ooo, burn

Today, I spent much of the day on the beach in Phuket.

How often do I get to say that? I mean, really. Phuket is lovely - the parts with the water are simply drop-dead gorgeous, in fact. It's also stiflingly, oppressively hot. It's a toss up which one of those is what I mostly think about Phuket, and it shifts moment to moment. Really, pretty, but really hot. Why didn't someone tell me I was going to Thailand in its hottest month? It's Thailand; I can barely handle the coolest one.

Oh well. I'm managing. There was a girl on my flight from Singapore, who then showed up on my airport bus, and when we got off, we realized we were going to the same place. We've been on the same schedule ever since, and had dinner last night - the only place we could find in Phuket Town that was serving food at that time was a swanky air-con hotel restaurant, so we coughed up the $5 for dinner. Today, we took one of the buses to the beach. We meant to go to Kata, but couldn't figure out where to get off, so we ended up at Karon instead. I've never been to Kata, but Karon is gorgeous; exactly what a Thai beach was supposed to be, with this clear and shimmery blue-green water that you an just walk out in until it's shoulder high. The beach is lined with deck chairs with umbrellas that you rent for the day; shade is worth any price to me on the beach, but it was still really cheap to do.

Still got burned, though. I blame it on a combination of factors. I was under the umbrella the whole time, which lured me to a false sense of security; my sunblock (stupid Australia) is merely "30+" which is clearly inadequate; and it's also quite thick, so I didn't spread it around well. This last is very obvious, because my burn is this fabulously blotchy mess all over. I have a burn patch on my ankle, and one on the side of my knee. I think I had my watch on when I put on sunblock and then took it off, so my white watch patch burned. The sun was on my right, so the outside of one thigh has pink, as does under my arm on that side. All of it is jaggedly ringed with white where I did manage to apply enough block. I look STUNNING, and it's only after 4 hours on the beach. I've got days to go yet - I will be a patchy lobster by the time I am done at this rate. I need some SPF 50.