Phuket..... and RUN!!!

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After a few days chilling in our basic and a little out of the way hostel on the outskirts of Chiang Mai (it was pretty good within a group but alone you'd probably get a bit bored and fed up!) we packed up and decided to head for the Thai islands in search of a bit more sunshine!!
We had pre-booked 2 flights the first was to Bangkok and the second to Phuket with about a 3 hour gap in between to wait around the airport.
So we piled into a taxi with Jen and Rich in plenty of time... to find out that our flight had been delayed for 2 hours...PANIC! until we found out that our connecting flight to Phuket was also delayed and there would still be plenty of time to check in for the second flight.... and the complimentary vouchers kind of compensated...at first!
After killing some time eating and generally loitering, we headed through to the departure lounge...a large room with a few chairs and dodgy music and freezing air con..only to find ourselves delayed for another hour!! we were assured on boarding our flight that we would still make our 2nd flight in plenty of time but as you can imagine the nerves were pretty stretched! The free for all seating arrangements didn't really help as we ended up at the back of the plane-and so the last few to get off!

I left the other 3 at baggage claim and ran up 3 floors to try and secure our seats on the following flight... where the woman at check in told me I'd have to be really fast... so i frantically tried to locate the other 3-running through the check in terminal with trolleys must have amused the watching crowds of staff who had seemed to congregate quite promptly. We, along with 2 others from the same flight, were told that the plane was holding for us and we'd have to run...

Sooo run we did, down stairs, along travelators, barging past anyone who stood in our way.. a minor setback when matt's bag had to be searched twice AND he had to remove his shoes but we finally tore around the corner to our gate..to find they hadn't even started boarding... i bet the airport staff were all watching on the CCTV somewhere having a good old laugh at us!!

AFter that we made it to Phuket airport with no problem and managed to secure a taxi just about large enpough to take us and our 4 rucksacks to our guesthouse in Karon beach.
So feeling a little sleepy we sat back for the drive to Karon.....well all i can say is we got the blessing from that monk in the nick of time... we had an excruciatingly near miss with a fast moving moped/motorbike and Matt has since re-named us the 'untouchables'...funny but at the time it was rather scary!

Arrived at the hostel to find it all locked up..but after a bit of knocking the owner appeared after 'forgetting' we were arriving so late..anyway within a couple of hours we were all tucked up in bed and sleeping soundly!

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