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Arriving in Phuket

From our hotel in Bangkok, we took a Grab to get to the airport Don Mueang airport - DMK (there’s 2 airport in Bangkok) From there we took a plane to Phuket (here more information about going from Bangkok to Phuket). The 2h trip went like a charm and we landed in Phuket airport which is a pretty small airport (but kind of big for the size of the island).

We knew there were different type of bus to get from the airport to pretty much anywhere on the island (tourist bus, public bus and taxis, Click here for more info about Transportation in Phuket). We took the tourist bus since the public one wasn’t well indicated and we weren’t in the mood for endless searching especially when the price difference was 20 bath (50cent)…. But there's a catch, Yes the tourist bus is slightly more expensive, but not enough to not seem odd. So along the way, they make a stop in a traveling agency! They don’t force you to buy anything, they are not really insistent (you tell them you are not interested and it end there) but you have to sit through their speech and you have to wait for everyone to finish booking their excursion… In our case, we got 2 chineses women who i am pretty sure booked all of the tour available… (I may not be the most patient human on earth…) We finally arrived at our hotel (the tourist bus also drop you directly at your hotel, honestly it was worth it even with the travel agency stop). Once we check-in, we went out in the search of food!

There’s a lot of food stand and restaurant in Phuket, from no table stand to nice high end restaurant. Right next to our hotel, there was a food court... and we ate there a lot! The food was delicious and cheap, we got caught once or twice trying cheaper sit in restaurant and it was disgusting. They don’t have a good mid range restauration available, it’s either expensive and incredibly good or inexpensive food stand and incredibly good again. At the food court, we ate Pad thai and gyros that were amazing and some mango sticky rice. I was skeptical at first, I don’t like coconut milk or mango… but I love the combination with sweet rice.. Don’t know why but it didn’t refrain me from eating it. The next day, we tried the beach, our hotel was next to Patong beach. It was nice but we got harassed by street vendor and we could't really swim since there’s boat ride, parachute ride and sea doo ride everywhere. So not much space left for the poor swimmer.

That night we had Alexis birthday to celebrate (a bit late) so we went out got a nice meal with seafood, lobster, oysters and drinks. Never saw any oysters that big! They were fabulous!

The next day, we knew we wanted to explore the island so we rented a bike (Read this before renting a MotorBike in Asia) and of course haggled the most we could! (Here's some tips on how to Haggle) we paid 300 baht per day for a new 155cc motorbike which was cheap and we were able to haggle more since it was the low season (400 baht was the original price). If you are wondering if the 155cc is necessary or you could get by with a 125cc motorbike it depend… How slow to you want to go up hill…. And there's a lot of them, they are unavoidable… In our case, with a total weight around 400 pound we needed something with a minimum of torque.

From there, we started our discovery of the fantastic island that is Phuket. At first, I got to be honest, I was terrified of the motorbike, having the feeling that the only thing restraining you from kissing the ground his the person you are holding onto was not my favorite thing. After a while, I got better at it and stopped squeezing the breath out of Alexis each time we took a turn or went down hill. He was really grateful to retrieve some sensation in his rib cage. On our first day on the motorbike, we visited a few beaches around the island and that’s where we found the Nai harn beach. For me it was one of the best beach of Puchet, since the vendor are not allowed on the beach and it has beautiful sand and a large swimming area! and Yes it’s freeee.

That night we were up for a night out. So we explored Patong beach at night. Warning Grandma, please stop reading, thanks. In Patong beach, there's a red light district, curious has we are we went to see it, of course from outside… I am not about to describe the inside of a Thai house of pleasure. The outside street was more than enough for us. So after a few drink (7/11 sells beer and open them for you hehehe and there’s a few cocktail stand in Phuket where I found the best Pina Colada I have ever drinked) we explored that famous/infamous street. It was a weird experience, it is a mix between a lot of street vendor (trying to sell you alcohol, fidget spinner and strip club entry), half naked people and a sea of fully dressed people that were there like us out of curiosity (Weird thing: they were tourist that brought their kids on that street… personally I found that a slightly odd choice… There’s better way to teach sexuality to your kids than on a red light district in Thailand.) The night over we went back to our hotel a bit tipsy, slightly traumatised, lightly deaf from the music and happy of our experience.