A gruelling 20 hours journey from Koh Tao on boat and various buses and we got to Kata on the south west part of Phuket Island for what would be the last of our tour before returning home.
Kata is very touristy, mostly catering to the 2/3 week holiday makers, luckily for us we made our way to a quieter beach on Kata Noi just south of Kata to meet up with our VIP holiday makers, Wendy’s cousin James and soon to be wife Naomi, not forgetting of course the very lovely Elodie.
We spent five days here with them, enjoying the beach and lovely swimming pools at their resort, we sneaked in but don’t tell anyone!
It was surreal to be with someone we knew after so long but absolutely great and we got to know Elodie who we hadn’t seen since she was 3 months old, She loved being in the water and her laughter and joy was very infectious, in fact we really bonded with her and I think James and Naomi may have found new babysitters!
There isn’t to much to do in the area, sure there are a few temples to see and some other touristy trap activities but James and Naomi have visited Thailand before and weren’t interested in doing that kind of thing this time around and we’ve definitely had our fill of temples, so we were just happy to be together and chat the day away, enjoying the sun and having a few drinks too, of course.
For the second part of our time together, we moved on to the north of Phuket Island to a much quieter area in Mai Khao. This area is geared up for holiday makers who want to relax at resorts away from the trashy touristy parts, it’s very sparsely built up here.
The beach goes on for miles and miles with hardly anyone on it, probably one of the best beaches we’ve seen during our entire travels, it’s good to keep the best things till last :-)
James, Naomi and Elodie stayed in a very lovely place at the Anantara Resort where the wedding would take place, we stayed at a less salubrious but very comfortable hotel about 30 minutes walk down the beach.
The wedding was a very informal affair but the bride and groom looked radiant and had the perfect setting, beautiful beach, calm seas, hot weather possibly a bit too hot (i wasn’t complaining) at an amazing resort with fantastic food, oh, and us of course ;-) perfect!
Another four days whizzed past and we made the most of the facilities at both our hotel and at the Anantara, and before we knew to, we were saying our goodbyes and both made our way back to Bangkok.
We stayed one more day in Bangkok to enjoy the cheap massages and street food one last time and that was that!
After nearly 18 months (533 days to be precise) and a heavy carbon footprint - 24 flights, 92 buses, 41 trains, 25 boats and 200+ car/taxi/tuk-tuk /bike journeys etc, not to mention numerous tours on bikes, motorbikes and on feet and 159 different beds we slept in, we were heading back to the UK.
We’ve had a blast in Asia but you can get too much of a good thing. It was time for us to come back, recharge the batteries (and the bank balances) and of course see all of you lovely people back home in the UK and France.
I don’t think we will miss Asia for a while as we’ve had our fill although I will definitely miss the hot weather, anything under 20c I now consider freezing!! and weirdly I will also miss the bum-gun, we will both miss the nature too, all the lovely Frangipan trees and birds that are endemic to Asia, especially those very cheeky Minas and their songs as well as the Koels, Coucals and Geckos big and small, the sounds of which were omnipresent day to day.
Well having been in Thailand on three different occasion for nearly four months over the past year, we best reflect on our lasting memories of this county:
The Food, so much variety to be had and it can be so cheap, you can get a really good meal for 50 Bhat (£1) with lots of flavour and spicing, Thailand is definitely the best for street food
Lovely beaches, even the over crowded ones are still fantastic.
Temples, just like Myanmar, there are more than you can visit, it seems every little village is building a new one.
The King, his picture is absolutely everywhere.
The nature, if you take the time to look you can find so much.
7-11, as with the picture of the King, these convenience stores are also everywhere, sometimes four in the space of 100 metres!
Minivan hell, the ubiquitous and it would seem favoured mode of travel around Thailand can be death deifying, some of the drivers are a little crazy shall we say.
Thailand is known as the land of smiles, well maybe not so much anymore, we’ve found other nations to be much more welcoming on the whole, perhaps they have had quite enough of so many foreigners (Farangs as they call them) and have now lost a bit of their enthusiasm.
Travel ‘Tour” operators, there are so many in the tourist areas (trying to rip you off) it’s amazing any of them make any money, I guess that’s why they rip you off :-)
Thanks for reading, we will now be on hiatus till the next adventure ;-)
Kata Noi
Mai Khao
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| James, Naomi and Elodie's place |
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| Water Monitor |
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| Thanks for reading, it's time to hibernate for a while now xx |
