Phuket Thailand

And so the adventure continues... getting from buffalo airport to thailand was not an easy task by any means - buffalo - cleveland - chicago - los angeles - hong kong -phuket. left new york on monday aft around 3pm - arrived thailand wednesday afternoon 3pm... the one nice perk was my flight from la to hong kong I was upgraded to business class... wow what a difference that makes in the whole flight experience now bear in mind the difference in cost between coach and business is more than double so an upgrade was truly a treat... the seats recline nearly flat and are wide enough to comfortably roll over and sleep on your side. Having decent sleep on the trip is the secret to arriving feeling refreshed.

I arrived in Phuket wide awake and ready to go... The plane landed and the countryside was similar to Jakarta, however very little if any pollution... the city of Phuket is small, it has a bit of an outpost feeling... driving to the hotel - there were lots of waterbuffalo on the sides of the roads grazing... they were not penned in, i asked my driver why they didnt wander on to the streets - he laughed and said they do AND when they do the cars all stop and wait...LOL these animals are quite large...


The hotel is beautiful located on many acre/hectares of land, a lush tropical setting. some rooms are facing the beach and the ocean, others overlook the lagoon that wraps around the hotel. There are two large traditional pools, however one narrows to about 8ft wide and winds through the property (it is billed as the largest pool in Thailand)there are many bridges that cross over the winding pool.

The area is alive with birds, some have orange beaks and feet and on their wings a stripe of white that is only visible when they are in flight... these birds are quite vocal - a chirp sound followed by the rumble of a bullfrog... a unique sound...

the weather is hot and humid my guess 30C/90F and at least 90% humidity... currently it is raining rather hard, but yet there is no relief from the humidity. It is that kind of heat that is sickie warm - I have seen images over the years of military personel in these regions, clad in full military gear complete with a 50 pound pack, and I cant even image how they did it...it is at times unbearibly hot.

So as I wanted to explore the property I was up before dawn - it was warm and humid but without the sun, pleasant...

The property has 2 'pets' b a b i e s... yes 2 baby (2-3 yrs old) elephants. Yum Yum and Nining... I have only had the opportunity of meeting one of the girls, when she was on her way to the beach to play with the children. A ritual she repeats twice a day... although moderately friendly i could feel her impatience at having her day interrupted... almost like a child she stamped her feet it was cute... now mind you i was watching where my feet were LOL