Last day - swim, lunch, Patong

We woke up relatively early, had breakfast, and went for a swim in the pool at 9am, and sat in one of the nice shaded lounges for a time (had to do it at least once).

Back at the room, we started the job of packing up. It didn't take too long - I think we were ready by 11am. We ate as much of the fruit from the continental breakfast as we could, and threw away the rest of the milk. I did about 15 idiot checks of the room - really didn't want to leave anything behind. We called for a porter to drive us up to reception with our bags, and scored a ride in one of the resort's own tuk-tuks.

We checked out, got another tasty lemongrass tea and cold towel, and paid our bill for food and drinks for the whole week, which came to the grand total of about £400. Can't argue with that. We asked them to keep our Tim Tams and chocolates in their fridge until our transfer that afternoon.

We didn't quite know what to do with ourselves, then. Having checked out, we couldn't charge anything else to our room, so had to pay cash. It was time for lunch, so we headed for the restaurant for the last time. I was determined to have one of those coconut cocktails, but when we asked about it, it turned out that they were only coconut water. I ordered one anyway. To eat, I had baba ghanoush, which was a very small serving (I wasn't that hungry), and Christian had the same pad thai I'd had from room service.

After lunch, we made for the air conditioned lounge below the main bar. There were lovely comfortable love seats, and a TV showing sport, as well as computer terminals. We sat and relaxed for a time, and cooled down.

We decided to walk into Patong Beach to try and get some gifts, maybe have a look at Bangla Road, and for Christian to just experience it. We got as far as the beginning of the shops before getting hopelessly overheated. In a (heavenly cool) Family Mart, I had a quick look for some of the awesome jam biscuits we'd had on the boat trip, but failed to find any. We settled for a Milo chocolate bar, and a soft drink for Christian. We continued a bit further up the strip, and followed a side road that looked to have interesting souvenirs. We found a nice scarf for Heather, and then gave up, hailing a tuk-tuk back to the resort.

Once back, we retreated back into the cool of the lounge for a couple of hours, and I got our things out of the locker. It was very relaxing - Christian persuaded the bar upstairs to bring us some cocktails. Lovely! I had another frozen strawberry daiquiri.

We went back up to reception and attempted to retrieve our chocolate from their fridge (that one took a while to explain), and were ready for our transfer to the airport at 4.30. The driver was nice, and gave us a survey and a gift from Asian Trails.

We took the coast route this time, up to the airport. We got a much nicer view, and avoided much of the busy stuff. We passed another Asian Trails minibus on the way that had been involved in an accident. Oops. We couldn't pick them up because the police hadn't arrived.

The driver dropped us at the domestic entrance of the airport. Boo! There was a massive queue to get through the first round of security, but we were told we had to go through. Wasn't so bad in the end. We went past the hordes to the international check-in, and were faced with another giant queue. Turns out that was the check-in queue, and so Christian led us to the very short bag drop queue. Yay!

We were asked whether we wanted to upgrade to business, and after some thought, we decided to do it as we had the points, and the 777 doesn't have very comfortable economy. We had a small altercation with the woman about whether I could get into the lounge, but we won that round. After getting our boarding passes and passports and lounge passes, another woman then led us on a magic trip through the airport, bypassing every queue for security and border control, and deposited us in the rather nice lounge. Christian had a little explore, and got a couple more souvenirs, and failed to find the jammy biscuits (again). We withstood a very annoying British couple in the lounge. We had some food, I had a massage, and then it was time to board our flight. And yay, the annoying British couple were two seats in front of us.

Business class was very nice - I really appreciated being able to stretch out, and I even got some sleep. At Abu Dhabi, we had a brief stop in the lounge with some nice food, looking after a man's luggage for a time (he'd had an unfortunate nose-bleed), and then we went to our gate. We boarded, and took our seats. We were at the end of a row of four, and next to me was a somewhat annoying British woman with the most enormous arms I'd ever seen. She leaned on me for a time, but after I shifted positions and threw her off, she got the message. It was a comfortable enough flight.

At Heathrow, the luggage carousel got jammed, so we had a wait, but then we were free to meet our taxi driver (and pay for his parking), and make our way home.

