Sawadee Phuket! – Day 1

The respite we were waiting for has finally arrived. Due to my exam schedule, this trip had to be pushed back to June, from its original schedule during Chinese New Year. To escape the hastiness of every-day life, we decided to go on an escape to Phuket, Thailand. Nearing the trip, the weather in Singapore was superbly hot, and we feared for the weather in Phuket moving on. Moving on, we left our house in Singapore early in the morning, booked a SMRT cab (because Comfort was out of taxis for some reason). Our ride arrived in the form of a Prius, which I had never experienced riding in before. We actually had to unlock the back seats and lean onto the seats (which were supported by the luggage that were in the boot.

When we arrived, we headed for lunch at Penang Culture before boarding the plane. We booked tickers with Silkair on their Airbus A320, which was a tried and tested workhorse of a Jetliner. Fortunately it did not have the particular smell of the Singapore Airlines flights which I cannot take. We boarded and were actually served a quick meal before we landed at Phuket International Airport. We cleared Customs without much issue and we looked for a sign with my Dad’s name on it, which was the first time I had the opportunity to carry out such an event. We climbed into the Toyota Hiace van and we were driven to our hotel (with a short stop at a cashew nut shop, which we declined.)

We arrived at Novotel Vintage Park, where we were informed that the room that we booked was not available because of a group’s late checkout, and that we had to wait 1.5 hours before we were able to go into the room. After some haggling, we mangaged to upgrade the room FOC to a Pool-Access Room, with an additional Sofa-Bed for me. The room was nice and spacious and the beds were decent. Only thing that was a little irritating was the lack of reliable Wi-Fi which affected the experience a little.

After a short rest, we decided to make a trip to Linda Seafood, which was just a while away from the hotel. We ordered parrot fish, squid and some other seafood. I had not experienced parrot fish in Singapore before, and I was very excited to try it out. Linda, the owner, came to our table and recommended us to certain dishes. We had Steamed Parrot Fish, Fried and Sambal Calamari, French Fries, and Tom Yum soup. All of the dishes were very well cooked and were very delicious. We were able to pick our fish and other seafood before they were cooked, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

After this, we walked back to the hotel, we decided to take a dip in the pool, which we had a private Jacuzzi, we kicked back in the pool and relaxed before heading back into bed for the night. | After this, we prepared ourselves for a long day tomorrow.