Back to the Beach…Phuket, Thailand
Phuket, Thailand
January 23, 2006
This morning I packed up (again) and headed to the airport for my flight to the Thai island of Phuket. When I arrived at the airport at 7:30am for my 9:00am flight, the agent with Thai Air asked me if I would like to catch the 8am flight instead…well, of course! That would give me an extra hour of beach time.
The flight was a little over an hour and once again, a very pleasant experience with Thai Air – nice airline. When I arrived in Phuket, I was surprised to learn that my hotel was almost an hour from the airport! I guess I assumed it was a smaller island than it actually is. Dubbed the ‘Pearl of the South’ by the tourist industry, Phuket is Thailand’s largest, most populous and most visited island. Long a popular European vacation destination, most Americans only became familiar with Phuket after last year’s tsunami. When I finally arrived at the hotel around 10:30am they had a room ready for me so I changed and headed down to check out the beach.
The view of Phuket from my room
The Hilton Phuket is situated on Karon Beach which was spared from the worst of the tsunami damage. The beach is lovely though I’m certain there are a number of others around here that are even better, unfortunately, I didn’t have the time (or the energy) to check them out. (Maybe next time!) It was so hot and humid today that I didn’t last much more than an hour on the beach before retreating to the cold water of the pool where I spent the rest of the day being perfectly lazy.
Tomorrow it’s on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but I have really enjoyed my time here in Thailand and hope to come back sometime soon. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of what there is to see and do here…and you definitely can’t beat the prices.
On a side note: It is very nice to be back in a country where the taxi drivers do not have a death wish (and the intent to take you with them).