Conclusions:

Freaky summer weather happens in March in Australia.
Two weeks is really not enough in Australia, but we sort of knew that.
Thailand is cheap but friendly.
Thailand is not so scary now that we know the ropes. Next time, we'll be able to book our own accommodation - maybe up in the Khao Lak/Phang Nga direction.

Snorkelling, cocktails, Kata Beach, and Italian dinner

We got up and had breakfast as usual. A vague plan to go snorkelling and also visit Kata Beach existed, but hadn't been finalised or scheduled.

We took our snorkelling gear out to the jetty again at about 11am and had another lovely pootle around looking at the sea life, this time covered up to avoid further sunburn. This session was better and more relaxed for me - probably because I wasn't worried about getting nipped by the fish. I enjoyed it very much. It was almost as good as what we saw on the boat trip, but not quite.

We stayed on the jetty and had a cocktail, and made sure we took a photo for Rach - complete with bikini, fins, masks, snorkels, and cocktails. My cocktail was a rather delicious pina colada. Mmmm.

Back in the room, with gear rinsed, and showered, we decided to have lunch in the restaurant. It was about 2pm by now. We had salads for lunch, and some kind of drink.

After lunch we got the cameras out to take some photos. I managed to go out without an SD card, and so took some shots with Christian's camera. We kept walking up to reception to find out about the Kata shuttle, only to learn that the only one for the day had already left - I'd been thinking of the Patong shuttle leaving later in the day. We asked whether it was feasible to get a tuk-tuk there, and was told that it was.

On the way back down to the room, we stopped to book the tasting menu at La Gritta for 7pm that evening, opting to stay inside in the air conditioning.

We wasted most of the rest of the afternoon. Just before 5pm, we decided to try to get to Kata Beach, and so put our things in the beach bag, grabbed some towels, and went up to reception. A woman on reception asked the porters to order us a tuk-tuk, agreeing 500 baht each way. It was a fun journey, on roads south that we hadn't travelled before. We went through Karon Beach on the way, which was nicer than Patong, and then into Kata, which was nicer again, with nice souvenir shops on the northern end.

The tuk-tuk driver dropped us about halfway up the beach, where there were no shops. We paid him his 500 baht (with a tip), and asked him if he'd be prepared to pick us up again at 6.30. He looked very unsure, and said he'd prefer 6pm. We told him not to worry, and went down to the beach. He followed us after about five minutes and said that actually 6.30 was OK. Everyone was happy.

The beach was lovely and wide and soft, with a big swimming area with nice deep water. We sat for a moment, and then went to get wet. It was a lot nicer there than Patong, though the parasailing was taking place around us here too. After our swim, we picked up our stuff and had a wander to the far end of the beach to see what there was to see. Actually, there wasn't that much.

We walked back along the road to where the tuk-tuk driver was still parked (meeting him at about 6.15 in the end), and drove back to the resort. The traffic was a lot busier now, but it was still an enjoyable journey seeing the world go by. The driver dropped us off and we gave him his money plus another tip. He was a jolly man.

Back in our room, I rang to rebook dinner from 7pm to 7.30 to give us a chance to get ready. We had showers, and I drained the last of the conditioner out of the bottle (it had exploded in my bag), and we got dressed.

We were seated inside at La Gritta - we were pretty much the only ones there. They remembered that we'd booked the tasting menu and had our menus laid out, with all the relevant cutlery. We ordered a very pricey bottle of prosecco, only because it was even pricier by the glass. The first course was an antipasto plate - an absolutely massive one. We didn't get anywhere near finishing it. Then risotto, which was fairly disappointing. There was then a sorbet to cleanse the palate, and then a main (mine was a chicken something, and I think Christian had a beef something). We were pretty full by then, but then the cannoli came out for dessert. It was light and delicious - perfect to top off the meal. It was good, but just too much food for me.

After we'd finished eating and paid the bill, we had a little walk down to the beach below the restaurant. It was a lovely evening.

Back to our room, and bed shortly after.

Phi Phi Islands and St Patrick's Day

We set our alarm for 5.30, and our continental breakfasts were due to be delivered at 5.45. They were late, and they were massive. So many pastries, so much fruit, so much tea and coffee. One would have been too much for both of us. We wrapped some up to take with us.

We got our things together, and were outside reception at 6.30, where we picked up some towels. The shuttle was late, and we realised that it was doing the rounds of all the accommodation. We went over the steep approach at the northern end of Patong, and headed north east, and through the busy morning traffic.

