Location: Patong, Phuket, Thailand

The day started off great with a tasty basil chicken rice dish across the street from my hostel for breakfast, Thai street food style – I.e. sitting on a plastic stool at a metal table with a tarp hanging overhead, right next to the outdoor kitchen. I’m sure I was smiling like a dummy sitting there. I love this. Despite really only focusing on the more ‘restaurant style’ meals, I’ve actually been mostly eating this way. It’s tasty, super fast and like $3 for a big plate of better food than I can get most places back home.

I booked a flight from Bangkok to Phuket this morning, one of the southern islands which acts as kind of a gateway to the rest of them. My flight was delayed a little bit… no big deal! It’s only an hour long flight! I’ll still arrive with plenty of time to see some sights, grab a good meal, hit the beach for sunset, join a Friday night hostel party maybe?

Wrong. The ride from the tiny little airport literally only leaves when it’s full, which was actually a hot little van with an aggressive little driver. Well we all know that my stomach loves hot little vans with aggressive little drivers. We finally left the airport two hours later, for the two hour van ride and despite a feeble attempt at medicating myself I still ended up horribly sick. An older American man kept trying to distract me by chatting away but he was radiating heat right next to me and kept breathing heavily in my direction and honestly all I could do was look at the floor and laugh. Breathe in, breathe out. Don’t throw up on the floor. Don’t do it! I booked this ride instead of taking a taxi or the city bus specifically because it was the only one of the three options that takes you along the coast, and I thought it would be pretty to see! Well lucky me I got to look at my knees the whole way instead! So yeah I honestly have no idea what Phuket even looks like yet.

I arrived at the hostel and crawled into my bed, blasting the AC. Mercifully there was nobody else in the dorm room yet so I was able to let my stomach settle on my own. I did venture downstairs eventually for ginger ale and some coconut soup (delicious and easy on the stomach if you don’t get it too spicy!) and ended up being joined by a guy from Singapore named Fan, who was funny and easy to chat with. We visited while I turned less green and although I think I managed to not be horrible company, it is Friday night in a party city and I am in no condition for drinking! I said goodnight to Fan as the party around us began in earnest and crawled back upstairs.

Time for some more much needed rest!

Sav