Trip to Phuket.

Bangla Road, Patong, Phuket at night.

We began our last full day with a long leisurely breakfast. This time we managed to get a seat outside next to the pool, which was a pleasant place to sit. The breakfast in this hotel was consistently good. I'd say it was easily the best of the three hotels we stayed in as far as breakfast was concerned.

After breakfast, we went back to our room and got ready for another day of nonstop swimming and lying around on our sun loungers reading. This really was the most relaxing part of the holiday.

Peter in the pool.

Me in the pool.

Peter walking the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Both of us in the pool.

Later on, I decided to go for a walk around the hotel and check it out properly. I had a look at the main pool and the bar and the art work on the wall behind the pool.

Main pool.

Plenty of loungers in this hotel.

The bar.

The bar.

Happy Hour.

Art.

Art.

I also took the lift up to the top floors to see if there were any good views. It turned out there were. From certain places it was possible to see the sea. In other directions there was lots of mountains and greenery.

Sea view from the roof.

Sea view from the roof.

View from the roof of the hotel.

View from the roof of the hotel.

View from the roof of the hotel.

The pool looked quite impressive from the top floor of the hotel. Well, to be honest, it looked impressive from everywhere.

The pool from up above.

The pool from up above.

We went to the lounge in the afternoon for snacks and coffee. Again this was very good. The serving woman was always very pleasant. The food was always good.

Peter in the lounge.

Then it was back into the pool.

Me in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter on the patio.

In the early evening it started to rain and thunder and lightning. This was the first bad weather of the holiday. It actually took us by surprise. I had our swimming stuff out drying on the patio and went to see if it was dry and discovered it was being rained on.

Peter on our patio at night.

Our river pool at night.

Later on, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, as well as claim our free drinks there. The restaurant had an a la carte menu, but we decided to order from its tapas menu. We had mini hamburgers, chicken satay and mozzarella with tomatoes. It was quite a pleasant meal. I noticed that the restaurant did buffets three times a week. I think one was a barbecue and two were seafood. We were entertained by two singers while we ate.

Us at dinner.

Peter at dinner.

Bread basket.

Chicken satay.

Mini hamburgers.

Mozzarella and tomato skewers.

Peter with all the food.

Live music.

Orchids in the restaurant.

After dinner I decided to go for a walk and find out what Bangla Road was like at night time. Fortunately it had stopped raining and thundering. I left our hotel and headed right. There were massage parlours everywhere. There were also lots of shops, restaurants, bars and food stalls. Like many hot countries Thailand comes alive at night when the sun goes down.

Typical night time street.

Street vendors.

Fruit stall.

Four faced Buddha.

Transport.

Lots of transport around.

I came to a large shopping mall called Jungceylon. I'm sure it would have been interesting to explore, but I just looked at it from the outside.

Jungceylon.

Jungceylon.

Jungceylon.

Just past this I came to Bangla Road. This was as crazy as I had read it was. It was packed with people. Music was blaring out of every restaurant and bar. There were colourful bright lights everywhere.

Bangla Road Walking Street.

Crowds on Bangla Road.

Bangla Road stairway.

Bangla Road.

Bright lights.

Moulin Rouge.

This man made everything even noisier.

Off Bangla Road.

Most of the bars had scantily clad females dancing on top of them. It was madness all around. I had found the nightlife Patong is famous for.

Girly bars.

Girly bars.

Girly bar.

Girly bars.

Personally I think if you are in Patong, you have to have a look at Bangla Road, but I wouldn't choose to eat or drink there as it's too noisy and crowded for me.

I walked all the way down Bangla Road to the waterfront. I considered going back that way, but decided just to go back the way I had come.

Bangla Road at the Patong Beach end.

Back home I finished off our packing. We had to get up at six am next day, as our flight left pretty early. For the first time on this holiday I didn't sleep well due to fear of sleeping in and missing the plane. In the end we were both awake before six am. It was pouring outside when we got up

We went to breakfast, but ate very little because it was so early. The servers were wondering what was wrong with us and kept asking if we were all right.

After breakfast we said a sad goodbye to our room and pool and checked out.

We booked a Grab to the airport. We got a very pleasant female driver. The journey to the airport took around an hour. Phuket really is a big island.

Leaving Patong we passed a weird bar filled with fake tigers. If I ever go back, I will go and find that.

On the journey we passed several interesting looking wats, a couple of beautiful mosques and a huge reclining Buddha. I didn't photograph any of them as the sky was black and rain was pelting down. The windows of our Grab were covered in raindrops.

At the airport I put Peter on a seat and went off and asked for wheelchair assistance. The Cathay Pacific check in staff were very helpful and efficient. Our assistant was very kind.

Phuket Airport.

Orchids at the airport.

