u/UltimateLazer

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1. Wat Chalong temple
2. Big Buddha statue
3. View from atop Wat Chalong
4. Phuket beach view from resort
5. Funny sign
6. Pizza meal
7. Monkey show
8. Snake show
9. Tiger taking bath
10. Boat excursion
11. Raft section of boat excursion + cave
12. James Bond Island
13. Food market

Back in November I went to Phuket with my cousin. The cool part is that it was essentially free, and given to us. My mom got a resort stay as part of her rewards, and Phuket was one of the listed options, but she couldn’t go so she decided to let me have it. I chose Phuket because that was the most interesting one to me when most of the others were either domestic to the US or in Latin America and the Caribbean (which is cool, but Thailand sounded cooler).

The whole trip was great. Honestly, the worst part of it was just getting there: It was two long-ass plane rides stacked on top of each other. We departed from Seattle and it took 12 hours to get to our layover in Seoul, and we were only there for just over an hour until we took a 6 hour flight to Phuket, and I barely got any sleep during this time. The in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi kept me sane. Needless to say, when we finally made it to our resort, I crashed out HARD.

Other than that, the first thing I immediately noticed was how hot and humid it was compared to Washington state at this time (being cold, often rainy), and it felt like stepping into another world. I sure liked it though, I loved not having to wear a jacket and could get around in my T-shirt and shorts. The resort had a large public swimming pool and our own small private pool for us, and that was a great time.

We kind of alternated days where we stayed at the resort to chill and explore the island, especially given that we were exhausted the first day after we arrived and wanted to relax. It was a great experience. I ate local, but… I also ate comfortably at other times too. I tried out The Pizza Company, the local Thai pizza chain, and it was pretty good, if different. I was surprised to find out they eat with silverware and use different spices, but I liked it. I also made sure to get massages on the spot multiple times too, because how could I not?

Our first big day of exploration saw us sightseeing at the Wat Chalong Buddhist temple, and it was quite a magnificent sight. From there, we saw a show with dancing monkeys, snakes (where I literally held a big ass python, that was scary lol) and a tiger zoo. The next exploration day was a boat tour where we went to James Bond Island (Hong Island), from The Man with the Golden Gun and that was cool. The third day we went out on a culinary tour and even took a cooking class. Not my thing… but still fun.

Overall, the people were really nice and I felt at ease. Phuket is also a huge tourist hotspot so I basically saw a pretty interested mix of people all in one. A list of other tourists I saw in large numbers would include:

• Americans (like us)
• Brits, Irish, Western Europeans in general
• Australians
• Russians (and a LOT of them… Thailand being one of the major tourist spots they can still go to because they’re not being sanctioned due to the Ukraine war)
• Middle Easterners
• Indians
• Koreans, Japanese and other East Asian tourists (though I don’t recall anyone from China, oddly enough)
• Hell, I even saw a young Israeli couple

Another interesting thing is that I don’t recall hearing any Thai music for the most part. I heard a lot of pop, dance and hip-hop from the US and UK, Latin pop music and K-Pop, but I was surprised that Thai music never came up except at one local restaurant I went to, and he was playing it on his cassette (an older guy, pretty cool too).

There was also a pretty good range, with both modern songs and songs from 10-15 years ago. I remember Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Flo Rida, LMFAO, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, BTS, Blackpink, Pitbull, Doechii, Kendrick Lamar, Major Lazer, Lola Young, Billie Eilish, Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Luis Fonsi, Glass Animals and Imagine Dragons, and there was something funny about hearing all of this here to me.

Great experience all around. I’d love to go back! Ask me anything if you’re curious!