We turned in to the Royal Phuket Marina, which I thought was another accommodation pick up, but was in fact our destination. We were shepherded into a reception area, where a man called Lucky found us - he had our names, and knew we were from Kuoni. This was a good sign. He put pieces of orange wool around our wrists, invited us to sign a danger form, and said he'd call us when it was time to board, so we took a seat on bean bags, and had some water/tasty jam biscuits while we waited.

We saw some other orange wristbands go past us, but the man summoning them was speaking Italian. We got up, and started to follow. Lucky caught up with us and confirmed that we were going the right way. At the big shiny boat, we had our shoes confiscated, and were led right to the front of the boat, where we met John and Patti from the Gold Coast - the only two other English speakers on our boat. We had the front of the boat to ourselves (though an Italian couple joined us due to lack of room), and Lucky was to look after us.

We set off after lots of preparation and boat revving, and got out of the marina, and past the buoys on the canal leading to the islands. And then the boat broke down. So we sat and waited for the new boat, getting increasingly hot and sweaty. It arrived eventually, and we clambered from bow to bow, and took our same places. And set off again. This time, after about an hour of increasingly choppy water, we arrived at Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh, where the Leonardo di Caprio film 'The Beach' was filmed. The water was a perfect turquoise, and the beach is surrounded by high limestone cliffs with the rock at the bottom undercut by the water.

There were about half a dozen boats there already, but the beauty of getting on an 'early bird' tour is that there weren't 50 or 100. We disembarked into the shallow water (shady at that stage), and had a wander with Lucky through the wooded area with huts etc behind the beach to a look-out where you can see the water on the other side. The sand was powdery, until we got to the rocky bit. Ouch. It's all very pristine because it's national park and has been protected.

Back on the beach, we went for a nice swim on the now sunny beach, dodging the rocks under foot. Then after a short sit, it was time to get back on the boat. We had a short journey this time to Viking Cave (also on Phi Phi Leh), where we saw paintings on the rocks of viking ships, and also evidence of where swallows make nests which are harvested for 'bird's nest soup'. We didn't get out of the boat for this stop.

Then it was another short journey to Long Beach on Phi Phi Don (the resort/inhabited island) for some snorkelling. We'd brought our own fins/snorkels/masks, so got in quickly and started exploring. It was a busy area, with quite a few boats around, so the sound of their motors was offputting, but the fish and coral were great. Again, there were lots of sergeant major fish, the odd angel, and we'd been told there'd be black tipped reef sharks. The coral didn't look in too bad a shape. Christian was feeling a bit rough, so we got out relatively quickly. And then Patti and John started talking about having seen the reef sharks beyond where we'd swum. We were never going to get back in, but we saw the camera man chasing them with his camera, and saw the video later. I'm not sure how I would have reacted had I come face to face with one.

When all were back on the boat, we had another very short journey to Monkey Beach, which was around the side of Phi Phi Don. We got off for a short visit to see the macaques - Lucky warned us not to get too close or to feed them. They scattered when we arrived, so we walked up the other end of the beach where they were still around. A few of us walked back up to the boat, and sure enough, the first ones came back. Curious creatures. So human in a lot of ways - soft feet, and intelligent faces. They were mostly very tame, and some were carrying babies. Very interesting stop.

Back on the boat again, we headed even further north to Mosquito Island for our second round of snorkelling. There was no one else there, which was great. The boat pulled up on the beach this time, and I got sand in my fins. This was a better session for me. We followed the skipper as he was on a mission to find clown fish - we saw one set, but others saw more. We saw a banded sea snake, which was quite exciting, giant clams, loads of urchins (Diadema setosum), blue coral, and all sorts of interesting things. Possibly a sweet puffer on this one too. This time we were the last ones back on the boat.

Our last stop was at nearby Bamboo Island for lunch. It was a lovely wide beach, and we found shady spots to spread our towels - it was such a relief to get out of the sun for a while. There were only a few boats at this point. The lunch they put on was excellent - rice and noodles, with a few different meat curry dishes - all cold, but delicious. I ate a massive plate - more than Christian did for once. After a bit of a relax, we went for a swim, and Christian took his snorkel and mask (I'd had enough for the day). He says there were interesting things to see, but I was just happy to soak for a moment.