Orchids at the airport.

Our flight left on time. I watched a very good American TV programme called 'Matlock' starring Kathy Bates in it. I must remember this for future flights.

We were lucky in Hong Kong and got a bus home straight away. We were both tired after our early start, but the holiday had been a lot of fun.

Silver sands, Patong Beach.

We seemed to settle into our first two hotel rooms easily on this holiday. We had been sad to leave The Novotel, but quickly settled into The Ibis, now we were sad to leave The Ibis.

We were going to our final hotel which was located in Patong. Peter chose our three hotels, because they belonged to The Accor Group and because as members we get lots of benefits there. I didn't really do much research into the locations of the hotels. When I did finally get round to looking at the locations, I discovered Phuket City had lots of history and culture; Kata Beach had a lovely beach and was fairly peaceful and Patong .....well, that could be a problem.

Patong is a sort of Ibiza of Phuket. It is the noisy, sleazy, crowded nightlife capital of the island and we, boring old farts that we are, don't like crowds, noise, sleaze or nightlife. When I told Peter about it, he offered to cancel and find a new location, but he mentioned that he had thought the hotel, The Grand Mercure Patong, sounded really lovely. We decided not to cancel and to give Patong a chance. Afterall, I do generally find it's best to judge for yourself rather than just accept what others say.

Our first task was to actually get to Patong. Of course we booked a Grab. Generally we love Grab, but there was a big price difference between the VIP or upgraded cars and the Just Grab car. Well, we only needed a basic car to get from A to B, so of course, I booked the cheaper Just Grab. A driver accepted our booking. I got Peter outside, then the person who had accepted our booking cancelled saying the price was too low. I wasn't pleased. I booked again. Someone else accepted, then cancelled for the same reason. I was starting to get quite annoyed. I think the problem was the distance wasn't that far and these Grab drivers were trying to charge a rip off price for the journey. That's not meant to happen on Grab. I was wondering what to do when my Grab app notified me: 'We have upgraded your ride.' Well, I hadn't asked it to and now I wasn't sure how much it would cost. I was about to cancel the upgrade when I saw the car had finally arrived, so I went over and gave the driver a piece of my mind, saying I wasn't paying a penny over the agreed price and that Grab had no right to upgrade me without consulting me first and just about anything else I could hurl at him. It turned out the driver was actually very nice and agreed to take me in his posh comfortable vehicle for the original price. That of course made me feel guilty for shouting at him and I ended up giving him a generous tip, which shows just how contrary I am.

Anyway the journey went smoothly enough and the driver was really helpful. He made the hotel get a wheelchair for Peter and helped us with the luggage and was generally just really nice, helping to restore our faith in Grab.

At check in, the receptionists were a bit flustered, because they hadn't realised that Peter had mobility issues, and they had given us a free upgrade to one of their best kind of rooms, but kept saying they'd have to change it, as it wouldn't be suitable for Peter. I had no idea what the issue was, but Peter knew what the upgraded room would be like and insisted that he was going to have it. In the end the receptionists said: "Why don't we show you both rooms and you decide." We agreed and they took us to the upgraded room first.

Now part of the problem was in getting to the room. This hotel had an odd layout. Reception was on floor two of the hotel. Our upgraded room was on floor one, which was really the ground floor. There were lifts down one floor, or it was possible to walk down one flight of stairs, but even then we were at the wrong side of the hotel and we had to walk past the pool and across a large sunbathing area, then go over a bridge with stairs on both sides. This wasn't really possible with a wheelchair. However, there was a second wheelchair friendly way, it was just that it was much longer. This involved staying on the second floor and pushing the wheelchair all the way round the hotel's outer corridor to a different lift, then taking that lift down one floor, then pushing Peter on a little garden path for quite a long way until we reached our room. It was doable just a bit cumbersome.

I had a quick glance at the upgraded room and thought it looked quite nice and I intended to leave Peter there while I looked at the other room, but Peter kept saying: "Check if this has direct access to the pool and if it does, we're taking it." I was about to look when the receptionist told him it did have direct access, so Peter said: "You don't need to show my wife any other rooms, we are having this one." We were all surprised. The receptionist kept trying to explain why the room was unsuitable, but Peter would not be swayed, so we took it.

Our room.

I had to return to reception to complete check-in. I left Peter behind. I still didn't really know why he was so insistent on that room. After checking in, I came back to the room and Peter said: "Check if there's a balcony out there." I opened the doors he was pointing at and discovered we had a private patio with our very own sun-loungers and our own stairs down into a long narrow pool. I was delighted. No wonder Peter had wanted the room.

The pool directly outside our room.

River pool from the main pool. Our room is the last one.

Our patio, didn't realise I was in this photo.

