phuket

On the 27th, at my old friend AK's suggestion, I just hauled ass out to the airport at 10pm. Once there, I eventually found the one Thai Airways staffer -- same guy who'd taken my number the night before -- and found out that there would be no flight that night. This after calling about six times earlier in the day and being told "six or seven hours" until the plane was ready. So instead I went to the ticket office and booked myself on Qatar. Twelve hours and a stopover in Qatar's surrealist airport later, and 36 hours than I was meant to arrive, I landed in Bangkok.

I'm typing this on my phone so the rest of the entry will be a series of abbreviated observations and experiences. 

Suvarnabhumi Airport is efficient. Immigration line was long but clipped along, I bought a local SIM (with unlimited internet!) for about eight bucks at a kiosk, and got in a metered taxi. 

In Bangkok my hostel was adequate. I'm coming to the end of the period in my life where budget-consciousness drives vacation decisions. I could have afforded a more expensive plane ticket to places where staying is cheaper, for example. But I went with the cheapest possible ticket. 

My dinner in Bangkok was eh. Place was hyped and promising: a dive specializing in papaya salad with many configurations. I got it with fried catfish. Super hot, pretty tasty, that's about it. Then I went and had a very expensive glass of nice single malt scotch on the 37th floor of a hotel overlooking the city on an open-air balcony. Talked to a couple of young Thai, one a lawyer for UNHCR and the other an educator who'd just finished his dissertation on pedagogy of the Thai language. 

It is nice to be in a country that is not sexually repressed. All the waiters in my restaurant in Bangkok were women; unthinkable in Pakistan. In fact that's also true of the place I'm in right now. People are comfortable with skin. 

Missed out on a good day of tourism in Bangkok but made solid use of the half day I did have by going to the Wat Pho, a big temple complex centered around a massive reclining golden Buddha. It was rad, although it gave of the impression of having been almost designed for maximum tourist interest. It's still a working temple (and massage school) so that thought feels a bit disrespectful. But it's unavoidable. If you were designing "perfect place for western tourists to feel like they were seeing something exotic but still comfortable" you might come up with Wat Pho. 

Phuket tourists are at least 80% Russian. Most of these seem to be young couples, many with babies. This was a surprise, and also slightly disappointing from a solo-traveler perspective. Ah well, more time for reading. 

The place I picked to stay is a bit dead at night. One more night here but I'm relocating to the party beach town for NYE. 

I had my first Thai pad thai last night. Just finished a lunch of som tum (papaya and dried shrimp salad) and roast duck curry. Tasty. 

Southeast Asian beer is all of the piss variety.

Kata Beach, where I'm staying, is in fact really nice. The beach I mean. Got there around 10:45 this morning and it was populated but not quite crowded. Swam a bit, lay in the sun, moved to the shade, read a bit, swam a bit more, lay in the sun a bit more. A lovely way to spend several hours. 

It will probably rain later. My plan during that time is to read, exercise a bit in my room, and get a massage. 

Hurray vacation!