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Published: April 28th 2014
So this officially is our longest flights ever to a destination. 13.5 hours to Beijing with a 2 hour layover followed by 6.5 hours to Phuket. The plane had this really cool option for your display that had various map views of your route. The coolest was the globe view that actually showed that we indeed were travelling half way around the globe, and over the top over the Arctic Circle! My favorite part of the flights was the (what felt like) 3 minute announcements in Mandarin followed by the 30 second English Translation..."Ladies & Gentlemen, we will be beginning our food service. The choice is beef and rice or chicken and rice." OK, where is the rest of the announcement?? Are we missing something from that 3min?? LOL. We also were able to see these immense thunderstorms on the flight which looked amazing as we were flying over them. I tried to film with my iPhone but it wouldn't capture the magic :-(
The 2 hours in Beijing barely lends time to get through immigration and grab a Starbucks ;-). I have been loving green tea so tried my first green tea frappacino....lovely!!! We arrived in Phuket at 1:30am
to hundreds of people in line for immigration clearance....wow!!! By the time we got to our "home" at the Marriott, it was 3:15am. I have to say what amazing service. They brought us juice immediately upon arrival and told us 1 hour and they'd have our room ready and "inspected." This was fantastic as check-in wasn't until 4pm...we thought we'd have to sleep in the lobby for awhile. They offered their A/C Business Center as a place to wait but we chose to stumble around the dimly lit grounds...Already awesome.
By the time we were in the room (which is unbelievable) and went to sleep it was 5am. I set the alarm for 9am...get up time? 10:20am. LOL. We explored the grounds a bit more and grabbed our "breakfast" which was Thai noodles (yummy). Afterward we went to the beach and took a "swim." The Indian Ocean is pretty aggressive and one must be prepared.....mind your kids, LOL. The waves are substantial, but once you get the bobbing techniques and know you can't stand up, you're good. Amazing how warm it is!!! We took a walk to this place called Turtle Village to grab some basics for the fridge.
The rest of the day was just hanging out on the beach/pool. We enjoyed a happy hour at the hotel for some beachside cocktails and peanut sauce prawns. We then showered (again) for dinner. We ate Matt's Birthday Dinner at the resort's Thai restaurant. I had a BBQ Marinated Sea Bass with turmeric, lemon grass, served with spicy sauce. Matt ordered this AMAZING crispy fried lobster in spicy chili sauce. We can't describe how wonderful and tender the lobster was..then the sauce, WOW! It was so different from NE lobster (which we do love). For dessert we had sticky mango rice and banana fritters which were both AMAZING! The best part was watching the 3 waitresses balance menus around a birthday candle for Matt in the Mango Sticky Rice and sing an extra verse of Happy Birthday for Matt. Even half way across the world, you can't escape Birthday embarrassment!!! This place is a pleasant surprise...so happy for a timeshare considering its origin in Lake Tahoe....I think we'll take Phuket!!!
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Tom
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Birthday dinner
Birthday dinner sounded great. Crispy lobster and sea bass. How are the favors compared to the Thai restaurants at home. Sticky mango rice is good here, must be amazing there. Enjoy your island visits today, especially 007's hangout. It's nice to know the Ridge translated into Marriott Phuket, and it's a great room.