We arrived on Saturday morning after the Thai airways overnight flight from Melbourne. Flight was smooth with no problems. As usual, good service and food and drink on Thai.
We were met at Phuket airport by a representative from Marina Phuket Resort who drove us to the resort in a very comfortable air-conditioned van. Check in at Marina was very quick. We were offered coconut drinks in reception, passports checked etc. and we got the chance to have a look at Nadia, Marina’s resident baby elephant. We were then able to check in to our rooms by around 9.30am which was much earlier than I expected.
After freshening up, and wandered around the immediate area of Marina resort. Our friends that accompanied us on our trip had never been to Phuket before, in fact the male partner had never left Australia, so they were very interested in everything. We changed our money at the money exchanger outside the resort and had a light lunch at Ruam Thep Inn. Great views of Karon Beach from here and good food and cocktails at reasonable prices.
My husband and friends then had fittings for suits. My friends ordered a couple of suits, about 10 shirts and a woman’s coat at Instyle’s Nipon Rich Collection at 31 Moo 4 Karon Beach. They were extremely happy with the results. I am not sure of the prices that they paid, but I know my friend’s full length coat cost approximately $200 AUD, whereas she had been quoted over $800 AUD for the same thing here in Melbourne. My husband ordered a suit and shirt from Instyle, which he is also happy with. He paid about 9000 THB for this, but did order it in top of the range fabric as he needs to wear a suit every day. He also ordered another suit and four shirts from the tailor next door to Instyle, which is strangely named Rich Collection. He originally assumed that they were the same shop, but it turned out that they weren’t connected just had almost identical names! The prices were almost identical but he prefers the fit of the Rich Collection suit and loves his shirts.
Our friends also ordered prescription glasses from across the road from Marina resort. They are very happy with the quality and price from there.
We all had a swim in the pool, and then ate dinner at Two Chefs in Kata Center. The food was quite good, but its main attribute was being on the second floor with a lovely breeze as it was a very humid, still evening.
On Sunday we were collected by Daj in his van and set off for our driving tour of Phuket. We planned our own day as we wanted to see specific things. We started by driving north and through Patong, which immediately convinced our friends (and us!) that they never want to stay there, then continued on to look at Kamala, Surin and Bang Tao areas. While some of these were very nice, we definitely prefer the Kata area for somewhere to stay. We went to Siray Island to have a look at some monkeys then drove up to Tung Ka Cafe for a wonderful lunch with spectacular views. Again there was a lovely cooling breeze to make eating a pleasure. We had a drive around Phuket Town, but didn’t bother to get out as we didn’t want to spend the entire day on a tour. We went to Wat Chalong for a look around the temple then up to the Big Buddha. When we were here last time (2007) the entire Buddha was covered in scaffolding. It is amazing to see it now, as well as the views from there. We donated and got our tile with all of our families names on it. We went to Rawai beach next to see the fishermen with their catch and had a wander of the market stalls there, we bought lots of little trinkets for the family back home at these stalls. After this we headed back to Marina for a swim and dinner. We watched sunset from Ruam Thep Inn and then ate dinner at the restaurant belonging to Karon Beach Resort. The restaurant had a great view over Karon beach and a lovely breeze, but the food was overpriced for a very mediocre meal.
Monday was our day with Captain Mark. We had privately chartered the Sakai which was a terrific experience. There is not much I can add about this day that has not been said before, it was truly wonderful. Phang Nga Bay was quite rough when we were in the dinghy going to the hongs, but we loved it, it was great fun bouncing around on the water. We had a beautiful lunch on what was a deserted beach, but unfortunately Simba and another boat turned up half way through, which was a bit disappointing, but obviously not Captain Mark’s fault. A previous poster mentioned that the toilet was disgusting on the Sakai, I used it frequently and it was no better or worse than any other boat toilet I have ever used and was certainly extremely clean when we first boarded. We ended the day with an enjoyable dinner at Buffalo Steakhouse as we were too tired to walk any further.
