Phuket Part I

After a relaxing morning at Siripanna hotel in Chiang Mai, I booked a 3 hours massage package at a local spa... That was a first for both of us. The great thing about it is that it was a well reviewed spa, they pick you up from your hotel (and drive you back), and it was 1/2 the price of the hotel spa for both of us. A good deal!

We loved it and were very relaxed. It worked out great too, since we had a late flight that night and needed to be out of the hotel by 2pm.

That night we flew from Chiang Mai to Phuket on a very late flight. We landed at 23:50 (or 11.50pm) and by the time we got our luggage, it was well past midnight.

Turns out, taxi were not available at that time (how convenient), so there was that sea of tourists, completely lost, flowing out of the airport, only to find a mess outside, with no taxi and people trying to not get scammed yet get to their hotel..

We ended up having to sign up with a minivan service (the first we passed by) that advertised pretty cheap prices. We finally found the van we were supposed to join and that is when I realized that while they asked with town we were going to, they did not ask what hotel to drop us off. At that point, I was fully expecting a full blown scam or being dropped in the middle of nowhere having to grab another cab once at the destination town.

oh well.. it is not like we had any choice.

It got even better when after driving for about 5-10 minutes, the van stopped at what seems like a brightely lit shop. At that point, I was fully expecting, a congratulations! you just got scammed, now if you really want to get to your hotel please pay an extra $100...

or.. another variation would be :Please come around in our shop and buy something or we won't let the van go. Though I thought (yes I still had some common sense at 1 am) it was unlikely they would try to force a tourist to shop that late at night..

Well turns out, these people were actually decent and all good. They get you in the van first to get out of the airport craziness, then you go to the office where everyone tells them where they stay so they can translate and create a route for your driver...

We drove for a good hour, stopping by several hotels (or what seemed to be nightclubs with rooms above) in very loud areas. We started wondering if Phuket was a right choice.

But, we were last on the list, and the area got quieter and a little nicer.

Only bad point: the driver left us at the end of the road after 1 hour drive, he did not deem necessary to actually get us to our hotel, so we had to lug our bags through the street at 2am at night.

But it was worth it, in the end :)