Phuket

I love swimming!

After two nights on Similan we headed south Thursday late afternoon to Phuket, a new destination for all of us in Thailand. Phuket is rated as Thailand's most important and prestigious tourist destination. We headed for Phuket Town: remember Phuket is in fact an island, connected to the mainland by the Sarasin Bridge and covers quite a large area so getting about from area to area requires transportation, and as we discovered Phuket Town and most of the other built up areas on the island are congested. The Metropole Hotel couldn't find us a room, fortunately, and we ended up staying at Yuwadee Resort which we found by following signposts on the road. What a gem! It is on the Chao Fa (East) road from Phuket Town to Rawai, on the left side a few kilometres after Tesco Lotus.

Some flowers from Yuwadee Resort

Now I cannot rate Yuwadee Resort  highly enough and in fact if you had asked me what my ideal accommodation would have been in Phuket then this would have been my answer. Over the last couple of years there has been an influx of these types of resorts all over Thailand: high quality, modern, facilities rich and well managed. They are targetted at the burgeoning home market of  Thai travellers. We rented a beautiful wooden cottage and paid 1200 THB including breakfast. It was first class with a swimming pool, wifi, helpful staff, child friendly, restaurant, everything you could want. Off the beaten track and far from the main drag ( thankfully!) but neither an issue for us as we have transportation. Thank God the Metropole sent us packing as we would have paid a lot more and not gotten nearly as much.

Luna & Benny enjoy Yuwadee's swimming pool

Why does Luna like this store?!

A friendly welcome sign on the road in to Patong!

Sadly the weather was very wet and the rain hardly let up during our stay. We managed a drive to Patong.......a friend described it as a "shithole", I'd say that is about right! It had a good shopping mall, Jungceylon, and Luna was particularly keen on the above eponymous shop. She also bought some elephant carvings in the local artefacts stalls in the basement and was pleased with the price.

More of what's on offer in Patong - I didn't know Jack Daniels was a rum!

But Patong simply is the worst of Thai tourism. Fortunately we only saw the day time version of it and I guess by night it is very lively. Lots of Russian visitors once more and also lots from the Middle East too.

Patong Beach & Street Life

The international nature of tourism in Patong

We drove along the south western coast late afternoon and that was a really pleasant drive and quite beautiful setting. I imagine Phuket is hugely overdevelopped and that its character has changed quite markedly over the years.

I must say, weather notwithstanding, I enjoyed our trip and would certainly consider a return trip and would definitely stay at the Yuwadee Resort if I go back to Phuket.