Off to Phuket

Our plane
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We scheduled a car to pick us up at the hotel to take us to the airport. For a few dollars more, he is taking us by the tailor, so that I can pick up my blouses. Had I known how long the blouses would take compared to the rest of the clothes, I would have started this whole process earlier so that we weren't running by the tailor on the way to the airport. We fought traffic and eventually arrived. There was no place to park, so the car dropped us off and we dashed in while he turned around. The blouses looked awesome and fit great. We thanked the tailor and ran back out to the car.

In the lounge at the airport
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We arrived at the airport in record time. Once we left the tailor, traffic wasn't so bad. We checked in at the domestic counter and headed through security. Airport security is WAY different here from the US. We have gotten so used to taking off shoes, taking out laptops, and taking out the little zip lock bag of liquids that we hardly knew what to do with ourselves when we just had to put our bags, with the laptops in them, through an xray machine. We headed to the Royal Silk lounge to wait for our flight to be ready to board.

The Runways and Control Tower
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The domestic lounge is fairly roomy with lots of places to sit. They had sandwiches, danishes, mini pizzas, and fruit to eat. Lots of drink selections including soda, juice, and beer. We found a comfortable area to sit that had a power plug near it and settled in to wait. We were enjoying the food and beverages and the quiet of the lounge until a family with a 6-7 year old walked in

Before continuing with this, I should comment that I love kids. Although I don't have any yet, I greatly enjoy other people's kids. I just don't think that kids always belong everywhere (depending on the circumstances and the kid)

There were 5 adults and one kid. The little boy had LOTS of energy and decided to expend it running (with very loud steps, the way kids love to run) around the lounge. At this point, there are people in here on cell phone calls and some looked like they were actually trying to work. His mom yelled at him and he would return to where the adults were sitting for a few moments and then he was off again. If your child has lots of energy and you are going to get on a plane soon, please let them run around and have fun in the airport.. Just not in the first/business class lounge! There was one man in particular who was trying to work and he was very unhappy with the situation. The staff didn't say anything to the family, which I kinda understand. It was a bit odd though, as the lounge is run by Thai Airways, and you will recall that this is the same airline on which you can't look out the window because someone might be trying to sleep. I guess that work is not as important as sleep?

We headed out for our gate and proceeded through security again right before our gate. Still didn't have to take out the laptops, but we did go through a metal detector this time. Shoes could stay on though! As we were waiting for boarding to begin, who should walk in, but the family from the lounge! Hopefully he wore himself out running around the lounge. For ease in boarding, they were using two doors to access the plane. This is always nice as it makes boarding much quicker. We headed in through the first door and settled in. On this plane, there is business class and coach class. The business class seats were way nicer than what I was expecting for such a short domestic flight. These planes are used for international flights within Asia though, so I think that is why the seats are much nicer. They reclined quite a bit and had a footrest. Lots of legroom too!

The flight was only about an hour and twenty minutes and in that time, they actually serve a hot small meal in business. I was impressed! They also came around a couple of times with beverages. Before we knew it, we were arriving in Phuket. The airport there is right on the water and you fly over some beautiful islands on approach to the airport. The control tower is set a little bit away from the airport and is up on a hill. Our bags came out quickly and we went out to find our transportation from the hotel. From the moment we walked out of the baggage area, we were bombarded with people wanting to take us somewhere. We managed to dodge all of them and find our driver.

He dropped us off at our hotel, The Layalina. They brought us cold towels and cold lemongrass tea while we checked in. The hotel is right on the beach, and the view is amazing! We are only spending one night here before we go to Phi Phi island tomorrow, so I will tell you all about the hotel when we come back here. The hotel set us up with transportation to the ferry for the next day and we went out to get dinner. All the restaurants here are open air with fans. Tonight was a very hot night, but with all the fans running, we were comfortable while eating. There are lots of restaurants on the street by the hotel. There are also lots of tailors. Someone from all the tailors hangs out in front of the shop and tries to lure you in. This makes walking around a bit annoying, but we managed to ignore all of them.