The day started as usual except there was 1 major item on the to-do checklist: pack the suitcase. This tasks is assigned to Alena as she can't stand my packing habits. My task was (as usual in this case) to keep Alisa occupied or asleep so she doesn't 'help' packing process. Helping in Alisa's word means undoing everything that has been done so far.
I went out with Alisa after breakfast in attempt to stroll her to sleep.
The plan worked after about 30 minutes of walking. During that walk I found out that 7-eleven sells quite good coffee and the price is about right (30 baht for an iced cappuccino)
anyway, the suitcase was packed, baby rested and everything was ready for departure. We had our last lunch at the Sea Beach restaurant where we spent most of our money during time on Nai Yang beach.
Our hotel "Chill house" mentioned on booking.com that they provide free airport transfer which we planned to use to get to the airport for free (it is actually very close, like 4 minutes by car), but hotel only provided free transfer from Airport to Hotel and not the other way round. Bummer! We took taxi for 200 Baht.
about taxis in Phuket
We took taxi only a few times, once or twice in the city and to move from one hotel to another. Pricing is quite interesting. If you want to move from location A to location B 20km apart it will cost you about 600-700 baht, and if location A is 1km from location B you will pay 200Baht. I think 200 Baht is in general the minimum the taxi driver will even bother and 700 seems to be the max they feel not too embarrassed to charge. to rent a car for 1 day costs about 1200 baht.
The first thing you usually notice when you enter an international airport (departures floor) is a big screen/shield with information about departing flights. Not in Phuket!! you will see a huge screen playing commercials and showing pictures of random travelers who used the 'social kiosk' service to emails a selfie to themselves.
It wasn't easy to find the screens and figure out where to check-in. But I found this while walking around the airport:
The flight was quick - about 70 minutes - and smooth. We flew on a turboprop airplane with a busy schedule
The first thing that was quite pleasing was to see the stamp in my passport which says "90 days stay" whereas Alena's passport says "30 days stay". It is the first time my passport beast Alena's passport in the perks competition :)
Otherwise you can see a big difference between Phuket and Penang. It is hard to say for the whole country but Penang seems a bit more modern (from the first sight). We rented a car (for a very good price because it has manual transmission... under your left hand) and drove to our house location.
The next surprise was at the local supermarket - we just went out to shop for some food for next day breakfast and I was amazed by the supermarket. It was M Galleria M Mall. I liked how it felt to be there - everything was pretty and taken care of and people we helpful and friendly even though we got there at like 9 pm.
You know how at the big supermarket not far from you there is a fancy shelf with exotic fruits and veggies that you pass by just to look at them. There is one like that here also... exotic fruits shelf:
and next to it there is a shelf with local stuff
Then we went for some food and stepped into the first place we found. Got 2 drinks and 2 dishes (some noodles and a noodle soup). The price was 43 MYR which is about 85 sek which is 340 Baht. OMG, 340 baht was the price of 2 coffees and a pancake in Phuket! So Malaysia seems to be a bit cheaper. And either we were very hungry or the dishes were actually good (the latter most likely) but we really enjoyed the food.
So the first day in Penang was very promising, I hope the rest of our stay will be as good (or better).