Thailand: A Retrospective - Day 1

Sawasdee all! I'm back from my luxurious holiday in the land of elephants and cheap massages, where finding meat-only dishes was near-impossible, but Vitamin D was readily accessible! I diligently recorded my eats, taking photos whenever I could, and despite the repetitiveness, I hope that this quick series is vaguely interesting. For my folks and friends, I'll also share some happy snaps and details of the other activities we got up to whilst overseas, so hopefully that will spice up the monotony of food record.

Day 1 started at 5:30am, with a big plateful of bacon, which I believed would be my only carnivorous option for the next 18 hours...


I also packed a bagful of fall-back food for the journey and holiday:


Yep, processed meats. The only 'food' that could cope with an extended time sans refrigeration - I would have preferred some lovely cold chicken drumsticks, but after a couple of hours out of the fridge, my nerves would have made me toss them out.

Survived the trip from Melbourne to Sydney, ignoring the QANTAS breakfast served to my beau, but after landing in sunny Sydney, my stomach was ready for more meat. Thankfully, we had a decent stopover, so when I spied an Italian restaurant in the international terminal, I dove on the biggest steak they served - topped with butter!


Once aboard the plane destined for Phuket, I couldn't bear risking the processed meats in my bag spending any more time at room temperature, so I ate the kabana and tossed the ham. This was at 2pm, and our arrival time was estimated to be 9pm or so. I hoped that we would arrive at our hotel while they were still serving dinner...

After a long journey in cramped seats with no sleep and a few bad movies, we began the sweaty and drawn-out queuing process that is Thai Customs. Yikes. The rumbling stomach didn't help either. After the airport finally spewed us out into the humid Phuket evening (around 8pm local time, 11pm Australian time) and into our escort's car, I decided it was too late for me to dine, as I would be flopping into bed as soon as we could! I was too sleepy and hungry to take much note of the surroundings as we sped through to Patong, but I did note the gorgeous foyer of the Merlin Beach Resort as we were swept through check-in and into our simple but beautiful pool-side room. Starting my Thai adventure with a 22 hour fast and a 12 hour sleep-in? Sounds good to me!