PHUKET 4.0

So this was our fourth trip to Phuket in the last 10 months and it is a no brainer to say that Phuket has become our go to holiday destination! And why not… it is about a two and a half hour direct fight from Kolkata… has super luxury hotels and the food selection is insane. The hospitality is superb and nothing is too difficult for them especially in the resorts. 

Our trip started out rather disastrously and for a moment I wondered if we were even going to make it. The Alipore gang namely all of us except Rashi were going in two cars from home and we left bang on schedule only to realise that we had left Vinay’s briefcase containing our passports, foreign exchange etc at home… ok so not a problem as we were near the zoo so not too far. We rang up the house and told someone to bring it to our main gate and we went and collected it. Disaster averted or so we thought! We reach the airport and can you imagine our shock when we realised we had left one of our suitcases at home too!! I just couldn’t believe it.. how can anyone leave a whole suitcase behind? I of course was trying to figure out if it was mine or Vinay’s which was actually a moot point at that time. Then Madam Aradhana came to the rescue. She rang up another driver who stays at home to pick up the suitcase and bring it at breakneck speed to the airport… and he managed to do just that. We meanwhile checked in our other luggage and Indigo were very helpful and said they would wait till the last moment possible to check in the last suitcase. Vinay and Aradhana were waiting at the airport gate and as soon as the driver came Aradhana took the case and ran in full speed to the counter shouting “it’s come it’s come”. It was quite a sight and we were laughing with tears coming down our faces with a mixture of excitement and the fact that we had been so stupid. Anyway, all’s well that’s ends well and we had no further mishaps… or at least I hope there aren’t any more in store since I am writing this on our flight home! We still have to land in Kolkata and get our luggage so there is still scope for disaster but fingers crossed that will all be ok!  

We try to stay in a different resort each time we come and this time we chose The Banyan Tree in the Laguna area of Phuket. I remember we had stayed here many years ago when the children were small and my mother had come too so it brought back a lot of memories. They have of course modernised everything so things are up to date but still keeping that old rustic charm. We asked our three daughters, Neha, Rashi and Aradhana if they would like to accompany us and they readily agreed so we booked a two bedroom villa with a private swimming pool. The villa was lovely with a huge master bedroom, a nice size second room and what was perfect was that the second room had a den attached which had a sofa cum bed in it which was perfect for one of the girls. The living room could comfortably seat 8 people and had big round dining table also. There was a small kitchenette with a coffee maker, an electric kettle, a huge fridge and even a microwave which the girls used to heat up food when they came back from partying. Outside there was a decent sized pool where you could  actually swim and plenty of lounge chairs and a pagoda with more seating. The staff were extremely friendly and kept on bringing crates of mineral water whenever requested. In fact by the second day whenever they saw Vinay they would laugh and tell him in their sing song voice that they had put many many bottles of water for him!!! 

It was extremely hot this time but we were lucky that it only rained one day so we were able to go out and about for our various meals. We never really go out sightseeing as we have seen most of the sights on our earlier trips so we prefer to just relax in the resort and then go to one of the multitude of restaurants Phuket has to offer. We of course have our favourite restaurants which we always go to but we also like to try out new places. This time we had an array of cuisines ranging from Thai to Japanese to Swiss to Lebanese to European and we even went for Indian one evening! After 4 days of eating fancy food we craved for some good old daal, alu and roti and this restaurant just near the hotel hit the spot perfectly!!!

One thing we all enjoy are the foot massages and the body massages. This is one thing we have everyday and there is one place in Boat Avenue called Amla Massage which is extremely neat and clean and we went there regularly. They got to know Mr Vin, as they called him, very well and would all run to make sure we were accommodated. 

Normally when Vinay and I go on these beach holidays we take our boggle, scrabble and cards and play these whilst sitting by the pool and it’s a great way to pass one’s time. This time I took them but we never played as the time would just fly by whilst we laughed and joked around. Since Neha and I have both become rather addicted to Mahjong I heard about the card version of this game and immediately ordered it on Amazon. This is called Mahjong Go and is much easier to carry on a trip than lugging the tiles, mats and racks and it was great fun. We even taught Rashi and Aradhana the basics and they also enjoyed it especially when they both made mahjong’s!!!

There is a lovely golf course attached to the hotel and I was very tempted to play a round but playing on my own in this heat was not so appealing so I decided to give it a miss. Maybe that’s an excuse for another trip with my golfing buddies! 

The only drawback with this hotel is that since it is an all villa property it is spread out a lot and you have to call a buggy whenever you want to go out. Whenever we went from our room to the lobby or vice versa the buggy driver seemed to take a different route so I could never figure out the shortest way to walk it despite me staying for 7 days! Also, since it is so spread about you don’t really see many people around… you are more in your own bubble. Eating wise I feel that there is less selection here at the Banyan Tree especially at lunch time as most of the restaurants are closed at lunch time. However there was a very nice Japanese restaurant near the main pool where we ate twice and the food was really good and fresh. The in villa dining menu was huge but the food was very average. We have stayed in 4 properties so far:Anantara Layan, Intercontinental , J. W. Marriot Mai Khao and The Banyan Tree Phuket. 

If I had to choose my favourite I would probably go with the Anantara Layan for the overall experience though each resort definitely has certain plus points and minus points. Hopefully we will add to this list in the coming years and discover more and more resorts but I can say that we will definitely be coming back soon. We have already decided that this was a trip with our daughters… now the next one will be with our grandchildren…. that is if they want to go on a holiday with 2 ageing budda buddis who’s idea of a good holiday is to eat good food, relax and go to bed by about 10 o’clock!!! 

So till my next trip… Sawadee Kha!!!