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Published: January 11th 2007
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Hi everyone.
Warning - this could be long but hopefully some of the info will be useful!!
Hubby (Terry) & I (Lesley) left Adelaide on the 26th December for our holiday in Phuket to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and to have the honeymoon we never had. We had imagined a romantic relaxing 10 day break that I researched extensively prior to our departure. Not sure about the romantic bit as we ended up meeting heaps of people but we both agree it was a fantastic holiday and we have never had so much fun in our lives!!!
We booked a package trip with Venture Holidays through our local agent Hallett Cove Travel and all the “bits” just worked like clockwork - very impressive. We had one night in Singapore and arrived in Phuket on the morning of the 27th. We were met by Destination Asia for our transfer to Merlin Beach Resort where we were booked into a Pool Access Room. The room and the resort were fantastic and I will post a more detailed review in the hotel review section.
The transfer itself was our first introduction to the crazy way that a lot of
the locals drive!! (Not all - we had some very good drivers, thank goodness) I couldn’t look out the front window I was so scared!
As we arrived late morning we couldn’t check into our room so thanks to info gleaned from the forum we headed up the hill from the Merlin beach resort to enjoy our first lunch at the Good View Restaurant. We were the first customers of the day and were very impressed with the food, service and of course the view. After checking in we explored the resort and then headed into Patong on the free shuttle to explore.
Patong itself was much bigger than I envisioned and on that first afternoon/evening we did find it all rather overwhelming. I couldn’t get my bearings, was totally stressed trying to cross the road and really hated bartering. We did some shopping for us and our boys, we had left home and ended up paying between 150 and 250 bht for t-shirts, 60 bht for DVD’s. 80 -100 bht for playstation 2 games, 100 bht for music DVD’s, 150 bht for caps, 150 -200 bht for thongs, jandals or flip-flops ( 3 way translation to avoid
confusion!) The dearest purchases were 2 Guess watches for 600 bht each. I am a size 12-14 in Oz and I did find that most of the t-shirts were just one size - too small for me. There were still a selection of XL ones that I was able to buy but the designs weren’t as nice as the smaller ones. I had been expecting that the surf brand gear would be the same as we had in the shops here but it wasn’t. There was nice stuff but there was no current designs in clothing, bags etc as it was all just copies. There were many identical bags that were just stitched with a different brand name depending on the shop. I don’t mean this to sound negative, it was different to my expectation but still fun and worthwhile.
We were looking for somewhere to eat but as I had left all my forum info at the hotel we really had no idea. We stumbled across Sabai Sabai which rang a bell for me so we ate there which was fine. Nothing great but pleasant service and nice food. One thing that did strike me was that there
are so many restaurants in Patong that we forum members probably overlook as we tend to eat at those that we are recommended and in turn recommend them again. Perhaps it would be good to try somewhere different to broaden the selection????
We purchased a heap of playstation games from the secret room opposite Sabai Sabai. The seller was fantastic and tested all of them for us. We bought about 15 and 4 didn’t work so he gave us other titles. No problems so far although the boys are still mainly playing Cricket 07 - reliving the Ashes, methinks - only joking as we are actually Kiwi’s but oh how easy it was to jump on the Aussie cricket bandwagon while we were away!!!
DVD’s were bought from here as well as Kitty’s which had a great back room. They are very upfront about the quality and for those that are borderline they let you look and decide whether to accept or not.
The next day ( Thursday ) we were booked to go to the Rehab centre. We almost didn’t get there as that particular day there were road blocks checking permits and Richards drivers couldn’t get
through to collect us. We had to catch a tuk tuk at the last minute to another location for a rendezvous with our driver and other forum members but it just added to the excitement for the day. This was also when we first met with other forum members which turned out to be one of the best things about our trip. Hi Greg & Tracy!!!!
From the vibes we were picking up from posts just before we left we almost cancelled our visit but we are so pleased we didn't - it was an awesome experience. We had our e-mail confirmation from Richard months earlier and then just phoned him once we were in Phuket.
Without Richard I don't think it is as fantastic as it could be but it is certainly still really worthwhile. Once you get there it is a little confusing as we had no idea what do do. We arrived late morning and there were quite a lot of other tourists there and no sign of Charlie or Yum Lai. :-(
We sorted out our bookings for the elephant trek which because it was busy we then had to wait about an hour for.
You book and pay at the bar and then take your booking slip to the guide. They don't tell you this but if you don't you will just keep waiting.
The waiting was fine as it gave us a chance to get to know the other forum members and the toilet (I have an obsession for these!!) was nice & clean. After about 20 mins Charlie made an appearance so the time passed really quickly as we were all so captivated by him.
There are other locals who frequent the bar who know the Gibbons well so it's great to watch the interaction. Although we got to touch and groom Charlie a little it was not as comfortable as it would have been with Richard as we were wary that we were dealing with a wild animal. We were also a little nervous as we were told that Yum Lai had bitten a local a couple of days earlier!!!!
We opted for the 1 hour elephant trek ( 900baht) which I would highly recommend - it was fantastic. The elephants were so steady on their feet and although you cover some very steep terrain we always felt safe. The mahouts
Aana, Lesley & Terry
She was 48 years old are such characters and really add to the whole experience. There were 6 of us in our group and we all absolutely loved it. I could rave all night about this!!!!
When we got back Yum Lai had made an appearance and we were very lucky to witness some fantastic high jinks between her and Charlie as well as Yum Lai mercilessly teasing a local dog!
We enjoyed the centre so much that we called in a few days later while we were on a day trip with Mr Mor. Both Gibbons were around and we enjoyed another hour in their company.
Hopefully the situation will resolve and in the future Richard may once again accompany visitors but until then it is certainly a great place to visit and if our money for the treks helps out the centre, then we all benefit.
When we eventually got back to the Merlin Beach we met up with other forum members - Carolynn & Tony from England and Marita & Heath from Adelaide. We had a lovely late lunch at the Good View restaurant while we got to know each other. It was really great to meet Marita as we had
been following her blog with such interest.
As I am only up to day 2, I am going to split this up into parts and that’s it for part 1 if you’ve managed to stick with me so far!!
Lesley
xxxx
N.B. I have added a couple of video's to this entry - click on the icons at the top to play. They had to be heavily compressed and are playing a bit fuzzy but hopefully you will still enjoy.
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Lee
non-member comment
Well done
Hi Lesley Great photos, good review. Friends were at Merlin in October and suggested we go to the Goodview restaurant, definitely going after seeing those photos. Thanks Lee