Day 2 in Phuket was quite the exciting day! Back in Tokyo, L and I had been talking about hiring a photographer in Thailand. We wanted beachy photos, but not overly corny – photos that showed our true colors. That’s when we found Gina Smith from Gina Smith Photography. We fell in love with her website and portfolio and booked her right away! We talked over e-mail about ideas, then chose a date and a time to meet once we were in Phuket. Since we were only there a few days before moving to Koh Samui, we prayed the weather would co-operate with us since our photoshoot was set to take place in the morning. We were pretty bummed when we woke up to an overcast day, but we had faith the weather would clear up. We decided to spend the early morning eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant and lounging by the pool before cleaning up.
Needless to say, the breakfast was mmmmmm delicious. And the coffee? HEAVENLY.
The pool relaxing session was absolutely worth it to calm our nerves. This was our first “photoshoot” ever, but we got to spend the morning where we love the most – in the water. And what do you know? While we were splashing around, the sun started to peek out and we were getting super giddy. L ended the pool session with a quick gym work out and a beer, while I showered and got ready before my hair+make-up artist showed up. L and I are both fans of the Thai beer – Singha! Super refreshing and delicious, if any of you are interested 😉
At the last minute, I decided to look into a hair + make-up artist in Phuket. The reason I waited so long is that make-up is another hobby I’ve invested a lot of time (and money….) in. I thought I would do it myself but after reading a bunch of advice from other engaged ladies, I figured it would be worth it to hire someone so I can really enjoy without stressing. It was worth. Every. Penny. I contacted Oh from Wow Make-Up Phuket. She was right on time (actually early!), set up in our hotel room and got right to work. I think my favorite part was seeing her work with the temptu airbrush foundation! If you’re into make-up at all, IT’S SO COOL. When she first finished applying the make-up, I was a little underwhelmed. It was just…so….natural. But then L took a photo of us after she was finished and I was so impressed! It looked flawless and I was incredibly pleased. At this point, I picked up my phone and my jaw dropped at the e-mail that was awaiting me. Gina (our photographer) had e-mailed me earlier in the day to inform me that she had come down with a terrible cold and couldn’t make it. So instead, she would be sending her assistant photographer, Jaran. Immediate panic attack ensues. L and I were freaking out but there wasn’t anything we could really do about it. We couldn’t reschedule and I was all set to go. We decided to go with it and if we weren’t satisfied with the results, we would ask for our money back.
Jaran. Was. Amazing. We had so much fun with him – he kept us laughing the whole time and even drove us to three different locations we never would have been able to go to without his car. We were able to communicate with him just fine and when he showed us some shots on his camera, I knew the photos would turn out just as I had imagined [spoiler alert: I was right]. We spent almost 3 hours with him driving to different beaches, through forests and tide pools.
After the photoshoot was over, we recapped how much fun we had during the day, then decided to head out to dinner considering we were dressed up and feeling pretty giddy. We looked up “semi-classy” restaurants in the area and headed out towards a restaurant we had found on TripAdvisor, but we couldn’t find it. So we walked around a little bit more and stumbled upon this fruit stand where L HAD to buy a coconut while we looked for another restaurant to eat at. We smelled something delicious wafting down from this balcony restaurant, so we decided to check it out. Turns out it was an Australian seafood and steakhouse. I know, I know, why would you eat Western food when you’re in Thailand? But at this point, I was starving.
It started out pretty good – the ambiance was nice, the wine was delicious, and the menu looked promising. Our appetizers (garlic shrimp) was a little too spicy for my taste, but L really enjoyed it. My steak was a hit, but L’s fish was a miss. He was not a fan. I ended up sharing my steak with him and after a few more glasses of wine, we called it a night.
We decided to take another tuk tuk back to the resort and we struggled so hard LOL L was trying to to haggle a cheap price, but none of the drivers were taking it. We walked all the way down the road to the point where there were no more tuk tuks, and turned back around with our tails between our legs. Decided to take one of the craziest looking ones with party lights and loud music. The result is my face in the first photo… you can guess how that went. Overall, it was such an amazing day and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Our photos came back absolutely perfect – I’ll share them here one day. Next week I’ll be sharing the boat tour from hell we went on (just kidding, it wasn’t that bad).
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