Travelogue: Day 1 and 2
Jun. 23rd, 2012 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zcat_abroadIt was a dark and not very stormy night, but cold, when we packed our bags, said goodbye to the cat, and headed to the airport.Only to discover, on check-in, that the plane was going to be delayed an hour, due to late arrival. Okay, no problem. We hung around the shops, but everything was closing. The airline provided us with meal-vouchers, but most of the places were closed, as it was after 10pm. Finally boarded the plane, to be told that they were still taking on fuel, and would be ready to go in five minutes. About an hour later, we finally taxied off into the night, knowing that we had now missed our connecting flight to Phuket, and not really being any the wiser as to the cause of the delay.
We had a good flight - the movie channels were hard to work, but that's definitely a first-world problem. Sitting behind the bulkhead separating economy from business was great, as we had more leg room, and all the screaming kids seemed to be in the back of the plane. On arrival at KL, we were put up in the Pan Pacific, and given more meal vouchers, having been rescheduled on a flight around 5pm. Showers and beds are a wonderful thing after an 11 hour flight.
It was only when boarding the little plane to Phuket that I started to get really excited. It was fun being in Malaysia, and interesting seeing how much my passive language came back, but how much better would it be in Thailand? The flight was quick, and would have been scenic if not for the air-pollution, as we flew up the coast and over Phang Nga Bay. And landing, we just stopped short of going over the end of the runway, into the sea. The heat, when we landed, was intense and gluggy - 31C, with about 80% humidity. We would have waited for a van into town, but it was the end of the day, and who knows when the next plane would come in, so we jumped into a taxi, and drove into town.
So much had changed on the drive that it was really hard to work out where we were. Things which remained included a fair amount of rubber plantations, which I had been afraid were all gone. And the grand old Chinese houses, inside their walled gardens just as we came into town.
Mr Growly and Tane in the hotel bed. They will be featuring in a number of images...
Our hotel is plain, but good. As my Beloved pointed out, all we really need more than this, for a house, is a room for the books and a kitchen. The bed is a mattress on the floor, but much more comfortable than the alleged 5* bed in KL. The important thing is the air-conditioning, which is keeping us alive!
Day Two was rather unexciting, as being a Saturday, a lot of things were shut in town. We went in search of roti for breakfast, but the big shop on the corner of Thalang Rd has been changed into a motorbike shop. Eventually, we went to buy Beloved some bread, and I'd have some sticky-rice sweets for breakfast, but when we returned to one of the places where we'd asked for roti, they had made some for us! So we'll go back there for breakfast tomorrow. Then we retreated back to the hotel for air-con.
Having cooled down a bit, we ventured out again, in search of more shorts, and made it to one of the big shopping areas. Lots of garish stuff, but some reasonable shorts were found for my Beloved, and, it being the low season, we hired a taxi to take us to a couple of other places which he recommended for shopping (mostly because it was a really good deal, the car was air-conditioned [hmm, starting to see a trend], and the guy said he'd only made 100B the previous day). Ended up at the main market, looked around, and then retreated to the hotel. This is definitely one of the benefits of a hotel in town, but as the taxi-guy said, the rain appears to be over, so we could have been swimming at a beach - but that's for next week.
Tomorrow should be exciting, as I'm heading back to the village. I'll also start contacting friends, having just got some phone numbers from Uncle Peter.
Mr Growly checking up on what I'm writing.
We had a good flight - the movie channels were hard to work, but that's definitely a first-world problem. Sitting behind the bulkhead separating economy from business was great, as we had more leg room, and all the screaming kids seemed to be in the back of the plane. On arrival at KL, we were put up in the Pan Pacific, and given more meal vouchers, having been rescheduled on a flight around 5pm. Showers and beds are a wonderful thing after an 11 hour flight.
It was only when boarding the little plane to Phuket that I started to get really excited. It was fun being in Malaysia, and interesting seeing how much my passive language came back, but how much better would it be in Thailand? The flight was quick, and would have been scenic if not for the air-pollution, as we flew up the coast and over Phang Nga Bay. And landing, we just stopped short of going over the end of the runway, into the sea. The heat, when we landed, was intense and gluggy - 31C, with about 80% humidity. We would have waited for a van into town, but it was the end of the day, and who knows when the next plane would come in, so we jumped into a taxi, and drove into town.
So much had changed on the drive that it was really hard to work out where we were. Things which remained included a fair amount of rubber plantations, which I had been afraid were all gone. And the grand old Chinese houses, inside their walled gardens just as we came into town.
Mr Growly and Tane in the hotel bed. They will be featuring in a number of images...
Our hotel is plain, but good. As my Beloved pointed out, all we really need more than this, for a house, is a room for the books and a kitchen. The bed is a mattress on the floor, but much more comfortable than the alleged 5* bed in KL. The important thing is the air-conditioning, which is keeping us alive!
Day Two was rather unexciting, as being a Saturday, a lot of things were shut in town. We went in search of roti for breakfast, but the big shop on the corner of Thalang Rd has been changed into a motorbike shop. Eventually, we went to buy Beloved some bread, and I'd have some sticky-rice sweets for breakfast, but when we returned to one of the places where we'd asked for roti, they had made some for us! So we'll go back there for breakfast tomorrow. Then we retreated back to the hotel for air-con.
Having cooled down a bit, we ventured out again, in search of more shorts, and made it to one of the big shopping areas. Lots of garish stuff, but some reasonable shorts were found for my Beloved, and, it being the low season, we hired a taxi to take us to a couple of other places which he recommended for shopping (mostly because it was a really good deal, the car was air-conditioned [hmm, starting to see a trend], and the guy said he'd only made 100B the previous day). Ended up at the main market, looked around, and then retreated to the hotel. This is definitely one of the benefits of a hotel in town, but as the taxi-guy said, the rain appears to be over, so we could have been swimming at a beach - but that's for next week.
Tomorrow should be exciting, as I'm heading back to the village. I'll also start contacting friends, having just got some phone numbers from Uncle Peter.
Mr Growly checking up on what I'm writing.