I got my swimming costume on and set out to explore the pool. It was long and thin. It extended past lots of other patios that opened directly on to it. When I reached what I had assumed was the end, to my delight, I discovered that it continued around the corner and under a bridge, then it rounded another corner, went under another bridge and became long and straight again. In other words it was really, really big. It was fantastic.

This led me to do what I always do when we get a great pool. I just wanted to swim and swim and swim and wasn't even bothered about going out. We spent the rest of the day on the patio and in the pool. It was so relaxing.

Swimming back home

Back home.

In addition to our river pool, there was a main pool with a bar in it. During Happy Hour, which I think was from 4pm to 6pm, this got very busy with people enjoying their drinks the pool. There was also a second river pool on the opposite side of the hotel. All guests could use any of the pools. Most preferred to use the main one.

Main pool.

Main pool during Happy Hour.

Peter in our pool with the main pool behind.

Peter in our pool with the main pool behind.

We had lounge access with this hotel and the lounge was just next door. It didn't offer alcoholic drinks. It was open from 11am to 5pm and did soft drinks, coffees, teas, sandwiches, savoury food and cakes.

We went there around four and found the food and service was really good. To get to the food it was necessary to go upstairs but there was seating downstairs. I left Peter downstairs and just kept going up and down as we needed something. The very friendly server brought all our drinks downstairs for us.

Our room and the lounge next door from the hotel lobby.

Peter in the lounge.

After the lounge, we returned to the room and got back in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

We weren't all that hungry that evening, so I just went out to try and find a convenience store. I discovered that our hotel faced onto an outdoor shopping and entertainment area called Patong Otop Market. This area had lots of restaurants and bars and stalls selling food, clothes, bags etc. It was lively, but not too noisy. I actually rather liked it and it was really convenient from the hotel. By going straight down the middle of this shopping area then right then left I found a 7-eleven, so I got some sandwiches, noodles, biscuits and drinks to take back to the room.

Otop Night Market.

Otop Night Market.

Otop Night Market.

Fruit Stalls in Otop Market.

Bag shop.

Clothes shop.

Clothes shop.

Souvenir shops.

Restaurant.

Bar.

Bar in Otop Market.

Aussie Bar.

Koala Bar.

Hard Rock Cafe.near Otop Market.

Our room was blissfully silent at night. It was impossible to believe there was bustling nightlife all around us.

Next day I wheeled Peter to breakfast. The restaurant was near if we walked over the bridge, but far the way we went, but it didn't matter. The buffet breakfast was superb. I especially loved the freshly made Thai style omelette.

Peter at breakfast.

Bubbles Restaurant.

After breakfast we headed to our own private loungers on our own private patio.

Peter and Eddie on our patio.

I spent time swimming and reading and relaxing. When I felt adventurous I swam to the end of our river pool, walked to the main pool, swam the length of the main pool, climbed out walked to the second river pool, the mirror image of ours on the other side of the hotel, swam that, then did it all again in reverse. Ah, it's a hard life!!!

Peter was saying: "Aren't you going to go out and look at this place?" I was saying: "I've got a great pool." But I couldn't do it. I couldn't come on holiday to a place and not look at it, so reluctantly I got showered and dressed and went out.

I was very poor on my research for this holiday. I knew there was a beach and I knew that the maddest, noisiest, sleaziest nightlife centred around Bangla Road. I knew nothing else. I headed to the beach.

Ok, Patong gets a bad name and even its beach gets moaned about, but truth be told, it was actually a perfectly nice beach, just very, very busy. There were lots of water sports available. Unlike the other two beaches I had been to there was no shady tree-lined path along the top of the beach, instead there was a busy main road. I walked along the beach, having my usual paddle in the water.

Patong Beach Sign.

Silver sands, swaying lanterns, Patong Beach.

Crowded in this area.

Patong Beach.

Beach umbrellas on Patong Beach.

Beach umbrellas on Patong Beach.

Looking along Patong Beach.

Child playing in the water, Patong Beach

Looking the other way on Patong Beach.

Selfie on the beach.

I saw quite a few boats around.

Boats on Patong Beach.

Boats on Patong Beach.

Boat at Patong Beach.

Boat at Patong Beach.

At the point where I left the beach there were a couple of seahorse sculptures.

Seahorse

Seahorse.

Then I decided I may as well find Bangla Road as it wasn't much further on. I found it easily and because it was day time it wasn't too busy. There were lots of bars, restaurants and nightclubs. There were some street markets stretching down the side streets.

Entrance to Bangla Road from the beach.

Bangla Walking Street aka Bangla Road.

Bangla Road.

Bangla Road.

Madame Wong's.

Moulin Rouge Night Club, Irish Pub.

