Activity level: 🌶️🌶️
Modes of transportation: 👟🚌 🛫🚊
We decided to try the hotel breakfast since it was included with our room, and we figured it would be pretty nice since the hotel was fairly upscale. The breakfast was a feast, with many different Thai foods as well as a smattering of cuisines from around the globe. They even had a specific chicken and rice person. Eric had a little of everything, including a rice porridge with shrimp, which is a pretty common breakfast food (it wasn’t as shrimpy as expected) and some green curry with chicken. Apparently in Thailand, they pretty much just eat the same foods for breakfast as for the rest of the day.
We packed up our stuff and decided to go the airport early to hang out, but not before picking up some more fried dough (purple this time).
We took the train back to the airport (we even got a seat this time) and looked for our check in gate. A random guy from Texas, Kenny, gave us a tip on which gate to go to, and we ended up hanging out with him through security.
He had just gotten in from Dallas, and was meeting up with his friends for a bachelor party. That’s a hell of a flight for a bachelor party.
We talked to him for a good bit, giving him tips on Thailand, what to eat, etc. and he told us about a cool bar where you can fight for beer. We asked him if he was a boxer and he said he had some fighting experience (of nondescript type), so we said we’d go see him beat up his friend for beer (you choose your fights). We added him on the gram to keep in touch, booked our hotel for Phuket (pronounced poo-ket… yeah we know) and then boarded the plane.
We flew VietJet airlines, which much be a pretty small regional carrier because the seats were tiny. Eric barely fit, and the tray table was invading his personal space. Good thing the people in front of us didn’t put their seats back!
When we got in, we tried to find a little food since we hadn’t eaten much since breakfast; so we went over to a small cafe and got a croissant. While we were doing that, our bus left (though they didn’t have room for us anyway—Eric checked). We got on the next bus, but it ended up taking about 45 minutes to leave even though it filled up within 5. There were literally people sitting in the aisles.
So we hunkered down for the long cramped bus ride. We kept checking GPS and it looked like we were making almost no progress, so we started relaxing and reading social media together.
Well, within a couple of minutes we apparently made a bunch of stops at beaches—but you’d never know if you weren’t looking at the map. Nobody got on or off, and the bus driver didn’t say anything. We only realized it when we looked at the phone and saw we were currently passing up our stop. We ended up getting off at the next stop (and nobody moved, so we had to step over people and push our way out) and hailing a cab to get to our hotel.
Side note, we got let off right next to a cart selling gas in little bottles—probably for motorbikes. I guess they don’t need gas stations.
When we got there, we found out that the hotel upgraded us! They gave us a room with a balcony overlooking the beach, which was awesome. Sarah had wanted to check out the pool when we arrived, but missing our bus meant we got there too late. So instead, we went out for dinner to a good seafood restaurant by the beach called Khunya Seafood (where neither of us got seafood) and had a chill night.
Eric found his new favorite dish: Tom Kai Gai, a coconut broth lemongrass chicken soup. It was really fantastic and aromatic, and definitely worth trying.
After dinner, we got some mango honey roti at a stand nearby, and took it back to eat on the balcony. The next few days are probably going to be pretty chill, since we have no plans. We’ll see!
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