After my fairly short journey, and Megan’s 20-hour journey, we were finally reunited at Phuket International Airport. Unfortunately our driver had been waiting there for an hour, due to Megan’s delayed flight. But alas, we jumped in the cab and drove off toward our hotel and the beginning of an epic vacation.

We were taken care of immediately upon arriving at the hotel— they grabbed our bags and served us pink, magical concoctions in a glass adorned with a purple flower. Shortly thereafter, we were given a tour of the grounds… a massive pool with a swim-up bar, massages offered at the hotel spa, an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and free drink tickets for the hotel bar.

We were hungry after navigating the airport and our 1-hour taxi ride, so we immediately ventured out to try our first authentic Thai food. We settled on a Thai/Indian restaurant nearby the hotel and feasted on pad thai, garlic chicken, green curry, and succulent mango juice. Outside, it poured and I worried that the forecast I had seen was true… thunderstorms all-day every day. I thought the rain would let up, but it continued to pour. In a fully-satiated, post-lunch stupor, we walked back in the rain and napped.

Once we woke up, we decided to check out Bangla Road, a street known for bars, clubs, and racy performances. I was told by a coworker that I needed to see a “ping pong show” because it’s a fascinating once-in-a-lifetime experience where women pull objects out of their vaginas. As soon as we started down the wild street, people approached us with signs claiming the show was free with the purchase of one drink. I was a little concerned we were being scammed, but I hadn’t paid for anything yet, so we followed the man to a club. The price of “one drink” was outrageously high for just one drink. I bargained the bartender down quite a bit, but it still seemed too high for the famous low prices of Thailand, so she suggested we go to a cheaper show downstairs. In the short time we spent bartering, we saw a woman doing a handstand on stage with a smoke cannon coming out of her genitalia. We followed the man to the bar downstairs and were surprised when we apparently walked in on the “fucking show,” which was not what we signed up for! There, on the stage, was a man and woman wearing nothing but mardi-gras style masks over their eyes, bouncing to the rhythm of the music. We walked out on a rush of adrenaline, not knowing that we would see what we just saw, even if it was for less than 60 seconds. We weaved through people holding signs for all kinds of licentious shows— Russian girls, lady boys— there was something for everyone’s taste.

We thought Bangla Road was just a little too much for us that day, so we decided to walk up Patong Beach back toward where we came. A couple of guys from Iran approached us and we had no idea what they were saying, so I pulled Megan down the coastline and said we had to go, leaving them and their cigarettes behind. We dodged little crabs as the water lapped at our toes. Looking out on the dark water, I couldn’t wait to see it in daylight. Even though Bangla was slightly overwhelming, I still wasn’t quite ready to go to bed. On our walk back we found a chess set with large pieces that you have to pick up with both hands to move. I challenged Megan to a game. Neither of us had played chess in a long time, and we both forgot if the king can move one or two spaces. We played for a while, and eventually a guy sat down nearby, watching us play. I thought to myself how bad he must think we are given we had no knowledge of the strategy of chess, a very strategic game. Once we finished, he offered to play us. We agreed, and the game was on.

I swear he could have beaten us so many times, but somehow we won. He said he was going to give us three chances to win and we moved the right piece on the first chance he gave us, forcing him into checkmate. He was so good at chess that he actually cornered us, but then still had the skill to give us an opportunity to win. I couldn’t believe we had checkmate after how many pieces we had lost.

Soon we called it a night, but we got his name and What’s App for a potential reunion later in the week. His name was Nassim and he was here from Morocco.

It was easy to fall asleep that night after a long and eventful day. In the morning, we took advantage of the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. A salad bar, pastries, Thai food, pancakes, bacon, waffles, an assortment of juices, and chefs preparing made-to-order eggs lined the counters. It was such a welcome break from the Family Mart snacks I eat every morning in Taiwan. We stacked our plates with fried noodles, hash browns, and fresh fruit as we caught up on our lives over the past year. With Megan, there’s always so much to talk about.