I was surprised at just how many places there were advertising cannabis, not that I wanted any.

Cannabis.

Cannabis.

Cannabis.

Cannabis.

Vehicles kept passing by blasting out information about upcoming Thai kick boxing matches. Apparently there's some kind of stadium here.

Kick boxing.

I knew I could get home from the end of Bangla Road furthest from the beach, but to avoid getting lost, I just returned to the beach and went back home via the street that ran parallel to the beach. I passed many restaurants, stalls and a Thai style sculpture.

Side street.

The Chino Yard Market.

Pizzeria.

Coconut.

Seafood restaurant.

Seafood restaurant.

Seafood restaurant.

Sculpture.

So far Patong didn't seem too crazy, but would I be brave enough to return to Bangla Road on my own at night?

Back home we swam, relaxed, went to the lounge. Felt full after the lounge again, so didn't need dinner just more snacks from the convenience store.

Main pool and restaurant at night.

Pool bar at night.

We slept well due to all the swimming we had done. Peter not only swam but also repeatedly walked the river pool. He walks much better in water, as there's no danger of falling over or at least there's no danger of getting hurt if he does. It had been a very chilled day.

Relaxing on Karon Beach, Phuket.

Next day we went down to breakfast and, now that we had worked out what we liked and didn't like from the day before, had a much more enjoyable experience.

I thought we would go to the pool in the morning, but Peter said: "No, you do your exploring first and we will go to the pool when you come back."

I had several choices: I could explore Kata Town more, I could just go back to Kata Beach as I had done the day before, I could explore Kata Noi Beach which was past the far end of Kata Beach or I could explore Karon Beach, which was the next beach along near the end our hotel was at. I decided to explore Karon Beach and Google Maps told me I could walk there in seventeen minutes.

Karon Beach is one of the longest beaches, on Phuket as it stretches on for five kilometres, yet for some reason it is not the busiest.

To get to Karon Beach, I exited the hotel, walked to the main road, turned right and just kept going.

After a while I reached Dino Park Mini-golf and Restaurant. This was established in 1997. There are two parts:- a stone age theme restaurant and bar and a mini golf course with moving animatronic dinosaur models. As I didn't go into the mini golf course, I couldn't see all the dinosaur models but I could hear some of them. I think a Jurassic mini golf course is a really neat idea.

Dino bar.

Dinosaur menu.

Dinosaur garden.

Dinosaur on the roof.

Dino Park mini golf.

Dino Park mini golf.

Dino Park mini golf.

Dino Park mini golf entrance.

On the other side of the road there was a gorgeous resort called Kata Garden Resort. I had a look at some of the lovely Thai themed decorations here.

Kata Garden Resort.

Kata Garden Resort.

Elephant Kata Garden Resort.

Kata Garden Resort.

Kata Garden Resort.

Garden Resort.

Elephant Kata Garden Resort.

Elephant Kata Garden Resort.

Beautiful flowers, Kata Garden Resort.

Kata Garden Resort.

There were plenty of other resorts, too. I think this would be a good place for a quiet family vacation.

Resort behind Karon Beach.

Tann Beach Club.

Tann Beach Club.

Beyond Karon.

I also passed some restaurants, bars and shops, but there was definitely more in Kata Beach than Karon. Nonetheless I like the idea of staying here on a future visit.

Roadside shops.

Roadside ships.

Restaurant.

Red Chopsticks Restaurant.

Sweet Talk.

Fish shoes for sale.

Eventually I reached Karon Beach itself. It certainly was very long. The sand was powdery white and very soft. The sea was a beautiful shade of blue.

To the beach sign.

Sea foam on Karon Beach.

Sea foam on Karon Beach.

Silver sands.

Silver sands stretching into the distance.

Selfie on the beach.

The sea here was actually really quite wavy. I had read the sea was fairly calm here, but I guess it is different on different days. There were quite a lot of people on the beach, but I wouldn't describe it as massively crowded. Apparently the end I had arrived at is the busier end.

Big waves.

Big waves.

Big waves.

Big waves.

There weren't as many boats as on Kata Beach, but there were lots of parasails. I didn't see anyone actually go up. I didn't walk the full length of the beach. I think I walked about half of it. This wasn't so much because it was far, but just because it was incredibly hot.

Parasailing.

Parasailing.

Parasailing.

Parasailing.

Parasailing.

I watched a pigeon enjoying some coconuts that had been left on the beach.

Pigeon enjoying coconuts.

Pigeon enjoying coconuts.

When I decided to walk back, I went into the park area that ran along behind the beach and walked back along there. I noticed lots of people preferred to sit in the shade back there and there were several hammocks hung up between the trees.

Karon Beach viewed from the path.

Sun Umbrellas on Karon Beach from the path behind the beach.

