We haven't posted an update for a couple of days as we've been spending our time relaxing at our hotel in Phuket and so we don't have too much to report.
On Friday morning we left our hotel in Chiang Mai to get our flight to Phuket. We arrived at our Phuket hotel at around 2 o'clock and it wasn't long before we encountered our first rain of the trip! It's definitely cooler here than in Bangkok and Chiang Mai and Friday and Saturday were generally overcast with heavy downpours every now and again. We didn't really mind though as it was nice to be somewhere slightly cooler and not worry about the bright sun all of the time.
The hotel itself is really nice- it's kind of set up in the hills just above the beach and has great views out over the sea. We're staying in a block slightly up the hillside and so it's a steep climb back up to the room from the main areas. There are buggy's that shuttle people around but we've tried to avoid them so far as it's not too far of a walk for us.
On Friday evening we had a scout around the place and took a walk along the nearby beach called Naithon beach. It's quite a small beach but it feels relatively untouched and natural which is nice as apparently many of the beaches in Phuket are touristy and overcrowded. We were literally the only people on the beach at one point so it almost felt like we were on our own wee private beach. After our walk we freshened up and then took advantage of the happy hour 2 for 1 drinks between 5 and 7 before going for dinner at the Italian restaurant in the hotel- ok so still no Thai food but pasta works for us!
Even though we had an early night on Friday we still managed to lie in until 10 on Saturday before going down for our buffet breakfast which has pretty much everything you could imagine a breakfast buffet to have- they even had vodka for people to make their own bloody Mary's! (We gave it a miss on this occasion!)
Even though it was overcast we still went down to the pool on Saturday afternoon. Although we're saying it's cooler it's still mid 20's so more than hot enough for us! In fact mid-20's with no direct sun is pretty much perfect conditions for sitting out and relaxing!
On Saturday evening we decided to try some of the Thai tapas food in the bar area for tea- that might be as adventurous as it gets for us on the food front! They then had a guy playing guitar and singing in the bar which was a nice and relaxing way to end the evening.
This morning we got up early to the sound of no rain and when we looked outside the sky was blue and the sun was shining so we decided to take an early morning walk up the beach- slightly different to the usual early Sunday morning walk to Lidl in Dalry! Again it was relatively quiet with only a few more people arriving on our way back to the hotel.
After breakfast (again we refused the Bloody Mary's), we went straight down to the pool as the sunshine meant it was going to be busier than yesterday! It's nice to say we had at least one day to enjoy the pool in the sunshine.
At lunchtime Ania treated herself to a massage! Meanwhile I (Jason) thought I'd enjoy the peace and quiet (joking obviously) and chill by the pool but literally 5 minutes after Ania left the clouds appeared from nowhere and it started chucking it down so I had to retreat to the room. It's almost as if Ania knew the storm was coming!
We went back down to the pool again in the afternoon and Ania enjoyed some coconut milk before yet another storm approached. Although it meant we had to leave our poolside position, it was quite exciting seeing a proper storm coming in. This one lasted much longer than the earlier one and so we decided to give up on any further pool lounging and went back to our room get get ready for our final dinner and drinks in Thailand.
Tomorrow we depart Thailand for Langkawi which is an island off the Western coast of Malaysia so we're looking forward to seeing what Malaysia has to offer!
