RPMs & ZZZs

We went to bed early Sunday night as we had set our alarm clock for 5:30am. I fell asleep after a ½ hour but awoke at 12:41 am to a raging storm. I could hear rain lashing our balcony windows and wind whipping through the trees. Lightning struck across the sky with thunder in quick succession. A few minutes later, a huge boom rang outside our hotel. I didn’t see it at the time but Mackenzie saw the red flare from the explosion. It seems a power transformer blew out or was struck by lightning. Two more loud explosions went off in the next ten minutes, but thankfully I fell back asleep around 1am and slept right until our alarm. Sadly, Mackenzie didn’t fare so well during the night’s storm and only fared about 90 minutes of sleep.
When I arose at 5:30am, the sunlight was just starting to peak over the horizon and I snapped a few nice photos. We checked-out, packed the car, and drove over to Nathon Pier again to catch our 7am ferry. Our reservation required us to be there at 6:30am and we only got there 3 minutes early, but we were still the 2nd car in line for our ferry. The boat ride was great as we both got our own row of 5 seats and took naps listening to our iPods.
As we drove off the pier in Donsak, we had roughly 400 kms to Phuket and an amazing road for ½ of that distance. Mackenzie laid down her passenger seat, grabbed my pillow and Cathay Pacific blanket, turned on her iPod, and passed out. I turned on to the four lane highway with little traffic, turned up the “Great Country Playlist” on my iPod, and proceeded to enjoy the drive. I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason I drive about 5mph over in the states isn’t a respect for the law, but a fear of punishment. The whole traffic school, $100, insurance hassles aren’t worth speeding. In Thailand, punishment consists of a $5US or less fine if I were to get pulled over. In our 1500kms on the highways of Thailand, I think I saw one police officer. For the next hour plus, I drove about 160 kms/hr, peaking on downhills at 185kms/hr and pushing our little car to the max. Our gas mileage stunk (we almost ran out) but it was lots of fun to drive fast. The second ½ of the trip was on two-lane roads (thus slower) and then a winding 4-lane road through the hills that was a blast to drive. I found another Honda cruising at similar speeds and we played rabbit for the last 80 kms.
About 1 km after crossing the bridge onto Phuket Island, we ran into a total downpour. This was exactly the reason that we had delayed our arrival in Phuket. The weather was supposed to be cloudy and rainy and forecast didn’t disappoint. It was raining so hard that visibility was a couple hundred feet and the roads were totally backed up with flooding and pooled water over a foot deep. We slowly made our way across the island to Patong Beach on the west coast and with an educated guess of my internal compass drove directly to the hotel without a map or any help. Since Singapore my sense of direction has been working great.