UK to Thailand

Some good English food, a few thousand miles, three airplanes and now I am comfortably installed in an apartment on the island of Phuket in Thailand. The place I have chosen is Karon Beach.

The flight from the UK was interesting to say the least, in the best possible sort of way the main leg was with Air India chosen uniquely because it was the cheapest, a little research after booking the flight revealed some interesting reviews none of which were particularly complimentary, I can say Air India provided phenomenal service, excellent food and everything else one could wish for, I would choose Air India in a heartbeat in the future. after talking to a few people on the flight and during the layover I was told the reviews I had read probably have some truth attached to them, the airline apparently had a makeover just a few years back and is now totally different to what it was.
One thing for sure if you think security in America and the UK is tight, be prepared for some real security in India. One example was that at one point we had to get on a bus to go to the next plane for the final leg after a few minutes wait and another check that we were all on the bus the doors closed the bus moved forward about 10 m then stopped, at which point we all alighted and got on the plane.

Arriving in Bangkok airport I was amazed to see how modern everything was especially when you compare it with Heathrow, which in my opinion needs a serious makeover to bring it into the 21st century. Getting through immigration in Bangkok was very simple and in just a few minutes I was outside and in a taxi on the way to my hotel, everything is signposted in the airport and geared to someone arriving in Bangkok for the first time. 40 minutes later I was outside my hotel another few minutes and I was in the room, a quick shower another taxi and I was experiencing my first meal in Bangkok. I will be posting another post on some of the things not to do when arriving in a new city late at night, like taking a taxi to go and eat.

Bangkok is one amazing place one has to see it to believe it, New York has nothing on Bangkok I would have liked to stay a month or so, somewhere between the UK and Thailand my computer mysteriously lost a few gigs and decided it did not want to connect to the Internet no more. Not speaking the language along with the size of Bangkok and no Internet to aid me I decided to take the path of least resistance and head on down to Phuket where at least the size of the place would not be a hindrance.
I can now see starting off in a small place is a lot easier.

Bangkok to Phuket is about as easy as it gets. With no Internet I could not even book a ticket in advance leaving me no other option than to just turn up at the airport price only a tad more expensive than booking online, I was on a plane within a few hours, another few hours and I was deposited in front of a hotel whose name I remembered from some past research on Karon beach before leaving Florida, I got lucky it only took me a few hours to find a very nice apartment that I could move into the next day.

Have been in the apartment five days now and it is all that I could have ever hoped for, reasonably cheap, 50 m from the beach, serviced daily, Wifi is good, safe, basically all the facilities you would expect if you were living in South Florida.