PHUKET, THAILAND

Getting back to my posts on our Thailand trip..

The first day and night in Phuket it seemed so different from what I expected, only the next day did I realise we were staying in an area of the island that is seperate from the tourists and fancy lodges. We stayed amoungst the fight camps at a place everyone called Mama's. Mama's was the place everyone came to eat in the evenings mostly because the service was so friendly and the menu had an item for any home sick soul where ever you came from. It was a tiny "lodge" with little rooms/bungalows in a messy garden, but the pool was stunning and there were zero drunk tourist types to be found.

The owner and her daughter seemed to take a liking to us straight away (although all Thai people are extrememly friendly) and they were so amazed to find out we were married and they seemed facinated at how petite I am (Petite is people non-offensive way of calling me short). They organized us a scooter for basically nothing and we were set to explore.

Warren would leave for training in the early morning and I would wake up and lie by the pool ordering ANYTHING. Everyday was fairly similar; we would hop on the scooter around lunch time and just drive.. Innitially we would just drive in the direction of the ocean but never seem to find a beach and so we opted for the drive over the little mountain down into tourist town to find the more popular beaches. A swim in the sea and then we would drive back over the hill into our little peaceful part of town for dinner.

We tried Thai barbeque one night, which was possibly one of the most stretching food experiences of my life and then decided to stick to Mama's and her infinite menu for the rest of our stay. Driving up the mountain to see the giant buddah that looks down over Phuket was worth it if only for the incredible views from the top. My only regret was not going to some of the animal sanctuaries or going on an elephant safari- we drove up to one but the  elephants looked slightly worn out.

I would definatly go this route for staying in Phuket again, Mama's was incredible and the ladies made us feel so at home and more often than not we ended up spending more time by the pool sipping orange slushies than on the crowded beaches and this made for the perfect relaxing leg to our trip.



The Training camp