International Trip 2

International Trip 2 - Phuket

April 28, 2018

After a 2 hour delay we finally boarded the flight to Phuket, Thailand. Oh! did you think the journey had ended in the previous blog? When 3 travel freaks decide on an International Trip there is bound to be more than one place.

Second stamp

Mandatory Pic with the plane

The flight to Phuket was a miracle. Our fever induced, nauseatic friend Zeyn was cured of his ailments.

The good part of Thailand is they have visa on arrival, the bad part is the visa fee payment needs to be done by cash. The net-banking, card using, cashless generation like us were drained of our cash supplies the moment we landed at Phuket International Airport. A tip for those travelling to Thailand - always carry more than sufficient cash. Not many people transact by card and if they do, they are sure to charge you 6% extra. This was very unlike Malaysia where cashless transactions were a common sight.

We stepped out of the airport at 9pm and were greeted by the cab driver arranged for us by our AirBnb host. The driver wasn't very fluent in English but he did manage to convey that we had an hour of drive before we reach our place of stay. According to us 10pm was a good time for dinner so we enquired with him for good restaurants. This is when we realised that the people in Thailand are the early to bed kind. Most of the restaurants and shops in Thailand close by 8pm. We were more than an hour late to find a place to eat. The no-grammar-english-driver suggested that we pick up packed food from the 7-11 Store (one of the few 24 hour stores) on the way.

Second surprise for dinner, was Phuket did not have Maggi so we had to pick up some local ramen packets. Later that night we realised what fiery hot food really means. Here in India we add chill flakes while preparing Maggie because it is not hot enough, there we were in tears as we tried to fill our bellies. Tip number 2, always carry your supply of Maggie if travelling to Thailand. This was pretty much how we spent day 1 or to be precise night 1 in Phuket.

Stylish Apartment

Day 2, we hired ourselves a driver to show us around Phuket. The cab service is expensive and one has to bargain A LOT before finalising. We had our master bargainer Granal who always ended up paying a couple hundred ฿(Thai Baht) extra. Other 2 of us were even worse so Granal was our best bet. The other option to explore Phuket is to hire motor-bikes/scooters.

Another piece of advice, while speaking with the locals in English keep all your grammar and fancy vocabulary home, it just makes communication difficult. Stringing bits of common english words does the work much better. And do not trust google translate, we tried and there were people laughing on our faces. English to Thai translation needs some serious work.

Coming back to the trip, we went elephant riding first. For all the elephant advocates who will accuse of hurting these gentle beasts, we weren't aware of how the elephants are treated by their care takers and they really seemed happy. And in our defence we fed these elephants some expensive bananas.

Master Bargainer on a ride

Bumpy Ride

Next up was flying hanuman. We were expecting a huge statue of Hanuman but surprise it was a zipline sporting place in the hilly jungles. The view from up here was amazing and our zipline guides were real fun chatters.

Living on prayer, hanging by a thread

The Zipline gang

Platform view

Thinking - 'Ye toh Chinese hai'

The Kathua waterfalls was next. Finding a way around here is bit tricky so be prepared to get lost.

Star cast of Black 2

And finally we went to Big Buddha and this was truly a gigantic (big is such an understatement) statue of Buddha. One of the best places to look at the setting sun.

Sunnata at point 0

Ports and beaches of Phuket as the sun sets

Golden Buddha next to Big Buddha

Hind side

It was during lunch and dinner that we realised that the Chinese food (like fried rice and noodles) we get in India is actually the cuisine of the Thai with a lot more chillies.

For day 3, we booked a tour to Phi Phi Islands. Always book the tour from the airport. We were lucky enough to book at the airport and save a few bahts(฿). Phi Phi Islands is a heavenly bliss. White sand beaches, clear blue waters, tantalising sea mist amidst the bright sun. There we did a little snorkelling. Knowing how to swim is an advantage as the non-swimmers (me and Zeyn) were struggling to stay afloat even with the help of floating vests. Even with all the struggles it was fun. We did not have a water proof camera to capture the underwater beauty but you can take my word on that.