48 Hours in Phuket

I was lucky enough to be rostered a dreamy trip to Phuket this month. Most of our layovers are 24 hours, and a few of the longer US flights are 48 hours. However, sometimes there are these lucky occasions where you manage to get a 48 hour layover for a quick and easy 6 hour flight!

And when I say easy…it really was! We had 4 passengers in business class (with a capacity of 42 on the 777) so we were practically fighting to take them their meals, just to have something to do! We flew overnight, so after dinner they went to sleep, and we kept ourselves awake with cups of tea and coffee.

Once sunrise arrived, we started our approach into Phuket, admiring the gorgeous scenery below.

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Unfortunately the 777 door windows are not quite as photogenic as those on the A380, haha! Nevertheless it was still a pretty view of the beaches and islands.

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Once we touched down in Phuket, it was a long drive to the hotel. The weather was terrible, pouring with rain and having small windy roads surely didn’t help the poor bus driver. In fact it took us over an hour and a half to arrive at the beautiful hotel, and I was more than ready to get out of my uniform and remove the red lipstick!

Having skipped a whole night of sleep, I decided a few hours nap would be ideal, especially as the weather forecast wasn’t very promising.

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There was a lovely balcony and once I woke up from my nap, I prepared the small sofa on it with plenty of cushions, settled in with my book and sat down ready to relax.

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Unfortunately not for long, as the minute I opened my book, the heavens also opened! It was a very heavy tropical rainstorm, which was forecast to last for the rest of the day. What a shame!

I messaged one of the other girls from business class, and we decided to go and have a late lunch/ early dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Since I missed out on my pad thai last month (I was supposed to do another flight to Bangkok but due to my unplanned layover in Lahore I got 5 days of “can-use” instead!) I didn’t even need to look at the menu to know what I was going to order!

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For dessert we shared a portion of mango sticky rice, which is something that cannot be missed when in Thailand! Juicy mango served with sweet, sticky rice, drenched in delicious coconut milk. Too good!

Since the rain had more or less stopped, we wandered over to the infinity pool just around the corner.

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I decided to go for a quick dip, although the 2 girls who were already in the pool warned me that it was pretty chilly, which indeed it was! I was in and out within a couple of minutes, just time to take a couple of pictures, haha!

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We both headed back to our rooms to change, and decided to take the shuttle bus to Phuket town to get a massage. Once we arrived it seems a few other crew had had the same idea, as we bumped into them in the massage parlour!

The next day I was awoken again by the pouring rain. I had been hoping for some sunshine at least, as I’d very optimistically packed a couple of bikinis ready to sunbathe. Looks like that wasn’t going to happen!

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I hopped on a little golf cart (the hotel is very hilly, so there are golf carts passing through all the time to take you to and from the rooms to the lobby) to breakfast, and enjoyed the extensive buffet. After breakfast I booked in for a massage in the hotel spa, since I was feeling too lazy to get the shuttle into town again.

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The spa was lovely, with relaxing music, and a calming atmosphere. We had a special deal as crew for an hour long massage, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Later on I bumped into the other girl that I’d been with the day before, and I told her I’d take the shuttle in the afternoon to town. She said she’d join me a bit later on, but since I was getting rather peckish I decided to eat straight away. She went for another massage in the same spa as the day before, and then we took the bus back to the hotel together. The weather had not gotten any better throughout the day, and I was very grateful for the umbrella I’d found in the wardrobe in my room!

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I had an early night, ready for our 5am wake-up call the next morning. It was another long drive to the airport, and again we had a very light load in business class. It seems all of our passengers were also feeling the effect of an early start, as they all went straight to sleep!

To save myself from sitting and doing nothing for the next 5 hours, I went to help in economy, where they were a bit busier than us. All in all it was sone of the easiest flights I’ve done in a very long time, and topped with a 48 hour layover made it a very enjoyable stay, even if we didn’t get any sunshine!

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9 Comments

  1. SHUMAILA
    October 6, 2016 / 9:54 pm

    Hello Rachel…love your every layover ..I want to ask what kind of topic Emirates airline gives for English test & do you remember on what topic you wrote at that time …?? Thank you

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      October 14, 2016 / 12:44 pm

      Hi Shumaila! To be honest I can’t remember what the topic was for the English test, being a native English speaker it was very easy for me but I’m sure you won’t have any trouble with it!

  2. Sara
    September 26, 2016 / 4:12 am

    hi rachel , love your blog.

    are there any other blogs u can recommend for us to read.

  3. September 26, 2016 / 3:42 am

    hi rachel, love your blog 🙂

    are there any other blogs you can recomend to read along with yours ?

  4. September 25, 2016 / 4:00 pm

    Amazing post! 🙂 Love the swimming pool in the hotel.

    Have a great day

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      September 26, 2016 / 3:02 pm

      Thanks Marketa, glad you enjoyed it! The pool was lovely, would have been even better if it was warm though 🙂

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