From our 8am wake up call, courtesy of Radidt's departure with Isabel & John to the Bali Arts Festival, to this very moment eating our first Thai dish at Kopitiams on Thalang road it's been a surprisingly long day. Mistaking a four hour flight for two along with underestimating airport prices & currency confusion did little to help. Our Indonesian airport experience consisted of passing through security twice (the only ATM being outside the airport & the airport tax dock being after the check-in), checking in three bags (because although having paid for 40kg, the maximum was of course only 32kg) to then being sat outside gate 5 downing a big bottle of water, bought minutes earlier in duty free after having found a piece of wood in my lunch! Arriving in Phuket thankfully involved a far less stressful procedure, taking less than half an hour to be away in a taxi after stepping off the plane. Although one final moan has to be made about the last half hour of our flight; doing circular loops of the Adaman Coast due to turbulence took me back to feelings of our Gili-Bali fast boat experience. It might have been a disappointment to see rain crashing down as we passed bellow the clouds, but to finally touch down brought the greatest sigh of relief & all the dreaded fears of plane tragedies were lifted from my shaking shoulders!
Despite the rain we've had a warm welcome from both our giggling taxi driver who seemed more occupied by our conversation than by following directions & the little lady from the hostel that greeted us half way down the street in the rain offering to carry our huge bags!
In comparison to Bali so far my impression of Phuket is clean, safe & friendly. Whether it was just the sign for "Tesco's" supermarket or the "Esso" garage we passed on the less dirt-track like road to Phuket town that achieves a homely vibe or whether I'm genuinely within my comfort zones here is something I guess only time will tell.