Neither Bradley or I had been to Phuket prior to this trip, and honestly we were not really looking forward to it compared to other cities we have planned to visit. Phuket is known for being a party island and it is very “touristy.” That’s not really our scene. We enjoy a more chill kind of party and the off beat path, but to each their own! We had to fly in and stay in Phuket as part of the Sandbox program, which is how we were able to enter the country. Our time in Phuket ended up being really nice and quite peaceful.
We stayed for 6 nights at a 2 star Hotel called Pensiri House in Nai Yang Beach which is a little ways north from the notorious party spot, Pa Tong Beach. The accommodations were very nice with outstanding service from the staff. It was clean with a beautiful balcony overlooking the garden we ate many meals from. Pensiri House partnered with a great restaurant on the beach called Phen’s Restaurant. Always delicious! It was a great location close to the airport and the beach was a 5 minute walk down a path in between 2 other resorts. It was a gorgeous, puddly, mosquito infested path that is shared with motorbikes so it got very old, very quickly for me. But you really couldn’t beat the value for our spot! The sweetest part of our stay was getting to know the House dog, Khao.
I tried to prepare myself for seeing a different Thailand than before. Being so privileged in America, even throughout this pandemic, misguided any expectation I had for what this place would be like now. Thailand was hit so very hard. Lots of businesses, restaurants, resorts, markets, completely abandoned and closed down. Food carts left in alley ways that hadn’t been touched in 2 years. It was really hard to see. But the Thai people are resilient. And they were overjoyed about having visitors again!
The first 3 days we were there, I swear we were the only Falangs in the area. Falang is the Thai word for foreigner (sometimes pronounced “farang” as the L and R are interchangeable in Thai language). But each day after, we saw a few more tourists trickle in. Mostly from Germany and the UK. The hardest thing was trying to find breakfast! Breakfast is something I have to have or I will physically fall out or become the most hangry thing you’ve ever seen. Sweet Bradley. He’s a master at making sure I get breakfast and takes the gravity of the situation seriously. We found a food haven at a local stand by the 7-Eleven at the corner of our street. It was amazing! You could get delicious fried chicken and garlic sticky rice or a packaged takeaway meal. They had a steady stream of locals coming up for their food, indicating their clout. The people were kind and happy to feed us! There were very few restaurants open near us and really only one was open for breakfast on the beach at all until towards the end of our stay. The ladies at Jack’s Bar took care of us and the boiled rice porridge, my favorite Thai breakfast, was outstanding. Slowly, as more tourists trickled in, more locals were opening up and working to set up shop. The nights were quiet and a bit rainy, but we were still able to find a cool bar to hang and play pool at after dinner. I even won a game!
The people of Phuket won in service. We were treated like 5 star guests everywhere we went. We had the best views and the best tables. And the only thing we waited for was a freshly prepared hot meal. And as we hoped, there were open massage parlors! We stopped at a place called Patama Massage. It was everything I needed it to be and more. I can’t tell you how many times we were thanked for being there and coming to Thailand. Such a rare and precious opportunity to have this beach to ourselves. It was just us and the locals. Oh and the ADORABLE family of beach dogs! They were so well mannered and respectful. I gave love to all that would let me. The beach was wonderful with a calm shore and very few breaking waves. Truly serene. The sun came out for us most days but it rained every night. Apparently there’s this weather event in southern Thailand called the November monsoon. It’s not ideal vacation weather but I will say, I greatly enjoyed hearing the frogs and bugs sing their hearts out every night when the rain would stop. We got to see a lightning storm over the ocean and it was captivating.
The beach is also home to the Sirinat National Park which is filled with these gorgeous and incredibly impressive Casuarina trees. We took a stroll through the park on our way to watch the planes fly over the beach into the Phuket International Airport. A really neat thing to witness! To our hearts’ dismay we saw an immense amount of trash that had washed up onto the beach and decided to pick up as much as we could with our plastic mart bags. Phuket was very dirty compared to the Thailand I’m used to. My favorite thing about our time in Phuket though, was volunteering at Soi Dog. Soi Dog is a foundation for the street dogs and cats of Thailand. It was the best day giving our time to them. If I ever go back to Phuket, I have to spend some more time there!
All in all, Phuket surprised me and was the tranquil decompression I needed after all the stressful months of preparing for this big journey. It was a great start!