Phuket - How do you pronounce that?

It’s amazing how well you sleep when you don’t have a window in your room. I didn’t even have to go to the toilet unit 7am. Trouble is, it was pitch black and I couldn’t find it. I ended up sitting on it sideways thinking that it was the other way around. I found my phone for some light and got my computer out to write the blog while Claire finished off her sleep. I had to

shut the computer down as I only had 5% charge left but of course it was still pitch black so I got my i-pad out to carry on reading my book. I’m reading a really good one by David Eagleman called “Incognito”; highly recommended. I letClaire sleep until about 9am then woke her with a kiss. I know, I’m a hopeless romantic - even at my age and I don’t even feel a year older.

We didn’t plan on doing much today as we fly out to Thailand at 20:20 so I had a walk down to to little shop to get some fresh milk while Claire put our travel kettle on for a nice cup of tea. I paid an extra 50 ringgit’s (about £10) to keep our room until 6pm but we have no real alternative. 

While I was at the shop I also bought a little triangular parcel in brown paper thinking that maybe it was a samosas but they packed a spoon with it. Never mind it was only about 20p. When I got back I opened the packet to find a little rice dish with vegetables, soy and little tiny fish, even smaller than whitebait, all sitting in a banana leaf. Mmmm yummy, I know what I will be having for breakfast from now on when there is no fresh fruit around.

We had a walk to the Petronas twin towers but it was 11am by the time we got there and the next available tickets were

for in 3 hours time. We decided to revisit early when we are next back in KL. We walked back and stopped off at Lot 10, a shopping centre opposite Maybank where we met last night. The basement floor has all food and Claire was starving as she had no breakfast. We both had different versions of Nasi Gorang, spicy rice dishes with meat, seafood and vegetables. Less than £4 for both of us; our drinks were more than the food for fresh orange and Coke. Once re-charged we caught the monorail to Sentral Station where we must catch the bus to the Airport tonight. We got our ticketsfor both the bus and monorail to make it a little easier when we are carrying the big backpack. It was very hot and we were pouring with sweat. It takes a little while to acclimatise. When you acclimatise you don't stop sweating. You sweat just as much,but you get used to it and stop feeling uncomfortable. The bus to the Air Asia airport is about £1.50 each so thanks for the tip Tom. Get off at Sentral station, cross the road, turn right walking under the covered walkway. Follow the walkway which turns right and leads you all the way to the bus terminal going to various places around KL. You can’tmiss it, there are loads of people walking along it both ways.

I forgot to show the picture of our room wardrobe yesterday; very inventive, the Japanese would be proud of you. I have also included one of our room office; most of the

technology is ours. Claire also has her laptop and Im glad I managed to squeeze in my i-phone docking station which has a circular speaker all around it. I just had time to rip down about 50 cd’s and copy to my i-phone before leaving. Also I still have “sun arise” by Rolf Harris that I downloaded at Jim’s Australian party and also “Little Boxes” by Pete Seeger. I had forgotten all about this song until it was used in a tv advert whilst we were in Goa last year. The docking station is compact but its not a very good shape for backpacking. We didn’t want to leave any of our computers in our room so I’ve been lugging them around all day. It will be better when we check into a hotel for a few days and can settle for a while. When travelling like this wealways bring a chain and padlock so we can lock all our valuables in the wardrobe. As you can see, that trick didn’t work in this hotel.

The monorail and bus journeys were fine except that we left early and broke our long walk with the bags with a quick beer and consequently were bursting by the time we reached the airport. This airport is very close to the Sepang F1 circuit so I might be back one day.

We were a few minuets late taking off but our approach to the airport in Phuket was very wobbly and the pilot abandoned landing but barely managed to pull up again. A narrow escape but it made the journey memorable and quite exciting. A taxi took us to the Nai Yang Beach Resort which is a little way out but there are a few little sleazy bars along the coastline. They are not very busy at the moment so they upgraded us to a Thai Mini Suite. Claire had found a great internet deal anyway so we ended up with a room

costing 4800Baht for 1500Baht a night which is about £30 with breakfast and taxes included. We had a couple in one of the little cockroach and lizard infested bars before retiring to our lovely room. Claire couldn’t bring herself to undo her elephant towel so we shared.

Breakfast was excellent with fresh fruit, chicken curry and rice, continental and cooked breakfast with an egg chef etc. This swayed us to book an extra night and get our dirty clothes laundered. It makes sense to take advantage of the value for money rate we have before moving back to our more normal cheap hotels. I hope that Claire doesn’t get too used to this
sort of luxury otherwise I might have trouble prizing her out. The weather doesn’t look too good or sound promising in the short term so we might be laid up for a while. Never mind we need a break to recover from our travels. Im hoping that Claire will give me a break from the blog again tomorrow so that I can get back onto my book. Actually, Im sitting here in a pair of swimming trunks writing this waiting for our same day laundry; I may have underdone my luggage slightly.