Jet lag hit me in full force while waiting for the delayed plane to Phuket. The taxi driver didn’t try to take me to the wrong place but helpfully called the hostel for directions. It was empty when I got there (but for the helpful owner who lugged my suitcase up four flights of stairs) and I could crash into bed exhausted at 11pm, grateful for my travel pillow which was a comfortable replacement for the provided rock.
Up at 7:30 due to body clock saying it was 11:30, I went to the ATM, used the free WiFi and computers to eventually set up my sim to work (although i also needed to use my Australian sim on roaming for a bit) and got some awesome $5 breakfast (pictured). I then went for a run, meaning to find the beach, but despite the hostel lady’s instructions got quite lost and had to retrace my steps, eventually finding the hostel again, although since then I have repeatedly passed the alleyway without realising.
As I paused to buy water from the hostel bar, beach towel in hand, a friendly Canadian lady from my room invited me to join her and her American and Hong Kongian friends who were going to a better beach than the overcrowded Patong. I eagerly joined them and we took a Tuk Tuk to Surin beach. The afternoon was thence passed alternately lying on banana lounges under umbrellas and bobbing in the warm green water. I also ate an incredibly delicious banana pancake – the others rushed to get one after – and a very weak cocktail, with which I will probably not continue to bother. The novelty of having a cocktail brought to you as you recline on a beach is still good, however.
I also had a $10 massage: the lady really knew what she was doing! I then smashed down some delicious noodle soup at 5 before we went back, got ready, and went, joined by another American, Sean, to dinner in an overpriced restaurant in the big nearby shopping center that was air conditioned (worth the extra cost).
We then hit Bangla Road, heading to a bar and then club the others had enjoyed dancing at the night before; however by 11 jet lag was killing me again, apparently impervious to the (literal) buckets of red bull (again, fairly sure very little alcohol), and I had no choice but to go back and go straight to sleep when the Hong Kongian went to go to the airport.
The next morning I waited with my new friends in the chilled out hostel lobby for the ferry to Ko Phi Phi.
After Ko Phi Phi I came back for one night, which was just enough time to have some food and wander along Bangla Road again before turning in before my (very) early flight to Ho Chi Minh City.
[…] I arrived back at Bodega Phuket, the same place I had stayed at in 2013, I quickly checked into my fantastic and great value private room just across the familiar alleyway […]