Last week in Phuket

So we are into the last week here in Phuket and apart from dodging the showers, it has been a relaxing time, either cycling to the beach, looking ‘sophisticated’ on our moped or checking out the areas we had not yet discovered.

Last week, we booked a speed boat trip which took us out to four small islands and lovely unspoilt bays, including the James Bond Island – Phang-nga. The day was overcast which was a shame for the photos but good for the skin…..I think it would have been roasting if the sun had been out, although Patrick still ended up with a red face!

The trip included canoeing through the caves and having lunch at the “Floating Village”. It was very interesting with stunning scenery. However, it was an organised tour and we both decided that we really prefer discovering places under our own steam, though luckily the people we met and shared the experience with were mainly really nice and as always it’s interesting to hear other people’s experiences and stories as to why they are there. We were the only English, which we are quite used to here, most of those that speak the same language are Australians on holiday with, it seems, Russians and Chinese being predominantly here to purchase a property!

For those not familiar with the history of the James Bond island. It appeared in the 1974 film – The Man with the Golden Gun – for about 3minutes in a scene with Roger Moore and Scaramanga. However the actual beach is about 30feet long and now filled with tourist souvenirs (to be polite). Still they have made a living out of it for nearly 40 years so fair play!

One of the other challenges when on a tour with many people is contending with other tourists who want to be the centre of attention and in everyone else’s photo’s. Still with the art of the English language and Patrick’s ability to utilize his very own form of sign language, i.e. a not so subtle arm movement and Paddington stare achieves the result of being able to converse in their language. Effectively, “you’ve had your time now bugger off” and let others take their photos in front of that famous rock.

The speed boat ride was really exhilarating, although in amongst this natural beauty you still can’t escape the rubbish man leaves behind….. on 2 occasions the boat had to stop after the engine started to emit a bleeping sound, due to plastic bags being caught in the propeller!

Vouchers

When we came to Phuket in July, we were approached by the Laguna Holiday team to listen to their presentation for 90 minutes, with a view to receiving some free vouchers, which we knew was obviously Time Share re packaged, so we declined at the time. However now we had been back for a month, we thought we might as well check it out……oh my word!....

The presentation was effectively a time share scheme, no surprises there, but on the face of it seemed a pretty good deal, until you get into the nitty gritty…which really uncovers the fact that  not much has changed over the last 30 years, the sales team are still very economical with the detail, until you probe and then discover it’s not such a good deal really.

Needless to say, we didn't part with anything other than 3 hours of our time!

It was hard for Nina not to tell them she was once sitting in their seat ……but hey there is no such thing as a free lunch and Patrick didn't want to miss out on the vouchers!

Still at least we know how the club works now and more importantly know it’s not for us even though this is a really nice part of Thailand we would rather be free to choose where and when we spend our money.

Sun bed saga and salvation……

When the weather has been good, we have been to the beach and after the Dusit Thani experience decided to try another hotel for a couple of days, which was good, the sun-loungers were provided and some local ladies came by with drinks etc – so all was well. Until the other day, when another jobsworth decided that our towels were the wrong colour and not from the Angsana Hotel – so although he did let us stay for the rest of the day, we had to find another place. Luckily salvation was literally next door at the Xana Beach Club which had recently been re furbished and included a background of funky club music so Patrick was in his element (although Boney M didn't feature)!! As they were very welcoming, albeit the drinks were more expensive, we decided to return Friday evening for a cocktail and Seafood Buffet.

Both were superb….the buffet was excellent and the Green Curry with crab fried rice was the highlight, although the fish wrapped in banana leaf came a close second, along with the salmon, just a shame we couldn't fit a desert in!

There was also a fire eating display on the beach in front of us which was pretty amazing – the photos below are not very clear but you can get an idea. It was so close you could smell the fuel and feel the heat. The atmosphere was very relaxed and there were a few children who were mesmerised by the fire display, especially one little Asian lad who didn't quite understand that he needed to move back, not sure where the parents were but as the flames were getting closer and closer Patrick had to step in and move him back, but the look of confusion on his face was quite a picture.  Luckily no irate parents appeared to say anything!

