Time to relax

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Our final early morning dawns with a grumpy sleepy Fi stumbling towards the bathroom. We got the car back to the airport and as we drove I worked out that we'd only being at the hotel for ten hours in total. Still, it was worth it to visit the Scirocco and the Sky Bar.

We had a short flight to Phuket and were met at the airport by Top, our driver. As we drove north towards Khao Lak he offered us cool beer (our first ever Singha) and cold towels. If the hotel was as good as the journey we were in for a treat.

It seemed almost unbelievable that this place had been devastated by the tsunami only two years ago. I was saying to Fi how there seemed no trace of that disastrous event when Top pointed to a field to the right of the road. Sitting like a beached whale in the field was a large Police boat (about the size of a UK lifeboat) that had been washed half a mile inland by the power of the wave.

We got to the Sarojin after about an hour and we were welcomed with yet another cool drink. The check-in was effortless and we were quickly shown to our room - the Pinphaka pool residence. As the name suggests, there is a good sized plunge pool in the small garden and a sala to relax in out of the sun.

The room itself was simple, yet well furnished. The bed was comfy, while the bathroom was amazing, with a rain shower and huge stone bath.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the pool with a good bottle of wine and not doing very much at all - which was exactly what we’d come here to do.

In the evening we dined in Ficus, the main restaurant. Then we wandered down to the beach restaurant where there was a special Thai food evening going on. It was so popular, there wasn’t even a single table spare. I asked one of the waiters if there was a table anywhere and he ran off, coming back a few minutes later carrying a table. He asked us where we wanted to sit and we said could we put it on the beach. The staff carried the table and a couple of chairs onto the sand and set-up the table - top service.

We sat there with a bottle of wine, looking out over the quiet ocean, listening to it gently lap against the shore. It was a wonderful moment.

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