Boat on the beach.

Hammock on the beach.

Karon Beach

Big waves.

Karon Beach.

There were some lovely trees and some had Pandanus fruits on them.

Flowering trees.

Pandanus.

Pandanus.

On the walk back I noticed one or two examples of street art and stopped to photograph them.

Street art.

Street art.

When I got back, once I had cooled down a bit, we headed down to the pool for a long leisurely swim. The pool stayed open until around eight pm.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Me in the pool.

Peter by the pool.

Me by the pool.

We decided that it was time we took advantage of our balcony, so I bought food from the 7-Eleven, which was very conveniently placed at the entrance of the hotel and we ate and drank out on the balcony overlooking the now quiet pool.

Peter on the balcony.

Dinner on the balcony.

Long tailed boats and beach umbrellas at Kata Beach.

On the Monday it was time to change hotels. We had a late check-out until two o'clock. We ate breakfast outside on the hotel terrace and I was pleased to see that Peter was eating properly for once.

Me at breakfast.

Later, when we had digested our breakfast, we went for a swim. Once again we largely had the pool to ourselves, so it was a very relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

We still had our voucher for a free drink and we decided we would have that in the Lobby Bar. Starting early, I know. Peter had a beer and I had a glass of white wine. Actually it was really quite nice there and we didn't need to worry about getting Peter up and down steps.

Me in The Lobby Bar.

Peter in The Lobby Bar.

Us in The Lobby Bar.

After that it was time to check out. We ordered a Grab to take us to our next hotel. We had borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel for Peter and I kept trying to return it and kept being told: 'Keep it and just return it at the end." In the end I had to stop the doormen from loading the wheelchair into the boot of our Grab. We had really enjoyed this hotel, mainly because the staff were so lovely, and we were a bit sad to leave.

It took only about half an hour or so to get to our next hotel The Ibis Phuket Kata. We had arrived at The Novotel in the dark, so it was nice to see a bit of scenery on the way. Our next hotel was located very close to Kata Beach.

Check-in was friendly and pleasant. We got Peter a new wheelchair, which I largely hoped he wouldn't use, but he ended up using it rather a lot. Well, I guess he was still weak from his illness. The receptionists helped us to the room with the wheelchair and luggage. They were very kind. Our room was small, but clean and comfortable. It was on the fifth floor and overlooked the swimming pool. It had a little balcony with a table and chairs and a safe and a kettle. I didn't unpack here due to lack of storage space, but that wasn't a problem. One good thing was that Peter could easily get everywhere in the room, as it was small with things to hold onto. In the Novotel we had been upgraded to a spacious junior suite and, while I liked the additional space, Peter had found it a bit difficult to get around.

Our new hotel.

Our new hotel.

Our room.

Eddie is always quick at making friends.

Peter on the balcony.

The swimming pool.

View from our room.

The swimming pool at night.

We were feeling a bit lazy. We had already swam and been for drinks, so we just relaxed then went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was a bit strange. Peter ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, but our server came back and said they had run out of cheese. I ordered chicken cashew nuts. Our server came back and said they had run out of red pepper, green pepper and yellow pepper, and asked if I would settle for extra onion instead. I told her I would. I love onion, but I'm not sure my stomach thanked me for my choice.

Peter opted for a starter of cheese balls instead of his sandwich. I think they were frozen so it didn't matter that the hotel had run out of cheese. My food was very tasty, but Peter's was a bit bland.

Peter with his beer.

Peter with his meal.

My chicken cashew nuts.

Next day we had breakfast in the same restaurant that we had eaten dinner in. It was all right, but it wasn't as good as The Novotel. At least Peter was eating though, which was a good sign.

After breakfast Peter said I should go for a walk first and then we would go down to the pool when I came back.

Naturally I decided I would walk to the beach. Kata Beach is a beautiful powdery white sand beach that stretches for one and a half kilometres along the sparkling blue Andaman Sea. However, an enormous Club Med Resort occupies ninety percent of the waterfront at Kata Beach and although the entire beach is accessible to the public, if you are not staying in The Club Med Resort, you can only access the beach at either end of that huge resort. Our hotel wasn't too far from one of the ends, so I was able to access the beach after walking for about ten minutes.

Canal I passed on the way to the beach.

There were stalls selling food at either end of the beach and on the road that ran behind the beach and in front of The Club Med Resort.

Food stalls.

Fruit shop.

Food stalls.

Food stall.

Banana pancakes.

Food stalls.

There were also stalls selling beach ware and swimming stuff.

Beach stalls.

Beach toys.

Beach stall.

It was high season during our visit and the beach was pretty busy. It was lined with lots and lots of sun loungers and beach umbrellas. These were in a variety of different colours, depending on who owns them. I didn't hire one, but I read that the prices are quite reasonable.

