The place we stayed in Phuket is just a mile or so stroll down the beach from the international airport.  Far enough that you don’t hear much noise, but close enough so you can walk down and watch planes land and depart.  We also spent an hour or so one morning parked alongside the service road that is the back entrance into the airport, paralleling close to the runway.  Here is a little aviation porn for those of you whose tastes run that way.

And from the beach side: 

THAI Airways A300 arriving from Bangkok.

THAI Airways A330 arriving from Hong Kong

Transaero B777-200 arriving from one of the Moscow airports.

“Be careful!  The jet blast.”  Yes, I managed to stand right behind a Dragonair A320 as it powered up for takeoff and learned just how strong that is.  Smartly, I turned my back to it as it was kicking up a lot of sand.  The blast was pushing little waves about 200 feet into the ocean.

There’s that Dragonair A320 from Hong Kong, about 45 minutes before it sandblasted me.

Another Transaero plane, this one a B747-200, coming from the other airport in Moscow.

Beautiful erosion in the sand banks just off the runway.  You can see the top of the fence in the upper right hand side of the picture.

There will be some Mexican food porn from Houston tomorrow for everyone else.