Hi again folks,
I’m trying to churn these out a bit faster now so that there’s also the possibility of getting back to trips I had earlier neglected, so don’t be surprised if the next few entries come out very quickly.
On day 3 I really needed to sleep in, so didn’t actually wake up until 9 AM. To be fair, back home in Bengaluru it was 7:30 AM, so I wasn’t being incredibly lazy. I had a good shower, lazy breakfast of Kellogg’s Special K with almond milk and finally decided to get a car into Phuket town at 11:30 AM. Theoretically I could have tried the bus again, but it seemed rather unreliable, and I was already running late.
There are other types of local transport used by locals, but I feel like you need to know Thai to use those and even then you would need to know a lot more about your destination than I did. Elisabet had tipped me off that the Grab app was very reliable for car hailing, but also rather expensive. A much better option is inDrive; which seems to be a more democratic version of Uber. I didn’t want to mess around too much with price negotiations so I got a car for 246 THB but ended up paying 300 (8 USD) because the driver had no change. For Thai visitors this isn’t a problem because they have a ubiquitous payment system that works with QR codes, but visitors will need to keep lots of cash, preferably with smaller bills, since most places seem to not take cards. It may seem a little expensive for those who are used to prices in Southeast Asia, but it was 13 km (8.1 miles) and the cars seem to generally be very comfortable with good air-conditioning, which is something you are likely to value here. Anyways, by 12 noon I was in the historic part of Phuket.
While everything was rather pretty, it was basically just lots of shops and places to get a bite to eat. I am not much of a random shopper, so endlessly looking in stores generally doesn’t do it for me. Also, as I had eaten breakfast rather late, I wasn’t yet ready to eat.
I got another possible “fraud alert” in my email from HDFC so decided that I needed to find a place to sit so that I could call and try to work things out with them. The reported charges had all been made by me, even using my passcode, but I was worried they might block my card. I attempted to follow the instructions given in their email to notify of my trip via Internet banking, but the instructions didn’t actually work since the webpage has since been redesigned. After about an hour of trying to call different HDFC numbers in India but never being able to resolve anything, I just gave up after sending a reply to the fraud alert email, hoping that an actual human would read it. Really, HDFC India needs to have a number where international travelers can call to speak to an real human when they are abroad. To be fair, this is the first time I had a problem with them while traveling, but I just hope they don’t block my card.
I then continued my wandering and found a small Buddhist temple complex. I forgot to get the name, but it’s right there in the center of the town, so it would be easy to find.
I wandered a bit more but noticed it was basically more of the same. There were a couple museums listed nearby, but I wasn’t really feeling up to museum visits, and today was some sort of a local memorial day, so I thought it likely they might be closed anyways. So at 2:30 PM I opted to go ahead and get some food at an open air eatery, Loktien Phuket local food, that seemed to have a few customers. The menu was mostly in Thai and the server didn’t understand English. Given both the obvious propensity of Thais to put bits of shrimp into food and my anaphylactic reaction to the same, I decided to play it as safe as possible.
The pork was good but yes, a tiny bit too much chili for me. Much later in the night I did have a bit of an upset stomach, but I think it was not because of any cleanliness issue but rather that I just wasn’t used to that much chili. The menu was quite inexpensive, for everything and I suspect the food here would be a real “authentic” treat for both seafood lovers and those who can handle/like a bit more chili in their food. As I was in no big hurry, I then decided to walk towards the bus stop and head back to Elisabet’s place in Koh Kaew.
After an hour of waiting for the bus and also noticing locals come, wait for awhile and then walk off, I decided it was a lost cause and once again took out my inDrive app. This time it was only 220 THB (5.83 USD) and I was actually taken in a VIP taxi. I didn’t think to take a picture of the outside, but it’s evidently a rather big deal. Certainly it was both spacious and very comfortable inside. I guess it’s usually more expensive, but if you were to have four people and it’s an option, I would definitely recommend the same.
It wasn’t until I arrived outside Elisabet’s house that I realized that arriving in a car like this was such a big deal. Several of the neighbors came running to look at the car and speak to the driver. Elisabet was also shocked and worried that I had paid too much, but she was quickly mollified when I told her the amount and also that I had used inDrive.
We chatted for a bit and then we decided to go for a walk around the area before it was too dark to start out.
As it was getting darker, Elisabet suggested that we check out the local neighborhood temple which she had not yet visited. As you can see, it was very nice.
We then had dinner at a nearby restaurant which Elisabet really likes called NaNa Healthy Cafe and Bistro. I would definitely recommend others to visit it.
Next, we headed back to the house. It’s worth noting that Elisabet said she wouldn’t have been walking around in poorly lit areas like this by herself, and even with me, she steered us towards “more populated” areas. It may be that she is being overly cautious, but it seems like solo travelers, especially women, might want to exercise standard “reasonable caution” when wandering around at night in Phuket if they are a bit off the beaten path. It’s also worth noting that is not “normal” for people to walk around here, perhaps because of the heat and sun during the day?
We got back a bit late, had a little more chat and then Elisabet said she really needed to get to sleep, but that I would be welcome to stay up longer watching TV or something similar. However, I also wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour, since I had quite a few plans for the next day while she would be at work.
As always, thanks for following along, and let me know if you want more information about anything I’ve mentioned. These first three days were a bit slow, but I think you will find both days four and five to be rather packed.
See you soon!
Travels with Jay 