Back on the boat for the last time, and Lucky told us that we could buy a DVD of the day - video footage and stills that crazy camera guy had been taking all day. We decided to do it as it only worked out at about £30. We agreed to share it with Patti and John, as they weren't going to buy one. We started the hour-long journey back to Phuket, which was fine (no break-downs).

Back at the marina, Christian signed up for the DVD and paid for it, while I got Patti's email address, and Lucky showed us to our minibus transfer back to the resort. It was nearly full, so I asked to sit in the front seat for the drive back. The driver agreed. It was an uneventful journey.

Back at the resort, we dropped off our towels, and collapsed in our room. We had showers and rinsed all our gear. I was pretty burnt - I realised that all that sweating must have taken the sun cream off, despite reapplying it once. Between us, we used an entire bottle of resort moisturiser.

We were feeling pretty lazy after a big day, and so decided to eat the St Patrick's Day buffet in Rim Talay for dinner. It was strange eating green food in the middle of Asia, but it was nice enough (though there were way too many ways to cook potatoes on display). We each had a plate of mostly choc-mint dessert items to finish. Tasty.

I suspect we ended the evening watching some TV on the tablet, and had a fairly early night.

Exploring the waters, and Patong Beach

We had a slow morning and got up late (unintentionally) - we must have only just made it to breakfast in time.

Back in our room, we got our stuff together and wandered out again to the jetty, nabbing a couple of deck chairs. There was virtually no one else there at that time of day.

We took our snorkelling gear to the end, and kitted up. The ladder wasn't terribly comfortable, but we got in to the lovely warm water. The first sensation I remember was being nibbled by the fish. How rude! Once in with my fins on, they left me alone, but they were extremely tame, and were quite happy to swim straight past my face. It took a while to get used to. These weren't small fish, either - there were masses of quite large sergeant major fish.

Other fish we spotted were black/white/yellow angels lurking near the bottom, absolutely beautiful rainbow parrot fish (which, when viewed from above, really do look like parrots), some interesting spotty brown fish with pink extremities, and others I can't remember or identify. There really were a lot of fish, and it was an absolutely beautiful place to go.

Once out and showered, I had a quick sunbathe, and then we took half an hour to relax with a soft drink by the bar before heading back to the room. We decided to go to the restaurant for lunch - Christian ordered a club sandwich and I ordered a fish burger. The fish burger was good, and tasty, but Christian's club sandwich was enormous and really not appetising. He picked at it, and feeling a bit unwell, went back to the room while I finished mine and paid the bill. I had a watermelon juice as well, which was absolutely delicious.

We rested for much of the afternoon, probably watching some TV. I had a wander up to see what the gym was like (it was good - I intended to do some running on the treadmill and maybe do a class if Christian wasn't up to activities). I also had a little look at the Italian restaurant.

Then around 5pm, I went for a walk into to Patong to buy water, paracetamol, and a beach wrap, while Christian had a sleep. It didn't take long to get into town at all. I turned right at the first major street, which was an exercise in itself - don't expect the drivers to stop at pedestrian crossings - they won't! I found a chemist quick quickly, and bought a large bottle of paracetamol for not very much from a nice lady who spoke good English. I kept going along that road, and found a market. It probably wasn't the one that Unn had recommended, but there were a few nice beach wraps, and I got one for 350 baht (after offending a stall holder by offering too little. I looked for t-shirts for Christian, but failed to find anything suitable. Lastly, I found a 'family mart' supermarket, and bought water, chocolate, and Pringles.

At the end of the street, I expected to find the shopping centre, but couldn't see it anywhere (turns out I hadn't walked far enough up the strip by a long way), so turned back to the strip, and headed north. I was disappointed to find a McDonalds and KFC and a Boots, and other various high street establishments (though the McDonalds was amusing because the Ronald McDonald statue had his hands together in gratitude).

After a while, and failing to find Bangla Road (where Unn assured us we'd find 'lady boys' in the evening), I turned back, and walked along the beach, dodging scooter riders on the footpath, and watching the parasailing. I decided I didn't want to do parasailing, mostly because the little man who assists you to lift off pulls himself up into the rigging and just sits on it for the duration of the ride. Looks really dangerous, but they achieve it quite gracefully. It was very interesting.

