Travels to Phuket

Yesterday was initially a bit of a sad day while getting things packed. We had really come to like spending time in Melbourne. It felt very familiar and homey. But it was time to head off on our next adventure: Thailand.

Our host, who time and time again went above and beyond her normal host-ly duties, offered to drive us to the airport. We declined at first, but then came to our senses since sometimes you just need to take people up on their hospitality. It helped make for a much better overall day of travel.

We again were flying Jetstar, this time out of the Tullamarine Melbourne Airport, and again had a really good experience. Two for two, Jetstar! From check-in all the way to bag pickup, it never really felt like a budget airline. The line to check-in was super short, at least when we arrived. Security and passport processing at this airport was super simple. They don't do the whole take your shoes off and pull out your liquids thing, which was a little confusing cuz we did do that and had to put them all back in our bags. But they were kind and patient about it. And the international terminal of this airport had a good number of shops to look through as well as free WiFi to use while we waited. We were most tempted by the Merino wool (from New Zealand) clothing shop as well as debated picking up one of those fancy neck pillows, but didn't end up getting any. 

Finally it was time to board the airplane. The one little hiccup was that we were worried we weren't sitting next to each other. We were in the same row, but there was a gap in the seating letters. As it turns out the just don't use the letter "I". Also we had the added perk of having an open seat next to us, so we got to spread out across three seats. So great! 

Leaving Melbourne

Our fanciest flight yet. Three seats and in-flight entertainment.

The reason Jetstar is considered budget is simply that they make you pay for most comforts other airlines normally just include. If you want food or drinks, you pay for it. You want to use the in-flight entertainment, you pay for it. Being budget travelers we get around this by packing sandwiches, snacks, and water. For entertainment we have our devices, a coloring book, and plans to just sleep. But this go around they drew us in with the in-flight entertainment. They had at least 4 movies we had been wanting to watch, and it was only $10 AUD for all access. So we caved. I figured we could just activate one screen and then use our new headphone splitter to watch the movies together. In the end, we might not have needed to. Not too long after I swiped my credit card in the center seat the other two seats said they were being given complimentary access. So I have no idea if I actually got charged or if the free service came cuz we activated one screen. Either way it was still worth it. We watched Inside Out and Spy together. I watched part of Ant-Man and Welcome to Me and even got in a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. Pretty deluxe. 

Over 8 hours later we landed in Phuket. Again passport processing was pretty simple. We didn't have to wait too long for our checked bag. And our mission of finding an ATM to get cash went smoothly as well.

The dark and foggy view of the Phuket Airport.

Our last adventure of the day was trying get from the airport to our hostel. We can't catch our ferry to where we'll be climbing until Sunday, so we booked a private room through Expedia to stay for the couple of nights we're in Phuket. So to get to our hostel we had to get a taxi. We wandered around outside, looking a bit lost until finally someone asked if we needed a taxi. We said yes and tried to explain where we were going. They seemed to at least understand we were trying to get into Phuket City. They threw out the price of 800 THB. We couldn't remember if that was a good price or not so we just went with it and followed this young guy to his car, got in, and we were off.

The taxi ride was quite exciting. I'm pretty sure we found the fastest taxi driver in town. He was whipping in and out of traffic, using turn lanes and bike lanes to get ahead of slower drivers. I'm pretty sure most of the time we were going twice the speed limit. While we were driving I pulled out my phone and tried to get the GPS working. Eventually it found where we were and it helped assure me we were heading in the right direction. 

We made one stop that was not our hostel. I think it was their head quarters or some kind of travel agency because he just got out the car and some nice lady came and talked to us to figure out where we were trying to get to. Our hostel was either new enough or changed names so that they didn't know what we were talking about. After about 5 minutes he got back in the car and just asked me if I could give him turn by turn directions. So I'm very very thankful my GPS started working so that I could do just that, else it might have been more complicated.

Waiting for our taxi driver, not quite sure what was happening. It's all part of the adventure

We eventually got to the spot I had saved on my map and sure enough our hostel was there. I wasn't 100% it would be since sometimes addresses don't always show up correctly. Even with our stop we made it in record time. We paid the taxi driver 900 THB since he only had 100 THB in change. Maybe a little sketchy, but it was late and in the end that's still only $25 USD for what was supposed to be a 30 minute taxi ride. Seemed worth it.

We are staying at the Bed Hostel. It had really high reviews on Expedia and was still really cheap, even for a private air-conditioned room. Check-in went smoothly. They were waiting for us and had our paperwork all ready. They showed us to our room. And that was that. Finally... with great relief... our travels for the day were complete, and we could sleep. And sleep we did.

Our room complete with some cool artwork over our bed.