Phuket

After our wonderful stay on the island of Koh Samui we were off to the other famous island escape of Thailand the island of Phuket. A lot larger than Koh Samui and considerably more developed but a wonderful Thai island with its own charm for sure. Situated on the east coast of the country in the Andaman Sea the island has some wonderful sandy beaches with shear mountain cliffs that touchdown in crystal blue water, making it a true island fantasy.

Here we spent our days laying on one of the countless chairs that dot the beach of Patong, drinking in the scenery, drinking our Singha beer and wading in the bath warm water of the Patong Bay. We truly were grabbing every minute of beach time we could before heading on with our journey as this was our last beach stop until we hit Waikiki in March. And if it is at all possible Laurence has gotten darker than most of the native people here and has turned nearly black. After watching the amazing sunsets it was off to explore this very active town, with its countless bars and restaurants and its famous Bangalore Walk (or as we call it bang –la- bang) street with its seedy establishments and questionable forms of entertainment (there are only so many things you can use a ping pong for).

We took a day excursion to the famous Phi Phi islands. I had been to Phi Phi Lah fifteen years ago with Etienne and I remember its tranquil beaches and that we were one of only a handful of tourists. But since the movie the Beach was filmed with Leonardo de Caprio the island is now over run with tour boats, but it is still a magnificent island to see with its aqua marine colour bay and shear mountain cliffs. And then off to Phi Phi Don which was completely devastated by the Tsunami several years ago and has been completely rebuilt and is still a magnificent island to visit and enjoy the wonderful Thai beach culture. We ended our day by laying on the beach of Khai Island on our way back to the island of Phuket. It was a great day out on the water in the speed boat and Laurence got to make lots of new friends from Norway and Hungry.

The cultures of the two beach destinations within Thailand are very different from what they sell on the beach, to music to the night life, but Thailand does give you a great beach vacation.