Thursday, June 7, 2007

Phuket re-cap

Well, sadly it's our last day in Thailand today. Come 6 pm we hit the road for the airport and fly off to Bangkok and then to London, where we're due to arrive at 7:45am London time. We've spent today swimming, reading and relaxing by the pool - it's actually been the nicest day weather-wise that we've had since we arrived!

So a few last tidbits that may not have been mentioned before...

The guy in Patong who handed us scratchie cards then did a dance and kissed Pet's "winning" card when she scratched off 3 stars. It was basically a Trendwest-style scheme, with the criteria being that we were either "single, married or divorced." That should keep away the riff raff.

The elephant that hacked elephant slobber all over Pet when she was feeding her. [they all did it, not just one! - Pet]

The old guy who couldn't get back into the boat when we went snorkelling, broke one of the ladders trying to do so and then eventually got hauled in by two of the tour guides, with myself and another Aussie guy trying to push him up whilst treading water. [He started out all wrong by throwing himself like a breaching whale into the water where a coral reef lay a mere two feet below, so I think instant karma got him, hence the broken ladder and the embarassing re-entry to the boat. - Pet]

Sadly, I can't remember any more right now. So now, London here we come!

I will add a bit more, since I still have the sweet vocals of the duo who sang every night at the resort ringing in my ears. Suffice to say after a full day out in the speedboat, we both agreed that our last day in Phuket should be spent chilling out. We slathered up the sunscreen and headed for the resort pool at 8.30am, and apart from a midday lunch in airconditioned comfort, that's pretty much where we stayed for the rest of the day. By 4.30pm we had our bags packed and by 5.45pm we headed down to the bar for happy hour - although we decided to abstain.

A couple of Aussies, Lindy and Stuart, and two ladies they'd just met were lounging around sipping wine. The singing duo had just turned up for their nightly gig, so I asked them to sing a bossanova song they'd performed the night before, which I thought was really masterfully done. I didn't know the name of it so I sung some of the words - "baby your mine, you are blowing my mind, we are two of a kind..." and that was enough to get them started. Before they were half way through our airport transfer turned up and that was how we left the Aquamarine, Kamala Beach and Phuket - the Aussies cheered us goodbye, the duo sung us out the door, and that was it.

Travelling malarchy aside, I thought Phuket was wonderful. We chose a place to stay that was well away from the madding crowd and at the same time was very familar in the way it ressembled Le Meridien in Port Vila. The staff were brilliant, the food was delicious, the atmosphere was very relaxing, and as I sit here typing in dreary old London Town, I still feel the motion of the ocean from our trip to Phi Phi. It's nearly happy hour at the Aquamarine... but that's a different time and a different place...

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