March 7, 2015

So, after 2 hours 45 minutes flight, we landed in Phuket around 20:30. The only way to get to our hostel in Patong area was by minivan since the bus service was not available at that time. But don’t worry, there are so many minivan operators you can choose with reasonable price once you get out from the airport’s exit door. From airport to Phuket, I was charged for only 180 THB (around 70.000 IDR), which was affordable considering the distance was quite far (an hour drive) and they drove us straight to our hostel. The downside of taking the minivan is they will make a stop in a travel agency, and you’ll be offered their tour packages. Some might think it’s quite annoying, but for us it was not a big deal. You could just tell them as friendly as you can that you’ve already booked one, and they will let you go back to your seat. It’s only 10 minutes stop anyway.

After 1 hour drive, we arrived at our hostel (Dfeel Hostel) at 21:00. For me, the hostel was nice, situated in a quite neighborhood, lovely retro decoration, and friendly staffs. After checking in, the reception lady gave our keys to our room located on the 4th floor. When we were about to get to our room, we were greeted by two Asian guys, Yui (Japanese) and Yii -or at least that was what I’ve heard (Chinese). Turned out they were our roommates. Apparently, they couldn’t get the door open with their keys. So they were depending on our keys. When we got to our room, I was the first one who tried to open the door with my key. I shifted it left and right, pressed it, repeat -it failed. Nadya tried her key as well but it didn’t work either. We went back downstairs to report our situation to the receptionist. She gave us another key for us to try, but it didn’t change anything. Feeling hopeless, finally the hostel keeper came to rescue by opening our room with his key. He checked our keys, and apparently we were given the wrong keys. Like, wtf.

To sum it up, it was kind of creepy knowing that 4 people couldn’t open the door, with 4 keys, on the 4th floor -the fact that 4 is known as a number that can bring bad luck in some Asian cultures.