The stares sent my way! I was the only one I saw at the airport wearing an anti pollution face mask. I can barely breathe without coughing my lungs out otherwise. Wheezing etc. I’m not keen to play the game of “keeping up appearances” at the cost of my health.
“Sir, would you like something to drink?” “WHISKY!” in unison from both my male co passengers. Bottoms up the moment the drink was placed on their tray table. Only half way through their meal. Spent the rest of their meal waiting for the drinks tray to return. Asked for whisky when the tea coffee trolley came around eventually. Bottoms up. By the end of it, the co-passenger right next to me was attempting to take photos of a lady sitting across from us and then also tried to take phtoos of me while pretending to take selfies of himself. ( Men need to be more conscious of their space. He shoved my elbow off the seat rest more than a few times and leaned his entire arm on mine. Even if he was just trying to take only his own selfie, being conscious of having an entire additional person in the frame will only make me want to report him to the authorities. Indian men can be such idiots. )
Haven’t stopped smiling since I got off the plane at Suvarnabhumi Airport. It’s my first time in the country of Thailand and it’s beautiful. Visa on arrival meant I had to run straight from the plane to the Visa processing and then straight to boarding the domestic flight to Phuket. I walked REALLY fast and made it five minutes after boarding had started, which now means, I’m cooling my heels standing in the bus that’ll take us to the plane. Luckily I got a breather to pee and also asked a stewardess what the local time is and put that in on one of my phones so that I didn’t miss any connections or updates.
Suvarnabhumi Airport has these blue lights on the air strips that look like bioluminescent plankton. Only if you see them from an eye level closer to the horizon while on ground on in an airplane that’s just landed or is about to take off. The only time I’ve seen bioluminescent plankton in real life was at Lakshadweep in 2010. I’m guessing it won’t be visible here in Phuket. Wrong side of the ocean.
The flight from Bangkok to Phuket takes about an hour but there were delays while taking off. I flew Thai Airways Delhi to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket. The staff was quite harrassed on the former and almost nonchalant on the latter. It was dark out by the time we took off.
The most reasonably priced local SIM cards are available at the AIS Traveller SIM booth at Phuket International Airport (I’ve included a photo below ). The airport also has a profusion of orchids as I walked a LONG distance from disembarking till International Baggage Collection ( for which they gave me an oval yellow sticker that I stuck on the sleeve of my black shirt. )
The drive in the local taxi from the airport to the Baan Mai Khao Resort was uneventful – except the driver asking me if I had GPS! People are nice here so I was sure I wasn’t being scammed. Pricing is fixed for this airport cab service but the cabs can be quite shabby.
The resort itself is beautiful and the rough sea today was crashing a ton of waves by the time I got there. Ended the long and hectic day with the parents and the sister, over a couple of Vodkas and beers and dinner. Tomorrow morning, I am looking forward to seeing the resort in all its green glory. More photos coming soon! Meanwhile, chronological photos from today below :
It is nice to be home. Home is wherever the people I love are. Sometimes, that can mean multiple homes and I wouldn’t have it any other way. ( If you’re trying to reach out to me for work, I’m on vacation and you will find my auto responder on email but Bharat is still manning the “office” if you have any urgent queries or need a quote. )
Till then, follow along on my first ever trip to Thailand here : #EyesForThailand
