Bridge the Travel Gap

‘7 Steps to Happiness – 1.Think less, feel more 2.Frown Less, smile more 3.Talk less, listen more 4.Judge less, accept more 5.Watch less, do more 6.Complain less, appreciate more 7.Fear less, love more’

John floating in pool

Well, all I can say for this week is a big – Ahhhhh! of comfort and relaxation.  We decided to have an extended stay on Phuket Island in the Kata Beach area.

Kata Beach

One thing I would suggest for anyone traveling to this island – do your homework, as this is such a popular area with the worst of what tourism offers to the best.

We got lucky and found a gorgeous little boutique hotel – the Melody – really suited me to a tea with musical keys on the stairs and sheet music above the bed.

Piano stairs at the Melody Hotel

Just now, they rang through and are giving us a free upgrade to a direct access pool room – awesome!  We’ve been very lucky with this sort of thing happening on our travels.

The beach is beautiful,

Kata Beach

but the town around it is quite touristy and, at times, unpleasant, but we didn’t do our homework on this part and we are slowly finding some real treasures.  Last night, we found an awesome Italian Restaurant that is under new management, as well as, trying street hawker stalls which can have better food than the restaurants.

Fish street hawker stall – people walk by, drive in or they have a few tables to sit and eat the food

What we’ve found is our hotel has given us a lot of what we hoped for – excellent lunches, fresh breakfast, great service and a lovely pool to swim in and relax around.

Pool and lounges

Within minutes, there are some good restaurants, cheap laundry services and yoga classes.

View from yoga class

The beautiful beach is about 15 minutes walk, but past a gauntlet of ugly restaurants, massage parlours and shops.

Still love Thailand, but it has changed in many ways.  Despite its recent political problems, I’ve felt very safe, so that is still the same.

Every hotel needs one hotel cat, like ours has!

Love

Debx