Last full day in Phuket

Woke up to find periods of pouring rain. 

Very grateful to get our boat trip in yesterday before this started.  We had a late breakfast then walked down to check out the big resort along the beach to try to find a coffee.  No luck with that, but we did discover the resort’s internet room, to come back to for posting the blog.  Our phones work intermittently with the internet at our place, but the PC no longer at all, (although later discovered it was ok in the lobby.)

We caught a taxi to Karon, 2 beaches north of us, and had a Starbucks which we both enjoyed. Then a walk to a nearby resort (Marina) to compare with ours, and it had nice views of Karon Beach.

Taxi back to our place then Julie had a 90 minute massage which was very relaxing.  Mal went back to the internet room and struggled but managed to post yesterday’s post.  By now the rain had stopped but fortunately the temperature remained at around 29 degrees which is a welcome relief.  We walked up and down the hill between us and Kata beach, running the now familiar gauntlet of  ladies pleading with us to come in to the restaurant on the other side of the hill – they never succeeded.  We had another coffee opposite the main road through Kata:

then booked a restaurant, rated very highly on TripAdvisor, right on the beach:

then trudged back up the hill, past our imploring ladies,and observing 17 construction workers about to leave work in their preferred vehicle.

The meal was very good but the wine list, which proudly claimed it “is one of the most outstanding restaurant wine lists in the world”, did not rate so well.  Nottage Hill cab shiraz was $A65 and Penfolds Bin 128 was $A230!  (A Henschke Hill of Grace was $A2,200 on our resort’s list). Ouch, and this country is supposed to be cheap.  Wine by the glass started at $A16, so none consumed tonight.

(Speaking of Thailand being cheap, since we got here the local papers have been full of a story about the Thai Government threatening to sack the head of the Bank of Thailand unless the Bank devalues the baht - interesting contrast to the way we manage economic policy).

Early night back to Mom Tri’s Villa Royale, which has lived up to all our expectations.  Tomorrow we have another sleep in then off to the airport to Bangkok, then 3 hours after that we head back home.