Sunbathing on Kata Beach.

Sun loungers.

I paddled at the edge of the beach and walked in the water for its entire length. The sea was lovely and warm.

Long sandy Kata Beach.

Crowds taking to the water.

Sand castle.

Strolling the beach.

The far end of Kata Beach.

Kata Beach from the far end The Big Buddha is on a hill above the bay.

Selfie on the beach.

Waves here can be quite big and apparently the beach is popular with surfers. I didn't see anyone surfing and the waves weren't too big when I was here.

Waves.

There were many boats in the water, including some beautiful traditional Thai long tail boats. It's possible to hire a boat to go to some of the nearby islands.

Boats.

Long tailed boats.

Long tailed boats.

Boats.

One island in particular can be seen from the beach and it makes the views from the beach very scenic.

Island.

The island.

Silver sands and island view.

Somewhere in the middle of the beach, a man blew a whistle and stopped everyone from walking along the beach as a parasailor was about to take off. I watched this person run forward and leave the ground, then listened to them scream as they shot up into the air. The instructor goes up on the flight with them. I wasn't tempted to try. I am definitely not a sensation seeker.

Getting ready.

Taking off.

The angle the instructor is at looks terrifying.

Enjoying the flight.

There were many rocks jutting out of the water at the far end of the beach, which I thought looked really beautiful.

Rocks on Kata Beach.

Rocks on Kata Beach.

Also at the far end of the beach there was a restaurant, a beach bar and some shops selling or hiring water sports equipment.

Beach restaurant.

Beach bar.

Beach bar.

Surf boards.

Dive and surf.

Sports equipment on the beach.

Water sports shop.

Coconut order here.

I thought I would walk back through the town,as there were more restaurants and shops in this area.

Restaurant.

Restaurant

Restaurant.

Happy Hour.

Restaurant

However, there was a lot of traffic and there weren't always pavements. At one point a car, driven by a foreigner, had bumped a foreign woman's leg. This resulted in a shouting match and the police had had to be called. I didn't want bumped by a car and decided it was safer to walk along the beach, so I returned there.

I found a resort called Beyond Kata with lots of elephant statues outside it. This is supposed to be a really lovely place to stay.

Beyond Kata Resort.

I found a municipal building and in front of it a very colourful entrance to the beach. This seemed to be the area that public transport to other parts of Phuket left from. Apparently this area was damaged in a storm and has only recently been done up.

Municipal building and transport.

Kata Beach Sign

Kata Beach sign.

Colourful plants near the Kata Beach entrance.

Colourful plants near the Kata Beach entrance.

Colourful plants near the Kata Beach entrance.

Selfie at Kata Beach.

Across the road from this beach entrance there was an indoor surfing centre. I've never seen one of these before.

Surf centre.

Surf centre.

I decided to walk along the the path between the beach and The Club Med Resort. I was glad I did this as the views over the beach were very good from here.

Kata Beach from the path.

Multicoloured umbrellas.

Multicoloured umbrellas.

Blue beach umbrellas.

Beach from the path.

Bent tree.

Interesting tree and surf boards.

View of the parasailing from the path.

I found another picturesque beach sign.

Kata Beach sign.

I liked the staircases down to the beach with sea creatures painted down their sides.

Octopus stairway.

Sea creature stairway.

There was also a sacred tree and some beautiful bauhinias to remind me of Hong Kong.

Sacred tree.

Bauhinias

Of course I had to peer over the fence to see what The Club Med Resort looked like. Apparently it's possible to buy a day pass here and use the resort's facilities. I couldn't see their pool.

Club Med.

I noticed many signs indicating where the tsunami hazard zone is. Phuket suffered badly in the huge tsunami that occurred following an earthquake off Indonesia on 26th December 2004. In Thailand as a whole around 5400 people were killed in that terrible disaster.

Tsunami marker.

There were massive tractors at the end of the beach, presumably to pull boats on and off.

Beach tractors.

Beach tractors.

Heading back to the hotel, I passed some street art.

Beach art.

Beach art.

Beach art.

Street art.

I also passed a fish spa where for 100 baht (£2.50) you can have the dead skin eaten off your feet by hundreds of tiny fish. I didn't try this. I wonder if it hurts.

Fish spa.

I noticed there were shops selling cannabis everywhere. I saw a street called Kata Walking Street. I decided to explore it later to see the Night Market which takes place here.

Cannabis shop

Kata Walking Street.

Spider man near Kata Walking Street.

There were lots of parts of town that looked interesting to explore and I photographed a couple of little spirit houses.

Pathway.

Street.

Spirit house.

Spirit House.

