The exhausting part was all of the travelling in a window of about 12 hours, adding in a 2 hour time difference, as southeast Asia is two hours behind Korea. The stressful part was that the domestic flight to Phuket was the only leg of my journey that wasn't an actual flight connection - I booked a separate round-trip between Bankgok (BKK) and Phuket because it was about $700 cheaper that way versus adding it to my existing NYC-Seoul-Bangkok-Siem Reap itinerary for some reason.. I think Expedia starts having issues after 5 flight connections on an itinerary, so perhaps their development team should look into that.
I gave myself a 3+ hour cushion between my arrival in BKK and my departure for Phuket. Luckily, everything up until the ride to my hotel in Phuket went swimmingly - some of which I have to thank my mother for, as the slim travel bag she let me borrow to stuff in my own carry-on bag has been extremely useful. It allowed me to put part of the contents of my carry-on (snacks, drinks, laptop, chargers, etc) under the seat in front of me during my flight whilst my larger carry-on is stored above - thanks mom! Also, I'm definitely keeping the sweet hat from Korea now - sorry Ed!
After landing in Phuket, I found the nicest looking taxi service in the airport which charged 800 baht ($1 is around 32 baht, so figure $30 total after a 200 baht tip, because I felt badly for this guy by the end) for a trip to BYD Lofts in Patong Beach, where I was to stay. I could've snagged a van with a group going to Patong for 200 baht total, but at this point I was simply over travelling and people in general and I wanted to shower and get the H E doubles to bed. And so, a young Thai gentleman brought me to a fairly new-looking sedan with air conditioning (a perk they advertise with their higher price - all the more reason to pay the extra $20), and when I attempted to show him the address of my hotel, he barely looked at it, then nodded his head. I tried to show him again - same result. However, for all I know, this is a popular place just 5-10 minutes away, and everybody knows how to get there.
We drive along for less than five minutes and he pulls over to the left (steering wheels are on the right side, driving is done on the left) at what appears to be a taxi and limousine storefront of sorts. He gets out of the car and disappears for a moment while a lady who speaks better English opens the car door and asks me where I'm going. Thank goodness at least someone is concerned with my precise destination, right? Yeah.. right.
The young fellow gets back into the car and we proceed to drive for over an hour (I would've looked up the distance to my hotel from the airport but internet on my phone wasn't working yet) until we run into some standstill traffic in what appeared to be a bustling area. About 10-15 minutes later, we seemed to be driving in circles as I repeatedly saw signs for Patong Beach.. but at least we were in the right town, I suppose. The young man then pulls over and stops on the side of the road and makes his first of three phone calls to my hotel. Good thing I downloaded that Expedia app with every detail of my bookings before I left.
The saving grace in this whole debacle was that he appeared to say kaboom about 20-30 times during the first call.. sometimes even in rapid-fire succession like kaboom-kaboom. Now this wasn't an exclamatory KABOOM!, but rather a subdued acknowledgement of sorts. He would listen to the other person speak, and acknowledge their words with a gentle kaboom each time. This was great. He was completely lost (believe it or not, even after their first 5-minute convo), but he totally redeemed himself by saying a tender kaboom every 10 seconds or so.
In his defense, the hotel was a little hard to find.. but then again, I'm not an airport taxi driver in Phuket. Perhaps he wasn't one either, but who knows. Anyhow, after two more calls and 20 more minutes of circling, just as we hit the two hour mark for our should-be-one-hour journey, we arrived at BYD Lofts. Kaboom.
At this point I was so exhausted that I wanted to shower and sleep immediately. I walk up to the front desk and a bellhop gives me a tasty beverage in a champagne flute and asks me to sit and wait for a few minutes, as they are very busy. The drink was good.. so fine, I'll wait. When it was my turn, I give the lady at the front desk my passport and Thailand entry docs and she does a few things behind her desk, only to ask me to send her an email with my reservation details. By this point: ARE. YOU. FNG. KIDDING. ME. She explains that she only needs this email so her accounting department can verify the record of the reservation. WHAT?! So I email her my Expedia receipt but she noticed I was really in no mood for this nonsense, despite the extremely flavorful drink they'd just given me. So she goes on to tell me that I've been upgraded from the Deluxe to the Grand Deluxe Suite, which meant absolutely nothing to me - I just wanted to shower and sleep, NOW. She then points to photos and a floor plan which show that this upgrade has virtually doubled the size of my suite.. pretty pictures - now this is something I can wrap my head around. Okay.. double the suite size, and now I'm listening. An oafy-looking bellhop then joins us and carries my luggage up one flight of glass steps to my suite. KABOOOOOM!
The suite is absolutely ridiculous. I have more space than I know what to do with. It's much bigger than my NYC apartment with much nicer finishes, and there's a sick balcony that spans the entire apartment with a nice table and chairs outside (now I just need a stogie and some bourbon). The bathroom is huge, and there's a jacuzzi/tub plus a large shower that has both a shower handle on the wall AND a big rain-style head on the ceiling. I seriously LOVE showers with multiple water outlets. Now they've redeemed themselves, too.
On this day, everyone achieves redemption, and I can finally take my shower and shut my eyes till morning.
Now that's what I'm talkin about
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