Phuket - Day 1
After having the Phuket countdown for weeks, it was finally the day to leave! Our train to the airport left at 7am, and I had plans of leaving at 6am from home - with a 15 minute leeway for Hiroshi's perpetual lateness. Oh the error of my ways. I should've had a 30 minute leeway. Because Hiroshi was coming off night shift, he was all turned around time wise, and didn't actually get to bed until like 4am or something ridiculous. This meant he wasn't too keen on getting out of bed at 5:30 and was incredibly grumpy. So finally we get out the door at twenty after six, only to discover it was pouring rain. So we decided to hail a cab - which took 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I'm freaking a bit about being late. I tell Hiroshi that we may have to run when we get to Tokyo to get the train, and then he gets in a super grump about how I don't tell him anything (which, I'd like to interject, is a load of crap).

We did get our train ok, but Hiroshi was still in a bad mood and was snarky all the way there. Right before the airport counter we ended up having a fight. The check-in staff were staring at us. So far the honeymoon is going great right? At which point I said, "This is silly. Let's start over. We're supposed to be on vacation, not stressing ourselves out". And things got better. We made it thru customs, discovered we needed to take a shuttle cuz our gate was in the satellite terminal, and I went to duty free to get champagne. I left Hiroshi by a pillar (cuz the store was nuts) and said I'd be right back... only to find no husband when I returned. So I start searching, and hysteria starts mounting as the thought "Maybe he got in a snit and left" started going thru my mind. I finally find him hanging out in a lounge watching TV - misunderstanding. He thought we'd meet back at the pillar rather than I wanted him to wait there.

So, happy that I had found my husband, and that he hadn't left me to honeymoon alone, we boarded the shuttle and made our way to the business class lounge. Business class lounges are wonderful! Man, there were comfy chairs, nice decor and free snacks. There were pastires, danishes, donuts, sandwiches, crackers and cheese. Then you had your choice of juices, coffee (including espresso etc), teas, and beer, wine and other alcohol. 9am is a bit early for alcohol though. So we just hung out there eating breakfast and relaxing until our flight boarded.

Upon getting settled in our seats, we were given hot towels and champagne. Very cool. I love business class. The seats are roomy and there is so much space! I could put my feet straight out in front of me. Usually my knees bang into the seat in front. The plane was a bit old (common criticism of Thai Airways), but there were individual TVs. Of course, this turned out to have been a useless worry on my part - I didn't even watch the darn thing. We both slept almost the whole way there! We just woke up for food =)

The food was great ... with the exception of the main course which was bland and dry. We had the steamed baby lobster. This should have reminded me about how I am always disappointed with lobster (which would have come in handy later in the trip too). Hot hors d'oevres were served first. Then we were given table clothes and linen napkins and silver cutlery, including a real knife! No crappy plastic ones. The appetizer was sushi and an avocado filled with shrimp salad. There was also a nice garden salad, although the tomatos were a bit tasteless, and garlic bread or whole grain rolls (which they were very good about offering more of). Then the main course came. Baby lobsters -no kidding! They were like shrimp! *lol* The rice was quite dry and there was only a bit of sauce in the dish, so it wasn't so great. But the rest of the food was more than filling. Dessert was a cheese mousse which was to die for, and then they came by with the fruit and cheese and dessert wines. Ahhh heaven. I'm sure the alcohol we consumed with the meal helped us promptly fall back asleep again.

About an hour before we landed they held a draw - Thai Airways has a promotion right now where 1 person on every flight (of those that fill out the entry form) wins a free return ticket. Well, Hiroshi won!! He got a free return business class ticket from Tokyo to Phuket to use next year. He didn't quite understand until later that he'd won a huge prize, and then I think he was a bit unbelieving. He got a funky flashing button, and had to fill out some forms. When we got off the plane, they had a big banner and took pictures of us. Then we were escorted to a special customs booth so we didn't have to wait in line. Very nice. And of course our luggage was right there when we got to the baggage area - the economy class passengers were still waiting.

We actually arrived in Phuket about 40 minutes early, so we had to hang out for a bit until our ride came. I had arranged for the hotel to pick us up so we didn't have to deal with scam artists. So we just relaxed until our ride came. Then we had about a 40 minute ride to the hotel. The airport is at the north end of the island, and our hotel is at the southern tip. Thailand is Thailand in Phuket too. Hiroshi was a bit worried I think. Basically everything is kinda shabby and there are lots of roadside stalls that could double as garbage heaps - cuz that is essentially what they are made of, old throwaway boards and stuff. Lots of rusted tin roofs, and al fresco dining but in the primitive sense. But that's just Thailand. The island is quite hilly and lush and the roads are curvy - this doesn't prevent everyone from driving like maniacs though. It was a nice drive to the hotel and the roadside stands and people driving with no regard to safety reminded me of my last trip to Thailand 4 years ago with Sharyn (miss you Shar!). At this point I was also in vacation mode and didn't have a care in the world.

When we got to the hotel, it wasn't quite what I expected. Right now is its "soft opening". It just opened in May actually. I assumed they'd just be decorating the inside of deluxe villas that weren't ready yet. Well, there was actual construction going on, so I was a bit disappointed. Nothing major, but a lot of the villas just had the shells up - they still needed windows and doors and stuff. However, my disappointment soon melted away. The views from the hotel were wonderful - you could see ocean all around and there were tons of trees in between. The villas were quaint and the staff really friendly. The room turned out to look exactly like the picture on the website which was good. And it was easy to ignore the buildings that aren't completed yet.

After we got settled in we went to have a nice dinner in the restaurant. The restaurant is open air dining which affords fantastic views of the ocean, an island off the coast, the boats anchored off-shore and the changing colours of the sky at sunset. This was the most expensive dinner we had at the hotel - probably because we had a bottle of wine, but also because we had no idea how much food this actually was when we ordered. We had Tom Yang Kung soup (spicy shrimp soup), spring rolls which were delicious (we actually ordered these almost every meal), veggie stir fry, cashews and shrimp stir fry, and Pad Thai (Thai noodles with a sweet sauce, peanuts, tofu, pork and some other things). All of it was very good - except the wine was a bit green.... or maybe we were just spoiled with the superior wines in business class *lol*. For dessert we couldn't decide so we had both the jasmin flavoured creme brulee which was amazing and a scoop of coconut ice cream.

After dinner we just went to bed - cuz the next day was the beach! But before going to our room, we booked a session at the spa for the next evening.