Our first weekend adventure! We were so excited :) This weekend we traveled to Phuket. It is known for it's amazing beaches and beautiful scenery....and a Big Buddha as well.
Friday, October 11th
WHAT. A. DAY. Dr. Sutthiporn (our preceptor) gave us the day off so we could travel to Phuket for the holiday weekend. We started our day early, and she had booked us a taxi to get to the airport. Everything was easy from there. Our plane was a stand alone from the airport, so after security we walked outside and took a couple of cute photos :) The flight is only 40 minutes, and through our resort they had a car waiting for us upon arrival. Our resort was called the Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort. It is about an hour drive from the airport, but the scenery is BEAUTIFUL. The ride was comfortable, and they had bottled water waiting for us in the car. Once arriving at the resort, we checked in, changed and headed straight to the beach/pool area. We oriented ourselves, walked around and really took this place in. It was about 1:00pm and we sat by the pool restaurant to order some lunch. Afterwards, we took a walk on the beach, relaxed, and played some "big" chess. We came back, got ready for dinner, and had a nice thai meal at the resort. We had a long day planned on Saturday, so we decided to come back and get some rest.
Saturday, October 12th
We woke up around 8:00am full of excitement for our full day planned ahead! We went to the pool first for about an hour to soak up some sun and take pictures with our flags! Around 9:45 we headed to the buffet breakfast. This came with our reservation for $15 extra, and it was worth it! There was a waffle bar, omelette bar, and fruits galore. If you’re in the mood for some lunch, there are salads, fried rice, pork, chicken, etc. This buffet had it all. Drinks included anything from coffee, to freshly squeezed orange juice, to hot milk (very popular here). After breakfast we headed back down to the beach and tried paddle boarding. We had a blast, and took some more pictures of course. After this, we took a walk and went back to our chairs to relax in the sun. Nap time and showers were needed in the afternoon before our night plans. We headed back up to relax and get ready. The resort has shuttles and taxis to and from almost any place you could want to go in Phuket. We decided on Old Town and then headed to Patong afterwards. At Old Town, we ate at the recommended restaurant, One Chun, and it did NOT disappoint. We ordered the yellow crab curry and chicken cashew dishes with a side of rice. After dinner, we walked around the markets and streets before meeting our driver to take us to Patong. Patong is famous for live music and dancing, so this seemed like a fun activity to try out.
Sunday, October 13th
Our friends are here! We woke up around 9:00am and headed straight to breakfast. Two other pharmacy gals (Ashley and Chelsy) met us here and we had so much fun! It was high tide, so we decided to relax by pool and beach first. After a late lunch, we headed back to the room and had booked a ride at 4:00pm to head to the temples and then Buddha! This could not have been more perfect timing, because sunset was around 6:00pm and Buddha also closes at 6:00pm as well. The pictures of the views just don't do it justice. We attempted to practice our Buddha poses as well, but I think we can all agree he does it much better! After the temples and Buddha, we headed to Patong for the evening to have dinner and walk around the market streets for some shopping and gifts. We ended up loosing track of time and by the time we knew it, it was 12:00am and we needed to head back to catch our 7:30am flight!
Monday, October 14th
This was a sad day...we did not want to leave, and didn't want to wake up early either. Our ride picked us up at 5:15am to head to the airport (its about an hour drive), and we were there with plenty of time to spare. The resort had packed us a breakfast-to-go as well, since the buffet didn't open until 6:30am. They were so sweet! The airport and flight were very easy, and at 8:30am we had landed in Hat Yai. The taxi drivers are right before you exit, and we just showed one of the ladies our SJ Residence card, and she had a driver right away. We ended up back at our apartment around 9:10am and had the full day to do laundry, take a nap, and relax before the start of our Internal Medicine week. This trip is a MUST and was so much fun! We cannot wait for our next weekend adventure getaway.
Tips for Phuket
No need to pack towels, or really anything besides makeup for the bathroom. The resort will have shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, towels, wash cloths, robes, and everything you could possibly need for the bathroom.
When traveling around in Thailand, a lot of people use the app "Grab." It's similar to Uber and Lyft in the US. Once you take your first Grab, a lot of the drivers live in the area, and will offer to drive you wherever you need to go the entire weekend. You will have to pay cash, but it ends up being much cheaper than taking other Grabs, taxis, or paying for shuttles from the hotel. Our guy was very nice, and he just asked that we texted him about 30 minutes before we needed to leave wherever we were.
Have someone with a phone plan so you can text and call off Wifi. A lot of the areas we went did not have Wifi on the streets and it was really easy to just send a text to our driver when we were ready.
Definite things to do: Big Buddha, the Temples, Old Town (make sure to eat at One Chun, and get the yellow crab curry), and head to Patong for one night. Obviously spend some time at your resort/hotel and enjoy the weather, pool, beach, and activities offered like paddle boarding, but make sure to see these other places as well! We absolutely loved our weekend and would do it all over again if we could.