East Asia

After a short swim in our hotel pool and checking-out, we went out for some authentic Thai lunch with amazing views of the turquoise blue sea water. I had been eagerly waiting to try some Pad Krapao Gai (Stir Fried Chilli Basil with Chicken) - a dish I frequently have in Thai places in London. And that’s what we had, along with some Tom Yum soup. It was delicious and (unfortunately for Divya) spicy. We had told them to give us the chillies separate from the dish, but we learnt the hard way that it’s not how the Thai do things. We followed this up (on Divya’s insistence) with a Thai foot massage, which was a nice way to relax and beat the afternoon heat.Read more

On our final day in Thailand, we went to see the Phuket Big Buddha on our way to the airport. It’s a majestic 45m tall statue on top of a hill in southern Phuket. We were almost going to skip it because of being short on time, but were so glad we didn’t. The statue is really tall and you can’t help but feel in awe of the structure and the views from atop the hill. The short reads on the spread of Buddhism in South East Asia were nice additions to the monument. Once at the airport, we had some Pad Thai and for one last time because we couldn’t resist, Thai mango with sticky rice. Next up - flight to Bali with a layover in Kuala Lumpur.Read more