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Published: July 21st 2010
Wednesday 21 July
Our five nights at Club Med Phuket have passed in a blur. As we arrived late on Saturday evening, and left at 11.30 this morning (Thursday), we in fact only had four days to enjoy our first Club Med experience. It was indeed a great way to end off our holiday, with a little kid-free time. All three boys spent some of the time in their age-appropriate clubs, which gave Russel and I a chance to lie at the pool, have a swim or two at the beach across the road and take part in a couple of the organised activities. We also each had an hour-long beach massage.
And we ate. After four weeks of planning our eating around the children’s wants and needs, and subsequently not over-eating ourselves, we now found ourselves confronted with a feast every meal of the day. The dining room was laid out in stations, with different types of cuisine at each station. As the guests come from all over the world, their needs are taken into account, with Japanese, Korean, Thai, French and Western styles of food all available. In addition there were salad bars, desert tables, hold and cold areas, buffet style and plated meals. How to decide? Generally we tried a little of each but bits and pieces add up very quickly and we left each meal feeling full to bursting!
My loyal readers, that is as far as I got with my blog while still technically ‘on holiday’, albeit on the plane coming home. It is now five days since we landed at Sydney airport early on Friday morning, but as some of you have reminded me, I still need to finish what I started some six weeks ago! Little did I know then that this blog would in fact become a defining element of the trip itself. So here goes...
The suitcase, you all ask. I left you in suspense as to which one went missing. Of course it turned out to be that the one we needed most, that we had packed specifically for the Thailand leg, was the one (out of five checked bags) that didn’t arrive until two days later. Fortunately we still had our Paris clothes in the small suitcases, which was the extent of the summer items we had with us. Russel had his Speedos and Dean’s swimming costumes were shoved into the fifth case as I’d almost left them behind in London, having overlooked one drawer when packing. So Ryan, Greg and I were all lacking the one most essential item of clothing necessary at a resort (let’s hope Qantas also sees it that way when we ask them to refund us the cost of two boardshorts and a bikini from the Club Med boutique)!
Was it a good way to end the trip, you ask. Yes it was, but for different reasons than I expected. First of all we’d been ‘on the road’ long enough for the boys, and it was time for something different, so it was great just to stay in one place and not catch a train, a bus or push the pram for four whole days. It was great not to worry about what to feed them, whether there would be something that each of them would eat, or have to prepare snacks, sandwiches and drinks. There was such a huge choice of food that even the fussiest eater would find something (and for the really desperate, there was pasta at every meal). Best of all, it was great to have some kid-free time, after four weeks of being together every moment of the day, apart from our two hour reprieve with the Berelowitz’s.
Dean started off well at the petite kids club, and had a good first day, but each subsequent day he was unhappier about being left there. While I felt bad about leaving him there feeling so miserable, the idea of having to look after and entertain him myself was far worse! In addition, we were having late nights with all the shows and activities that are laid on, and he needed an afternoon sleep each day, which he had at kids club. The alternative was to spend the afternoon in the room with him - no choice there! At 4.30 each afternoon there was a kid’s club event, such as a mini Olympics, a fashion show and an inflatable water slide, where we met up with the kids club and watched or joined in the activities. He was very happy to see us and be handed over by the ‘teachers’!
Meanwhile, we allowed Greg to sign himself in and out of his kids club, so he picked and chose the activities that he participated in - sport yes, pool games yes, archery yes, Narnia production no, fashion show definitely no, quiet time no... He came and went without too much fuss, except on the first day when appeared after lunch in tears to say that the others were teasing him and he wasn’t going back. We asked what they were teasing him about and he said they were saying that he had girlfriends! We gave him a few ideas for dealing with this ‘crisis’, and he was fine thereafter.
Ryan went to the teenage club on the first day and said it was okay, then slept till 3 pm on the second day, and till lunch time on the fourth day! He said the kids didn’t do much at the club, but he did take part in the Narnia production in one of the dance routines, and did pretty well with the moves! The highlight for him was doing the trapeze on days three and four. He was very nervous the first time, but gained confidence each time (he had three or four goes each time), and managed to finish off with a ‘catch’ on his last go. He hung out with the other teens, most of whom were Australian, and sat with them at meal times.
Russel and I enjoyed lying at the pool, and I did get through a book, but we also took part in the daily activities, such as pool games, quizzes and bingo. I won the first round of bingo, along with about nine others who had the same card, and then we had a ‘scissors, paper, rock’ play-off, which I won - my prize was a scarf from the boutique. In the evenings we swam with the kids before going for dinner. As I have mentioned, the food was abundant and each night there was a different theme to the meal, these being Italian, seafood, curry, Asian and French. All the staples were still there as well, such as pasta and sauces and burgers and chips. It was impossible to go hungry! Drinks, including alcohol, were included, and there was a free bar alongside the pool, offering a choice of cocktails and other drinks. However, as it is a family-friendly resort, and most of the guests had children with them, there wasn’t any obvious over-indulgence in that department, thank goodness!
After dinner there was a show each night, put on by the GO’s (the ‘entertainment staff’), who seem to be a multi-talented bunch indeed! By day they run the kids clubs, teach trapeze, organise pool games or water aerobics, and by night they dance or do comedy acts or trapeze shows! After the show there is more entertainment, one of the highlights being Wednesday night when they brought a baby elephant, a monkey an eagle and a cockatoo into the bar area for the guests to hold (or in the case of the elephant, touch) and pose for photos. I don’t think the boys will ever forget seeing the little monkey making a poo through the side of his tiny nappy! Our final night coincided with Bastille Day celebrations (Club Med is a French company), so our holiday appropriately ended with a fireworks display right on site, and extremely loud (ask Dean about it).
On Thursday morning we had breakfast, packed up and vacated our room at 11 am for an 11.30 departure for the airport. Then it was another day of travelling - from Phuket to Bangkok to Sydney - to arrive at last at Sydney after another very full and uncomfortable flight. We finished off with more queuing, this time before we even touched down, as the plane had to circle before it was cleared for landing, then for quarantine, and finally for a taxi home. And here we are, with not much physical evidence to show for it, having bought hardly a thing except for the kids’ souvenirs, but plenty of great memories, eighteen hundred photos and just about as many videos, Ryan and Greg’s journals, as yet incomplete, and this blog!
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Kev
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Well done!
Well done Nix on a great job... very good reading!!!