Our last stop: Phuket. The first two nights, there was an outdoor market right outside our hostel, so we ate there for our dinner and stayed to watch a local artist perform. The second day, we caught a city bus and took a 40 minute ride to a beach to enjoy the sand and waves of the ocean.

Every time I have been outside this summer, I wore a short sleeve t-shirt and always wore sunscreen. So when we went to the beach, I wore a tank top and made sure to lather on my spf 50. But that didn’t matter. I still got extremely burned. But before I realized how burned I was, we still had an enjoyable time sitting on the beach and eating fresh fruit from a local vendor, and the sound of the waves and the view of the blue sky and ocean as our backdrop.

The next day, my friend went to another beach (Phuket has many), while I stayed at the hostel to nurse my tender skin. In the evening, we went exploring Phuket Old Town, which has buildings that were built much differently than the majority of buildings in Thailand. The area is good for local shops, restaurants and vendors, not to mention its excellent views.

Our last day, we went to Monkey Hill. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a bunch of monkeys at the top of the hill. We wanted to go to see a few monkeys and to see a more arial view of Phuket. We hiked for an hour, one way mind you, and didn’t make it to the top. On our way, we saw many warning signs about the monkeys. “Don’t feed the monkeys outside the designated are. Don’t take things from the monkeys or you will get bitten. Don’t feed the monkeys directly.”

So we were almost to the top of the hill when we saw our first monkey. It walked over to us, and grabbed onto my shorts. Sounds cute, right? Wrong. My friend and I didn’t have food of any sort, just water bottles. But the monkey decided to climb up my leg and hang onto my arm to try to take my water from me. Maybe it was the warning signs, but I was extremely scared. I really didn’t want to get bit and end up in the hospital for a rabies shot.

Eventually the monkey climbed down when it realized I had no food. A nearby worker walked over to us and motioned for us to hide our water under our shirts and then gave us a hefty rock to throw if the monkeys got too close. How comforting. So we decided that because we had walked all this way, we should probably go to the top and see the view. So we kept climbing. A little ways further, we saw more monkeys. It was a group of about 20, and they were making aggressive noises at each other, which is when we lost our nerve and decided to turn back. While we didn’t see the view, we decided to think of it as a good morning of exercise.

Overall, our trip was filled with a variety of explorations, views, and delicious food. Most importantly, I was glad to be able to take one last trip with a good friend before I left this side of the world.