My long awaited trip to Phuket finally came. Booked them AA tickets way back in Feb when they had the 5 sen promo. My round trip air ticket cost me less than RM200 per person which is a steal!
So the day came and I packed my bags and head along to the airport. Of course I got a good friend of mine to send us to the airport that morning. I woke him up really early (coz he's well known for being late) and it turned out that I woke up later :)
Anyway, check in at LCCT was smooth. Albeit feeling more like a bus terminal than an airport. But hey, who cares?! As long as I travel at the lowest cost possible, I'm not gonna care how the airport feels like.
Landed just after lunch. Still hungry even though I had my favourite turkey ham & cheese sandwich on the plane. Now what's the cheapest way to get to Patong area from the airport? The bus of course. Hopped onto a bus waiting outside the terminal and the fare was 85 baht per person all the way to Phuket town. I had asked the bus attendant to stop me somewhere I can catch the bus to Patong. She did stop the bus as we were approaching town and asked me to wait across the road. 5 minutes later a bus to Patong came along. The fare was only 25 baht per person.
Now the problem is from the main road, it was a 1km hike up the hill to the hotel where I was staying and with my luggage, I wasn't going to hike all the way up. This is vacation. Not a hiking trip. So we decided to stop for lunch first and then only think of a way to get to the hotel.
Lunch was at a noodle stall. Didn't catch the name of the shop but there was so much options there I just told the lady to put a bit of everything into my bowl. That cost us 115 baht in total which included a bottle of mineral water.
After lunch, we decided to buy a local prepaid card and called the hotel. Told them we were lost and couldn't find our way to the hotel and asked if they could pick us up. We had the noodle stall operator explain to the hotel staff exactly where we were. 5 minutes later a van arrived to pick us up.
Checked in at the hotel and discovered that the hotel wasn't so nice after all. But then again, free hotel stay, better not complain so much.
The hotel has a shuttle to Patong beach every 2 hours on a daily basis. So we decided to take the 6pm shuttle to walk around and have dinner.
The shuttle stopped us right at Bangla Road. Happening!
Walked around a bit all the while looking for a place to eat. Thai food a must of course. Nothing western for me, not in Thailand.
Finally we found this quaint little restaurant tucked in one of the alleys by the beach. It's Japanese owned and they had the cheapest beer in town. A small bottle of Chang beer costs only 25 baht and a large bottle costs 50 baht. We ordered tom yum koong, stir fried morning glory (make a guess what's morning glory), stir fried chicken with cashew nuts (koong poh kai ting) and green curry pork. I had a strawberry shake and Steven had a large Chang beer. Our dinner costs us just under 400 baht. That's a steal. 4 dishes and 2 drinks. Go check out my food blog for more yummy info.
After dinner, it was time to walk around again. The sky was dark and the street is coming alive. Suddenly we saw a lot of activities at one of the small lanes. Ooh... there were transvetites dressed up to the nines parading about. You can take a photo with them for 50 baht. No way am I going to pay that kind of money.
We bumped into touts who kept on inviting us for 'shows', if you know what I mean. No cover charge some more. Just order a beer for 120 baht. Interesting shows. For me it's a first. So it was an experience. Had heard all about it from others. Well, it sure was an eye opener for me. We went to another bar the following night. Caught more interesting shows :)
We caught the 10pm shuttle back to the hotel and decided to call it a night.
And so ends Day 1 of my vacation.
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