Well Mrs Columbus has bounced back from whatever was keeping her under the weather today, and so we have been able to venture out a little more and see some of the Bang Tao area.  This part of Phuket gets a little less traffic than the main beaches a little farther south (Patong, Karon, Kata) – I suspect part of that is because there is not really any sort of village or town here, mostly just hotels and resorts so I think that the people that come here probably are not as interested in any night life and/or just want to hang out on the property of where they are staying.  Certainly if you were staying at one of the big resorts like the Sheraton or Le Meridien they would have so much to offer in terms of amenities that you could just relax there and while the days away.

We like the slow pace here and the fact that there are not drunken partiers all about, but we also like to explore around a bit, so this afternoon we set off for a walk to Surin beach.  Surin is the next beach south of where we are, and is separated from Bang Tao by a headland that juts out into the sea, but a short 20 minute or so walk via the road and we are there.  The beach is a lot busier here than at Bang Tao, and there are a lot of little bars and restaurants all along the beach.  It is easy to see that while much smaller (Bang Tao is 8km long vs Surin at about 1km) this beach seems to attract more people.

It is a nice spot to people watch for a bit, and point out people who maybe should take a more honest friend along next time they are buying a bathing suit 😉  A little light lunch on the beach and then we decide to walk back to our hotel and soak in the pool a little.  We round the day out by stopping in at the River-side restaurant for a great meal – this is a place my parents recommended, and we had thought it was closed as we went by it yesterday and it looked like it was all rolled up for the season.  It turns out that they have indeed been closed for the last month, but tonight was their first night back, so we lucked out.  It was very good as advertised, so it was cool that we were able to try it out before we moved.

We are moving tomorrow morning to Kata Beach and back to the Kata Palm where we stayed last year.  We will likely stay there until it is time to come home, but we have a short list of things we want to do around there so I am sure the time will be gone before we know it.

We arrived in Phuket a couple of days ago, and decided to try out the beach at Bang Tao – this Beach is about 1/2 way up Phuket Island and just south of the airport. We have never stayed here before, but at the north end of the beach is where most of the high-end resorts are. Also, my parents put in a few weeks here on each of their last 2 trips, so we figure it must be worth checking out.

We are staying at The Kris Resort towards the south end of the beach, it is more of a boutique hotel than a ‘resort’ and Mrs Columbus is far too adventurous to go in for one of those frilly high-end resorts. The Kris is also where my parents stay when they are here, and they quite like the friendly staff and the location. This area is very quiet and peaceful and it sort of reminds us of our stay in Khao Lak last year. Certainly part of that is due to the low season we are traveling in, as I suspect it is quite a bit busier here in the high season, although even in high season I assume it is a lot more low-key than the more renowned tourist beaches towards the south of the island.

So far we have not done a whole lot – Mrs Columbus caught a bit of a fever the day we arrived and we have been trying to take it easy while she recovers, but she is not that great at being a sick person and keeps trying to get up and about. I suspect we will extend our stay here for a few extra days so we can get back ‘up to snuff’ and then do a little exploring, but such is the nature of traveling without a fixed agenda 🙂

Unfortunately our Internet connection here is a little spotty, so we may not be updating very often…..