Phuket - September 2012

---

After the hectic bustle of Hong Kong we ventured over to one of our favourite destinations for some relaxation... and relaxation is what we had 😊 Turns out it takes approximatly 5 days these days for us to get bored of swimming and eating!

We flew directly from HK to Phuket so decided to spend a night at Nai Yang beach which is right beside the airport. The Nai Yang Beach Resort picked us up at a whole AUD$6 and within 10 minutes we were in some of the nicest modern hotel rooms we've stayed in for a while. Nai Yang looked like quite a nice little village - there were heaps of cafes, restaraunts and bars along the beach, the beach looked pretty nice, chemists and shopping centres abound and no one constantly beratting you with 'suite, tshirt, dvds' 😊

After a relaxing breakfast and a couple of hours of checking out the locality we headed off to the super touristy Patong Beach for our 10 day stay. As mentioned it took 5 days of only leaving the resort in search of food and massages, before we got bored 😊 The kids had a great time and the Midgits swimming ability went from nervously jumping in to a pool holding your hands to jumping in to the deep end, bobbing around and swimming back to the edge - fantastic! As boredom hit we ventured a little further, hanging out on the beach quite a bit early in the morning or at sunset and sending off a lucky lantern and watching fireworks. We ventured south to Karon beach to play some minigolf in possibly the best minigolf course we've ever played at (Dino Park - sort of a version of Jurassic Park), visited the major shopping centres and wandered around the night markets. The kids loved travelling in tuk-tuks so it was pretty easy to get about.

We stayed at the Patong Merlin where we have stayed before but a few changes have happenned over the years and saving money was coming in to play. Previously the minibar was always empty so you could happily fill it with cheap drinks and food from the supermarket - now it was full and there was a charge if any of the food went off if you took it out. Also, they have decided that the minimum temperature on all airconditioners would be 25 degrees...which at night time is actually pretty darn warm when there is no fan and the air outside is still hotter 😞 We started off quite well with an upgrade to a family suite on our arrival - very nice we thought! But... during the night our aircon only got down to 27 so we all had quite a sleepless evening. Next day i asked them to fix it but after the man moved the vents around a bit and declared it was fixed, and at still 27 we couldnt get the kids to nap in the afternoon 😞 So off i go to ask for new rooms (or in fact just the original rooms we booked!) as this was not going to work for 10 days. After some negotiation (turns out they were out of interconnecting rooms) we were upgraded again...to the presidential suite! and it was nice! and importantly its aircon came down to 21 - wahoo!

The kids loved the band at the bottom of the hotel each night and there were heaps of kids dancing and chatting to the singer. As always the kids loved the noise and hustle and bustle of asia which keeps them entertained and eyes wide open all the time. The little Miss was very interested in foot massages and sat there astounded the first time. Second time she wanted one which was quite cute but i fear a future sign of princessness 😉 We took the kids along Bang La Road a few times although at 8pm it is a lot tamer than later in the evening. There is heaps to see and people selling strange things so this very much kept the kids entertained, but a lot of people with what i think were Lemurs which was a bit distressing as the poor things looked very freaked out. We refused to give them any attention at all and i hope all tourists do the same makeing them stop that awful trade.

We found quite a few restaraunts/cafes where they had kids toys in the corners so that worked well, and we also decided that walking along the beach to get back each night seemed to go alot faster than walking along the markets were you are constantly dodging cars, motorbikes and indian tailors 😊 Also a bit more relaxing for the kids to chase crabs around without us having to drag them off the road every second.I still love thai food greater than indonesian or malaysian food with so many choices to eat from curries to stirfries to seafood killed and grilled in front of you - yum. The kids eat pretty much everything so it was pretty easy to feed them and no one got sick which was fantastic. Thats even with the Little Miss drinking pool water every day and licking the side of the pool - eewwww. And she has just started tantruming and on the ground in asian countries is not quite where you want your little one flailing around refusing to stand up. Food is getting more expensive though and some restaraunts wanted to charge THB250 where most were around THB150 for rice dishes, but still more expensive than a year ago when we were there. So pretty much it was minimum AUD$30 for lunch or dinner for all of us. Mind you its all relative isnt it as in Perth that would be minimum AUD$100!

So a great time had by all and we were all just starting to get to that time when you want to head home. I think next trip to Thailand we'll aim for somewhere new and different or maybe back to Krabi, but i do always enjoy Patong and how there is heaps to do but you can be relaxed at the same time 😊

---

Comments

[littlewing]

Glad you found NaiYang
Awesome little beach isnt it? Glad your trip with the kids and gran turned out to be fun...and that presidential suite looks amazing!