Back home Peter and I went down to the pool for a swim. Most of the guests at this hotel seemed to be Russian, with a few French and Italians. It wasn't always easy to get a sun lounger, as there weren't many and some people seemed to keep them for the whole day. A few times we had to sit on chairs taken from the restaurant.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

That evening we went down to the hotel bar for our free drinks. The bar was just behind the swimming pool. It was a very pleasant place to sit.

Peter in the bar.

Us in the bar.

I love Ibis sign by the pool.

Then we had a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant. I had pork cooked with garlic and Peter had chicken steak with chips and salad. I was pleased to see Peter ate all of it. It seemed his appetite had come back. He kept going on about how wonderful the lettuce was. This is coming from a man who until recently was a complete carnivore.

Us in the restaurant.

Peter actually hungry for once.

After dinner I decided to take a quick look at the night market. I discovered the parking area in front of the hotel which is empty by day, fills with food and drink stalls at night.

The Night Market itself turned out to be much bigger than I had expected. It stretched along several different streets. Some parts were busier than others. The food and drink areas were especially popular.

Kata Walking Street.

The Night Market.

Night Market.

Night Market.

The Night Market.

The Night Market.

Street art at the night market.

The Night Market had lots of colourful fruit stalls selling mangoes, durian, pineapples, dragon fruit, melons and lots of other fruit. There were also stalls specialising in fruit juice or fruit smoothies

Fruit stall.

Mangoes.

Fruit drinks.

Fruit stall.

Fruit stall.

Durians.

Fruit stall.

There were lots of fresh fish and seafood stalls. I'm not sure if it was possible to take them to the restaurants to have them cooked or if they were for taking home.

Fish stall.

Fish stall.

Fish stall.

Fish stall.

Fish stall.

Fish stall.

There were lots of restaurants and bars sprinkled around the Night Market.

Restaurant.

Cocktails.

Bar.

The Night Market had every kind of hot food imaginable and most of it looked really great. If Peter was more mobile, we would definitely have eaten here.

Happy stall holder.

Hong Kong Waffles.

Skewers.

Spring rolls.

Satay stall.

Potato spirals.

Food stall.

As well as food stalls and restaurants, there were shops selling clothes, bags, souvenirs and other stuff.

Clothes shop.

Clothes shop.

Clothes shop.

Souvenir shop in the Night Market.

Souvenir shop.

Buddha shop.

Shop in the Night Market.

I saw another fish spa. This time it had people in it being eaten. They didn't look like they were suffering, so guess it doesn't actually hurt.

Fish spa.

Back home, our hotel was blissfully quiet and we had an excellent night's sleep.

The Sunday Night Market in Phuket Old Town.

After a good night's sleep, Peter felt a lot better though still not a hundred percent. He ate a small amount at breakfast and he wasn't quite as tired as he had been. After breakfast, he suggested I go out for a couple of hours, then he would go swimming with me and this time he was confident he could do it.

There was a park I had intended to explore, but I had really enjoyed the Old Town, so I decided just to head back there again and have a relaxed stroll around.

I found lots more examples of street art that I hadn't seen the first time around.

Fish art.

Under the sea.

Elephant octopus.

Faded street market.

Faded street art.

Street art.

Hidden panther.

Siam Legend Design.

Street art with lanterns.

Phuket Old Town.

Street art.

This graffiti covered building is a bar.

This graffiti covered building is a bar

Graffiti.

I found lots more beautiful, colourful entrance ways.

Entranceway.

Doorway.

Doorway.

Doorway.

Doorway.

I found The Blue Elephant Cooking School and lots of interesting restaurants, cafes and bars.

Blue Elephant Cooking School.

Bar and restaurant.

Restaurants.

Sign for a seafood restaurant.

Coconuts.

I wandered down several side streets that I liked the look of.

Back street.

Side street.

Bike lined street.

I found some beautiful water lilies and some traditional Thai spirit houses

Water lily.

Water lilies.

Spirit House.

I couldn't resist photographing more gorgeous Sino-Portuguese shop houses.

Shop houses.

Shop houses.

Shop houses.

Shop house.

I revisited some of the places I had visited the previous day, such as: The On On Hotel, the old post box, Soi Romanee, Wat Klang, the arcade and the canal.

On On Hotel.

Post box.

Soi Romanee.

Soi Romanee.

Wat Klang.

People wearing traditional clothes near Wat Klang..

Arcade.

Arcade

Arcade.

Canal.

Canal.

I found lots more shops filled with beautiful clothes and hats and other goods.

Clothes shop.

Hat shop.

Hat shop.

Greenland Shop.

I passed some beautiful buildings I hadn't seen before.

Interesting house.

Interesting house.

Interesting building.

Busy streets.

I wandered back towards the hotel, but walked past it in order to visit an indoor market that I had noticed the day before, but not gone to.

