Since we had a little bit of communication issue with the
driver, we got dropped off at the domestic airport, so we took a little walk to
the international side, all inside the same building. Check in was super easy. The Air Asia counter
was organized and efficient. We had to
just check in my one luggage. We had some time, so went upstairs to the wonderful food
court. Prachi wanted to have a burger, so I also had some
omelette at the Burger King. The food was a little more expensive at the airport than out of it.
The boarding and flight was all good. One thing I noted
about this aircraft was that all the seat backs and luggage compartments had
ads on them of the same company. In other countries, these are usually all void
of any writing. The flight was okay. Did
not have a window seat but could tell from peaking over that Phuket would be a
pretty location.
Our luggage came almost as soon we reached the carousel. We
got some tourist material (which we never had time to look once we reached the
hotel). There were plenty of tour desks outside, we enquired about hotel transportation
and tickets for FantaSea show. We got it
from one of the desks and also got a discount (180->150 each) on our hotel
transportation – which was a van. Taxi
would have cost us a lot. The drive to the hotel took over one hour. Most of
the drive was scenic, especially when we saw the coast. Phuket city is also
very clean. The roads were all good.
Once we entered the touristy part of Phuket things were
different. It was more crowded. And also because of the New year festival there
was a lot of water throwing everywhere.
The streets were full of people, markets were all open. Everything
seemed so alive. Our hotel was kind of inside a street – not easily accessible
by a van. We dragged our luggage to the Inn Patong hotel and checked in. The
receptionist mentioned that the credit card machine was broken, so I would have
to pay by PayPal. Okay. And then she wanted either a 3000 Bhat/$100/passport
deposit for the incidentals in the room. I gave the bhat. She could not
understand why I would not give my passport.
The room was fine, but the bathroom was the tiniest I
have seen ever. It was one seventh in proportion to the room. We had 3 hours to
buy a swimsuit and sarong for me before the van for Fantasea would arrive to
take us. Walking out was quite fun. We started off with a fruit shake each
(found later that it should have been cheaper!). I could see that not buying “stuff” would be
hard. But self control helps! We walked up to the Bangla street and of course
Prachi wanted to walk it…okay! The street is just bars on both sides and
shopping. And because of Songkrat festival, lots of water! we got entirely
soaked by the time with walked the street. It was fun. There was also the soap
bubble dance going on…interesting. All in good fun – no rude behavior. We
reached the beach – but no point going in the water, I would have felt worst in
terms of my jeans getting wet.
Walked the Patong Beach road looking for swimsuit,
finally found one – but not that great. It was a compromise. Found a sarong and
a nice summer dress also. All good (sort
of). Walked back to the hotel and showered and got ready for Fantasea.
The drive was about 30 mins – so arrived about 6 pm. It
just seemed a whole other place – so beautiful but alas artificial. But really, I felt I was on vacation. Got our tickets and then it was time for
pictures of the outside decorations. There was music playing and of course
there were so many people there. Prachi is totally into talking photos! She
enjoys it. And she took some great videos.
There was a place to walk inside – all lit up! Went inside and that
brought up another place – kind of like a theme park (no rides) – lots of
places to get local art work and games for kids. So much going on. As we wound down to the buffet, we crossed
the “palace of the elephants” – really gorgeous building of elephant carvings. We walked through all that to reach the buffet
place. There was elephant riding possible. It was well lit place.
Dinner buffet place was huge! So much seating yet it was
only half full. There was food
everywhere. They seated us next to Indian food – which was not that great, but
there was some vegetarian Thai food which was much better. The desert was not
that great. We enjoyed there for about an hour or more until it was time to go
for the show at 9pm. They have a systematic way to taking phones away. Of
course its all honor system – how would they know you still have it? As soon as
we go through the entrance there were sets where people can take photos (which
are sold for 300 bhat later). There were sets, elephants and people dressed up
traditionally.
Our seating was not the best – it was on the 3rd
tier – we could barely see the stage – don’t know why they even have that
seating. Good for Prachi that she went to ask for a change of seating and we
did get a much better seating – same pricing but much ahead. Don’t know why
they did not give us that in the first place.
The show was amazing – all sorts of little pieces of
shows and animals and so much theatrics. It was about an hour and fifteen
minutes and essentially about how elephants are important in the Thai culture.
Really great!
Even after the show was over, all the way back to the
entry point, there were entertainers keeping people feeling good. At the exit,
there were people there to help us get into the right bus to get us back to the
right hotel. Really good organization and entertainment.
Got back to the hotel after 11 pm. Had to make sure we
had stuff ready for the island trip tomorrow. And we have to also get up around
5 am to leave at 6am.
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