I got back to the room at about 6.30 to find Christian still in bed. We took it easy and ordered a room service dinner - I had a delicious pad thai, wrapped in latticed egg, and Christian had something that was supposed to be quite light (but wasn't).

We probably watched TV and had an early night.

Taking it easy, Thai-style

We had a pretty slow morning to recover from the journey, but still made it to breakfast in reasonable time. Breakfast was excellent - absolutely anything that you can imagine was available, and good. They brought tea and coffee, and then we helped ourselves to everything else. All the cereals, all the juices, Chinese noodly things, sushi, cold meat/cheeses, hash browns, bacon, pancakes, toast, muffins, fruit, and eggs made to order. Amazing. I made it a point to try as many things as I could.

After breakfast, we had a little wander, starting with a walk up along the path to the jetty. It was very warm, and Christian had to take it easy, but we made it there. The jetty was really well set out, with an upper deck for sunning yourself and the bar underneath with seating. Then on the length of the jetty itself, there were loungers and umbrellas, and at the end, a shower, and ladders down into the water. There was a roped off section with a pontoon in it to swim in that looked perfect for snorkelling, especially given the long-tail boats were coming quite close to the end. We agreed to come back and do some snorkelling there later in our stay.

We then went up to reception, noting things on the way, and I tried to book an appointment at the spa (at the desk they'd pointed at the night before), but I was directed back down to the spa itself, which was now open and nearly next door to our room. So we went back down to the room, and Christian sat down for a rest. I read some more of the literature left for us, chose a spa treatment, and realised that we had an appointment booked with our travel consultant in reception at 5.30 that evening.

I then went for a wander by myself - first to the dive shop to see what they offered. It wasn't really a dive shop at all. It was just a shop that sold snorkelling and beach gear. So I couldn't ask them about dive trips (the woman behind the counter looked supremely disinterested anyway), but I did note that they had cheap mesh bags for fins, which is what I was most interested in. I then went down to the spa, and asked them whether there were any appointments available for that day. They offered me 2pm, and so I booked a body scrub and massage. I also asked whether they would allow Christian and me to book a session in the hot tub together another time. The answer was yes. They were very sweet and deferential, though I wasn't yet used to their greetings or how to respond.

Back in the room, Christian had recovered some strength, and so we booked a room service lunch at 1pm, and went back out for a swim in the pool next to the Italian restaurant. It was very nice, but the water was a little too warm to be refreshing. Christian went back to the room, and I spent some time on the sun lounger getting some sun (only ten minutes per side).

I was back in time for our Caesar salads to arrive, and we ate them on the balcony, which was very warm, but quite pleasant as we were right next to our own little beach. The salads were very good, though a bit too small to properly fill me up.

After a shower, I was ready for my 2pm treatment, and went back out to the spa. They sat me down with some tea and some tasty jam biscuits, and showed me pots of various lotions to be used for each treatment, and I ended up going with the rose scrub because that was best for dry skin (though it was far from my favourite smell). I followed my therapist (I've sadly already forgotten her name - one syllable, possibly starting with N) up a lot of stairs to one of the huts (salas), and took my shoes off at the door, replacing them with rubber massage sandals.

She led me to a bathroom and asked me to take my clothes off and put some disposable pants on (they were really cool - thickly woven shorts), and a robe. She led me to a chair on the balcony, and sat me down to work on my feet. I'd never had a pedicure, but this was very pleasant - she washed them, dried them, put cream on them, and worked on a few pressure points.

I then went to the table, and she put the scrub on and washed it off. It wasn't anywhere near as harsh as the last scrub I had. It was very pleasant. Then she started the massage. It wasn't gentle, nor particularly modest. She had her weight on me for much of it, but it wasn't too much. She managed to get at my problem spots in different ways to western massage. And it was the first time I've had a stomach massage. She worked on my scalp and my face, and wound my hair up expertly. By the end of it I was extremely relaxed. Some more tea and biscuits and then a walk back down to reception to charge the treatment to the room. It was reasonable (about £50), especially after a 20% discount (as honeymooners).

