Phuket – Day 1 – Arrival and Bang Tao

One of the best things about living in Singapore is that our little island acts as a springboard hub to a lot of interesting places in the region. In fact, as our Ang Mo friend will attest, we encourage visitors to Singapore to take the opportunity to also tour the region.

There are numerous flights operating out of Singapore to Phuket, including from the budget carriers. Out of this group, Jetstar had some of the most attractive flight arrival and departure times between Phuket and Changi. With just a 90 minute flight time, we got to leave Singapore in the early morning and arrived in Phuket at 9:20AM, and our departure likewise will be in the late afternoon and arrival back in Singapore in the early evening. Perfect not just for kids, but also allowing us to maximize our stay by hours without adding more days.

The short flight to Phuket was uneventful. And despite the pilot’s warnings of light turbulence, we experienced none – and the plane landed at 9:10AM. Immigration clearnace took a bit of time – I reckon we’re spoiled by Changi’s out of the world-class speeds in clearance –  but we were out of the arrival gate at 9:50AM.

The first stop was to pick up the all important data SIM cards. There are a row of such mobile Internet shops on the right-hand side as soon as you exit out of the gate. A number of newly-arrived tourists made a beeline straight for the shops offering free tourist data SIM. But from the limited amount of time I spent to explore options, these free SIMs seemed quite limited – so we went with the AIS Internet Provider, picking up two cards: a 6GB/599THB for the iPad Mini, and another 2.5GB/299THB for the Samsung S8+. The saleslady at the AIS shop assisted in installing not just the SIM cards, but also to correctly setup both devices – and she was quite proficient in it even. Brings to mind our experiences in Perth and Melbourne recently where the Optus staff pretty much struggled with it LOL.

Early morning Jetstar flight out of Singapore.
The AIS mobile Internet shop. Look for this sign.

We’d previously arranged for transfer from the airport to our first place of stay @ Cassia Phuket in the Bang Thao region, and a short 25 minute ride later – arrived at our place of stay.

I’ll write about Cassia Phuket at the end of our trip, but in a word – the place is fantastic, with Hannah  quipping that this is the best place she’s stayed.

Cassia – as the locals call the hotel – is located literally just opposite Canal Village, a cluster of about two dozen shops and restaurants, set in a very Holland Village-like chic. The shops sell souvenirs, clothing, sports wear, jewellery, and there are two restaurants that offer Thai, Western and Mediterranean cuisine. We sampled both restaurants for lunch and dinner. Interestingly, the S Cafe – where we had lunch – had very slightly higher prices for its items, but did not charge service charges and taxes, while the other restaurant – the Albatross Cafe – had a cheaper menu but added both charges to the bill later. Items are between 240 to 400THB for most main courses -averagely priced by Singapore prices, but pretty expensive for this part of the world. I guess Phuket has also priced itself to meet the demands of international tourism.

Entrance to Canal Village – can’t miss it.
The village sits facing a small lagoon.
The general area seems recently developed, and fairly quiet and laidback too.
S Cafe – where we had lunch.
The Albatross Cafe – where we had dinner.

Our Day 2 explorations in the next post!