that's all I could find...haha it was so spicy I could barely eat it!!! I just realized that was this morning, really doesn't feel like it.  It feels like I've been traveling for weeks... but anyways I boarded the flight to Bangkok and once I got to Bangkok I started to freak out because the flight had departed a little late and I only had an hour or so to go through immigration, get my bag, re-check in, go through security again, get some thai baht, and get my phone running with a new SIM card.  I did it though and I made the flight in time! When I landed in Phuket it was about 3 pm Thai time, which is 4 am east coast time... I was starting to feel the jetlag hard. I was actually worried that I would be functional enough to get a taxi through the mobs of people and get to where I was supposed to be, but I did it! It was actually very confusing...I swear there are like a hundred taxi drivers waiting right when you walk out, how are you supposed to know which ones to pick?! I went to a taxi booth, they wrote on a slip and basically gestured me out to the traffic filled street. I really had no idea where I was supposed to go at all. It was kind of embaressing.  Once I found the guy who was supposed to drive me he didn't know where the hostel was.  So we're driving, and I'm all wide eyed and freaking out at the scenery wizzing by the window, and the taxi driver is like whizzing through cars.  No one drives in a straight line, it was terrifying.  They just honk and hope for the best I guess.  I could not wait to get out of that car... the guy called the hostel and found the way there but there is a huge market going on outside and there's hardly room for a car to get through.  So we get to the hostel and he's like "ok here you go!" and I didn't even know how to get out of the car...there were people and things and rabid dogs EVERYWHERE! I didn't even know where the hostel was! I grabbed my stuff, said thanks, and stood there like an idiot.  The hostel was right behind me, it's just like hidden from all the market booths.  It's hard to describe but there are photos on my facebook page if you want a better picture! 

Checked into the hostel, tried not to fall asleep, changed my clothes and set out to get some food.  I tried a lot of good and weird stuff but it didn't even matter cuz everything is like less than a dollar. It's all kind of weird tasting... but in a good way.  I 've just never tasted food like this in my life.  Now I'm just hanging out in the common room, the hostel is set up so it's like completely exposed to the street, so there is a breeze and we can see all that's going on outside and stuff.  There's a lot of really cool people here, solo travelers like me at this time, and everyone is so nice and it's just fun to sit with each other and talk about random stuff. That's all for now, more later!