Phuket, then back to Singapore

We had a lovely 5 nights in Phuket. We stayed at the Peach Hill Hotel which was just a few minutes walk from Kata beach, and about 10 minutes walk to Karon Beach. I booked the place as a mystery wotif deal, as I knew what area I wanted to stay in, but wasn't bothered about exactly which hotel we were at. I got a great deal, and the resort was fine. The breakfast was especially good, we would wander down at about 10am and not have to have another meal until dinner that night!

This part of the trip was all about chilling out. Our major decision of the day was whether to hang out by one of the two very nice pools at the resort...

Or whether to head for the beach...

We had great weather for our 5 days, no rain at all. The temperature wasn't much higher than Singapore at about 33 degrees, but without the soul-destroying humidity. There were very welcome sea breezes, plus it was lovely having access to the water. I read 3 books in the 5 days, plus Will and I played loads of games of cards (where he might have just ended up with a slightly better winning record than me...)

We decided not to do any of the trips out to the surrounding islands, being perfectly happy with the pool and beach that we already had. We did get a little bit of wildlife come to us in the form of lots of little geckos around the place, including on a palm tree by the pool below. Also, one day on the way to the pool we saw a bright green snake go slithering past. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera handy...

Every night we would wander the 5 minutes or so down the hill into town and decide which of the little restaurants we were going to eat at that night. We ate some amazing Thai food, averaging out at about NZ$8 per meal. Beers and cocktails were also ridiculously cheap compared to NZ, so it was happy days really! I would definitely be keen to head back to Thailand if we ever needed a stop-over for a bit of sun on the way back from one of our 2-yearly trips to the UK.

On Wednesday 9th we headed back to Singapore. We were back to Hotel 81 in Chinatown which worked out really well as they let us leave a big bag full of all our winter stuff we needed for the UK while we were in Thailand. Our flight got in just after midday so we had all afternoon to spend in Singapore. I had got a deal through Singapore groupon which included Gardens by the Bay, as well as 2 tickets to the XD theatre, and a 'Duck' tour of the city in an amphibious vehicle. We had done Gardens by the Bay in our previous stint, so that afternoon we used up the remaining tickets. The XD theatre was surprisingly good. We saw the canyon roller coaster movie and it was really realistic. With the 3D screen, tilting seats, plus things like wind blowing in your head, it was better than we expected, and quite scary at times!

The duck tour was also good, even if the weather wasn't too great (those darn monsoon rains rearing their head again!)

The best bit was when we entered the river. It was nice to get a different view of a lot of the iconic buildings.

Will particularly liked the helix bridge. It was a pretty cool structure. When we walked it on the way to the sound and light show previously it was all lit up, and all along it are a-t and c-g discs lit in red and green to represent the DNA bases.

That night we had dinner in Chinatown and went for our final walk around the area. Everybody was starting to prepare for the Chinese New Year so there was a real buzz around the place and all the shops were getting decorated up. The next day we had an evening flight back to NZ.