Tuesday was very wet, we spent the day wandering around Kata and went up to the Small View Point for lunch and a drink. We had a bit of trouble getting to Small View Point, the taxi driver we got from outside Kata Palm Resort drove us around for 30 minutes and ended up returning to Kata Palm without finding it. We got another taxi and had more success the second time. We intended to ride elephants at Kok Chang but it was too wet that day and unfortunately we never got around to it when the weather dried up a bit. We had massages and I had a manicure at a massage place next door to Andaman Coffee, which was great. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of it. Tuesday evening was when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at Mom Tri’s Kitchen. What a superb restaurant this was. We spent around an hour having drinks at the bar and were lucky enough to be joined by kata_noi from this forum. It was lovely to meet her and hear all about her life in Phuket and at Mom Tris. Thanks for joining us; we very much enjoyed our time with you. We then ate dinner at a table virtually on the edge of a cliff with the most amazing views over the ocean at night. It was quite a stormy, windy night as well which made the view even more spectacular. The food was superb, so was the service. I highly, highly recommend this restaurant. It is not cheap, but it is no dearer than most restaurants in Australia that we frequent but the food and service were far better than here. I definitely intend to try one of the other Mom Tri’s establishments if we come back next holiday.
We spent Wednesday at the OTOP markets and had lunch in Patong then spent more time swimming at Marina and relaxing. We headed back into Patong to have a look at Bangla Road after dark and to have a drink at the Aussie Bar. My friends didn’t enjoy Patong at all so returned to Kata after an hour or so, but Gary and I enjoyed a look around for the evening. I certainly wouldn’t want to stay in Patong, but it is fun to spend an evening. I was craving fish and chips for some reason so we found Molly Malone’s and had dinner there. We were paying around 300 baht for tuk tuks to and from Patong from Marina.
Thursday was our last day. Again a relaxing day, swimming and wandering around the shops etc. We found Capannina’s in Kata for lunch. Wonderful lasagne, pizza and garlic bread, again highly recommended if you are sick of Thai food. We took our friends back up to Small View Point for cocktails and snacks at sunset as they weren’t with us when we went for lunch. We didn’t really have dinner that night as we were full from all the food, so finished up with a toasted sandwich from Euro Deli for supper.
All in all it was a wonderful holiday in Phuket. We finished off with two nights at the Peninsula in Bangkok which was an extravagant end to our anniversary. We came home to complaints from our kids about them not coming too, so we will probably be back with them for our next holiday!!
JBR - Probably Too Long!
Your trip sounded lovely Deb. Glad everything you planned turned out great. cheers Sharyn
JBR - Probably Too Long!
Not a long JBR we were there and after writing my own JBR I still love reading others as we are hanging for Feb to come so we can plan to go again and Kata is looking likee the place we want to stay. I know exactly what you mean about Patong we were glad we stayed in Karon.Glad to read you had a good time
What a great report, Deb! Sounds like you had a brilliant time and saw plenty of the place. I was interested to read about your trip down to Rawai and that area down south as we didn%26#39;t get down there for a look. That will be on next years agenda.
I know what you mean about your kids wanting to come along next time. Ours weren%26#39;t greatly interested until we returned and showed them our photos. They then started complaining that we didn%26#39;t invite them! Mind you, they are 24 and 22, so they can look after themselves.
Cheers
Phil
Patong is not for everyone, but if your kids are teenagers, they will enjoy at least some time in Patong. If you go with your kids in low season, consider it for at least part of your stay. You soon get used to it there.
Hi Phil
My kids are 18 and 15 and have been to Phuket before, hence why they wanted to come this time, but this was just for hubby and me! My eldest is 22 and she has never been, but she is having her first visit next week, staying at Kata Palm.
We spent time in Patong with them last time, but apart from the shopping, they still preferred Kata (thank goodness).
We were planning on going to Vietnam next, but now we have said we will do Ho Chi Minh, Singapore and back to Phuket. Just have to save up again!!
Phil, keep up the funny posts, they crack me up.
Deb
Loved your report Deb and agree with everything you said about Mom Tri%26#39;s Kitchen, we celebrated our anniversary there as well. Sounds like a good holiday.
Cathy
Thanks Deb, good report but you’ve given Kata beach away on the forum. Those who know should keep it our little secret, Shhhh.
Kata? never heard of it 5 times already.
Glad you enjoyed it, stay longer next time, oh the serenity.
Enjoy
shway
Great JBR Deb, so glad your day with Captain Mark went well, (especially in regard the toilet). Certainly stirred up some memories for me when reading about Marina Phuket and surrounds. We might have to plan a trip in October one year and celebrate our anniversary whilst there.
Thanks Lee x
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