Laem Sai

Flying to Phuket was never planned, as we were hoping to check out the smaller islands further down in Thailand or on the East Coast such as Koh Phangan or Koh Tao, but there was a direct flight from Hanoi which was cheap, so we just went with it.

Having boarded the minibus to take us to our hotel, you could immediately see how much wealthier the country was compared to Vietnam, there were shops, businesses and food shops, one after another and many more cars and pick-up trucks. There were no where near as many motorbikes on the road, just lots of fat Thai people who could afford to eat lots.

Finally, we were the last passengers and an hour and a half after boarding the minivan we made it to the hotel. We booked a special one for a few nights, one with a swim up pool to the room as we deserved a little treat. Considering the last few days we had been on motorbikes for 7 hours a day and sleeping in places that I am still quite surprised had electricity we felt like we needed it. Our previous nights sleep (if you can call it that was terrible). We had arrived at our hotel in Hanoi at approx 10.30pm, we needed to leave at 7am for our flight the following morning. but as returning guests we were treated to an 'upgrade', how nice of them. A quick shower after the days riding and repack our suitcase as we had only taken small bags on our adventure, before passing out, was the plan. Train after train passed our room that night, the track was literally in front of the window 😳 and in the morning when we could see what we were contending with people were actually getting off the train in front of our room. We did not sleep much that night 😴.

Anyway, back to our lovely hotel in Phuket, the man pointed at 2 golf caddies, great we thought, lugging these bags this far has been tiring to say the least, but he continued to then say 'broken' 🤦‍♂️ so we hauled our luggage up the hill, up a flight of stairs, up a lift and finally to the room. That pool had never felt so inviting!

In between the downpours we made the most of our pool, and surroundings enjoying the food markets, massages and local specialities on offer.Read more