In order to get to the club, we did take our Scoopy which was fine for Patrick in his shorts but a little problematic for Nina in a dress! This was resolved by going “side-saddle”. See what a month does? There is no way we could have done this on the first day of riding Scoopy but on the quiet roads it was possible to salvage ones dignity and look elegant…..well as much as you can on a 125cc moped!!

We are going to make the very most of the next few days, before preparing for France. We've already had to make changes as our flight home was cancelled less than 48 hours after booking it, so we will now be going home via ferry! Another mode of transport ticked from the list!

Au revoir, mon amis.

p.s.Also meant to mention who you have to share the beach with in Phuket.....here he was coming back from his swim - but it was funny beforehand as he ran to the water with his mahout pulling his tail trying to stop him....obviously the mahout failed and it was too quick to get a picture.

p.p.s Look who also decided to make themselves at home on our patio - Seamus and Weekly....

Persistently, Precipitous Phuket!

It’s Wednesday 8^th October and it has rained every day since we have arrived – the only consolation is that we have now experienced all types of rain – the drizzle, the shower, the absolute monsoon downpour – and have been treated to lighting and thunder on more than one occasion. So we are rapidly gaining an ‘ology in Rain!

This wonderful weather also resulted in the power and water being cut-off on Sunday evening, so Nina was grateful for my forward thinking on this occasion, as it meant we both had a torch to read our books with, exciting!

We were wondering what we might find in the fridge and freezer the next morning if the power stayed off all night, but fortunately it must have returned just in time to save the ice-creams, well they seemed edible the next day. The result of all the bad weather is that all of the water has left the electricity cables “fizzing” outside along the roads which is a little disconcerting, especially as many of them are hanging down around head level!

You may think it’s a perfect reason to stay in and watch a film……which would be nice but it seems the owner of the villa hasn’t paid the subscription so we have no TV!....... we didn’t miss it much until the ability to watch it was removed.

We have ventured out to Patong as we felt we needed a bit of “life” but this proved a little challenging as the weather turned to yet more torrential rain as the taxi driver dropped us off and although we requested him to pick us up ….he had other ideas!  So we were stranded in Patong with a lot of other wet and hacked off people all trying to grab a taxi to avoid the rain and get home. Still, Patrick took control and paid over the odds for a wet, windy and noisy Tuk Tuk!......travelling in style it was not and I’m sure the driver thought he was Valentino Rossi whilst we were praying for the tyres to have some tread and stick to the road!

But it is an adventure and the rain had to catch up with us eventually…….hopefully, it will dry up to allow us to get out and about!

Sunshine!

It had to stop eventually and now it has! We’ve been blessed with the sunshine once again and it is lovely and warm. The only downside is that Patrick has had a cold and is sneezing and spluttering all over the place and working his way through multiple boxes of tissues. However, since the Patong adventure, we decided that we needed to sort out our own transport….and Funky Moped numero 2 has entered the scene, well driveway!

It’s a Honda Scoopy and Patrick is in his element and loving the freedom and raw power of 125cc!!......

Still we were able to use it to go out the other evening to Flame where we had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken Thai style and lamb kebab! It is a really good place, relaxed, great food and inexpensive!

Having the moped has allowed us to get out and about and go to parts of the Island we’ve not visited before and it has been quite surprising seeing a real mix of sparkling new developments and also a number of half completed sites which look like the funding was pulled at some point and the work literally came to a stop mid build. This was evident with the developments below, they were in the north east of the island and had a good view, but the rest of the surrounding area had unfortunately been neglected and if you were aware this would definitely deter any buyer. Would be great to have the funds and knowledge to take it on ….who knows someone might do it …..but it looks too big a venture for us!

On that note we have had some building work close to home…… the builders have been in the villa next door and they work Thai style…….very early start and then its lunch by 11am and then they’ll restart about 5pm! Apart from the noise, it is quite funny listening to them as their mantra is “to enjoy their work and have a laugh….. and the work will be finished at some point!”

Fortunately, we’ve not had any further electricity blackouts and the TV has been restored although apart from the Russian Grand Prix, I’m not sure what we’ve really missed…..the channel options are as uninspiring as Hong Kong.

