A sudden trip with friends, a decision to step out of comfort zone, and lo behold we were in Phuket. There's a direct flight from Bangalore that lands directly in Phuket after three and a half hours. Thanks to taking the flight from Bangalore I got a chance to check out the new terminal in Bangalore which has a less intimidating presence than most airports. Anyway, unlike most trips where I do some amount of research I fully went by what friend Rajesh decided. An easy holiday, one day out boating to some islands, a chilled day and back. Sounded nice enough.
Day 1 mostly went into flying to Phuket and arriving to find a nice, clean, less crowded place. There were hardly any VISA formalities - just some document to be filled in electronically - TDAC or something. The cars or vans are normally 10-12 seaters and quite spacious. They are very courteous the Thais, bowing deep for their namaskars, wishing you in a melodious sing song voice that somehow makes it very friendly and welcoming. I can greet in a curt manner but not when I do it in a sing song manner which makes you automatically smile.
The resort was nice but away from the town. The beach was hardly a few minutes away and we headed out there. Not a soul here because the beaches are mostly annexed to these hotel properties. To the delight of some of the party it was discovered than weed was legal in Thailand.
The property was nice. Apparently the sea here is called the Andaman Sea (India shares maritime border with Thailand). Thailand itself I discovered later, was known as Siam in the olden days before the Europeans landed - Portuguese first. So there's a lot of Sino Portuguese architecture in the old town area of Phuket.
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