Things Get A Little Weird On The Ride To Phuket Town [Season 1, Episode 28]

Full Show Script [witty things] EVO: We were in a bit of a funk last week, as you likely noticed. SHE: And the word "funk" is being generous. We were getting downright depressed. EVO: So to get out of the funk, and to keep our promise of new scenery, we hopped on a bus for a five-ish hour ride down to Phuket. [welcome to Phuket] SHE: See? We're in a better mood already.  EVO: Gill and Yince, the names we mentioned in that last clip, are two of the dozen or so expats we've met over the last 2 months we've spent in Ranong, Thailand. They meet as a big group every week -- twice a week, actually -- for beer, food, and conversation. OK, mostly beer. And food. The conversation is interesting, as they're all speaking English with a host of different accents. Currently, we're the only American accents in the bunch. SHE: Our original intention was to bring you some of the interviews with those guys -- the Ranong Throng as Evo calls them. But we're pretty sure at least some of them are on the lam. No international incidents, remember?  EVO: But getting back to our five-ish hour bus ride to Phuket: As the bus made its way through the northern part of the island -- Phuket is both a town and an island -- Sheila had this observation: [not greyhound] SHE: Hey, you can't say you were not entertained. And not only by what was inside the bus, but what you saw outside. [billboards] EVO: Bizarre advertising aside, Phuket was really, really great. Three days of glorious sunshine, fantastic beaches of both the crowded and hidden variety. And no rain. SHE: Normally, I'd chastise you for being redundant by saying sunshine and no rain, but I'm letting it slide. Because we had three glorious days of sunshine and no rain! It's a good thing we didn't move to Portland. Like I told you. EVO: But there's one more thing we saw as we drove through Phuket that we need to talk about. SHE: It'll be the last clip of this shortened show. Shorter shows are much, much easier on Evo, which helps his mood. Which, clearly, helps mine. EVO: Our mood was also helped by a couple of outside factors: I had two  articles published, one on TravelSmith's blog (disclosure: they are a sponsor of ours) and one on The Huffington Post. If you've not read them or commented on them, please do. Our ability to drive traffic to the things we write on 3rd party sites keeps them happy with us. Which helps our mood big time. SHE: Also, we had several more friends sign up to get a post card from us. Mindi, Charlie, Lisa, Chad, and Marc... thank you so much for helping keep us afloat. It makes a huge difference! We can't wait to send your post cards next month, probably from Burma! EVO: But back to the last bus-based experience in Phuket: [elephants] SHE: No, this episode is way too goofy to deal with the elephant issue.  EVO: True. There's nothing funny about the plight of the elephants in Thailand. If we're going to cover the problem -- a problem quite frankly that most people don't know about and inadvertently contribute to -- we need to do it right. That'll be next week's show. SHE: That's a good plan. EVO: You know, it's too bad we didn't get any audio of almost getting squashed by the semi truck in Phuket. I'll write a blog post about it tomorrow. I know we keep saying Thailand is trying to kill us. But... yeah. Cheers from Thailand! SHE: Funding for our endless world tour is provided, oddly enough, by postcards. EVO: Give us five bucks, and we'll send you a hand-written postcard from our travels abroad every single month. Get on the list at ShEvo.wtf/postcards.  SHE: And we save a ton of money by housesitting. It's free and beats living in hotels. Want super cool people like us looking after your pets and property while you're traveling? Visit ShEvo.wtf/stayforfree to register, either as a housesitter or a home owner. We do it, and we love it! Thanks for listening to this episode. I’m Sheila Dee.  EVO: And I am Evo Terra. Our theme music is "On...