So about an hour and
a half later, driving north of Phuket through towns and jungle, coastline and
hills, we arrived at our resort.
We had booked this
resort on Travel Zoo, and paid only about $80 Australian per night for a
standard room. This included daily
breakfast, a one-hour Thai massage each, half price airport transfers, and a 2
for 1 drinks coupon. Since that was a
pretty good deal, we requested a room upgrade.
Turns out, for only $15 extra a night you can get an amazing room! The resort has the longest swimming pool in
Southeast Asia, which means in addition to their large square pools they also
had rivers going by each room. Our room
had a deck with stairs that went right into the water, so it was like we had
our own private pool.
After a very spicy
Thai dinner (Peanut Satays, Fish Cakes, Red Curry, Beef Stir Fry) we headed
back to our room and went for a midnight swim.
We were wide awake because of the time change and it was still super hot
outside, so the swim was a really neat way to explore the resort. The rivers run all through the resort, so we
just went in a big circle until we got back to our room.
After breakfast we
went for another lap of the lagoon pool, tested out the in-water jet massage
beds, and came across happy hour at the swim up bar. The music was great, the drinks were amazing
(and half price), and one of the bartenders wrote us a list of all sorts of
Thai words for us to use. We both got
sunburned pretty badly, but we just slept it off with an afternoon nap. That trip around was also the only time we
went in the ocean the whole vacation. I
usually live in the ocean, but the pool was just so nice!
Even though we were
still full from breakfast, we managed to have some Thai noodle soup for
lunch. Not sure why we did that because
it was hot out, but oh well. Then we
played ping pong and drank iced tea while we waited to become hungry again for
dinner. We went back to the Thai
restaurant where we had some Green Curry, Shrimp Spring Rolls, the chef special
which was a kale, oyster sauce, and pork stir fry, and for dessert we shared
the mango sticky rice. Needless to say
we were still full at breakfast the next day!
That time, though, we sat at the "traditional Thai tables"
which looked like they were on the
floor, but they cheated and put holes in the floor for your legs to make it
more comfortable. Still fun though.
Our second day
started much the same as the first: breakfast, swim in the river (this time
with sunscreen), and happy hour. We
decided to skip lunch and just have some food at the pool bar (lemon fries and
pomello shrimp salad, in case you were wondering). This time, though, we discovered the Janga
set at the bar, so we spent a good long while sipping drinks and playing
Janga. To mix things up a little, we had
our Thai massages that afternoon. I had
never had one before, but you put on a linen outfit and they use their body
weight instead of oil to do the massage so they have larger tables that you lie
on and then the masseuse stands/kneels on the table as well. It was different, but still really nice. Ryan had never had even a regular massage
before, so it was fun to share that experience with him. After the massage they let us sit in this
courtyard area to relax, drink tea, and eat delicious banana chips. It was a really awesome experience.
After our massages
we went and sat on the beach to watch the sunset, then went to the Japanese
restaurant for dinner. It was the kind
of restaurant where the chef cooks in front of you and does all sorts of tricks
while he's cooking. He had this
hilarious trick where he tossed an egg around for awhile and then would catch
it in his hat or pocket before "accidentally" breaking it to be put
into the dish. He would also season his
dishes with some fast hand movements and then yell "kamikaze!" at the
end. Ryan and I were lame, though, and
we had sushi and sashimi which was prepared in the back and not by the awesome
chef. Ryan can't get over that I eat raw
fish now, so he kept praising me throughout the entire dinner which is always
nice! That night there was a giant
thunderstorm, so we sat out on our patio, playing cards, enjoying the smell of
the rain, and watching the lightning. It
was a great way to end such a wonderful day.
Our last day in
Thailand started the same as the first two days: breakfast, long swim (but this
time we found a blow-up whale toy which was fun), reading on our patio, then
happy hour and Janga! We were getting
pretty good at the routine by then.
After happy hour we
did an AWESOME cooking class with the head chef of the resort's Thai
restaurant. It was by far the highlight
of our stay in my opinion.
We cook a lot of
Thai food at home, and I grow a few ingredients in my garden (lemongrass,
cilantro, Thai basil), so the chef was impressed when we knew what all of the
ingredients were.
We took turns
cooking and eating each dish, and in total we learned 4 dishes: green papaya
salad, prawn soup, fried rice, and coconut bananas. All of them were amazingly delicious, and
gave us lots of ideas for more things that we can cook at home besides
curry. The funniest part was when we
were making the prawn soup I only put 1/4 of a red chilli in mine. The chef made fun of me because he said at
home he uses 3 or 4 for his family! Ryan
and I vowed since then to try and eat spicier food, and I even planted some red chilli plants this season to help us along.
After the cooking
class we went to happy hour at the classy bar, where we were aghast to find
that they serve those delicious banana chips with the drinks! If we had known that, we would have gone
there every night!
We went back to our
rooms to have one final nap during the rain storm, then packed up our stuff in
preparation for our departure. Ryan
wasn't feeling well (it could have been any combination of travel anxiety, sun
exposure, or the multiple pina coladas) so we ordered room service for dinner
(cobb salad, steamed veggies with pesto, peppermint and vanilla tea - yum!) and
he slept while I read. We left around
10pm for our 12:30am flight, and watched the lightning storm from our taxi on
the trip back to the airport.
While that was our
first trip to Thailand, it definitely won't be our last. We had such an awesome time, and I would
recommend our resort to anyone who wants to go.
It's hard to say though if we'll go back and experience what Thailand is
really like, or have another luxury trip where we spoil ourselves rotten!
After Thailand we
only had one day in Adelaide before Ryan had to fly back to work. I, on the other hand, was left in Adelaide to
start a new job, in a new house, in a new neighbourhood. I'm glad I had something fun to come back to,
or I never would have wanted to leave!
No comments:
Post a Comment