Day 43 - Hello Old Friend

Urgh, I regretted the last round of drinks when the alarm went off at 6am this morning. We tuk tuk'd to the one of the nicest airport's I've ever been in - clean, nice shops, excellent signage - and got our flight to Phuket with a dismal in flight meal of plastic cheese slice sandwiches. Arriving to Phuket and figuring out onward transport is a chaotic experience. We ended up in a crammed full mini van with no idea how it worked. We asked the driver where we'd be dropped off and he just said 'hotel'. Seeing as none of us had told him where our hotel was I didn't really get how that'd would work but on our way we went. What it turns out actually happens is you drive way past Phuket Town (where we were staying) first to the pier. Lose half the passengers there then give the driver your hotel names. He has to make some calls to figure out where they are and then you're driven to them. We got there in the end!

We went straight for lunch as the hanger was setting in. I went for a classic Pad Thai and Matt had a green curry. It's been a while since we were in Thailand so Matt forgot that saying you don't mind medium spice is a grave error and he had to sweat his way through dinner determined not to let the chillis win.

There's not an awful lot in Phuket Town to do except wander around and after having to play the 'is this overpriced sun cream real?' game since we left Thailand last month we took a pilgrimage to Boots and spent a small fortune on toiletries. The Boots just happened to be at a huge shopping centre with a cinema and Beauty and the Beast, my childhood favourite, just happened to be on so with little else planned to do we watched it. Matt tolerated it, I loved it obviously. The cinema was very nice, and cheap. Just £3 for comfy seats with lots of leg room. I forgot though that they play an anthem to the King before the film though nestled between Coca Cola and car adverts so everyone has to stand up and pay their respects.

We walked back through the sweaty evening humidity and had a late dinner at Surf and Turf where they'd run out of prawns, fish and pork limiting our selections somewhat but the food we did manage to get was great. We're off to Koh Phi Phi island tomorrow so Phuket was more of a stop over from us to get us near the pier in the morning.

Thinking of all my friends back in London, and the whole UK, today xRead more