Thailand

I think I should probably preface this post by admitting that my Thailand trip hardly even skimmed the surface. This, of course, simply means I’ll have to go back again sometime!

Phuket

Because I was heading to Phuket in search of a relaxing beach vacation, that’s exactly what I got. I never even left my (dazzling!) hotel to go to tourist strip or the old town. They were about 30 minutes away, and I simply couldn’t be bothered to leave the sun for that long.

So my photos from Phuket aren’t necessarily representative of Phuket in its whole; rather they are only representative of the Renaissance Phuket — about which I just can’t say enough — and its grounds.

The grounds of Renaissance Phuket, looking out toward the beach from the open-air lobby.

The hotel was absolutely fabulous and I’d recommend it hands down. Service was impeccable, the food was good and the drinks were incredibly reasonable ($4 for domestic beers!). The beachside front of the hotel was stocked full of places to enjoy the sun: a pool with lounge chairs all around it, a beach bar with cushioned areas upon which to lay/sit, and lounge chairs set out in the grass above the beach. I took turns trying out each, of course!

What is essentially the hotel's clubhouse, with plenty of places to soak up the sun.

The beach was beautiful and—since the Renaissance is situated at the remote northern part of the island with only two other hotels in the vicinity—virtually empty. But the waters were the roughest ocean waters I’ve ever experienced. Just a few minutes wading in the shallow end would leave me out of breath. That made me a bit nervous, so I only got in a few times for just a few minutes each.

The nearly empty Mai Khao beach in front of the Renaissance hotel in Phuket

And possibly the best part of the resort was the outdoor massage “tent.” I’m not sure how it works, as there is actually a (much nicer and also much more expensive!) spa within the resort, but they also have this little space outdoors offering five or six types of massages that you could get right there, with the sound of ocean waves crashing in the background, for just over $14 an hour! I got one Friday and planned to get a second one Saturday, but my back got a little too sunburnt for it to be comfortable.

The massage "cabin" outside the hotel by the beach. One-hour massages: only $14!

Bangkok

The way I had planned my trip, I was set to have about six hours Sunday to explore Bangkok (since I had to connect there before flying back to Hong Kong).

I first headed out from the airport on the super fast, cheap and efficient airport express train (seriously, what is with America? Why don’t U.S. cities have these things!?). I walked around exploring a bit and decided my maps weren’t good enough (and even if they were, my sense of direction would not be), so I hailed a tuk-tuk—basically a motorized rickshaw vehicle—to Wat Pho, one of the city’s oldest and most famous wat (temples).

A Thai tuk-tuk, basically a motorized, three-wheel rickshaw.

Admission was only 50 baht ($1.80) and I enjoyed the Wat. It was refreshing to see a temple that looked different after having seen so many Chinese temples in the past year and a half (sorry, but they all kind of look the same).

Chedi and some building on the grounds of Wat Pho in Bangkok.

Statues guarding the entrances to different areas of the wat.

The wat is also famed as the site of the Reclining Buddha, a buddha resting on its side that measures more than 46 meters (150+ feet) and is one of the world’s largest. Its feet, which are bigger than me, are made of mother of pearl on the bottom.

Afterward, I walked around a bit, ended up at the amulet market and stopped inside a covered market for lunch. I was a bit puzzled by the restaurants, so I simply picked one that had a giant vat of chicken and rice cooking. Unlike every other person I encountered on the trip, the workers here didn’t speak English, so I knew I must be at  a truly local joint! I simply pointed to the giant pot of chicken and rice and got a serving of it for a paltry $1.07. The restaurant and market lie right along the Chao Phraya River so you could sit and watch boats go by while you dine.

My $1.07 chicken and rice lunch!

From there I continued ambling, up the road to the Banglamphu neighborhood, a cute area located next to the river with a smattering of restaurants, bars and hotels/hostels and therefore lots of foreigners. It was at a little local restaurant in this neighborhood where I realized the fatal error I’d made that day: At 2:20 p.m., after having a plate of pad Thai, I finally found a place with wi-fi and was able to check my email to verify my itinerary. To my horror, I realized that my flight left not at 5:30 p.m., as I’d thought all day, but actually at 3:25 p.m. (I’d printed out my itinerary earlier but must’ve left it in Phuket and then I couldn’t immediately find anywhere in Bangkok with wi-fi to double check it in my email. I think what happened was I had 5-6 hours to spend in Bangkok total, but in my mind, these numbers somehow got mixed up and I thought I had until 5 or 6 o’clock. Whoopsies^2.)

Let me just say, I’m not sure what it is about me and flying. In all other respects of life, I’m a completely organized, put together person and I’ve always got everything taken care of and written down and alphabetized and color-coded. But for whatever reason, I just suck at traveling by plane. (By my count, this is the fifth flight I’ve missed in four years.)

So yes, needless to say I missed my flight, which unfortunately was on the random Royal Jordanian airline that had no counter at the airport and only offers a single flight a day out of Bangkok. The only representative that the people at the information desk could get ahold of from the airline gave us a local booking line to contact, but when we called the number, no one answered. We called again to verify the number, but they told us it was right. So there I was, stuck in airport, my flight had already left and I had no customer service line to call to get assistance (in addition to having no local cellphone, and Internet in the airport was $9 an hour — and actually I even tried to buy a couple hours’ worth of it but it didn’t work).

So I decided rather than sit around waiting and waiting and stressing about how to get ahold of these Jordanians in Thailand and get home—and because I feared my usual tactic of crying to the Continental/Delta representatives wouldn’t work in a foreign country—I decided my only option really was to simply book another flight one-way back to Hong Kong.

Luckily Asia has the low-cost Air Asia carrier, which is basically to Asia what Southwest is to the U.S. But it still set me back $200, and I couldn’t get on a flight until the next morning, which meant I got to spend the night (16 hours total!) at the Bangkok airport. Not exactly the way to end a relaxing vacation. I think it may have undone all the peace I found from beaching in Phuket as well as leaving me sick with a cold.

Anyway, at least I’m home now and I’ve another stamp added to my passport.

Hope your holidays were less stressful–albeit probably not warmer!—than mine. A belated Merry Christmas.