Islands in the sea, and a resort town

 Washington,  Tuesday, January 28, 2025--Our last few days in Southeast Asia were spent on the beautiful island of Phuket in Thailand and nearby waters where we spent a day at sea.

First, we were visiting dear friends, Patricia and Teddy.  John has known Patricia since university days and we met Teddy a few years ago after both of their spouses passed away.  They were all four very good friends.  Patricia and Teddy have since married, with great memories of their late lost spouses.

Phuket is growing.  It is a huge resort island, with beautiful beaches, fashionable gated communities, excellent restaurants and a history of mining that brought in various immigrant groups.  It suffers from crowded roads, backed-up traffic and the sense of strip mall along its main 402 Highway.  But, it does have beautiful sunsets overlooking the Andaman Sea, excellent food, particularly the fruits and vegetables.  Pineapple here is magnificent.  Papayas grow on trees everywhere.  The province is a garden!  It doesn't even grow rice.

That said, the island's history is unique.  Tin mining took over about 150 years ago leaving the main town of Phuket with mansions built by tin barons.  We visited one such mansion, a local Sino-Portuguese style building still owned by its original family built in 1902.  It's now used as a museum and wedding site,  It is a quiet oasis from the traffic the nearby town and very beautiful.  The Sino-Portuguese moniker is given to most buildings that date from the era before World War I, even though they are barely of Portuguese design.

The other magnificent trip was a day long venture to the karst islands that abound near Phuket.  These are covered with vegetation and the rock formations are magnificent,  more impressive than our visit to the equivalent islands in Halong Bay off Vietnam.  We had the boat to ourselves, and sat watching the islands as we ventured on to a local beach.  The yacht provided a zodiac rubber boat for us to get ashore, walk the beach and find coral for John's bathroom collection--a tiny piece found among shore shells.

We ate astoundingly good food.  Thai food is truly more interesting than Vietnamese.  Thai food, though, does not have to be red chili pepper hot.  Most of what we had was spicy, but not mouth-burning.  It ranged from coconut milk curries to appetizers served in lotus leaves.  

Sunset at the Pavilions Resort overlooking the Andaman Sea

 

  

We ate several luscious dinners at home with Patricia and Teddy.  One night they invited Patricia's friend from her NYC days, Tara.   Tara is mostly retired from a high finance positions to Phuket after working much of her career in Singapore. Tara brought a friend, Louise, who was visiting after a trip to Singapore on her way back with her husband (who was in Bangkok) to their home in Vancouver.  We had a rousing good time, each of us talking about our lives, loves and careers surrounded by excellent food and wine.

Our last meal in Phuket was lunch at a fine Italian restaurant, Napolitana, serving pizza with bufola mozzarella and various rich pasta dishes, with guidance from the chef himself.