17 October – I’m on a plane!

I always forget how exhausting sitting around with nothing to do for eight hours can be. Maybe time has just mellowed my memory, but my flights on Qantas and Singapore Air between Sydney and Jakarta were nowhere near as depleting or annoying. The food was tolerable, but they managed to run out of chicken (does anyone voluntarily take the fish, ever?) before reaching our seats. Between movies (on demand, which is a nice improvement over the last time I flew), I got some nice photos out my window.

We arrived in Bangkok, crossed immigration/customs without any issue and shuttled immediately to our connecting flight to Phuket, which seemed to take almost as long. By the time we arrived, it was past midnight but our hotel transfer was awake and waiting for us. And then, the real journey began! I think P would have preferred to pass out until we got to the hotel, but the local driving was hair raising, even by my standards which were hardened in the peak hour madness of Jakarta. Lane markings aren’t even a guide, let alone a rule!  It’s as though everyone in Phuket is a part-time rally driver out to perfect their speed curves on the main streets. And yet, despite (or perhaps because of) all of this, traffic flows for the most part safely.

Finally at the hotel, we checked in and collapsed without any further incident. After the cramped confines of airplanes, the king bed and soft pillows were a welcome comfort.

18 October – Kata

We definitely chose a great hotel in the Centara. How do I know? Because when we woke up and opened the blessedly effective blackout curtains, this is the sight that greeted us:

That is one of three pools. The main pool is in an area that fronts against the family-sized rooms and next to the restaurant and has a pool-side bar, and gets a lot of traffic. This one, named for the day-spa (that building on the left) is much quieter, which we found to be blissful (when we were around the hotel). P and I took a lot of great photos around the hotel itself. Make sure to check them out!

After breakfast and a swim, we headed into southern Kata. It was a ten-or-so minute walk. The first thing I noted was that 7-eleven is an integral part of Thai society. The chain is everywhere and sells a wider variety of things than it does in Australia. I was particularly tempted by the cuban cigars and Russian vodka (reputable brands of both) but figured that while the bottles were cheaper than back home, I would prefer to consume things as I went. I did pick up a bottle of Strawberry Fanta, which I can’t seem to get in Australia. It has a different taste in Asia that it does here, and was a staple growing up.

Lunch was fantastic. We wandered past a couple different restaurants before settling on a place that offered a three course meal for next to nothing. While Thai food in Australia is great, I must follow every other tourist and expat and say that you haven’t truly experienced a cuisine until you have eaten a meal prepared by a native cook in their own country. Everything was at once more subtle and more sharply contrasted than even the best Thai restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of eating at back here. Accompanying this was a pair of fantastic drinks:

On to shopping, in which after separating briefly, I found out that P doesn’t know how to bargain. I mean, yes, those shoes were cheaper than anything she’d had to pay for in years, but the conventional wisdom is that in Thailand, if it doesn’t have a price tag, you can make up your own prices. I had to be the penny-pinching husband (yes, go ahead and laugh) to get at least some sort of deal going.

All told, a great day, but that night we ran into even more awesome stuff. That and more in next week’s episode! I’m going to leave you with this shot of things you can find on the street in Kata…