From the airport, instead of doing the sensible, easy thing, and just taking a shared mini-bus to my hotel in the south of Phuket, instead I haggled with taxi drivers to take me straight to the HASH!
The timing couldn't have been better, and I figured a hike through a national park was just the thing to start off my Thai trip. We found the site, and after enduring a little ribbing over arriving in a taxi with all my bags, I signed in with the Phuket Hash House Harriers admin at Khao Phra Thaeo National Park.
The run took us through forests as well as rubber, aloe vera and pineapple plantations... ('Plantations in a national park' seems to be a disturbing trans-asia trend!?)
A lovely farmer offered us salak (snake fruit) from his trees... That salak was sweeter and more delicious than any Salak I've had in Indonesia!
After a fun circle, I jumped on the bus with the other hashers (and all my gear), then transferred to a tuk-tuk to get to my hostel. I found the Jinta Andaman hostel in a lovely little clean area called "Beach Centre Village". I was pleasantly surprised at this simple, new, clean, quiet... great hostel!
Except for a little tummy trouble (I'm blaming the chicken sandwich from Air Asia), all is well, and I am ready to make some plans for some more adventures over the next few days until I can meet Gabriela on Ko PhiPhi (in the below pic from the air)... of course, seeing Gabbi is the part of this whole Thai Trip that I'm most excited about - it's been 7 years, I think!
What a great introduction to Thailand!
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