My friends went home.
As for me, I’m at home.
I’m continuing my digital nomad journey.
On Saturday, I left Hotel Riu Phuket. I arrived in Phuket City.
Goodbye, Hotel Riu!
As a farewell, I enjoyed my final Bloody Mary at the hotel.
I stepped out the hotel doors with a grateful heart and a smile. A few hours after my friends, I, too, am taking my leave. My heart is full of gratitude for having been their guest here. As for the smile—well, I realized I was the only backpacker in this massive building. Because of this, I drew a bit more attention upon my departure. I don’t know—and it hardly matters—whether the tourists arriving with their enormous suitcases felt pity or envy. But I had a distinct feeling that it was the latter I saw reflected on their faces.
Phuket Old Town
I had heard this term mentioned in connection with the city from far away: the Old Town. Even the sound of it is inviting. With no other choice, I hopped into a taxi. 40 km, 40 minutes—I swear, I have no idea how that average was calculated! But eventually, I arrived at the Beehive Hostel.
As I had expected, it turned out I couldn’t check into my room just yet; I had arrived an hour before check-in time. I left my large backpack in the luggage storage area and set off for the Old Town—which, as it happens, is right all around me. I wandered about for a few hours, took a ton of photos, had a coffee, and then grabbed a late lunch. Around six in the evening, I returned to the hostel, accompanied by the rain.
I settled into my bed in a room shared with six others. After a bit of texting, I drifted off to sleep. The previous night had been a disaster—my ear was hurting so much that I barely slept at all. I wasn’t confident that falling asleep around seven in the evening would last until morning, but I held out some hope…
That hope was in vain. An hour later, someone spent several minutes knocking on the door—because someone else had, quite cleverly, locked it from the inside. Once the person got in, they began a loud conversation with someone else. By the time I could have asked them why they were doing that, they had already left. Then, another character started talking on the phone with someone—right from his bed. And not exactly quietly.
I realized I’d ended up on the less pleasant end of the dormitory spectrum. Instead of getting annoyed, I headed out and spent another two hours wandering the city streets.
I think that with today’s two walks, I’ve thoroughly covered the area I had planned to explore tomorrow.
No matter. I’ll take a look at it a third time tomorrow. No one will be able to say I didn’t give this city a proper chance.
Anyway, I’ll write more about the city tomorrow.
Sunday, Coffee Shop
Given that I finished the paragraphs above at 10:30 PM on Saturday, Sunday arrived quite quickly.
Before heading out to see the city, I stopped by the local Starbucks. It’s 11:45 AM. The sun isn’t exactly shining on me today—neither literally nor figuratively.
As I mentioned earlier, the room is a bit… peculiar. When I went to bed—around midnight—the room was locked from the inside again. This is a problem, as they couldn’t give me a key—someone had lost it earlier. I got lucky, though; someone else happened to be coming in to go to bed, and they had a key.
While I was sleeping, something bit one of my toes. I set off into the city with an intense, burning itch. As it turned out, that wasn’t the worst of it. Shortly after I’d gone to bed, I felt three itchy, finger-thick welts appear on my back. Based on how they felt, it didn’t seem like an insect bite or bedbugs. I put my T-shirt back on to sleep in.
Fifteen minutes later, I woke up to find one of the fingers on the hand I’d tucked under my pillow was swollen—it felt as if I’d brushed against stinging nettles. I didn’t have any gloves, so I had nothing to cover my hands with. I started watching a movie, since I can never fall back asleep once I’m woken up. That’s when I felt—and finally saw—rashes appearing on my right forearm as well. Large, distinct patches—they really looked just like hives. At least that made it clear the pillow was the culprit.
I woke up this morning to the sound of someone talking loudly on the phone from their bed. Too bad I couldn’t make out what they were saying; it probably would have been interesting.
After a start like that, I headed over to this café. Everything was great here—until they turned on the air conditioning. Now it’s so cold I feel like my kidneys are about to freeze solid. Time to move on. I thought I’d upload today’s video to my channels before leaving, but it turns out the internet here doesn’t play nice with social media platforms. I have a connection, but I can’t upload anything—the sites are likely blocked. I spent two hours listening to music on YouTube, and everything was fine then, but now even that’s not working.
So, it’s freezing in here, and the internet is useless. Time to head out into the city—except everything outside is gray, and it’s pouring rain. It seems I’ve arrived at the literal “dark side” of the digital nomad lifestyle. I’m hungry, but I don’t want to eat here; the street food is expensive, and honestly, it’s not really what I’m in the mood for. I’d like to get some work done, but I can’t. And now, the rain has me trapped here.
I think I’ll do a bit of reading—out on the terrace, since I’d rather not risk freezing to death. The good news is that my ear hurts only half as much as it did over the last two days. The inflammation has subsided, and chewing isn’t as painful as it was before.
Right now, I’m dreaming of a place that isn’t cold, has a working internet connection, affordable food, and a table with a comfortable chair. I don’t need much else to make the day take a turn for the better.
The thing is, after assessing my situation like this, I can’t really do anything but smile. The past twenty-four hours have been about as absurd as a Sunday morning can possibly get. But once I thought it all through, I realized there’s a solution. That immediately freed me from any—non-existent—self-pity. LOL.
A little rest!
I ended up reading for an hour until the rain stopped. As soon as I set off, it started raining again, of course. But by then, there was no turning back.
I decided to grab a bite to eat and get some sleep before heading out for a major sightseeing tour. I asked for a new pillow at the hostel—hoping that, for once, I might get through the night without waking up covered in rashes.
In the end, I didn’t do any major sightseeing.
Between yesterday and today, I’ve walked nearly 17 km in the area. That was enough to get a good feel for what there is to see.
I had planned to visit a viewpoint overlooking the city, but honestly, I’m exhausted—what with the persistent earache and lack of sleep—so I just didn’t feel up to it.
I also considered visiting a museum, but after reading about what was on display, I decided that didn’t interest me either.
That left Lard Yai—the famous Sunday walking street in the Old Town. Everything I read described it as an absolute “must-see.” As it happens, I had already walked down that same street several times over the last two days—just without the market. So, I headed back to this familiar spot; it was only 300 meters from where I’m staying.
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really tend to shop in places like this—there’s nothing for me to buy, aside from maybe some tasty food. Well, I wasn’t hungry when I was there today. I saw all sorts of dishes that would likely be a novelty for a tourist passing through. On the other hand, I’ve known these things for a while now. I won’t say there wasn’t anything completely new to me, but today I didn’t see anything that would have made me stop in my tracks.
However, there were tons of people, so I just strolled slowly through the crowd, taking everything in. Street musicians were performing in two or three spots; I really enjoyed their sets. I also saw some traditional local costumes—I quite liked those. There was one very unique vendor who crafted clever little figurines out of electronic components. I spent quite a while looking at them. I even toyed with the idea of picking one out as a mascot for my video projects—but in the end, I let the thought go. I’m a digital content creator, after all; I don’t need physical props. LOL.
I did linger for a bit longer at a stall selling antiques. I was—and I mean really—tempted. An antique compass almost convinced me to buy it. But then I reasoned with myself: if I bought it, I’d probably just end up carrying it around for about six months before eventually giving it away to some random person on the street. Oh, and did I mention I’m a digital nomad? I’ve already got a compass in my wristwatch and another one on my phone. I don’t buy things I won’t use.
I’m leaving early tomorrow morning. So, I’ll wrap up this post by simply saying that this is a beautiful city. I spent a lot of time wandering its streets, and I’m taking the memory of its unique streetscapes with me. That’s more than enough…
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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