After a wonderful week in Chiang Mai, we travelled south to the island of Phuket. When planning our trip to Thailand, we wanted to be sure to see the beaches and culture of the south
Phuket (March 15-18):
We had a lovely hotel right in the Old Town of Phuket, but it was some distance from the beaches. I was grateful for a pleasant room since my stomach issues kept me in for a couple of days. I read, worked on this blog, and stayed close to my rest room.
We walked the streets of Phuket’s Old Town a bit. There’s lots of shopping and restaurants, and a surprising number of cannabis retailers. Around the corner, we found one plain-looking but very inexpensive restaurant where we enjoyed a new Thai favorite, pineapple fried rice. It was great.
Sara got out on her own, indulging in another massage and taking a Thai cooking class. It was just Sara and a young couple from London, so they enjoyed lots of personal attention from the instructor. Sara especially loved making “Thom Yum Soup,” a Green Curry, and Pad Ka Pao. She’s got the recipes, so I’m hoping she’ll treat me later.
One day we took a bus ride toward the beaches. I felt fine at first, but by the time we reached Karon Beach, my stomach couldn’t handle it. We spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop, during which I visited the restroom at least five different times. This was just not working, so we took a taxi back to our hotel in Phuket. Based on our limited view of the beaches, they looked lovely, but we didn’t really enjoy the beach until we got to Krabi and Ao Nang Beach.
We stayed five nights in Phuket. Now we think it would be better to stay just one or two nights in Phuket Town and the other nights closer to the water.
Krabi and Ao Nang Beach: (March 19-22)
From Phuket, we hired a driver to take us to Krabi rather than flying or taking the ferries. We stayed at the Panan Krabi Resort, just a short walk up from Ao Nang Beach. We enjoyed a lovely, large room with a view overlooking the resort’s large pool system. Since I was still dealing with some stomach issues, Sara went down to enjoy the pools, and the poolside bar, by herself. Later, walking down from the resort, we turned right to walk along the beach. As we walked with the beautiful beach on our left, there were many stores and restaurants across the road on our right.
Our Panan resort also partnered with the REEVE Restaurant, right on the beach, so we headed there for a drink and some dinner. The drinks were great, and the food pretty good, but we especially enjoyed the entertainment, a young couple offering lovely renditions of many of our favorite tunes from the 60’s through the 80’s — with just his guitar and their two lovely voices. We paid more attention to the music than others and applauded their performance, so they came over to visit during their break. We learned that they were actually from the Philippines and had a yearlong contract with the restaurant. They had worked here before Covid hit, but when things shut down, they had to return to the Philippines. They were glad to be back and working again now.
Since we enjoyed the music at the REEVE, and the beautiful setting above the beach — ideal for catching our sunset photos — we returned a second night. This time we had an added delight, a “Fire Show,” that involved loud music and ten or twelve young men dancing and juggling with fire on the beach. The restaurant crowd stood to observe while some nasty fumes from the fuel filled the air. Nevertheless, the show was quite entertaining, especially when a few fire swallowers and jugglers climbed up from the beach, taking their performance into the midst of the appreciative crowd. A night to remember.
On our last day in Ao Nang, we took a left at the beach to explore a different direction. Now there were few stores, but more open spaces and various resorts looking over the road and out on the beach. At the end was “The Monkey Walk,” a steep path leading up a mountainside, but no need to climb to see the monkeys. They were right there, near the beach at the start of the walk. With Sara’s still recovering knee, we chose not to climb, so we took pictures of the monkeys, keeping a safe distance, and turned back.
We stopped along the way for lunch at one resort restaurant, and further along we settled in at another spot for drinks. The chairs were comfy, and it was fun to relax, listen to the piped in music (although a bit too repetitious), and watch the parade of folks along the road and the beach. Sara and I just enjoyed sitting there for hours. It helped us to better appreciate how some folks define a perfect vacation day as little more than a day at the beach, reading a book, watching people, and sipping on a cold drink. Life is GOOD at Ao Nang Beach!
