NSun's 2025 Adventures in Asia

[AIRwin]

Then took the train to the lounge which is at the satellite pier.

Luckily the Aerotrain didn't break down!

 

[NSun]

Luckily the Aerotrain didn't break down!

Imagine that - I would've had to settle for the regional lounge at the main pier.

 

[NSun]

The aircraft was 9M-MLV in a retro livery. Wasn't the first time I'd gotten a retro livery on a oneworld carrier, I flew BA's retro A320 in 2022 from London to Dublin but took far longer to fly on Qantas' Retro Roos. Like in Singapore, all security is done at the gate. It was a decent 1 hour flight - I declined a meal but had water. I was greeted as a OWE but put in a row with 2 other people with a spare row on the other side of the aisle - so moved there.





I spent the flight just looking out the window - was only a 70 minute flight.







NokAir - the strangest name for an airline I'd seen so far.



It took an hour to get through passport control as there was quite a queue. Then was an hour drive in a Grab for ~$25 to get to the hotel which was the Bhukitta Boutique Hotel in Old Town coughet. Was about A$80 a night and did the job especially for what I paid, although it was several separate buildings and I was a few flights of stairs upward. This is the entrance and you might see they have both stairs and a very steep ramp at the entrance.







This was my room - quite a big bed. But if you look closely, you'll see it had an even bigger 'mattress holder'.





But didn't have much of a view. Saw a wall right if I looked straight out on my balcony and saw this if I turned right.

 

[NSun]

Next day was a quiet day with a big day booked for the day after. So I went on two walks, the first at dawn and the second in the late afternoon.















The view from the top.

 

[AIRwin]

NokAir - the strangest name for an airline I'd seen so far.

As long as it's not NoCare

 

[moa999]

Or try the new electric train between JB and KL?

Now 4hrs 20min on the Platinum (Express) services - I think four a day from JB Sentral to KL Sentral and vv.

I did the old diesel train over a decade a go and it wasn't a fun journey with barely working AC and squat toilets.

 

[NSun]

Now 4hrs 20min on the Platinum (Express) services - I think four a day from JB Sentral to KL Sentral and vv.

I did the old diesel train over a decade a go and it wasn't a fun journey with barely working AC and squat toilets.

I saw that opened just days after my trip and might give it a try if it was cost effective. Then again, flights from Johor to KL are quite cheap given there's a tonne of competition.

 

[NSun]

I ended up having room service (tomato macaroni) for lunch. Was cheap by the standards of room service generally but not Thailand-cheap (A$10).



Then went out for an afternoon walk around coughet town. This was the view from the hallway of my room.



Sights from the walk.











It's roughly A$1 = THB 22.









For dinner, I settled on butter chicken at a sit down restaurant a block from my hotel.

 

[NSun]

The next day, I went to check out the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary which lies roughly halfway between Old coughet and Patong where I went afterwards. It took 30 minutes to get to the sanctuary but was only A$5 to get there by Grab. I booked a 'slot' at 11.30am and it consisted of a 5 minute briefing, then about an hour 'out the back' where the elephants were. We were given plants to give as food and then offered to take photos with them. I chose to adore them.

First, some of the things (i.e. statistics and information) we saw in the briefing room.

 

[NSun]

Then out the back...











And here they are.









We were told to be safe just don't go out of your way to scare them and don't try to take their food. There actually wasn't a lot of food left so after I took a few pictures just adored them. I'd seen them a lot of times in zoos and on safari, but seeing them up close and calm was another experience altogether. Highlight was seeing one sneak a drink through the hose (I saw no one else watch this).

 

[NSun]

After this I went to Patong for a look around. It was another 20 minute drive through mountainous terrain and then down a long hill.







Got dropped off right at the beach.







Went for a bite to eat as I hadn't had anything since breakfast. I settled for The Coffee Club. But unlike in the West, there's more than just pies and sausage rolls. Think this was pork - was spicy.



This place was very touristy, but one noise outdid everything else...this vehicle going by promoting matches at the boxing stadium.

 

[NSun]

More of Patong.





There was a David Jones-like shopping mall. I was hot by this time so went in just for airconditioning. It cooled me down but made me thirsty so I went to Starbucks and got a peppermint mocha.









Would it be Thailand without the low, highly interconnected powerlines?



It was tough to book a Grab back to my hotel as a couple 'made me cancel' by saying they couldn't take me that far and made me figure out how to cancel my own ride. When I got one it took an hour. At least the car was airconditioned and I paid less than I'd pay to travel just one tenth of that distance in Australia.

This was the shopping mall where I used the wifi to book.