It was still rainy, and I got even more concerned about the forecast, so we hung out for a little bit in the room and then I decided we should go to the pool bar anyway because it’s covered… plus when you’re in the water it doesn’t matter if water is coming from the sky, you’re already wet. Fortunately by the time we had our swimsuits on and got downstairs, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and it was the first great weather of our trip. We ordered drinks at the pool bar, and, being eager to check out the beach, we bolted for Patong, just a block away. Patong Beach is a 2-km, white sand beach, and it’s the busiest in Phuket. Since we’d just be there for about an hour, I thought why not check it out? Our cooking class started at 4 p.m., so there was hardly enough time to get sunburned.

Wrong. I did get sunburned that day, despite lathering on sunscreen. In the heat, humidity, and water, I swear it all comes off. Then we took quick showers and walked about 15 minutes to Pum’s Thai Cooking School. Our class would be 3 hours long, and it was just a 4-person class, so it was very personal. We were paired with two other Americans who were currently on break from teaching in Dubai. R2D2, our hilarious teacher, said he got his English name because his dad liked Star Wars so much. He knew a ton about Thai cooking, but he was actually from the Philippines! When we came in, we each picked three dishes each that we wanted to make. He taught us that in Thai food, lime, lemon, and tamarin can be used to create the sour flavor; fish sauce (nam pla), soy sauce, salt, and shrimp paste can be used to create the salty flavor; brown sugar, white sugar, palm sugar, and honey can be used to create the sweet flavor; and chili flakes and chili powder can be used to create the spicy flavor. If something is too spicy, add sweet (and vice versa). If something is too sour, add salty (and vice versa).

Then he told us about the various sauces in Thai food. There were a lot of them! He explained that fish sauce is made from salt, sardines, bamboo, and the juice from fish meat. He also said that oyster sauce is made from oyster mushrooms and caramel. He let us try all of the sauces he described.

We headed over to the four electric burners to start the first dish we selected. The ingredients were all measured out for us. I was making pad thai. I finally realized why my noodles were so bad the last time I tried to make them! Apparently you’re supposed to soak them in water for 20 minutes beforehand, and then only boil them for 7 seconds! The veggies were also only put into boiling water for 7 seconds.

The whole dish was done so fast, I couldn’t believe it. I mixed the noodles, veggies and sauce, topped it with a fried egg, and garnished it with peanuts. It was done! We covered that plate to keep it hot and began preparation for stage two: red and green curry.

R2D2 taught us that the green pepper is deceivingly hotter than the red pepper. He also explained that the seeds are not the hottest part of a pepper… it’s actually the membrane inside the pepper and since the seeds touch it, that’s why they appear to be the hottest part. The seeds themselves are not actually hot, it’s only because they’ve been touching the membrane that it seems that way. We combined red Serrano peppers, chopped lemongrass, Thai shallot, garlic, chili oil, salt, galangal, and the leaves of a Kaffir lime with a pestle and mortar.

He mentioned that in your kitchen, you can use a food processor. However, in the class, it was much more fun with the pestle and mortar because we each got a chance to mash the ingredients and sing a silly song while we did it. We attracted looks from people eating at the restaurant, but we didn’t care. Then we did the same thing for the green curry paste, just adding vegetable oil and Thai sweet basil. He told us that a 1/2 tsp of the green curry paste is a “child” level of spice, 1 tsp is mild, 1 tbs is medium, 2 tbs is spicy, and 3+ tbs is extremely spicy.

We headed back to the electric burners where we cooked the ingredients for our red and green curries.

After we covered those, we made our third dishes. My third dish was Tom Kha Gai, a flavorful coconut soup. I cooked the chicken, added the coconut milk, combined the ingredients, and after no time it was finished. I drizzled it with chili oil on top to make it look fancy.

We took all of our dishes over to the table (twelve!) and dug in. It ended up being too much food, but our cooking partners were cool and we all got to try each other’s creations. It was a fantastic class, and I’ll definitely be making Thai food when I get back to the US! Thai food has such great flavors and it really doesn’t take that long to make.

Megan and I were full and headed back to the hotel, pointing out ice cream shops and massage parlors on the way back for later in the week. We fell asleep easily, planning on Paradise Beach the following day, a secluded beach famous for great snorkeling. It was a wonderful start to the trip.