Travelling is not so bad if you have good friends to travel with. After a very busy week and trying to get everything urgent done before we left, arriving at Lee and Michael's meant we could finally start to relax and think about slowing down a bit. I decided a shower would be nice after Jordan left, but mid shower I realized I had left my tablet in the car, now, that is as bad as leaving your mobile phone at home, I felt like I was going into melt down without my technology buddy. Fortunately the world was not going to end as Jordan had gone into the city instead of going home and he was able to drop it into me on his way back. We had a lovely dinner of spaghetti bol, a couple of glasses of red and then we hit the road to head to the airport.
Michael had booked our seats on line and the lovely check in lady checked us all the way through and confirmed and changed all our seat bookings, and to top it all off she gave us express tickets for customs and security what a bonus.We couldn't find any duy free bargains so we had a cuppa and then went to the gate lounge. The same lovely lady let us through as first class passengers and so we boarded really quickly and left on time at 12.05am. The four of us were across the middle of the plane and after we were fed, attempted some sleep and landed in KL at 6am. We had a three hour wait and caught the train to the other terminal. Tea at Harrods was nice and then we boarded the plane for the hour or so to Phuket. We arrived here about 11am and proceeded through customs.
The guys on duty were the most grumpy, unsmiling bastards who would have had their faces crack if they smiled. In usual form Gerard was the only one that was stopped, he had lost his departure slip, who'd have thunk you would need to have your departure slip on arrival. He had to fill in another one and the unsmiling bastard wanted his arrival slip, which the other guy had taken, so then he had to do another arrival slip. Not happy, Jan.
Our passports were stamped and we finally got through to outside where the heat and humidity made my glasses fog up. Our driver was waiting for us with his sign and then we watched the traffic chaos as cars and buses went in all directions and tooted and blocked up the whole area, it was absolute chaos with camry's and Toyota mini buses in all directions. Finally our driver came back with our bus and we loaded up and away we went. I was surprised that I didn't think I was going to die, as we wove our way through the mess and headed out the road.
What strikes you most are the crowded living conditions, the shambly, falling over buildings and the general ramdomness of some buildings that look reasonable and others that are just shanty's. The amazing thing is the power system throughout the streets. I think the wirings guys have a competition to see how many overhead cables they can get into one street. Its like loops of spaghetti strung between posts, I think. when they want to connect up a new dwelling they just add another cable. I am not entirely sure how safe it is.
We are at Surin Beach which is about 20 minutes drive north of Patong. The resort we are staying at is right on the beach and it is very, very nice. Our rooms have been upgraded and there are not a lot of people here. We are getting great service, we have free cocktails each day, free afternoon tea and as much pad Thai as we can eat each night. After we arrived we showered, had a nap by the pool and then wandered of across the road to the beach. There are lounges along the beach and each side of the road there are cafes and shops. The resort has a cafe over there, so we had a nice snack and did a bit of shopping for some swimming shorts for Gerard and a sarong for me, $16 covered both and $20 for the snack of 2 entrees, 2 wines and a pine apple juice. So things are really cheap here.
Our plans for tonight are to take up the free cocktails and pad Thai and relax and enjoy then catch up on some sleep.
