PHUKET 5.0

So… one year later and we are back to Phuket… for the fifth time that is!!! Can’t believe that we celebrated Vinay’s 67th birthday here last year and we celebrated his 68th here too. The only difference is the hotel… but one thing I am sure about is that Phuket has literally become our “home away from home”!! 

We have stayed in different properties each time and this time we stayed at The Trisara Resort. This hotel is situated on the mountain side leading down straight onto the beach. It is a quieter hotel with about 48 villas and some private residences. This makes it slightly more exclusive and with top notch hospitality. The villas/suites are arranged on different levels so one problem is that it is difficult to walk anywhere as some of the paths are very steep. However the buggy service is excellent and we never had to wait for more than a few minutes before our ‘chariot’ arrived. This trip was during the monsoon season so there were way less tourists not only in the hotel but also in the restaurants in town. In fact during the first few days we hardly saw anyone around the hotel so we were feeling a bit “ lords of the manor’! Our villa was lovely and overlooking the sea and when we sat outside the sound of the waves splashing on the beach was extremely soothing. The swimming pool was huge and situated right next to the beach so we spent most of our days relaxing on the beach with short dips in the pool. There was a lovely breeze and the air was beautifully un polluted and invigorating. The staff at the beach could figure out to the minute when it was going to rain just by looking at the clouds so then we had a mad scramble to rush indoors safe from the rain. When it rains in Phuket my does it rain… absolutely tumultuously and with abandon but then it stops as suddenly and then the good thing is that the temperature goes down a few degrees also. 

We try to visit new restaurants on each trip but there are a few which we always end up going to like Zuma and Dara Thai in the Anantara Layan and 5 Olives which is a favourite as well. Most of our lunches were in the Hotel itself and we would step out in the evening for a lovely relaxing foot massage followed by dinner at some nearby haunt. 

A lot of our friends ask us why we keep going to Phuket and aren’t we bored of it? However both of is feel that it is the perfect holiday destination for us. We have travelled the world when we were younger and the kids were growing up. We loved exploring new Countries and have spent days on end sight seeing, visiting museums and local attractions. Now we don’t want to do that. We are happy to go somewhere where we can relax and the biggest decision we have to make is whether to have red wine or white wine with our dinner!! Call us old and boring but we are happy to be so together. It’s funny but if I suggest a restaurant Vinay instantly agrees and vice versa so in the process we are both happy! 

We started talking about our next holiday during our return flight and still mulling over a few possibilities but I know that Phuket will be high on the list so till next time… Khap Kun Ka!!!