Phuket vacation from vacation

Thailand | Feb 27 - Mar 3, 2025

We enjoyed everything about this hotel except the location. The room was wonderful as was the service, the pools, the breakfast. Regarding the location, it’s about 1.4 km to the bleach and the action of Patong, a nice walk except that the road is very busy and there are stretches with no sidewalk. Consequently we ended up eating at the hotel restaurant 2 nights. The food was good but we would have liked more options.

The islands are beautiful. The downside is the long run by speedboat which was pretty bumpy and the number of people also visiting. The first stop (Maya Bay) in particular was just dense with people. We spent more time in line getting back to the boat than we did at the Bay.

Really enjoyed this, more than we expected. Going in we were concerned about the ethics of these elephant preserves, but once we learned that all the elephants are “rescues” from lives of hard labor and unable to be returned to the wild, and we saw how they are treated, we relaxed and enjoyed the interaction with these incredible creatures and learning more about them and the Preserve.

Wow, that was a lot of fun! Jim made it an educational and fun experience right from the start, with the visit to the market. He really focused on the ingredients and what each brought to the four dishes that we prepared. Once at the school, everything went like a well oiled machine as we prepared the various ingredients, then cooked and ate our delicious meal. We had attended another cooking class in north Thailand on another tour; this was more fun and we really liked that we got detailed recipes should we want to try and replicate at home.

One of the highlights of our 6 week trip to SE Asia. A slower, but much smoother ride out to the islands. The ride around James Bond island was probably sufficient; didn’t need to actually stop. Then the best part: the trips through the sea caves by inflatable kayaks piloted by a crew member to the various hidden lagoons! What an experience! Then to have an entire beach to just our boat (~25 people) was fun. Lastly the dinner and Loy Kratong prep and ceremony was special.