Welcome to Fantasea .... I mean Phuket Island!

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Bangkok

This morning we woke to the pre-arranged wake up call we had requested with the front desk at Thong Ta Resort. Being less than 10 minutes from the airport, we were able to enjoy the breakfast that was included down in the garden restaurant. Aside from the very firm, board like beds, we seemed to luck out in finding this place. If I hadn't fallen asleep so quickly, I would have liked to check out the Johnnie Walker Rock Bar at the end of the street last night.

Breakfast was the typical "American" breakfast of ham loaf (no bacon or sausage available - I just want to mention that sausage in Thailand seems to be what we in North America would consider wieners. They are made even more fancy by having their ends quartered. I will be on the quest for actual sausages to see if they actually exist out here.), eggs, toast, coffee/tea, fresh pineapple and fresh juice. I thought the juice was mango juice but it is very dark pulpy orange juice.

Candace bugged me for not ordering Jok, Thai rice porridge, which I have suggested I wanted to try but they did not have any. Maybe in Phuket!?! Of course what breakfast would be complete without the Thai chili sauce and the one-ply toilet paper they try to pass off as napkins.

Before leaving for the airport, I stood out on our balcony to take in the skyline. I watched construction workers start a fire to cook breakfast in the construction site across the back lane, some stragglers from a late night of drinking weaving their way home, singing at the top of their lungs and of course a rooster crowed. It was great to be back in Thailand.

Phuket

As much as we like to believe that we are on no schedule, laissez faire in our approach to traveling, we couldn't pass up on the seat sales that Air Asia was offering one day back in December. In an attempt to get more people in their planes, their seats were being sold for taxes only. Being on such a tight schedule, it only made sense to take advantage of the sale. We were able to book round trip flights for the both totaling 69.00 CDN. We would be flying to Phuket, Chiang Mai and Phnom Penh instead of overnight bus or train.

Arriving in Phuket, we were greeted with the usual throng of touts, trying to get our business. Being quite savvy, we knew the bus would be the most economical but requiring to go to Phuket town and then getting a ride to one of the beaches (too much time wasted!?!) and the taxi being the most expensive, although a great option if there was a third person with us, we chose the minibus. Costing 180 B per person, we only waited 10 minutes for it to fill up before we were off. We were the last ones to get out as everyone else had gotten out at Pattong. We wanted the quieter area of Karon.

In what seems to be nothing but luck, we stumbled upon Sunrise Divers, the dive shop I had planned on using and stopped at Sala Bua, a restaurant next to the Karon Inn, for a much needed snack. My original plan was to try and get a room at Boost Guesthouse. While sitting waiting for some spring rolls, I checked the Karon Inn (2000B/Night) and then checked Pineapple Guesthouse.

We had passed by Pineapple Guesthouse originally and a lady, seeing us with packs on, asked if we needed a room. Already in jaded backpacker form, I ignored her questions, assuming she was like everyone else that offered their help in Thailand and only wanted my money. We had kept walking. When I showed up back on her doorstep, Lek smiled and said, "I knew you would be back!" Thankfully she wasn't one to hold grudges against rude tourists.

Steve, an expat from England and Lek run Pineapple Guesthouse and Apartments. Our room, although outfitted with dated furniture was comfortable, had quiet and working air conditioning and hot water. Having heard quite a bit of positive feedback about Steve and Lek and how laid back they were, we didn't think twice when our room key could not be found. It turned out that the previous guest had left with key and it would take them a bit to get a new one set up. Within minutes they had us up to sped about the Karon Beach area which and we were off to explore and get ourselves orientated.

Seems my tropical appetite had kicked in and we ate a few more times. Nothing better than fresh pineapple smoothies and fried spring rolls. We checked out the beach out and walked as far as the Hilton one way and Dino Park the other way and ended up at back at Karon Plaza and Sunrise Divers to book a dive trip for the next day.

Sunrise Divers is run by Jamie Monk who writes a blog, Jamie's Phuket, which I stumbled upon last year. Jamie made us feel right at home and we probably could have sat and chatted for awhile had Candace not reminded me that she was sitting there.
Non divers never want to sit and chat about diving.... why is that?

Having had 3 days of travel, we ended up heading back to the guesthouse and calling it a night. I had a day of diving ahead and Candace had a beach day to look forward to. I doubt she would be getting up early. Lucky bugger.

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Photos

Thong Ta Resort Room
A triple as they had no double available.

Air Aisa
The seat sale kings of South East Asia

Suduko
Candace passing the time on the short flight

Pineapple Smoothies
One of many

Dino Park
Looked cool but we never really went inside