We flew on AirAsia out of Kuala Lumpur's low cost terminal rather than KL International. The low cost air terminal is kind of like the Humphrey terminal in Minneapolis -- except with a distinctly Asian twist. In other words, it was teeming with people even at 6 a.m. when we arrived, steaming hot and appeared to be very chaotic with the huge crowd first standing in one line and then another to get checked in with baggage, make it through immigration and then once we did all that we had about a half mile walk (I'm not exaggerating!!) from the gate to the plane on the tarmac toting our carry-on luggage. Carol was half a twitch away from delaminating by the time we got to the plane. Although we had arrived at the airport more than two hours ahead of time, we finally sat down in our seats just a few minutes before take off. Ten minutes later and we would not have made it. However, once the flight actually got going it went very well, except for about 30 seconds of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced as we were landing in Phuket.
The Phuket airport was much more relaxed than KL and Phuket itself is much much smaller and less modern but more charming than KL. The Swissotel we stayed at was perfect for us. It had about 150 units so it was large enough to support a nice pool with a two story water slide and a Kid's World with lots of activities for the kids but not so big that it was over-run with guests. Many of the other guests appeared and sounded to be from Russia or other Eastern European countries.
The hotel had a great breakfast buffet and ala carte dinner that had Thai dishes that were excellent. The staff was very friendly and when we had a problem with the lock on our door they had 3 guys there within minutes replacing the lock. My overall impression of Phuket is that the people are extremely nice, gentle people. For my yoga buddies, the Thai people appear to do Anjali Mudra at the end of almost every interaction they had with us.
We spent our first day in Thailand hanging out at the hotel pool and down at Kampala Beach which was about 5 minutes walk away from the hotel.
For my yoga buddies, if I was asked to objectively rate the beaches I saw in Phuket, Thailand with the beaches we go to in Tulum, Mexico I would have to say that the beaches in Tulum are better. In Tulum, the beaches are not nearly as crowded (a huge plus in my mind) the weather is better (warm during the day but cool in the evening with no need for air conditioning), the sand is finer and whiter, the water is clearer and a more pleasant temperature at this time of year (i.e., warm enough not to be shocked when you get in but with a little initial coolness which is refreshing, rather than feeling bath-water warm). Tulum is obviously a lot easier to get to and hotels prices are about the same. However the food in Thailand is far and away the hands down winner and the country as a whole is clearly much more exotic to Americans than Tulum.
For dinner our first evening in Thailand, the hotel had a "make-your-own" pizza dinner for the 3 oldest girls and the four adults and Whitney ate in the hotel restaurant where we had excellent Thai dishes and drinks for about $100.
No comments:
Post a Comment