It's already July!

June has been hell of a month with me clocking almost 10-12 hours at work every other day.

However, I did make a short getaway to Phuket, Thailand!

I wanted to write about my trip to Phuket because I realised through my research that there wasn't a very comprehensive and unique guide. Mine would probably not be as comprehensive but hopefully it could help someone out there. :)

I flew off by Jetstar flight at about 3pm in the afternoon and was expected to arrive in Phuket at about 4.30++pm, Thailand time. For those of you who don't know, Phuket is GMT +7, which means it is an hour ahead of SG time.

It was a really pleasant flight where I watched some variety shows that I had downloaded on Viu and also playing some games.



However, things started getting really bad about 20 mins before we touched down. Announcement was made that it was currently raining in Phuket and that our landing will be delayed. After about 40 mins, we were finally told that we will make a landing. But as we were about maybe 10 seconds from touching the ground, the plane took off sharply back into the air. This move totally aggravated my motion sickness and I was on the verge of throwing up! The pilot then told us that the visibility was too bad for us to taxi down the runway so we had to wait again. After about 20-30 mins of circling the skies, we finally made another attempt to touch down and much to the cheers of everyone, we arrived safely at Phuket International Airport. Kudos to our Japanese pilot who handled the touch-down so well!

We spent about 45 mins waiting for immigration clearance before we exited the airport. For many people, they would have chosen to take a taxi to the hotel, which for us, may costs us about 1000 Baht (SGD $40) as we were travelling to Kata. We didn't want to spend on such an expensive taxi and went for a cheaper version, the shared mini-bus. We read about bad experiences with one of the shared mini-bus company- P.M.K, so we decided to try out another- P.B.C.


We were first directed to a counter where a lady tried selling us some packages. One tip that we used was to let the lady know we had already booked the packages via our hotel so we don't require any, although she was upset, she directed us back to the counter to buy our shared min-bus ticket which costs only 200 Baht per pax (SGD $8).

After purchasing the ticket, walk out to outside of the airport and cross the zebra crossing where groups of people are waiting. Once there is enough people, you will be brought to the min-bus and drove off to the office near the airport. When you arrive at the office, alight from the van and let the lady know where your accommodation is and she will write it down for you on the ticket. After which, go back to the mini-bus and off you go! So main point is also to keep your ticket properly and don't lose it! Since many of the fellow travellers were staying in Patong, we had a night tour in the bus which allows us to see Patong as we were not travelling to Patong area for this trip. The ride took us almost 2.5 hours, longer than our plane ride, and we finally were the last to get off in Kata at about 8pm. What I really like was that we were sent directly to the door step of our accommodation.

We stayed at Sugar Marina Resort- Nautical and we were gifted with a partial sea view on the highest floor with free mini-bar. It's actually a boutique hotel but I got to say the location and service is really good. We were about less than 5 mins walk to Kata Beach and about 7 mins walk to Kata Noi Beach but away from the hustle and bustle on the main street. After resting a little and feeling ravenous, we wanted to order room service only to realise that the last order is at 8.30 and we missed it. Therefore, we walked out to look for a dinner place and arrived at 44 Thai Kitchen.



The food was pretty good and I had a pad thai and a cocktail, which was on promotion at 99 Baht. Really, $4 for a cocktail is pretty decent. After the dinner, we walked back and looked through every nook and cranny at the convenience store for a rough gauge of prices and stock up a little before washing up and calling it a night. The whole adventurous journey to the hotel really got me pretty much exhausted.