After 28 hours consisting of four airports (SFO, Taipei, Bangkok and Phuket) and three airplanes, my new life finally begins! Everything went smoothly, no delays or bad weather and most importantly, no lost luggage.
I was quite satisfied with EVA airlines. The flite from Taipei to Bangkok had individual TV screens with various video games, teevee shows, movies, music to choose from. The only unsatisfying thing being the in-flight meals. Being a Taiwanese airline, I presume that the meals were samples of Taiwanese cuisine. There was a flaky pastry with flourescent-red pork products, rice porridge (not bad, but not too flavorful) and peanuts fried with sardines, to name a few of the items.
Leaving SF in the middle of the nite was a great idea. I managed to get enough sleep over the Pacific Ocean, so that by the time I arrived into Taipei (5AM local), it seemed as though I didn't miss a day or mess up the internal clock. Of course, I took a few naps along the way, but by the time I touchdowned into Phuket (5PM local), I felt as though I could stay up long enough into the evening that jetlag wasn't an issue.
Within a couple of minutes of stepping outside of Phuket's airport, my friends from the Peace Corps days (Debbie and Eric) picked me up in a tuk-tuk (open-air taxi). It had just rained, so it felt like a humid, 85 degree afternoon, slightly cooler than current NOLA conditions. It's the tail-end of the rainy season. My time in NOLA did well to prepare my for this time of year. The ocean breezes do a lot to cool things down.
They took me to their house in Phuket Town, the SE corner of the island. It's a modest, one-story house with two bedrooms and baths, spacious living room, kitchen, open courtyard and carport (inhabited by two scooters). I say modest because there are rows of two-story houses and Mercedes Benz cars and SUVs in the 'hood (a middle-class area).
For my first meal in Thailand, we went to a place a couple blocks away from their house: Mae Porn. No, the servers are not walking around wearing thongs, serving food with a "massage". It's a delicious seafood/curry spot that made it's way into the Lonely Planet guidebook. Chicken with cashews in a spicy tamarind curry. Marigold leaves and stalks with chili peppers (similar in taste to snow pea leaves). Fried fish with sweet/sour sauce. Quite a flavor sensation, especially since it cost about $7 with a couple rounds of Singha beer for three!
An early bedtime led to an early wake-up: 7 AM (Debbie and Eric were also suffering the same consequences of global travel, coming back from a holiday in the States). We walked to a breakfast spot for iced coffee and an omelette with diced curry chicken and sauce.
The sun was shining, so we went down to the beach. It's the low season, so there weren't many tourists, maybe ten people including us. The sands were generally clean, with occasional broken glass. For the most part, these shards of glass have been smoothed by the ocean waves - just like how rocks get smoothed down in beaches everywhere. The water was warm and very blue, in three tones to denote depth. Eric says that the water is much cleaner than before the tsunami. The waves are quite strong, which, for a non-swimmer like me means that I'll only be going ten meters offshore, if I'm lucky. (Strong riptides might me the end of me if I'm unlucky.)
Traffic can be intense at times. It's not about bumper-to-bumper congestion. Scooters and small-engine motorcycles are very common, sometimes dominating an intersection at a red light. Traffic flows along the left side of the roads, so I've got to make the adjustment of looking right-left-right before crossing the street, lest I get smacked by an oncoming scooter. Fortunately, everyone's used to everyone else driving erratically, so there's a sense of defensive driving. What this usually means is that drivers will swerve across the center line or take the shoulder on the left or scooters will ride three-deep in one lane to pass slow traffic, merging traffic and those about to turn off. What's good is that high speeds are not common because people are trying to conserve gas (or rather, reduce the number of times they have to buy gasoline - a mindset that has yet to become common-place in America). Top speeds are usually at 45 mph.
The adventure has just begun...
