Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : Phuket for New years!

Transport
After a somewhat over indulgent Christmas day, we were up bleary eyed and ready for our final stop together as a family... off to Phuket!
We took the Lomprayah ferry from Koh Samui (Nathon port to Donsak Pier) & then a private taxi, in total it was over 7 hours of travelling!

Our hotel for the next 8 nights was the Rawai Palm Beach Hotel. Another gorgeous hotel, close to the beach in the fisherman town of Rawai.

While here we mostly relaxed, bar a few days.
One of these days Gary and I rented a scooter for 24hrs, picking it up at 5 one evening and driving up the road to Promthep Cape - an area known for its beautiful views at sunset. Then the next day we beach hopped, looking at the other beaches (Kata & Karon) on our way to Patong. It was really fun riding on the scooter, but you do have to be very careful and have your wits about you. There are lots of bike accidents in Thailand.

In Patong we wandered the streets before sitting in an Irish bar for a drink, where Gary was able to have a pint of Guinness and I had a cider. We then sat on the beach eating noodle soup bought from a street vendor before heading back to the hotel.

Another day out we had in Phuket was an organised trip. We had heard about James Bond island and so wanted to see it along with the other beautiful islands close by. The trip was fun, we were on a speedboat which was great and meant we were able to see 7 different islands. One of which was....which is a floating village famous for its football team (check out the video here). All in all it was a great day out and a nice change from sitting by the local beach/pool.

While in Phuket we ate some amazing Thai food from a mixture of street stalls, cafes and restaurants. The fish market is a great place in Rawai where you can buy the fish direct from the fisherman and then one of the restaurants will cook for you! One other place particularly worth mentioning was where we went for New years Eve. It was in Old town Phuket and is called The Blue Elephant. The blue elephant actually has a chain of restaurants now, with one in Bangkok as well as several across Europe. The set menu we had was fabulous and the servuce was incredible. After our food we were treated to complementary cocktails and then there were fireworks and sparklers on site. After this one of the owners took us to a hood local bar to have a drink and dance the night away! All in all it was a great night, enjoyed by all of us!

After a late night it was a day catching up on sleep by the pool, before our early morning flight back to Bangkok to wave goodbye to the Parents before our second trip to Bangkok.