In the indoor market.

In the indoor market.

In the indoor market.

In the indoor market.

In the indoor market.

In the indoor market.

After wandering around the market for a while, I headed back to the hotel. Peter said he felt much better, but he was still a bit weak having not eaten for the last two days. We decided to head down to the pool, which was on floor three of the hotel. Even if Peter wasn't able to swim a lot, we hoped the sunshine and fresh air might make him feel better. In the end he did swim and enjoyed it. The Novotel pool is outdoors but with a roof over it. It's not the prettiest of pools and the sun doesn't shine directly on it, so it was a bit cooler than the other pools we experienced on this trip, but on the plus side, it never seemed to be too busy, so it was possible to enjoy a good swim here.

Peter enjoying the sun.

Getting into the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the jacuzzi.

Both of us in the pool.

After our swim, we sat on the balcony back up in our room for a while.We enjoyed a cooling drink and the pleasant view.

Peter on the balcony.

Peter on the balcony.

Later on we went up to the top floor of the hotel to visit the hotel's rooftop bar which is called The Estrella. It's actually listed on some sites as one of the must sees in Phuket City and that's because it has good views. We went up to see the views, enjoy happy hour and get something to eat. Unfortunately, although we took the lift to the top floor of the hotel, Peter still had to go up two flights of stairs. He managed this but very slowly.

The bar staff were friendly. They put us on the outside part of the bar facing the town as it was nearer for Peter. I wandered around so that I could look at the sea views from the other side, too.

We ordered beers and were horrified to find they didn't have any. It is on their list, but they had run out. In the end we had to have cocktails, as that seemed to be all there was. We ordered mojhitos. There wasn't a great deal of choice of food either, so we just got loaded fries to share. These were pretty underdone, though Peter didn't seem to mind. He was probably starving by then.

We sat for quite a while and watched the sun setting. Then we tried to head back to our room. Coming from outside back into the dark bar, Peter's eyes struggled to adjust to the light. I was a bit worried about how to get him back down the stairs. In the end a young barman came to help me with him. Peter didn't actually like being helped and kept telling both me and the barman to leave him alone, but he looked so likely to fall down the stairs that neither of us would. When we finally got Peter to the bottom, all three of us were exhausted and Peter was still being really grumpy. I was quite relieved to finally get him back to the room.

Inside the bar.

Inside the bar.

The Estrella bar overlooking the sea.

Sea view from The Estrella Rooftop Bar.

Sea view from The Estrella Rooftop Bar.

View over the indoor market I visited.

View from The Estrella Rooftop Bar.

View over the town.

View over the town.

Us in the bar.

Loaded fries.

Peter with his mojito.

Peter in The Estrella.

Peter in The Estrella.

Peter in The Estrella.

Sunset.

Sunset over the town.

Sunset.

Back down in the room, I thought I would be in for the night, but Peter insisted I went to the Sunday Night Market I had told him about earlier. Although I wasn't feeling very energetic, I decided to go, otherwise I'd regret it.

I was really glad I did go as a lot of the buildings in Phuket Old Town are beautifully lit up at night.

Clock circle at night.

Fountain outside The Pearl Hotel.

Standard Chartered Bank and Old Police Station.

Entrance to Shrine of Supreme Light behind the night market.

Shophouses at night.

Shop houses at night.

Shop houses lit up at night.

Flower covered building lit up at night

Entranceway at night.

Restaurant advertising at night.

The night market itself was very good. Several streets had been pedestrianised and were filled with stalls. The stalls sold a wide variety of different goods.

Elephants at the night market.

Pottery at the night market.

Hats at the night market.

Jewellery at the night market.

Artwork at the night market.

Paintings at the night market.

There was a huge amount of food stalls everywhere. These sold just about every kind of food imaginable. The air was filled with delicious smells

Smiling stall holder at the night market.

Food stalls at the night market.

Food stall at the night market.

Food stall at the night market.

Food stall at the night market.

Food stall at the night market.

Food stall at the night market.

Food at the night market.

Food trucks.

The market was incredibly busy. Once I got to the end of one very busy street, I decided to return on the street above it to get away from the crowds, but this street turned out also to be part of the night market as well, so I walked down it, too.

Busy street at the night market.

Busy street at the night market.

Busy street at the night market.

I noticed there was lots of live music and entertainment in between the stalls. It really was a very interesting evening out, even if it was incredibly hot and busy.

Musicians and interested child.

Singers at the night market.

Singers at the night market.

Guitarist and singer at the night market.

After wandering around the night market for a while, I felt too hot and really tired. There was plenty of transport to get back, but I hadn't brought any money with me, so I walked back. It had been a busy day and I was really tired.

Transport.