I floated back to the room, and relaxed with Christian for a while. We may have watched some TV at this point (or had a sleep). Our consultant, Unn, called to say that she was held up in traffic and would be late for our appointment. At about 5.45, we wandered up to reception, stopping at the 'dive shop' to buy a fin bag, but there was no sign of her. So we went to the bar and got cocktails, given happy hour had just started and everything (£2 cocktails!). I got a frozen strawberry daiquiri, and Christian got something or other. We had a nice bowl of nuts to go with them, and so drank, ate, and waited.

Unn called again, and the call was relayed via the bar - she was still on the way after 6pm. I made sure she knew where we were, and relaxed. She eventually arrived around 6.30. We talked through the resort facilities and made it clear that we were happy with everything. We asked her about snorkelling trips - firstly the various regions to visit, and secondly, once we'd decided on Phi Phi Islands, what the best format was. We went for the earlybird trip, which meant getting up stupidly early, but also avoiding most of the crowds, which was worth it in my book. The cost was quite reasonable.

We asked about other tours of the island - to Phuket town (she recommended getting a public bus), Kata Beach, long-tail boats, parasailing, and what to see in Patong Beach. We also asked about diving trips, and agreed that it wasn't worth pursuing it this time, and about street food, and other various things. She really knew the area and had great ideas - she suggested we come back and stay longer, perhaps in the Khao Lak area, which meant we could do the junk trip in Phang Nga Bay. She booked the Phi Phi snorkelling trip for us, and confirmed what would happen with the transfer on our last day. Meeting Unn was a really great value-added service. Yay Kuoni.

And then it was dinner time. We joined the Thai restaurant buffet tonight (750 baht, I think), and it was extremely good. Spicy without being impossible to eat, and very tasty, with all sorts of seafood and good stuff. I had a sample of pretty much everything on my plate.

After dinner, we retired to the cool of our room, and relaxed again with some TV, having another early night.

Arrival in Phuket

Singapore Changi

After a comfortable Silk Air flight from Singapore, we landed in Phuket at around 5pm. The airport was basic, and when we collected our luggage and ventured out looking for our private transfer, insanely busy.

Christian left me with the luggage and went off to find our Asian Trails transfer in the throng. He eventually found the guy, who was holding a sign with the wrong name on it. Hmmm. Anyway, we got in, and commenced the drive south to Patong Beach, and my first introduction to the insanity that is Thai roads.

It's nothing like European insanity. Everyone is quite calm and relatively sensible, but there are so many scooters that dart everywhere - mostly in the narrow, purpose-built left lane, but often crowded in U-turn slip roads, and crowded beside each other between cars - utes and trucks with impossible numbers of people sitting in the back, and complete disregard for the speed limit. I still wasn't used to the people sitting in the backs of vehicles by the end of that journey.

We took the inland road, which was smallish and winding, and ended in a huge series of winding, steep hills just before Patong beach. In Patong proper, it was busy and a bit grubby, with a large shopping/hotel/market block. We went through it and out the other side to the Amari resort, which was up a bridge and out of earshot of Patong. We were dropped off by the driver, gave him a 50 baht tip, and our luggage was taken care of from here.

At the reception desk, we completed the formalities, and were presented with delicious cold cups of lemongrass tea, and extremely welcome ice-cold towels for our faces. I got them to change some money for us as we had mostly big notes.

The woman who booked us in then walked us to our room, which was quite a significant journey through the resort. On the way, she pointed out useful things (though I wasn't really taking them in at that point).

At our room (7127), our bags were magically waiting for us, having been taken via the road on one of the army of golf carts. The woman showed us the ropes, including our obligatory towel swans, petals, and pink cake, and after tipping both people, they left us to it.

Our room was on the ground floor of three storeys, and only a few from the far end. The view from the balcony was straight across the bay and obviously really beautiful even in the dark. The room itself was big and very comfortable, and most importantly at this point: cool.

We had a bit of a read of the literature, and I unpacked while Christian dealt with the technology (he still wasn't well at this point).

The Rim Talay restaurant had looked very nice, and so we decided to have the buffet that night, which happened to be Churrasco. We tidied ourselves up a bit, and ventured back out into the warmth. First thing for me was a cocktail ('vanilla in love'), though Christian declined. The buffet was pretty good, and after a plate of food, and one of fruit, I was very full.

We retired to our room, and I'm pretty sure we went to bed straight after a shower. It had been a tiring day, and I was happy to have negotiated all travel successfully and made it to our last stage of the holiday.