Who booked these flights?! I suppose we are to blame that our total travel time was about 16 hours from our hotel in Shinjuku to our villa in Phuket. The 4-hour layover seemed to be a good idea at the time and the extra time kind of did help. Oh well. We got onto the Narita express which took us to the airport from shinjuku station in about 2 hours. The end of our Japanese era was near, as the toilets at the airport entrance were ominously labeled "western style" as if we were slowly weaning ourselves away from Japanese refined culture. And that is certainly the truth from now on! After eating some katsudon and soba for breakfast and doing some light window shopping, we got on our flight to Bangkok. We flew ANA (all nihon airways) and it was a pleasure! The flight attendants were amazing and the amenities (Except in-flight entertainment) were definitely a step up from united or any other American airline. However, the passengers on the flight were very peculiar. Mostly older businessmen. And when I got up to use the rest room, these old men were saying "ni hao" to me. I think they were Japanese. This one old, red-faced man's head was following my every move back there, which is very strange considering that most Japanese don't even make eye contact with you, let alone stare. Creep! There just seems to be a lot of shady looking people heading down to Thailand for "business"...
When we got to Bangkok after a 7+ hour flight, we noticed the tremendous diversity right away. It was in stark contrast to Japan. We kind of got used to blending in among the Japanese! We also saw this Ronald McDonald making the thai greeting. We had a 4-hour layover so we took our sweet time with things. We even went through customs there instead of Phuket, our final destination because T&K had their bags going to Bangkok instead of Phuket. Taking it easy, I had some pandan tea at the Bangkok Airways lounge... Yum!
When we finally got to Phuket, we were just so exhausted from traveling that all we wanted to do was shower and sleep. A van was waiting for us, although it took awhile for us to find him ("Huntiley"). Our villa was pretty sweet so we took some time to get familiar with it. Because we had a full kitchen, we decided to go to the Tesco about a half mile away to get some water and basic stuff for the fridge. The resort staff told us it closed at 11 but it actually closes at 10 and it was about 10:45 :( we had to make the dark walk back as cars and bikes buzzed by, but also with a stray dog following us the entire way. We could not shake off this mut! It ended up being ok but he followed us all the way to our door. As long as he was guarding us, that's cool, but after being attacked by a monkey in Bali last year, I usually don't like to take my chances with wild animals! We were so beat that we couldn't make it to the bachelorette party in old Phuket. The restaurant is a must-do here but we were just so dirty and tired and our hair was blowing up in the humidity. Did I mention I showered in the presence of a frog (sorry, M!) and probably other critters? We should be different people now after some beauty sleep :)
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