Phuket

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Well, it happens to the best of them I suppose. We missed our alarm and woke up late, luckily we made the flight alright! We flew to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia for a long layover and had to go through customs and immigration even though we had a transfer flight to Phuket. It was really obnoxious but not gonna lie—I'm loving that Malaysia stamp in my passport. Got to Phuket pretty late but we were planning on just getting some dinner and pool time in before bed. The minibus that we hired to take us to our hotel kept a van full of people waiting in the heat for 30mins while they waited to fill one more seat which caused some early tension/frustration. When they drove out of the way to their main office so that we could literally load off the bus, hand them our second ticket stub, and load back on, people started getting irritated. We waited another 15mins or so before someone marched in to the office to ask what the deal was. They said that the driver was tired and needed to take a nap before completing the drop-off. I'm sorry... what?? So 12 people sit in a hot van at night in a parking lot while he takes a nap...? Not cool. Eventually we headed out and drove about an hour and a half to our hotel which should have been about 45mins away. Tack on the initial 30 min wait time, plus the 20mins we sat in the parking lot, and that makes for a long trek to the hotel and boiling mad travelers. Arriving at the hotel we learned that the pool was closed and that our morning ferry scheduling was all screwed up. Oh my stars...we were so ready for food and sleep and showers! Thank goodness for the good help from our resort—we got everything squared away. Most advice that people gave me when they learned of my trip to Thailand was to not stay too long in Phuket, that it's very touristy and chaotic. Well, they were right. It was nice to see for that long few hours traveling to our hotel, but I think that was sufficient for a lifetime.

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