Travel Day: Phuket to Sydney

Yesterday morning we left our little surf shack at Nai Harn Beach in Phuket and started off on our way to our next stop in Sydney, Australia.

We left Nai Harn Beach at 9:30 am in a private airport transfer van, which we booked on Klook for 22 USD. The whole trip to the airport took approximately 1.5 hours and everything went smoothly. In this circumstance, a private aiport transfer purchased through Klook was significantly cheaper than booking a Grab car, and it gave us more certainty as we knew who our driver was, his employer, and all of his information.

We ended up taking two separate Air Asia flights to Sydney — from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur and then from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney — which we booked on Trip.com. We did have to re-check our baggage in Kuala Lumpur, but with four hours between our flights, this was not a problem for us.

The trip was long, but overall fairly uneventful. While we have taken many short-haul flights on Air Asia during this trip, it was our first time on a long-haul Air Asia flight, and we definitely felt the difference.

Air Asia is a low-budget, no-frills airline, and this never bothered us on our shorter trips with them. But it became a lot less comfortable on our longer overnight flight, where the small seats, lack of in-flight entertainment, and lack of complimentary food and beverage service made it clear just how “no frills” the airline was. These were just minor inconveniences, though, in comparison to the fact that they cranked the cabin temperature down to sub-zero levels and then proceeded to charge everyone $7 USD each to “rent” blankets in an effort to stave off hypothermia. This made what would have been a slightly uncomfortable flight downright torturous, especially since it also prevented us from getting any sleep on the plane.

After a frigid and uncomfortable flight, we arrived at Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney at around 7 am today, somewhat exhausted. Customs was a mess and we will note that families with children are made to wait in a massive line to speak to a customs officer while seemingly anyone else is able to use self-serve kiosks to expedite the process. As a result, we waited around for about 1.5 hours to get through border control, all while watching everyone travelling without kids breeze right by us, adding salt to the wound.

To get from the airport to our new Airbnb in the Randwick area of Sydney, which is within walking distance of Coogee Beach, we simply took an Uber, which cost us approximately 35 USD. There is a designated “rideshare” pick up area easily accessible from the international arrivals terminal by foot and it is well marked in the signage, so it was very easy to order an Uber to the Sydney airport, though it did require us to have our data e-sims set up, since there was no wifi available in the airport.

Upon arrival at our Airbnb, which was on a hill overlooking Coogee Beach up towards Randwick, we settled in and rested up after a very long trip.