We woke up and enjoyed a nice hot shower before we checked out of 'Little Pond Homestay'. We asked for a coupon for 'Street Cafe' as 'Little Pond Homestay' guests were given a special discount on breakfast. However, there were no coupons left so we were just told to inform the member of staff of our room number. We made the short walk onto the main street and had a seat. It was clear that we had just come from 'Little Pond Homestay' so we were given the special rate menu. I couldn't decide what type of breakfast to choose but in the end I copied Andrew and ordered a 'Continental Breakfast Set'. It took a little while for the first part to be served which looked a little disappointing as the fresh fruit turned out to be watermelon and papaya with fresh yogurt and honey. I had clearly come to expect a wider range of fruit! However, we were then served a plate containing two fresh bread rolls, a ciabatta, ham, cheese, tomato, butter and jam. The member of staff apologised for the lack of croissant. However, we weren't expecting everything on the plate anyway as Andrew had only asked for a croissant as he assumed you had to select one bakery item. We forcefully ate everything before paying our bill and flagging down a taxi to take us to the airport. We even had no problem when we asked for a metered taxi. It took about half an hour to reach the airport where we were asked for our ticket in order to enter the terminal building. We explained that we didn't have one as we had booked our flight online, so we were just asked to show our passport before our bag was put through a security scanner. We found our check in desk but it seemed that every Air Asia flight was being checked in at the same desk. This resulted in one long queue that puzzled many a passenger as they walked towards the front of the queue before realising that they had a long wait! It came to the point that the staff had to shout passengers on the Bangkok flight to the front of the queue otherwise they would have missed it and then the same thing happened for our flight to Phuket. Once we were checked in we proceeded immediately to the departure lounge as time was ticking but we came to a security post which demanded us to pay a 150,000 rupiah passenger service charge each. We had absolutely no cash on our person and so we had to go to a cash point. However, the nearest one was outside of the airport and so we had to rush to withdraw the cash and then had to pass through security once again before we could finally reach our departure lounge. We found it quite mysterious that so many people were clueless about the charge and had to make the trip to the cash point. We also found it ridiculous that we even had to pay such as charge, as where the money went was unknown, especially as we also had to pay to enter Indonesia. Anyway, it was then time to pass through immigration where we received a stamp in our passport. Our departure gate was a little walk away but we stopped at a bookshop to buy a New Zealand 'Lonely Planet Guide' on route. We then had to pass through two other security scanners before we reached our gate just as the call was made for people to board the plane, so we made a quick toilet stop before finding our seat. We managed to get a seat sat next to each other and as the flight wasn't full Andrew helped himself to a window seat.
We bought a sandwich and a drink from the trolley as we felt hungry even after eating such a huge breakfast. I was so happy to drink a hot Milo! As we were flying over Indonesia a huge volcano was visible out of the window, poking above low-level cloud. The flight took three hours and twenty minutes in total but it went really quickly and we made a smooth landing in Phuket. It felt very humid when we got off board the flight and made our way through the terminal building. Our first stop was immigration which was where I realised that I had left my hoody on the plane. We were given a thirty day visa stamp in our passport before we went to collect our backpack. We left the airport and found the airport shuttle bus queue. However, we were approached by a minivan driver who said we could leave immediately to Phuket old town for B100 each, compared to the B85 shuttle bus charge. In addition, we could be dropped off at our accommodation so we chose the minivan option. We got on board and started talking to a German man who had been waiting in the minivan for an hour already, so the driver was clearly waiting to fill the bus before setting off. We made the one hour journey into Phuket old town but the driver had no idea where 'Old Town Hostel' was so he pulled over at the market to ask somebody. If he had asked us we could have told him exactly where it was as we had stayed there before, but instead he drove round in a circle as the town was a one way system and muttered something under his breath about us being falang. Andrew soon piped up and the driver shut up as he realised Andrew knew what was meant by the word falang. Anyway, we got dropped off in an alley behind 'Old Town Hostel'. We checked into our room and just dropped our backpack before heading out. We went to the cool second hand bookshop and invested in a new book each. I chose Andrew a book about time travel otherwise we would have spent the rest of the day in the bookshop waiting for him to choose a book! We then walked to find 'Lemongrass' restaurant but it wasn't in the place that it was stated on the map, so we turned back and ate at 'Kopitiam' restaurant. It was nice to eat Thai food once again and we just sat and chilled at our table lining the quiet old street. We then returned to 'Old Town Hostel' to make a plan for the following day. We were really struggling to decide whether or not to travel to Ko Phi Phi Don as the weather forecast predicted thunder and rain for the rest of the week. However, we finally decided to take a risk so we booked a ferry ticket for B350 each, which we thought was a decent price, for early the next morning. We shared a bottle of Chang, which was nice to drink at a reasonable rate and spent the rest of the night in the communal area. We only made a quick trip to a shop to buy more Chang as the member of staff finished her shift and left us alone. We found it difficult to get to sleep, even after a few Chang, as we had forgotten how the slightest noise was heard in 'Old Town Hostel' and somebody next door was coughing up stuff every minute.