Colin says:
Getting into Phuket was a little disorienting. Prior to arrival we spent the night in the Jakarta International Airport to catch our flight which departed at 5 am. Not sure why we decided to do it this way — something to do with our visa in Indonesia and having proof of leaving the country, quickly making a flight. Kind of bit us in the ass on the back-end of that idea. Anyway, really wasn’t all that bad, slept a little on the plane, but was not ready for the sea of taxi drivers hounding us upon exiting the terminal in Phuket. Not really sure where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do we had to take a minute to read up on Phuket in the airport in the midst of taxi driver mayhem. We decided since we would be eventually heading north, to go to Phuket Town where it would be easy for us to connect with a bus heading that direction.

We eventually worked a deal with a guy to take us for a still overpriced 400 baht. He took us to a really nice guest house, Thalang Guest House, one of the oldest right in the heart of town. It actually was the nicest place we’ve stayed in a while. The room was bigger than any room we’ve ever stayed in — bigger than our room in NYC. We got in turned on the fan and passed out. Alix was dying in the cab on the way there and was out as soon as we got in the room. It felt good to finally get some sleep in a horizontal position, in darkness and in a quite place.

So we stayed there for the next 3 days. Discovered a bunch about the Town of Phuket namely where to get good food and wireless internet. My first reactions to Thailand were like, “Everything is so Thai.” “Our room is soooooo Thailand.” Sounds obvious but to me it felt very weird to be experiencing Thailand and have it be so true to all the things I was seeing and reading about Thailand having never experienced it first hand.

Our room for example had a vaulted ceiling with huge exposed wooden beams that matched the dark mahogany color of the floor. The floor was made out of wide planks covered in a a very thick enamel varnish that had been applied several years ago. The walls were concrete and colored a like blue with the back wall being a strange purple pink that seemingly wasn’t terribly disgusting and touched upon that spa kind of color palette you often find saying “Thai Massage” in the window. Small potted bamboo trees were in each corner. The room was furnished with a king sized bed, an Armoire with a safe inside, a vanity and a funky bench desk thing that had 2 seats on either side with a flat desk top in the middle. A central fan pushed the hot air around but it was enough to cool you off after a cold shower so you could fall asleep. The shower to my surprise actually had hot water. The room was so big you could have fit another king sized bed between the vanity next to the bathroom and the bed that was already in there. The space was sized in such a way that I could see some martial arts guy staying in this room doing his morning calisthenics with is weapons, the lighting streaming in through the bamboo curtains. The room was very Thailand.

Alix says:
Yes something about our room configuration was quite Thai, more than that, it was quite wonderful and luxurious to us, good spot that Thalang Guesthouse. Clean, spacious, comfortable and a warm shower for the first time in a about a month (although it’s so hot and humid outside I didn’t really want hot water, I felt I was taking a warm shower just out of principle that I could). Breakfast is included too and they have yummy pineapple jam! Down a tiny side street Soi Romanee were some colorful row houses with chill local bars. One evening we played Jenga while sitting out front of Glastnost Bar drinking Sing-Ha beers listening to some Thai’s audition to be the house band. It was a good look.

The architecture on some of the roads here is actually very un-Thai, more European – 2-story colorful row houses with wooden shutters and ornate metal balcony railings. There seems to be a great local art scene here too, lots of art spaces/cafes which I wasn’t expecting to see such an abundance of and was pleased to browse through. We found a terrific local spot to eat dinner, it didn’t really have a name and no one really spoke English, but if you used body language and pointed to the array of fresh ingredients the message got across and you were served a delicious meal! It was near the clock tower on Thanon Phuket and Thanon Montri. Also the this was the site of our first man-woman spotting…not to be the last. Another good food spot is Natural Restaurant on Soi Putorn. It’s an open, stilted restaurant with so many plants and vines you feel like you are in the jungle. More fresh, local cheap food and our waitress was a beautiful man-woman. Not sure if that makes him/her a waiter or waitress, I am confused about the protocol with these man-womans. The market in town is great to walk through, oooo-ing and aghhhh-ing at all the interesting food and tasting bits from the food carts.

Near the market is the area where all the songthaews hang out, these are the public buses/trucks that zip all over the island on designated routes but they will drop you off / pick you up anywhere along that route, and they are super cheap. Also around here are heaps of taxi drivers who will try to tell you a particular songthaew is not there and instead you should ride in his taxi – we caught on this very quick!

Phuket Town is def not the glitzy tourist center, but that’s why we grew to like it I guess. In fact I wouldn’t really say it was catered to tourists at all, it was more where the locals lived and where non-tourist business took place. All the buses departed from here and the guesthouses were much cheaper than staying on the beach, hence it was our home. It’s an easy center point too for day trips to any of the island’s beaches. The big attraction on Phuket island is Patong Beach, I guess it’s swarming with big resorts, tourists, nightclubs, fancy restaurants and young pretty things shopping. Needless to say we did not visit this area.