Day 22-27: Phuket All

We flagged down the nearest Tuk-Tuk and sped off to Chiangmai International Airport after a quick dinner at
the Japanese restaurant across the street from the guesthouse. We went through airport security twice almost immediately after entering the front gate. Yeah, we were all a bit confused about that. After a 30 minute wait (consisting of me laughing at Lisa’s frustration with an iPhone game), we got in line to board. Although, line may be a bit formal… free-for-all would be a better description of how we boarded the plane. Well, we got on and were treated to a lightshow; the cabin lights wouldn’t stay on or off consistently, so Lisa and I had to stay up and against our wills. I managed to get a few (hilariously bad) drawings in while Hoon, who was sitting across the aisle from us, struggled through a bowl of spicy Korean instant noodles.

Once we finally touched down in Phuket, we were shocked to find that the taxi ride to our hotel would be 800 Baht. We realized that it was a fair price after driving (and falling asleep) for more than an hour. I’m pretty sure that everyone in the backseat was asleep, but I stayed awake just in case our vacation turned into the plot from Taken 2. We dragged our bodies up the stairs and collapsed in the disproportionately large beds…

Hoon and I woke up sometime around noon, but we didn’t really get moving until 1. We found out that Lisa and Ritika had gotten up at 9 like actual human beings and had already headed to Kata Noi Beach. Having slept for 12 hours, Hoon and I were pretty hungry, so we flagged down the nearest restaurant and proceeded to eat the first in a series of over-priced meals. Seriously, NOTHING WAS UNDER 100 Baht! The tuk-tuk to the beach wasn’t cheap, either; 500 one way?! But the price was quickly explained away once we got out of the downtown area and drove past the sparkling cyan colored ocean. I didn’t know the ocean could be that hue!

We got dropped off at the far east end of the beach with no idea where Lisa and Ritika were. So we decided to go left and WOW, THERE THEY WERE! Lisa and Ritika had already taken a dip before we got there, so they decided to stay on the sand with all of our stuff while we ran out into the waves. (Maybe someone mistook us for labrador retrievers?)

After shaking the sand off in the hotel, we headed out to eat and found this reasonably (read: cheaper than anywhere else) priced Thai place. Lisa, Ritika, and I ordered egg noodles, which turned out to literally be noodles coated in raw egg. It was a terribly small portion of noodles, too.

I woke up at 6am on Sunday morning, unable to ignore my cellphone’s constant ringing. Then I remembered that it was probably my parents trying to wish me a happy birthday. I stepped outside (shhhh, don’t wake up Hoon!) and FaceTimed for a good hour as they cut a chocolate cake and had me blow out a candle… from halfway across the world. D’aww. 

Lisa was the illest person that day! As in she was literally ill and could not leave the room. I didn’t want to venture too far from Lisa, so we decided to have lunch close by and spend most of the day inside chatting and watching Weird Al Yankovich’s new music videos. At one point, we decided to be as American as possible and get McDonalds and McBubble Tea (!) from the store just down the street. I didn’t feel like going out and spending thousands of baht on drinks, so I stayed in like the social recluse I am and painted for a bit. Exciting, right? Later that night, Ritika, Hoon, and I decided to head to the beach right in front of our hotel to dip our feet in the waves. A lantern salesman took us by surprise and offered us the opportunity to send a paper lantern up into the night sky for just 100 Baht!

By Monday morning, we were all 100% done and could not even. We had one last hurrah by getting our feet wet on the beach before heading to the airport. I got a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets done while we were waiting, but I got distracted by The Hunger Games and finished it after getting back to Northlands Guesthouse. Maybe I was just excited to be back home, but I couldn’t go to sleep. Or maybe it was our new neighbors, who evidently have nothing better to do than yell obscenities and gloat about potential hook-ups at THREE IN THE MORNING. Seriously, I’m telling them to drop out of the gene pool if they keep us up again. 

Anyways, I woke up, feeling pretty tired, and stumbled over to the tuk-tuk, where Maa, a med student from England, was waiting patiently. She explained how she was traveling around Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand to compile reports on various NGOs in the area for GlobalGiving.

When we got to KWAT, it became apparent that Ritika was getting pretty sick. Our team was kind of a hot mess. Aren’t vacations suppose to rejuvenate you?

The next day, I came down with a sore throat and runny nose.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll slip into a coma. Who knows?

At least we’re not in Phuket anymore.