Days 7 & 8 - Phuket

Day 7 - Thursday, October 13  Phuket

We've decided it's going to be another lazy day in Movenpick...started the morning by walking over to the lobby to listen to two women play the khim (a wire-string percussion instrument similar to a zither) every day between 8 and 3. On the way, we saw Somsri and after sitting down on the couch, she surprised Ray with a coffee latte.  He enjoyed it while listening to the beautiful strains of Thai music. We took another stroll by the beach and turning left this morning we saw many more shops and massage parlors.  Around noon we were really perspiring and getting really hot, so we decided to spend the afternoon by the diving pool by Craig's apartment. What a great decision...after a dip in the pool, we remained cool for the rest of the afternoon.  Lunch at poolside was delicious as we shared an angus burger and a Thai beef salad.

Craig came back close to 7 and we headed to his new home which he recently bought and remodeled.  The house has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths and a beautiful pool. He's done an incredible job with the landscaping too. However we did learn that though trash should be picked up twice a week, they haven't been there for 2 weeks...not very reliable.

Dining Area

Kitchen

Refreshing Pool

Dinner was Italian tonight at Amalfi restaurant not far from Somsri's home.  For appetizer we enjoyed mushroom and ham pizza, and for dinner we shared a seafood soup (Somsri had her own), penne pasta with sausage with tomato and thai chilis sause, and pasta with clams, olive oil, and garlic.  Everything was delicious.

Day 8 - Friday, October 14   Phuket

We seem to really like these relaxing days...decided to go back to Pacifica Restaurant for the buffet this morning and this time I enjoyed waffles with cream sauce, a really good bread pudding, ham, cheese and mushroom omelet and other assorted goodies.  Another walk around Phuket, this time from the lobby, a longer walk through town where we saw an active temple that was open to the public.  There were monks having lunch in one of the buildings. There were huge dragons in front of the temple.

It was a really interesting walk, seeing scaffolding built from wood poles. When it got too hot to walk we headed for the Coconut pool this time, a lovely pool not far from the apartment.

Tonight we dined at the seafood restaurant, "Phong Phang." It's a restaurant right on the river--the West side of Phuket, closer to Somsri's home (Craig's partner). The restaurant itself is a large roofed, open-air area, containing maybe 50 tables. You walk past tanks of live seafood, presumably soon to become peoples' dinners. Our food was incredible! Nowhere have we had seafood like this. For the first time, we even had raw shrimp, dipped in a green chili sauce. Aside from one huge Hawaiian-style cockroach - it is an open-air restaurant - all was fantastic. We didn't know Thai seafood could taste like this.

Raw Shrimp w/green chili sauce - Shirley tried one but it was too raw  for her liking

This crispy fried fish w/ginger sauce was excellent!

Tonight we will be spending the night at Craig's home so we can eat some more tomorrow and Craig won't have to come pick us up at Movenpick.