admittedly, we weren't terribly thrilled about phuket when we first arrived. airport congestion, higher cab fares started the rocky trip. and then as we progressed along the main strips near our hotel, we were met with much seediness, quite akin to that of vegas.

but, the beach was there to placate us, and our first sighting of it was at sunset, so that improved our first impression of phuket.

we were initially going to have a big christmas dinner on actual christmas day, but most establishments were going all out on the eve so we hit that up. we actually ran into 2 cali boys that we met in chiang mai and tried asking for their advice on where to find a good traditional xmas din, but they were like 'actually we're both jewish', once again blocking any future conversation. fail. fortunately, with kimberley's guidance (the chick we met while we were ziplining), we checked out one of the american chain hotels to see what their specials were. and lo and behold, we hit the jackpot.

the food selection was too extensive and too delicious for me to actually remember where we ate. but we made out like bandits. not only did they have a carving station with a whole turkey (i was so set on getting dark meat!!!), it included roast beef, ham, and several other meats. PLUS there were several other stations, amazing appetizers, wonderful desserts... oh man, all of our activity in chiang mai definitely went out the window with this one.

nonetheless, we still hit up an extravagant dinner on xmas, some seafood by the waterfront. we did have a spring roll delivery to our beach chairs earlier in the day by a dude singing "spri-ing rolls, spri-ing rolls" to the tune of jungle bells. but that was not enough to take us through the evening. it's very nice to have a friend that has very similar eating habits and zero dietary restrictions like you when you're travelling. it made our meals plenty easy. with this plate we were able to substitute crab instead of fish, so we got our own serving of it!
since we were seated by the water, we saw a bunch of lanterns go off over the beach and it was an enchanting sight.
and because we're fatasses, we indulged in gelato afterward and then agreed that this was the last expensive meal we would have for the rest of our trip. a great xmas present for us indeed.