Vero's 16th B'day

31st July 2007

Veronique chose Trisara for her birthday venue. Neil Perry is one of their consultant chef's and we had chosen this place looking forward to great fusion food. Sadly, the food was rather disappointing, but the setting stunning and the service attentive, resulting in a special evening.

Exploring and restaurant scouting - Phuket

30th July - 1st August 2007

We rented a Honda SUV from David Car Rent for a great rate, 1500 Bht/day. Our aim on 30th July was to find a great restaurant for Veronique's 16th birthday dinner for the following evening. On our short list were the restaurants at the Amanpuri, Trisara, Mom Tri's Villa Royal, Mom Tri's Boathouse, the Chedi and the Yacht Club at the Royal Meridien. While we were scouting restaurants we also looked at some for possible future vacation places.

Amanpuri









The Chedi




Lunch break at the Lotus on Bang Tao Beach






Wonderful fresh seafood! This restaurant was great, service was friendly and fast, food very good, and prices were more than reasonable.

Phuket - JW Marriott

28 - 29th July 2007
After racing around for the past 2 days, we decided to spend a couple of days hanging out at the hotel. We stayed in a 2 bedroom time-share villa, which are great for families. The hotel offer numerous sport and cultural activities. The girls did umbrella painting one morning, and brought home 3 beautiful hand-painted umbrellas. The hotel also offers cooking classes and trapeze classes. We had booked various classes at a couple of schools in Chiang Mai, (our next stop), so we didn't bother doing the cooking classes here.

We loved lying around at any one of the three pools, where we were served non-stop iced water and lots of delicious tropical fruits. Even though it was incredibly hot, and we had devoured huge amounts of food at the Marriott Cafe buffet breakfast we could still manage to find space for a Phad Thai, Papaya salad or Thai beef salad, by the pool for lunch.

Bar at the Blue Pool



Fabulous Sunset






The girls loved the two elephants that roamed the hotel and the beach with their Mahouts.

We managed to try every restaurant at the hotel, difficult to say which one was the best, they were all excellent. Their Thai restaurant, the Ginja, was outstanding.


Inside the Italian restaurant (this reminds us of a restaurant on Sardinea)



Lunch at the Andaman Grill - Vero





Sushi Bar



The main Pool

Sailing in Phang Nga Bay

27th July 2007: Sailing with Captain Mark and his crew Noi and Ya.



I had read about Captain Mark's Sail Tours on various travel forums. A day at sea on a small sailing boat sounded very appealing. After a couple of emails back and forth, Mark and I set up a sailing date.

Mark's a fellow Aussie, with a fun sense of humor. He and his crew Ya and Noi are a great trio.

We arrived on board and Ya served us the most delicious fried chicken and Thai coffee. We were joined by an American family of three, recently relocated to Singapore. There wasn't enough wind to sail, so with Noi at the wheel, we motored over to the "pregnant lady" island. Here we got into the "Tupperware boat", (so named by Nathalie), and spent most of the day exploring the Hongs on the island.





Coming aboard





Ya cooked us a wonderful lunch on board in the little gallery kitchen. We sat on the beach and savoured the most delicous fresh prawns, Mussaman curry and Tom Yum Gong. Fabulous! We had phoned the fisherman and picked up our prawns on route. There was enough time for a swim and a short nap, for some.

Inside the ice cream Hong

Travel Blog: Summer in Thailand 2007, dV family vacation 23rd July - 11th August

Phuket.

JW Marriott: 24 July - 1st August 2007

Lobby






A visit to the massage hut on the beach is an absolute must!




 Meeting the elephants on the beach in front of our hotel.



Vero chatting with the baby elephant



July 26th: We had a great day with Sam exploring Phuket


Sam's contact details: Mr. Sam
English Speaking Driver in Phuket, Thailand.
skype contact name: Sam Phuket
Mobile Phone No, 66 084 630 9334
E-mail : siam_intouch@yahoo.com ; samthailand@gmail.com


Highlights: Cashew Factory, Central Festival (here we went to Market Garden and stocked up on a few basics and lots of fruit), Wat Chalong, Phuket Town, Gyspy Village, Chalong Bay, Prom Thep Cape, and Patong.

Wild Monkeys - Sam bought rambutans for us to feed the monkeys. The monkeys peel the rambutans before eating them. I don't know if they spit out the seed.



Wat Chalong










We had a wonderful lunch of fresh fish, lobster and prawns on the beach not far from the Gypsy Village.

Kata Viewpoint

Sam: Rubber Tapping




Promthep Cape
Phil