Still, we have the difficult decision of which beach shall we go to today? ….I like Naithon Beach which is smaller and cleaner versus the pretentious Surin Beach. We did stop at a beach café at Surin Beach and on the menu (and in the cabinets so they really did have it!) was a methuselah of champagne (6litre bottles!) for a mere THB60,000 (that’s about GBP 1,150 or EUR1,500, HKD14,365 / AUD 2,120 / SGD2,350….just to save any exchange calculations!).

When you consider that the local “Waitrose equivalent” supermarket employs its staff for THB 9,000 per month…..that is one decadent bottle of plonk.  Not sure how many they are likely to sell!

Over the next week, we will start to work out our plans for November but for now, we are just enjoying the sunshine and the freedom….as we don’t know how long either will last!

As we end our second week in Phuket we find ourselves asking ….are they male or female?

On Wednesday (15^th Oct), we went to see Simon’s Caberet. We stopped at a little restaurant and had a superb dinner with starters and drinks for under GBP10!!....the show was in Patong, so we splashed out and went via Scoopy! This was an eventful journey which started by meeting a JCB Digger head on down one of the lanes in Bangtao. Patrick’s foot has never been so close to the caterpillar tracks of the machine but there was no space to move!

Patong is a good 45 minutes from where we are staying and it was quite a journey with an incredible red sunset during the first part of our journey, but as we approached the town – the traffic started to come from all directions….and being on our scoopy Patrick was also trying to avoid the drains which are about 3 inches lower than the road, which did make for a very challenging and bumpy ride.

Needless to say, we arrived a bit windswept and also relieved to get there in one piece. Neither of us had any real idea of what to expect but it was great entertainment. The stars of the show were the individual performers who ranged from a “Barbie Girl” rendition to a person dressed one side as female and the other as male and they were both very entertaining. The costumes were really glitzy and colourful, with incredible headdresses and costumes.

The only negative was the fact that a lot of the performers were miming and the dancers were out of sync and needed to sharpen up their routine, not a lot of rhythm basically. Mind you the show runs 3 times a night/7 days a week so maybe it was a case of ‘burn out’.

We did really enjoy it and after the show we had a smoother ride home, although it was a relief to get back – you do have to constantly be on the lookout for potholes and/or any other debris that’s made its way onto the road!

Thursday was a beach afternoon so we went to Bangtao Beach or to be precise we went to the beachfront at the Dusit Thani hotel, we had been informed that as a visitor to the Laguna Villas we could have access to any of the hotel facilities within Laguna. Unfortunately, this was cobblers….and whilst Nina was busy shopping, Patrick had to contend with the deckchair police. After attempts at negotiation and even bribery in the form of buying a drink, it was to no avail so Nina came back to a grumpy Doyle! However as I had brought a new bikini for all of GBP7 he soon cheered up and we moved onto the beach itself which was actually nicer!!

I think the buffet at the Dusit Thani is off the agenda!!

Well we’ve decided to stay an extra week in Phuket so we can meet up with Helen (Patrick’s sister in France) and hopefully stash some bags while we tour around.

Both of us were secretly pleased as it’s so lovely here and we have really fallen into the laid back way of life, it feels a bit like a nice cosy cocoon, where you don’t have to worry too much about  anything.

p.s. I keep meaning to introduce you to Seamus and Weekly, the local dogs that have taken up residence near our villa. Weekly is obviously top dog as he struts around with his nose in the air looking important, Seamus follows some way behind trying to look like he knows where he is going, but you just know he has no idea and is just following his mate, well, that is until a white 4x4 comes along the road, which for some reason he has taken an aversion to, off he goes chasing and barking at it, until eventually the driver slows down and has to stop, obviously Seamus then feels he has fulfilled his task, he gives the car a furtive look, piddles up the nearest tree and sashays off back to his mate.  

Ohh and in case you wonder where we came up with these names, well……our plan for France or wherever we settle is to have a Great Dane called Daley and a Boxer named Sean, but Patrick felt these poor mongrels just don’t cut it so he came up Weekly and Seamus, you can see how his mind works, can’t you!  

Pictures below!